Your Guide to Search Engine Optimization By Google
OCT 8TH
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Last Tuesday of September, Google release a new version of their Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide.
I had the chance to glance on it quickly and afterwards did a good read on the guide.
Overall, it is a good read for someone who is struggling to figure out what to do with regards to SEO.
It starts with describing the meta data of an html page and proceed to on page optimization. It then guide thru the importance of proper navigation and describes anchor text, and how to optimize images on web pages.
It also highlights the importance of providing two sitemaps of your website, one for your visitor and another one for the search engines.
I think the most important aspect of this guide is the inclusion of how mobile is optimized by the crawler. Two paths for the robots to crawl but the question that comes to mind is this – does Google have a separate index for mobile aside from the regular desktop search?
It seems to indicate that there are two separate data store.
It also implied the importance of guiding the user to the proper path of web usage. If they are in their mobile device, redirect them to the mobile site, if such a site exist.
The inclusion of the importance of social media sites as another route for promotion was also touched by the guide.
Again, this guide is mostly geared towards those who needs to get a basic understanding of SEO. But for intermediate users, this is a good refresher on what Google expects from web sites.
You can download the guide -> Google SEO Starter Guide
What Is The Google Page Rank Algorithm?
AUG 26TH
By Asep Komara
Google has a comprehensive and highly developed technology, a straightforward interface and a wide-ranging array of search tools which enable the users to easily access a variety of information online.
Google users can browse the web and find information in various languages, retrieve maps, stock quotes and read news, search for a long lost friend using the phonebook listings available on Google for all of US cities and basically surf the 3 billion odd web pages on the internet!
Google boasts of having world’s largest archive of Usenet messages, dating all the way back to 1981. Google’s technology can be accessed from any conventional desktop PC as well as from various wireless platforms such as WAP and i-mode phones, handheld devices and other such Internet equipped gadgets.
Page Rank Based On Popularity
The web search technology offered by Google is often the technology of choice of the world’s leading portals and websites. It has also benefited the advertisers with its unique advertising program that does not hamper the web surfing experience of its users but still brings revenues to the advertisers.
When you search for a particular keyword or a phrase, most of the search engines return a list of page in order of the number of times the keyword or phrase appears on the website. Google web search technology involves the use of its indigenously designed Page Rank Technology and hypertext-matching analysis which makes several instantaneous calculations undertaken without any human intervention. Google’s structural design also expands simultaneously as the internet expands.
Page Rank technology involves the use of an equation which comprises of millions of variables and terms and determines a factual measurement of the significance of web pages and is calculated by solving an equation of 500 million variables and more than 3 billion terms. Unlike some other search engines, Google does not calculate links but utilizes the extensive link structure of the web as an organizational tool. When the link to a Page, lets say Page B is clicked from a Page A, then that click is attributed as a vote towards Page B on behalf of Page A.
Consider Back Links Popularity Votes
Quintessentially, Google calculates the importance of a page by the number of such ‘votes’ it receives. Not only that, Google also assesses the importance of the pages that are involved in the voting process. Consequently, pages that are themselves ahead in ranking and are important in that way also help to make other pages important. One thing to note here is that Google’s technology does not involve human intervention in anyway and uses the inherent intelligence of the internet and its resources to determine the ranking and importance of any page.
Hypertext-Matching Analysis
Unlike its conventional counterparts, Google is a search engine which is hypertext-based. This means that it analyzes all the content on each web page and factors in fonts, subdivisions, and the exact positions of all terms on the page. Not only that, Google also evaluates the content of its nearest web pages. This policy of not disregarding any subject matter pays off in the end and enables Google to return results that are closest to user queries.
Google has a very simple 3-step procedure in handling a query submitted in its search box:
When the query is submitted and the enter key is pressed, the web server sends the query to the index servers. Index server is exactly what its name suggests; it consists of an index much like the index of a book which displays where is the particular page containing the queried term is located in the entire book.
After this, the query proceeds to the doc servers, and these servers actually retrieve the stored documents. Page descriptions or “snippets” are then generated to suitably describe each search result.
These results are then returned to the user in less than a one second! (Normally)
Approximately once a month, Google updates their index by recalculating the Page Ranks of each of the web pages that they have crawled. The period during the update is known as the Google Dance.
After this, the query proceeds to the doc servers, and these servers actually retrieve the stored documents. Page descriptions or “snippets” are then generated to suitably describe each search result.
These results are then returned to the user in less than a one second! (Normally)
Approximately once a month, Google updates their index by recalculating the Page Ranks of each of the web pages that they have crawled. The period during the update is known as the Google Dance.
Asep komara Sanjaya is a freelance writer and a webmaster of Business Directory Site http://www.sapujagat.com
Article Source: EZineArticles
Doing The Google Dance With Page Rank And Backlinks
AUG 26TH
Page Rank or PR is one of the most essential aspects of many online marketers include while designing their marketing campaigns web sites, Google is well know for its page rankings. Search Engine Optimization determines the page rank as well as whether or not the subject is a hot topic.
In order to determine how well they should rank, Google uses a complex algorithm to analyze web pages. The manner or formula that Google uses is a well-guarded secret. However, it is public knowledge that one consideration is in the number of pages that link to a particular page or backlinks.
The internet is full of information concerning backlinks. It is however, controversial as to the manner of how individuals get their links as well as almost everything concerning page rank. Some individuals get their backlinks by purchasing them for others or a link broker; however, Google discourages this type of practice to do so.
Google holds its stance, that a page rank should be naturally popular and not artificially stimulated by outside sources. The page rank, according to Google should reflect the true interest and relativity of the page according to specific search terms.
Of course, some contend that this type of method of determining the page rank is great and worthwhile, whereas there are others who consider this as an overbearing, sinister motive on Googles part.
Although, the argument continues concerning the rules of Google, the backlinks hold importance in ranking web pages. If you are into marketing online, page rank is an essential issue to you and your sales.
Page ranking is vital, since it can increase the traffic you have for potential clients. If your page falls below the first page of search engine results, it will influence the amount of internet traffic your site entertains.
Each link does carry its own difference in quality, since it is not only the number of backlinks on a site, but the quality of those links as well. Yet again, this is an area of controversial debate.
Reciprocal links can make a bad impression where page rank is concerned; since this is when different, sites trade links to improve the page rank of their web page. Google passes over reciprocal links. In other words, pages that contain reciprocal links will not benefit from page rank, so it is a big waste of time.
When it comes to Search Engine Optimization, Google is more in favor of one-way links. These links lead from one site to another website, with no reciprocal links involved between the two sites.
The favoritism of these one-way likes is quite simple really. Many consider that, a website that has many links leading to it is providing information that others may consider high in value.
Therefore, a page rank will reflect that other individuals think it a good website because of the number of links that lead you to that particular website. Whether you agree or not, the reasoning for this is compelling, while many leading SEO experts consider backlinks and the quality of those links to hold consideration in the calculation of a page rank.
The true issue is however, that many online marketers need to learn how to go about finding valuable and valid links for their websites. There are two basic methods, which are DIY, Do it yourself or OS, Outsourcing.
The do it yourself method is demanding and time consuming, although it features considerable merit for many reasons. However, it simply means taking the time to build good relationships with other websites, since this will aid in increasing the natural page rank. This is what Google looks for when ranking web pages.
Link building by Outsourcing are a process you can use through an assortment of agencies that specialize in this technique. Many online businesses claim the ability of being a matching service. This permits you to get backlinks from various other web sites. They match you up with other web sites they have in their database of related content.
However, there are risks involved with outsourcing since you have no real control of the method that links are created for your website. Therefore, it is in your best interest to study the practices and polices of any type of link building program. When it comes to outsourcing your link building to others, it is best to practice the art of caution.
On the other hand, social networking is quickly becoming a very popular technique for acquiring inbound one-way links to your website. It is however, an experimental method at this time. However, many individuals report that this method brings considerable success and quickly improves a page rank.
Backlinks are only one of the contributing factors out of hundreds of factors that determine page rank, according to Google. Google has no intention whatsoever in giving away its secret information, since it feels this would compromise the integrity of Google and its search engine results.
What is obviously significant and well known is that Google ranks pages according to the quality and number of backlinks as a central factor. Online marketers should pay special attention to such details as they would any other faucet of their business enterprise. This is something to consider carefully with any type of marketing strategy.
You should always be careful and take your time to focus while creating your web pages and website, so that they are search engine optimized. Although, backlinks are essential, they are only one portion of how well your page is ranked in the search engine results.
Optimization for search engines should always hold a forefront in your thoughts and planning, when writing your blogs or building your web pages as well as writing articles to use in a marketing program. In order to do the Google dance it is imperative that we all learn the first steps to enjoy the success of having our web pages within a top page rank.
Kevin Sinclair is the publisher and editor of Be Successful News, a site that provides information and articles on how to succeed in your own home or small business.
Article Source: EZineArticles
How To Stay One Step Ahead of the Google Dance
AUG 26TH
By Jeff Smith
It’s taken you 6-months of hard work, constant changes, reading every shred of information on search engine optimization strategy not to mention thousands of dollars trying out web optimization tools and services.
Finally, you have a page rank of 5, you are listed in the top 10 on your major keywords, and you are seeing the benefit – some decent traffic from Google and other search engines.
Then, as quickly as your search engine optimization strategy begines working, it suddenly, and without notice, disappears!
You frantically look for evidence of dropped links, pages not working, it HAS to be something you’ve done!
Well, the truth is, it may not have been anything you did – turns out Google updates their algorithms every few months in an attempt to improve it’s search engine optimization strategy.
In fact, Google has shown that they are not afraid to make major changes impacting tens of thousands of sites, businesses and corresponding sales and profits.
Even more concerning, everything points to the fact they will continue to make changes.
So what can you do to protect your search engine optimization strategy and the resulting traffic critical to the success of your online marketing?
There are some things you can do.
1. BUILD CONTENT WITH REAL, RELEVANT VALUE
Do you develop content just for search engines or just for your visitors and customers?
The answer is both.
Truth is, your customers search for information based on keywords. Use tools like Wordtracker (http://www.highertrustmarketing.com/part/wordtracker) to find those keywords.
Plan your articles around answering questions associated with each keyword. Over time, you will build highly relevant content that will be irrisistable to the search engines – no matter how they change them.
2. LINK FOR QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY
One single link with a Pagerank (Google’s term for ranking sites) of 5 is worth 10 or more sites with a Pagerank of 3.
In addtion, as an important part of your search engine optimization strategy, make sure your links include a brief description (a URL only inbound link may be ignored), includes important keyword and appears on a relevant partner site.
Avoid FFA’s and most link farms, they may actually do you more harm than good.
3. AVOID KNOWN MISTAKES
Common mistakes people make with their search engine optimization strategy are:
Cross linking unrelated sites, recent discussion with master Affiliate Marketing pro James Martell recently brought this issue to light
Submitting to link farms, in many cases this will eventually get your site penalized or even banned from the SE’s
Duplicate content. Many people feel the need to duplicate their pages and make small changes for each search engine (also called doorway pages) – however if this is not done properly, you will get penalized
Trying to load your content with too many keywords. Focus on 1-3 keywords only
4. USE GOOGLE ADS
Submitting to link farms, in many cases this will eventually get your site penalized or even banned from the SE’s
Duplicate content. Many people feel the need to duplicate their pages and make small changes for each search engine (also called doorway pages) – however if this is not done properly, you will get penalized
Trying to load your content with too many keywords. Focus on 1-3 keywords only
4. USE GOOGLE ADS
While still unproven, it certainly has been found by many in the search engine watch community that sites who use Google Adwords or Google Adsense tend to appear higher in listings.
5. VARY YOUR TRAFFIC GENERATION TECHNIQUES
Too many people rely on Google traffic for 99% of their traffic. It’s true, search engine traffic is the most economical way to advertise online, but there are many other ways to vary your traffic generation strategy.
Add these traffic generation techniques to your search engine optimization strategy:
Writing articles
Running affiliate program
Joint Ventures
Viral “sticky” tools
Press Releases
Yes – you need to dance with Google. By following these techniques, you can actually lead your traffic generation strategy rather than follow the Google dance.
Running affiliate program
Joint Ventures
Viral “sticky” tools
Press Releases
Yes – you need to dance with Google. By following these techniques, you can actually lead your traffic generation strategy rather than follow the Google dance.
About The Author
Discover how to create your own best-selling eBooks, Special reports or books to sell online …AND keep 100% of the profits. Limited time complimentary access to 7-Part Minicourse will get you started quickly and easily. Visit:http://www.highertrustmarketing.com/
Article Source: EZineArticles
Mastering The Google Dance And The Use Of Page Rank
AUG 26TH
By Matt Jackson
update of the Google index is often referred to as the Google dance. For several days when Google is updating their index to include new pages and update their algorithms, search results almost seem to take on a life of their own. High positioned sites have been known to drop into near obscurity while the lesser-judged sites suddenly find themselves careering towards dizzy heights in the rankings. While this phenomenon is usually relatively short lived, lasting only two or three days, many webmasters take it to be a sign of things to come during the next major update.
Spurious Search Engine Results
Google uses a number of patented algorithms to determine the exact ranking of every indexed website. They also attempt to index as many websites and pages as they can possibly find. In order to do this they utilize tens of thousands of different hosts and over a dozen data centers. It is impossible for Google to update each and every one of these at the same time and it is also impossible for them to alternate between using old data and the new updated data. This leads to some potentially skewed results in their listings. However, these results are not usually indicative of future rankings.
Relying Too Heavily On Toolbar PR
The problem for many webmasters is an over reliance on the toolbar page rank. This is a problem for several reasons. Page rank isn’t the be all and end all of search engine rankings. It is used to determine the weight of an inbound link, meaning that a link from a page with a PR5 is much better than a link from a page with PR2. However, having a PR6 won’t necessarily mean that your site will list above all the PR4 sites on the web.
Relevancy Of Website Content
The logic is fairly simple. The PR of your site is a numerical value determined by numerous factors including the number of inbound links. In no way can this numerical ranking indicate the relevance of your website content when looking at a particular search term. Having a PR6 website does not necessarily mean that your site bears more relevance to a particular term than another website with a PR2. So, as well as the PR of your website, Google must also consider the topic and the content of your site and how relevant this is to the relevant search term.
Toolbar PR Compared To Live PR
Another problem is that the toolbar PR is only updated every three months or so, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. While you’re seeing that your site only has a PR2 it could be that it actually has a PR closer to 5. Your site will receive the credit from this “live” PR in preference to that of the toolbar PR so don’t panic.
A Final Word On The Google Dance
During the time the Google dance is being completed, the servers located around different data centers are upgrading and updating one at a time. This is why some sites will show spurious results and why some webmasters benefit for a day or two while others lose out. There is absolutely nothing that can be done to prevent this Google phenomenon and there is nothing you can do to hurry the process up. All that is left is to sit back and watch in amazement as the Google index dances.
About The Author
Matt Jackson, copywriter for WebWiseWords, writes website content on a great many different topics. Visithttp://www.webwisewords.com to view the latest offers and some more helpful articles on SEO topics. Alternatively, email info[at]webwisewords.com for more information or for an informal chat. Please mention this article and where you read it in any emails.
Article Source: EZineArticles
Welcome to the World of Google Dance
AUG 26TH
Have you heard of “Google Dance”? It is mainly for those who are concerned about their rankings on Google, as it refreshes the content for better SEO. It is an interesting theme that happens once in a month, that is, Google updates its entire index of web sites on a regular, ongoing, constant basis. Usually it’s done from about 20th to 28th of every month. Google exploits 9 data centers that will provide different results until the Google dance update completes its recalculations. Once the dance has been completed, the search engine results will show new listings and changes in ranking position.
What really happens is, Google sends out spiders to crawl the Internet, it begins to go through each individual site and updates the content on to Google.com. During the dance, SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) can fluctuate and websites often see a surprising rise or fall in rankings before returning back to normal. So people are known to get a little nervous or both if their site disappears from the index or slips in ranking.
As a result of updating process, old indexes do not simply yield to new indexes, but there is quite random movement in transition. It takes a couple of days for Google to complete its update. Especially during this period, both old and new indexes get their place on www.google.com, although alternatively or even in unpredictable ways before new indexes stabilize there for all to see.
There are many data centers that Google uses to spider across the world. Each center has a specific region it covers and all the information is gathered in aggregate and returned back to Google.com. It has 3 main WWW servers online, which are as follows:
WWW.google.com – main address, the true homepage of Google.
Other two servers are WWW2.google.com & WWW3.google.com which have been primarily instrumental in providing some answer to webmasters who are a little tentative with their future rankings.
When the mass update begins, the number of results on the three servers will be different for a while. Thus the results vary from server to server, they are said to be “dancing”, hence the name “Google Dance.”
Google Dance takes place every month and usually close to the end of the month. In order to know when the Google search engine spiders the pages of the web, there are various Google Dance tools available. You greatly benefit from this as it assists you to know when your site will rank in Google.
During the Dance, the Google spider will revisit every website, figure out how many sites link to it, and how valuable these links are. As Google is constantly crawling and updating the selected pages, their search results will vary slightly over the course of month. You can make sure all your web page does not go down for maintenance during Google’s Dancing period. It is just a right chance to make a better shot by fully optimizing your web sites, and to beat your competitors.
Kabila Jayaraj is a Technical Writer with vast experience working in Agriya Infoway a Chennai-based professional website service provider. Visit http://www.Agriya.com to get more information on web design, web development, social networking, SEO, technical writing and other services offered.
Article Source: EZineArticles
What Happened to My Google Ranking? Explaining the Google Dance
AUG 26TH
Have you noticed your website slipping in the Google rankings over the past few months for keywords that previously scored high? Join the club and welcome to The Google Dance.
The Google Dance is a phrase that was coined to explain the new search engine algorithms that Google puts into play on occasion. The most recent Google Dances in the past year startled website owners as they watched their previous number 1 site plummet to number 400 in the rankings – or disappears off the Google charts all together.
Many of my clients called me in a panic, wondering if they did something “wrong” to cause this to happen. The answer is mostly: no. You didn’t do anything wrong. Google is testing new search algorithms to help people find more relevant results from their searches and to give penalties to people who use illegal techniques to try to get higher rankings in the search results. I can’t say that the results are any more relevant, though. For instance, when I use the keyword “small business coach,” I expect to receive results that list small business coaches’ websites. But when I type in “small business coach” in Google, the first result I get is an Amazon.com site. In fact, only four out of the top 20 sites listed are coach’s sites.
So, what to do? The knee-jerk reaction is to try to figure out what the “new” algorithm is and to optimize your site accordingly. That’s a bad idea. First of all, the search engines use over 100 elements to rank a site. Since you can’t possibly know what all 100 elements are, or what weight is given to each element, you will be wandering in the dark. Second, you don’t know how long this particular Dance will last, so you might be optimizing your site only to have it all wrong when the next Dance occurs. Third, you might optimize your site for Google, only to harm your rankings on Yahoo or MSN.
My advice to my clients is two-fold: First, read the guidelines for each of the search engines and make sure that your site isn’t doing something against policy, as your site will be penalized and dropped in ranking. Next, sit tight. Wait a month to see how the Dance goes. Monitor your site once a week to see where its ranking is for each keyword phrase you’re tracking.
Search engine optimization should be just one part of your fuller Internet Marketing strategy. While the Dance is happening, focus on other pieces of your Internet Marketing strategy and use other techniques to bring visitors to your site. In the end, your strategy and results will be stronger.
Karyn Greenstreet is a Self Employment expert and small business coach. She helps you increase sales and profits, and learn practical small business skills.
Get the free audio and ebook, “The Art of Networking and Referrals” by visitinghttp://www.PassionForBusiness.com
