Tuesday, March 4, 2008

How to Build a Successful Website - Recommendations from Google Guy

In a post on the 'Webmaster World' Forum, an ex-employee of Google, also known as Google Guy, provided the golden rules of creating a high trafficked website. The post, "Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone" is truly priceless and I personally thank anyone who gives their time offering us all such treasured knowledge.

In this post, Google Guy covers 26 separate points which he feels to be important in the world of Google.Here, I shall pick out some of the points which I feel to be the most significant and easily applied:

1. Four of the 26 pointers by Google Guy speak of adding content.

Add, add, add. Google loves it, and your visitors will love it. Assure it is quality content though. You are looking for quality over quantity here.Sure, you can turn out 5 mediocre articles in the time it takes to write one excellent article. However, once that excellent article is on your site, people will bookmark your page and recommend you to friends and online contacts.

2. Your website should be clean and simple.

The simpler the HTML that you have on your website, the more the search engines will like you. Also, the more simply your visitors can navigate and read your site, the more THEY will like you.How simple is the layout of Google itself? Yes, very simple. How popular is it? Very.

3. Keep your pages small.

Aim for between 5K and 10K. Many of your visitors will still be using dial-up connections. Don't alienate these visitors by building pages that load slowly.

4. Keep your content pages to no more than 500 words, generally speaking.

If it gets longer, that's fine. Assure, however, that it is not rambling, that it NEEDS to be longer. If you can make it shorter, do so.

5. Use your keyword in the following ways.

Once in the title, once in the description tag, once in the heading, once in the url, once in bold, once in italic and once high on the page. Don't aim for misspelled keywords. The search engines are getting smarter and now often correct spelling mistakes as people search for them.

6. On each page, link to one or two highly ranked websites which relate to your industry.

Assure that the links are in context with the rest of the article. Use your keyword in the link.

7. Create links from one page to another within your website.

In this way, you even-out the entire PR of your website, as opposed to having one page which ranks very highly and other pages which don't. So, for example, if when writing one article, you mention a point which is covered in more detail in another article, link to that article. Use the keyword for the other article in the link.

8. Make your navigation system usable; both for visitors and search engine spiders.

For your visitors, assure that it is a simple and clean system. For the search engine spiders, assure that your links go no more than 3 links deep.This means that no page should be any more than one other page from the home page. Cross link from articles as much as possible.

9. Submit your website to as many directories as possible.

Here you will find an extensive list of available directories - "Strongest Links" Many are free. If you can afford it, pay the extra cash to have your site listed in Yahoo and Looksmart.

10. Request link swaps from related website.

Better yet, join a quality link exchange program. I use the "Link Exchange program" supplied for free by SiteSell.com, with whom I host my other website, "Barcelona Explore"

11. Write good, concise content.

Keep paragraphs short and to the point.

12. If you are using your website to promote your off-line business, don't just put up an online flyer.

Provide your visitors with information that they can use, not just information about you and your company. Unless they are specifically looking for information about you, they will click away from your site.

13. Study the information provided by your website statistics.

If your web host doesn't provide a good statistic program, use a free one like "StatCounter". Analyze the keywords that people have been using to find your site. If any surprising ones come up, use them in your site.

14. Partake in forums pertaining to your website.

Absorb all the information that is on there, and more importantly, become part of it. The networking with other people in your sector is invaluable and will prove it's worth by increasing backlinks, viral networking and recommendations.

These points are what I have taken as being the most important recommendations from Google Guy. The entire post is to be found here - "Webmaster World Forum - How to create a successful website".

Following all these points will speed up your success. Success at any speed, however, is a guarantee if you focus on offering your visitors value, by providing excellent content.

Source: www.searchenginecollege.com

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