Tips on White Hat SEO Techniques
While the Chinese calendar calls 2011 the Year of the Rabbit, many could consider 2011 to be the Year of the Panda.
The Google Panda updates have been wreaking havoc on webmasters for most of this year. Some are wondering if Google even allows SEO anymore. The answer is ‘YES’, but you have to perform white hat SEO techniques.
When designing a webpage, consider Google’s ultimate goal: they want users to be able to find the web in as simple and efficient a manner as possible. When a user is using a search engine, Google wants the person to be able to find the most credible and informative site for their search. However, due to many content farms and spam sites, people haven’t been able to efficiently find information. This is why Google has been making updates, such as Panda.
How to Perform White Hat SEO | Matt Cutts
Who better to explain tips on how to perform white hat SEO than the head of the Google Spam team Matt Cutts:
How to Perform White Hat SEO | 4 Tips
SEO is ‘search engine optimization’ which simply means that Google is trying to make sure your pages are well represented within the search engines. Here are some tips on how to perform white hat SEO from Matt Cutts:
- Make sure your pages are ‘crawlable’- this means simply that you want to have your pages findable in a simple manner, such as being able to be clicked on by relevant links. If people can find them by clicking on relevant links, then so can search engines. However, if you are purchasing junk links that aren’t relevant to your or your site, then search engines will have a tougher time finding you.
- Use the right keywords- avoid using industry jargon or lingo that the average person would not associate with the true meaning of the word.
- Site design- how user friendly is the site? If your potential customer cannot find information on your site, then neither will the search engines.
- Speed- how can you make your site faster? If your pages are slow to load, then you will be penalized by Google. In addition, many users will not wait for the site to load and simply click to another site, causing you to have a high ‘bounce’ rate. The higher the bounce rate, the less relevant your site will be in the eyes of Google.
The bottom line is that if you want to have good search engine rankings, create a user friendly site that your customer will enjoy by using white hat SEO techniques and you will then most likely not have any problems with the Panda updates.