If you are planning to enter the arena of online marketing, there is one entity you definitely will have to please – Google. Yes, we all are very aware of Google’s fortunate monopoly over the search engine market, and it is imperative that we act channel our online promotion activities in a way that pleases not only our target market but Google too. Wondering what steps you will have to take in order to do so? Here are four essential things you should take care of to enjoy search engine optimization.
1. Relevance
Almost everyone knows the importance of keywords. In fact, most websites over-use keywords in a way that makes them look negative in the eyes of Google. Websites whose keyword density exceeds 2% are often black listed and do not at all appear on the search results. This black listing takes a little time but does end up happening – and once it does, it’s extremely hard to recover from.
In addition to the presence of keywords, what makes websites relevant is the originality of content. No wonder the scores of press release websites with exactly the same content appear on different ranks. One very good example of this is Wikipedia. Even though its content does not contain many keywords, it mostly appears among the top three results in search results. That is because it has formed a good impression on Google’s algorithm.
2. Date of Publication
Another factor Google uses to judge a website’s content is its timeliness. Since there is a lot of information about almost everything on the Internet already, one factor that makes one article better than another is its freshness. There are dozens of areas in which older information is no longer useful for readers such as ‘how to’ articles for software, games, and other products whose recent versions get released every now and then.
3. Wholesome Experience
Yet another factor that Google uses to rate websites and differentiate from other similar websites is the experience they provide to their visitors. Google’s algorithm uses a combination of factors to determine the quality of websites’ experience. They include timeliness of information, quality and uniqueness of content, density of keywords, number and size of advertisements as compared to the content, and the layout of the website. Hence, to make your website one of Google’s favorites, scrutinize each of these areas and make possible improvements.
4. Do Not Act Shady
Remember, the thing Google hates most is shady websites. Websites can mislead visitors and waste their time in numerous ways. Some of the things that you must not do to remain on Google’s ‘good’ list include:
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Insert too many keywords
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Insert absolutely irrelevant keywords (Remember, keywords are considered negative or positive depending on the way they are used.
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Hide too many keywords behind images or camouflaging them
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Spam the page with links to lure visitors into clicking on them
To make your website one of those on Google’s ‘good’ list, make sure that you have paid proper attention to the four areas of focus mentioned above.
About The Author: HostPapa is a website hosting company serving over 100,000 customers around the world. Since launching in 2006, HostPapa has offered reliable, budget-friendly, easy-to-use web solutions for small to medium-sized businesses.