"Quality" guidelines for webpages.
(My comments in italics)
(Update Apr 11 2012)
There is a lot of talk in articles about providing "quality" in
your website and Google's meaning is oft misunderstood.
Indeed, the definition of the word covers a wide assortment of factors.
Google has said that they want to eliminate "thin" and "duplicate" content.
They are fine-tuning the citation process (Linking -> Esp Organic linking)
One can
judge quality on query-independent features such as PageRank, (Sorry
about the PDF), judge quality on the amount of time users spend on the page and
it's bounce rate, or
based on relevance between linking and linked pages.
Additional minor factors could be;
- The length of
registration from beginning.
- Length of future registrations.
These have long been thought to be an influence in PageRank
considerations.
- Loading speed.
Google announced that they would be
looking at loading speeds in April 2010
- Page Layouts
- Amount of outbound links
(From your site to external sites).
Matt Cutts, (Google's "mouthpiece" says 100 or under. Actually
they say keep the total links on a page to under 100. I would imagine
this would apply to the total inbound and outbound.
- Quality of links - Both
inbound and outbound.
"Quality" as in the relevance between linking and linked pages.
- Content presentation.
Has a direct effect on bounce rate and time on page.
Presentation has a direct effect on search position,
regardless of amount of text on the page or reading level, and is highly
driven by text size, position, and decoration. Semantically correct markup
is necessary to mirror the visible.
Google defines quality by
saying;
- Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines.
This is the PRIMARY factor. Everything revolves around this.
If you understand where people look, how they read, what they are looking
for when they arrive, how they satisfy their need for relevance, and what
they do when they find it, then you will be doing SEO the way Google wants'
it.
- Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings.
Tricks would include placing fake "organic" links.
- Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase
your site's ranking or PageRank.
This *can* be translated into "Do not pay to have a link
profile built in an effort to fool our algos into thinking you are better
than you are.
- In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad
neighborhoods" on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely
by those links.
This is about linking out.
- Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages,
check rankings, etc.
This has been a Google "no-no" since the beginning.
Be careful with software that "does the checking for you". YOu *might* end
up dropped 50 places.
They specifically mention;
- Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
No white on white or css positions off the page.
- Don't use cloaking or sneaky redirects.
Stay far away from ANY black hat. If you do not know what black hat is,
take my 30 minute training.
- Don't send automated queries to Google.
Watch out for automated SEO software.
- Don't load pages with irrelevant keywords.
NO keyword stuffing. As a reader I don't need to see 60 repetitions of
your keywords to know that I am on a page for the keyword.
- Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with
substantially duplicate content.
While this can create a problem for developers, it is needed to reduce
unnecessary data duplication.
- Don't create pages with malicious behavior, such as
phishing or installing viruses, trojans, or other badware.
Goes without saying.
- Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines, or
other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or
no original content.
- If your site participates in an affiliate program, make
sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that
gives users a reason to visit your site first.
Both of the above tell us you are going to have a tough go with your mfg
supplied website.
If you fall short in this department, you will be also denied PPC ads.
Quality guidelines - basic principles
- Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines.
Don't deceive your users or present different content to search engines than
you display to users, which is commonly referred to as "cloaking."
- 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.
- Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages,
check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate
our Terms of Service.
Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold™ that
send automatic or programmatic queries to Google.
Quality guidelines - specific guidelines
Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
Don't use cloaking or sneaky redirects.
Don't send automated queries to Google.
Don't load pages with irrelevant keywords.
Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate
content.
Don't create pages with malicious behavior, such as phishing or installing
viruses, trojans, or other badware.
Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines, or other "cookie cutter"
approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.
If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds
value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit
your site first.
(Update Apr 11 2012)
Here is Google's
published list of changes to their search algos in Jan.
2/3/12 | 1:00:00 PM
Here’s the latest installment of our
monthly series on “search quality highlights,” with 17 new quality
improvements to read about for January. In addition to this month’s big
announcement of
Search plus Your World, you’ll find short summaries of other changes to
our high-quality sites algorithm, spelling systems, snippets, search
preferences, speed, freshness and much more. It’s all part of our ongoing
effort to be transparent about how search works and the ways Google is
constantly evolving to answer your questions.
Here’s the list for January:
- Fresher results. [launch codename “nftc”] We made several
adjustments to the
freshness algorithm that we released in November. These are minor
updates to make sure we continue to give you the freshest, most relevant
results.
- Faster autocomplete. [launch codename “Snappy Suggest”,
project codename “Suggest”] We made improvements to our autocomplete
system to deliver your predicted queries much faster.
- Autocomplete spelling corrections. [launch codename
“Trivial”, project codename “Suggest”] This is an improvement to the
spelling corrections used in autocomplete, making those corrections more
consistent with the spelling corrections used in search. This launch
targets corrections where the spelling change is very small.
- Better spelling full-page replacement.
[launch codenames
“Oooni”, “sgap”, project codename “Full-Page Replacement”] When we’re
confident in a spelling correction we automatically show results for the
corrected query and let you know we’re “Showing results for [cheetah]”
(rather than, say, “cheettah”). We made a couple of changes to improve
the accuracy of this feature.
- Better spelling corrections for rare queries.
This change
improves one of the models that we use to make spelling corrections. The
result is more accurate spell corrections for a number of rare queries.
- Improve detection of recurrent event pages. [launch codename
“neseda”] We made several improvements to how we determine the date of a
document. As a result, you’ll see fresher, more timely results,
particularly for pages discussing recurring events.
- High-quality sites algorithm improvements. [launch codenames
“PPtl” and “Stitch”, project codename “Panda”] In 2011, we launched the
Panda algorithm change, targeted at finding more high-quality sites.
We improved how Panda interacts with our indexing and ranking systems,
making it more integrated into our pipelines. We also released a minor
update to refresh the data for Panda.
- Cross-language refinements. [launch codename Xiangfan]
Previously, we only generated related searches based on the display
language. With this change, we also attempt to auto-detect the language
of the original query to generate related search queries. Now, a user
typing a query in French might see French query refinements, even if her
language is set to English.
- English on Google Saudi Arabia.
Users in Saudi Arabia can now
more easily choose an English interface to search on
google.com.sa.
- Improved scrolling for Image Search. Previously when you
scrolled in Image Search, only the image results would move while the
top and side menus were pinned in place. We changed the scrolling
behavior to make it consistent with our main search results and the
other search modes, where scrolling moves the entire page.
- Improved image search quality. [launch codename “endearo”,
project codename “Image Search”] This is a small improvement to our
image search ranking algorithm. In particular, this change helps images
with high-quality landing pages rank higher in our image search results.
- More relevant related searches. Sometimes at the bottom of
the screen you’ll see a section called “Searches related to” with other
queries you may want to try. With this change, we’ve updated the model
for generating related searches, resulting in more useful query
refinements.
- Blending of news results. [launch codename
“final-destination”, project codename “Universal Search”] We improved
our algorithm that decides which queries should show news results,
making it more responsive to realtime trends. We also made an adjustment
to how we blend news results in Universal Search. Both of these changes
help news articles appear in your search results when they are relevant.
- Automatically disable Google Instant based on computer speed.
[project codename “Psychic Search”] Google Instant has long had the
ability to automatically turn itself off if you’re on a slow internet
connection. Now Instant can also turn itself off if your computer is
slow. If Instant gets automatically disabled, we continue to check your
computer speed and will re-enable Instant if your performance improves.
We’ve also tweaked search
preferences so you can always have Instant on or off, or have it
change automatically.
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