Dated Sunday January 12, 2014
In the last months Google made some major changes to way they evaluate websites and ranking. A lot of the tactics and best practices to get you a top position in Google are no longer relevant or have shifted in focus. Google did level the plain field, with means it is every bodies game again. Time for an update on what does help getting you that top position.
Getting your code optimized
Having your HTML and code optimized for SEO is still important. But it is by far not as important anymore as webdevelopers would like you to think. Of course, the basics of HTML optimizing are still relevant. But if you use a standard template for Joomla, Wordpress or Drupal you'll probably be ok. And every descent webdeveloper will get it right the first time.
Once you got the basics in order, you should move on to other things. Further improvement will do little to get you higher. It is no longer technology, but content that gets you in Googles favor.
Write quality content
Quality content and content marketing have been the buzz words of 2013. But what exactly is quality content? Do you need to have an degree in journalism to write quality content? Opinions may vary, but follow the follow guidelines and Google will love the content on your website:
-
Most important: be original. Copying text from others websites will get you no where. Google detects duplicates and ignores pages you've created by simple copy and paste work. Write your own content!
-
Write a separate page for each question or problem you have an solution for. Writing a dedicated page for each possible problem and your solution gives you an higher chance of getting a top position for search queries on that particular problem.
-
Use the question or problem you might solve in the title of the page. Google is moving from single word queries towards an search engine that answers complete questions. By inserting the questions your customers or visitors ask Google in your title, you get a top position in no time!
-
Give some length to your articles or pages. A longer article or product page has more value then a short scribble. Ideally the page consist of over more then 2000 words.
Linkbuilding (getting links to your website) has changed
Using the links to your website as an tool to value your website was what set Google apart from other search engines when Google started. And it will probably always be a part of the ranking algorithm of Google. But it is changing.
Quality, not quantity
Google is focusing less on the number of links to your website. Quality and context are getting the upper hand. First of all, links to your website should come from real, valued websites. Getting multiple links from shady websites will not only not help you to improve your position in Google, Google has started penalizing websites that got links that where not “genuinely” received.
Text in the link
The second important part of linkbuilding is the text in the link that is pointing to your website. You can have a page not mentioning “great article” at all, but still rank high on that term simply because many links with the text “great article” point to your website. If you have control over the text in a certain link to your website, think careful on what you want it to be!
Context, context, context
The newest factor Google takes in to consideration is context. Not only the text in the link, but the complete text on the page on the site linking to your website starts to matter. This makes it more important than ever to get links from relevant websites. Tools like Linkbuilding Advisor can help you finding websites that are relevant to the subjects you want to get top positions on in Google.
Ready to start?
This new focus on context is the biggest change resulting from the changes Google made. It made many, mostly artificial techniques, to get top positions in Google irrelevant or even hurtful to your website. If you are careful on how you build your position in Google (if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is) and try to be genuine in your linkbuilding, you might get result you never thought that ware possible.
