The blogger and Google generally have a love-hate relationship.
Bloggers love the Search Engine giant when they (the blogger) have good findability. The blogger hates the Goliath when their posts are no where to be found.
The Google Blog and Wilby
Google, I reckon, tries to be fair. But in practice it is not always the case.
It seems to me, and I may be wrong, that if a post or a site can be found at/near the top in Bing, Yahoo, Dogpile, Blekko and the other search engines, it ought to be found in generally the same position in Google, no?
It doesn’t always happen that way. What’s up with that?
What does it take to be search engine friendly across the board?
What does it take to be ranked near the top of any and hopefully all Search Engines?
There is one requirement that is fundamental.
Content must be original.
Original can best be defined has generated by the blogger’s own brain cells and sent via nerves to the blogger’s fingers and imposed on a keyboard followed by hitting publish by the blogger.
Summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting are acceptable, even encouraged as long as proper credit is given (makes for a good quality external link!) and they are not done too much.
What’s too much? I tell my students that no post should be ‘borrowed’ in any form from any other location at more than 20%. Less is better, that is, more original.
For the blogger to be Google friendly, search engine friendly…start with original content.
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