Five Things You (Probably) Don’t Know About SEO for Google

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Think you know all about search engine optimization for Google? May be not. Here are five things you probably don’t know:

1. Big is good

Long gone are the days of ‘killer mini sites’. To prove that, do any simple searches at Google. Look at how other large sites are dominating the SERPS (Search Engine Result Pages).

When developing your website, think like Wikipedia, or About.com, or HowStuffWorks. Yes, make it multiple section, make it as huge as possible. If you are developing a website for a niche, you can do that too. Add blog section, forum section, link section, tool section, chat section, wiki section..etc.

2. Less is more

No, I did not just conflicted with what I said above. But sometimes, the less page Google indexed your site, the better it is. Let’s do a checking by using the ’site’ operator in Google (example: ’site:yourdomainname.com’ ) . Go through the list. Which of the contents are duplicated? Which of the contents provide little or no search engine value? (like the Contact Us page).

You can increase your overall search engine ranking by blocking out these pages out.

3. Sitelinks = Recognition

It is the mini links giving description of other pages of the top search result in Google.

No, I haven’t got it. But some of our Malaysians site has got it, despite how ugly the site looks . Words have been said that this help improve the conversion rates of the website. But really, it is the Google way of saying :”Alright, respect to your site”.

Several factors are being speculated to get sitelinks from Google:
- Number of times the website name has being searched.
- Numbers (and weight) of incoming links.
- Domain age.

4. One is (way more) larger than [insert whatever number you can think of here]

When trying to explain SEO to others, we often use the metaphor of ‘incoming links are like a vote to your website’. The more links you get, the higher your website ranking is. That’s the truth but not the whole truth.

Most of the time, the one link that you got from an authority site is weighted way much more than all your directory links. I called it the breakthrough link.

Numbers (of incoming links) is not the measuring point at Google. Quality is.

5. Google is your mother.

I’d like to think of Google as the mother of the web. They are simply trying to get their kids’ act together. And really, they are trying hard doing so.

For the past months, Google has been projecting the image of the ‘Punisher’. The argument against paid links. John chow and Text Link Ads nuked. And the most recent Squidoo slap.

But really, you can hear the message, from one of Jack Neo’s film that represents the universal struggles between parents and childrens: “I’m doing this for your own good.”

So if you have a legitimate site for your business, there are no reason to be afraid. Take some time to read their recently updated webmaster quality guidelines. And you know Google is on your side.

Hope you enjoy this post, and if you have any thoughts or tips on search engine optimization for Google that you think we ‘probably’ don’t know, SHARE ;)

p/s: Speaking of who, Neowave is giving away free Google goodies. Be sure to check it out.

Lim CS on July 14, 2007

6 Responses

    […] Found via Get Found. Permalink google, link bait, neowave […]

    adventures of a blogjunkie » Blog Archive » Neowave e-commerce blogger survey+linkbait on July 14th, 2007

    Thank for the link of official google goodies giveaway by Neoware. I had been your blog reader for sometime and this is my first comment. Cheer~

    Albert on July 15th, 2007

    Thanks Albert ;) You are fast.

    Lim CS on July 15th, 2007

    Hm, the point 1 and 2 are in conflict no matter how you explain it. “Big is good” and “less is more” can’t stand besides each other.

    Man should create big site if there are enough human and finance resources. Small sites are characterised by firms offering very specialised products.

    “Big is good in some cases”, “Small is good in some cases” you should say. But what’s the point os saying it anyway???

    thrusites design on August 13th, 2007

    Hi thrusites,

    Thanks for the opinion but I purposely made that contrast.

    The “big is good” as in one site should build like those big guys in mind, in terms of unique contents, and categorization.

    “Less in more”, as in Google need to index less pages in the search engines ( exclude out those pages that waste link juice, e.g: contact us page, duplicated content), to give more weight (thus rank higher) to these pages.

    Lim CS on August 13th, 2007

    Hmmmm……..

    What about an human sitting in google for most common and high paid searches and monitring it :)

    Long page, short page, hyperlinks, domain age, important links, keyword in domain………………

    ………….And your niche ;)

    And thats wht I add it here.

    Cheers

    Web 2.0 India on September 12th, 2007

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