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February 7, 2012

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Recent important changes to Google’s Algorithm

January 28, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment


Google has been very busy indeed this year and in fact this year has seen many changes for the search engine. If you have a website and want to ensure that you maintain or increase your level of traffic then it is important that you should keep abreast of these changes and find out how they will impact you. Here we will look at what the latest changes entail that you may want to keep in mind.

 

If your site is not all it should be this will affect your ranking

The first of these is that Google are now using algorithms in their rankings so that they can remove websites that are of a poor standard from their listings. This will mean that those sites that have been put together by scraping content, or have not created a high enough standard of content will receive less traffic as they will not be allowed to rank highly anymore. The main lesson here is that spending time on your content to ensure that the quality remains high is more beneficial to you than simply trying to throw something together quickly.

Google now considers social networking behaviours

Google is also now impacted by social networking sites so that Facebook likes and mentions etc. as well as twitter references can alter how your website ranks in the search listings that are pulled up. The social plugin could help you here. If you provide people with the opportunity to connect to your site from their networking site then their activity can be seen in their newsfeeds etc.

 

Listings now include links to media

Google now pulls up much more than a straightforward link to another website. Links to videos and images will also now be provided where possible. As such, you should look to include as much content as possible in your site so that your videos and images may also be pulled up. You could include backlinks too to add value to the quality of your content. All of this will help you to rank higher and give Google more of your content to list.

 

The speed of your site is still important

It is important to ensure that all of the pages on your site load properly and in good time because people will not want to wait. Although the speed of your site is only a partial determiner of how highly your site is ranked, it is useful to keep in mind that people will not sit around for a while to see your pages. In the main, your visitors will expect speedy results.

Keep in mind the competition

Google is the market leader but like anything it does still have its competitors so it is important that you do not ignore these. Yahoo and Bing are becoming increasingly relevant so you should be looking to stream traffic from these search engines too. Monitor the traffic you receive from each of the channels and if you want to increase the flow of traffic from any given channel simply optimise your pages for their listings.

 

 

These are just some of the changes that have occurred this year and no doubt there will be many more to come. It is important that if you want to stay ahead of the game and ensure that you rank as highly as you can, you keep all of these updates in mind.

 

Filed Under: Google Tagged With: ,

Has google changed its index to focus more on newer fresher content?

December 2, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Google have spoken about their planned changes to the algorithm they intend to use in their search
results in order to improve the freshness of the content the search engine pulls up. These changes
could affect up to, or over, a third of all searches, impacting both the relevance and quality of results
listed under a search item.

It was not long ago that Google changed their infrastructure to make improvements to the speed with
which search results could be indexed and then returned, but now the algorithmic change will improve
the quality of what is returned too, making the user experience far more efficient.

The new changes are set to build on the success of the implementation and roll out of the Caffeine
system that was put in place only a year ago, by ensuring that the results that are pulled up under
a given search item are current, relevant, and in accordance with their freshness.

Changes expected to impact over a third of searches
With over a third of all searches set to be affected by the planned changes, the impact should be far
greater than that made by the Panda update, which only had the potential to affect 12% of the changes.

In terms of the experience of the user, whereas at one time they may have entered a search item and
found pages of links that may have linked back to old content that had become irrelevant, pages of
new information that may only be moments old will be displayed. This of course means that access
to the most recent information posted on the web will be much more readily available. It will be much
easier to stay up to date with current events as and when they happen.

For events that occur with regularity, such as sporting events, it has historically been difficult to locate
the most recent information, but the new changes will mean that the latest information will be given
automatically unless the search item specifies otherwise.

Sourcing the latest information
Information may be sought about an event that occurs with the same regularity as a sporting event,
for instance, but is less popular. Again, the latest updates will be given for these searches too so that
in the event that you are just looking for some information about a car you are interesting in buying,
the latest products and links will be provided as opposed to content that is a number of years old.

The switch to the caffeine system presented a number of ways for Google to improve its searches. As
content was being pulled in faster, the potential was there for it to be ranked in a way that was more
useful too. The new approach will rank according to how fresh the content is. Although it is said that
the new algorithm will affect over a third of searches, there is no data yet to inform us of how many
searches were already being impacted by freshness before the changes.

Freshness to affect twice the number of searches
It has been said that prior to the changes, freshness affected only 17.5 per cent of the searches returned
but this is set to double. Although, overall the impact will be a positive one and the changes would be
welcomed by most users, there are downsides that should be considered. For instance, if freshness is
going to be given priority then questions must be asked as to what merits ‘freshness’, because if content
that is updated only by adding in a new link is deemed fresh, then the results may still be offering up quite
a bit of out of date material. The case may be that reposts are given priority simply because a new title or
a back link has been included even though all of the information is the same, making it possible for old
stories to hit the top of the search engine results page.

Determining quality by dating the source
Perhaps freshness will not be the only attribute that is rewarded, or perhaps certain criteria will be used
to determine what content is not only fresh but of a high quality too. How relevant and topical a piece of
information is in terms of its relation to the search item should be given consideration. The date that the
information was first used could be one criterion to use to measure how current a piece of information is,
so that the age of the piece can be ascertained before a decision as to whether to list it as relevant or not
can be made.

Addressing the ‘Twitter problem’
}One problem that must still be addressed is that of Twitter and the fact that the most up to date information
available on the internet comes in the form of tweets. As Google cannot yet keep up with Twitter feeds it is not
able to list this information and the new algorithm has not provided an adequate solution to this problem.

Whilst Google are undoubtedly searching for ways to remedy this situation, the fact still remains that whilst
we may start to see changes to the way searches are carried out so that the information returned is generally
more relevant, there are no guarantees that all of these changes will equate to an overall improvement.

Does change mean improvement?
It is more likely that the changes to over a third of searches will add up to nothing more than that – changes,
and as we are all too aware when we hear about new technologies and awe-inspiring software, changes are
not synonymous with improvements in quality, but perhaps rather the general way information is sought and
provided instead.

Filed Under: Google, Local Search Tagged With: , ,

Getting your website to the top of search engine results

October 20, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

If you want to rank highly in Google search results and appear on the very first page then you will need
to make sure that you have included quality, credible backlinks in your website. There are actually four
such links you can include, all of which will make your website a stronger candidate for the top listings
so that you will be seen by more people.

Using Informational backlinks
The first of these is the informational backlink that can take the visitor to other pages and sites that link
to the content of your site. So, if you decide to write about ‘who has the site with the most backlinks’ in a
given year, you can link this text with a site that can pull up this information. There are different ways that
you can do this. When you are looking to ‘add sites’ through the link manager you can search for relevant
sites by a keyword, or by searching for a keyword plus resources so that you can locate sites that are
related to the same topic and content as your own website.

Including a Definitional backlink
There is also the definitional backlink and it seems self-explanatory what this might be. If you are discussing
a certain topic or using certain phrases that may require a more lengthy description then you can include links
that will take your site visitor to a definition that will help them understand what you are writing about in greater
detail. To do this, you could create a ‘glossary of terms’ that describes some of the words and phrases you have
used. Here you can include the pages you wish to link with. Those who choose to write about you or what you do
can then also link in with your text and the pages that you have included, which will further strengthen your position.

Why use Referential backlinks?
The referential backlink is one which states the origin of your information if you have stated something as
fact or included some detail that you have taken from another source. To create a need to do this, you will
firstly need to include some information that requires citation. The easiest way to do this is to include statistics
or graphics that need to be referenced. Use your link manager to locate blogs that are relevant to your website
and let them know about your linkable content and references.

The benefits of the Promotional backlink
Lastly, there is the promotional backlink, which works in a way that promotes other websites in return for
their promotion of your own. This doesn’t mean including links to your rivals, though. It means finding sites
that are in a similar industry to yours, so that if you sell clothes, they sell jewellery, for instance. You could
also find bloggers and encourage them to promote your site in return for a link to their blog.

The number of links and linkable content you have in your site, the stronger you will be in the search engine
results. It goes without saying that your ranking correlates with the amount of hits your website will get and
therefore the amount of business you will get too.

Filed Under: Google, Local Search, Search Engine Optimisation Tagged With: , ,

Ranking highly in your target country’s search engine listings

October 18, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

If you have a website that you would like to get to the top of the search engine then there are some
simple rules you can follow that will help you do just that. Obviously what you do is country-specific
so you will need to tailor your website to the Google listing appropriate for your country.

Hopefully you will find the information we have included interesting and useful to you. Maybe you
will even want to share our tips with your friends….

The first thing to think about is where you are going to sell your goods or services. Just as you might
if you were marketing your business in one country and targeting specific groups of people, you should
do the same but on a larger scale. What is different about the country you are going to sell to. Use this
information to help you work on your website. The results that are pulled up in a search listing will differ
by country so you will need to do slightly different things if you want your website to rank highly in
each of them.

Why you should try to appear in versions that are specific to the country
If it isn’t immediately obvious to you why you should look to have your website listed in other versions
of Google then lets go through some of the reasons. Google.com takes your IP address to locate you and
direct you to the appropriate version. For instance, if you were based in the UK, then this would be the
Google.co.uk version. If you have a listing through the .com version then this would not appear in the local,
by-country version. If you want to be visible to other countries, and choose which countries these will be
then you need to ensure you are listed in their specific versions.

How to ensure you appear in the search engine results
The next question, is how you can do this. Firstly, make sure you have a domain name that is relevant for
that country. A .co.uk domain would not be appropriate for Germany, for instance, so making sure that you
have the country-specific domain name will help you and give you a greater chance of achieving a higher
ranking. If you cannot get a domain name that is specific to that country then the next thing you can do is
to get an IP address that is local to that country instead. At least this way, Google will recognise the IP address
as based within the country you are trying to market and therefore allow you to list within those search results.

Make the content of your site relevant to that country
Including a postal address on your website that is based in the country you wish to target will help Google to
list you in the relevant search engine results, as will having your address information listed on different pages
of your site. The more information that can be collected from your site to help identify your location the better.

Use the right language
Of course, it goes without saying that your website should be in an appropriate language. There is very little point
having your website in French if you are selling to the Spanish, but more than this, your website should use the
right phraseology. If you are an English speaker based in the US but targeting a UK audience, you should adjust
your spellings and phrasing to suit the market. This is not just a concern in terms of reaching the people you want
to market yourself to, but also in terms of having Google recognise you as a site that is appropriate for the listing
you wish to appear in.If you do the things above, you will dramatically improve your chances of being listed in
Google’s results for a particular country.

Getting to the top of the listings
Once you have appeared in the listing you wish to rank highly in you now need to think about how you will get to
the top of the search. Using the right keywords and in the right density will help you in this regard. Google should
not only recognise you as appropriate for a specific country, but relevant to a particular search. You should ensure
that the content of your website is as relevant as possible in terms of text and using the associated keywords.
Hopefully you will find that by using all of this information you are able to get to the top of the search engine listings
and target the market you are looking to break into!

Filed Under: Google, Local Search, Search Engine Optimisation Tagged With: , ,

Tips on how to optimize your Google adwords click through rates

September 30, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Click through rates have so much to do with the way Google works out a quality score.
Although Google was not specific about what precisely the quality score is, a good number
of PPC advertisers perceive that CTR is a top deciding factor. Of course, the lower cost incurred
per clicks has resulted in lower cost per leads and hence more earnings.

By the time web marketing experts shifted their focus purely on click through rates, nearly 40%
of the campaigns they embarked on achieved a click through that was above their target or goal.
They then used several months to work out on optimization, which finally led to about 80% of
their campaigns going above the CTR goals they had set.

Following are the tips and tricks that web marketing experts used in achieving such stunning
results with Click through rate optimization:

  1. Make a change in keywords that generate searches but not clicks
    Experts often tend to have certain keywords that they feel important for their campaigns.
    However, some of these keywords do not generate substantial amount of traffic. If you have
    such keywords, it is time to make a change. It could be that you don’t really need such
    keywords after all, or the ads are not captivating to the target audience. When you make
    some well concieved changes to the keywords it not only results in more efficient customer
    targeting, but also helps reduce the search volume quite drastically.
  2. Experiment with an entirely new ad copy
    Carry out an evaluation of the ad copy currently in use and maintain the most excellent
    performing ad. Create an entirely fresh ad and replace the old one with it, leaving it to run
    for a few weeks. At the expiration of the one week or two weeks period, rotate in another
    ad and finally keep the winning one for longer time.
  3. Track down on constant search query reports
    This is a great way to set aside keywords that result in unwanted clicks or high volume of
    impressions. When you come across irrelevant search queries as triggers, tag them as
    negative keywords to enhance Click through Rates.
  4. Examine the Search Partners Network
    It was also observed that Google’s Search Partners network was good at generating
    improved impressions without clicks. At other times, the Search Partner CTR was nearly
    half the same result it had generated on Google Searches. 

    Consequently, it is sensible to pause the Search Partners if no conversions are taking place.
    For instance, in one campaign recently carried out, it recorded 0.88 percent CTR. However
    when analyzed, it was realized that there actually was 1.19 percent CTR on Google Search
    and 0 percent on the Search Partners. Consequently, the entire campaign was dropping to
    under 1 percent.

 

Filed Under: Google Tagged With: ,

Google and Social Media Marketing – Google+ reviewed

September 24, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Over the last decade, the scope and importance of social networking
has grown leaps and bounds. The position of Facebook in social media
marketing has remained unshakable and non-controversial.

Google+: On several occasions, Google has attempted
to penetrate the realm of social networking with google
buzz which had little success. However, Google+ appears
to be a serious contender now to Facebook and is
expected to have a gradual but steady growth in marke
t share in the social media networking world.
Google plus is already steadily growing in popularity.

How Does Google+ Work, and how does it differ from the others.

Google and Social Networking

Google’s history with social networking is quite long and historical. Google’s earliest social networking
platform attempt is “Orkut”; and was the most successful of all Google’s attempt to have its own social
networking platform. This platform was never used much in the United States. However, Orkut was and
is still popular in places like Brazil, till date.

Friend Connect was another attempt by Google to own a social media platform. This was launched in 2008.
This technique was similar to MySpace or Facebook social network. However, there was a slight difference;
Friend connect employed open standards in creating the platform across a wide range of accounts as well
as websites.

Open Social is yet another of Google’s several attempts to own a social media network. Technically, this
network launched in 2007, does not reflect social platform in itself. The program, along with MySpace tried
to come up with a common programming interface that is applicable to a wide range of social platforms,
so that programmers can incorporate the networks into websites as well as other web applications. However,
Facebook features have beaten this attempt hands down.

Google Lively is among the list of social media platforms that Google has tried to set up. The primary reason
of this platform is to enable the user logins using their personas, in order to connect and interact with one
another. The program was discontinued too soon, it only existed for a few months.

Other social medial networking attempts by Google include Google Wave and Google Buzz.
All these platforms were short-lived.

The core concept of the technique in Google+ is termed as ‘Circles’. This concept is also the most outstanding
features of Google Plus compared to Google’s competitors.

This these circles work;
if you wish to communicate with people, they will go into your ‘circle’ or more than one circle, or, to the circles
of group of people that are known to you. Thus, it is possible to have a circle of co-workers, circle of friends,
circle of family members, and so on.

Only you can view the people in your circle. You will also decide the circles to share contents with, during the
course of writing a status update. This makes Google plus a flexible network in terms of privacy setting management.
Even Facebook does not have such flexible privacy setting – in fact, privacy setting is complex in Facebook.

This latest attempt of Google+ is starting to generate waves; will it live on and compete with Facebook and other
social media networks? Only time will tell.

 

Filed Under: Google, Google plus, Social media marketing Tagged With: , , ,

Google’s official statement warns on pagerank obsession

August 31, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

A good number of webmasters are very much concerned about the PageRank that Google’s toolbar displays. Focusing on this value is not quite prudent enough. Few years back, there was an official statement by Google, pointing out clearly that webmasters should pay attention to other things that count more, instead of getting obsessed with pageRank.

Here’s what Google has to say about PageRank:

“For some years now, the Webmaster Central has continuously told webmasters not to place all their attention on PageRanks as the yardstick for measuring the success of one’s website.

Even if PageRank made Google – distinct as a search engine in 1998 when it was founded, we certainly had a good number of opportunities to bump up and upgrade our systems of ranking over the past decade. PageRank has now stopped being (has it really been?) the all-in-all of ranking.

The publicly visible PR is not the same as the number used by our algorithm for ranking. It is not sensible bothering about a number that is at most three steps taken off from your real goal; meanwhile, it is possible for you to measure what you want to achieve directly.”

If PageRank does not really count, what counts then?

In order to ascertain a website’s position on search results, Google employs a wide range of factors. According to Google’s recent blog, there are three key examples of metrics that count:

  1. Conversion Rate: This refers to the percentage of your site’s visitors that translate to actual clients.
  2. Click-through Rate: Out of the number of times your website was displayed in the search results page, how many times did people click on it?
  3. Bounce Rate: This is the percentage of visitors to your website who do not stay on your site a moment longer.

In addition to these top three examples, there are other things that would help you generate enhanced outcome with your search engine listings.

Plan and Set Realistic Goals

It could be that what you want is more than a high PageRank. Your passion is to generate income with your website. You desire to get more leads, more people signing up for your newsletter…and such things.

Tips on Achieving Your Goal

  • Select the proper keywords: The most important aspect of keyword is to have it get the targeted visitors to your site – visitors that would convert to buyers.
  • Rank high for these targeted keywords: note that what is important is to rank high for the right keywords, not PageRank.
  • Generate quality backlinks: your website will benefit severally when you generate quality backlinks. One, traffic will pour directly via the links. Also, the position of your site in Google will improve significantly.

 

 

Filed Under: Featured Articles, Google, Search Engine Optimisation, Search Engines Tagged With: , ,

Top 6 tips for ranking high in google places

July 29, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Ranking in Google Places for several searches is not just easy. This also shows that Google Places has evolved to become very important. Google Places usually occupy the top segment of the result page for a search phrase. As a result, you may rank number one in a particular keyword, you would notice that more than three Google Places are ranking above your number one position.

Now, what techniques are effective when it comes to ranking high in Google Places?

  1. Business Page Set Up
    The initial step towards ranking high in Google Places is to set up your business page. This is as simple as filling out your profile on Google Places. Google account is what you need and it does not cost you anything to own one, it is also easy to set up.
  2. Getting Listed
    Getting listed is very necessary if you must generate the most excellent citations. Their sources could be from pages like Superpages, Yahoo, Insiderpages and others. When you are listed, it becomes easier to provide Google with each bit of information relevant to your business. Ensure that you include every possible detail, do not leave any essential field. This is very beneficial, detailed information is capable of influencing your rankings for a wide range of search terms.
  3. Citations
    Simply put, citation is mentioning of your business and its offerings on another website. Try your best to get the closest you can to the precise match of your Google Places. Therefore, ensure that your description, link, contact info and just any relevant info matches your Google Places page. Your organic ranking would be positively affected as well.
  4. Ensure that Your Citations are Accurate
    This includes the existing citations and the ones you are getting listed for. It would be a fruitless effort if you get listed with the wrong information.  Check for accuracy in the aspect of your names, phone numbers as well as addresses. Also, check for accuracy regarding the details on your website and ensure it is exactly the same as the one to be listed.
  5. Reviews
    Reviews are proof of trust; it is a powerful tool when it comes to getting citation indexed  and attaining high rank in Google; it also helps in Google Places listing. So, strive for as many reviews as possible from different sites. Encourage both suppliers and customers to leave reviews. Also, you can secure mutual agreement reviews from companies or businesses within your industry.
  6. It is Helpful to Build more Links
    This is not just the regular SEO link building that points back to your website; go ahead with more local links that include your address, business name, URL as well as phone number.

These valuable tips are too effective to be neglected! Swing into action without delay.

Filed Under: Featured Articles, Google, Google panda Tagged With: , , ,

Straight from google: Techniques for optimizing your website

July 27, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

The SEO tips and techniques featured in this article were culled from the live chat that Google’s Matt Cutts granted on YouTube.

Tip One: All hope for regaining ranking is not lost for penalized websites
A big company’s website was penalized due to excess paid links featured on their site. The company which is JC Penney did a lot of work to fix the issues and filed a formal request for another chance afterwards. Well, it may interest you that filing a formal reconsideration request was possible for the company in question because of its size. Well, a small company may go down the drain when such issue arises. Therefore, it is better to play safe by using only endorsed or safe link generation techniques.

Tip Two: Google’s Panda is being considered by Google for more language options
The target of Google’s Panda update is content farms (also known as article directories) as well as poor quality sites. Well, it is not as though these types of website are as common in multiple languages. However, Google is set to bring out the Panda update to multiple languages when the testing period is over.

Tip Three: A Ranking Signal to Look out for is Data from Blocked Sites
It is possible for people searching through Google to block sites in search result. When sufficient number of users block a particular website, this is a signal that the blocked site is of poor quality.

Tip Four: When pointing links to your own website, do not use the nofollow attribute
This rule which was rolled out by Google’s Matt Cutt also applies to links to privacy policy on your website. The nofollow attribute should be employed for external links that are not completely reliable. The reputation of a site could be dented by the site you link to.

Tip Five: Another ranking signal is going to be Google’s + 1
Presently, Google’s + 1 is the answer provided by Google to Facebook’s ‘Like’ button.  In no distant time, Google is likely to offer this feature to those who own websites. The feature would also become a ranking signal.

Tip Six: Your site’s IP address can be a determining factor for its ranking
If you desire to rank high on Google, your chances would be high if the site features a French IP address.

Tip Seven: Prevent duplicate content by employing the canonical tag and 301 redirects
These tools would help you keep off from duplicate content issues, especially when you have the same content in several URLs on your site.

Finally, you can use Top10 Optimizer to get direction on how to acquire SEO skills to optimize your webpages for Google ranking.

Filed Under: Google, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation Tagged With: , , , ,

Google Panda: Mandate on businesses to create valuable content

July 25, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Perhaps you haven’t been attentive to the news going on about Google Panda; if so, there are key things you need to know, especially if content creation is one of your tools for marketing your business. Recently, Google introduced another technique regarding the ranking of websites that feature contents. As it stands, the article directories no longer receive priority when it comes to ranking on Google’s search result page.

In essence, Google is now currently assessing the quality of sites linking to your site to know their worth. Well, we can’t say exactly what Google’s formula for this recent development is. However, here are some things we can deduce from the whole picture as being disqualifying factors:

  • Websites that feature much advertisements
  • Sites that feature several unrelated content
  • Poorly moderated websites
  • Sites with too many keywords
  • Unnecessary multiple linking to other websites.

If you are a regular web surfer who has good judgmental acumen, you can easily spot these sites when you come across them. Well, a lot of companies or businesses do not like the new ranking technique; however, these new rules can work to your advantage if you know the tips and tricks that work.

Here are the tricks and tips that ought to work:

  • Create and offer quality content
    In my opinion, this is the most important tip. It is needless reproducing countless contents that do not add value but features too many keywords. If you are a culprit in this regard, change your strategy and concentrate more on valuable info that would benefit your customers. Such valuable contents include FAQs, ‘how to’ articles which should be directed to your product or service, company news and others.
  • Pour in more quality and fresh articles
    Google is quick to pick websites that feature fresh articles. Therefore, make plan to create a lot of valuable articles on a weekly basis. Also, you need to decide on relevant topics to write on. To keep it diverse, you can appoint people in your company to cover different topics related to your product or general theme.
  • Ensure that people get to know about your content
    Your contents would serve no purpose if people do not get to read them. One of the ways to share your content is to set up RSS feed from your site (blog). You can also use your company’s emails to share links. Also, include links to the posts you make on Facebook and other social media platforms. These are ways to help people find and read your content.
  • Ridiculously low paid writers would produce low quality content. Invest reasonably in article writing in order to get the best result from marketing your business with articles. So, if you don’t have time or the skill to create irresistible, quality articles, hire a professional freelance writer for the job.

Don’t see Google Panda as an obstacle; instead, see it as a propelling force to push you to compete better.

Filed Under: Google, Google panda Tagged With: ,
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