Google is blind.

February 8, 2005

You really don't need to know anything more about why to convert your site to web-standards (separating the layout from the content) than this: Google is blind. So is MSN and Yahoo and AltaVista. To varying degrees, they all miss the point of what you're trying to say if your message is buried under graphics and tags and flash movies and the like. Then you're reduced to whatever you have to say about yourself in 30 words or less in a metatag at the top of your page.

I just lost half my audience. Because as a business owner you don't WANT to know about metatags and markup and how it works, you just want it to work. Well, here's how it works: the most powerful internet force on the face of the planet visits your site every so often to see what you've been up to lately. Updated material gets points. People linking to your site will get you points. And being able to read and decipher your content gets you double points. Because the little program that scours the web looking for your business is literally blind: Google.

Google reads your sites linearly -- that is to say, exactly as the code is sent to the browser -- and then tries to interpret what it "sees." Separating the design and layout (the css file) from the content (who, what, when where and how much) of your site helps the blind see.

Google couldn't care less about how pretty your page looks in Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Safari, or any other browser. Google cares about content, links to your site, ALT attributes (the description attached to any artwork or logos) and TITLE tags (those nifty little tool tips that appear when you hover over a link, giving you a much better idea if you want to click it or not}. There's an entire industry that has grown from learning more about how to make Google happy. Want better search engine results, remember the rule of thumb: update regularly and provide substance over style. And if you're doing this by yourself, make sure you get the i's dotted and the t's crossed in your HTML pages (... Google seems to REALLY like code that validates.)

Where the folks selling 'solutions' mess up is in believing that making your web pages accessible and semantically correct is the end game, or the 'better way.' Update your site because it makes your pages faster. Do it because the information presented will be more clear to a potential customer. And do it for the 'blind bots' out there searching the web for a way to help you sell whatever it is you're selling: make your web pages Google-friendly and you get a higher page ranking.

The short course on Google

There is nothing, I repeat, NOTHING you can do to get the top spot at Google. You most certainly can buy space for keywords. You can buy space and limit the number of people that you advertise to defined by your region, or your city. But there is nothing you can do, save having a really great or completely unique site, to get the top spot.

Content is king.

Filling your pages with garbage just for the sake of having a larger site is not the point here. Having something useful to say and saying something unique are key. Those that grab the top spots have done something incredibly difficult. They have offered people a content-rich site that has a lot to say and keeps things fresh and interesting.

Business sites don't update as often as other sites do. Blogs tend to do well in the search engines because they are constantly getting new material. And it's material that isn't found anywhere else, because most of the blogging is personal opinion. Does that make them more useful? Hardly.

Consider a news feature

Introduce a new employee. Update office or store hours for holidays. Discuss a new industry trend. Do something unique to your business on your page that can change on a regular basis. Change your site if you want to be seen.

Hiding the code from Google is a good step. Not using words on your site is another. (I'll note for the record here that some of the headings on the left are, indeed, graphics, but if you read the code for this page, the words are there, not links to a picture file - - part of the magic of css-based layout.) Move to a css-based layout and you strip the code from the content, making it easier for search engines to tell the world what they "saw" at your site.

When you're ready to get started, just call, write or click. There are many advantages to rebuild, redesign or retool your website. Today would be a great day to start.