Sadly, getting Google love has never been so difficult – and like any ardent suitor trying too hard can leave you lonely and single.
Learn the do’s and don’ts of playing footsie with the world’s most popular search engine in less than an hour of hard-core speed dating.
2. Google Seeks that Important Someone
Name: GoogleBot
Age: 13
Location: Interwebs
What I’m Looking For
Looking for someone who is willing to be open, sociable and cares about others.
People I can understand easily.
What I Hate
People who:
• Only think about themselves
• Try too hard to be liked
• Put money first
• Are promiscuous
3. So if that’s what Google wants…
Who don’t you want to be…
4. Promiscuous Lady (or Fella) of the Night
Name: A. Blogger
Age: Not Telling
Location: Anywhere
What I’m Looking For
To meet lots of great people to have fun with. Looking to make some cash out of it.
I’m ready when you are. Come and get me big boy X
What I Hate
Nothing. I’m open to pretty much anything, with anybody @ any time. Just give me a
call or send me an email.
8. Get Links from Other Sites
• It helps increase Google Love-o-Meter
• AND
• It (should) drive new traffic to your website
• Helps form new relationships with real people
• Proves you are a real human being
10. Guest Posting Rules
• If the person/site you’re guest posting is the
sort of person Google wouldn’t date stay away
from them
– Are they accepting lots of guest posts?
– Are they important in what they do?
– Do they make it “too easy” to get into bed with
them?
11. Be Important – RSS Syndication
• Really Simple Syndication
• Easy to Setup – Copy and paste URL
• Generates links every time you post
• Faster indexation by Search Engines
• Can help drive traffic
12. RSS Syndication
• RSS makes lots of low Google Love-O-Meter
juice
• Can make you consistently more important
• Google likes today (may not like tomorrow)
14. External Links
• All links should engage/inform the user
– Do not keyword overload
• Google hates links that are only there to
increase rankings
– It is searching for these
15. Be Important – Authority Links
• Important people for your topic
– Other people Google loves
– Other people who share your passions
19. Be Open - Content
• Microformats (plugins available)
– Example - Star Ratings for Your Content
• Stars help get click through…
• There are loads more at schema.org
• Test @ http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets
21. Be Open – Accessible Content
Like Tweets, Blog posts lose value over time you
can help to keep them ranking by:
• Removing NoFollow and NoIndex tags
• Adding internal links
• Using a “Related Post” plugin
• Using a Sitemap
24. Be Open – Google+ Authorship
• Google Wants real People in the rankings
• Prove to Google you’re real
– <a href="https://plus.google.com/112169079943837920239/about" rel="me"
rel="author">Scott Mclay</a>
• You need friends to be an author
26. From Links to Likes
• Google likes the voice of the crowd
– Links are the joins on the Internet
• Personalisation is where Google needs to go
– Keep people on the site
– People give better results than computers
• Social shares, Likes etc
• Google is changing direction and hard
27. Be Sociable – User Engagement
When people comment on your blog remember
to reply
• Builds relationships
• Loads of content for free
• Can give new blog post ideas
28. Google Feedback
• Webmaster Tools (It’s not criticism)
– Google hates people who :
• are never home
– Error pages (404 & 501 HTTP response codes)
• takes too long to answer them
– Site speed
– Google hates people it thinks are lying to them
• Unnatural links (in and out)
29. Recap
• Get some juice into the Google Love-O-Meter
• Let Google see all your best bits
• Write real, engaging content
• Prove you’re a real & trustworthy individual
• Be social & generous (but not too much)
• Take feedback as help not criticism
