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I am by no means a general SEO expert, let alone one with specialized Google knowledge and skills. Which means I have a tendency to read anything and everything easily digestible written by others on the subject.

So, after seeing enough of these Google SEO tips and articles, you really can’t help but notice commonalities. I originally was thinking of calling these commonalities something like “good bet SEO techniques,” but frankly, I have no idea whether they work or not — we just see them mentioned frequently enough to make us pause and consider. (You’ve got to admit, though, with some of them, I can’t possibly be wrong.)

Regardless, I still have imposed a few musts before including something in this list of Google SEO techniques:

• They must be relatively easy to understand and implement.
  
• They must not be black hat techniques (tricky underhanded stuff that are short-lived anyway… the good guys wear white hats, remember?)
  
• And, most importantly, whether they work or not, they must not hurt your site’s rankings.

Having said that, after reading that final must, you should be saying to yourself, “Heck if Eldon knows what’s going to hurt my rankings or not.” And you’d be right — I wouldn’t know. The best I can do is apply enough reason to conclude, “Can’t see how this technique could possibly hurt.”

On that note, here’s my short list of top Google SEO techniques we should try to implement:

1. Good Content — This is so obvious, I’m surprised I’m even wasting our time on this: Publish good written content, richly (but naturally) populated with the right keywords and Google’ll get you… and may very well even like you.
   
2. Good Title Tag — Your page’s title appears on the browser’s title bar and, more importantly, it’s what Google displays first for each entry on its search results pages. So obviously, the big G thinks the title’s important.
   
3. URLs with Keywords — For example, look above at mine… some say this technique is important. Some say phffft. I say: Don’t know who’s right, but if it doesn’t hurt, does it really matter? Especially since I’ve got WordPress pumping them out automatically with the post title plugged in anyway (if you want to learn how to get your WordPress to do the same, holler).
   
4. Frequent updates — Google likes fresh. So give it that. And often. And if you think that means only once a week, I feel for you. I really do. In many markets, even once daily may not be good enough for top results.
   
5. Remove all black hat tricks! — I have to repeat this point since it’s human nature to want to try and game Google and its results. Tricks may even work… temporarily… but once Google figures it out (and it will, sooner than later), you’ll not only lose out on the trick’s benefits, you’ll likely get penalized to boot, keeping you off the results even after you’ve cleaned up your act. Can’t say you weren’warned.

If you look over the must do’s above again, you can’t help but conclude that this is all basic stuff, really, basic enough that it’ll likely work too with other search engines besides Google. Have fun!

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