Ensuring that your Website Meets Google Search Engine Algorithms
Dos and Don’ts of SEO
Although Google do not directly provide a list of dos and don’ts to help websites get the best results within the search engine rankings, SEO experts have come up with a compilation of leaked information from the Google authorities which can be used as a guideline to navigate the pitfalls which the latest algorithm (Panda) places in our path.
Google often describe websites as requiring high quality content without spammy associations. But what leaves SEOs baffled is what defines good quality content and what defines spammy content according to the Google algorithm.
From out of the obscurity of Google SEO guidelines, we can use the following list of Dos and Don’ts to test for improvements in search performance:
Do
Ensure all indexed pages have all of the high quality factors included which Google expect. Only indexed pages are judged on high quality, excluding Adwords, non-Google traffic and non-indexed pages. Panda actively assesses pages for good or bad quality and applies a quality score accordingly.
Test your website for user satisfaction. Bounce rates of users is monitored and used to determine user satisfaction.
Promote positive mentions and shares throughout social media platforms.
Seek our positive reviews to be added to sources that can be independently verified by Google.
Always add citations to your content and link out to authoritative sources.
Most trusted domains are .com, .org and .net
Include address or contact details on each page clearly and ensure there is defined customer service contact information.
Include a section with a mission statement or about us information to offer signs of your business legitimacy.
Acquire a positive reputation throughout forums, news articles, magazines, Wikipidia articles and blogs which should be from independent organisations. Get good ratings from trusted information sources such as Google Product Search, Amazon, Better Business Bureau and Yelp.
Encourage experts in your topical content to provide positive reference to your website on social media and on their websites. This is in addition to references from the pages alone but the acknowledged people of influence.
Keep a current copyright date on each page and a last updated date to show that the site is current.
Ensure that there is an obvious difference between the supplemental content and the main content.
Allow your domain to mature as a long standing domain name or use established domain with long standing registration.
Allow good comments to be displayed and read by search bots. No comments at all shows a lack of interest in your content.
Don’t
The factors which can indicate user dissatisfaction with your website include presentation, content quality, loading speeds, UI, too much or too little whitespace and not addressing the issue or question that they came to get a solution to. User dissatisfaction results in low levels of time spent on your website producing bad usage metrics.
Duplication of category or tag content by over use of keywords that a user will notice as keyword stuffing or thin content.
Over use of keyword search phrases within the site. This includes alt attributes, titles, URL strings and within page content.
Internal links with too many key words included are flagged as low quality pages.
Content should remain on topic. Pages which include content related to multiple topics do not produce the appearance of a cohesive page.
Do not include cloned pages or pages of content which are too similar.
Ensure that your facts and information is up to date and does not include mistakes.
Your content must not be badly constructed. Check for grammar, spelling, bad sentence construction and other errors on the page.
Websites where over 50% of the above the fold content is advertising are viewed as too ad focused.
Ensure your links do not result in MySQL, PHP, 500 level or 404 errors.
The main objective of your website should be easily communicated above the fold.
Avoid popups and text ads that are hidden within the page.
Ensure your site does not develop a bad reputation within independent sites. ( BBB, Wiki, Scamreport, etc.)
Do not block the search engine bots from reading your Javascript or CSS.
Avoid sidebar content which is not relevant to your website content.
Inclusion of low quality, auto generated, spammy or duplicated user comments or posts appear as attempts to negatively exploit SEO.
URLs should not include generic keyword terms within them and they should not be too long.
Your website should not be slow loading. Check the loading speed on all mobile devices and browsers.
Your Money, Your Life (YMYL) pages are particularly scrutinised by Google. These include websites that offer advice or products sold as promoting financial or health benefits.
The reading level of your content for YMYL pages should be aimed at a reasonably sophisticated audience and not too simplistic.
Keep your website well maintained. Links should work, images should load and pages should be updated appropriately.
Avoid the use of doorway pages. These are pages optimised for a keyword which are of low quality value.