Google: The Relationship Algorithm

Often I find myself explaining SEO and ‘visibility’ to clients in terms of a relationship. It’s a pretty useful analogy, so I thought I’d share it. Feel free to take credit for it if you like.  We won’t tell.

Google Is My “Other Girlfriend”

I’ve made peace with the fact that I’m in a relationship with search engines, like Google, as well as my girlfriend. The way I’m constantly trying to figure out what Google is thinking mirrors the way I’m always baffled by my girlfriend’s line of thought. So let’s take a stab at understanding Google’s ranking algorithm as they can not possibly be as complex as my girlfriend’s.

Communication is Key

When you’re speaking with someone and hoping to begin a relationship, you have to let them know about you, who you are, what you do, and what your interests are in life. When you’re building a website, you also need to be communicating to search engines who you are, what you do, and what interests might bring people to your website. You can’t just skirt the topic, you have to have content that’s relevant and makes “semantic sense”. By that I mean, using real sentences not “keyword stuffing”.

The way you present yourself and dress says something about you too. No it’s not being shallow. A stained and wrinkled ‘Blame the Intern’ T-shirt sends a message. It sends a message in much the same way as header tags (h1, h2, h3), ALT tags and META tags do. They send a clear signal about your page’s content, what’s important, and what’s obviously not.

Meta-tags are Pick Up Lines:

Do you believe in love at first sight…or should I walk by again?

You only have one chance to make a first impression, and being far too forceful can have just as negative an impact on your chances of impressing search engines, as an attractive woman. In your first conversation, you need to be truthful about what it is you actually do. If you claim to be “in finance” and turn out to be a cashier at the local Quickie Mart, then you aren’t going to be seen as particularly trustworthy.

In your META, TITLE and DESCRIPTION tags you need to describe what it is your site is about, without adding items that you don’t actually cover. Recently, Google’s been making changes that make keyword stuffing a thing of the past (see our post on SEO Best Practices).

Think of your META tags as “pick up lines.” You don’t want to be pushy or totally misrepresent yourself. Girls (and Google) see right through that stuff.

Don’t hate the Player, Hate the Game

If the people who know you refer to you as “shady”, or “flirtatious”, then a woman you want to be in a relationship with is going to be second guessing you, questioning your actions and generally not secure in her relationship with you. Likewise, if you link to shady and disreputable sites and they to you, you’re hanging out with the wrong crowd. Search engines look at not just the number of inbound links, but the quality/credibility of the sites linking to you. A single link from CNN is worth more than a hundred links from SPAMMERS-R-US.

It’s All about Trust

To summarize my analogy, no relationship can function without trust. Without it, both partners will start taking on negative behaviors, and trust me, you do NOT want to have Google as your Ex-Girlfriend! But if you stick to the straight and narrow, and faithfully update your content, find trustworthy links and friends to support you, then over time you’ll form a positive and fruitful relationship with Google—I mean your Girlfriend…

I Now Pronounce You Man and Search Engine

Let’s make a commitment to ethical SEO practices. Repeat after me:

I SEOer,
Take Thee Google,
To Love and to Optimize for,
With useful, unique content
through SERP changes and algorithm updates,
For Adsense or Adwords campaigns,
Till Death or Server Outage do us part.