Google and SEO

You’ve probably seen many SEO blogs and articles in the past talking about keywords this and content that, but one thing I’ve come to notice is not all of them are up to date, even the most recent ones.

Many SEO blogs and articles will retort about the importance of Meta Keywords in Search rankings, but the three most popular Search Engines; Google, Bing and Yahoo, almost completely ignore Meta Keywords, and they don’t have much of a sway on Search Rankings, instead they rely more on Meta Descriptions and Click-Through-Rates the website has.

Back in 2009, Google noticed that many websites had been doing a technique that was deemed to be unfair, known as Keyword Stuffing. This is where a website uses a lot of keywords to try and reach the first place of any Search Ranking that is related to them. In fact, on occasion websites would add the names of their competitors in their tags, so when someone searched for their competitor, they would show up instead. To combat this, Google removed the use of Meta Keywords in their SEO. 

Now, Google uses Meta Description, CTR and Ads to determine what position a website appears, as well as Backlinks and how Optimised the website is. Whilst Meta Keywords aren’t used, Keyword Stuffing will still be punished and lower the websites position on a Search Result. 

Meta Descriptions are the small paragraphs that appear underneath links in the Search Results, the way Google uses Meta Descriptions, is that they take the Keywords from the Search and compare it to the words in the Meta Description, and see how many of the Keywords in the Search are in the Meta Description. They also provide users with a little snippet of what the website contains. It’s recommended by many that a Meta Description should be under 160 characters, however from my research I found out that google also, and mainly, uses the actual pixel size of the Description, recommended under 990px, which you can check here, it’s what I used personally, although don’t forget about the characters as well.

Click-Through-Rate is the amount of times someone has clicked on the website’s link when it has appeared in the Search Results, and the higher the CTR is, the better Google will see the website. The website will appear higher in Search results with the Higher the CTR, well it’s not the only contributing factor, but it helps. One thing that can help with CTR, is using the Meta Description; making the Description seem appealing and inviting will make the user want to click on the link, and find out more, being clear and understandable will also help people in deciding whether to click on your site or not.

There are other methods to get your site noticed, like Google Ads, Backlinks and having an optimised site. Google Ads works by the website owner placing a ‘bid’ on a targeted Keyword, and if that bid is deemed to be higher than Google’s value on the Keyword, you’ll get an ad. Which is then determined by a system known as Ad Rank, which calculates how much you spent, the quality of your ad itself, and the page where the ad is linked to as well. The better the ad rank, the higher the ad will appear, but every time it appears in a search, the Ad Rank is calculated every time, so it’s not a permanent spot on the top.

Backlinks are another method to climb to the top of Google Search Results, they are when a web page links to another page on a different website, Google considers these to be almost like votes for the page being linked, and having a lot of Backlinks can improve the Organic Traffic to your website as well.

And an optimised site, may seem like such an obvious method, but can really help with Google looking at your site, the more optimised the more that Google likes the website and places it higher than the rest. So balancing between a good looking site for users, and having an optimised site for Google’s Search Result would be the best idea. Plus an optimised site will also be better for the user too with loading times.

So in conclusion, I hope this has either cleared up some misconceptions about Keywords, or helped you in another way with your SEO, although don’t forget that this is only scratching the surface!

Our Apprenticeships


Contact Us


Stay Up To Date


Our Training Courses

Benefits of Education and Training Qualifications

Here at Oracle Training Solutions we offer teaching and assessment qualifications. These qualifications are suitable for those who wish to work in education, in a teaching or training environment. They teach you the knowledge and practical skills to be able to support learners on a one to one basis or in a group.

The Highfield Level 3 Award in Education and Training

This qualification has been designed to provide an introduction to teaching for individuals who would like to work or currently work within FE Colleges, Independent Training Providers and/or Local Authorities.

Benefits of completing this qualification:

-You will understand appropriate teaching and learning approaches within a specialist area

-Allows you to widen your teaching knowledge

-It will improve your communication and confidence in a working environment

-A great stepping stone to progress into employment or a higher qualification

-Allows you to develop a deeper understanding of teaching in a working environment

This qualification is great for…

-individuals who work, or want to work as teachers/trainers in the further education and skills sector

-individuals who want a short qualification to enable them to make career choices

-individuals who have completed some introduction to training qualifications

The Highfield Level 4 Certificate in Education and Training

This qualification has been designed to prepare trainee teachers to teach in a wide range of contexts. It requires observation and assessment of practice and the range of optional units available provide opportunities to contextualise the qualification for different learning environments.

Benefits of completing this qualification:

-It will improve your communication and confidence in a working environment

-You will understand appropriate teaching and learning approaches within a specialist area

-It will improve your communication and confidence in a working environment

-Allows you to gain knowledge you wouldn’t be able to get in university

-Great pathway for trainee teachers to progress into employment

This qualification is great for…

-individuals who have just started a teaching/training role

-individuals who have already achieved some Learning and Development units that can be carried forward into this qualification

-individuals who work or who want to work as teachers/trainers in the further education and skills sector

Our Apprenticeships


Contact Us


Stay Up To Date


Our Training Courses

Benefits of Oracle Qualifications:

Management, Customer Service, Safeguarding & Prevent, Advice & Guidance

At Oracle we can provide flexible courses in multiple sectors, tailored around your job role and commitments to suit you and your organisation. For example, we offer courses in management, customer service, safeguarding and advice and guidance, delivered with a mixture of face to face visits in the workplace and our online platform.

Our Management Courses:

– Level 3 Diploma in Management is for learners who work in, or who want to work in management roles such as Section Manager, First Line Manager, Assistant Manager, Trainee Manager, Senior Supervisor and Junior Non- Commissioned Officer.

– Level 5 NVQ Diploma in Management and Leadership is designed for learners’ to develop core middle management skills and competencies. It also introduces learners to strategic management concepts, preparing those who aspire towards senior management roles.

– BTEC Level 5 Diploma in Management and Leadership extends the work related focus from the BTEC Level 5 Certificate and forms the technical knowledge component for the Level 5 Management and Leadership Higher Apprenticeship.

These courses can benefit the individual and the workplace as you will

• Improve your communication skills
• Receive valuable, unbiased feedback on your strengths and weaknesses
• Develop a deeper understanding of management roles
• Understand how to adapt to, plan for and implement change in the workplace
• Improve your decision making skills

Our Customer Service Courses:

– Level 2 Diploma in Customer Service is for learners who work in, or who want to work in customer service in roles such as Customer Service Advisor, Customer Service Operator, Call Centre Advisor, Help Desk Operative and Service Agent.

– Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service is for learners who work in, or who want to work in customer service roles such as Customer Service Supervisor, Customer Relationship Manager, Customer Service Team Leader, Client Services Officer Events Coordinator.

These courses can benefit the individual and the workplace as you will

• Improve existing customer service skills and acquire new ones, focussing on communication, listening and problem-solving
• Increase customer satisfaction and form a strong basis for customer loyalty
• Achieve higher customer retention, acquire new customers, increase sales and overall see a rise in profit
• Increase employee motivation and engagement through developing a deeper understanding of their role and the impact it has on the company

Our Safeguarding & Prevent Courses:

– Level 2 Certificate in Understanding Safeguarding and Prevent is to support anyone who is responsible for the safeguarding of people and for helping prevent radicalisation. It gives learners an understanding of recognising the signs of abuse, how to reduce the risk of radicalisation and the potential consequences of illegal online activity.

This course is extremely useful to have in any workplace as you will

• Learn who could be vulnerable, developing a better understanding of initial signs of abuse and neglect
• Improve your team’s ability to communicate, both with customers and colleagues
• Increase trust and pride in a company as staff members can see that safety is taken seriously and practices are in place to maintain this
• Allows staff to be able to record and report abuse and neglect correctly and whenever necessary

Our Advice & Guidance Courses:

– Level 3 NVQ Certificate in Advice and Guidance is suitable for those working directly with clients in organisations providing advice and guidance services. These services may include careers guidance, government agencies such as Connexions, youth work and youth justice, schools, colleges, training providers, universities, prison services, trade unions, charitable and voluntary services, housing, IAG partnerships and human resource departments as well as health and social care environments.

These courses can benefit the individual and the workplace as you will

• Improve skills to ensure effective communication and how to minimise difficulties when communicating with clients
• Be able to understand your clients and their requirements better to assist them and tailor the services provided
• Be able to provide guidance within organisations and working with other services through negotiation, liaison and referral

Click here for more information on our other courses such as:

• Teaching and Assessment qualifications, find out about the benefits of these here
• Assessor / Verifier qualifications, find out about the benefits of these here

Our Apprenticeships


Contact Us


Stay Up To Date


Our Training Courses