5 SEO Rules to Live By

Google have released yet more changes to their indexing algorithm; the long awaited mobile speed index change, rumours of a changes relating to usability and UX, and the Armageddon-approach to non-secure sites in Chrome 68.

Google may have fingers in many pies, from mobile phones to self driving cars, but their core business is still their search engine. Processing an average of 3.5 billion searches worldwide every day, Google dominates the search market and has even found itself acknowledged by the Oxford English Dictionary as the verb to search the Internet. ( A “Bing” meanwhile, is defined as an old Scottish word for “a heap of waste from a mine” ).

Users might look elsewhere if Google stopped giving them good answers so maintaining their market dominance necessitates that Google maintain the quality of their search index. Accordingly Google continue to invest a huge amount of time and money in not only to improving its index, but also to protecting it. They are on a crusade to ensure that their search engine remains the first choice for any Internet user and their primary enemy is anyone who is trying to position a site in a better position than the one it "deserves" according to their algorithm. 

Thankfully, most website owners will receive multiple emails every single day from SEO experts who can still guarantee a first page result on Google. What a relief!

Frankly, there is more snake-oil in the SEO business than in the actual snake-oil business and many businesses still fall into the trap of using bad practices recommended by self-appointed "experts" to try to improve their SEO. But, unless you're an SEO expert yourself, how do to sort the wheat from the chaff and how can you possible predict what tactics and techniques Google may decide are “bad practice” in the future?

The good news is that you don’t actually have to be a psychic (or work for Google) to predict any of that. Looking back over a decade or more of SEO best (and worst) practice, we’ve compiled a list of simple rules that you can check any SEO plan against to avoid engaging in tactics that may do more harm to your website than good.

RULE 1: IF YOU CAN AUTOMATE IT, IT'S PROBABLY SPAM.

Google believe in a "human generated" Internet. Any content, link, or page generated by a machine alone is likely to be classed as SPAM at some point in the future.

This also includes downloading content from another site or provider and regurgitating it on your own website. The days of cheap "affiliate" sites that could reproduce a manufacturer or supplier's content but with generally better structural SEO are almost completely dead. 

AI-created content may be the buzz of the moment in some marketing circles, but unless the AI generating this content is smarter than the AI scanning it at Google, we'd recommend caution in using any content generating algorithms.

RULE 2: IF YOU'RE DOING IT "BECAUSE ITS GOOD FOR SEO" OR "GOOD FOR GOOGLE" BUT NOT "GOOD FOR THE USER", IT'S PROBABLY SPAM

Anything done to a website purely to help it position better and that has zero benefits for the end user is probably a SPAM tactic. Whatever you do to your website, whether you do it under the banner of SEO or not, should be done to improve the experience for the user. Google wants to deliver its customers to websites that give them a great experience - if that's you, they should position you better.

You might ask how things like improving your meta-data qualify for this, and it's a good question. We look at it this way - if the sign on the outside of your shop just says "Bananas", but actually you sell a wide range of fruit, you're not informing the customer on what they can find. The same works the other way - if your meta-data claims the widest range of fruit since the Garden of Eden when all you have is some spuds, you're not helping the customer then either.

Think if your meta-data as the first part of your user interaction with the customer. Make it clear, concise, informative, and accurate - search engines will love you for it.

RULE 3: IF YOU ARE PAYING A UNKNOWN THIRD PARTY FOR SOMETHING, IT'S PROBABLY SPAM

Anything that promises links, clicks, or traffic from undefined sources in exchange for money is either a straight out con or more SPAM (unless we're talking about a clearly paid for advertisement). 

Google don't have a problem with you buying advertising from them or from anyone else - but they don't like to see links, social media updates, or blog posts that are made to look organic but have really been bought and paid for. If you’ve paid for links in the past, check your Google Webmaster Tools Control Panel and consider disavowing any links that may be penalising your website.

RULE 4: IF SOMEONE TELLS YOU IT WILL "TRICK" OR "TRAP" GOOGLE, IT'S PROBABLY SPAM

No matter who it is you are talking to, if they tell you they've figured out something Google doesn't know about its own system... then they're wrong (or soon will be).

The problem with any SEO "trick" is that Google gets to hear about them pretty quickly. Even a technique that actually works will almost invariably engineered out of the algorithm in very short order. At best, the benefits are real but transitory. At worst, those real benefits become real penalties if Google think you've been trying to abuse the system.

RULE 5: IF SOMEONE TOLD YOU ABOUT IT IN A SPAM EMAIL, IT'S PROBABLY SPAM.

Sadly the snake oil SEO salesmen of yesterday still exist today and they're still shilling their wares via email, social media, and good old-fashioned cold calling. If a company is resorting to SPAM email to get your attention, how good do you think their SEO is really going to be?

Shouldn't they be living handsomely off the customers who find their website organically?

This article originally appeared on the Gravit-e website at https://www.gravit-e.co.uk/five-seo-rules