How do Google Search works? Does it come by to my site? How do I make my site friendly enough for Google Search to drop by?
Before you get any idea of a giant robot that powers your searches, let me make it clear that the days of the mainframe and mini computer is truly dead. I should know coz I use to work for a market intelligence company that spies on what people buy to keep their IT department rolling in the hay.
Google is relatively cheap to run. It makes use of server racks (made up of lots of PCs wired together). It comes nowhere near the cost of running a mainframe or supercomputer. Google houses these ‘search’ computers in shipping containers.
The only thing they have to worry about is the cooling. So if anyone offered the necessary fiber optic cables to carry data anywhere in the world from Greenland, Google will relocate to Nuuk. Cold is good. Dry and hot is not. Dry and hot weather give rise to static, something they can ill afford if Google minions were to come in and out without cleaning themselves with anti-static spray.
How Does the Search Engine Thingy Work?
Just like the old days, they need to come by to index your site. Awesome. Now for some reason or other, Google’s search engine does not need an invitation, at least not in the traditional sense. It checks for links that people post or link to and they will drop by unannounced. There are ways to prevent this of course. One way is to stop them dead with a password authenticator when they drop by the front door. As long as they can’t get in. They won’t spider your site for information.
Making your Site Search Friendly!
Now, I am assuming that you have a site all up and running and you want to make sure that you have a site that is totally working….and I mean this in the strictest sense. Here is something you should know about site indexing.
If you are a commercial website (i.e. a site that advertises what your company does to bring home the bacon) you need to be thorough on how the site index works.
Make a Site Map of your Whole Site and put it on the Landing Page
This is especially important for sites that are structurally complicated. You may have sections that lead to subsections of a website or pages that are link to external Microsites. Making a Site Map basically allows the search engine to index all those pages from the Home page instead of having to click and jump through hoops to find all your content.
Don’t create sign up Links on any Content Page that needs to be found
Email harvesting. . You are bound to encounter these sites that ask you to register to get access are in fact stopping Search engines from documenting and indexing the hidden content. Google Search isn’t going to bother with this since it is to them a locked door.
As long as the information lies within a blind page, Google can’t get to it. Don’t think for one moment that Google will sign up, wait for an email confirmation and click the link within the email to find out what is behind that closed door.
If you want to harvest emails, invite them to connect with your site using Facebook, G+ or any of the social media networks of your choice. People are not keen to offer up their email if the content isn’t all that great to begin with. Much of the time these hidden PDF “how to publications” are not much help. If the content is any good, they will connect with your fan page eventually. Sell them junk and you won’t find them coming back.
Site owners must think of ’emails’ as a form of currency on the Internet. People will not give it freely thanks to the spam that is often associated with it. Instead, politely ask them to connect with you via a preferred social network and use that link to reach out not only to them but their network.
Remember to include Quality outbound Links within your content for an added boost
What is a quality outbound link? Well it’s one without the sales pitch. Google has determined that any site that has too many outbound links to generate sales should be paying for a listing so you don’t get the royal content treatment here. A good outbound link should be one to more content and not to more retail websites which either sell you porn or a used TV.
Create Original and Quality Content for your Site
Making your site Search Engine friendly is easy and doesn’t need the help of a rocket scientist. Many commercial websites are in fact…brochure-ware. If you think this is going to cut it, think again. It is so 90s. There is no reason why you can’t even add a FAQ page just for content sake. Forget the keyword spiel. You need content and you better get cracking.
Think of ways to help customers by offering tips and reviews. I have found sites that sell Absinthe that does this and it rocks. Empower people with knowledge and they will thank you for it.
Techmystique 