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The Good and the Bad of SEO--Directly from Google's Mouth!

By Rob Sullivan

Recently I had the chance to ask questions directly to some guys from the Google staff via a conference call. Within this article I will give you some of the most important points of information gathered from the Google officials during the conversation.

Q: Is Pagerank Still Important?

There was a short and certain answer: YES. PageRank had been important to Google ever since they invented it. As you can imagine the Google guys did not like to explain details of their secret pagerank factors, however they officially confirmed it´s importance. Google is still using their algorithm to take hint of determining a page´s ranking. The cause of raise and fall within the top secret algorithm mixture, however, is up for speculation. Linking factors take a great role, but also other factors are being taken into consideration.


Q: Can Dynamic URLs hurt you?

Unfortunaltely after the interview I can still not recommend to use a dynamic URL structure if you can by any chance avoid it. Static URLs based on proper, well coded HTML pages still seem to be the most search engine friendly choice. Google says, that a dynamic URL with up to 2 parameters "should" get indexed. Twisting their arms a little, they stated however, that URLs themselves do not have too much influence with overal ranking algorithms. This means, a page with the name page1.asp will most likely perform equaly as the page named keyword.asp. In the end, in my opinion it is better to have the keyword in the name, as other search engines rate pages with the keyword in the URL a little higher.

Sometimes you see sites in Google with more than 4 variables that have got indexed. Whatever the reason is, I could not find out, but it seems, that there are more indexing problems for Google Bot with pages that have more than 2 variables, so better avoid to get more. In general you can see that static URL pages outranked dynamic URL pages in Google´s result pages for appropriate keywords that we have tested.

Q: Is URL Rewriting (e.g. MOD Rewrite) OK in Google´s view?

For those of you who do not know what MOD Rewrite is here is a very brief explanation. MOD Rewrite is a serverside feature that enables to change dynamic URLs or pages into proper HTML pages instantly after creation of the original dynamic page. There are several advantages of this technology, one of the most important is that the pages remain in your web directory and that they are much more search engine friendly than the original dynamic pages.

The answer to the question to Google, if URL Rewriting is something they do accept is a clear yes. Google has nothing against URL re-written pages, provided the URL does not get too long or complicated to follow. The lenght of the URL or pagename is really something you should take care of. If it gets extremely long it can cause indexing problems. The important thing in Google´s eyes (and the eyes of your page visitors, besides) is that the pages created with MOD Rewrite or other URL rewriting methods do contain well written, useful content for visitors and search engine users.

Really I must tell you all that the Google guys repetedly mentioned and stated, that content really is king. Google is a search engine service and their customers are internet users looking for relevant interesting content about things that they want information about. Google just wants to give them this. Relevant, well written and, if possible at all unique content that serves their needs. If you do provide just that, the search engine ranking game for you is half won already and other website optimization techniques like meta tag optimization or other factors do come after that. If you are going after SEO page optimization with external JavaScript coding, proper HTML code, optimized meta tags and a perfect linking structure, this all still helps, but if the content is not there, you´re site will still not do well.

Q: Is there a Need to use the Google Sitemap Tool?

Google says this is not necessary, if your site is already crawled and indexed properly by Google, you do not need to implement the Google sitemap page submission tool. Google is not intending to make it a must have. They rather see it as a useful option for webmastes to get their pages indexed more quickly and to have an oportunity to tell Google, which pages of your site are more important than others. By this, you can for example have some influence to avoid that your "contact us" page ranks higher than your "product information" page.

But if you MUST use the Google sitemaps tool to get your pages indexed with Google at all, then for my understanding there must be something badly wrong with your linking structure or, even worth, you have been banned or sandboxed by Google for whatever reason. So better have a look at these things and your architectural page and linking structure, before using Google sitemaps for the sole purpose of getting your pages indexed.

And don´t forget, just because your pages get indexed, does not automatically mean, the will rank well. In contrary, if you have not checked and solved the technical issues mentioned above, I bet they will not rank well. There are free webmaster tools available, like Xenu for example, that have a small webbot included with which you can spider your own pages yourself. If Xenu has problems to do so, you can almost be sure that Googlebot and all the other search engine robots and spiders will also have crawling problems. The good news about using a tool like Xenu is, that you can now find and locate these problems and that correspondingly you can fix them.

Once your site can be crawled correctly and completely you can almost be sure that the major search engine spiders will crawl and index your pages within a few weeks or even days only. You can use a search engine submission tool or service to speed things up, if you like. However, make sure you´ve done your homework first and have eleminated all indexing problems within your site structure before doing so.

Q: How many Links are recommended on your Sitemap?

Google verbaly confirmed to me their recommendation not to exceed 100 links per page. Nevertheless I have already seen pages with far more links in them getting indexed. However this takes far longer and it is not assured, that every link will be followed. There is a certain danger, that some may be disregarded, especially the ones being closer to the bottom of the page. In short, the first 100 links will get indexed immediately or at least within a very short time. But it can take up to several month for Google to follow and index any links exceeding the number of 100 per page. Besides, the 100 links limit does not only apply to sitemap pages, but for every single page of a website.

But what to do if your site is larger than 100 pages? In this case I recommend you to split up your sitemap into multiple pages. Link these pages with each other, but make sure that with these links and your main menue links in addition none of your sitemap pages is exceeding the number of 100 links. Alternatively you can also create a directory structure within your sitemap with individual theme based sitemap pages below. Having such a directory structure you have the oportunity to logically organize your complete site for complete indexing. Doing so you are also giving your human visitors a very useful navigation tool as well, which will make them feel more comfortable and can result in longer site visits.

Q: Is Clean Page Code really that Important?

Google says a clear yes to this issue. By putting JavaScripts and page formatting into separate CSS files as well as clearing up tables and follow proper HTML standards you can improve your site in regards to optimizing your HTML code to be as clean as possible. Having these things put into external files does not only improve pageload time but makes also the content text better visible and look more important to search engine spiders. Keyword density goes up and makes the complete page more authorative. Also not using too much tables, or not using too nested table structures, but rather having clear, easily structured tables helps to improve the search engine ranking.

As to my experience it is also recommendable to have the visible text appear as close as possible to the top of your HTML code as possible. I know, sometimes this is difficult to achieve, as you cannot spoil the complete rest of your layout structure, as elements like top and left navigation, colour schemes and others appear first on top within the HTML code. In this case consider using external CSS files in order to store this information outside the HTML code, making your page coding more slim and smooth.

Q: Are Keywords within the Domain Name of any Help, or are they regarded as sort of Spam?

Google´s answer to this question is neither nor! Keywords within the domain name are not considered, according to the Google officials. However do not forget, other important search engines like Yahoo or MSN Search sometimes consider them for better ranking. Also it may be good for your site visitors to see at first glance within the domain name, what your site is about. Google recommends not to overuse this feature. Including too many keywords within the domain name may raise red flags and may be considered as spampage for lowering the pagerank or triggering a review.

In other words, a domain name like

homepage-tools.net

should be useful and for sure will not hurt you, whereas chosing a domain name like

homepage-tools-webmaster-webhosting-seo-search-engine-optimization-submission-software-tool.net

will likely raise flags or is in danger to be punished.

Similar rules apply to naming a page of your website. You can use up to 3 or 4 keywords within the page name - it can even help you in regards to search engine ranking factors as mentioned above. But do not overuse this feature, otherwise the bullet you shot off may come back the wrong way. Even if your page has nothing spammy inside, long page or domain names may cause manual reviews by search engines or web directories which can delay indexing dramatically.

Q: Can Googlebot follow Links that are in Flash or JavaScript?

Well, this one is a very good question! The answer is tricky and may make you think about reverting your link structure to simple HTML standards. The Google employees themselves say, that Googlebot can identify links in JavaScript, but that it can hardly follow these links. It can also definetely not follow links within Flash!

Again, clean proper HTML coding also for links should be the answer for optimizing your page. If for whatever reasons, you cannot avoid Java Script Links or use of Links within Flash, you should put these links e.g. at the bottom of your page as pure HTML textlinks as well, in order to enable the search engine spiders as well as page visitors with older browser versions to follow them. Put these links into your sitemap in addition.

Conclusion:

It was a good and intersting thing to have the oportunity to talk to the Google people. Not everything was quite new or shattering to me, however it was very interesting to hear some official confirmation about things, you can usually only find out by trial and error. It also shows, that there is enough valid and useful information out there in the other articles, the forums and the blogs, that comes very close to what Google really is doing or not doing. For the rest, it comes only with time and experience.

Rob Sullivan is a well known SEO Specialist and Internet Marketing Consultant. Any copy or reproduction of this article is permitted as long as you include a valid HTML-Link pointing to http://www.textlinkbrokers.com --- Publish your Webmaster and SEO articles for free on: http://www.Homepage-Wizard.com | http://www.Homepage-Building.com | http://www.GoArticles.com | http://www.Dreamicles.com | http://www.AZ-Articles.com .