In March 2005, Google’s patent document for their search engine was made public. This is the abridged Liz version.
10 Things Google Wants
Think of Google as a kindly caretaker who only wants the best for the blogging community. Google wants your blog to
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1. Put down roots. Google values blogs that last. If you can make it your own domain. Quality takes time, but spam occurs with a wink.
2. Be a valuable citizen. Add value to the community by developing quality content. Content is what Google users go searching for and that leads to Google selling more ads. Google likes that.
3. Grow like an oak, not like a weed. Authentic relationships take time to form naturally. Young blogs gather links over time like trees branching out, and grow with them. Fewer, slowly-acquired linking relationships impress Google. Too many links coming too quickly make Google wonder whether something hokey is going on.
4. Know beauty is nice, but brains always win. Quality, relevant fresh content is king, queen, prince, princess, and all of the Google information kingdom. There is no substitution and in the end nothing can beat it.
5. Ignore hangers-on. Cultivate quality friends. Google knows you can’t control who links up to you–that you’ll find backlinks of the most dubious sort. Care about who you link to so the community becomes stronger because of your links. Not every link needs to be reciprocated. Reciprocate those that serve your blog, your readers, and your niche community.
6. Keep your address and your name. Everyone knows that spam blogs make name changes suspicious. Name changes also make re-indexing issues. Keep your name and domain. Then Google won’t have to worry about losing track of you, and you won’t have to wait while Google finds you again.
7. Be popular among readers and among your peers. Google watches clicks–clicks on searchs and clicks from referrals–to see what draws visitors to your blog.
8. Show up with fresh, new content–often and consistently. Posting fresh, new content often is important. Even more important is posting consistently. Google likes a nice steady pattern to your posting. It’s better to post only Tuesdays and Thursdays, than to push out ten posts all on one Saturday.
9. Keep your visitors interested and know which doors they use. Google is interested in how long your visitors stay, where they came from and where they go when they leave you.
10. Keep clean and tidy–and that includes spelling. Google is a bit anal about design, code, and spelling–things that make spiders trip. No dusty corners, broken tags, no misspelled words please.
Are these all of the things that Google cares about?
Of course not. That would be like listing all of the things that your mother wants you to be.
Which of these does Google care most about and in which order do they rank?
If Google told us that, then we’d know, wouldn’t we?
ME “Liz” Strauss
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indeterminacy says
November 30, 2005 at 4:13 AMI think the google list answers your question: content is what google cares about most. You might ask the question, what does a visitor to a site care about most? Just about the only thing in the google list they see is the content. Everything else will fall into place, if there’s substance there. I’ve noticed my positions in the search results gradually rise over time, probably because people click into my site when they see my blog’s description in the list.
Dave Ryan says
November 30, 2005 at 5:09 AMI will only have to dissagree with one point, and that is spelling.
They may care about it…
BUT, it is a very effective SEO tool to misspell something intentionally after careful keyword research.
One time I got more traffic for a new product being released via Google on a post I made with an intentional misspelling in it than the person who released the product.
I was the only one with the misspelling which was searched for more than the correct spelling.
So I was #1 on Google in a day for a highly searched term and converted more sales via my affiliate link than he had gotten otherwise.
Great post though…the tree analogy is great.
and yes, I misspelled several words in this comment 😉
ME Strauss says
November 30, 2005 at 8:07 AMHi Indie,
That’s true and that’s the reason so many people say that as long as bloggers have their title tag right and don’t grossly screw up their code, they only have to write great content consistently and they will find their place in the rankings.
Great to see you.
Liz
ME Strauss says
November 30, 2005 at 8:11 AMHi Dave,
We’ve talked about it as an SEO tool–I have a post on alternate spelling as optimization, but it’s in the patent document that misspelling are part of the formula.
How big a part of the formula nobody knows. . .
Liz I suspect it’s more than an occasional keyword, but I don’t know.
Liz
Martin says
November 30, 2005 at 9:28 AMI think this is only 10 of many, many things that Google look at – actually last night I just saw on the biography channel a docu on Google and they state that they have a 1000+ things their robots look at and they keep it all close to their chest.
I’m with Dave here about the misspelling. I myself have recieved enormous traffic from inadvertently misspelling a word and when I do a google search I often in my haste misspell a word yet recieve still many useful returns.
It’s a long-time seo tactic, but right or wrong, it does work.
And funny how once again it all comes down to quality content.
Ara Pehlivanian says
November 30, 2005 at 10:10 AMIt’s funny, but if Google doesn’t like broken code, why are all of their sites rife with it?
ME Strauss says
November 30, 2005 at 10:10 AMHi Martin,
I’m dying to say, “Hey, I just report the news. I don’t make it.” It’s in the patent document. What I think they’re speaking of is websits that have a threshold of misspellings consitently across their pages. I AGREE about the SEO advantage of purposeful misspelling of keywords, but then you knew that.
I think that in then all of life comes down to quality of content. Don’t you?
Liz
ME Strauss says
November 30, 2005 at 10:12 AMHi Ara,
Good point. Google and their spiders don’t like, but their site builders aren’t paid enough to care about it? Just a guess. Another guess . . . outsourcing? he he.
Thanks for the morning laugh–10 points for Ara!
Liz
Dave Ryan says
November 30, 2005 at 10:41 AMStrauss,
I agree its all about the content. I did not meen to stir anything when I brought up misspelled words being good.
Who knwos they may make it more important next Google Dance and then kill many SEO experts well leyed plans.
I find it funny that even though they have the “did you meen XXXXX?” at the top when you misspell a word in the search, tons of traffic still goes down to the results.
It’s like they don’t trust Google…
Whatever, it still works and Ill stick with it.
The thing about the coding is true though, somewhat.
From my expieirence they don’t mind having crazy complicated code….its just more crap for them to sort through, so they miss your content and move on.
So its only real penalty is not getting your stuff indexed….
ME Strauss says
November 30, 2005 at 11:18 AMHi Dave,
Stir all you like Dave, this is a community blog. Everyone gets a right to say what he or she thinks, with respect of course.
From my expieirence they donâââ‰â¢t mind having crazy complicated codeâââ¬Ã¦.its just more crap for them to sort through, so they miss your content and move on.
That’s the point. It doesn’t hurt them it hurts our blogs.
With your idea about trusting Google, you should check out a post I wrote about what would happen if Google and the others actually shared their complete algorithms.
I’ll put the hotlink in this comment.
Liz
Jennifer Grucza says
November 30, 2005 at 12:58 PMI’m just curious to know how they would even have access to this information, especially if you don’t have any Google ads or other content on your site. Are they tracking this through the Google toolbar? I guess they could get some information that way, though not everyone uses it.
Sabine Kirstein says
November 30, 2005 at 1:19 PMNice list, Liz.
As you say, this isn’t all the things Google wants, but it’s a nice summary and something that’s easier for a newer blogger to grasp.
There are more and more new bloggers every day and it doesn’t hurt to think of them.
ME Strauss says
November 30, 2005 at 1:23 PMJennifer,
I’m not totally sure how they get all of it. Coomon wisdom seems to be that some is click through information from the listings of each search, and the info that goes with the clicks with their ads as you said. There seems to be agreement that Google checks the click returns to older versus newer content and clicks that follow trends and seasons–like swimwear or ski boots–which seems to be covered in the “freshness and staleness” ideas discussed in the patent document. The patent doc doesn’t get explicit regarding how they do anything, but if you want to check it the vague referrals are in point 34. 35. and 47.
Liz
ME Strauss says
November 30, 2005 at 1:25 PMThanks Sabine,
It was kind of fun trying to put legalese into language that I could understand. 🙂
Liz
Martin says
November 30, 2005 at 6:15 PMDave,
I find it funny that even though they have the ââ∠âdid you meen XXXXX?âââ¬? at the top when you misspell a word in the search, tons of traffic still goes down to the results.
I think that exactly proves the point that this does really work – heck, one of my keywords is ‘entrepreneur’ – now try typing that out 10 times as quickly as possible 🙂 – of course, the balance is in not making yourself look too much like a dork who can’t spell if his life depended on it.
ME Strauss says
November 30, 2005 at 6:25 PMHi Martin,
I’ve tried the not to make myself look like a dork thing–it doesn’t work for me, not in any shape or form. 🙂
Will that be water or whiskey tonight?
Liz
Martin says
November 30, 2005 at 6:57 PMwater or whiskey? Hmmm… let me think, nah it’s only Thursday – I think I’ll be responsible and wait for Friday night going into Sunday 😉
ME Strauss says
November 30, 2005 at 6:59 PMOkay Martin,
Water it is, on the rocks.
I’ll send it over to your table if you like or you can stay here with me.
Liz
Marc says
November 30, 2005 at 7:08 PMExcellent discussion 🙂 SEOMoz’s SE Ranking Factors doc is something to read too.
ME Strauss says
November 30, 2005 at 7:29 PMThanks Marc,
I just finished working on your document. I’ll be putting it up late tonight. I’ve called it, “Don’t Buy that Domain Name Yet.” I think you’ll like what I’ve done to introduce it.
smiles,
Liz