I’m a big fan of Google+ Help Desk Hangouts. They are informative, a great way to learn and to get to know the people at Google. A Hangout posted a couple of weeks ago called “Help Desk Hangout – SEO and Webmaster Academy” is geared for Webmasters, business owners who have decided to do their own website, or anyone who wants to design, develop and optimize a website properly in order to rank higher in the SERPs (search engine results pages). Hosted by SEO experts Alexi Douvas and Michael Wyszomierski, both part of Google’s Search Quality Team, they provide an overview of SEO, Webmaster Academy and how Google works. They are joined by a special guest, Matt Cutts, Head of the Web Spam Team at Google. Watching this Hangout, you feel the respect these Google employees have for each other. Now for the Hangout – Enjoy!
The Hangout covers the following:
- What is SEO and why does Google give out so much information about it for free?
- Webmaster Academy – in the past they have been supporting the Webmaster with documentation and help resources; the Webmaster who knows HTML, code, and is technical. Now they are seeing non-computer experts, the business owner; Plumber or Florist who are experts in their field, that want to create their own website. The team wanted to create content that an average business owner could understand so that they can do well in Google.
- Overview of how Google Works – Google Bot, the Index and how a user performs a search (what’s going on behind the scenes).
- What you can do to optimize your website – easy site navigation, textual content; telling your story, what do you offer and why should users come back to your website.
- Tips on images and videos – using descriptive Alt Image Text for photos and images.
- Anatomy of a search engine result to see what that site has to offer.
- Evaluate your own website by doing a Site Search – unique titles, meta descriptions and descriptive URLs.
- Add and verify your website to Webmaster Tools – amazing tool that is free – gives you alerts and notifications.
- Checkout Webmaster Academy – great resource of information to optimize your website.
- SEO Starter Package
- Q & A session – this is always a learning experience!
There’s a lot more to this Hangout than what is listed. Whether you area a local business and create your own website or are a service that creates many, this Hangout is a “must watch”. Learning from the experts at Google, following their guidelines, being part of Webmaster Academy, getting advise from “top contributors’ in the forums is a win-win and will help your website rank higher in the SERPs.
