2. Your site and Google
Discovering Crawling Indexing Ranking and
Serving
3. Your content and Google
Getting pages in (and out) of Google’s index
Making your site accessible
…And smartly labeled
4. How Google discovers your site
Organic links
Add URL tool: http://www.google.com/addurl/
Sitemaps
5. Discoverability – Sitemaps
XML Sitemaps
Useful for:
o Dynamic content
o Websites with few incoming links
o Large archive of content pages
Provides Google with information on:
o When the site was last updated
o How often it changes
o The relative importance of pages on your site
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40318
And http://www.sitemaps.org
6. Telling Google what not to index
You may wish to block from search engines…
o Private information
o Sections or pages “under construction”
Blocking options include…
o Robots.txt
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35302
o Meta tags
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=93710
NOTE: Not to be used simultaneously to block the same set of pages.
7. Understanding accessibility
Accessibility is a critical component of web sites, enabling…
• Effective crawling by Googlebot
• Browsing and interacting on a mobile device
• Understanding of content by the sight-impaired
8. Accessibility and Googlebot
Googlebot is good at crawling text:
• HTML
• PDFs, docs, txts, etc
More challenging for Googlebot:
• Images and movies
• Dynamic and rich content: Flash, JavaScript, frames, or dynamically generated
URLs
Advice: View your site in a text-only browser:
9. Making your images more accessible
<img src=“googlebot.jpg” alt=“googlebot with flowers”>
“Googlebot -- what a dreamboat. It's like he knows us <head>, <body>, and
soul.”
• Describe the important content of each image in text
• Use alt-text
• Descriptive file names
10. Dynamic & media rich content suggestions
Design for accessibility Design with progressive
o Focus on users enhancement
o Multiple browsers o Navigation in HTML, then add
Mobile phone your rich content
Screen readers
o Example: YouTube
For best uses of Flash:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/07/best-uses-of-flash.html
For best uses of Ajax:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/11/spiders-view-of-web-20.html
11. Importance of titles and descriptions
HTML Code:
<title>Google Webmaster Central</title>
12. Duplicate content
What is duplicate content?
Example: article and printer version of the site
Best practices:
o 301s
o Preferred domain feature
o Robots.txt file
For more helpful tips:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/09/demystifying-duplicate-content-penalty.html
13. Ranking – Relevance and importance
Sites listings are prioritized algorithmically according to pages’…
• Relevance
o Matching the search to the page
o Taking into account geography
o In some cases, considering a user’s web history
• Importance
http://www.google.com/technology
http://www.google.com/history
Pigeons
(http://www.google.com/technology/pigeonrank.
html)
14. Understanding PageRank
Now just one of more than two hundred ranking components
Based more upon quality (rather than quantity) of incoming and natural links
o Buying or selling links to pass PageRank is against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66356
Best methods to increase PageRank:
o Create great content
o Participate thoughtfully in relevant communities online and offline
15. Fluctuations in PageRank and ranking
Rankings fluctuate!
(Hundreds of ranking signals, with over 450 updated last year alone)
o Algorithmic updates
o Changes in your site’s contents
o Changes in other sites’ contents
o Violation of Google Webmaster Guidelines
16. Keeping your site strong: Webmaster Guidelines
• Put yourself in your users’ shoes
• Treat Googlebot the same way as your human users (don’t cloak!)
• Make sure outgoing links point to relevant resources that reflect well on you
• Read our Webmaster Guidelines:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769
17. Google’s resources for webmasters
Google’s official blog, help center, discussion group, and beyond
18. Webmaster Central
• Tools
• Submit your content to Google
• Blog
• Help Center Documentation
• Discussion Group
Webmaster Central aims to provide relevant resources and tools to help
webmasters get the best experience with Google.
http://www.google.com/webmasters
19. Webmaster Tools – An insider’s view of your site
Google Webmaster Tools provides you a free and easy way to make your site
more Google-friendly. Using this tool, you and other site owners can:
• Get Google’s view of your
website and diagnose
potential problems
• See how your site is
performing
• Add a Sitemap
20. Webmaster Tools – Helping Google help you
• Communicate with Google
• Adjust crawl rates
• Delete outdated sitelinks
• Report spam and paid links
• File a reconsideration request
21. Webmaster Tools – Discover more
Learn how to use Webmaster Tools more in depth:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/edu/quickstartguide/index.html
22. Google Webmaster Central Blog
• The Google Webmaster Central Blog
• Official Google communications directed at
Webmasters
o Announcements
o New Features
o Information on indexing, ranking, guidelines
English: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/
German: http://googlewebmastercentral-de.blogspot.com/
Chinese: http://www.googlechinawebmaster.com/
23. Google Webmaster Help Center
• Hundreds of articles in more than two dozen languages
• Getting started guides, tips, guidelines, and more
24. Google Webmaster Help Group
• The Webmaster Help Group can be
reached via the link in Webmaster
Central
• Experienced webmasters and
Googlers answer your questions.
16 languages supported as of July 2008:
English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Dutch, Swedish,
Finnish, Danish, Russian, Hebrew, Hungarian, Turkish, and Chinese
26. Other useful tools and resources
Google offers many tools and products that can help you better
understand your site and enhance your users’ experiences.
o Create and share compelling content
o Gain a deeper understanding of your site’s visitors
o Get insight into your competitors and competitive space
28. Deeper understanding of your site’s visitors
Google Analytics
http://www.google.com/analytics/
o Discover where your visitors come from
o Learn how they interact with your site
Website Optimizer
http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer/
o Test different combinations of site content
o Increase visitor conversion rates and
satisfaction
29. Research and keep track of your market
Trends – http://www.google.com/trends
Reader – http://www.google.com/reader
Alerts – http://www.google.com/alerts
http://www.google.com/options
