List Of Important Factors That Affect The SEO Ranking

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With more than 200 signals or components, Google algorithm is no joke! Yes, this list is no doubt impressive, but it can turn out to be rather daunting for a human to spend only 24 hours a day for this process. However, SEO can prove to be rather helpful in this regard. It is more like getting everything right and also to set forth your priorities accordingly. But, you need to be extra careful while working on the best ranking factors, which can affect SEO to a great extent. Once you get a glimpse of it, there is no chance of making a mistake.


1. Let's start with backlinks:

Even in this year 2018, backlink seems to hold a strong position in your SEO Ranking. It happens to be the strongest indication of Google's authority, even now! Before you head for the backlink, you are cordially invited to break things down a bit.

• You may be wondering how Google can turn the vague concept of backlink into promising ranking signal. In multiple patents, it has been addressed that calculation of link score takes place. This score is followed by quality score individually of the incoming links along with link numbers to the site.
  
  
• On the other hand, anchor text relevant is yet another part of the back linking source. Anchors are designed to inform Google about your page more and what rank it deserves. But before you head for this norm, you need to remember a bit about Penguin. That will help you to keep anchors diversified and even quite natural.

2. Quality of the content:

Google has done well in improving its algorithm lately, mostly after the Hummingbird update. It now clearly understands your content structure. There are some useful articles available to offer rewards value for better rankings. All the poorly made affiliated options might find it hard to get the right ranking. Robust websites are much more in vogue these days, known to publish detailed guides and tutorials. For higher ranking, your articles need to be worth reading by potential customers or online browsers.


3. Mobile-based first user experience:

It was in the year 2016, when Google turned its working notion towards mobile first indexing. It shows that Google's index is now crawling much more towards website's mobile versions.

• So, mobile optimization happens to be a promising ranking factor for sure. Most of the top 10- visible domains are known to be mobile friendly in nature, as per the statistics from SearchMetrics.
  
  
• Your content needs to be absolutely responsive on various mobile platforms. To top it all, it needs to be identical to desktop's content. You even need to bother a bit about URLs SEO friendly to hike up your present ranking to an all-new level.
  
  
• Recent studies clearly state that around 85% of the website are focusing towards mobile-friendly versions to make way for their presence in front of Google. So, the time has come to start improving your website now!

4. Make way for technical SEO:

The technical sector of your site is rather crucial to be honest. It comes with two major factors, which deal with the ranking source well.

• It all starts with the page speed. According to Google, your page should load within a speed of 2 seconds or even less. This speed leads to the best-ranking signal. Speed can also lead to huge impacts on UX with slower pages having more bounce with lower conversion rates.
  
  
• The next stop got to be mobile-friendliness. If you don't have mobile versions of your page, it will lead to no value from the mobile users at all. As half of the queries are generated from mobile users, therefore; you need to put up with this notion in years to come. So, without wasting time, it is time for mobile-first indexing, right away!

5. Content updates are there to help:

Google makes it a point to check on your updating frequency. If you have an old content for too long, then you are practically murdering your rank with your own hands.

• It uses metrics for determining if your website is still up and running.
  
  
• Your site will definitely deserve a lot of credit while publishing articles frequently.
  
  
• Google will start highlighting dates for the searches where dates play a pivotal role.

6. Check out the encryptions:

SearchMetrics recently confirmed that around 45% of leading websites are currently using HTTPs encryption, which has been up by 12% since 2015. Even Backlinks can find a positive connection between first ranking websites in Google and HTTPs websites. In the year 2014, Google clearly confirmed that websites with higher HTTPs will have a better ranking in the future.

So, if you really want your business to reach for the sky, you have to follow these points. Once you have settled for the best rankings in major search engines like Google, there is no looking back from there on!


About The Author: Brandon Graves is a WordPress developer at HireWPGeeks in the USA and manages the services for html to wordpress conversion. He also shares his articles with tech savvy peoples to help them in the form of tips and tutorials. Follow him on Facebook to get instant updates.

Did you find this article helpful? Please let Brandon and myself know by leaving us your valued comments in the comments section below.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Related articles:
How Facebook Can Help Your Website SEO
The Recent Google Update: What This Means For You
How Twitter Can Help Your SEO
Mobile-Friendly Site Designing: Things You Shouldn't Be Doing

For a full list of helpful articles on SEO, use the following links:
https://www.derekjones.co/search/label/SEO
https://www.derekjones.co/search/label/SEO%20Tips


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar on the left-side of the screen or by using the "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

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Until my next post, best of luck with your SEO efforts!

© 2018. This article is DMCA protected. Republication is prohibited.

The Recent Google Update: What This Means For You

In the latter half of 2013, Google launched yet another update that had SEOs and digital marketers on the edge of their seats worrying about the effect it would have on all their previous hard work. Hummingbird, the latest update, may not have wreaked as much havoc as the infamous Penguin update a few years ago, that undid pretty much every SEO's efforts thus far, but there are still things you need to be aware of when pushing your business to the top of Google.


So What's Changed?

Like all Google updates, the intention of Hummingbird is to improve the user experience of the search engine, making the search more intuitive to present only the best possible results. Although past updates such as Penguin and Panda were so destructive due to them targeting low quality back linking practices, they had the same aims at heart, to improve search for everyone involved. Thankfully though, the Hummingbird update isn't quite so harsh with its methods of improvement.

Here's the main changes:


More Conversational Search Language

Technology has a huge impact on the way we search, and with smartphone and tablet technology allowing us to speak our search request rather than type it, the search terms we use are becoming more conversational. Without necessarily meaning to, when you speak a search query you don't tend to self-edit as much as you would if you had to physically type it. When typing something into the search box, we have become accustomed to just using the key words, where as with voice searches we tend to ask full questions, and therefore Google is taking this into account when bringing up relevant results.


The Knowledge Graph

Another way in which Google is trying to provide improved answers to the questions we ask through search is using a new feature called Knowledge Graph. This takes the form of a box on the right hand side of the search page, and provides you with different concepts linking to the original search term. So rather than scrawling through all the pages of search results to find your answer, a sort of summary if you like is displayed to help you find the answer you are looking for faster.


So What Does The Update Mean For You?

Based on the main changes brought about with this recent update, coupled with the key changes of previous updates, we have put together some tips on how you can get the most out of the improvements to search that Google continues to make.

1. Keep The Quality Content Flowing
   
   Content marketing isn't just a trend, it's now a way of life thanks to the continued focus on natural, conversational language. As mentioned earlier, searches are becoming longer, with fuller sentences and more natural language being used instead of being edited down to just the bare keywords. For this reason, simply filling content with relevant keywords isn't enough anymore. You need to write for the reader, not for Google.
   
   
2. Links Aren't All Bad, Just Keep Them Relevant
   
   With Penguin coming down hard on back linking, you wouldn't be blamed for being extra cautious about link building. But Penguin's motive was to punish those back linking to thousands of poor quality sites just for the sake of linking, and reward those who linked to genuine, relevant sites and focused on quality not quantity of links. Therefore, links are still important to the SEO process, you just have to make sure those links are high quality sites with genuine relevance to your site.
   
   
3. Offer More Valuable Information
   
   One current worry regarding Knowledge Graph is that there will come a time when users will not have to even leave the Google search page to find the information they need, as it will all be displayed in the Knowledge Graph. This would mean websites that are offering simple, popular facts could lose out on the traffic typically gained from offering this information. To avoid this, it's advisable to provide more valuable, detailed information that go deeper than the popular facts, that people searching for more than basic information would not find simply by glancing at Google's Knowledge Graph.

All the updates since Panda and Penguin, we can see an ever emerging theme of Google trying to become more intuitive, offering ever more personalised results without undermining the efforts of SEOs. As it stands, this personalisation process is only set to continue with future updates, and the key take-away from this is that if you offer detailed and valuable content containing long tail key phrases over simple keywords, you will be on the right track to appear in searches.


About The Author: Sarah is a Search Marketing Executive for international digital marketing agency Silverbean.

Did you find this article helpful? Please let Sarah and myself know by leaving us your valued comments below.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Related articles:
Why Content Is Still King In 2014
7 Things You Need To Know About SEO In 2014
How Twitter Can Help Your SEO

For a full list of helpful articles on SEO, use the following links:
https://www.derekjones.co/search/label/SEO
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If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar on the left-side of the screen or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

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Until my next post on Wednesday on marketing a niche product online, have a great and productive week ahead! See you back here on Wednesday!

© 2014. This article is DMCA protected. Republication is prohibited.

11 Backlink Strategies That May Put Your Online Business In Trouble

Link building is becoming a very important (actually the most important) aspect of SEO. However, not all links are good for your website. Google recently introduced stiff measures to deal with people who use unscrupulous ways to boost PageRank. This move is, no doubt, bound to affect all who don't play by the backlinking rules. Talking about backlinks, here are some 11 mistakes to avoid like a plague.


1. Paid Links

Buying and selling links is normally seen as unnatural because there are hidden motives aside from user experience for either of the websites involved. This includes buying content that contains links or sending a "free" product to somebody in exchange for them including a link to your site in their future write-ups. So steer clear from this short-cut.


2. Unnatural Links are a plague

Please take good note of the word "unnatural". It is all right to link to other sites and have them link back to you, but it must be natural. Natural links are simply links that add value to your visitors. If you are a law firm, don't try to exchange links with a dolphin research company.


3. Avoid bulky content, add value instead

Publishing articles and guest posts in bulk is no longer fashionable. In fact if you do guest articles just to gain keyword rich backlinks, your site might just get penalized. The rule of the thumb here is to ensure that you're publishing posts on other websites if you have something valuable to share.


4. Avoid automated links

There are many tools out there that claim to help you gain thousands of backlinks in very little time. Google's spam team is always after websites that use such services to hyper-inflate their authority on the net. You don't want to be caught using these services.


5. Careful about text ads

Text ads are a popular way to market products nowadays. However, if they don't use the rel="nofollow" attribute, Google is likely to mistake them for manipulative backlinks and therefore punish you.


6. Avoid ads and advertorials that contain links that pass PageRank

Always use link with the rel="nofollow" attribute if you pay for an ad or article. This will ensure that the ad does not pass link juice to your website therefore keeping you safe from a possible penalty.


7. Avoid over-optimization

If you're fond of publishing content that is full of links - all appearing to be anchor text - you could get a penalty. Google is now, more than ever, very strict on value addition as opposed to just optimization.


8. Avoid linking to low quality article directories

Linking to directories that will never send a single visitor your way is sheer waste of time. These links will not in any way favor your search rankings. Only link to directories that send visitors to your website and ignore the rest.


9. Footer links are a no-no

Avoid putting keyword rich links in your footer. Such links are counted as "bad" in Google's rulebook and are therefore to be avoided at all cost. This however does not include links to the "about us" or "privacy" but rather links like "buy followers" or "visit our shop".


10. Be cautious when using widgets

If you normally use free widgets to market your website, you should be sure to use the nofollow attribute so the link does not appear spammy. Google does not like links that are embedded in such platforms and may punish you for them if you don't use the rel="nofollow" attribute. If a widget developer offers you a chance to market on their platform, try to avoid using links (only when this is not logically possible should you resort to rel="nofollow" attribute).


11. Avoid forum comments that are optimized

If you are fond of using online tools to post comments on forums then you're likely to get a Google punishment in the event that such comments are unnaturally written or abnormally optimized. So, be sure to always post the comments yourself.


The writing is clearly written on the wall

Google does not like artificial or bulky links. You definitely don't want to lose the authority that you've spent years building due to a backlink slap. To get good links that help you to achieve and sustain exponential growth, it is imperative to play by these eleven rules.

We wish you all the best in everything you do.


About The Author: Jason Smith is an online manager for Foley, Incorporated - Power Generator. He likes blogging about online strategies that are related to SEO, Content, PPC and Lead generation.

Did you find this article helpful? Please let Jason and myself know by leaving us your valued comments in the comments section below.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Related articles:
Keeping Your Pages Afloat On Google By Using The Disavow Tool
The Death Of Link Building?
5 Helpful Tips To Recover From Recent Penguin Update
SEO Link Building Techniques That You Should Avoid
How To Improve Your SEO With Backlinks

For a full list of helpful articles on link building and SEO, use the following links:
http://www.derekjones.co/search/label/Link%20Building
http://www.derekjones.co/search/label/SEO
http://www.derekjones.co/search/label/SEO%20Tips


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

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Until my next post on Friday on how non profits can embrace social media to expand their reach and increase donations, enjoy the rest of the week! See you back here on Friday!

© 2013. This article is DMCA protected. Republication is prohibited.

Why Web Hosting Is Important To Your SEO

You may not believe it, but SEO is more than just backlinks and keywords. There are many other ranking factors that search engines look at, some are very well known, but things like hosting are less talked about.

Your host can have a dramatic effect on your search engine rankings. This is usually due to loading speeds, but there's more to it than that. Here are just a few reasons why you need the best host if you want to gain more traffic.


Indirect Effects

As stated above, your rankings will usually suffer due to poor loading speeds. The indirect effect is that you might have a harder time getting links and visitors. Think about this for a moment. You visit two websites that are strikingly similar. The only major difference is that one of them loads slowly. Will you give a link to this website, even though it's a little inconvenient to use? Some people might feel reluctant about linking to your website or recommending it to others if it loads very slowly. Very bad loading speeds might also cause people to think that your website isn't working, which deceases your number of potential customers and readers.


Direct Effect

Google's search engine spiders are constantly crawling websites to see what has changed about them and indexing new pages. Google uses over 200 ranking factors for ranking a website. While the main ones are backlinks, relevancy and keyword usage, loading speed is another factor that will determine your rankings. If the spiders tell Google that your website is very slow, then your ranking might be lower than expected. This makes sense when you consider what Google is looking for. Google doesn't just want to connect people to relevant websites, they want to connect people to websites that have the best user experience. People hate going to slow, spammy websites, so Google does its best to ignore these pages. Site speed might just be one tiny factor, but this one factor can definitely hurt you. Consider switching to a faster host to improve your rankings.


Guilty by Association

This problem usually only affects the riskiest and cheapest Web hosts, but it can potentially happen regardless of how safe your host seems. People are always creating scam sites to make some quick money, but these sites are usually de-indexed after a while and they won't be seen in the major search engines. So, how does that affect you? Under certain circumstances you might seem guilty by association if your site is on the same IP address. For example, let's say that all of the websites on your server are spammy. Google will obviously block the IP address linked to that server. That means that each and every website will suffer the same cruel fate whether it's deserved or not. This is a rare problem, but it does exists. You see this often in the SEO hosting industry. SEO hosting is a type of hosting where you can get lots of IP addresses and put them all in the same cPanel all with the sole purpose of gaming the search engines. Google obviously doesn't like this type of hosting.


Server Location

An international server is great if you are doing international SEO, but it's not so great if your website is targeting domestic customers, and vice versa. Not only does server location impact loading speeds, but it also counts as another factor that Google considers when ranking websites. A server in your own country, or the country that you are targeting, will increase your rankings. If the server is somewhere else, then your rankings will suffer.


Uptime

Most hosts guarantee at least 99% uptime, which is good. However, some hosts cannot keep this promise and the uptime falls to 95% or less. This means that your website will be down and inaccessible for the time being. If the search engine spiders cannot access your website, then this can significantly impact your rankings because, once again, Google cares about the user experience. Nothing is worse for the user experience than a website that won't load whatsoever. You need to make sure you're getting an uptime between 99.9% to 99.99%. Keep in mind that a 99.9% uptime means that your site could be down for up to 40 minutes per month.


Conclusion

Web hosting can directly and indirectly affect your ranking if you choose the wrong host. Not only will people be unwilling to link to you if your host is bad, but Google will decrease your rankings because your website is slow and inaccessible. Be sure to choose a good host so that you don't have to worry about these problems.


Did you find this article helpful? Please let me know by leaving me your valued comments in the comments section below.


If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.

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Until my next post on Monday on keeping your pages afloat by using Google's disavow tool, have a wonderful and relaxing weekend!

© 2013. This article is DMCA protected. Republication is prohibited.

Some Google Prospecting Tips For SEO's

Link prospecting - finding good quality websites that that might want to link to yours is one of the most basic tasks for today's link builder/SEO/inbound marketer (however you want to describe yourself) along with content creation and outreach, it's one of three of the main link builder's daily tasks, in the process of building links to your site.

There are number of tools out there for link prospecting: Citation Labs Link prospector is one, SEOmoz's Open Site Explorer is another. However, in my experience probably the best all round link prospecting tool out there is good old Google. As veteran link builder Eric Ward says, the only link building tools you need are "Google and your brain."

Google is a very powerful tool, but like all computers, it's only as intelligent as the person using it. In order to start prospecting, you need to first select your keywords, obviously, these are the words related to your site's niche; so if you link building for a removals company in London, then you want to include removals-related phrases, London-related phrases, plus any other phrases from related niches, that you think might work. So a query you might want to try first could be:

"list of removals companies"

Or perhaps

"list of London removals companies"

You could extend this query by including the "linurl:links" stem; this brings back queries that are related to your niche, but that also have the words "links" in their URL - very useful! So you might follow up a few searches like the ones above with something like:

"list or removals companies inurl:links" or perhaps "list of removals companies inurl:resources"

After these searches, you should have a few dozen prospects to outreach to. Another prospecting angle is to go down the route of looking for links on university or government sites. These sites get a Page Rank boost from Google, or at least tend to have good authority and inbound links profiles, meaning they make great link prospects. Try a few searches like this:

"site:.gov removal companies" or perhaps "site:.edu removals companies" which brings back US university pages. Try "site:.ac.uk removals companies" for UK university pages.

OK, so there are unlikely to be loads of prospects to found for removals firms on university sites, but you never know!

There are a number of stems that can be used to find more links pages:

1. "useful links" or "useful resources" or "useful sites" or "useful websites"
2. "recommended links" or "recommended resources" or "recommended sites" or "recommended websites"
3. "suggested links" or "suggested resources" or "suggested sites" or "suggested websites"
4. "more links" or "more resources" or "more sites" or "more websites"
5. "favourite links" or "favourite resources" or "favourite sites" or "favourite websites"
6. "related links" or "related resources" or "related sites" or "related websites"

All the phrases above can be combined with the "inurl:" stem for more options.

This is just the tip of the iceberg; there are literally hundreds of Google prospecting options out there, it just requires imagination. Of course, once you've found the prospects, you have to outreach to them - that is a whole other blog post!


About The Author: The Traveller are experts in cultural and historical tours. Start your adventure with us today.

Did you find this article helpful? Do you have any link prospecting tips to share? Please let me know by leaving me your valued comments.

Related articles:
SEO Link Building Techniques That You Should Avoid


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Until my next post on Friday on using LinkedIn groups for marketing, enjoy the rest of the week!

© 2013. This article is DMCA protected. Republication is prohibited.

Understanding Google AuthorRank And How You Can Use It

If you are beginning to focus your online marketing efforts on content marketing, then you will have probably been thinking about AuthorRank.


History of AuthorRank

In 2005, Google decided that the next stage in creating the highest quality search results was the ability to rate and rank the people actually producing the results. A patent was filed for "Agent Rank", in which Google described their intention to use a number of decision factors to determine an "agent's" position within their subject area. These factors included how popular the agent is, and how trusted the agent is in delivering content in his subject area. For years, Google has used constant factors like domain authority and link popularity for ranking sites in searches, this would mark a significant move to use these factors to rate individuals.

However, it is only through the advent of Google's own social network, Google+ that they have had enough qualitative social interaction data to put this idea into practice. Finally, they have a way to supplement the computer led statistics with human factors to allow the activation of "AgentRank" now known as AuthorRank.


What Google Say

"We know that great content comes from great authors, and we're looking closely at ways this markup could help us highlight authors and rank search results." Othar Hansson, Google Software Engineer.

Judging the merit of a page from links alone doesn't make sense in today's world of social sharing and networks. The problem comes when an author moves to another website. The idea is that the authority the author has created with quality content should go with them. At the moment, if a highly rated author leaves a website, the quality ranking will remain with the website even if the people that take over produce work of a substantially lower quality. The previously highly rated author has to start from scratch building credibility and trust.

With AuthorRank, Google will "remember" the authority and credibility an author has built up. As a respected author, people will be able to start contributing and lift the level and traffic of an entire website. Obviously they will still have to produce great content and attract positive signals, but the starting point is much easier.


What you can do?

Google hasn't released any official statement yet about how AuthorRank is being used at the moment and its future direction. Although it is a possibility that it is not being used at all currently, considering that Google usually test algorithm updates in a "light version" before they implement the full update, we are most likely experiencing a small part of the impact. Plus there are a whole host of hints that suggest AuthorRank will play a big role in the future of search results: Authorship (the pictures that can be seen at the side of search results), Knowledge Graph. All these implemented additions exhibit Googles commitment to understanding the people and relationships that make up the web, and the importance of these for search rankings.

Uptake for Google and Authorship is increasing and it is likely that full influence of AuthorRank will be felt soon. Although it won't replace page rank when it does it will impact upon SEO significantly. The question is, are you ready?

You need to start building your AuthorRank and become an authority in your niche now.

1. Claim authorship of your content. The first step to accumulating AuthorRank, you need to tie all your content to a verified Google+ profile. Your profile must link to all the pages that host your content, including guest posts. This authorship mark up not only ties your content to you but also allows for a picture to come up next to your content in the results. A feature that significantly increases click through rate.
   
   
2. Create great content. Content that get social media shares and likes are signals to Google that your content is of high quality. Also remember that Google ranks authors per subject, so aim to become a true authority in your niche.
   
   
3. Embrace social. Create relationships, engage with customers and everyone in your network. Build a consistent voice that people trust. Share content your network will find funny and interesting. Have Google hangouts.
   
   
4. Create insightful content as guests posts for other websites. Now there are new benefits to guest blogging than a new audience and links. Getting your authorised content on good quality websites will send a clear signal to Google that you are respected in your field. Also beneficial is that shares and likes on these sites will then rub off on your authorship. If you consider that the website is likely to promote your post via their own platforms, there is great potential for influencers that may not have been in contact with your work before to give a signal that they like it.

If you link these considerations with your content marketing strategy, you will be well placed for when AuthorRank really starts to take affect in 2013.


About The Author: Helen is an online marketing assistant at Quayside Clothing. They sell wholesale clothing through two e-commerce websites: www.qtag.com and www.polo-shirts.co.uk

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Facebook To Offer Web Search Functionality

Most people had anticipated this move, but Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has made it official, his company is going to move into the search market at some point, although he would not be drawn on precisely when this leap would be made.

Zuckerberg was interviewed by TechCrunch when he made a number of statements relating to the search intentions of Facebook, pointing out that the site is already handling around a billion queries every 24 hours, as its users search for friends, groups and other services linked into the site.

Of course at the moment you cannot search the entire internet with Facebook, although it certainly has the resources to make this a possibility at some point in the future. If this ever does happen, SEO experts will have a whole new set of rules to learn.

Zuckerberg spoke about search as concerning the process of answering questions posed by the user, which he believes is something that Facebook has a unique window into, given its privileged position as a gate keeper of huge amounts of personal user information.

There had been rumours of Facebook's search engine intentions, with its current engineering director stating, two months ago, that he is developing something exciting and specific for his employer. Because of his background at Google, many speculated that it might be search related, although no confirmation was given.

At the moment, Facebook and Google may not be competing over search, but they are already locked in battle in the social sphere as a result of Google+. The search giant is insistent that its own social service is Google+ not aimed at competing with Facebook, but whether or not it likes it, this certainly seems to be the current state of affairs.

It is worth pointing out that at the moment, it is possible to search the web from within Facebook, but that in this case, the results that are generated come from Microsoft's Bing, rather than any proprietary service, or indeed from market leader, Google.

Whether or not Facebook's relationship with Bing will extend to a deeper integration of search or not remains to be seen, although the ambition of Zuckerberg and his team, coupled with the spending power of his company, means that going at it alone is not completely out of the question.

Part of the problem for Google is that if Facebook makes web searches more closely integrated with its business, then it could easily end up losing market share to Zuckerberg's service. This is linked to the fact that people now access the internet from their mobile phones more than ever before, with many people using social networking sites and apps, to find links and perform searches, rather than harnessing a dedicated search engine site like Google.

Whether or not this will result in the gradual decline of Google, or the emergence of some meta-social system, in which people funnel all of their queries through Facebook, remains to be seen. But those involved in optimisation will be watching carefully to see where the industry heads.


About The Author: Abbas Hussain is a blogger who talks about SEO and Social Media for Integrity SEO Experts.

Did you like this article? Please let me know by leaving your valued comments below.


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Ways To Increase Your Blog's Crawl Rate In Google

One of the biggest deterrent factors over the pace at which your SEO campaign can move ahead, is how fast the changes carried out over your website are indexed. This is usually true while working with websites which are seen with some established rankings and to which you may want to carry out some small changes at times.

If your website is not getting crawled once at several weeks' time, it can really hamper the process. Fortunately, you can carry out several things to boost your site crawl rate and in return, reap positive effects of the crawl along with good rankings. Google crawl rate is all about frequency with which the Google robot visits your site or blog. The following are some of the tips to increase your blog's crawl rate in Google.


Update your blog on frequent basis

The search engine crawlers simply love the blogs which carry updated blogs. This renders the search engine crawlers something new and fresh over your blog every time the bots enter your blog in the crawling process. In order to boost the crawl speed, you are supposed to update your blog on a daily basis. You can even think of adding some RSS Feed widget, Facebook widget, Twitter comment widget, and Google group widget. This will help you in increasing the crawl speed.


Boost your Pagerank

Links play a good role in increasing the rankings along with boosting your Pagerank of your site or blog. Most of the search engine crawl patterns are directed by Pagerank with high amount of PR pages usually when it crawls on a regular basis. However, at the same time you need to do a couple of other things rather than merely building up links to increase your PR.


Optimize the load time

The crawlers simply work on a budget. If they consume too much of their time crawling inside big size images or your Java scripts, they will not have sufficient time to visit other pages on your website. Hence it is recommended to avoid having big size scripts or images over your blogs which consumes more time to load. Put some small size images which can load instantly so that more amounts of web pages would be crawled in less time duration.


Add a sitemap

If you still encounter difficult time getting the search engine crawlers to find a couple of your web pages in smaller duration, you can certainly think of assisting the Google bots by adding up a sitemap in your blog or at the webmaster tools. Sitemap plays a key role in increasing the crawling speed of the search engine crawlers in your different blog posts.


Say no to duplicate content

All the major search engines simply love to hate plagiarism. They can penalize your blogs or website by banning your blog or site and even can bring down your search engine ranking. As per the new Google Algorithm updates, duplicate content over blogs and sites are considered as the most fatal errors in search results. If you have any duplicate content over your blog, it is always recommended to get rid of these and replace with some original and unique content.


Wrapping up

By implementing these tips, you could easily help in increasing your blog's crawl rate in Google. These changes would therefore help the crawlers to visit regularly and thus make your blog a favorite place by all the major search engines.


About The Author: Margaret Jules is an internet marketer and blogger. She loves travelling, meeting new people and writing.

Did you find this article helpful? Please let Margaret and myself know by leaving us your valued comments below.


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How Often Should You Do SEO Rank Checker On Your Site

Success in the online world hinges on many factors, one of the biggest being SEO. While it's not nearly as important as it used to be thanks to tools which both emphasize and enhance the democratic nature of the Internet, it's vital for maintaining a steady flow of new traffic from people who otherwise wouldn't stumble across your links.

Despite being rooted in algorithms and predictable computer behavior, attaining the coveted top spots on search engines like Google is as much of an art as it is a science. Think of it like cooking; gathering and preparing the materials in proper quantities is only half of it. It also requires patience, a keen sense of smell, and an intuitive grasp of which spices mesh well together and which ones don't.

You can make a good dish by following the instructions in a cookbook, but in order to create great dish, you need an extra something that may be hard to define.

Likewise, movements in the online world require more than an understanding of the technology which drives search engines; it also requires the ability to adapt quickly to changes in keyword rankings, and to create viable long-term strategies that return profit regardless of the ups and downs along the way.


How Search Engines Determine Your Rank

Google uses a complex algorithm known as PageRank which accounts for numerous factors ranging from the number of links pointing to your site to the actual quality of your content. It updates its index multiple times throughout the day so if you checked hourly your site could have a different rank every time. Location is also relevant as Google utilizes many data centers to determine its results, so if you perform a search while a colleague performs the same search from a different IP address the results could very well differ.

If for some reason you did check hourly, the daily shifts wouldn't tell you much about the bigger picture. The Internet moves quickly but not to the extent that fortunes are made or lost in an afternoon. What's more likely is that your ranking will constantly shift within a particular range and what you should try to do is trend up as opposed to staying rock-solid at a given rank.


When You Should Check Your Rank

There's no reason to check your rank more than once a week. Not only are day-to-day changes fairly insignificant in the bigger scheme of things, search engine dances are becoming more common and it's easier to gauge the results looking back at them than it is trying to keep up as they're happening.

What is a search engine dance? It's when several different things change at once, including but not limited to the search engine algorithm, domain rankings, and the discovery of invalid backlinks. It usually doesn't take very long for a sense of order to be restored, but for the internet businessman wanting to keep sane it's better to time check-ins so that these occur in-between and the long-term effects can be charted immediately.

Even if you check your rank while it's happening, it's better to stay calm and wait to check again one week later than it is to try and get on top of it because playing the long game is almost always the best strategy.

Keep in mind that checking your rank isn't going to improve it. The three things which always work to your advantage is quality content, new content, and strong backlinks. Doing things right is time consuming, so the most important factors in your site's growth will take at least a week or more to impact your rank, and once they do you'll hit a new median where you won't go much higher or lower than that regardless of anything else that happens.


The Bottom Line

It's easy to forget that a slow and steady approach pays off regardless of the business you're in as long as you can quickly adapt to new circumstances. You need to check your SEO rank if you want to stay at the top of your game but it's a tool; it can only tell you how well you're doing everything else that's involved in maintaining an online presence. It provides invaluable feedback for how to improve your operation, and if it's used correctly you'll be able to keep your sanity, too.


About The Author: Evelyn Haywood is a freelance writer and a proud resident of the state of Texas.

Do you like this article by Evelyn Haywood? Please let Evelyn and myself know by leaving us your valued comments.

Related articles:
You Don't Have To Be An SEO Whizz To Improve Your Search Engine Rankings!
10 Easy Steps To Boost Your SEO
Top SEO Do's And Don'ts
How To Improve Your SEO With Backlinks
The Seven Deadly SEO Sins
The 10 Week SEO Diet


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Google's First Page...Guaranteed!

It's been quite a while since I've published a featured article on the blog, so here's one from David Jackson of Free Marketing Tips Blog on why you should use caution when it comes to SEO companies who guarantee first page or top 10 rankings...


Google's First Page...Guaranteed!

A couple of weeks ago, I visited one of the Internet Marketing/Small Business forums that I'm a member of, and noticed a new member had posted a typical newbie question in the SEO forum. The member wanted to know how she could be guaranteed to get her website on the first page of Google. As usual, members came crawling out of the woodwork with advice - including members who didn't even own a website.

Unfortunately, that's pretty typical on Internet Marketing/Small Business forums...members who don't own a website instructing other members how to get on the first page of Google...members who don't own a business dispensing business advice. So be careful where you get your advice from...but I digress.

Not surprisingly, not a single member responded with the correct answer. And what is the correct answer? The correct answer is there is NO magic bullet that will guarantee a first page ranking on Google. Never has been, never will be. By the same token, NO reputable SEO company will guarantee first page rankings.

By the way, this isn't the first time I've written about this topic. In my article How to Choose a Reputable SEO Company, I wrote the following:

"No SEO company can guarantee you a first page or top 10 ranking. I repeat: NO SEO COMPANY CAN GUARANTEE YOU A FIRST PAGE OR TOP 10 RANKING. Here's why: There are far too many variables involved in the ranking of a website - not the least of which are the age of the domain, relevancy and quantity of content, number and quality of inbound links, competition, and of course Google's ever-changing algorithms. That's why legitimate SEO companies don't make those kinds of outlandish promises."


Why Reputable SEO Companies Don't Promise Guaranteed Search Engine Rankings

In other words, it's impossible to guarantee something which you have no control over. But don't take my word for it...this is what Google itself has to say about the matter:

"Beware of SEO's that claim to guarantee rankings." Source: (Google Webmaster Tools)

Wow...that statement is about as succinct as it gets.

In his article, Why Reputable SEO Firms Don't Promise Guaranteed Search Engine Rankings, prominent SEO expert, Rand Fishkin writes:

"From 1996 through to today, SEO scams have used 'guaranteed rankings and traffic' as a slimy catchphrase to lure in gullible buyers with too-good-to-be-true promises. That association has stained the entire industry. SEO's cannot control the search results the way FedEx can control shipping packages or Coca Cola can guarantee the taste of their beverage. The search engines alone are responsible for and privy to the rankings' methodologies.

There are times when I would be willing to gamble a large amount of money on the fact that we could achieve a certain ranking for a given keyword. However, that's not the same as a guarantee. A guarantee is a promise - a basic contract that necessarily creates an assumption of certainty by the deliverer to the recipient. Anytime you cheat on that logic and make a promise outside your sphere of direct control, you're walking on shaky ethical and business ground."

Now think about that for a minute. If one of the most reputable and prominent SEO experts on the planet isn't willing to guarantee rankings, what does that tell you about the validity of guaranteed search rankings claims?


Are There Any Exceptions?

Yes, there are always exceptions. For example, Dental SEO, The Visible Dentist is one of those companies that guarantees first page rankings. Their guarantee states:

"The dentist does not pay for SEO services until their website is favorably positioned in a major search engine. Major search engines include Google, Yahoo, MSN's Bing and Ask. Our exclusive promise specifically guarantees that the client's dental website will have high visibility in one or more of these popular search engines. Further, a minimum of twenty (20) positions on Google's 1st page results will be attained before payment is required.

This warranty is made without absolute assurances to search engine positioning. The reason positions cannot be absolutely guaranteed is because no one has control of a search engine's algorithms, nor control over the many websites coming online everyday. However, all work on the client's site will be performed according to specs and to the best of our ability. If desired ranking is not achieved, no payment will be due from the client."

Personally, I don't have a problem with that type of guarantee. The company is basically putting their money where their mouth is. They're willing to prove their competency and guarantee results before the client pays a dime. This eliminates any and all risk for the client. If more SEO companies did business that way, the industry as a whole wouldn't have such a bad reputation.

All that being said, even if no money is required upfront, you still need to do your due diligence and check things out carefully.


SEO Scam Artists

If all SEO companies competently applied their craft and performed the service they were paid to perform, articles like this one wouldn't be necessary. But as long as there are incompetent SEO scam artists who intentionally take people's hard-earned money without doing what they promised...I will continue to warn people about the problem.

Unscrupulous SEO companies that guarantee first page rankings aren't stupid, but they think you are. In fact, they're counting on your naivety, gullibility and yes...laziness. Because the truth of the matter is there are millions of people out there who would much rather put their faith and trust in leprechauns, magic pills and guaranteed rankings, than put in the time and hard work necessary to achieve the desired results. That's the way it is, and that's the way it's always been - even before the advent of the Internet.


The Power OF A Strong Guarantee

Like I said, the SEO companies making guaranteed ranking claims aren't stupid. In addition to counting on your naivety, gullibility and laziness, they're also pretty astute marketers - well aware of the power of a strong "guarantee." Like all smart marketers, they read books and articles about ways to boost their sales - like this article by copywriting expert Dean Rieck:

"You can write all the selling copy you want about how you're the best, offer great quality, and include lots of great content. However, it's all for nothing if your potential buyers have any doubts.

Doubt creates hesitation. Hesitation kills sales.

The answer? You have to reduce the perceived risk people feel so there is no hesitation to take you up on your offer.

And that's the key - risk reduction.

With a guarantee, they feel confident that they won't be stuck with their purchase. And the very act of offering a strong guarantee lets buyers know you really believe the product is worth its asking price." (Source: How to Boost Your Sales with a Strong Guarantee)


If It's Too Good To Be True...

In other words, psychologically, a guarantee eliminates the risk in the minds of buyers. A guarantee lowers their guard and makes them much more willing to take a chance on your offer - even when your offer sounds too good to be true. And you know what they say about something that sounds too good to be true...

"Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." - Carol Rees


Conclusion

Over the years, listening to that "little internal voice" has served me well. The times I ignored that little voice is when I've gotten into trouble. Listen to your gut. If something doesn't feel right, walk away.

In a perfect world, we would be able take SEO companies at face value without being suspicious. Unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world, so be suspicious. Be very suspicious...The money, time and aggravation you save may be your own!


About The Author: David Jackson is a marketing consultant and the owner of Free-Marketing-Tips-Blog.com - Powerful, free marketing tips to help grow your business! http://free-marketing-tips-blog.com

Do you like this featured article? Please let me know by using the comments section below.

Would you like your article to be featured on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).


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Wikipedia's Protest Against SOPA & PIPA

In a protest against the proposed SOPA and PIPA bills, Wikipedia has today blacked out the English version of its site for a period of 24 hours. Other major sites have also joined in the protest including Google, who have censored its logo for U.S users and provided a page where people can sign a petition.

The proposed SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) bills are efforts to stop copyright infringement committed mostly by foreign websites. While this sounds good in theory, the way these bills are drafted could actually infringe free expression and severely inhibit people's access to online information. The Internet as you know it today could radically change for the worse, should these legislations be passed.

I was watching the news today and seeing people's reactions to the Wikipedia blackout. Most of the people that were interviewed use Wikipedia daily and were very unhappy because the blackout was causing major disruptions to them and to their work or studies. While this is understandable, what these people may not realise is that if the SOPA and PIPA bills are passed, it will affect everyone around the world. This is not a problem that will solely affect people in the U.S.

I would rather have one day of disruption than to see free expression being infringed, sites being shut down and have limited access to online information. The Internet would radically change and if you think one day of disruption is bad, just imagine having limited or no longer having access to sites such as Wikipedia that we've come to depend on.

You can sign a petition against the proposed SOPA and PIPA bills now by visiting:
https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/


UPDATE 9:45pm: The House Judiciary Committee hearing on HR 3261 was scheduled in Washington, DC today but President Barack Obama has stepped in and said he would not support the bill. For now, SOPA has been shelved but it will be looked at again sometime next month. It's reported that the White House will continue to veto this bill or any other bill that's not more narrowly focused.

With SOPA shelved for now, there still remains the PIPA bill, which is scheduled to go before the Senate on Tuesday 24th January. PIPA would censor the web and we can only hope that this too, will be shelved.


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Rankings Dropped? 9 Possible Reasons And 9 Ways Out

Has your search engine rankings dropped but you don't know the reasons why? This week's featured article is by Alesya Krush, a marketing manager at Link-Assistant.com which gives 9 possible reasons as to why your rankings may have dropped with solutions to putting it right...


Rankings Dropped? 9 Possible Reasons And 9 Ways Out

Sometimes SEOs and site owners encounter the problem of their sites suddenly going down in the search engine results pages for no particular reason, it seems. When this happens, it is often hard to figure out why your rankings nosedived.

So, let's consider possible reasons for and solutions to the problem. I arranged them by relevance, starting with the most common ones.


1. Your Site Got Penalized for Using Black-Hat SEO Techniques

Google has Webmaster Guidelines by which all SEOs and webmasters must abide. If Google finds out (or your site gets reported) that you are not playing by the rules, your rankings may drop substantially, or your site may get removed from Google's index altogether.

As stated in Google Webmaster Guidelines, one must not "participate in link schemes" (buying/selling links is basically meant here), create "doorway pages", or use "hidden text" on a site. These are considered illegitimate (Black-Hat) SEO practices and may incur Google's wrath.

The Way Out

Well, if your site does get penalized, find out what might have caused this. Re-read Google's Webmaster Guidelines and remove whatever is in violation from your site - then file a reconsideration request.


2. The Search Engine Algorithm Has Changed

On the one hand, search engines are trying to keep their search results as relevant and SPAM-free as possible. On the other hand, there are people who are trying to game the system or just take advantage of the existing loopholes. And, with the ever increasing number of websites on the Internet today, search engines are forced to tweak their search algos every once in a while to keep spammers at bay.

For example, Google's latest big algorithm update known as Panda (or Farmer) was intended to do away with sites that provide poor-quality content and, as a result, provide poor user experience. However, it also affected groups of sites that have significant duplicate content by nature, such as e-commerce sites, online directories, etc.

The Way Out

First of all, if you are doing SEO and you really mean it, you should be informed about what's new in the Search Engine Land at all times. The online resources to keep an eye on are Danny Sullivan's Search Engine Land [http://searchengineland.com] (yes, I did it on purpose :) ) , the official Google Blog (http://googleblog.blogspot.com), and the inside-Google Matt Cutts' blog (http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/).

If the rules change, and there is no way you can continue using the same SEO techniques you've been using before the algorithm update - you have to change your ways then. However, if you think your site was not supposed to get affected by the algo change but it did - you can write about it on Google Webmaster Forum - that often solves the problem.


3. Your Website's Content Got "Scraped"

If your rankings suddenly deteriorate, that could be because someone has stolen (or "scraped") the content from your site and posted it somewhere else on the Web. In this case, search engines sometimes lower both sites' rankings - then look deeper into the matter. Eventually, they are likely to start ranking your site as high as they used to before the incident, once they realize who copied whose content. However, this may take some time.

The Way Out

Dealing with content thieves normally involves locating the site that posted your content, contacting their webmaster, emailing their host, filing a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) request or taking the matter to court - whatever helps. It's recommended to start with contacting the scrapers. If this does not help - take the other measures mentioned here.


4. Your Site Got Penalized for Copyright Infringement

For various reasons, this may happen as well. It can be that your in-house SEO or a third-party firm you hired to promote your site used somebody else's content to boost your site's rankings in which case the owner of the content may have filed a DMCA request (the request is normally filed in written form) or reported your site to Google for copyright infringement.

The Way Out

Remove the duplicate content, hire a new SEO or an SEO services provider and submit your site for re-inclusion (just follow the same procedure that's described in way out 1 of this post)
(http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35843)


5. Competitors Beat You in the SERPs

Sometimes your rankings may go down just because a competing site (or sites) manages to boost their rankings to a substantial degree.

The Way Out

If this is the case, analyze competitors' sites and see in what way they are better than yours. Pay attention to their backlinks, keyword density, social media popularity and act accordingly, depending on what your site is missing.


6. Your Site's Structure Got Crippled

Spotless site architecture is crucial to high rankings. If there are broken links, HTML code errors or other structural discrepancies on your site, search engine bots might not be able to crawl it within a reasonable span of time, and thus, your site's rankings may deteriorate.

The Way Out

Run an audit and fix all the flaws that may hold back your site's rankings. Sometimes a site may not be visible in search results for the simple reason that the host is down and the server is not responding. A thorough site audit will show that.


7. Important Backlinks Got Removed from Your Site

Sometimes it's due to "juicy" backlinks with top Google positions pointing to your site being removed, resulting in a rankings drop for your site.

The Way Out

Check the backlinks pointing to your site. Experienced SEOs run such checkups from time to time to see whether any of the links got assigned the "nofollow" attribute, were hidden from search engines because of the robot txt file or were simply removed. If this happens, you should get these links back or get similar backlinks from other websites.


8. This is Google's QDF Algo at Work

QDF stands for "query deserves freshness" and is the algo Google uses to balance its appreciation of older content. Google applies it to trendy queries that all of a sudden become popular on the Web.

The Way Out

The way out is simple - just don't do anything. The query will eventually stop being trendy and Google will resume giving more power to older sites with time-tested content. You can always check what topics are popular/trendy at the moment at surchur.com, www.buzzfeed.com or similar sites. Let's say, your site is optimized for the word "silver spoons". All of a sudden, a hot topic about a cafe called "Silver Spoon" appears on the Web, and millions of people start looking up "silver spoon" on Google. Google will most likely decide that "query deserves freshness" and will serve users new pieces of content at the top of its search results.


9. Google Started Picking "the wrong" Canonical URL for Your Site

Sometimes, your www homepage may be ranking at position 3 on Google, while the non-www version of your homepage does not have enough link juice and may be ranking at spot 50 at most. If, because of poor canonicalization, Google decides to pick your non-www page to include into its search results, your site will end up at a substantially lower position.

The Way Out

The way out is to get your canonicalization right. Use internal linking, 301 redirects, canonical tags (not always justified) to explicitly point out your canonical URLs to Google, so that it makes no mistake.

So, these are the most widespread reasons for sudden rankings drops. Of course we could not cover all possible causes and situations - sometimes it's several reasons combined. Besides, sometimes unexpected things happen, like Google removing some 11 million co.cc domains from its index all on one day.

But, if you get armed with the advice provided in this post, it'll take you far less time to figure out the reason for the sudden rankings drop, and you'll be able to fix it much quicker.


About The Author: Alesya is a blogger and a marketing manager at Link-Assistant.Com, a Europe-based SEO software provider and the maker of the celebrated SEO PowerSuite toolset. Link-Assistant.Com's SEO tools have set industry's benchmark for automated link building and Web promotion.

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