This post is further reading on the topic of SEO for Google.
Welcome to my neighborhood.
Come see my home and the homes of others that I associate with. Come see how I make my living, what I am interested in and how I spend my free time.
You can learn a lot about me by visiting my home and my neighborhood.
Your Website Neighborhood
Google can learn a lot about your business by visiting your online home (website) and your neighborhood (those that link to you and those that you link to.)
That’s right — Google determines what your website is relevant for by visiting, also called “crawling” your website content and determining who is linking to you and (to a lesser degree) who you are linking to from your website.
Your Website Content
Remember that Google wants to return the most RELEVANT results for their customer — the searcher. They determine what your site is relevant for by reading (primarily) the HTML text content on your website.
Are you curious what Google is reading when they visit your web pages? Try this free tool, type in the URL and click the “Parse” button. The tool will then show you what a search engine sees when it visits your website.
There are several pieces of content on a web page that help Google determine what is important on the page in terms of relevance including:
- Title tags
- File name in URL
- Strong tags
- Link anchor text
- Heading tags
- etc
Make good use of these HTML tags to help search engines determine what you are relevant for — it will increase your chances of ranking in Google.
Your Link Neighborhood
Have you ever been judged by the company you keep?
“He hangs around with the “wrong” crowd.”
Google mimics this on the Internet by looking at those that are linking to you and those that you link to.
Here are some things to consider when it comes to your links:
DO:
- Link to other trustworthy websites in your industry such as trade organizations, publications, relevant businesses within your vertical
- Spend time seeking links to your website from trustworthy, relevant websites in your industry or vertical.
Don’t:
- Link out from your website to sites that your visitors and readers would not find relevant.
- Sell links from your website to other websites
- Link out to websites that are “less than reputable” — you will know a “less than reputable” site when you see it.
What about you? Are you helping Google determine what your website is relevant for through the use of your content and links? What questions/comments do you have?
