Webmaster Guidelines & the 4 Faces of "Random Surfer"

I was recently browsing the web for new information on website quality evaluation when I stumbled across Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. While lightly perusing the guidelines for any updates, I thought that it might be worthwhile to explore the guidelines in-depth. However to make the review more interesting I will be approaching each guideline in one of 4 possible ways. Each of which reflects a different perspective in the search world.

• P – Paranoogle – “Shhhh! Googlebot can Hear You…”
• N – Nihiloogle – “Guidelines are Meaningless… just like the Universe”
• Z – Zealoogle – “Google is the very fabric of my existence”
• J – Jasonoogle- Unfiltered and honest thoughts by yours truly.”

Let’s Get Started:
The first set of Webmaster Guidelines offered by Google fall under the “When your site is ready” category.

"Have other relevant sites link to yours."

J – Do you mean by requesting that they link to you? Because that sounds dangerously close to a link building campaign.

"Submit it to Google at http://www.google.com/addurl.html"

N – Why Bother? Google likes to discover sites through crawling. How Pointless.

"Submit a Sitemap… …Google Sitemaps uses your sitemap to learn about the structure of your site…"

P – To submit a sitemap you must "verify" your site by uploading an empty ID file… It’s like planting a bug on your website. The Truth is Out There.

"Make sure all the sites that should know about your pages are aware your site is online."

Z – Nevermind that this too sounds like a link building strategy. If “The G” says jump…

"Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!… "

J – ODP? You mean that directory that doesn’t accept new submissions, but auctions inclusions off at e-bay?

In our next installment we’ll look at Google’s Design and Content Guidelines.