Following each tip is information about how I developed Google Guide and improved its content.

Create useful high-quality material that is of interest to users.

Created Google Guide in 2002 to get feedback a tutorial book I was writing.

Goal of Google Guide -- make searching even easier for novices and experienced users

Design your website for the blind and deaf, not for spiders or search bots.

Search bots can't see visuals or hear sound files.

Make your titles, anchor text, and ALT tags descriptive and relevant.

Nelson Blachman, my blind father -- a wonderful reviewer and beta tester for Google Guide.

Present information in more than one way.

People have different needs and preferences.

• cheat sheets (quick reference or short summary)
• online tutorials
• problem sets and exercises
• quizzes
• feature time line
• printable files

My site's web logs help me to figure out which formats are popular.

Design names of pages to reflect what's on the page.

Google considers the text in the URL when indexing the page.

• page_6.html -> select_terms.html
• page_12.html -> google_works.html
• page_13.html -> results_page.html

Include words on your web pages that users are likely to specify in a query when searching for your content.

I strive to convey information concisely and clearly, rather than incorporating particular words on my pages.

Design your site logically.
Include site maps.
Link to each page that you want accessible from a search engine.

Google Guide includes

• links from one page to the next and previous pages
• a table of contents
• a navigation bar
• topic links at the beginning of each part
• summaries
• links to relevant material both from Google Guide and outside sources

Submit a sitemap so that Google will know about the structure of your website.

Google Sitemaps provides

• top search queries that most often return pages on each site
• pages that Googlebot had trouble crawling
• common words in each site
• common works in external links to each site

Strive to keep your pages short and about at most a few topics.

A user is more likely to find what she seeks on a short page.

Sparingly use dynamic content, e.g., JavaScript, Flash, DHTML, etc.

Search engine spiders are able to index plain text and html more easily than flashy pages.

Flashy pages are more likely to be left out of Google's index and search results.

Correct misspellings.

Users are more likely to search for the correct spelling.

Seek feedback and use it to improve your site.

Users and web logs are great sources for feedback.

To encourage suggestions and corrections, I

• respond to email quickly
• acknowledge those who contribute ideas that improve Google Guide

Learn from your logs.

Try to figure out how and why users are coming to your site.

If you suspect that users may seek information that isn't on your site, consider adding it.

I noticed the query [ Google stock symbol ] led lots of users to the Google Guide Stock Quotes page.

So I added, at the top of the page,

Looking for Google's stock symbol? It's GOOG on Nasdaq. Click here for Google's stock price or search for it on Google.

Eliminate errors.

Check your web logs.
Run a website validators, e.g., W3C Validation Service.
Remove broken links and correct invalid html.
Check Google Sitemaps to find out whether search bots are able to crawl your site.

For more suggestions on creating great websites, visit

• Envisioning a Site That Won't Be Featured In suck.com
• Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone: 26 Steps to 15K a Day
• How can I create a Google-friendly site?
• Google Webmaster Guidelines
• What is a Sitemap file and why should I have one?

This page was last modified on Thursday November 16, 2006.

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