Google's secrets are not really secrets at all, because many of their details have been published and can be looked up.

Anyone interested in designing or improving their website can obtain the necessary advice from official publication such as the Google Webmaster Guidelines or the Google Webmaster Central Blog (http://googlewebmastercentral-de.blogspot.de).

Another recommendation: the Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, which can be downloaded free of charge from Google.

However, it is preferable to read the English version rather than the German, advised Kaspar Szymanski, speaking at the ITB Marketing & Destination Workshop during the ITB Berlin Convention.

Szymanski aroused considerable interest among his audience, due to the fact that the SEO expert worked for seven years in the Google Search Quality Team. He now markets his experience through his own firm, Searchbrothers (www.searchbrothers.com). Kaspar Szymanski recommended that his audience should focus on generating relevant content that is of genuine use to the target group.

This is because Google has closely studied the actual way that internet users act: clicking on a link and immediately returning to the search engine because the website did not take them where they wanted to go has a negative effect on the ranking in the long term.

"A very good website that is popular with users does not necessarily have to be SEO-optimized", said Szymanski. More useful content can be generated if the people producing it also actually use the products and services that it describes.

If is also helpful for the team of authors to engage in discussions with the company's customer services department, who are generally acquainted with the immediate concerns of customers and other interested persons.

In addition to improving the profile of the content, technical optimization can also be helpful in order to improve the Google ranking. Szymanski believes that indexing, crawling and serving go hand in hand as important prerequisites for success.

He also recommends that the providers of websites should pay careful attention to the snippets used to display their websites, and to improve them if necessary.

Rainer Heubeck