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All About Google
by Courtney Heard
 If
you read The
Search Engine Showdown, you know Google is my favorite search
engine. Why? Google always offers the most results for any given
search (they currently have over 8 billion pages indexed), it's
faster than the Audi Quattro we test drove this morning, and 9
times out of ten, in my experience, all the front page results
are relevant to my search. In fact, I usually find what I'm looking
for within the first few sites listed. I also really respect the
fact that two college kids started it (kind oflike Abalone!) and
that those two college kids seem not to have forgotten where they
came from. If you check out the images at Google's press center
(http://www.google.com/press/images.html)
and scroll down to the Everyday Life Inside Google section, you'll
get a feeling that life at Google is fun.
Google is the most used search
engine on the web. In May, 2004, 36.8% of all searches on the
web were done using Google. Also during that month, Google powered
54% of all searches done on the web (Read
more about these figures here).
Google owes their success to their
mind-boggling algorithm. This intricate formula sucks in a web
page, considers its keyword density, its link popularity, domain
name, how often it is updated, the amount of content in the site,
and a myriad of other things that few know and spits out a number
called PageRank. There is absolutely no way to be sure how to
get your site to number one on Google, but there are a few things
that we know can help:
- Make sure your site is well organized, visitor
friendly and useful. Google seems to like sites that are listed
in the Open Directory Project, and my theory is that it's because
the Open Directory Project is human edited. This means real
human eyes have looked at each site that is included in the
directory and deemed it useful in some way or another. If your
site has a link on The Open Directory Project, you're on the
right track.
- Avoid "spamming". Spamming refers to
many different things. If you add keywords to your site that
are out of context or hidden from plain view, it's considered
spamming. Resubmitting your site to Google can be looked upon
as spamming. The basic principal is to make sure every page
on your site is professional looking, clean, organized and has
its own unique information to offer.
- Try to trade links with good quality sites that
you like, 'cause if you like them, chances are they
have something to offer and Google will recognize that. The
more good quality sites around the web that have links pointing
to your site, the higher your link popularity will be.
- Stay away from hi-tech sites unless you offer
an alternative. ie. If your site has been designed in Flash,
try to offer a plain HTML version of the site. Google can index
flash but it's not likely that it will be indexed well, and
your ranking will suffer. Frames are also a no-no. Although
Google can index framed sites as well, again, the ranking can
suffer and more importantly, frames are universally recognized
in our industry as hideous!
- Keep the content on each page to a decent level.
You don't want too much content, but you definitely do not want
too little. A good way to judge what a good content level is,
is to search for the #1 ranking site for the keywords you wish
to target, and see how much content they have. Make your content
keyword-rich, but don't make it so full of keywords that it
sounds ridiculous to visitors. You want to keep the
visitors you get from Google, right?
Google almost always offers you the best resource
for your query due to the fact that all of these things matter
to them. They are also always trying to find ways to improve on
the Google Algorithm so they can continue to offer us the best
service. Every once in a while we hear about this new search engine
and that new search engine, but no one seems to have been able
to catch up. As long as this remains true, these simple tips will
be applicable.
By Courtney
Heard, Abalone Designs
Further Reading:
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