What Do Search Engines Like Google See?

What Does Google Look At? An easier answer might be, ‘what does Google not look at.’

Basically, Google tries to read pages like we do. Top left to the bottom right. Things on top must be important (“relevant”) and things at the bottom might not be important, unless it’s the last thing you write about, that could confirm (if matched) that the top things are indeed important.

Google can see text (html text that is), but not text on a graphics so well. We know that Google is playing with ways to recognize images and maybe read text on images, but as far as we know their limited like a scanner is when trying to capture text off images. This is where most designers fail the most when it comes to SEO.

Google will read image ‘Tags,’ a page code meant to help search engines know what’s on a graphic.

What search engines DO see besides text and tags, are image names, url names, header text, meta tags, page titles, inbound and outbound links, and anchor text, AND NOW they look at social websites. Search engines use social content to help rank your website for authority. What people are saying about you, and what you’re saying about yourself, now counts in the eyes of Google. Also, although they can’t read videos, they love videos. Search engines can read video names and text around them and they know a video is there, so video is now considered very important as well. Google cannot read flash very well, but there are some ways to help Google out with this too. In the below SEO Google video, Matt Cutts from Google talks about what Google looks at when considering SEO rankings.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofhwPC-5Ub4]
Contact the SEO PRO’s today to learn more about what search engines see, Google products, and for a FREE SEO review and consultation, a short website review, and a recommended approach for your online marketing plan. 510-276-9902.

The SEO PRO’s are located in the San Francisco Bay Area, but serve clients worldwide.