Elliot Swan

Real SEO 12:10 pm

We all know that Google’s constantly changing around their search algorithm, and we all want to know what it is. Now I don’t know the numbers used, but I can tell you what they’re doing: Getting good, quality content where it belongs.

Tons of people spend so many hours trying every little trick to get search engines to like them. I say it’s a waste of time.

SEO experts tend to think of search engine algorithms as an obstacle to overcome. It’s in the way of their good rankings, so you must find a way through. I’m not even talking about the “black hat” techniques, I’m talking about the way many “experts” seem to look at the situation.

Now I’m no SEO expert, but this doesn’t make sense to me (maybe that’s why). Because the way I see it is this:

Google’s main goal is to get people using their search engine, and the best way to do that is to get the best content at the top of the results. So regardless of what numbers their algorithms use, we still know what their algorithms do. Find good content and put it at the top.

So why not have good content, let the search engines know what it is, then let them do the rest? It’s a win-win situation.

If you don’t have good content, even being the first result in a popular Google search isn’t going to do you much good. You have visitors to think about, too. You know why people hardly ever look past the first few pages when searching? Because after those first few pages, there’s hardly ever anything worth reading.

To me, true SEO does two things. One, it creates something worth finding. Then two, it tells search engines what this content is.

Telling a search engine what your content is about isn’t that complicated, and it basically comes down to one thing: Using semantic markup. Make sure your titles are clear, and make sure they’re both in the title tags and inside a heading tag. Are you emphasising some text? Use <em></em> tags.

That’s really what they’re for, isn’t it? To label what your content is about and tell what parts of it are important?

Just have something worth viewing, tell us what it is, and let Google do the rest. That is what they get paid to do, isn’t it?