When you’re creating your SEO strategy, you probably don’t think about the same thing Google thinks about. You need to learn how to think like Google.
What Does Google Think? How can that help your SEO?
- Google wants you to be fast. FASTER than fast.
- Every second counts when you’re processing nearly 700 BILLION search requests per year. 1 extra second to load your homepage slideshow, 1 extra second for the super-large blog images to load, 1 extra second to process your javascript = 3 seconds per search. Over the course of a year, that’s 2.1 trillion seconds. That equates to 60,000 YEARS of doing nothing but waiting. Google’s customers are those searchers. If you slow them down, you irritate them. If you irritate them, they go elsewhere. If they go elsewhere, Google thinks you’re less relevant. Understand? Think like Google.
- Google analyzes data, not how good you are at your job.
- If Google views keyword density as relevant, it matters if your keyword density is 5/101 words or 5/102 words. You are likely competing against 2 million other sites. Do a search for your main keyword. How many results do you see? Something is on the last page of that search. Something is ranked #2,000,000 in the world. The difference between the top 500 and #501 is likely a comma. Or an irrelevant word. Think like Google. (Before other SEOs crucify me for “keyword density” – I understand the debate. The best answer other SEOs have for me is “you can rank a page without the keyword on it.” Sure, you can, but it’s easier if you include it.)
- Google cares about “the little stuff” so sweat it.
- Google cares that you have a broken link to a website that has been removed. Google cares that your domains expire in 6 months. Does that make sense to you? It should – think like Google thinks. Spam is public enemy #1, right? How long would you register a domain for if you were a spammer? A year, right? The day after you register it, your domain has less than a year before it expires, correct? How’s your domain expiration looking now? Think like Google.
- Google wants you to have a natural link profile, not an SEO profile.
- This is simple but so many people get it wrong, including professional SEOs. If your only links are powerful, high powered Open Site Explorer links you carefully crafted with hours of painstaking work while you eliminated every bad link to your site, you’re doing it wrong. You’re doing it WRONG. Natural means hundreds of bad, junky links. Why? Because that’s how the internet works. How many sites do you think link to CNN? How many are worth anything? A natural link profile is one created over time, through ALL means the Internet employs to create links. Think like Google.
When you go to an important job interview, you probably clean up your shoes, trim your fingernails and get a haircut. You may buy a new suit, tie or accessory. You show up early and you prepare for questions such as “what’s your worst trait?” None of which has anything directly to do with how much you know about the job you’ll be doing. It’s circumstantial.
By arriving clean you’re telling your potential employer that you’re attentive to details that matter. By showing up early you are telling the employer you’re responsible and respect their time. By buying a new tie, you are implying that how you are presented internally matters and that may reflect on how you present the company externally when you need to deal outside your business.
Google works the exact same way. By fixing broken links you’re telling Google that you care about the visitor experience. By speeding your site up, you’re respecting your visitors’ time and helping Google save their time. By crafting a natural backlink profile, you’re telling Google that you’re not an overly aggressive, outright spammy site that visitors will immediately leave. In fact, Google cares about how much time someone spends on your site and what they do while they’re on it. By providing a better experience and focusing more on CRO, you’re also telling Google that you care about what they care about – same as the job interview.
Conclusion – Think Like Google!
So when you’re preparing the next stage of your SEO strategy, keep in mind that Google is thinking about what the dirt under your fingernails really says about you.
