Successful Blog

10 Things Google Wants per Liz

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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

    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

Related articles:
Check Google Backlinks Through Yahoo
Google Homepage–Got Yours Yet?
Google–Do You Have Something to Tell Me?
Google Zeitgeist–Will Make ME Millions

SEO–The Value of Outlinks to MY Blog

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It started in the most natural way, someone read a post of mine and wrote one in response. I liked the response and respected the blog that it came from. I wanted my readers to know about it. It happened more than once. So I setup a feature called Two in a Row. It looked like this:

Two in a Row
Read this
Leaving a Guy a Place to Stand (the post on my site)

Then read this
Giving a Guy a Place to Stand (the post on the other site)

I had built an outlink. Later, when my post became archived, I transferred the outlink to the post.

On the surface, a cynic might say such outlinks only serve the receiving site, but I disagree on several points. Here’s my best thinking on it.

  • These outlinks serve readers and serving readers is why we’re here.
  • Outlinks to quality sites get readers to associate us with good information, which means they’re likely to return.
  • If I combine quality content with quality outlinks, the receiving blogs will be inclined to link back when the occasion arises. After all, they are already reading my blog, or the outlink would never have happened.
  • Outlinks connect my content to other quality content which underscores the relevancy of my content and that of the receiver.

All of these values add strength to the community. In terms of community, generosity is always good.

–Me “Liz” Strauss

deep dark blue strip A

The rest of this week: More on Links and How Google Ranks Pages

SEO: If Everyone Is Number One

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Practical SEO for Every Blogger

. . . People are giving out advice about ranking in Search engines, when they clearly know nothing whatsoever of the topic.

Worse, in extreme cases . . . they’re giving out information that is patently false, and could actually get bloggers into trouble with some engines. . . .

There are no quick fixes.

–Nick Wilson, Performancing, Misinformation on Search in the Blogosphere

I’ve been in and out of websites and blogs, following links on SEO from every search engine. I know I can spell SEO. I know a few other things too. There are people on the web who know much, much more. There are some who don’t, but say they do. There are a few who will propose that the metaphor in this photograph is real.

SEO in stone

This picture of Search Engine Optimization is a fantasy. I know. I made it. The only thing concrete about SEO is that the rules are always changing. This can be frustrating, but it’s very much worth supporting.

The alternative is that everyone knows the algorithms that search engines use to build their indexes and how each engine values criteria such as link popularity and themes. We really shouldn’t want to know everything. That would be wrong, as wrong as burning books is. Think about it. One of two things would happen.

    1. We would spend more time talking about search engines and even less time talking about readers and quality content. The conversation would become “how to fit the algorithms–how to pass the test.” More time spent discussing the test is less time spent on content. If the rules were available, we’d have no choice but to follow them. Ignore what everyone knows, and we fall off the listings. Suddenly search engines would be controlling everything we said. That’s if the system stood.

    2. The current information access system would completely fall apart. What happens when everyone is number one? No one is. Users would be left with thousands, millions of choices all ranked equally authorative and relevant–a universe of information with no indexing system. It hurts to think about it.

Eric Mutta and I are structuring this series with an eye toward what we really need to know as bloggers and what we can let go of. We’re looking for Optimum SEO that will keep the bulk of our time for attending to our readers and the content they deserve.

We’ll talk through the available resources and how things work. We’ll share plenty of information and places to get more. In other words, this will be Practical SEO for Every Blogger. Don’t be surprised if we all become better search engine users by the end of the series.

And if I meet someone claiming an SEO answer that is set in stone, I will say most graciously, I prefer mine etched in ice.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

2.4 The Stats of the Blogdom

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Interview with Ellen

Interview with: Ellen
Her Blog: The Reign of Ellen
URL: thereignofellen.blogspot.com
Her audience: easy-going, funny, non-judgmental readers–moms; dads; college-aged women
Things to note when you visit: the open spirit of community; the royal gallery; the blogroll; the multiple kinds of interactivity; the connection between Ellen and her readers; how the open, friendly, design supports the concept; the special features and unique ideas
Google Page Rank: 5/10

2.4 The Stats of the Blogdom

Ellen uses Site Meter to keep track of what’s going on in the blogdom.This blog is a team enterprise. Ellen keeps her focus on the needs of her readers. Jason, her husband, keeps an eye to what the trends and the graphs might reveal.

What do you do and how much time do you spend these days to build up readership?

To build up readership I usually spend most of my time focused on my writing and the artwork during the week. I also invest time in conversing with my readers by responding to comments and emails that are sent to me. I used to spend about 20-30 min writing a post, and that was the extent of it. Now days I’m spending 1-2 hours of the day dedicated to my blog.

What is your most visited day of the week? Does readership change through the year?

Right now it looks like Wednesday is the busiest day of the week, and I’m not sure how my readership changes over the year since my husband just started tracking visits in June of this year. We’ll see what happens.

What stat totals can you share?

Ellen Stats

The site meter summary chart tells the story better than words.

Honesty, humor, creativity and a genuine relationship with her readers has made The Reign of Ellen a place where people come in large numbers and return again and again.

Are these stats where you guessed they would be? higher? lower? If your numbers need a boost to get to this level, how might you reconstruct some of Ellen’s ideas to make them work for your readers?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

SEO-OSE-SOE–When an Alternate Spelling Is Optimization

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SEO misspelling article link search image

When I do a link search on MSN for my personal blog, I always get that starred question Were you looking for . . . ? The same thing happens on Google, Yahoo, and most search engines.

I find it useful when I mistype a word, fun to follow when I’m on a link search, and funny when it’s unconnected to what I’m searching for. I didn’t think much about it, except to notice the number of listings under misspelled words.

In an October post written by Jamsi at Workboxers, The Overlooked Optimization Technique, Jamsi tells how with the Overture Keyword Tool, he used an alternative spelling as Search Engine Optimization. By removing a space and a capital letter from a keyword, Jamsi achieved a top three rank in the listings at Google, Yahoo, and MSN for an obscure blog.

The logic is simple and compelling.

It’s the big fish in a small pond strategy. Choose the less preferred spelling, and you’ll get more attention. Use the Overture Keyword Tool to make sure that you still have an audience. Then tag your post with keywords that will get you a higher rank in a shorter listing.

–ME “Liz” Strauss aka My Lis Straus