So for all of you business professionals out there who are
looking more and more at how vital a website is to your business, this post is
for you. Yes, even you wedding photographers can benefit from this knowledge!
One of the most important things that you can do for your business is to
establish an online presence. The first step to climbing that monstrous road,
is to understand just what it is that makes search engines (in more specific
terms, Google, as they are the most used search engine online currently) work.
So here we go!
How Does Google Operate?
This is a very interesting topic that EVERYONE is trying to
figure out. Google operates very much like a logical computer does. 1+2=3.
A+B=C. Google’s algorithm is an equation. You punch in the factors and it spits
out the result. Now imagine a machine built by a company that desire the best
user experience (UX) on the web. They control whether or not that happens on
their search engine results page (SERP), and their success as a company has
been built up upon providing that UX to the end customer. The reason that
customers keep coming back to Google as their Search engine, is because they
constantly provide a simple layout that everyone loves with a UX that gives
them relevant search results that people want. Now how does this algorithm
figure all of this out?
Simple logic.
Addresses
If a business has multiple addresses, do you think that
Google will look at the business name and ignore the addresses? Think even
simpler, before the days of exponential growth of businesses, to the point
where they had multiple addresses, they started out at one simple place. One
firm name, one address, one phone number.
Think of it like an actor that has been nominated for an
Oscar for 3 different films they have been in in the past year. Which film is
most relevant for the award? That is left up to the voters to decide. But every
time a scenario like this happens, having multiple nominations decreases the
actor’s relevance for the award. Why? Because rather than giving all of those
votes to one that is relevant, the voters split their votes between the 3.
Google operates the same way. When presented with options of websites for a
business, addresses for a business, phone numbers for a business, they want the
most relevant information for the business.
1 business, 1 address, 1 site, 1 phone #.
Linking
Now there is an anomaly to this logic that Google has put
into its algorithm, that anomaly is links. The reason that larger firms are
able to “get by Google” is because of an enormous amount of backlinks. This
brings us to the thought process of “well, if I just increase my backlinks (no
matter by what means), that is the end all, right?” Wrong. An algorithm has
multiple factors, not just 1. A+B=C. You can’t solve the equation if you only
focus on B. Linking isn’t the only factor in the equation, no matter how much
value is placed on it.
Think about it.
If I have “indiahorseracing.eu” pointing at my website which
sells basketball apparel in California, are the two related in any way
(location, topic, industry, etc.)? No. If Google’s main purpose is to bring the
most RELEVANT searches to its users, can this do ANY kind of good for your
campaign? None. Then why even deal with this? Widely dubbed as “black hat SEO”,
these tactics can harm your campaign greatly. Not only does Google hate it,
they police it. Google punishes offenders for engaging in tactics that
ultimately harm their mission.
On the flipside, if the link is related and a high quality
link, then it can greatly help with a website’s campaign. The more relevant,
high quality back links that a website has, the more relevant a website will
appear to Google. Think of it like when you are meeting someone for the first
time and you don’t know what to think of them. One of the first things you look
at is the company they keep. If they keep good company, they are probably good
themselves, right? If my brand new website is associated with high quality
directories Google will associate me as high quality right? And that is what
Google is after isn’t it? Relevant, high quality searches?
Content
It works the same way with content. Remember in school, when
you copied Johnny’s homework word for word and turned it in? What happened? You
got in trouble. Bad grades. Disciplined. GOOGLE WORKS THE SAME WAY. Fresh,
original content is what they are looking for to see that you are an additive
member of the internet world. You are creating your own relevance by writing
unique content for each website that you launch. In knowing this, even if you
duplicate your OWN original content it is seen as bad. For example, using the
same description for all of your business directories lends itself to
duplication.
Why Should I Care?
Basic SEO techniques never change. But in forecasting for
the future, it is important to study the common themes of the past, not just the
individual incidents that rollout over the years penalizing certain areas. You
need to look at the painting, not the brush strokes. You need to see the bigger
picture, to insure that your vision for your site is carried out. Rather than
scrambling your resources to clean up your mistakes, you need to do your best
to get it right from the start.
-J
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