Google’s latest SEO Recommendations

Google’s head of search, Amit Sing­hal sheds some light on how the new page rank­ing algo­rithms from Google can effect your web­sites search performance.

While the actual rank­ing details are top secret, Sing­hal shares a list of ques­tions that will help guide web design­ers and con­tent cre­ators to stay focused on what’s important–the user.

1. Would you trust the infor­ma­tion pre­sented in this article?
2. Is this arti­cle writ­ten by an expert or enthu­si­ast who knows the topic well, or is it more shal­low in nature?
3. Does the site have dupli­cate, over­lap­ping, or redun­dant arti­cles on the same or sim­i­lar top­ics with slightly dif­fer­ent key­word variations?
4. Would you be com­fort­able giv­ing your credit card infor­ma­tion to this site?
5. Does this arti­cle have spelling, styl­is­tic, or fac­tual errors?
6. Are the top­ics dri­ven by gen­uine inter­ests of read­ers of the site, or does the site gen­er­ate con­tent by attempt­ing to guess what might rank well in search engines?
7. Does the arti­cle pro­vide orig­i­nal con­tent or infor­ma­tion, orig­i­nal report­ing, orig­i­nal research, or orig­i­nal analysis?
8. Does the page pro­vide sub­stan­tial value when com­pared to other pages in search results?
9. How much qual­ity con­trol is done on content?
10. Does the arti­cle describe both sides of a story?
11. Is the site a rec­og­nized author­ity on its topic?
12. Is the con­tent mass-produced by or out­sourced to a large num­ber of cre­ators, or spread across a large net­work of sites, so that indi­vid­ual pages or sites don’t get as much atten­tion or care?
13. Was the arti­cle edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
14. For a health related query, would you trust infor­ma­tion from this site?
15. Would you rec­og­nize this site as an author­i­ta­tive source when men­tioned by name?
16. Does this arti­cle pro­vide a com­plete or com­pre­hen­sive descrip­tion of the topic?
17. Does this arti­cle con­tain insight­ful analy­sis or inter­est­ing infor­ma­tion that is beyond obvious?
18. Is this the sort of page you’d want to book­mark, share with a friend, or recommend?
19. Does this arti­cle have an exces­sive amount of ads that dis­tract from or inter­fere with the main content?
20. Would you expect to see this arti­cle in a printed mag­a­zine, ency­clo­pe­dia or book?
21. Are the arti­cles short, unsub­stan­tial, or oth­er­wise lack­ing in help­ful specifics?
22. Are the pages pro­duced with great care and atten­tion to detail vs. less atten­tion to detail?
23. Would users com­plain when they see pages from this site?

It’s hard to argue with the logic, I par­tic­u­larly like the last one–Rob.