Go with your Gut… Most of us, if we’re honest with ourselves, know when we’re doing something well and when we’re not. Be honest with yourself, go to your website and ask yourself if you’re creating a great experience for your visitors. If you suspect that you’re not, you’re probably right. Many times you can avoid getting slapped by Google if you have the courage to slap yourself out of denial and face the fact that you’re being cheap or lazy with your SEO. Read more to see how we will help you with your honest evaluation….

Here are the site evaluation questions which Google has on their webmaster guidelines:

1. Would you trust the information presented in this article?
2. Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
3. Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
4. Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
5. Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
6. Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
7. Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
8. Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
9. How much quality control is done on content?
10. Does the article describe both sides of a story?
11. Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
12. Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
13. Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
14. For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?
15. Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?
16. Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
17. Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
18. Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
19. Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
20. Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
21. Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
22. Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?
23. Would users complain when they see pages from this site?

Go to your site and ask yourself every one of those questions, be honest with yourself as if your income depended on it. You might be able to sneak by Google for a little while longer using shortcut techniques like content scraping, spamming for back links and hiring out writers who work for a couple dollars an article or who will spin one decent article into dozens of crappy ones. However, Google is on a mission, and they have a LOT of money and a whole lot of power to make it happen. Here are two questions you need to ask yourself to make sure you don’t end up caught in their web:

“If Google had the technology TODAY to completely evaluate every website on the internet according to the above guidelines, where would your site(s) end up?”

“If someone (a human being) from Google were to visit your site RIGHT NOW with the intention of deciding if it was worthy of a decent ranking, what would their decision be?”

Again, most of us, if we’re honest with ourselves, know when we’re doing something well and when we’re not. Ask yourself the above questions and if you have any doubts about the outcome, it’s time to get to work. Your income and your future depends on it. An honest answer to these questions will help you to apply the most imporant part to be on Google’s Good side!