Google Optimization Myths and Truths.
October 30, 2006
There's a great thread going on at WebmasterWorld about what Google really does and does not focus on in their search algorithms.
There is, of course, much being debated, but also there is some consensus:
- Google evaluates the content section of a page differently from the rest of the template (Truth).
The general consensus is that Google's algorithm puts less emphasis on links coming from the borders around the actual content of the page, and more on links within the content body itself. So when trying to get links into your site from other sites, see if you can get them to link to you from inside one of their articles or pages. - Using a dedicated IP address helps in ranking (Myth).
It's long been a rumor that having a dedicated IP address is better for your rankings. I've never seen that to be true, and apparently few of the webmasters at WMW see it as being true.
- Having non W3C compliant code will harm your site (Myth).
Your HTML doesn't need to be W3C compliant, though it does need to be error-free. I like to use the W3.org HTML Validator to check my pages.
Here's my favorite Truth that has come out of that discussion:
Google takes up far too much of our time and resources (Truth)
Focusing too much of your time and attention on one source of traffic whose algorithm is continually changing is a bad idea. Put most of your time into having a great site and getting a lot of links into your site, and good rankings and traffic will follow.
Comments
27 Responses to “Google Optimization Myths and Truths.”
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Jonathan Leger has been earning his living online full-time since the fall of 2004. He regularly posts advice about search engine optimization (his current passion), AdSense and Internet Marketing. He is the creator of a suite of popular software tools, including: Jonathan L Leger 
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I fully agree with the fact that people spend too much time focusing on the search engines. All you need to focus on is good content, gaining links, if you can do that right then the search engines will naturaly love your site.
I agree too. I'm in the SEO business. I think we need to use a lot of tools to get succeed and get visitors to our site or blog. One of my new blog site Budapest Hungary Blog could be an example. I use Keyword Elite to get good keywords and I use them on my site. I just found one "Volanbus" this is the name of the public bus company in Hungary. My blog is the first for this keyword on Google.
I focus on keywords the people use but website owners don't "Volanbus" is one of them.
Another interesting things about it after I've posted ONE post with this keyword 2 days past and I've indexed by Google and got that position number 1.
But my blog has a lot of good content, this is the main point. Focus on it and use good keywords!
I generally think it's only those webmasters who are trying to make a quick buck or who really don't have a solid site theme or passion to provide a useful and genuine service to visitors that get so obsessed with Google-o-mising. I agree with Ryan and what you say Jonathan - it's the quality of content and what you put into your site theme that matters. I also think that if you offer up better content or more focused content on your site theme than other sites are doing you'll always be rewarded.. At least thats a good frame to keep in mind when building your sites I think.
Couldn't agree more with you Jonathan, if I spent as much time on the content of my sites as I did on trying to rank them in Google then my sites would be packed with content. Sometimes it really is time to ask yourself is it really worth the effort, if you fill the site with nice content half of the time you will rank well anyway!
Hi Jon,
Thanks for all your products. Really enjoying Adsense Gold - Pretty Cool!.
Will you be providing a translation service for asp type pages?
Cheers
Conrad
Ermm.. how does googlebot know whats on the borders of your page and whats in the main body? With css, these elements could be anywhere in the code. Unless you label tham as "content" and "sidebar"?
I agree with you that focusing on great content is the right approach. On the other hand, doing things in a way that search engines love can definitely generate a lot more quality traffic to your website. So it's great to know about how they evaluate links and such. Thanks for more great info.
Tony:
Once a page is rendered it's easy to know where its uppert left, upper right, lower left and lower right coordinates are, which makes it easy to know what portion of the page it occupies.
For a long time Google didn't read CSS, but it is now, which leads me to believe that they are parsing out the page to discover the coordinates.
Hmmm… that means we should be more weary of buying links from sites that list our links at the borders (mostly bottom) of their pages?? I really wonder how many of these sites are willing to put our links in the body of the pages. May be when more of us make such demand they be more willing to agree it.
Jonathan
Ah - that makes sense. Thanks. Oh, and I agree especially with the fourth Truth
There's no doubt we all spend too much time on tweaking our sites for Google.
I've done very, very basic SEO on my blog yet it comes on the first or second page of Google for some very competitive keywords.
I didn't even use a meaningful domain name…
Jim
Great to see a common sense approach being applied to SEO. At the end of the day, all search engines are looking to display decent relevant results. When the various algorithms are altered this is generally only to inhibit the various black-hat SEO "specialists" from trying to deceive them. Optimize for the user and look to build links manually on an ongoing basis with relevant other websites and you won't go far wrong. I just wish we had the time to work on our own site - designer's curse!
Thanks for the infomation Jonathan..
Sometimes need to know about this information.Many people still believe a few myth on the internet.
Hi Jonathan,
Any advise on how often website content should be changed to keep it considered fresh? Also, does it help the whole site to have a separate articles page must the articles be placed on each indiviual page to influence optimization and ranking?
Laurence:
There are no written rules on how often to update your content. I would say never less than once a week you should add a new article.
Having an articles "page" really isn't necessary, since "article" is such a general term. It really means content. And your entire site should have a lot of good content.
Hi Jonathan,
I often receive some tips from you. I am very much new to this type of online earning opportunity. I have created a website http://www.internetjobs4money.com. For the last one month I have got only 25-30 visitors and my google account is less than 10 dollars. I am convinced that google is a very good subject to earn from for people like me. (I am a full timer, I dont have any other job right now) I am worried how to increase traffic, how to modify the site to bring more traffic. And apart I am not in a position to spend a single penny until I generate from net (all my savings is swallowed). I need your correct guidance to generate funds for development of my busniess and also to have a steady income to run my family. Please visit my website, study thoroughly and give me a feedback about the positive and negative aspects. Hoping your mail will reach me at ramacomp@yahoo.com
Google who? forget google, you will sleep better, get your content up, get good relevant links and submit to as many search engines once. MSN will list you quickest and then Yahoo so at least you have traffic fast and 3 months later unless you have a huge hot on your hands, google may bother to list your site. ( yes the google sitemap went up day 1)
If I bother with google it is only to see how PR is going but I love it when our site goes number 1 NSN and 5 in Yahoo for 2 months then all of a sudden google gives us a number 1 for a keyword we did not optimise for???. Google is a law unto itself and if it wasn't for adsense I would never use google for search. Long live MSN and Yahoo.
cheers
Jono
So how can a one page Super 8 to DVD mini site get PR3 with no listed backlinks?. Internal links and links from the oage seems to help a lot and this site performs really well for little effort…
regards
Jon
Sometimes getting out and meeting people interested in your services is better than working on a website, or working on a website just for Google.
I just wanted to say that I just purchased you`re software for researching articles. I have to say it is the "best software" that I have ever bought.
I think that you are products are top notch!
Keep up the good work Jonathan!
Google this, Google that. Yes, maybe Google is good, but I agree with Jono. I really don't know why people get so hung up on Google.
MSN & Yahoo get me good results every time, nice and quick, and this is what I have been telling people for years. When Google gets me too, that's great, but until then I don't lose sleep over it.
Its just that people shout the loudest about Google, and Google portrays itself as the peoples favourite, which is good business.
With regard to what SE's consider the text body or main content, surely the spider simply searches for the largest contiguous "body" of text with the least number/ratio of links, or minimal "sequence" of links one after the other. Regardless of CSS, tables, frames, coordinates, etc.
Menus have many links with little surrounding text, while content is vice versa, and includes punctuation, bold, underline, headings, etc.
Simple.
Jim
I totally agree about the downside of most of us being so focussed on Google. Basing your income on something you can't control is ridiculous.
We forget that google is a Corporate and superb at marketing itself.
A few comments back someone mentioned a page getting highly ranked for a term they did not optimize for in Google. This is getting more common with Google, in fact it is possible to be highly ranked for a term that does not even exist on your web page. There is some evidence and examples that point to the fact that Google is beginning to use a thematic approach to ranking web pages. Rather than determining what single phrase a page is optimized for, but instead determine the theme of the content overall and what terms the page should be ranked for. There is a fair amount of back and forth about this topic, which has been coined LSI or LSA, Latent Semantic Indexing (Analysis).
Just wanted to drop by and finally check out your post, as requested in your email. I'm glad I did, too. I like straight, to-the-point advice, and I believe, from what I've seen here, that your blog is right on spot. Keep up the good work, and thanks for the cut-and-dry….
Scott McGavern
http://www.clickngit.com
http://www.scottmcgavern.com
http://www.internetpcsecurity.com
I am still thinking about if dedicated IP help because everyone strongly suggest for a dedicated IP here. I will search on Webmaster world on this topic as well.
Thanks.
I have spent plenty of time making sure that my blog is setup with good basic SEO techniques.
- Article titles are inserted into the title tags first so that page titles have good keywords and searchers see relevant text when reading SERPs
- H1, H2, H3 tags used for headings and subheadings
- Consistent use of Alt and Title tags on images
I write my articles with keyword rich headlines and subheads. I include my keywords in the first sentence of each article and include variations throughout the page. I bold and/or italicize important keywords when they first appear.
With all of that, the bulk of my quality traffic comes from links in comments I leave on blogs, trackback links I include in articles, links in the signature I use in forums, and good old fashioned recommendations and links provided by visitors who like what I've written.
If you do a decent job of setting up your site, you only have to focus on creating valuable content and being active in the community.
Andrew Seltz
The Go-To Guy!
www.AndrewSeltz.com
I really connected with the October 31st post by Arpad where he said - I focus on keywords the people use but website owners don't .
That comment is pure niche gold. To me that post says - easy pickings and no competition so all you then need is a monetisation strategy.
Well said Arpad.