Webmaster Guidelines & Google’s 1-Page SEO Guide

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My clients are always asking me what are the best ways to improve their rankings in the search engines. How to get on page 1 of Google. Sadly, there is no silver bullet. No trick or easy answer that will get you to the top. But there are some things you can do to help your chances.

Don’t Break the Rules

The first thing I always say is “don’t do anything to break the rules.” The rules I’m referring to are the Webmaster Guidelines that Google has established as best practices for any website owner. These are things like don’t steal someone else’s content (you know – plagiarism), don’t repeat a single word or phrase 200 times on a page (keyword stuffing), and don’t pay for links to your site from dozens of other not-so-legitimate sites that have nothing to do with you (link spam). Google wants you to create useful and unique content that adds to the value of the Internet and is helpful and informative for your visitors. Be sure to review the Webmaster Guidelines and keep those rules in mind as you continue to develop your site.

google-1-page-seoUnderstanding SEO

The next step is known as SEO, or search engine optimization. SEO, put simply, refers to things you can do on your web pages to help search engines better understand what your page is about and then index it more accurately. The more accurately a search engine can index a page the more likely it will come up in a search for a relevant keyword.

Google has put together a simple one-page quick-start guide to optimizing your pages. It offers some basic tips for helping the search engines do a good job not only indexing your pages but displaying them better in the search results.

If you’d like to learn more about how Google works and the things you can do to improve your chances of being found, be sure to visit Google’s Webmaster Education pages. You’ll find informative videos and articles to help you create better content and make your site a more valuable resource.

What is a Keyword?

Let me clear something up. Sometimes there can be some confusion as to what exactly a keyword is. A “keyword” is not necessarily a single word. The term keyword refers to anything someone might type into a search engine to find something. Sure, “Chevy”, “applesauce”, and “sunsets” are all keywords. But so are “fixing a chevy transmission”, “recipes for homemade applesauce”, and “pictures of the worlds most beautiful sunsets”. In fact, most searches performed by people are more than one word. Think of how you use a search engine. If you wanted to know how to paint your house what would you search for? Not “paint” or “house”. You’d probably look for something a little more specific.

Keep this in mind as you optimize your pages. Don’t build them around a single word hoping to come up for it in the search engines. Follow the tips above and use natural language and common phrases relating to your products or services and you’ll do much better in the long run.

 
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