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

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

Back in 2002, I created Google Guide to get feedback on material I was developing for a tutorial book on Google search for most users’ use just a fraction of Google’s capabilities.

The goal of Google Guide is to 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 father, is blind and is a wonderful reviewer and beta tester for Google Guide.

Present information in more than one way.

People have different needs and preferences. That’s why Google Guide presents material in different formats, e.g.,

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

Studying Google Guide logs, I’ve learned which pages are most popular among users and I’m focusing my attention on providing users more of what they like.

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

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

A few years ago I replaced unhelpful names with more descriptive ones.

• 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 incorporate 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, and links to relevant material both from Google Guide and outside sources.

Usually Google Guide opens a new browser window when a user clicks on a link outside of Google Guide.

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

Google Sitemaps provides helpful statistics and information to its users, including:

• 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 and material of interest is more likely to be on the user’s screen.

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. Googlebot tends not to crawl pages that consist only of dynamic content and pages that have dynamic content in navigation links in the page. Such pages are likely to be left out of Google’s index and search results.

I initially wrote Google Guide in HTML. Jerry Peek and I translated Google Guide into a WordPress blog format, then converted it back to HTML.

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, respond to email quickly and acknowledge those who contribute ideas that improve your site.

Learn from your logs.

Check your web 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 that users were choosing the Google Guide Stock Quotes page after entering the query [ Google stock symbol ].

So I added, at the top of the page,

and followed that text with a Google search box that was ready to run the search.

Eliminate errors.

Check your web logs and run one or more website validators, e.g., W3C Validation Service, to identify problems with the coding of your website. Remove broken links and correct invalid html. Check Google Sitemaps to find out whether search bots are able to crawl your site.

Resources

When putting together content for this page, I came across wonderful pages on creating content for websites, including:

• 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?

tags (keywords): developing websites