How to Make Your Website Google Friendly

If Google respects your website, they will display more often! Respect on

 the web is authority. The more respected you are, the more authority your

 website has and the more likely you will be featured in search results.

Google's #1 priority is offer people that use use their search functionality 

a positive & relevant experience as they search for the things they need. 

Which is why Google along with other metrics look at your website's social

 presence to determine how popular your website is.

Google has several metrics that they consider when they try to determine where your website

 ranks in search results.  Obviously the higher it ranks, the more visitors you'll get and more

 money you'll make!

So pay attention to these metrics and ask yourself this question: 

"If I am honest with myself, on a scale from 1 to 10 where would I rank my own

 website in each of the following metrics?"

This will help you determine what you need to work on. 

Age / Time Signals

• Domain Age
  Older websites that have been around longer are more credible than a website created last night
• Link Age
  Links that have been there for a long time is more trusted than links that are were just created
• Link Growth Rate
  Consistent gradual growth. Websites that get a bust of back links overnight and no links the following day looks fishy
• Content Growth Rate
  Similarly, growth of content added to our website is very import and a sign of a 'healthy' website
• Content Age
  Google is likely to give attention to newer articles (especially with websites that have news information). ex. Articles that are 10 years old are likely to have outdated information.

User Metrics

• Time on Site
  The longer people stay browsing pages on your website, the more likely your website is useful
• Bounce Rate
  How quickly people bounce off your website. 
• # Pages Viewed
  The more pages people visit on your website the more likely your website is coherent and relevant to your target keywords
• Back Button Rate
  How often do people click 'Back' on their browser when they land on your website. In other words, how 'captivating' is your website to people that visit 
• CTR Rate from Search engines
  CTR = Click Through Rate - How many visitors choose to visit your website when it's seen in the search results.

Backlinks

• # of links pointing to your website 
  The more relevant back links your have pointing to your site, the more likely you will rank higher
• # of domains pointing to your website  
  If you have 100 links from 100 different websites is better than having 500 links from 1 website
• Anchor Text
  Is the anchor text pointing back to your website relevant to your website or does it took spammy.
• Natural Variation 
  Are all the links back to your website exactly identical (unnatural, bot automated) or does it look naturalQuality
• Trusted Websites
  References to your websites from CNN.com are naturally more credible than links from buy-some-cheap-something-something-now.info
• Placement
  Are links back to our website hidden in the body of an article, in a comment, or in footer..etc. Header, Article body is the best place to get backlinks.
• Relevance
  Are the links from a relevant website. If you have a website about "Fly Fishing" but backlinks are coming from an electronics website, doesn't look as good as having links from a fitness related website for example.
• Page Depth
  Links to your website that are on the Main page are more credible than links found on a page that is 10 levels deep from the index page

On Page SEO

• Meta Titles
  Headline of your page should have your keyword
• Relevance
  Your page should contain relevant content
• Keyword Repetition
  You should NEVER try to do keyword stuffing where you over saturate your page with your keywords in an unnatural way. Write natural. Remember that humans will be reading your pages, not just the bots.
• Images
  Are your images relevant with relevant 'alt' tags
• Navigation
  Your navigation should be simple & relevant to use by humans
• Rich Content
  You want your content to be well formatted, with images, videos, text when possible.
• Consistency
  You want your website to have consistent quality. Don't have 1 good quality article and 10 copied articles. You want your content to be balanced
• User Focus
  Overall think about the user!

Branding

• Brand Backlinks
  Is your website treated as a 'brand'? Is it mentioned in other Branded websites or just spammy pages
• Social
  A good brand has social presence. We think of 3owl as a brand, it has a facebook page, a twitter account...etc
• Searches
  Is your brand search-able? Do people search directly on your name? That's a good sign that your people seek you out!
• Visitor Loyality
  Google tracks everything, the more loyal your visitors are the more likely that is that you have credible content
• RSS/ Email
  How many people send emails & subscribe to your news feed

Social

One of the more important factors considering the recent explosion in social 

networks.

• Email Mentions
  No proof about that google is 'reading' emails sent via gmail but it's very likely that they 
  check how  many emails are being sent mentioning your brand
• Twitter
  How many people are tweeting your website
• Facebook Likes
  How many people are Liking your content / website
• Shares
  How many people are sharing your content / website via social shares
• Pins
  Pintrest has gained tremendous momentum in the last few months, How often is your
  content pinned
• Google +
  How many people are plus'ing your content
• Traffic
  How many people are visiting your website!
• Overall Social Presence
  A good brand has social presence. Are you engaged with your visitors?

I hope you've enjoyed these tips. There are definitely more to come. Thanks, and best of

luck to you! Cheers!