G is for Google on my A to Z of Blogging

The Googlebot is a hungry beast. It scuttles around the internet 3.7 million times a minute – it’s one speedy critter!

It voraciously searches for content – the food of the web – and brings it back to its master (the human that just typed in a search query).

Eager to please, it looks for the most relevant and up to date content that meets its master’s request.

How does it decide which content is more appetising than another?

How To Make Friends

Having a blog on your website brings 97% more traffic – because it gives people a reason to visit and Google something new to search for.

A Google-friendly website is often the first reason people have for blogging, but there is so much more to it than that.

There are a few on-screen tweaks and tools you can use in your blogs to give them a fighting chance of being appetising to Googlebot, to be found in organic (non-ad) searches.

The art of being Google-friendly is known as ‘SEO’ (Search Engine Optimisation).

But it isn’t some dark art. There are things you can do yourself, without technical know-how, to help Googlebot sniff out your content.

Here’s a quick list of things you can do yourself that doesn’t involve lots of clever coding knowledge:

• Written descriptions on images
• Link to other parts of your website (internal links)
• Social Media links on your website and individual content
• Link to other websites (external links)
• Include keywords and phrases (things people type into their search)
• Clear headlines
• Clear subheadings

Something A Bit More Technical?

I’m not expert, but I am aware of a few extra  things you can do.

If you’re feeling ready to try out some more technical solutions to being of optimum nutritional value to Googlebot, here are some other useful links and tools:

Google Tools

It’s in Google’s best interests to make it as simple as possible for ordinary humans to create content that can be found easily. If you typed things into Google and never got accurate search results, you’d stop using it, right?

Therefore, Google is always adding new ingredients to its content discovery recipe – and they’re usually free!

Neil Patel has a useful list of 25 Free Google Tools, but here’s a short list of the ones most relevant to make your content Google-friendly

Google Analytics

A free statistical tool that generates detailed information about activity on your website. You can track and report on the traffic coming to your site and use that information to improve the way people find your content.

Google Search Console

Measures your website itself. Its performance. It shows you any errors and fixes to make sure that your website is working as well as it can.

Google AdWords

Designed to test which words and phrases people are typing in to find the content on your website, you can sign up for an account, but no one says you HAVE to pay for advertising.

Use it to discover which words and phrases are most popular to find content similar to yours and use that to guide what you blog about.

Go straight to the keyword planner HERE

My Google Places

Ever wondered how those little red markers get onto Google Maps? That’s Google Places.

Make sure you tell Google that your business, and your website exists. Fill in the details for your business and you will get a postcard in the post a few days later. You then login, enter the code on the postcard and Google will verify your business and give you one of those little red blobs.

Google Insights

This tool allows you to search for keywords to see their trends over time so you can see what search terms are growing and declining in popularity. It’s aimed at developers.

Further Reading?

The MOZ Blog is a great source of information.

It’s aimed more at web developers than bloggers, so if it’s all a bit overwhelming, stay in touch.

I can Keep It Super Simple for you.

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