I actually hate talking to customers about technical SEO. It’s fairly simple stuff but I always feel as if the technical bits get in the way sometimes. How would I explain seo to dummies beginnners? You can also check out our free Hobo Search Engine Optimisation Tutorial.
I wanted to share some thoughts about SEO and how I think about it. A lot of it comes down to trust in my book.
- Use common sense – Google is a search engine – it is looking for pages to give searchers results, 90% of it’s users are looking for information. Google itself WANTS the organic results full of information. Almost all websites will link to relevant information content so content rich websites get a lot of links – especially quality links. Google ranks websites with a lot of links (especially quality links) at he top of it’s search engines so the obvious thing you need to do is ADD A LOT INFORMATIONAL CONTENT TO YOUR WEBSITE.
- I think ranking in organic listings is a lot about trusted links making trusted pages rank, making trusted links making trusted pages rank ad nauseum for various keywords. Some pages can pass trust to another site, some pages cannot. Some links can. Some cannot. Some links are trusted to pass ranking ability to another page. Some are not. YOU NEED LINKS FROM TRUSTED PAGES IF YOU WANT TO RANK AND AVOID PENALTIES & FILTERS.
- Google engineers are building an AI – but i’s all based on simple human desires to make something happen or indeed to prevent something. You can work with Google engineers or against them. They need to make money for Google but unfortunately for them they need to make the best search engine in the world for us humans as part of the deal. Build a site that takes advantage of this. What is a Google engineer trying to achieve with an algorithm – it was an idea first. What was that idea? Think like a Google engineers and give Google what it wants. What is Google trying to give it’s users? Align with that. What does Google not want to give it’s users? Don’t look anything like that. THINK LIKE A GOOGLE ENGINEER & BUILD A SITE THEY WANT TO GIVE TOP RANKINGS.
- Google is a links based search engine. Google doesn’t need content to rank pages but it needs content to give to users. Google needs to find content and it finds content by following links just like you do when clicking on a link. So you need to first make sure you tell the world about your site so other sites link to yours. Don’t worry about reciprocating to more powerful sites or even real sites – I think this adds to your domain authority – which is actually better to have than ranking for just a few narrow key terms.
- Everything has limits. Google has limits. What are they? How would you go about observing them or even testing, breaking them or benefiting from them or being penalised by them? It’s not a lab setting – you can’t test much, if anything, 100% accurately, but you can hypothesise based on the sensible approach bearing in mind what a Google engineer would do, and what you would do if Google was yours.
- The best way for Google to keep rankings secret ultimately is to have a randomness to it while keeping somethings stable – surely the easiest way for it to prevent a seo finding out how it works. Well I think that anyway. And I think this randomness manifests itself in many ways. What will work for some sites might not necessarily work for your sites – not exactly the same anyway. Perhaps no two sites are the same (the conditions are different for a start for any two sites) and I’m actually thinking about how to test this for a bit of fun.
- Google may play dice with the Google multi-verse so be ware of that. It uses multiple results and rotates them and serves different results to different machines and browsers even on the same computer. Google results are constantly shifting – some pages rank at the top constantly because they are giving Google what it wants in a number of areas or they might just have a greater number and diversity of more trusted links than your do.
- Google has a long memory when it comes to links and pages and associations for you site – perhaps an infinite memory profile of your site. Perhaps it can forgive but never forget. Perhaps it can forget too, just like us, and so previous penalties or bans can be lifted. I think (depending on the site because Google can work out if you have a blog or a e-commerce site) Google probably also looks at different history versions of particular pages even on single sites WHAT RELATIONSHIP DO YOU WANT TO HAVE WITH GOOGLE? Onsite, don’t try and fool Google – we’re not smart enough. Be squeaky clean on-site and make Google think twice about bumping you for discrepancies in your link profile.
- Earn Google’s trust. Most of our more lucrative accounts come from referrals from clients who trust us. Before clients told them of us, they didn’t know about us. ok, they might have heard about us from people in turn they didnt trust that much. Upon the clients testimonial, the referral now trusts us a lot more. These referrals automatically trusts us to some extent. That trust grows when we deliver. The referral now trusts us very much. But it’s un uphill struggle from that point on to continue to deliver that trust and earn even more trust because you don’t want to dip in trust – it’s nice to get even more and more trusted. Google works the exactly the same way as this human emotion, and search engines have tried for years to deliver a trusted set sites based on human desire and need. MAKE FRIENDS WITH GOOGLE
- Don’t break Google’s trust – if you’re friend betrays you, depending on what they’ve done, they’ve lost trust. sometimes that trust has been lost altogether. If you do something Google doesn’t like like manipulate it in a way it doesnt want, you will lose trust, and in come cases, lose all trust (in some areas). For instance, your pages might be able to rank, but your links might not be trusted enough to vouch for another site. DON”T FALL OUT WITH GOOGLE OVER SOMETHING STUPID
- YOU NEED TO MAKE OoRE FRIENDS AND ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO ARE FRIENDS WITH GOOGLE.
- When Google trusts you it’s because you’ve earned it’s trust to help it carry out what it needs to carry out in the quickest and most profitable way. You’ve helped Google achieve it’s goals. It trusts you and it will reward you by listing your contribution in order of the sites it trusts the most. It will list friends it trusts the most who it knows to be educated in a particular area at the top of these areas. IF GOOGLE TRUSTS YOU IT WILL LET YOUR PAGES RANK AND IN TURN VOUCH FOR OTHER FRIENDS GOOGLE MIGHT WANT INFORMATION ON.
- Google can be fooled and manipulated just like you can but it will probably kick you in the gonads if you break it’s trust – as I probably would. Treat Google as you would have it treat you. REMEMBER IT TAKES TIME TO BUILD TRUST
I of course might be reading far too much into Google and trust….consider trust to be a psychological emotion Google is trying to emulate using algorithms based on human ideas.
If you do all the above, you’ll get more and more traffic from Google over time.
If you want to rank for specific keywords, you’ll need to be a big brand, be picked out by a big brand and linked to, or buy links to fake that trust, or get spammy with it in an intelligent way you won’t get caught.
I suppose Google is open to the con just as any human is, if it’s based on human traits….
If you like this seo for dummies guide you might like our Hobo Search Engine Optimisation Tutorial.
…and paying extra for an upgraded gmail account and apps works too. Google have your credit card and a trail back to you. David Saunders Plymouth
Hobo. EVERYBODY talks links – links, links, links, links, links. Are they really THAT important? Or are they only THAT important if you’re playing in a highly competitive market? Do you think the value of links will change (increase or decrease) over the next few years (Google have shifted weights on ranking factors before, esp once they become gamed or over-played).
Possibly the greatest basic SEO write up I’ve read so far! While there are so many technical bits behind the scenes to ensure that all of the above actually works. That really is simple SEO in a nutshell.
Haha, Nice one Shaun. Hit the nail on the head with that one. It really is easier to think about things logically and try and simplify it all. Add content, build links, earn trust.
there are many ways to break google’s trust and for some people it’s practicly imposibile not to do this. but I guess that this old Romanian saying could be applied: “The thief that is not catched is an honest tradesman.” And I think it is only fair to say :”I promise I’ll try not to upset Google” but u can upset Google without knowing…
I try and encourage people to put themselves in Googles position and think about what things they would look at to guage a web pages relevance and authority. Add in some info about links and what they would do if they found a page that was trying to trick them and in most cases they end up with a reasonable understanding in a very short space of time.
Great post as per usual – many good points – particularly with regards to Trust and the Google Dice! I think these are amongst the trickiest elements for non-seo types to get their heads around, as they are quite abstract concepts – a typical response being: “What do you mean Google wants to be friends with you and develop a relationship?!! Its not alive!” .. “ah…but it is, in a way” - all a bit weird!
Hey Shaun, Excellent post, I found the part about Google tossing a random “ranking grenade” into their SERPs to keep SEOs guessing particularily interesting. I’ve come across a couple of examples in recent weeks when doing competitive analysis, sites ranking in the top 10 for no apparent reason, given their lack of content, authority and links when compared to other top 10 results. Jim
Thinking like google is very difficult, but it is essential to success. Great guide. I like the emphasis on building trust with Google which is very important, you never want to get blacklisted.
Are the commenters praising you above reading the same post as me? Littered with spelling mistakes, extremely poor grammar and it reads attrociously! God only knows how a novice is meant to understand it. I haven’t commented on any of your posts before but I have to say that you’re an asset to your competitors when you churn out sausage factory style articles like that above. When you’re not slagging off competitors your writing incoherent waffle which appears to be articles for articles sake. Part of SEO is copywriting and if I were a client relying on you guys to write an article I wouldn’t be back again if that’s the quality you provide.
Thanks. Being dyslexic can be a problem, sometimes. • Which competitor are you? :)
People really should learn to obey google and it’s rules. I know a lot of unseasoned, impatient SEOers hacking their way for their illegal links, and getting bashed by the big G afterwards. Some people just underestimate google like “They’ll never get my illegal links mwhaha”, yet Google didn’t make that billions by just sitting around doing nothing. For example, i was astonished when you said that Google remembers every state of every website Shaun.
Why is he spelling you`re without an `re. `? He wrote “your writing incoherent waffle”. He wrote you are, as if it were `your`. So who is he to talk?
just kidding folks
Aye Robert I don’t need no troll defence ;) Its worth pointing out folks don’t employ me for spelling or blogging lol
lol Shaun got trolled :P
Thank you Dena :)
Haha if you got trolls, it means you’re successful ;)
“Thanks. Being dyslexic can be a problem, sometimes.” Don’t dyslexics have spell checkers on their PCs then?
Probably. I dont see it.
Picking on spelling… Really?
I guess the person who will find the limits of Google and at the same time earn its trust – will become the richest SEO guy ever. I hope I will be able to achieve it one day ;)
hi Shaun, As a gentle reminder, about 11 days ago and 3 posts ago, you wrote that your next post would be “Anatomy Of A Number 1 Ranking In Google Stripped Bare.” Well, I’m still waiting… :) Seriously, I hope you do that post, and I even just subscribed to your blog so I can stop checking your blog every couple of days to see if there is anything new. As to the basics in this post, I don’t think you can repeat them to often. If you REMEMBER and live by the basic rules you outlined above, that’s about half the battle. :) I’m looking forward to that Anatomy post, even if it is written in “dyslexic style”. ~ Steve, TradeShow Ninja!
@cracks Great relevant content matters first to Google. In a low competitive market for example auto rentals in a small place like Goa, you can easily achieve a first page in Google for something like auto rentals goa if you design a website keeping in view basic seo principles and write great relevant content.
To follow up on what Joseph said above in response to cracks… From what I have read (but who believes anything they read?) a LOT of searches are long tail or unique (never been searched for before). For those searches, I think the results are definately based on content. It would be interesting to see what percentage of search results are determined by onpage content only… I’d guess it is more than a lot of people would guess. Steve PS. Shaun, about that Anatomy post… :)
@Joseph and @TradeShow Ninja: Thanks for the follow-ups. But I’m seeing/having a lot more success in markets that (while not SUPER competitive) are definitely quality markets. And while the success is off the back of solid website foundations and SEO, there are literally no links involved. Period. And one of these sites fits Hobo’s yet-to-be-published “Anatomy Of A Number 1 Ranking In Google”. Oh no – maybe Shaun’s stripping bare MY #1 Ranking secrets! Arrhhhh!!!!!!! (laughing. I’m sure Shaun has 10,000 #1 ranking sites of his own to choose from). Looking forward to the article either way.