Recently I had the chance to ask questions
directly to some guys from the Google staff via a conference call.
Within this article I will give you some of the most important points of
information gathered from the Google officials during the conversation.
Q: Is Pagerank Still Important?
There was a short and certain answer: YES.
PageRank had been important to Google ever since they invented it. As
you can imagine the Google guys did not like to explain details of their
secret pagerank factors, however they officially confirmed it´s
importance. Google is still using their algorithm to take hint of
determining a page´s ranking. The cause of raise and fall within the
top secret algorithm mixture, however, is up for speculation. Linking
factors take a great role, but also other factors are being taken into
consideration.
Q: Can Dynamic URLs hurt you?
Unfortunaltely after the interview I can still not
recommend to use a dynamic URL structure if you can by any chance avoid
it. Static URLs based on proper, well coded HTML pages still seem to be
the most search engine friendly choice. Google says, that a dynamic URL
with up to 2 parameters "should" get indexed. Twisting their
arms a little, they stated however, that URLs themselves do not have too
much influence with overal ranking algorithms. This means, a page with
the name page1.asp will most likely perform equaly as the page named
keyword.asp. In the end, in my opinion it is better to have the keyword
in the name, as other search engines rate pages with the keyword in the
URL a little higher.
Sometimes you see sites in Google with more than 4
variables that have got indexed. Whatever the reason is, I could not
find out, but it seems, that there are more indexing problems for Google
Bot with pages that have more than 2 variables, so better avoid to get
more. In general you can see that static URL pages outranked dynamic URL
pages in Google´s result pages for appropriate keywords that we have
tested.
Q: Is URL Rewriting (e.g. MOD
Rewrite) OK in Google´s view?
For those of you who do not know what MOD Rewrite
is here is a very brief explanation. MOD Rewrite is a serverside feature
that enables to change dynamic URLs or pages into proper HTML pages
instantly after creation of the original dynamic page. There are several
advantages of this technology, one of the most important is that the
pages remain in your web directory and that they are much more search
engine friendly than the original dynamic pages.
The answer to the question to Google, if URL
Rewriting is something they do accept is a clear yes. Google has nothing
against URL re-written pages, provided the URL does not get too long or
complicated to follow. The lenght of the URL or pagename is really
something you should take care of. If it gets extremely long it can
cause indexing problems. The important thing in Google´s eyes (and the
eyes of your page visitors, besides) is that the pages created with MOD
Rewrite or other URL rewriting methods do contain well written, useful
content for visitors and search engine users.
Really I must tell you all that the Google guys
repetedly mentioned and stated, that content really is king. Google is a
search engine service and their customers are internet users looking for
relevant interesting content about things that they want information
about. Google just wants to give them this. Relevant, well written and,
if possible at all unique content that serves their needs. If you do
provide just that, the search engine ranking game for you is half won
already and other website optimization techniques like meta tag
optimization or other factors do come after that. If you are going after
SEO page optimization with external JavaScript coding, proper HTML code,
optimized meta tags and a perfect linking structure, this all still
helps, but if the content is not there, you´re site will still not do
well.
Q: Is there a Need to use the Google
Sitemap Tool?
Google says this is not necessary, if your site is
already crawled and indexed properly by Google, you do not need to
implement the Google sitemap page submission tool. Google is not
intending to make it a must have. They rather see it as a useful option
for webmastes to get their pages indexed more quickly and to have an
oportunity to tell Google, which pages of your site are more important
than others. By this, you can for example have some influence to avoid
that your "contact us" page ranks higher than your
"product information" page.
But if you MUST use the Google sitemaps tool to
get your pages indexed with Google at all, then for my understanding
there must be something badly wrong with your linking structure or, even
worth, you have been banned or sandboxed by Google for whatever reason.
So better have a look at these things and your architectural page and
linking structure, before using Google sitemaps for the sole purpose of
getting your pages indexed.
And don´t forget, just because your pages get
indexed, does not automatically mean, the will rank well. In contrary,
if you have not checked and solved the technical issues mentioned above,
I bet they will not rank well. There are free webmaster tools available,
like Xenu for example, that have a small webbot included with which you
can spider your own pages yourself. If Xenu has problems to do so, you
can almost be sure that Googlebot and all the other search engine robots
and spiders will also have crawling problems. The good news about using
a tool like Xenu is, that you can now find and locate these problems and
that correspondingly you can fix them.
Once your site can be crawled correctly and
completely you can almost be sure that the major search engine spiders
will crawl and index your pages within a few weeks or even days only.
You can use a search engine submission tool or service to speed things
up, if you like. However, make sure you´ve done your homework first and
have eleminated all indexing problems within your site structure before
doing so.
Q: How many Links are recommended on
your Sitemap?
Google verbaly confirmed to me their
recommendation not to exceed 100 links per page. Nevertheless I have
already seen pages with far more links in them getting indexed. However
this takes far longer and it is not assured, that every link will be
followed. There is a certain danger, that some may be disregarded,
especially the ones being closer to the bottom of the page. In short,
the first 100 links will get indexed immediately or at least within a
very short time. But it can take up to several month for Google to
follow and index any links exceeding the number of 100 per page.
Besides, the 100 links limit does not only apply to sitemap pages, but
for every single page of a website.
But what to do if your site is larger than 100
pages? In this case I recommend you to split up your sitemap into
multiple pages. Link these pages with each other, but make sure that
with these links and your main menue links in addition none of your
sitemap pages is exceeding the number of 100 links. Alternatively you
can also create a directory structure within your sitemap with
individual theme based sitemap pages below. Having such a directory
structure you have the oportunity to logically organize your complete
site for complete indexing. Doing so you are also giving your human
visitors a very useful navigation tool as well, which will make them
feel more comfortable and can result in longer site visits.
Q: Is Clean Page Code really that
Important?
Google says a clear yes to this issue. By putting
JavaScripts and page formatting into separate CSS files as well as
clearing up tables and follow proper HTML standards you can improve your
site in regards to optimizing your HTML code to be as clean as possible.
Having these things put into external files does not only improve
pageload time but makes also the content text better visible and look
more important to search engine spiders. Keyword density goes up and
makes the complete page more authorative. Also not using too much
tables, or not using too nested table structures, but rather having
clear, easily structured tables helps to improve the search engine
ranking.
As to my experience it is also recommendable to
have the visible text appear as close as possible to the top of your
HTML code as possible. I know, sometimes this is difficult to achieve,
as you cannot spoil the complete rest of your layout structure, as
elements like top and left navigation, colour schemes and others appear
first on top within the HTML code. In this case consider using external
CSS files in order to store this information outside the HTML code,
making your page coding more slim and smooth.
Q: Are Keywords within the Domain
Name of any Help, or are they regarded as sort of Spam?
Google´s answer to this question is neither nor!
Keywords within the domain name are not considered, according to the
Google officials. However do not forget, other important search engines
like Yahoo or MSN Search sometimes consider them for better ranking.
Also it may be good for your site visitors to see at first glance within
the domain name, what your site is about. Google recommends not to
overuse this feature. Including too many keywords within the domain name
may raise red flags and may be considered as spampage for lowering the
pagerank or triggering a review.
In other words, a domain name like
homepage-tools.net
should be useful and for sure will not hurt you,
whereas chosing a domain name like
homepage-tools-webmaster-webhosting-seo-search-engine-optimization-submission-software-tool.net
will likely raise flags or is in danger to be
punished.
Similar rules apply to naming a page of your
website. You can use up to 3 or 4 keywords within the page name - it can
even help you in regards to search engine ranking factors as mentioned
above. But do not overuse this feature, otherwise the bullet you shot
off may come back the wrong way. Even if your page has nothing spammy
inside, long page or domain names may cause manual reviews by search
engines or web directories which can delay indexing dramatically.
Q: Can Googlebot follow Links that
are in Flash or JavaScript?
Well, this one is a very good question! The answer
is tricky and may make you think about reverting your link structure to
simple HTML standards. The Google employees themselves say, that
Googlebot can identify links in JavaScript, but that it can hardly
follow these links. It can also definetely not follow links within
Flash!
Again, clean proper HTML coding also for links
should be the answer for optimizing your page. If for whatever reasons,
you cannot avoid Java Script Links or use of Links within Flash, you
should put these links e.g. at the bottom of your page as pure HTML
textlinks as well, in order to enable the search engine spiders as well
as page visitors with older browser versions to follow them. Put these
links into your sitemap in addition.
Conclusion:
It was a good and intersting thing to have the
oportunity to talk to the Google people. Not everything was quite new or
shattering to me, however it was very interesting to hear some official
confirmation about things, you can usually only find out by trial and
error. It also shows, that there is enough valid and useful information
out there in the other articles, the forums and the blogs, that comes
very close to what Google really is doing or not doing. For the rest, it
comes only with time and experience.
