The old saying that a cobbler’s kids often go without shoes could not be truer when to comes to Google and SEO. The search engine which almost single-handedly gave birth to SEO as we know it and which still has the power to wreck the day of countless search engine optimizers and webmasters is not quite up to scratch when it comes to optimizing its own websites.
Google has published a detailed report that rates the search engine optimization (SEO) on its various properties. The point of the report is to allow Google to improve its own SEO practices when it comes to its various websites and, in the process, also help those watching improve their own practices.
The report which runs to 49 pages and which can be downloaded here included 100 products from Google. And the company said that it is already drafting a follow-up report that will include international localizations. The Google report highlighted that one of its biggest shortcomings is the search result presentation page. The fact that Google itself does not do enough for SEO is not that surprising. The need for search engine optimization has arisen out of the complexities of web design, website structures, web programming languages and the sheer size of the web in combination to the complexity of website indexing and search engine spiders.
All of this is to be expected and it is understandable how even the mighty Google might fall foul of the many SEO rules it has been responsible for, what is of real value in this report however is that by focusing on its many optimization shortfalls Google also has produced a detailed mini-class on basic on-page search engine optimization the study of which can benefit many a webmaster.
SEO forums have, for the last couple of years, been yammering on about the importance of PageRank (PR) and how meta tags and H1 head tags are no longer part of SEO which is patently untrue. As a matter of fact the detailed on-page analysis which Google has carried out on its own websites gives vital clues to what Google, Yahoo! and BING search engines look for when they index a website. The metrics used on the Google SEO report also go a step further and look at the way indexing details affect the way a website shows up in the search engine results pages and highlights just what kind of indexing affects the choices of those who then see the results.
Put bluntly by looking at the exact same metrics Google used in its report a webmaster seeking to improve conversions on a website and increase the number of people who click on the listing which appears on the search engines results pages (SERPs) will find a detailed blueprint, complete with examples and explanations which can be implemented. As a matter of fact the report is so detailed and the examples so clear that there can be scant excuse left for anyone not implementing the same changes that Google knows it needs to roll out on all its different products.
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I’ve led the discussion on how social media and SEO are changing the processes we use to work and live, online, with the publication of my book ‘The Social Media Mind’. I combine experience in journalism and blue-chip corporate management with a penchant for explaining complex issues in simple terms. Contact me for media interviews, presentations and panel discussions
