{"id":101486,"date":"2012-10-01T16:28:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T21:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/googles-seo-the-number-one-search-engine-through-human-eyes-2\/"},"modified":"2024-12-19T16:39:54","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T21:39:54","slug":"googles-seo-the-number-one-search-engine-through-human-eyes-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-gb\/insights\/blog\/search-optimization\/googles-seo-the-number-one-search-engine-through-human-eyes-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Google\u2019s SEO: The Number-One Search Engine Through Human Eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Learning SEO, although a never-ending process, is fairly straightforward in the early stages.\u00a0<\/span> For me, as is the case in most disciplines, the techniques and procedures sunk in best when I really understood the reasoning behind them.\u00a0 However, there did seem to be a surprising lack of content really looking at why<\/em> the copious optimisation mechanisms function in the way that they do.\u00a0 Why is it that Google chose its selection process of worthy sites to be the way that it is?<\/span> Delving into Google\u2019s reasonings really made me appreciate its methods and aims.\u00a0 Every one of its incessantly changing ranking criteria is based solely on human need.\u00a0 It works the way it does purely to provide its users with the results closest to their enquiries and it does this by \u2018thinking\u2019 like a human.\u00a0<\/span> Through outlining some of Google\u2019s \u2018thought processes\u2019 I hope to provide a clearer picture, for SEOs just starting out in the industry, of some of the basic processes needed to make your website worthy of page-1 rankings in the \u2018eyes\u2019 of the search engine.<\/span> Since SEO, even when considering just the basic methods, is such a vast topic, for now I am only taking a look at the most important on-page areas.\u00a0 I have divided these into \u2018Site Structure,\u2019 and \u2018Content.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

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Site Structure\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n

1) Architecture <\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

The architecture of a website refers to how it is designed and put together, how its pages and sections are related and connected, and how they work together as a whole.<\/span> Why is this considered important for SEO?<\/span> Fairly obviously, having a clear and<\/span> ordered architecture<\/span><\/a><\/span> means the site can be navigated more easily by visitors.\u00a0<\/span><\/span> If you\u2019re trying to work your way around a site and it\u2019s so poorly constructed and illogically sign-posted that you keep landing on dead-end pages or have to keep doubling back to find what you were initially looking for, you will surely return to Google sooner rather than later, to find a less infuriating search result.<\/span> The other important reason for site architecture is that it helps to inform the search engines which of your individual pages are the most important.\u00a0<\/span> The general rule is: the more important the information, the closer it will be to your home page.\u00a0 This does make a lot of sense.\u00a0 Why would anyone place their most valuable content in a location less likely to be found?\u00a0 Therefore, the more clicks one takes away from the home page, the less important that page is considered by Google.\u00a0 This is explained more clearly by the picture below. The size of each quadrilateral (or page) demonstrates its relative importance.\u00a0<\/span> \"\"<\/a> Tips:<\/span><\/strong> -Like in the picture above, design your site so the pages are spread widely, rather than deeply (you can reach every page with just a few clicks from the home page).\u00a0\u00a0 This helps to spread link juice around the site.\u00a0<\/span> -Make sure your most important\/best content is very few clicks away from your homepage.\u00a0<\/span> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

2) General Site Cleanliness<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

This clumsy phrase is simply a way of summarising all the technical errors that can damage your site in terms of SEO. This is painfully obvious, but very important. Basically, just check and double check that everything is running correctly.\u00a0<\/span> You need to make sure that there is no duplicate content, that your HTML codes are all correct and that all your pages are properly connected to one another – no (404s, 500s, 302s etc.)\u00a0 Here\u2019s a brief but clear explanation of<\/span> HTTP codes<\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/span> Why is this considered important for SEO?<\/span><\/strong> Why should Google rank a site well when its admin team doesn\u2019t even care if it works properly? A poorly maintained site is highly unlikely to provide a smooth user experience.<\/span> Tips:<\/span><\/strong> Use online programs such as Google\u2019s Webmaster Tools or desktop tools such as Screaming Frog to check your codes and make sure everything is running properly. Click here for a look at some of the other useful SEO tools<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

3) Internal links<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

These are the links connecting the pages of your website.\u00a0 They inform Google which pieces of content are related to, follow on from or are connected to each other.\u00a0 Through this they help Google understand what subjects your site covers.<\/span> Why are they considered important for SEO?<\/span><\/strong> Strong internal linking allows your site to be effortlessly explored by both humans and Google. It also suggests to search engines that the website as a whole is coherent, ordered and that each page is relevant to the last, rather than an unorganised heap of incongruous and mismatched material, like a muddled jumble of papers<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Tips:<\/span><\/strong> -Don\u2019t go too wild with them – overusing internal links will annoy visitors and be penalised by Google.\u00a0<\/span> -They are a good contribution towards your site\u2019s SEO because you can control everything about them.\u00a0 Sometimes it is even worth steering your content in certain directions in order to link your pages together effectively.\u00a0 This too will help you appease the content-criticising<\/span> Google Panda update<\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/span> -Name the anchor text links as accurately as possible using the term for which you want that page to rank.\u00a0<\/span> -Use your links to make the viewer experience as coherent as possible.\u00a0 Guide them through your site, on a logical journey, each page building on what they saw on the last.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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4) Outbound links<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

These are links that point away from your domain, taking curious browsers<\/span> elsewhere in the World Wide Web<\/span><\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 They are usually visible as a contextual anchor text. \u00a0I thought they were worth a quick looking at as it is generally agreed upon that outbound links do have some significance in terms of improving rankings, albeit not a vast amount.<\/span><\/span> Why are they considered important for SEO?<\/span><\/strong> They influence ranking because linking widely and relevantly suggests that the author has a wide & accessible knowledgebase.\u00a0 It makes the site appear more natural to bots and crawlers and, perhaps most importantly, it will make the content more useful to those who read it.<\/span> Tips:<\/span> -Link highly relevantly.<\/span> -Again, don\u2019t go overboard with the external links (link farms and directories are not considered valuable by Google).\u00a0<\/span> -There is also some evidence to suggest that linking to high-authority sites has more benefit; however, it is sensible to keep your outbound-link profile as varied as possible.<\/span> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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