What is Google SEO and how to do good Google ranking optimization? A beginner's guide to search engine optimization (SEO)
1 - What is SEO?
Google ranking optimization (SEO: Search Engine Optimization) refers to the optimization process that allows your website to rank higher in Google search results when users search for keywords related to the products or services you are promoting. The significance of Google ranking optimization is that the higher you rank, the more exposure your website gets, which in turn increases business opportunities. This is why many companies, especially those with overseas operations, invest a considerable budget every year into search engine optimization.
Google provides a lot of useful guidelines for website optimization. However, optimization issues vary for different websites, which fall into many categories like Media, B2B, B2C, C2C, O2O, etc. Therefore, optimization should be tailored to your website category, target market, and country to be truly effective.
After more than a decade of evolution, Google has become increasingly sophisticated, and the days of gaming Google are over. To do good SEO for your website, you should honestly follow Google's optimization guidelines and improve your website accordingly. As a Google SEO expert, simply handing over Google's guidelines to clients is not enough. Figuring out how to implement each ranking factor is our real purpose.
Search engine optimization (SEO) includes on-page and off-page optimization to make a website compliant with search engine algorithms, thereby gaining recognition and natural rankings. Both types of optimization are critical for Google SEO.
With so many social media platforms today, is website Google SEO still necessary?
Mobile users must have noticed that keywords they have searched for in apps sometimes show up as recommended content in their commonly used social media. This is because the platforms are making recommendations based on users' search history. Even when you no longer pay attention to those keywords, the system will keep recommending relevant content for a period of time. In this social media marketing model, users are passive, and the website traffic quality is not great. On the contrary, Google SEO attracts users to proactively visit your site. All you need to do is optimize rankings for your products and brands so users can fully understand product details and reviews through search. This type of website visitor is high-quality. Whether B2B or B2C, Google SEO is the best promotion channel.
PPC is pay-per-click advertising that takes effect quickly as long as you pay. It is like a faucet - traffic flows in continuously when turned on, but stops immediately once turned off. It can be difficult to afford high bids without sufficient capability; malicious clicks may also lead to losses, and traffic is relatively single-sourced.
Unlike PPC, Google SEO does not produce instant results. The upfront time and cost investments may be higher. However, natural rankings can be maintained long-term through proper SEO updates and maintenance, as well as keeping up with Google algorithm changes. In addition to increasing brand revenue, Google SEO also earns Google's trust. In the long run, Google SEO costs less than PPC actually. If budget allows, you can do PPC and Google SEO at the same time - use PPC at the beginning to drive traffic, then reduce PPC spending after Google SEO improves rankings.
2 - Important factors affecting website Google SEO
2.0.1 - Clean and accurate code
Nowadays, to build websites quickly and cheaply, e-commerce owners often use Shopify, Wix, Shopline, Weebly, Ueeshop and other visual SAAS self-service platforms. For websites with more backend development needs, open-source platforms like WordPress, Magento, Woocommerce, Opencart are more commonly used. Custom corporate websites that focus more on services, solutions and technical offerings are usually custom-developed without relying on any templates, with backend and frontend coding done from scratch. Missing HTML tags like and are common code issues that can affect SEO. See examples below:
Missing h tags
Missing p tags
2.0.2 - Clear architecture
Website architecture must be clearly structured to guide visitors through a logical path (like a tour guide). Use breadcrumbs to indicate hierarchy for secondary and lower level menus so search engines can understand page relationships. Keep main menus consistent across all pages. Create tags to connect similar pages like blog posts and case studies.
2.0.3 - Responsive website
A responsive website provides good readability across different browsing environments - website structure does not distort when browser windows are resized, and text content remains legible and does not become too small.
2.0.4 - Server stability and configurations
If a website's server is down frequently or loads slowly, search engines cannot crawl or are delayed in crawling, directly affecting the site's authority. Also, when visitors cannot access or leave the site due to slow loading, the bounce rate increases, signaling to Google that the website is unpopular and negatively impacting SEO rankings.
If indexing is still clearly problematic one week after a site has been submitted to Google Search Console, excluding issues like noindex tags and crawl blocking via robots.txt, incorrect or incomplete indexing may be caused by improper server configurations or conflicts between settings. This also affects SEO rankings.
2.0.5 - Logical internal link structure
While we create XML sitemaps, the website itself may not weave an optimal internal link structure for search engine crawling. Main menus are most crawlable by search engines, so whether main menus can serve as good bridges to important SEO pages needs to be evaluated. The planning of internal links must avoid dead ends and one-way tunnels that frustrate search engine crawlers, like Example A below. If SEO page A is nestled under the 3rd page of the Showcase menu, search engines have to crawl through very limited paths to reach Page A - from the top Showcase menu to Page 1, then Page 3 before finally reaching the target SEO page.
This narrow path is not SEO friendly. Although picking a page under Page 1 would be better than Page 3, new Showcase content constantly pushes old content further back to Page 2, 3 etc over time, so this is not a good long-term solution either. A better approach is to build links from other relevant pages and categories to support search engine entry like Example B below.
2.0.6 - Website speed
What is considered good website response speed? This is like asking how beautiful is beautiful enough for an attractive woman - there is no quantifiable answer. Website speed significantly impacts SEO and shapes visitors' first impression. A study by the Financial Times tested media sites by progressively increasing delay times and measuring impact on article reads. Results:
1 second delay: article reads decreased 4.9%
3 second delay: article reads decreased 7.9%
Similar tests on ecommerce websites showed:
Walmart - 1.9% conversion rate at 2.4 sec load time; 1.5% conversion rate at 3.3 sec
Amazon - 1% sales decrease for every 100 ms delay
Clearly, high bounce rates and short dwell times caused by delays can prompt Google to re-evaluate a page's worth and demote its ranking.
2.0.7 - Keyword integration
What are keywords?
Keywords are searched terms that produce matching results in search engines. Search engines quickly process keywords to match and recommend relevant results based on the searcher's probable motivation and expected outcome. Google does this best and is the most popular search engine because its results align well with search intentions.
How to integrate keywords on a website?
Strategic keyword integration is critical for SEO rankings. To attract visitors' attention, keywords are typically placed in prominent locations. Relevance between keywords and page content should be high. Observe top-ranking pages for keyword frequency and contextual usage guidelines. tags are indispensable for highlighting keywords to help search engines identify important text and recommend pages accordingly. However, forced keyword stuffing should be avoided as search engines penalize obvious manipulative ranking tactics. Think of search engines as visitors - convince them to stay on your page by preparing content that caters to what they are looking for. If you claim your page is for buying skirts simply to attract dress buyers, you will be caught bluffing when visitors find no skirts for sale. High bounce rates signal search engines that your page misleads or dissatisfies users, prompting ranking drops. Therefore, keywords must be integrated naturally with good planning and intent. For example, prepare 5 keyword-rich questions and 5 keyword-focused answers as content.
2.0.8 - Language Settings
If our target market consists of several different countries, our website needs to have different language versions corresponding to each country. This allows users to access content in a familiar language when they visit, making it quick and easy to find the information they need. However, after considering user experience, we also need to think from the search engine Google's perspective - how to make it easy for Google to identify which language version it should crawl according to the guidelines. This is where the Hreflang tag comes in to tell Google.
What is the Hreflang tag?
The Hreflang tag is an identification indicator introduced by Google for websites with multiple language versions. When a website has different language editions, Google needs a directive to navigate to the appropriate language version as it enters the site. Without this tag, Google can get lost - for example, when you are on google.co.jp, you would expect search results to display your Japanese website pages, but the actual search results showing could be your Chinese edition pages instead. For countries like the USA, UK, Canada, Australia where English is the native language, we can specify the English version of our website to be crawled by Google for those countries. Places like Hong Kong and Taiwan take traditional Chinese as the native language, so we designate the traditional Chinese version to be crawled by Google Hong Kong (google.com.hk) and Google Taiwan (google.com.tw). This allows search results to display the intended language versions for each designated region when ranked.
For guidance on configuring multiple language versions, we can refer to Google's official documentation here: [https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en)
Language code reference: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-1_codes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-1_codes)
Country code reference: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2)
Note that there is no need to create a language version for every single country - instead, focus on the key markets you are targeting. Each additional language version requires a significant amount of translation effort, and Google does not favor machine-translated content, though we may use translation tools to avoid triggering Google's suspicions. Still, we should not underestimate Google's intelligence, which has been continually improving over the years - Google can discern the quality and authenticity of content remarkably well. Human translations convey emotion, liveliness and richness in language, showcasing linguistic beauty and charm, whereas machine translations only handle simple declarative sentences accurately but struggle with nuances and often have grammar errors. Google can definitely tell the difference in quality.
2.0.9 - Canonical Settings
What is the Canonical tag? What is its purpose? Does it impact SEO?
The Canonical tag (e.g. ) is used to tell search engines that the specified page is the canonical or authoritative version for the group of similar pages. Using Canonical helps effectively avoid duplicate content penalties from Google and positively impacts SEO by signaling to Google the guideline for duplicate pages, reducing Google's crawling and computation workload. Sometimes our website may automatically generate multiple URL paths for the same page without us realizing, quickly creating duplicate pages. Applying the same canonical tag to these pages solves this issue.
Here is my English translation of the Chinese content, preserving the original meaning:
2.1.0 - SSL Certificates
What are SSL certificates? What is their purpose?
SSL certificates are encryption protocols that provide secure communication and data integrity between a website and server. Their purpose is to prevent users' data from being intercepted or eavesdropped on when requesting information from the server. For example, when someone logs into their online bank account and fills out the login form with their username and password before clicking submit, this process transmits data to the server. If the website has SSL installed, it will encrypt the login data to prevent unauthorized access and ensure no one else can see or obtain the username and password.
How SSL Certificates Work
1. The browser connects to an SSL-protected website
2. The browser requests the web server's identification
3. The web server sends a copy of its SSL certificate to the browser in response
4. The browser checks if it is a trusted SSL certificate, and if so, it continues by sending a confirmation signal to the server
5. The web server returns a digital signature to initiate the encrypted SSL connection
How to check if a website has SSL certification:
Look for a padlock icon on the left side of the address bar. The padlock indicates the website is protected by SSL.
2.1.1 - Social Media Brand Exposure
What are the benefits of social media brand exposure? Does it help with Google ranking?
Social media brand exposure helps elevate brand image and allows people to learn about your brand indirectly through other channels. This aligns with how people evaluate brands - in addition to visiting the official website, people also check social platforms to see what others are saying and form a complete picture before deciding whether to purchase. Google's brand awareness comes from aggregating signals across channels too, including Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, etc. If a brand actively engages followers and maintains vibrant social media profiles, Google takes notice of the positive traction online and may in turn favor the brand's website in SEO rankings.
2.1.2 - Content Marketing
Content marketing involves using written and visual information to tell your brand's product story. This is very important to Google - how well you present your products or services depends on understanding Google's evaluation criteria. We should think of Google as an extremely intelligent entity rather than just a search engine. This is why everyone aims for the Google homepage - the top recommendations perfectly meet search intent, reducing the need to go to the second or third pages. Google grasps what each search phrase intends to find and returns the most relevant results accordingly. For example, as a water dispenser manufacturer or wholesaler selling to B2B clients, using "water dispenser" as a SEO keyword will not work, because Google interprets searchers of this term to be B2C end consumers looking to purchase a single unit. Instead, use B2B-focused keywords like "manufacturer", "supplier", "factory", even if search volume is lower. Only by fully grasping Google's underlying logic can you target the right customers.
Now circling back to content marketing - the biggest issue we see is overly simplistic product descriptions confined to spec sheets, assuming visitors already understand the industry. However, looking at top-ranked websites proves this wrong. After over 17 years of SEO optimization experience up to 2022, we know Google actually wants basic explanations to make concepts intelligible for general audiences. Excluding ecommerce stores, homepage contents averaging 1500 words do best on Google rankings.
Home/About Recommended content sections include:
1 . Who we are（我们是谁）
2 . What we offer（我们提供什么产品或服务）
3 . High lights（高光时刻）
4 . Hot products/services（热门产品/服务）
5 . Work flow（工作流程）
6 . Meet the experts（专家）
7 . Business partner（合作伙伴）
8 . Our story（发展故事）
9 . Patent / Certificate（荣誉证书）
10 . Why Choose Us（为何选择我们）
11 . How to order（如何下单）
12 . Latest Blog /New（最近新闻）
13 . Comments from customer（客户对我们的评价）
14 . Factory & Facilities（工厂）
Product description content should be included:
1 . What is, product application(产品词义, 产品用于什么范围)
2 . Material / type (材料 / 种类）
3 . How does it work(产品的工作原理)
4 . Industry information(行业发展及现状和痛点)
5 . Examples of products/services (代表性的案例，该产品可用于哪些行业)
6 . Benefit of products/service(该产品/服务的好处，列表清单式)
7 . Data report; figure/graphic(相关实验数据报告或图表证明及优点)
8 . FAQ (针对这款产品，别人可能会问的问题)
...
Case Study content suggestions include:
1. the client's background story
2. what problem the client was having
3. how you helped the customer solve the problem
4. how satisfied the customer is with you
...
In addition, the blog page is also the preferred SEO page, because it can be expressed in large text, more conducive to Google read the information. Blog content marketing effect is no less than the product page, it is recommended that more What, Why, Which, How ..... Question form to show people your products, it is recommended that each small topic with positioning form, so that people can quickly locate the topic of interest.
