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Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide 2010 Changes
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Google has made some major formatting and content changes to their 'Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide.' Most importantly: mobile search opportunities, with a warning about what cloaking is, and how to avoid it.
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By Jason McDonald
Senior SEO Instructor - JM Internet Group.
Posted: November 12, 2010
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Contents:
Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide
Google is a business. Of course, Google is a business. That's obvious, but few people really think deeply about what this means for searchers, for SEO optimizaters, and for Google itself. First and foremost, Google makes its money on AdWords. Over 90% of revenue... So Google has a vested interest in explaining, expanding, and promoting AdWords.
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, of course is getting to the top of Google's free listings. Free doesn't make Google money, so Google doesn't work very hard at promoting SEO. There are tips and tools hidden among the Googleplex. One of the most important is the Google Search Engine Optimization Guide, which has just been updated.
This important document focuses primarily on the On Page best practices for effective SEO, and takes a very friendly, easy-to-understand tone. We use it in our own SEO Classes, especially the class on Page Tags.
Some basic advice from the Google SEO Guide:
- Use keyword heavy TITLE tags, less than 7-10 words.
- Use the META DESCRIPTION tag as your Google-friendly description.
- Use keywords in your ANCHOR text.
- Use English words in your URL structure.
- Have an easy-to-follow, shallow site structure.
- Create Google-friendly HTML and XML sitemaps.
None of what the guide says is revolutionary new insights. But it is from Google, and is a great read - plus a great endorsement for the teachings and techniques that we deploy in our own in-depth classes on Search Engine Optimization. Our philosophy is to share with students the best of the Web, and this document certainly makes our list!
Major Changes in the Google SEO Starter Guide
The guide has not been substantially revised for 2010. The first major improvement is much better formatting. It has 90% of the same information as in previous years, now with pretty graphics and nice headlines. It's a great job in terms of improving the 'user experience' as people read the guide. It has now become not just a great Google guide, but really one of the best papers on the Web about practical SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Kudos, Google!
What is new, however, is an entire new section on Mobile Search. This indicates not just the growing importance of smart phones, but Google's corporate direction. Google likes mobile, and Google wants all of us to move towards mobile search friendliness, where appropriate.
The guide recommends that you create a mobile sitemap (pg. 24) and warns that if you set up your mobile sitemap incorrectly, this might confuse Google, and damage your site reputation 'as if' you were engaging in cloaking. Cloaking refers to showing Google one thing, and your users another:
Cloaking refers to an attempt to boost search results by serving different content to Googlebot than to regular users....
To remain within our guidelines, you should serve the same content to Googlebot as a typical desktop user would see, and the same content to Googlebot-mobile as you would to a browser on a typical mobile device. It's fine if the contents for Googlebot are different from those for Googlebot-Mobile.
(pg. 27).
Bottom line: mobile search is big, and getting bigger. Embrace it. Help Google index your site for mobile devices, but do it properly to avoid a cloaking confusion issue!
Getting the Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide
Google is the world's best search engine, but as we teach in our classes, the Mountain View search giant doesn't do the best of making its free SEO resources easy to find or easy to use. Here, for example, is the simple (sic) URL for the Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide:
http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/
www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-
engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf
Simple copy that nifty URL into your browser to get the guide, or click here for a local copy of this important, well-written guide from Google on SEO and now, mobile SEO, circa 2010.
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