Google Releases an SEO Search Optimization Starter Guide!

12 November 2008 8 Comments So Far, Join In!

Just announced on the Google Webmaster Blog! After quite a bit of feedback, Google is responding to one of the most common questions they hear from Webmaster:

How can I improve my site in Search Listings

The answer… a 12 page Google SEO Starter Guide! They start it out by saying that it was originally meant for their internal teams to use as a guide, but they saw the need to release it to everyone! I wouldn’t expect to find any “Glowing Nuggets” that are magically going to change the way your websites rank, but getting a guide directly from the King of the Web, will surely help!

Sure would be nice to be Brandon’s Baseball Cards!

Check it out!!

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About the Author, Mark Hansen

Mark Hansen has written 468 article(s) at the Niche Store Builder site.

I have been doing my part to "Build the Internet" since 1994, when I built my first website! Since then, I have built hundreds of niche websites for myself and many others, focused on design, applications, ecommerce, search optimization and internet marketing. 

Latest Readers Who Commented on This Article

8 Comments »

  • Julie said:

    Mark,
    You have taught me three-fourths of what was covered in this guide.
    so I felt surprisingly knowlegeable as I read through it.

    One thing I would like to learn how to do is create a 404 error landing page like the guide suggests that offers link options for returning to the site. I feel like I could make an attempt at it, but with step by step directions I would be able to accomplish it much faster.

    Does anyone know if Rochelle has posted directions for doing this on her Niche Store Strategies site?

    Thanks,
    Julie

    Reply – Quote
    # 12 November 2008 at 8:37 pm
  • Mark (author) said:

    @ Julie –

    Thanks! Its actually all very much a common sense thing. The post I wrote previous this this one today, about Writing Better Titles… I was glad to see that G recommends the same things!

    In regard to the 404 issue, check here for handling the 404 on a BANS/Blog site.

    You can actually just take your wordpress archive page inside most themes, and rename it to 404.php as well. Put a nice message at the top to state Page Not Found (In H1 tag), then in the link above, it walks through setting it to work.

    Unfortunately, on BANS sites, the soft 404 can be eliminated, but 50% of the time, you end up with a blank page, but it DOES deliver a 404.

    Mark

    Reply – Quote
    # 12 November 2008 at 9:00 pm
  • James Mann said:

    Thanks for the link Mark.

    I am most curious to see what Google has to say in this 22 page report.

    I see from the first paragraph of the report that there is no magic that will get us listed faster, they could have left that little tid bit of info to the end. :)

    Reply – Quote
    # 13 November 2008 at 6:31 am
  • Sonia said:

    Thanks Mark for pointing this guide out.
    Confirmation straight from G is always helpful and it’s nice for all the most important topics and resources to be listed in one place.

    When I read,
    “Avoid using a single title ( & description) tag across all of your site’s pages or a large group of pages.”
    I thought about my first BANS sites way back in 06 when I didn’t know any better, “Buy Product, Cheap Product for Sale, Used Product for Sale” on every page.

    It was even worse because I had a site related to baby items and the tags were coming up, “Buy Babies, Cheap Babies for Sale, Used Babies for Sale”. I gasped!

    Glad I found your site.
    Sonia

    Reply – Quote
    # 13 November 2008 at 11:16 am
  • Googles Secret to #1 said:

    “Although this guide won’t tell you any secrets that’ll automatically rank your site first for queries in Google (sorry!)”

    Do you want to know the secret to getting #1 on Google?
    Get as many links to your site as you can and as quickly as you can. Forget the BS about looking spammy, G doesn’t care about the quality just quantity of backlinks.

    Doesn’t matter if you’ve got a blog, good content that readers actually search for, good seo and an established site. Just get as many backlinks as you can as quickly as possible. It’s ok to have a thin affiliate site as long as you have 40k backlinks which are completely irrelevant to your site. Google will put you at #1 while your competition who has done everything white hat and has relevant, high quality backlinks is no where to be found.

    This is what’s happening to me in case you didn’t get it. There’s a BANs site in direct competition with mine, it’s fairly new and has gotten quite a few questionable backlinks in a VERY short period of time. When I say quite a few I mean A LOT. This site has no content, no blog, just a blurb on each store page. It’s pretty thin. My site however has great seo, a blog, content it’s a few years old but only has around 300 backlinks. I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong except I don’t have enough crappy backlinks I guess. Recently I crawled my way up to page 1 last week and then disappeared again while my comp. sits at #1 for doing nothing but getting backlinks.
    So, there’s the secret people. Now, someone tell me, how do I get 40,000 backlinks fast?

    Reply – Quote
    # 13 November 2008 at 2:28 pm
  • Mark (author) said:

    @ Google Secret –

    I hear where you are coming from and I can tell you from the point of view of someone who has a BANS site or two, it wont last! The quality of one site or the other will always rise to the top… and any site (BANS or not) that provides the best content on a regular basis, will ultimately win out in the longrun.

    The days of getting 40k links and surviving are gone! Yes, they may make a short term impact, but they wont last if they are not providing valuable content to the web.

    From the standpoint of a webmaster, which I am as well, if you feel that strongly that its a thin affiliate site, there are tools in place to report it.

    From the voice of a person who has been reported for thin affiliate sites myself, I can also verify… they work!

    Reply – Quote
    # 13 November 2008 at 2:45 pm
  • D.Wep said:

    Googles secret is right – for all those who think content will get you to the top, just do a search for the highly competitive term “credit card” – none of the top 5 sites have any original content, and I bet you they are all making serious bank. Read up on Grizzly for further information.

    Reply – Quote
    # 17 November 2008 at 12:40 am
  • 5 Star Affiliate Marketing Forums said:

    Google Launches SEO Starter Guide…

    If you don’t know how to do SEO, learn how direct from Google. Check it out!

    Google’s SEO Starter Guide…

    Reply – Quote
    # 13 November 2008 at 6:59 pm

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