A First Date With GoogleBot- And Other SEO Optimization Tips

If you have a website or a blog, you probably know by know the importance of optimizing your site for search engines (also known as SEO Optimization). For those who aren't as familiar with the term, SEO optimization is the process of making your site's code easy for the GoogleBot to index it. Depending on the information that GoogleBot receives when it crawls your site, it will decide where your site fits in search results. For example, if you are a motivational speaker, you would have a simple website with your calendar and information about you. Possibly a blog as well. Your goal for your website is for people who are looking for speakers to find you. So, you would want to optimize your site to appear in the results when someone types in Motivational Speakers in [your area or field]. Ideally, you would want your site to appear on the first page of those results. The GoogleBot can't read your blog or check out your webpage, it speaks HTML. So, SEO optimization allows you to tell the Bot how awesome your site is, what it is about and what types of files visitors can find on it.

 

If you are just starting out with your site, you may find that you aren't fluent in HTML and don't know how to optimize your site. There are many companies online that can handle the process for you, but they typically charge a fee. Fortunately, Google is making it a whole lot easier for low-tech people to learn how to manage this on their own.

 

One funny and informative way to understand Google's FAQ about GoogleBot is to read the “Date With GoogleBot” blog entry on the official Google Webmaster blog. It breaks things down in a very clever analogy of GoogleBot as a suitor who is “probably not looking for anything exclusive; he sees billions of other sites (though we share our data with other bots as well :), but tonight we'll really get to know each other as website and crawler.”

 

In addition to the blog, Google has also released a PDF that is a complete guide to SEO optimization for beginners. The guide can get a little technical, but it is still fairly easy for the average Jane to follow. In fact, the guide gives a wonderful review on how to build a better website and tells you the best way to organize files. If you have a blog or a website, this guide is a must read.

 

Search Engine Optimization can sound intimidating, but it doesn't have to be. Using these resources, just about anyone can create a technically sound website. Do you have a website? Are you familiar with GoogleBot? Let me know in the comments.

 

Looking for a new job in Communications? Head over to CommunicationsJobs.Net.

 

By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.