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Why Google Loves My Blogs (and How to Get it to Love Yours)

Posted By Guest Blogger 14th of September 2012 Search Engine Optimization 0 Comments

This guest post is by Melody McKinnon of Canadians Internet Business.

The latest algorithm updates from Google have broken the hearts of many blog owners. The search engine appears to have lost interest in many of them.

Yet on every website and blog I own, my attention from Google has increased—even on blogs less than a year old.

Naturally, I want to stay in Google’s good books so I’ve given this a lot of thought. I’ve concluded that Google is simply looking for blogs with a personality worthy of its love. It’s no longer a matter of superficial gestures and pretty words. This somewhat fickle search engine uses several factors to determine if you are ‘the one’, and I happen to meet that criteria by nature.

  • I prefer to write (and read) posts that are packed with information that may not be easy to find online.
  • I write for people and what they’re searching for. I answer the question, “What would I be happy to find if I was searching for this topic?” When that task is complete, I go back and lightly optimize for organic search.
  • I’m consistently active on social media.
  • I’ve built quality relationships with other bloggers.
  • I’ve been marketing online since the 90’s. I’ve seen every manipulative trick and they all had one thing in common: they came back to bite people on the butt every single time.

Desperately seeking

Google is trying harder to find what people are looking for these days, so it helps to view the search engine as a person rather than an entity. If Google placed a personal ad, here’s what it would be seeking:

  • Good looks and a great smile: custom design, limited advertising, and shareable images.
  • Charm: social media and blog interaction. Give them something to talk about.
  • Friendly and open: user-friendly blogs with easy commenting.
  • Intelligence: deep, meaningful content that is truly useful.
  • Unique: dare to be different and create unique content.
  • Good listener: cater to the searcher, not the search engine. Are you really giving them what they’re looking for?
  • Integrity: are you a cheater? Manipulation has no place in a good relationship with Google. Neither does copyright infringement, illegal activities, or hate content.
  • Long walks on a Vancouver beach: geographically-specific content when applicable.
  • Sincerity: thinly disguised advertising, superficial posts built around keywords, and buying links will not be tolerated.
  • Highly respected: Google respects those who are respected by websites it respects. You may have to repeat that a few times to get it!
  • Great attitude: upbeat stories, suitable for a family audience.
  • Hang with a good crowd: avoid linking to, or being linked to by, the “slums” of the Internet.
  • No hookers please: there’s nothing wrong with making money with your blog. The key is to give more than you get.
  • Love yourself: you can’t expect anyone else to love you if you don’t love yourself. Produce a blog that you would love to read.
  • Love them back: sign up for Google+ and take the time to learn how to use it. Add both a follow and share button to your blog.

Oh Google, your love means so much to me. I’m inspired by your efforts to control your wandering eye and focus on those who are truly worthy of your attention. You make me feel like the most special website in the world wide web!

Melody McKinnon holds 52 certifications in business, marketing, writing, nutrition, biochemistry & general sciences. She blogs for the newly relaunched Canadians Internet Business, All Natural Pet Care, and Petfood Industry Magazine.

About Guest Blogger
This post was written by a guest contributor. Please see their details in the post above.
Comments
  1. Great post! Agree with all of the above. Sigh.. it’s like a love-relationship isn’t it. do the quality time and it will pay off. No short cuts!

    • Thank you, Ciki! We’ll go to any lengths to attract Google, but I think it’s mature now and interested more in our brain & personality. ;-)

  2. Just a test… can we user tags inhere like for instance Google?

  3. Kind of a neat angle ;)

  4. This is inspiring. There’s a lot of talks about how to make Google like your blog with the current updates, and this is a little old-school style that could still work. Thanks!

    • Hi Earl! We’ve been trying to trick Google into thinking we have the best content for so long, we’ve forgotten that’s the basis of the game – providing good content.

      • Thank youuuuu!!! This proves the point I kept making for so long at business meetings and stuff where SEO was the magic word. Good old decent content is key. Although being found by Google is of course awesome, if you want your prospective clients to return you’d better offer some value. Loved to read your post and especially love the discussion that sprouted from it. Thanks Melody!

  5. Love the comparison here great job.

    I am actually in the process of redesigning my site and am trying my best to take care of both making my readers happy and keeping google happy, though I think by taking care of my readers google shouldn’t have any problems with me.

    Thanks for the post!

  6. Thank you for your tips. I would really like to know when the last algorithm update was. Is there also a way to know when the next one will be?
    Good idea that of thinking of what the people. This way the Internet could become a woderful world :)
    Regards!

    • Hi Jose! I believe the last major update was in May with adjustments after that. Rumor has it they’re testing another one as we speak. I haven’t noticed a pattern of frequency. PR was updated again this month and seems to follow a three month schedule, give or take.

  7. * what the people Want…

  8. Thanks for your comments, everyone. I’m having fun visiting your sites and following you across the social web.

  9. First Citizens United, now Google gets personhood, whose next?

    I really liked the analogy and understood your point but I’m wondering what happens to blogs born on the wrong side of the tracks, will the ever have the chance to attract the audience needed for them to grow up and become productive members of society? Even at my best, I won’t hit all of those traits that Google desires, does this make me a perennial step child?

    • Where you were born matters not – what counts is where you are and where you’re headed. :-) Losing the tactics and producing useful content is the basis of it all, it seems. If you can do that you should eventually redeem yourself. I’m sure there’s all sorts of things I do that annoys Google but those basics seem to carry me through, even if I accidentally leave the cover off the toothpaste. ;-)

      I think it’s a good thing overall, it just caught a lot of people off guard who were doing what they thought was necessary to rank highly. I’d love to see Google improve its results and take me to the truly awesome sites online. They could start by figuring out that Canada isn’t in the UK…LOL…my personal Google pet peeve.

  10. Hi Melody, thanks for the post..

    Im glad if google loves my blogs very much.. and it like we get loyalty to heaven..

  11. I honestly love Google. I started out in Blogger and am trying to make it work. Good post and excellent reminders of all things worthy of Google love.

  12. Great post and wise advice.
    Still i disagree with your view of google mindset.
    i think google is not a startup anymore but a huge corporation whose goal is to maximze profit.
    Recent changes imho were made for adsense, not for users

    • Thanks John, that’s a good point. I’m sure profit is right up there on the priority list. But then again, the basis of their profit model is happy searchers.

  13. Nice one! This can definitely give you an upper hand.

  14. That’s good; I really need to put more effort when posting, or so I think.

  15. This tips can take you heights thanks for sharing, this is what we needed to go extra miles.

  16. I never used to appreciate myself but now l know that if l want to go miles l have to love myself and love what l do. Thanks for sharing this l real appreciate it.

  17. What an inspiration! I never thought Google can be applied that far. I really love Google as my social search and getting inspired more makes me have another break-through. I know this will actually work. Thanks for such great share.

  18. Hey,
    This is just great. Well, I think that Google loves blogs with unique and fresh content, regular updated content and most essentially with less keywords in it. Secondly, I like the desperately seeking criteria that Google might have search for. Yes, its truly interesting how you have described it as good looks, charm, friendly and open, etc. Loved it!! Thanks for the update.

    • Thanks Aditi, it was nice to have a little fun with a business article. Love your designs, by the way, and I’m picky! ;-)

  19. Great Points But I want to add 2 more points.

    1. Speed Up Your Blog (By Reducing Requests, Compressing CSS And JS)
    2. Share On Your Blog’s Google+ Page Is Better Than Share On Your Google+ Profile :)

  20. Specifically, “Loving Google Back” on the list is a secrete Google SEO bait. Google focused content usually attract its bot more. But, overall it must be what people need and want to know, which boils down to satisfying your readers.

  21. I really enjoyed this article. I am new to the whole affiliate marketing, blogging arena. I started this year and have learned a lot so far. The search engines do not seem to be too difficult to please, but I do like your advice and will definitely take it into consideration as I am always looking for new angles to strengthen site rankings. Just trying to put it all together… blogging, SEO, ranking well and monetizing my blogs. I guess it all comes down to experience and effort. Thanks again.

    • It can definitely be overwhelming to a new blogger, but it sounds like you’re handling it well. The ProBlogger book is a fantastic place to start, if you haven’t read it already.

  22. If you don’t love your blog yourself than how can you expect others to love your blog. This is true that we should love our blog first.
    I also do all the things which you mentioned in this post and I’m sure I’m active on social media more than you :P

  23. I was wondering how to make google love my posts and articles, now I know how-to divert their love on to my blog. Thank you! *Thumbs Up*

  24. Great article! I’ve been telling my students that the latest G updates are AWESOME for us! It’s not good for scammers, spammers, and black hat SEO nerds…but it’s great for creative people like us that deliver quality content over “keyword dense” nonsense that always seemed to rank #1 before panda and penguin. I’m also digging the analogy with an online personal. lolz

    • Thanks Jamie! You nailed it, and so will your students. I think a lot of the keyword extremes are actually taught to students based on old material – kudos for staying on top of it all. :-)

  25. great thoughts and nice guest post Melody, but Goole algo. is so unpredictable this days. ia m sure what you are enjoying here is over aged web site and quality contents, every other thoughts are secondary

  26. Hi there,
    Great post. So this how google love blogs.
    I agree with this post.
    It’s really interesting to know, that daring to write unique content on blog will help google to love us.
    Thanks…

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