Official Google Ranking Facts Thread

This is the thread that is intended to be the official, confirmed Google ranking Do’s and Dont’s. I will try to update this as often as possible, and the list will have no specific order except that it will be separated in few sections depending on topic. You are welcome to add to this list (please use comments) and I will update it. If you want to contribute you need to add the relevant source of the information. Let’s start…

URL’s:

• Do use user-friendly URLs like “used-cars.html” and not “77asdhh8djmjf666.html”. However do not overdo it either. For instance “used-cars-with-good-wheels-and-nice-price-use-etc-etc-etc-etc.html” Source
• Don’t use a parameter named “id=” in a URL (except for a session ID). If you use it, your pages may not be included in the index. Source
• Do use site’s URL structure which is as simple as possible, and in a manner that is most intelligible to humans. Source
• Do use hyphens (-) instead of underscores (_) in your URLs. Source
• Do use robots.txt file to block Googlebot’s access to problematic URLs, like dynamically created calendars that can generate links to future and previous dates with no restrictions on start of end dates. Source

CONTENT:

• Don’t use any hidden text or hidden links on any page of your site. Source
• Don’t use any type of cloaking or sneaky redirects. Source
• Don’t use any scripts that send automatic queries to Google. Source
• Don’t fill your pages with spammy, irrelevant keywords. Source
• Don’t create doorways or pages with duplicate content. Source
• Do add value if your site participate in affiliate program. Don’t just copy content provided by affiliate program. Source
• Don’t create pages with sneaky, malicious scripts like phishing, trojans or any kind of self installing badware. Source
• Do make pages with content primarily for users, not bots or search engines. Source
• Don’t violate Google TOS. Source
• Do make sure that your TITLE and ALT tags are descriptive and accurate. Source

LINKS AND LINKING:

• Don’t participate in any kind of link schemes aimed solely to increase Google Pagerank site overall ranking. Source

More coming soon. Feel free to contribute and subscribe to this topic and watch all future Do’s and Dont’s.