Step-by-step lessons
- Create valuable content to attract the search engines
- Create valuable content ...Part 2
- Build an attractive website to display the content
Other resources
Create valuable content for your website
A short history lesson
You know about Google, right? Google is a search engine, a website that indexes other websites and finds information for you.
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Google Inc. was created in 1998 by two young geeks named Larry Page and Sergey Brin. In August 2004 Google went public, launching an IPO with shares selling at $85. On October 31st 2007, Google's share price went over $700. |
How Google works
You, like millions of others, have discovered through experience that when you do a Google search the results that you get are usually quite pertinent to your question. The Web references that appear on the first page of results usually contain real information and not just publicity and spam. Most people (70% of searchers) find what they're looking for in the first 3 pages (30 references) of results from Google. So, you learn that Google delivers quality and the next time you need answers you automatically go to Google.
(Here's a disclaimer: even though I talk about the quality of Google, that does not mean that the other search engines are no good. In fact, for any given search you would probably see not a great difference in the results, not between the Big 3 - Google, Yahoo! and MSN - anyway. They all operate in a similar fashion. In many cases Google's reputation may be the result of good marketing! But I base my examples on Google because it is #1 and what works with Google will work with the other guys.)
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So, how does it come about that a given Web page appears first in the results for a search? One thing is for sure - it's not luck! It's because Google has determined that the content of that page most accurately answers the question asked. Google looked through the millions of pages in its index that contain the words used by the searcher and assigned each page a ranking which is then used to determine the order in which the results are displayed. The pages with the #1 to #10 ranking are displayed first (the most enviable position for the pages' creators), then you have to click on 'Next' for the next 10, etc. |
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Here's an example: as I write this the Dow-Jones is in freefall, the U.S. economy is in a tailspin and according to Google, one of the most popular search themes is the R-word: Recession.
There are over 4 million pages that contain the word "recession". Google has determined that that article from Reuters contains the most valuable content relating to that search.
If you spent your life as an economist and you can explain in clear terms for a layman what a recession is, you can create valuable content and your Web page may eventually percolate up to the #1 ranking. It won't happen overnight. It may in fact take many months but, when the next Recession cycle comes around you'll be ready for it. Meanwhile, you'll write about all other aspects of the economy for dummies like me and get people to flock to your website to read your opinions.
How ranking is determined
From the very beginning Google has used a formula to evaluate the quality of a Web page. The formula is called PageRank (named after Larry Page, one of the the founders). The PageRank of a page is based on the number of websites that link to that page. You use links all the time when you surf the Web. So, in fact, Google lets the Market decide what is good. If hundreds of webmasters judge that your page is worthy of being referenced on their website, it must have something of value in it. A webmaster won't create links to pages of spam. All in all it's a fairly democratic system. Unfortunately though, the system is not perfect. As in any democracy, money talks. So, webmasters started buying links from other webmasters in order to boost their popularity, even if their pages were not all that great. You can see how that would throw a wrench into Google's great plan!
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Over time Google has come to realize that PageRank by itself is not sufficient to guarantee quality. It's still one of the important factors, though. Now, Google, and the other search engines too, use a ranking algorithm, a formula, to evaluate the quality of a page. According to some experts, the ranking algorithm uses something like 100 variables, everything from the number of repetitions of words to spelling and grammar. The ranking algorithm itself is a BIG secret because, as you would expect, if people knew what all the variables were they would invariably try to manipulate them to their advantage. And just to keep everybody honest, Google changes the algorithm regularly! |
How does a webmaster get his site to rank with Google?
There are experts, and I'm one of them, that can help a webmaster tune his website so that Google will rank it better. That subject is called SEO - Search Engine Optimization. We'll talk about it a lot in the coming lessons. It's a bit technical and it works. But it can only be used if the content is there to begin with. After all, there is no marketing on Earth that will turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.
Here are a few rules that we'll expand upon as we go along:
- Content is King! Write quality content about things that people are interested in.
- Use SEO techniques to make your website more attractive to the search engines.
- Keep it honest! Don't try to fool the search engines. They've been at it longer than you have and they know the tricks.
- Develop a marketing plan to increase the popularity of the website.
- Monetarize the website - rake in the money.