Skattlebot’s Blog

…apparently. The life as a celebrity is a hard one, as Googlebot is discovering. Everyone wants to hate on you. Now I know he’s not the most chatty of bots. He never laughs at my jokes. But personality is a not a big thing for bots. My programmer reckons it is actually a disadvantage, as those as us with personality tend to get bored and wander off to write blog posts instead of working.

Anyway, Googlebot gets a lot of hatemail. Like always, the bot gets the blame when a site drops in the search rankings. This is a bit weird as we’re just the ones that look at the pages. We don’t do all the fancy back end stuff. That aside, a lot of the problem is humans not understanding one important point:

Googlebot is 100% Natural and Organic

I don’t mean he’s not been sprayed with pesticides. What I mean is that Googlebot likes sites that look natural. Most of these SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tricks do not look natural. Then people wonder why Googlebot doesn’t like them.

The main question to ask yourself is “Would this site look odd to a human?”. If it does, it’ll probably look odd to a web robot too. Now some humans, not to name names, can’t deal with a simple question like that. They need it in sledgehammer format. So here is a numbered list of eight points, with accompanying sledgehammers and other rustic implements.

Language

1. Introduce your site and its pages. Your main page should describe what your site is about. Your other pages should say what is on the page. Mainly you’re doing this for humans. The description should clearly explain the site or page. Someone new to your site won’t know what it is about without you telling them. Bots like introductions for the same reason; it tells them what a page is about quickly and simply.

2. Don’t repeat words too often. I know you like cats, and you have cat links, and cat photos and about this cat site, and email the cat lover, because if it’s cats you want, this site has cats, and cats and cats. This looks giggly to a human and to me! Make sure to mention what your site is about, but not every other word. You don’t need to put the main keyword in every single link.

3. Use real language. Whatever your language of choice, use it properly. Spell words correctly, use proper grammar and write in full sentences. A human would think it was odd to see an opening that reads “cat, cats, cat breeds, cat kitty, catz”. Web robots will think you’re weird as well.

Links

4. Don’t link to unrelated sites. I don’t care if they offered you money or a link back. Don’t do it. A human visitor would expect to see a links page with some related links. A few unrelated ones, like your search provider and your pet cat’s site, wouldn’t be a problem. Twenty extra links to health and dating sites will look odd (unless you are a health or dating site!). Can Googlebot work out the subject of the sites you link to? Yes it can.

5. Link to related sites. Somehow people have got this idea that you leak PageRank like a rusty bucket with holes if you dare to link to someone. People are strange. I can’t prove what Google does with this, but everything else suggests that Googlebot likes things natural. A natural site, designed for humans, will have some outgoing links to related sites.

6. Don’t buy links. In the case of a free link, it doesn’t matter who links to you. If a spammer links to you, that isn’t your fault. Paid for links don’t work like that. Googlebot knows its your fault because you brought the link. You tried to mess with him, and he’ll make sure you suffer. If you buy a link for the benefit of humans, such as an advert, Google recommends you make sure it is a rel=”nofollow” sort of link, so that the bots don’t use it.

Sneaky Tricks

7. Don’t hide text and links. If it’s not there for a human to see, it shouldn’t be there. Now it might be it’s only hidden some of the time, like a menu or tooltip. Googlebot is usually good at working that out, but it isn’t a guarantee. If you must hide something, make sure it looks natural too (tooltips should be in sentences and links shouldn’t have the main site keyword in every link). You also might want to make it so that without scripting, it is automatically visible. This means the bot can see it. Your human visitors will like that too, as not everyone will let the script run. You still want these people to use your menu don’t you? The answer to that had better be yes.

8. Say no to doorway pages. A doorway page is not an introduction page to your site with a nifty logo. You can still do that if you really want to. It is a page created for certain keywords. You’ll have lots of these for different keywords, all linking to the main page. This is a doorway page and it is evil. Imagine how odd that will look to a human visitor.

The Moral

The moral of this story is:

If a human thinks your site is weird, so do the web spiders!

Weird sites don’t get indexed. They’re unnatural and bots like things natural. It’s probably some sort of reaction to being synthetic artificially programmed entities that we strive to be more organic. There you go, I can be philosophical at times too. And I like cats, so add one of those to your site too if you want me to index you. I don’t know what animal Googlebot prefers, but you can’t go far wrong with a cute cat.