Offer quality content and services – Google Search Engine Optimisation Starter Guide User Manual
Page 11
Google's Search Engine Optimisation Starter Guide, Version 1.1, 13 Nov 2008, latest
•
Put an HTML sitemap page on your site and use an XML Sitemap file - A simple sitemap
page with links to all of the pages, or the most important pages (if you have hundreds or
thousands) on your site, can be useful. Creating an XML Sitemap file for your site helps ensure
that search engines discover the pages on your site.
Avoid:
•
letting your HTML sitemap page become out of date, with broken links
•
creating an HTML sitemap that simply lists pages without organising them, for
example, by subject
•
Consider what happens when a user removes part of your URL - Some users might
navigate your site in odd ways and you should anticipate this. For example, instead of using the
breadcrumb links on the page, a user might drop a part of the URL in the hopes of finding more
general content. He or she might be visiting
http://www.brandonsbaseballcards.com/news/2008/upcoming-baseball-card-shows.htm, but
then enter http://www.brandonsbaseballcards.com/news/2008/ into the browser's address bar,
believing that this will show all news from 2008. Is your site prepared to show content in this
situation or will it give the user a 404 ("page not found" error)? What about moving up a
directory level to http://www.brandonsbaseballcards.com/news/?
•
Have a useful 404 page - Users will occasionally come to a page that doesn't exist on your
site, either by following a broken link or typing in the wrong URL. Ha
that kindly guides users back to a working page on your site can greatly improve a user's
experience. Your 404 page should probably have a link back to your root page and could also
provide links to popular or related content on your site. Google provides a
that you
can embed in your 404 page to populate it automatically with many useful features. You can
also use Google Webmaster Tool
.
Avoid:
•
allowing your 404 pages to be indexed in search engines (make sure that your
web server is configured to give a
when non-existent
pages are requested)
•
providing only a vague message such as "Not found", "404" or no 404 page at all
•
using a design for your 404 pages that isn't consistent with the rest of your site
Offer quality content and services
Creating compelling and useful content will probably influence your website more than any of the other
factors discussed here. Users know good content when they see it and will probably want to direct other
users to it. This could be through blog posts, social media services, email, forums or other means.
Organic or word-of-mouth buzz is what helps build your site's reputation with both users and Google and
it rarely comes without quality content.