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5 Tips For Higher Google Page Rankings

By Molly on November 4th, 2011

3 Comments

It’s day two of the Blog World & New Media Expo in Los Angeles and our live blogging continues! Today we attended a session lead by Shane Ketterman (follow him on Twitter, @ShaneKetterman) about Google Panda and Google page rankings.

Who doesn’t want to be on the first page of Google results? Many writers feel their online content is expert, well researched, and highly useful. As such, Google should recognize that. Shane went into careful detail and described a multitude of elements that affect your site’s ranking. We bring you the five major take aways.

1. Focus Your Site Design Around The Content

Google prefers sites with designs that focus on the content. Put your content above the page break. Don’t go heavy on the advertising. Have easy navigation, a site map and a site that loads quickly. Make sure your RSS works, you encourage comments and sharing, and don’t over do it on the links.

2. Encourage User Engagement

Are readers liking, commenting and sharing your posts? Sharing content across social networks also helps your page ranking. Content shared on Google+ is also immediately indexed by Google and can increase your page ranking.

3. Write Passionately

Shane talked about a concept he called “human metrics”, which is the passion behind the content. Some SEO specialists have determined that posts that display strong passion, emotion and authenticity rank higher in Google.

4. Be Thoughtful About SEO

It can’t be denied, strategic SEO will rank your website and content higher. However, don’t over do it. In the words of Shane, “Google can smell a rat.” Don’t go link and key word crazy, just be thoughtful.

5. Watch For Scrapers

Have you ever written a post and when you search for it in Google, sites that have re-posted your exact content appear higher in the rankings? After you stop shaking your fist at the computer, do two things: first, file a DMCA complaint, proving you wrote the original piece. Second, install the PubSubHubbub plugin which puts a time stamp, down to the second, on your post, indicating to Google that your post came first.

Other questions about Google Panda? Tweet Shane, @ShaneKetterman.

Post Author

avatar Molly
Molly is a member of the @C21 social media team. When she's not live blogging from conferences or interviewing System members, you can find her reading about interior design, writing restaurant reviews, and imagining what the kitchen will look like in her Parisian dream home.
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3 Responses to "5 Tips For Higher Google Page Rankings"

  1. avatar Mike from Indianapolis says:
    November 15, 2011 at 3:58 pm

    Good points Molly. I think your point about the importance of writing passionately deserves special consideration. I would think that passionately written content would tend to rank higher because more thought has presumably gone into the writing of it, with the net result being that it people are more likely to link to it and quote it. The lesson here is to write exceptional content. Whether it is most aptly described as “passionate”, “funny”, “insightful”, etc. is not as important as much as whether motivates readers to take action. Good article.

    Reply
  2. avatar Online Marketing Company Singapore says:
    December 1, 2011 at 1:51 am

    I found so many interesting stuff in your blog especially its discussion. From the tons of comments on your articles, I guess I am not the only one having all the enjoyment here ! keep up the good work

    Reply
  3. avatar Dena Stevens says:
    January 1, 2012 at 8:47 am

    My 2 cents, write local, super local. There are so few agents blogging you can probably rank very high by talking about very specific areas or neighborhoods that others are not writing about.
    I have agents from all over my area tell me that when they do a search the only thing they come up with is me – I love it!

    Reply

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