Google delivers 65% of US and 80% of UK search traffic...
but only to the sites it loves.

New and Improved - Edition 2
Released September 2007

1. 10,000 more words, 10 new sections, Way More Google Love!

Why do you need
50 Ways to Make Google Love Your Web Site?

1. Google's love is a hard love — Google doesn't trust you
2. A poor showing in Google's results is a form of operational negligence
3. Optimization knowledge is no longer optional for web designers
4. Roughly half of all online shoppers research at a search engine before buying online

More about
50 Ways to Make Google Love Your Web Site
by Steve Johnston

This ebook has come into being due to the demands I face in my consulting work. I meet managers from organizations at all levels who are realizing that they are not powerless to improve the quality and quantity of visitors Google refers to their web sites, and they are becoming more and more determined to do something about it. As a consequence they seek out consultants to help them learn to operate their sites better, and I tend to feature on most lists of such consultants: Google loves my site already.

The growth in demand for search engine optimization services for Google is such that it has proved necessary for me to accelerate elements of my consultative processes in order to be more productive and helpful. The main outcome of this acceleration has been the documentation of my optimization approach, in the form of this ebook; 50 Ways to Make Google Love Your Web Site is therefore the distillation of the understanding I have gained since 2001, which is when I started specializing on Google.

A succinct, insightful document — invaluable for any search engine optimisation projectJim Boulton, MD, Large Design

eBook Extract: Introduction

First 1500 words (document length 12,500 words)

Google's love is a hard love. It rejects sites won't stick to the rules, and only bestows its good favour now under tighter and tighter conditions. Many sites that want to be loved by Google aren't. Instead they are neglected and frequently abandoned, and to make matters worse they often behave badly and seem deliberately rebellious. These failings are usually, frequently and mostly self-inflicted through ignorance, not malice, and yet Google has become very intolerant because much of this behaviour steadfastly attempts to pervert its mission – to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful .

Google is working harder and harder to bring bad behaviour into line and is prepared to discipline the innocent rather than risk the relevance of its results. Despite this, Google's rules are actually becoming clearer thanks to an industry – the Search Engine Optimizers – that is working hard to discover and communicate the conditions that Google imposes. Google itself, on the other hand, remains very reluctant to tell the world how successful such efforts are turning out to be. Keeping its secrets close to its chest to avoid further abuse, makes perfect sense if you are Google, but is deeply frustrating to web site owners the world over, who recognise now, more than ever, that search has become one of the most powerful and cost-effective customer acquisition routes and want to make sure their web sites are as successful in Google as possible. Obtaining a guide to Google's rules so that it becomes possible to gain the acceptance, good regard and, even, love of Google is therefore left to unofficial sources: 50 Ways to Make Google Love Your Web Site is one such guide.

And just in case it isn't entirely obvious why you might want Google to love your web site, let us remind ourselves that of all the visits to web sites that were immediately preceded by a search on a search engine, Google is responsible for the vast majority. Recent figures on Google's dominance show it being responsible for 80% of searches in the UK and 65% of searches in the US . This reach makes it single-handedly the biggest referrer of visitors on the web, which in turn makes Google-love a necessity, not an option, of doing business online.

eBook Purpose

This ebook has a primary purpose: to feed the development, redevelopment or optimization process for a web site that needs to be loved by Google. By this I mean: indexed effectively in Google's search engine. Effective indexing is what most web sites need because it increases their chances of responding to the searching behaviour of the people they want as visitors. This is always the case, almost always a good thing and something you will be hearing more about as you work your way through this guide.

This ebook has a secondary purpose as an educational and training tool . Web site owners and managers realize now that Google is the biggest single referrer of visitors to web sites, which means that a poor presence in its index is a form of operational negligence . Also web site designers and developers are beginning to learn that this knowledge is no longer optional if they want to stay in business.

eBook Structure

There are three main sections to this ebook. They cover the concepts and key implementation areas for our main principles of search engine optimization (SEO) for Google: Visibility, Content and Reputation . Each section is then divided in such a way that you can identify and act on issues that are a) within your direct control, b) that require the management of external factors, and c) that are largely in the laps of the gods. Each issue or practice area is described in order of importance within its section, which sadly cannot be specific to you, in this form, but will nevertheless help you prioritize the areas on which to focus your efforts.

I have tried to find an editorial balance so that business managers will acquire the confidence they need to drive towards a Google optimization objective; and web implementers will have sufficient clarity to act on the recommendations. Please let me know if this turns out not to be the case.

How Many Ways?

This guide covers approximately 50 ways in which you can make Google love your web site. 50 is a satisfying, round number but if you were curious enough to count them all you will find many more in reality. I will keep this publication up to date and will add new ways of making Google love you as they become apparent and significant; re-visit this page for details of updated editions.

There are around 34 million active web sites (Netcraft / HP data, Nov 05). Yikes. And Google will only find you if you let it. Steve Johnston's book shows you how. Ethical, effective, authoritative info from one of the best Google guys out there — I highly recommend it.Liam McGee, MD, Communis

Background

No. 1 in Google

Put to one side for a moment your need to be number one in Google. Nobody needs to be number one in Google . This isn't the heresy it seems to be – every caller I get wants to be number one in Google. Such an ambition, however, demonstrates a lack of understanding of the form of Google's influence in delivering visitors to web sites, and a lack of appreciation of the scale and uniqueness of the desires of the searching public. What businesses really mean, when they say they want to be number one in Google, is in fact that they want to be number one for that fantastically competitive single expression that describes what their sector sells, be it 'car insurance', 'cheap flights' or 'digital cameras'. Such an ambition can prove to be deeply frustrating for businesses that turn out to be unable to match the investment and commitment of their competitors. The good news is that help is at hand.

Ignoring searches for a site's unique brand name, it is the exception, not the rule, that web sites depend on a very small number of search expressions to generate visitors, and therefore it is the exception, not the rule, that makes being 'number one' for these the only way to guarantee staying in business online. The rule is, in fact, frequently the exact opposite; optimized web sites generate more visits from a very long tail of expressions based around the relevant generic vocabulary for their sector than they ever would if they depended solely on a handful of 'money' terms. Any amount of investigation into the search phrases that generate visits to a web site shows us time and again that we cannot predict the sheer scale and diversity of the expressions people actually type in to Google. Google is on record describing the challenge they face processing these searches by explaining that in any one day they have never before seen 20-25% of search expressions typed in. Yes, that really does mean that up to a quarter of all the expressions typed in to Google today have never been typed into Google before. So for a business to try to improve its web site's performance in Google by building a dependence on a tiny subset of this reality is, by contrast, one of the surest ways to risk your online business.

The consequence of being liberated from the kind of money-term tyranny I described above and the kind of which I encounter day-in day-out with businesses, is that your energies can now be poured into the building of a web site that embraces the fact that more visits will come to it from searches that weren't planned for directly than from ones that were.

Unsurprisingly, given the above, a successful optimization project therefore hinges on the consideration, creation and production of what will actually be available to Google, when it visits a site. This is after all what Google will base its referrals of visitors on; the words that describe the business and its products or services. I refer to the work and development required for this part of a project as the Content component of an optimization strategy and I expand upon it in section 4 . Before I do, though, I need to tell you something about what Google actually does when it comes to a web site in the pursuit of its mission 'to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful'.

Steve, in writing this eBook, has taught me everything I know about search engine optimization for Google, and I am eternally grateful to him for this. The eBook has already proved an invaluable resource and has paid for itself many times over. By the way, I designed this page!Sam Hastings

Table of Contents

1. Preface 3
   1. Who is Steve Johnston? 3
2. Introduction 5
   1. eBook Purpose 5
   2. eBook Structure 6
   3. How Many Ways? 6
3. Background 7
   1. No. 1 in Google 7
   2. Visibility 8
   3. Content 9
   4. Reputation 10
   5. The Tripod of Love 13
4. Visibility: Ways to be Found 15
   1. Location Management 15
   2. Web Standards 21
   3. Metadata 25
   4. Robot Management 26
5. Content: Ways to be Relevant 30
   1. Generic Vocabulary 30
   2. Page Content 32
   3. Title Tags & Meta Descriptions 34
   4. Navigation 36
   5. On-site search 36
   6. Images 37
   7. Rich Media 38
6. Reputation: Ways to be Authentic 40
   1. Internal Reputation 40
   2. Encourage Day-to-Day Linking by Invitation 44
   3. Links from Reputation Authorities 45
   4. Destination Content 46
   5. Linkbait 47
   6. Social Media is Word-of-Mouth 49
   7. Build a Real Reputation 50
   8. PageRank Toolbar Indicator 51
7. Summary 53
   1. 6.1 Visibility 53
   2. 6.2 Content 53
   3. 6.3 Reputation 53
   4. 6.4 Next Steps 54
   5. 6.5 Link to Me 54
   6. 6.6 Acknowledgements 54

Copyright Steve Johnston 2005-2007