Looking to learn about SEO? Google’s Webmaster
Guidelines
Published: 16th of April 2007
Many online entrepreneurs using a third-party web designer
have little or no desire to learn about SEO or web
promotion.
As a business owner however, they should at least know
enough to be able to retain an overview of the general
methods employed by their webmaster to promote their web
site.
For example, the first few months of this year have seen
a marked increase in the number of new clients approaching
us with variations on the same question:
"My site was doing fine until about a week ago,
and then it simply disappeared from Google’s search
results. What’s gone wrong?"
Whilst there are of course a large number of reasons
for a web site to lose ground in Google’s rankings,
one common denominator during the past few months seems
to have been hidden text. That is to say, text on a web
page which is the same or a very similar colour to the
page’s background, thus making it invisible to the
human eye, whilst keeping it in plain view of search engine
spiders.
This tactic is a fairly old one, and one which Google
and the other major search engines have been gradually
taking measures against over the past year or so. From
an ethical web designer or promoter’s point, hidden
text is not only an unethical practice; it is also a counterproductive
one, since search engine algorithms are gradually catching
up with the practice in all its weird and wonderful forms.
There are however a large number of web designers who
have yet to learn about SEO and are still using design
techniques which have long since been frowned upon by
the industry as a whole.
The large number of inexperienced web designers out there
has created a need for online business owners looking
to use a third-party designer to have at least a basic
knowledge of search engine quality guidelines so as to
be able to keep an eye on their webmaster’s activities.
Google’s Webmaster Guidelines represent one piece
of essential reading for this purpose, since they plainly
outline the ‘dos and don’ts of web design’ without
going into eye watering length on the topic.
From an online business owner’s point of view,
which is worse; taking a few hours to learn about SEO
at its most basic level or to suddenly find that your
site has disappeared without trace from the search engine
results?
Is it really worth to take such a huge risk with your
business’s ongoing success?
Given the many new clients contacting us with the same
problems over the past few months; time invested now can
save major loss of income and redesign costs later.
Online business owners should learn about SEO, at least
about the basics
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