November 22, 2005

7 1/2 Googlicious Steps to BAAAD SEO

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 2:15 am

Not to be outdone by Successful Blog or by Lifehacker, our friend and colleague, liberal cowboy next door at jackofallblogs released his own list of 7 1/2 Steps to a Googilicious Website, and I have to give his post a 10.

I’ll translate his 7 1/2 steps for you here and you can read them in his own fine prose over at his blog. Please note that these are tips for websites, not necessarily for blogs.

  • 1. Get a domain name. Google doesn’t like subdomains names.
  • 2. Use a content management system to keep the code clean.
  • 3. Write original content and lots of it.
  • 4. Careful how you use the “more–>” feature if you have one. It doubles page your page views, but require you optimize your pages as two.
  • 5. Write titles that attract attention.
  • 6. Link to your own documents.
  • 7. Get other folks to link to your documents too.

and the last is one I never knew

  • 71/2. The cowboy says he’s not a genius.

Darn, why didn’t I think of that one?

ME “Liz” Strauss

A Side Note–

PS–To all my new friends who visit here from the one link to this page.

Though I’ve made my share of mistakes–they’re on the meta-tags page–this page always was a JOKE. It’s a take off on another post. I see now that it’s dangerous to joke about SEO. Sorry about that.

Meanwhile, the nachos, Jack Daniels, and refreshments are in the sidebar under the ads. Pull up a chair and stick around as long as you want. We like people here.

:) –Liz


Filed under Business Life, SEO, Successful Blog, Tips, ZZZ-FUN |



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23 Comments to “7 1/2 Googlicious Steps to BAAAD SEO”

  1. November 22nd, 2005 at 6:32 am
    Eric Mutta said

    Number 4 is pretty clever. I’ve always wondered how it was that some sites could have thousands or even millions of pages. If you have a 100 articles split into 3 pages, thats an easy 300 articles. Shweet!

  2. November 22nd, 2005 at 10:23 am
    Andy said

    Can number one be proved anyhow? In my experience Google has nothing against subdomains.

  3. November 22nd, 2005 at 11:14 am
    indeterminacy said

    to 1) I’m conjecturing that this matters: try to select a domain name which incorporates the main keywords you want to find your blog. In my case, I think having the word “indeterminacy” in my domain name has helped me. From the first few weeks, that search has always found me.

  4. November 22nd, 2005 at 11:27 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Eric,
    Yeah that’s a trick I hadn’t thought of either.
    Liz

  5. November 22nd, 2005 at 11:29 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Indie,
    How did you do that? I was just talking to you at the other blog?

    I think that you’ve extrapolated in a great direction. How could that NOT work in your favor? It’s even more visible than your title tag. What a fabulous tip!
    Liz

  6. November 22nd, 2005 at 11:39 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Andy,
    I didn’t overlook you. The argument is that subdomains make it look as if you don’t value your content.

    However, I don’t find that my .blogspot.com blog has had any problem–of course, it could then be argued that blogspot might be a subdomain that Google likes since Google owns its. :)
    Liz

  7. November 22nd, 2005 at 12:28 pm
    Liberalcowboy said

    Thanks, Liz and you make a lot of good points. Appreciate it. I like the translation method.

  8. November 22nd, 2005 at 12:42 pm
    Andy said

    Liz,

    yes, that might true. Although I don’t think that weblog.stopdesign.com would be less “valuable” than stopdesign.com to the readers.

    Anyway, the list was about getting friend with Google and not with readers and I don’t think that having a content on subdomain does any difference than having it on the main domain.

    If someone can prove otherwise, please do let know.

  9. November 22nd, 2005 at 1:09 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Thanks, Cowboy,
    I used Babel Fish for the translation. Then I went to an expert to make sure it made sense. :)

  10. November 22nd, 2005 at 1:17 pm
    Liberalcowboy said

    Here’s the reasoning. Mostly because people that go out and get a domain shouldn’t put their blog on a subdomain like monkeyblog.acmecorp.com because Google will index it as a separate site than acmecorp.com In my opinion people who go out and buy their domains have a higher quality website than people who use blogspot or other subdomain hosts. Again this is my opinion not fact. I didn’t steal Google’s recipe from their Top Secret Kitchen. I just made some simple observations. I have no personal problem with subdomains. And I can’t prove this stuff. It’s biased, its opinion, but its mine. And i’m sticking with it.

  11. November 22nd, 2005 at 1:40 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hey Cowboy,
    I think your opinion makes sense. I’ve just not seen it in action. I do agree that people who have their own domain name can and do make more happen with it–thereby making more value, sort of the difference between a renter and an owner. I just haven’t seen a difference that has impacted the blogging world yet. I’m sure it’s a big thing in the world of websits. My opinion there.
    Liz

  12. November 22nd, 2005 at 2:06 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Andy,
    I suppose the way to find out would be to do some sort of test over time. That would be a fun thing to arrange. Let me see whether we can get something like that going.
    Like you, Andy, I’m not totally convinced.

    I will say this though, Alexa cares very much.
    Liz

  13. November 23rd, 2005 at 11:28 pm
    graywolf said

    A CMS makes it easy to publish and has no bearing on the SEO potential of a website. You guys really have to be careful with what you are saying here.

  14. November 23rd, 2005 at 11:30 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi grayworf,
    Help me out then. I’m happy to learn. How would you have me change it? Or are you just saying we shouldn’t have labeled this content with the SEO label?
    Liz

  15. November 23rd, 2005 at 11:32 pm
    ME Strauss said

    You understand that the original post comes from Lifehacker, not here?

  16. November 24th, 2005 at 12:07 am
    Martin (HomeOfficeVoice) said

    I doubt you’ll hear much from graywolf, Liz - these kind of folks are good at attacking but never stay around to discuss things and offer their “expertise”.

  17. November 24th, 2005 at 12:19 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Martin,
    I know what you mean. They seem to like the new design or something. :)
    Liz

  18. November 24th, 2005 at 12:20 am
    Martin (HomeOfficeVoice) said

    Thinking more about this CMS issue, maybe it does help out in a SEO sense.

    Take a WordPress installation. A decent theme will have very clean code (the presentaion code hidden away in a css file), it dymanically includes a Title for the page (if done properly it will have a unqiue title for every post page), it uses smart naming of posts, it usually has the right H1 H2 in place.

    Heck, the more you think about it, it’s a very useful tip to use a CMS like WordPress if you’re not 100% sure about SEO.

  19. November 24th, 2005 at 12:24 am
    ME Strauss said

    Martin,
    You do have a point there. I shouldn’t back down so easily. After all, I just said this morning that bad code trips up spiders.

    Darn. WordPress is the key to good SEO! :) Maybe I should write a post and title it that. :P

    Note to Threadwatch: This was a joke.
    Liz

  20. November 24th, 2005 at 12:28 am
    Martin (HomeOfficeVoice) said

    HeHe … you’ll have all those seo experts up in arms, foaming at the mouth and feverishly typing away their rants if you do that, so… c’mon, do it ;-)

  21. November 24th, 2005 at 12:33 am
    ME Strauss said

    Now, Martin,
    Really, I’m the saloonkeeper’s daughter.
    I have to have some decorum here.
    That would be too easy.
    Liz

  22. November 24th, 2005 at 10:22 am
    graywolf said

    Look there’s nothing wrong with a CMS and I happen to like wordpress and use it in several places myself. The key is you have to know how to use it properly.

    To make an analogy you may see a carpenter using a hammer and nails to build your house. Just because you go to the store and buy the same hammer and nails doesn’t mean you know how to build one.

    So saying something like a CMS is going to help you in any way rank higher for a term, is very misleading. Knowing how to make the CMS more effeciently do things that that make your page more SE friendly is the key.

  23. November 24th, 2005 at 10:30 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi graywolf,
    Thank you for your explanation. I realize that this list has lost some meaning in translation–the word I actually use in the article. It’s third generation and I was really trying to get people to go back to read the article at AJackofAllBlogs. I’ll make the sentence longer to make clearer.

    A writer needs readers to show where misinterpretations happen. Thank you, graywolf, for pointing this out.

    Meanwhile, you might find it interesting to know I’m on Chapter 2 of Wall’s book. So, here’s one “guy” who’s making the effort. I like the idea that maybe we’ll meet halfway. :P
    Liz

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