As a website owner and business man (self proclaimed) I find myself getting caught up on what others say about search engine optimization, landing page optimization, paid search optimization, do this or else, don’t do this unless you’ve done that etc.   The fact of the matter is, most of the comments and articles are written by professional writers.  They know how to search, email and put together a wonderful story, outline or how-to.  Those that actually practice what they preach, like Aaron Wall at SEOBook.com, share their experiences and what they are noticing on their own sites more than what they think should result from changing something.  I hope this is making sense.

It’s important as a new online marketer or even as a business owner trying to make sure not to screw up too badly, that you pay attention to a few key points.  Google shares everything and you can find their official stance with a littel bit searching (sometimes a lot of searching) so here are some helpful links…from Google….to help you better understand the web and what they think you should do with your site, analytics and paid search.  Remember, if Google tells you do not do something and you do it, you probably won’t rank as high as someone following the Google rules.  And if you are doing exactly what Google tells you to do, you will probably experience the brighter, happier side of Google Quality Score and Google rankings.

An article in today’s WebProNews is a classic example of why you need to find answers to your questions by asking the holder of information.  To find out how Bounce Rate works and how it can affect your Adwords Quality Score, the staff writers asked Google reps.  Although some of the responses are less than helpful, by asking multiple reps and reading exactly what Google says in their Webmaster Central, we now have a better idea of what Bounce Rate is and how it affects Quality Score.

Now to the helpful things Google has and can teach you:

Google Analytics Definitions

Google Interviews about AdWords Metrics

Google’s own Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

Google AdWords Learning Center

The point is that there are a lot of resources available from Google about Google and you can spend as much time as you need learning the right way to do things OR you can guess and listen to article writers and hope you are doing what’s you are supposed to.