By Sasch Mayer (c) 2010
While ostensibly aimed at helping Google target potentialweaknesses in its own product pages, and of no direct use toSEOs, there is nonetheless more than a little gold to be foundhere, if one just examines the document in a little more depth.So while the 'post at Google's Webmaster Central Blog'(http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/03/googles-seo-report-card.html) is already beginning to bristlewith comments lamenting the fact that this isn't a cleartreasure map to the search-ranking mother lode, it's worthsifting through the Report Card to see what informationalnuggets are hidden inside.
Subject I: Search Result Presentation
It's easy to see why some readers simply dismissed this documentout of hand, as the first section starts off being little morethan a rehash of the standard "Use Page Titles, Use MetaDescriptions" advice found in any SEO-101 manual. Only bypersevering to the part talking about Google SitelinkTriggering, does one begin to suspect that there may be a littlemore to the report card than meets the eye. Here the authorsthrow out a couple of crumbs about categorizing website andlink-structure, and consolidating a site's URLs to maximize itsinformational focus with the aim of increasing the chances ofGoogle generating Sitelinks.Even so, it's nothing most professionals haven't heard before,and I suspect that by this time a lot of readers had given up,thinking that nothing interesting was in store.
Subject II: URLs and Redirects
This is where we see a little glitter among the rubble, as thesection starts off with the statement that: "Google products'URLs take many different forms. Most larger products use asubdomain, while smaller ones usually use a directory form..."In itself this is not an exceptional statement, and the chaptercontinues to give handy, but hardly unique, information aboutcanonicalization, URL structure, and redirects until Page 10,where we find the following declaration:"Subdomains require an extra DNS lookup, slightly affectinglatency, which is very important at Google."Page load-speeds are an important factor to Google. There's beentalk and speculation about this ever since Matt Cutts droppedthe first hints last year, and these days most SEOs are busilyproclaiming that slow websites are now a handicap.Haven't they always been?Be that as it may, this fact is not common knowledge with theaverage webmaster, as demonstrated by a question I'm regularlyconfronted with over at the Google Webmaster Help Forum:"Which is a better way to categorize my site, subdomains orfolders?"The standard answer to this question used to be "Whichever youprefer" before load-times became an issue. Now, however, we finda clear indicator that a folder-based approach ismuch-preferable unless a category actually contains enoughinformation to merit its own site, which is effectively what asubdomain turns it into.
Subject III: On-Page Optimizations
While at first glance this chapter is more standard SEO-101fodder, it's where we find a sizable nugget, as the report talksabout semantic markup, and how Google uses it to gauge a page'scontent."Nothing new here; we all use H1 tags." you might say, but you'donly be partially right, because this issue not only runs muchdeeper than H1 headings, it runs beyond Heading tags altogether,as I'll explain shortly. For the moment, however, let's staywith them.In the past few years, a great many Optimizers have reached theconclusion that only H1, and, to a degree, H2 are of anypromotional value, and that lesser headings (H3 ? H6) carrypractically no weight at all. But let's take a look at thefollowing statement, taken from Page 38 of the Report:"Most product main pages have an opportunity to use one
tag, like the example above, but they're currently only usingother heading tags (
in this case) or larger font styling.While styling your text so it appears larger might achieve thesame visual presentation, it does not provide the samesemantic meaning to the search engine that an
tag does."For starters it's obvious that the lesser headings are alive andwell, and being used by Google. We're also told that Google doesnot, or cannot, judge the visual-context meaning of CSS styledtext. The conclusion is to use more heading tags instead of CSSstyles wherever your content calls for it. However, there's moreto it still. Let's take another look at part of that statement:"...but they're currently only using other heading tags..."It would appear that Google still places greater value on othersemantic markup tags (em, strong, blockquote, etc.) than manyprofessionals give them credit for these days.
Otherwise whywould the author specifically note the fact that Google onlyuses headings and font styles?I personally know quite a few professionals who have long-sinceabandoned most semantic markup tags in favour of CSS style,since the prevailing attitude of designers and SEOs has beenthat making text bold or italic no longer carries muchpromotional weight, following widespread abuses in the mid-2000sand Google's consequent algorithm updates.And although the above statement may be a tentative one, itmight just point the way back to a more HTML-based approach toweb design. Indeed, if it can be taken at face-value, it'sentirely possible that those SEOs and designers advocatingCSS-based, table-less design as the way forward are barking upthe wrong tree.
Whatever the case may be, there is undoubtedlymore to the SEO Report Card than first meets the eye, and at thevery least, there is a little gold to be extracted from the massof standard information. Only by reading the full document willyou be able to make an assessment yourself.What should also be remembered is that the SEO Report Card isnot aimed at high-flying SEOs or E-lebrity industry pundits, butat the intermediate webmaster for whom even the report's basicinformation is of immense value, if read alongside
Google's SEOStarter Guide.================================================================Sasch Mayer is a writer and consultant with a career spanningwell over a decade and a half. Over the years, his 'web designand promotion' (http://www.icegiant.co.uk/) advice and'Professional Keyword Research' (http://www.icegiant.co.uk/professional-keyword-research/index.html) have helped countlessclients diagnose and solve problems with a wide range of siteissues.================================================================
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