In junior high, there were cliques — we all remember this. While you were in grade school, the cliques were there too, just not as pronounced as in junior high. In high school, everyone knew his roll and his clique. Just when you thought you were outta school, these fantastic games aren’t over!

Google knows your role, Google knows your clique — so you had better believe they’ll enforce it.

At this point, you might be crying to the Gods, “What does it all mean?!?!”

Never fear my friends; I’ll clue you in to the big G’s devious machinations consider SEO.

The Google Machine, like all good yard aides in junior high, likes to know what to expect out of groups. Yard aides liked to know that the stoners would hang out by the kickball fence, the jocks would hang out by the gym, the nerds would be by the library and the ‘cool’ kids were by the cafeteria. This way, if ever there was any indiscretion, they would know exactly where to look depending on the problem.

Google is the same way, it wants to know where to look. This is why if you run a website talking about football, you should link to other football sites. Run a site that talks politics? Link to other politicos!

Many people are afraid of linking out from their site because they’ll give away their precious, precious link juice. Come on people! Didn’t you learn anything in kindergarten? Sharing is good.

Link out to your clique, make some friends and then the Google Machine will know where you put you in searches.

Here’s one thing that has always struck me as odd: Why is it that age leads to credibility? I’ve wondered this since I was young.

Back in third grade, my teacher was explaining that you could fold a square two different ways to make it match, top to bottom and left to right. At this point, my friend and I who were usually some of the nerdier kids in the class scratched our heads.

He raised his hand and said, “Can’t it be done four different ways? Top to bottom, left to right, upper left corner to bottom right corner and upper right corner to bottom left corner?” I, naturally, agreed with him, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure there are four ways to do this.”

Well, much to our dismay, she disagreed. Not only that, but being older than us (and our teacher) she expected us to relent our silly pursuit of the truth. We did no such thing.

We continued to pester her about how there really are more than two ways to do it (which, I’m sure at this point in my life she knew we were right, she just didn’t want to look bad in front of the other students), but she wouldn’t cave.

That’s when she made us change our colors! (For those of you who don’t know, it was her way of punishing us — we had to march in front of class and flip our color cards, letting everyone know we had been bad.)

This was the first, and only, time that I ever had to change my color in my entire scholastic career — and all because the older person thought she was right!

This relates to my current age conundrum. Here’s the deal: the algorithm for most all search engines (Microsoft just announced that Live will start doing this too) heavily weight the age of the domain when giving rankings. This implies that because a domain is older that it naturally has better information and is a better resource for people.

Let’s be serious though, this just isn’t true! I chalk this up to laziness on the programmers part on not knowing a better way to add credence to a domain. However, I’m sure that there is a better way. There are enough people working on the algorithms for the different companies that domain age shouldn’t be as important as it is.

Until this happens though, domain age is important for SEO. So, for those of you out there looking to start a site or a web business, check out what domains are currently parked (bought by someone else and waiting for an offer) before you make a decision on your name. The $1,000 or so you might spend upfront for an old domain that had no information on it before you got it will pay off in getting you out of the sandbox quicker.

As dumb as that seems.

The hotly contested Pennsylvania primary was finally held yesterday! For those of you who are big political followers (I’m a fan), I know this excited you as much as it did me.

However, while watching the polls last night and reading everything I could get my eyes on, it got me thinking about how the Pennsylvania primary relates to SEO.

When you’re optimizing your pages, you’re looking for the most exposure right? You’re looking to get your message out to as many people as possible — with a catch. These people need to be interested in what you have to say, which is exactly what good SEO delivers.

Both Obama and Clinton were doing this exact same thing! Their goal was simple: get the message out that each one is the best candidate for the job. If you were a non-voter or a republican, then if you heard what they had to say, fine, but they weren’t targeting you.

So, what optimization strategies did they use for their respective campaigns?

Each of them got solid grassroots help, they utilized their management structure and they kept their message clear and on point.

Or, in other words, they used solid content (grassroots), utilized good subheads (their management teams) and added clarity with good title tags (their message).

See? SEO is everywhere people! It’s just a matter of knowing where to look.

Do you read newspapers anymore? Seriously, do you? If you haven’t, do you at least look at them? Alright, if you’re still answering no, pause reading this (I expect you to return!) and take a minute to go inspect one.

Notice anything? Anything catching your eye?

I honestly haven’t read a newspaper in…well, a few years, but I do look at them as I pass them on newsstands. Why? It’s for the exact same reason I told you to check one out: their eye-catching ability.

Newsies can teach people in SEO web design a thing or two — especially when it comes to designing above the fold.

Designing Above the Fold in Newspapers

There’s this concept that newsies have called, “above the fold.” This is all the news that you can see when the paper is still folded in half.

Why is this such a big deal? That’s their free advertising! As people walk by a newsstand, they’ll see everything above the fold — and if the people in the newsroom have designed the paper properly, it’ll pull the casual readers in and make them buy a paper.

They employ catchy headlines, great photography and witty openings on all of their work above the fold. You need to use many of the same techniques in your web design.

SEO Web Design Above the Fold

You can apply this same concept to SEO web design. When people stop by your site, they’re going to spend a few second there, no more — unless you can entice them.

Look at your site when you first land there. What do you see without scrolling down?

If there isn’t something compelling on your homepage, starting from the very top, then you’re in trouble. Everything above the fold (in this case, it’s everything that shows up without having to scroll), should serve a purpose.

Designing Your Website with SEO in Mind

Say it with me, “Everything should do something.”

Do you have navigation above the fold? Do you have something to let people interact with you? Is there compelling text? Is it colorful? Is it eye-catching?

You only get one shot at impressing most people, don’t squander your opportunities. Just like how newspapers are drawing people in simply by the headlines, pictures and designs above the fold, your site should be too.

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to get some casual reading done — well, casual for me. (Meaning I wasn’t reading Shakespeare, Milton or Chaucer — all fun, but not ‘casual.’ [Though, I do need to go through the Canterbury Tales again…]) I checked out some other SEO companies online.

Wow.

That’s really all I should have to say about that. “Top 10 rankings guaranteed in 5 weeks or your money returned.” “We’ll get you to the first page in Google in a month, without question.” “You’ll rank so high the Almighty will want to read you from Google.”

Sweet Methuselah’s beard, promises like these are signs of a company that you should avoid at all costs. Honestly, anyone who is promising you a top 10 ranking in any sort of timeframe, or even at all, is a shady character.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a 1,342 times, SEO is about techniques and best practices, but there are no guarantees. Come on crappy companies, stop making ridiculous promises like this!