Have you ever heard of Googlebot or maybe the Google index? Today, we’re really going to deep dive into what is Googlebot and we’re going to talk about how to demystify it so that it makes a difference to your bottom line.
Googlebot is also called the Google algorithm.
The algorithm is a formula.
Think back to college or maybe even high school. Remember the library? There was a Dewey Decimal System. Maybe some of you are too young and you can just kind of zone out right now. But if you remember the Dewey Decimal System, when you went into the library and pulled out the card catalog, that is where Googlebot comes in.
Google was founded at Stanford University, Larry and Sergey Google’s Founders said: “we’re going to build a database that’s going to index and archive all the content on the Stanford campus.” This is how Google was born. What we know today is this massive algorithm over 200 different elements to the Google algorithm and what the Googlebot looks for when it is crawling sites.
When I worked with million-dollar advertisers at Yahoo, we would go to search marketing conferences and we’d all sit down and we would literally talk about every line of the Google algorithm that we knew. Yes, this is the kind of geek that I used to be.
It was interesting, but the longer I was in that business, the more I realized that it was less about the Google algorithm and all about the human experience. It’s about them, not about you. It’s about what they want when they search.
When we create our websites we draw all the attention to ourselves. It’s what I like to call the wee-wee- show we do this, and we do that, and we wee-wee-wee all over ourselves, your website is not a resume, it is a thought leadership platform.
Remember, if you’re a thought leader in your respective niche then you know your stuff. You are current and your website is current. You blog because you want to prove to Googlebot that you are on your A-game.
Googlebot comes and it indexes your site and your web pages, checking for broken links and internal linking, it also looks for fresh content, this is why blogging is so important.
Google’s not going to rank your website if the technical aspects of your site are not great. It wants to make sure your engine is purring like a kitten. Now once the engine is taken care of, then we can start worrying about our blogging.
Now when I talk about blogging, yes I can see your eyes rolling now, you may say I don’t have time for that, what would I blog about? Why does it matter? But I am here to tell you that Googlebot loves a blog.
You have a blog that is an ongoing commentary and research of your field and of course, then you take that blog and you share it to all of your social circles. Your social circles will validate your leadership.
What happens is when you launch a new website? Google comes usually within 24 to 48 hours. Grabs all the content and says, “Awesome, you have all this great content, oooh! It gets really excited. It comes back in 24 hours and says “what ya got?”
I call it Google Snacking, it’s like who’s a good Google, who’s a good Google if it comes back and there is nothing new, it will see that you are not a thought leader and it will move on.
Run that marketinggrater.com score and fix the red if that will show up in that report. The next thing I need you to do is to sit down with your team or hire a Content writer and start writing. The blog part of it. Remember, that’s the ongoing juice if you will.
Everyone says it and I think a lot of businesses have gotten their business historically from word of mouth. Which is great. I love word of mouth. However, over 80% of word-of-mouth will go and Google you. First of all, they’re going to check you out and you want to make that first digital handshake as you will make a great first impression.
Your job is to get what you know about your company, your institutional knowledge into that blog.
Here’s a tip, grab your cell phone. There’s a recorder on there I’m pretty sure. And just put a sticky note in your car with 2 or 3 topics you want to blog about. When you go in for your drive in the morning or your walk around your neighborhood with your dog, dictate into your phone.
Then after you dictate about that topic, you’re going to upload it to a transcription service like Rev. REV.com. Rev will transcribe that audio and it’s like Christmas morning. You get this content to turn into a blog, just have someone edit it for you, and voila there you go you have a blog.
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Watch the full video here: What is Googlebot?