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Are You Relevant to Google?
By Ken McKay (c) 2010 

Google lists results of all searches in order of relevance to
the search words. How do you become relevant? It's no use being
number nine hundred in order of relevance if people searching
Google only look at the first ten or twenty listed. It's no use
having the best looking website if nobody sees it.

Never mind, you say, I can pay to be at the top of Google. Yes
you can pay a lot to be a sponsored or pay per click website.
Google makes a fortune from just that. However Google itself
admits that its surveys show 72% of searchers ignore the paid
listings and click on the natural listings, the listings that
earn their position by being relevant.

Okay, you say, I'll pay an SEO expert a lot of money to get me
to the top. Yes, you can pay a Search Engine Optimization
company, but the only guarantee is that you will pay a lot of
money.

Let's cut through all the spin. Search Engine Optimization is
not a science. Websites really need to be designed for relevance
to search engines using some common sense.

How Do You Define Relevance?

In a bookstore, how do you select a book about e.g. motorbike
maintenance? You check:

    * Titles,
    * Front covers,
    * Descriptions on the back covers,
    * Size of each book,
    * Tables of chapters,
    * Samples of paragraphs, and
    * Which of the books are more popular.

If the title of the book does not include the words "motorbike
maintenance" there is every chance that you won't find a lot
of information about motorbike maintenance in the book.
There is usually a description of the book on the back cover. If
that doesn't mention "motorbike maintenance" either, you are
looking at the wrong book.

But of the books with "motorbike maintenance" in their titles,
some are larger than others. Some have more chapters and pages
than others. You expect that the larger ones will have more
information than the smaller ones. You also question the
bookstore on which of the books are selling more. That is how
you decide which book has the most information and is most
relevant to your search. Is that science or common sense?

How Does Google Define Relevance?

On the internet, if you search for "motorbike maintenance"
Google will list ten million results in the order of relevance
to your search. To sort websites in order of relevance to a
search, Google has used its secret algorithm to weigh up:

    * Domain names,
    * Titles of the websites (meta-titles),
    * Descriptions,
    * Page headings and sub headings,
    * Menu and navigation bar (links to inside pages),
    * Quantity of information, and
    * Popularity of each website based on the number of other
      relevant websites that link to it (same as in popularity
      of books).

We know those factors which are similar to those you used to
find a book. We only guess the weighting Google gives to each
factor.

The Factors

You want a website for your business or activity to be easily
found by the audience that your website is targeting. So take
into account the same factors that you use in selecting a book
on that subject.

Domain Name

If your URL (web address) includes some part of the expression
"motorbike maintenance", e.g. motorbikemaintenance.com, Google
will rank it ahead of those names that don't, (if everything
else is equal).

Title Tag

The website title meta-tag, that shows at very top left of the
browser, is a very important item to Google, just as the book
title is to you when selecting a book to buy. Amazingly, some
web masters have simply put the words "Home page" into the
title tag. That makes a web page very relevant to people
searching the internet for a "home" but, not relevant to a
search for "motorbike maintenance".

Also include other words that people might search for, e.g.
"motorcycle repairs". If you are targeting a particular
region, e.g. Australia, that word is needed in the title
meta-tag to capture searchers who qualify their search for the
subject in Australia only.

Description

The description meta-tag is also an aid to relevance, just as
the description of a book is there to tell you what the book is
about. However the words in the title meta-tag and description
meta-tag should also show on the web page itself, otherwise they
might be ignored.

Headings

The headings of each web page take the same importance as the
chapter names in a book. Page headings are more effective if
they are succinct, leaving out words like "and" "the" "of"
and "a".

Hyperlinks

The navigation bar can be text with hyperlinks to the inside
pages. The text can look like buttons or tabs with the help of
CSS. Google ignores images and javascript navigation bars. In
the body text of the home page more points can be gained for
keywords if they are hyperlinks to inside pages. Points are also
there for those who place a keyword in their email address, e.g.
bikes@ instead of info@.

Size of Website

The volume of information counts towards the relevance of the
website to a search, just the same as the size of a book. We are
amazed at people who put up a one-page website and expect Google
to rank it high for relevancy in front of a 50-page website.
Look at page one of Google for any search. Are any one-page
websites listed there?

Popularity

Google believes that if other relevant websites link to yours,
then your website must be more relevant than those that don't
have such incoming links. However the test is relevance. A link
from a motorbike club is relevant for a motorbike maintenance
website. A link from a casino is not relevant.

Are You Relevant?

To be relevant to a search for any words, your web page needs to
contain those words in its title, heading, hyperlinks and body
text. Links from other relevant websites add to your relevance.
Search engines use the same process that you use if you search a
bookstore for a book on motorbike maintenance.

This article was not written to discourage readers from paying
for SEO. However, it's hoped that readers now understand more
about what's behind SEO. It's not magic or science, but really
common sense.
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Ken McKay is an Australian web designer at platypus websites -
http://www.platywebs.com.au.
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