Whether you care to admit it or not; Google has become an essential part of how and if businesses succeed online and has become a god in today's search engine driven virtual world . Don't believe me? Check out these numbers:

Hitwise US - Leading Search Engines - May, 2008

This list features the top 4 leading search engines based on US Internet usage, ranked by volume of searches for the 4 weeks ending May 31, 2008.

Source - Hitwise - May, 2008 - based on volume of searches.

Roughly 70% of internet users who patronize companies online are finding it through a Google search. So if you don't think Google is calling the shots; I suggest you change your medication quickly ;) But seriously, to live and succeed in Google's world there are some basic commandments a web designer need to follow in order to avoid paying the ultimate price - Death... or the virtual world equivalent - being banned or excluded from Google's SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). As the virtual Moses I've been charged with laying out the 10 commandments for you to abide by In order to live a fruitful virtual life on Google's Green Earth:

#1 Thou Shall Create Relevant Rich Content

Google likes it when your content reflects the keywords and titles of your website. SEO THUMBS UP

#2 Thou Shall not Create Doorway Pages

Doorway pages are created strictly for search engines (Keyword heavy) and have no relevance to the site visitor; once a site visitor clicks on the doorway page link; it redirects to another page on the website. SEO THUMBS DOWN

#3 Thou Shall Make Relevant Links

Linking to pages of similar content increases the site visitor's experience; Google gives that a thumbs up. SEO THUMBS UP

#4 Thou Shall Not Duplicate content

Duplication of content, or pages on your site is not encouraged; this could be seen as spamming the search engine. Google frowns on that. SEO THUMBS DOWN

#5 Thou Shall Not Create Invisible Text or Links

Invisible text is used to manipulate the search engine. This is done by adding keywords and/or content the same color as the background of the web page, the search engine spiders can see it but the site visitors can't. SEO THUMBS DOWN

#6 Thou Shall Not Create Multiple Domains

Creating multiple domains to point to your website to gain a higher rank is not recommended. SEO THUMBS DOWN

#7 Thou Shall Not Employ Sneaky Redirects

Do not establish pages on other sub domains or domains to simply redirect traffic to your site. SEO THUMBS DOWN

#8 Thou Shall Not Create Mirror Sites

Do not duplicate your site on more than one domain. SEO THUMBS DOWN

#9 Thou Shall Not Create Misleading Domains

Creating a site with a similar domain name to your competition to gain their customers is not recommended. SEO THUMBS DOWN

#10 Thou Shall Not Use Irrelevant Keywords

Keywords should be relevant to the page or website content. SEO THUMBS DOWN

A great blog article on SEO can be found here: SEO Guide For Designers

Do you think that my list is accurate or are there things that are still missing?

 

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