Google’s New Algorithm Works! Three Dos to Make It to the Top.
After all of the new changes at Google, many of us who help clients with SEO held our breaths, hoping that all of the work we had done over the years wouldn’t be lost. I’m happy to report that all of my clients have done well with the new changes and one client even emailed me to say, “Just wanted to tell you that Google’s new algorithm has a lot of love for the site and the SEO you did.” Hooray!
For those of us who practice the art of creating and maintaining good sites, we had nothing to worry about. Google has made some great changes to reward good content and web development. I have always preached that developing appropriate content is the way to a “natural reward”. If the content is good and provides a service or information for your visitors, you are contributing to the “greater good” of the web and Google will reward you for this. So the first “do” on the list is to CREATE GOOD CONTENT.
The 2nd “do” involves web structure. As a web developer and programmer, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of smart web design and development. My motto is, “You gotta keep them separated!” What I mean by this is you must use CSS to house your design elements and use HTML for site structure and content. If you keep the design elements out of the page, the bots that scan your pages will see what your visitors see and be able to get to the heart of the content. Also, I think you should include appropriate meta tags in your header. Some experts say you don’t need title and keyword meta tags anymore, but I disagree. They may not help your rankings on Google but they do help categorize your content and some search engines still use the information. It’s a nice touch to a site and shows that you thought about what the page’s purpose is and what is about. So “do” number two is GOOD WEB DESIGN!
The 3rd thing that will help your Google rank is FRESH CONTENT. I think this is the hardest thing for most people to do because it takes the most time and energy. Fresh content usually means blogging which means RSS feeds (or some other feed) which means social media and bookmarking sites will pick up your content and your link building will gain momentum. Most people trying to get to the top of Google know that lots of links to their site usually means lots of love. But it’s not just the number of links to your site that’s important, it’s type of link. You want good quality links from sites that host similar content as you do. Quality content and blog material will help you get to this point.
Regardless of what Google does with its algorithm, you will always make progress and work your way to the top if you implement these three simple but effective strategies:
1) Good and appropriate content
2) Good web design
3) Fresh content
Keywords: Algorithm, content, CSS, Google, HTML, SEO, web design
