What Google SEO Guide Doesn't Tell You
Now that SEO has firmly established itself as the most popular and effective online marketing tool, it is only expected for all website owners to have all the tricks at the tips of their hand. Sadly enough, majority of these unsuspecting webmasters fail to realize that the much praised Google SEO guide doesn't really have all the answers. In the following read, get to know the bits that weren't included in the Google SEO guide.
1. Sending automated queries to Google
So you're worried that your site hasn't been indexed yet. This is quite understandable given the catastrophic impact that such a delay could have on your rank. However, you need to realize that bugging Google with countless automated queries isn't going to make it all happen any faster. In fact, the chances of getting a response from a real human are close to nil. So what do you do? If you do have a problem, your best shot at getting a helpful response is by looking in to Google's webmasters forum.
2. Irrelevant Keywords
First of all, there is no 'right' number of times that a keyword should appear in a content for it to rank well. This means that instead of stuffing your content with a particular keyword, focus on creating content that provides relevant information and flows naturally. Still on the same line, it doesn't matter how many searches a particular keyword has in a month; if the keyword does not reflect what is in your content then you might as well get something else to do because you are wasting time. You can tell Google your site is about shoes but if the content focuses on houses, then you will never do well for shoe-related searches.
3. Hidden Links
Perhaps one of the oldest trick in the black hat SEO book, trying to hide links by matching the font color to the background color used to be a way of tricking search engines. However, this was back then when Google Panda and Penguin didn't exist. Enter the new era where algorithm updates are part and parcel of every webmasters' life and you get to see why hidden links and texts no longer work. Funny enough, even with all the fuss about hidden links, some people still do not know whether they are guilty or not. Ensure that you do not have any hidden links or texts in your site, better yet, have a professional carry out a thorough SEO audit.
4. Unique and relevant content
Long gone are the days when SEO was all about who had the most links, today, Google makes sure that you have relevant, original and unique content before you even start thinking about getting on the first page. So what happens when you have an affiliate site? The logic still remains; if you want more people to visit your site and get a good rank on Google, you need to create useful content.
The Google SEO guide might have been the rule book back then, but with all the changes integrated by Google, perhaps it is time you added some new tricks to your book?