Do you think of Google as a great big scary black box when it comes to their search engine rankings even though their corporate motto is "don't be evil"? What you may not realize is that Google offers some great resources in both video and printed form covering a variety of topics that will help you design websites and create content that will maximize your results with both search engines and visitors (and ultimately, paying customers).
1. If you are relatively new to SEO (search engine optimization), you MUST read Google's Guide to Search Engine Optimization this is a regularly updated guide that gives advice directly from Google on the organization of you site and url, along with best practices and do's and dont's. If you have been working on your site SEO for years, you still need to review this so you know Google's current thinking.
2. Matt Cutts Blog Matt has been a Google employee since 2000 and is currently head of their Webspam team. He's an active blogger, and his posts often attract hundreds of comments, to which he often responds with additional valuable nuggets. When he talks about Google ranking, and their search algorithm, you want to listen.
3. The Google Webmaster Channel on youtube http://www.youtube.com/GoogleWebmasterHelp Lots of videos here, pick a short, single topic one, or a comprehensive one like the Google Trifecta Video, a one hour video that covers the Webmaster Central tool, Analytics and testing with Website Optimizer and how they can work together to max results from your site
4. The official Google Webmaster Central Blog with hundreds of articles covering tips, techniques and webmaster tools to optimize your site.
5. The Google Webmaster Help Forum You can post questions here, and get feedback from community members and from Googlers (Google employees) whose posts are flagged with a blue G logo.
Google really has an interest in having your site found when it has good content that people will be interested in. This is in their best interests and yours. So try to get on the same page and deliver great content, and follow their logical guidelines and you'll have a big leg up on traffic and results.
If you've got a quick few minutes, here's a great basic 5 minute SEO video from Matt Cutts of Google
The payoff from effective website design and optimization can be huge if you get a traffic boost from the search engines and it results in increased sales. Spend some time honing your skills and create a game plan to devote some time each week to this task.
