The End of SEO
Last week, a “big” business marketing website had the following:
DIY Search Engine Optimization
With keywords and links… What a bunch of crock! In 2010, it would have been correct, 2011 onward is another story.
I wrote, in May 2011, that Google is Changing its Search Results by focusing on “high-quality” websites. It started in February and now Google, through Matt Cutts, is declaring that this experiment is a success and they now spreading to most other languages.
What's a “high-quality” website?
- A clear title that relates to the content of the web page.
- A simple description that relates to the content of the web page.
- An how-to! This is how you do it: step 1, step 2,…
- Contains “real” information that is “trust-worthy” and not too much sale.
- Unique content. Content that isn't repeated by everybody else. Google doesn't know who did the original since it depends on when each website is crawled, so they are all “penalized.”
- “Quality” presentation with good grammar and nice formatting.
- Is the web page bookmarked by people? Google tracks this through Google Chrome.
- Is the site a recognized authority on that topic? You will see that through your Google Analytics.
- What's the “performance” of the web page? How often do people click on it when Google presents the web page as part of the results?
- Is the web page short, unsubstantial, otherwise lacking specifics?
- Is the web page accurate or not? Does the information contradict the other web pages within Google's index? (Yes, it does conflict with the unique content a few points before, but how unique can your content be?)
- Google +1
Google analyses its index every 5 to 6 weeks, and re-calibrates. Many people, that I know of, have had their website downgraded in the search. Me? a year and half ago, I stopped worrying about SEO, links… I do my own thing and I have done well, my traffic has increased by 25% during weekdays. Why only weekdays? No idea.