To someone who knows little to nothing about how search engines and search engine rankings work, Google and SEO may seem like adversaries. It may seem that Google hates SEO because it messes up the natural state of things. In reality, this is simply not the case. In fact, the people from Google want webmasters to know about search engine optimization and they want them to engage in white hat SEO.
But, why? Why does Google want you to do SEO? How can you do SEO to stay on Google’s good side? Let’s find out!
Google isn’t Omnipotent
As much as they might want you to think so, Google and its search algorithms aren’t omnipotent and their “AI-driven” ranking methods are nowhere near as advanced as they make them out to be. Google still relies greatly on certain ranking factors that have been in play for a long, long time and that still comes down to statistics (very advanced statistics, but still statistics). Put differently, Google still utilizes some very basic indicators when calculating how reputable and valuable any given website is and they need you to provide the indicators.
How do you provide the right indicators?
By doing SEO.
By doing SEO, you let Google know that you are there and that your website needs to be taken into consideration, so to say.
This is really as simple and as basic as things can be put.
The “Bad Guys” are Doing it
Another huge reason why Google wants you to do SEO is that “the bad guys” are doing it incessantly. The bad guys here are people who practice dark SEO powers in order to boost the rankings of websites that do not really deserve it.
Since Google is not omnipotent and cannot sniff out every such website and bad SEO practitioner, they want the good guys (you) to do SEO as well.
This way, the playing field is leveled to a certain degree and it allows actually good websites to compete with sites that are simply over optimized, while providing absolutely no value to visitors.
Doing SEO simply ensures that your website gets a starting place in a race that it will later easily win, since you are providing value for your visitors.
They are in a Competition
There is another reason why Google wants you to do SEO and it has more to do with them than it has to do with you. Namely, Google is not the only search engine in the world and while they are by far the biggest player, their competition is not exactly dawdling. By encouraging people to do SEO, they are, in a way, focusing their attention on their search engine. In other words, when you are thinking about optimizing your website for Google, you are not thinking about their competitors. This is a very unique kind of brand promotion and it may not seem as such, but do not be fooled, it is.
Promoting Good Practices
Finally, there is also the fact that SEO can be done in one of two ways – the way Google wants you to do it, the “good way”, or the “bad way”, which is what the “bad guys” do. By recommending that you do SEO, Google also gives you info on how to do it the right way, in a way that will hopefully provide the users of their search engine with results that paint the true picture.
If, on the other hand, Google decided not to recommend doing SEO, they would be leaving the entire practice to people whose only wish is to work the system and get their clients to the top of search results, which would be bad for Google, its reputability and, why not say it, for the stock value.
Simply put, Google needs to recommend that everyone does SEO so that they maximize the number of people who do it in a way that is in accordance with their company policy.b
Doing It the Right Way
Now that I have covered all the reasons as to why Google wants you to do SEO and why they recommend that you do it, it is probably a good idea to say a few things as to how to do it the right way.
In essence, it all comes down to putting a friendly face on inherently good content and practices that you will be employing as part of your online presence.
Let’s take a simple blog post as an example.
Google does not want you to write your blog post for their search engine. They do not want to see a smorgasbord of keywords and key phrases that have been put together just so your blog post will end up high in search results.
They want you to guide their crawlers in the most efficient way, while still focusing on providing value for users. They want you to take care of your title and meta tags and they want you to be smart about titles and the content itself.
If you are unsure as to how to set about things, you can check
They simply want you to provide some basic guidance that will allow them to index your blog post and to be able to offer it as a result amidst the ocean of lame over optimized SEO-heavy blog posts that readers (and Google users) will hate.
One of the best ways about Google’s SEO guidelines is that they are not shy about them. Sure, they will always be secretive about the actual ranking factors and algorithms they use, but they will also provide the average webmaster with very clear guidelines on how to give their websites and their content a fighting chance.
From there on, their algorithms will take things over and (to the best of their ability) ensure that your high-value and user-friendly content gets in front of internet (and Google’s own) users.