by John Gaudio
Jefferson Graham, of USA Today, interviews Matt Cutts on simple suggestions for being found on Google. Matt says the easiest thing is to think about what text your potential customers are going to type in the search box, then make sure you include that text as part of your content. Title tags matter to Google, as do description tags. In fact these are often displayed in the links Google creates when it does find your content. Make these tags so good they compel new customers to follow those Google links to your site.
Because links are important, Matt Cutts suggests you start a blog, and use social media sites. It can be simple. Tell your potential future customers, and the world, useful peices of information that relate to what you do, and what you want them to notice about you. Five tips on plumbing repair for example. Also, "No spamming or doing anything unsavory at all."
Matt also tries to dispel misconceptions like "you have to pay Google somehow, or that you have to pay someone else who will pay Google" to be highly ranked. Absolutely not true. "You don't have to pay Google a cent." Also, Matt assures us that buying ads on Google does not get you higher "editorial search results," (also referred to as organic search results.)
Matt Cutts says "Google's very quick about crawling websites....We can find many websites within days." He recommends you go to google.com/addurl.html to give Google your main URL, and to google.com/webmasters, where you can submit a detailed site map of your domain.
I've followed most of these suggestions for years, using the MyST Technology platform to automate and greatly amplify the implementation of Matt Cutt's suggestions. Please click the video above for the full five minute interview and check out the links below to learn more about findability on Google. I'd love to hear your comments, so please click the "post a comment" button below. | 
