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Featured Article
Matt Cutts from Google - Shares 5
Organic SEO Tips for Google
by David Williams - July 1, 2008
Google Engineer, Matt Cutts, offered 5
Organic SEO tips during a recent
interview with
USAToday. These tips for
successful organic (natural) SEO may
sound very familiar to you as readers of
SmallBizNews. While not wanting to seem
redundant; I feel that it is important
from time to time to point our readers
to unbiased professionals in the field
of Organic SEO to lend validity to the
statements and opinions I have shared in
previous articles here on SmallBizNews.
Well, here they are, straight from the
Google expert's mouth:
Quoting
from USAToday Article:
"Google's
Cutts: Good directions drive traffic to
your website" By Jefferson Graham,
6/23/2008
Google's Matt Cutts discusses how to
improve your web site's search ranking
-
Spotlight your search term on the
page.
"Think about what people are going
to type in to try and find you,"
Cutts says. He tells of meeting a
chiropractor from San Diego who
complained that his site couldn't be
found easily using Google search.
The words "San Diego chiropractor"
were listed nowhere on his site.
"You have to make sure the keywords
are on the page," Cutts says. If
you're a San Diego doctor, Des
Moines architect or Portland ad
agency, best to let people know so
immediately, at the top of your
page.
-
Fill in your "tags."
When creating websites, Internet
coding language includes two key
tags: title and description. Even if
you don't know code, which is used
to create pages, software programs
such as Adobe's Dreamweaver have
tools that let you fill them in in
plain English (rather than
"<title>San Diego
Chiropractor</title"). Tags are
crucial, Cutts says, because what's
shown in search results most often
are the title and description tags.
If Cutts' chiropractor had properly
tagged his Web page, a search would
have returned something like this:
"San Diego chiropractor. Local
doctor serves San Diego community."
There's also a third tag, to add
keywords, or search terms, but Cutts
says Google doesn't put much weight
in its rankings on that one.
-
Get other sites to "link" back to
you.
Google says it looks at more than
100 pieces of data to determine a
site's ranking. But links are where
it's at, once your search terms are
clearly visible on your site and the
title and description tags correctly
marked.
In a nutshell: Google ranks sites
based on popularity. If
authoritative sites link to you, you
must be good, and therefore you get
to the top of the list. If you can't
get top sites such as USATODAY.com
or The New York Times to link to
you, try your friends. And what if
they don't have a site? They
probably do. Read on.
-
Create a blog and post often.
Cutts says blogging is a great way
to add links and start a
conversation with customers and
friends. It will cost you only time:
Google's Blogger, WordPress and
others offer free blogging tools.
With a blog, you can link back to
your site and offer links to others.
It's also a great way to start
building content, Cutts says.
-
Don't Overdo It
When weaving keywords into a main
page, Cutts says, some zealous Web
publishers will use the term over
and over again. That's called
"keyword stuffing." It's a big
Google no-no that can have your site
removed from the index.
"After you've said it two or three
times, Google has a pretty good idea
— 'OK, this page has something to do
with this keyword,' " he says. "Just
think about the two or three phrases
you want to be known for and weave
that in naturally."
For blogger newbies, Cutts knows
that writing (for example, posting
new material) doesn't always come
easy. He suggests finding ideas by
visiting social news sites such as
Digg and StumbleUpon, to see what
people are saying about your
particular topic.
Aside from that, Cutts says, new
material falls into the common-sense
category: It's all about your
business. "If I'm a plumber in Iowa,
I may want to write about some of
the strange things that happen to me
on the job, or the five most common
ways to fix a toilet," he says.
"That kind of content can get really
popular, and it's a great way to get
links." Folks will post your piece
on one of the social media sites.
And with links comes higher Google
rankings.
Finally, Cutts says, there is one big
misconception about getting Google
visibility that he wants to clear up:
In order to be found at the top of
Google's rankings, you do not also have
to advertise.
"One thing doesn't have to do with the
other," he says.
5
Web Design and SEO tips from Matt Cutts
There you have it; 5 tips for increased
ranking in Google's SERPs (Search Engine
Result Pages) straight from Matt Cutts
who has become a voice from Google.
I find it very affirming to see that Mr.
Cutts' tips for quality & ethical
Organic SEO to increase your websites'
ranking in Google's search engine are
the very same tips and techniques I have
been offering for years here in
SmallBizNews SEO Articles.
Enjoy the rest of your summer!
Be sure to check out
previous issues of
SmallBizNews for other Internet
Marketing ideas as well. We invite your
ideas, comments and suggestions. |
