Tuning your website to the Google Search Engine

Google is the dominant player on the web.
Google is FREE to list and a good ranking on Google goes a long way to obtain general search engine recognition.

The dominant Search engines such as Google, MSN and Yahoo use Crawler robots to gather information about web sites. The information is collected and taken back to a database. Once this database is updated it starts to show the results of the crawl.

New websites have to be crawled and the data retrieved is displayed on the Google Search results.
The time frame from a new site to be crawled and when it starts to show varies from 4 to 8 days.

New domains with sites with that have no links to them. Your new sites will rely entirely on your own promotional efforts during this period. More promotional tips

Getting Google to catalogue your site quickly

Search engines come out with paid advertising schemes - this advertising has to be approached with caution so you get a return from your investment.

Google does offer paid advertising in the form of Google Adwords  
You can read up on Google Adwords

The exact method of how Google reads a webpage is a closely guarded secret.

In fact,  Google "shifted the goal posts" (altered the algorithm) a number of times and continues to do so. Your rankings will vary because of this.

For Small Businesses on the web, the level playing field has been altered constantly.

Large established websites with lots of internal and incoming external links are favoured. This means portal or reference sites get more weight.

New and small websites have to battle for rankings by ensuring their sites are optimized for Google. 

Here is a summary of what the Google robot prefers.

(Googlebot - the program that continuously gathers web information and stores it on Google's Database - you can check visits by Googlebot by looking at your site statistics)

  • Text is king.
    Googlebot cannot read images or Flash (Some Flash and Java Scripted links cannot be crawled.)

  • The more links from other websites to your site the better.

  • The Title tag should contain key phrases.

  • Meta Tags especially the keyword tag are given little importance.

  • Headers with descriptive paragraphs are recommended.

  • Complimentary key phrases on all Title Tags of internal pages.

  • Pages updated with new content on a regular basis.

  • The use of frames is not beneficial.

  • Plain Text links to the rest of your website.

  • A site map page

Basic Principles from Google

  • Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines. Don't deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users, which is commonly referred to as "cloaking."

  • Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?"

  • Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.

  • Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our Terms of Service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold™ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google.

Specific Guidelines from Google:

  • Avoid hidden text or hidden links.

  • Don't use cloaking or sneaky redirects.

  • Don't send automated queries to Google.

  • Don't load pages with irrelevant keywords.

  • Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.

  • Don't create pages with malicious behavior, such as phishing or installing viruses, trojans, or other badware.

  • Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines, or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.

  • If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.

No cheating, no hidden text, links, redirects, etc, just plain old text information about your product incorporated the key words you wish to rank on.

There are hundreds of scams in the name of Search Engine Optimizing (SEO) targeted at businesses desperate to increase their rankings and sales. Good results on an obscure search phrase that nobody is likely to type is pointless. It is better to start correctly, using the criteria above, to achieve a reasonable result.

Given time, you CAN get ranked with Google - Generic Results
Check these Small Pond Web Sites - no addwords here!
Sites have been constructed exactly as the advice above !

Search Phrase

Rank

Site

Test

Dive Queensland

1

divequeensland.com.au

test

child head protection

1

headbumpa.com.au

test

Rescue Medical Technician

1

firstresponseaustralia.com.au

test

Len Zell

1

lenzell.com

test

Underwater Film and Television

1

numa.com.au

test

Cheap hosting Brisbane

1

smallpond.com.au

test

Kitchen Builder Brisbane

1

rodskitchens.com.au

test

Cairns Marriage Celebrant 3 cairnsweddings.com.au test
Publications Port Douglas 1 odysseybound.com.au test
Used Caravans WA 2 abbacravans.com.au test
Australian sapphires 1 australiansapphires.com test
Granny Flats Melbourne 4 elpor.com.au test
Termite inspections South Sydney 2 termiteinspector.com.au test
motorcycle escorts 1 motorcycleescorts.com.au test

New information is placed on the web all the time so keep your pages updated.  "Setting and forgetting" a web site will allow your site to slip in visibility

Lastly a cautionary note. An improvement can be made on your ranks if the above is applied to your page. If Google arbitrarily decides to alter criteria again, we have to start again. It is an ongoing process.

Check links to your sites by entering "link:http://yoursite.com" in Google's search box.

Unsolicited Overseas Call Centre phone calls claiming to be Google Adwords should be handled with caution. Some clients have had their websites disappear from the Google Database after declining the Adwords offer. The only way to get the site back is to contact Google to reconsider the site.

Handy Links :
Banned Site Checker: Enter in the Google search box:
site:mydomain.com.au
If no result, a polite request to Google:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/reconsideration

 

Search Engine Popularity :
Which engine is the most used ?

Taken from: http://marketshare.hitslink.com/search-engine-market-share.aspx?qprid=5

June 2011

 

Total Market Share

Google - Global 83.34%
Yahoo - Global 6.32%
Baidu 4.96%
Bing 3.25%
Ask - Global 0.73%
AOL - Global 0.42%
AltaVista - Global 0.05%
Excite - Global 0.02%
All the Web - Global 0.01%
MSN - Global 0.01%
Lycos - Global 0.01%
Microsoft Live Search 0.00%

 

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