Avoid Search Engine Gaming through a focus on High Quality Content
The New York Times published an interesting article right before Mother’s Day on search engine manipulation by floral retailers. Trying to pull a quick one over Google’s algorithms, the floral industry’s top online merchants made the news with their attempts to increase search result rankings using thousands of paid links on web sites riddled with low quality content and ads. The goal was to game their way to the top of Google’s SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) by generating as many backlinks as possible to achieve top rank status.
So how well did these tactics work? Google responded: [none] “had a significant impact on our rankings, due to automated systems we have in place to assess the relevance of links.”
As many knowledgeable business owners know, artificially inflating the relevance of your web content is never a good investment. Not only did the floral retailers tactics fail but they needlessly raised their risk of becoming de-indexed. As the past shows us, Google has had no qualms in de-indexing sites that violate their quality guidelines. Companies like BMW and JC Penny have learned this the hard way; attempting to game Google is not without consequences. (See JC Penny’s Black Hat SEO Backfires and BMW Given Google ‘Death Penalty’)
So what exactly is Google looking for and how can a site improve its ranking naturally and ethically? While Google will not fully disclose their algorithms, they provide many hints.
Quality Content goes a long way.
According to a recent Google blog post, Google wants first and foremost “high quality content” – they want to return the best web sites at the top of their searches.
- Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
- Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
- Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
Furthermore, from their Webmaster Guidelines, Google suggests:
- Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you’d feel comfortable explaining what you’ve done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, “Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn’t exist?”
- Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.
By paying attention to Google’s guidelines, business owners can increase their search engine exposure through high quality content and natural link building practices.
Continuing the Discussion
How much value are you placing on Google’s advice in creating useful, intelligent, and honest web sites? What online business practices reach your audience the best?
