How to prepare your website for the Yahoo-Bing change

Yahoo is starting to display Bing results on the search result pages. Bing results are going to deliver a lot of traffic in the near future. Is your website prepared for that change or will you lose a lot of visitors?

Does Google show the right Sitelinks type for your website?

When Google displays Sitelinks below your website listing in the search results, it's very likely that your website will get more clicks and more visitors. This week's article explains how to check your Sitelinks and how to make sure that Google displays the right Sitelinks for your website.

How to tell Google that your website is not about toads

You know what you sell and you know the topic of your website. Are you sure that Google puts your website in the right category? If your website is about shoes, Google still might think that it is about frogs and toads. How can you tell Google that your website is not about toads?

Six things that you should know about SEO

Most people know that being listed on Google's first result page will bring them a lot of targeted visitors and that they will get a lot of sales through that listing. However, you also have to know what to do if you want to get these results. This week's article shows you six things that you absolutely must know about SEO.

Official Google statement: 6 tips to get quality links

Last week, Google published an official statement about quality links and their effect on your website rankings. In the statement, Google wants to explain their viewpoint on earning quality links. This week's article contains six link building tips that Google endorses.

New Google patent: the reasonable surfer and your links

Last month, Google was granted a patent that states that the different links on a linking page have a different effect on the linked pages. How does this affect your website and what do you have to do to secure your rankings?

Google Caffeine is live: what you need to know

Last week, Google officially announced that their new web indexing system "Caffeine" is live on all Google pages. What does this mean for your website and do you have to change anything on your pages?

Five things you have to do to get high Google rankings

If you want to get high rankings on Google and other search engines, you must do the right things to succeed. You have to work on many different factors to make sure that your website performs better than the sites of your competitors. This week's article helps you to check the five most important points.

New data: how many clicks does the first result on Google get?

There's new data about the number of clicks that the first result on Google's result page gets. How does this affect your website and how can you judge the financial value of your rankings?

Six things you can do to remove bad press from the search results

No matter how good your company is, some people will always write something negative about your site, even if you tried your best to help them. What can you do if web pages with negative comments appear on Google's first result page for your company name?

Four reasons why Google might not use the anchor text in the links to your website

The anchor text of the links that point to your website is very important when it comes to getting high rankings on Google. Unfortunately, Google might not use the anchor text of all the links that point to your website. In this article, you'll learn how to find these links.

Mayday: how Google's May update will affect your long tail rankings

Google has introduced another algorithm update this month and many webmasters have seen a huge drop in traffic from Google for keyword phrases that are three or more keywords long (so called "long tail keywords"). How does this affect your website?

Eight things you can do to show search engines your most important pages

How can you get search engines to display the web pages with the best conversion rate in the search results and what can you do to to make sure that unwanted pages are not listed? This week's article explains eight things that you can to do show search engines your most important pages.

Four steps to great keywords (without keyword tools)

Most people use a keyword suggestion tool when they try to find new keywords for their campaigns. While keyword suggestion tools are good, they should not be the first step in your keyword research activities. This article helps you to find great keywords without using keyword tools.

The effect of latent semantic indexing (LSI) on your website rankings

Latent semantic indexing (LSI) is a technique that is used by all major search engines nowadays. Does your website take this into account? How does it influence the position of your web pages in Google's search results?

It's official: Google uses page speed as a ranking factor

Google has confirmed that they use page speed as a ranking factor. Will your website drop in Google's search results? What can you do you keep your website listed?

Should you buy links? Google's Matt Cutts made a new announcement.

Google's Matt Cutts recently made a new announcement about paid links. Buying links is a very hot and controversial topic among webmasters. Should you buy links to increase the position of your website on Google? Do paid links help your rankings? Are there any risks?

Pimp your links: how to improve your existing backlinks

Getting links to your website is one of the most important things that you have to do if you want to get high rankings on Google and other big search engines. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most difficult tasks. Do you make the most of your existing links? This week, we're going to pimp your links.

Official Google statements about ranking factors

Last week Google's Matt Cutts gave an interview in which he revealed some things that will help webmasters to better optimize their websites. In this article, you'll find the most important things that Matt Cutts said in the interview.

A new Google penalty? What can you do against it?

Webmasters in online forums reported an unusual Google behavior. New web pages of some sites are indexed with a longer delay. Is it a new Google penalty? Or is it just a bug that affects only certain websites?

Top 5 elements that you need for high rankings on Google

A small error in one search engine optimization factor can destroy your efforts in all other elements. When you optimize your website for search engines, you have to consider several different factors. In this article, you'll find the five most important factors that influence your Google rankings.

Is your website exploited by proxy hijackers?

Proxy hijacking still seems to be an issue on Google. Other websites might steal your website content and they can outrank your web pages on Google with the stolen content. Is your website affected? What can you do against these hijackers?

Double talk: do search engines understand your web pages?

Google does not list your web pages although you have a great site? This week's article lists 5 reasons why search engines won't list your website (solutions included).

Bing about web spam - Is your website considered spam?

All major search engines have special teams that try to eliminate web spam from their search result pages. Bing has just published an article about web spam. Is your website spam and are your rankings at risk?

Google AdWords: how to lower your costs while selling more

If you advertise your website on Google AdWords, chances are that you found out that you can spent a lot of money on AdWords without getting a lot in return. The reason why many people spend much more than they have to for their Google AdWords ads is that they use the wrong settings in their campaigns.

How to get your breadcrumbs on Google's result pages

Webmasters continue to see breadcrumbs on Google's result pages. What are breadcrumbs, for which websites does Google display them and how can you get Google to display breadcrumbs for your own website?

How do synonyms in Google results affect your rankings?

Google has announced a major change in the way that they handle search results by including synonyms for some words that may be used in queries. How does this affect the position of your web pages in Google's search results?

Official Google statement: how Google ranks tweets

How does Google rank tweets in the real-time results? The Google engineer who led Google's real-time search development shares some insights.

Study: does it pay to invest your time in long tail keywords?

How important are the long tail keywords in your search marketing campaign? Does it pay to invest your time in long tail keywords with little search volume? A new study has the answer.

How to get in Google's real-time results

Last month, Google started to display real-time results on the search engine result pages. How are these results calculated and how can you get in these results?

Solve the holiday jigsaw puzzle and the latest SEO news

Solve our holiday jigsaw puzzle online, get interesting 2009 statistics, learn about Google vs. Baidu and much more.

Will web page speed become a more important ranking factor?

Google's Matt Cutts recently suggested that the speed of a web page might become more important in Google's ranking algorithm. How will this affect your website and what can you do to improve the speed of your website?

Google patent: how Google deals with duplicate content

Google was granted a patent this month that explains how search engines can deal with duplicate content issues. Does your website hvae duplicate content problems?

Google Caffeine: how will it affect the rankings of your web pages?

Google's new Caffeine index is going to be released soon. What do you have to expect from this update and how will it affect the position of your web pages in Google?

Official search engine statement: link building do's and dont's

Bing recently published a document about link building. Although it focuses on how Bing deals with inbound links, it can also help you to get better links for Google, Yahoo and other search engines. The most important points of Bing's document can be found in this article.

Image optimization: get more visitors by being listed at the very top of Google's search results

Google Images has indexed billions of images. If your image can be found for the right keyword, then you will get targeted visitors to your website. We have six tips that help you to get your images on Google's first results page.

The right SEO tactic for low and high competition

Depending on the keywords for which you want to get high rankings, you have to employ different tactics. Keywords with less competition require different tactics than keywords with high competition. Two charts illustrate the importance and the effect of different optimization tactics.

Don't screw it up: why should other websites link to your site?

Links from related websites are very important for the position of your own site in Google's search results. Unfortunately, it's rather difficult to convince other people to link to your site.

Paid links: do they really affect your Google rankings?

Many websites on the Internet will link to your website if you pay them for the links. Is this a good method to increase the link popularity of your website or can you get in trouble if you use paid links?

Official Google statement: how to deal with bad inbound links

Many webmasters think that low quality links or links from spammy websites can have a negative effect on the ranking of their websites on Google. The problem with links from spammy websites is that it is very difficult to do something against them. Here's an official Google statement about bad links.

How to get your website above the regular results on Google - without paying for it

This week, we're showing you how you can optimize the listings of your website on Google Maps. Good listings on Google Maps can result in many website visitors.

Five steps: How to outrank your competitors on Google

To get high rankings on Google, it is not necessary to have everything that Google expects from a great website. You just have to be better than your competitors. If you have a website with optimized web pages, it is usually the quality of the links that make the difference. The tips in this article will help you to get better rankings than your competitors.

What's the catch? How IBP's Google ranking guarantee works.

You have probably seen the top 10 ranking guarantee that we give users of our website promotion tool IBP: we guarantee that your website will be found in the regular (unpaid) search results on Google for the keywords of your choice. Is it really possible to guarantee a top 10 position on Google? What's the catch?

TrustRank revisited: do search engines trust your website?

All major search engines use some kind of TrustRank to rank your web pages. How does this affect the position of your website in the search results and how can you improve the TrustRank of your website?

Reciprocal links: are they great, crap or something in between?

Reciprocal links are discussed controversially among search engine marketers. Some think that reciprocal links are great, others think that they are a waste of time, another group thinks that reciprocal links work to some degree. Is there a final answer?

A new free online keyword suggestion tool

If you want to succeed on the Internet, it is extremely important that you choose the right keywords for both organic search engine optimization and pay per click marketing. If you choose the wrong keywords, you'll waste a lot of time and money. A new frekeyword suggestion tool helps you to find good keywords.

The effect of your URL structure on your Google rankings

Does Google care about the position of a web page on your server? Does it make a difference if a web page is in the root directory of your website or in a sub directory? How does your URL structure influence the position of your web pages in Google's search results? What can you do to improve the position of your website?

Google's human reviewers: real people judge about your Google rankings

This week, we're taking a look at the effect of human reviewers on Google's ranking algorithm. Google employs several thousand people who manually review the search results. Do they like your website?

The winner takes it all: how to survive three rounds to get the sale

One of the main problems in Internet marketing is that it is often a "the winner takes it all" game. That means that the best website will get the deal and all other websites will get nothing, no matter how good they are. If you are just slightly better than your competitors, you will get many more sales.

Case study: are Internet directory submissions still a good SEO method?

Do Internet directory links still have value when it comes to search engine rankings? Can you increase the position of your website in Google's search results by submitting your site to Internet directories? A small case study has some answers.

Optimizing your website is like working with a fitness coach

This week, you'll find out why optimizing your website is like working with a fitness coach. Is your website fit enough to get page one listings on Google?

The effect of the Yahoo/Microsoft deal on your website

The Yahoo/Microsoft deal will have a major impact on the search engine landscape and there definitely will be effects on your website rankings and the number of visitors that your website will get..

How to get much better results with Google AdWords

Google's AdWords system is a great way to get more website visitors. However, Google is also a business that needs to make money. That's why most people pay much more for their AdWords ads than they have to.

PageRank sculpting: does it still help you to get higher Google rankings?

This week, we're taking a look at PageRank sculpting with the rel=nofollow attribute. Does it still work and can it help you to get better rankings on Google? What do you have to change on your own website?

How to outrank websites that have more backlinks than your website

If you want to get high rankings on Google, it is necessary that many other websites link to your website. This is something that most webmasters know. What many webmasters still don't know is that a website that has only a few inbound links can outrank a website that has many inbound links.

Action plan: how to change the titles of your web pages to get more visitors

The titles that you use for your web pages are very important. Depending on the type of traffic that you want to attract, you should use different web page title types.

SEO is pointless if your website does not convert

Getting listed on Google's first result page is great. It's not so great when you find out that you get a lot of visitors through your high search engine rankings but only a few customers. Search engine optimization is pointless if your website does not convert visitors into customers. You'll actually lose a lot of money if you don't take the time to optimize the conversion rate of your website.

For how many keywords should you optimize a web page?

This week, we're taking a look at the number of keywords for which you should optimize a single page of your site. It is possible to optimize a web page for a single keyword and get rankings for many keywords.

How to save money with quickly created long tail keywords

If you choose the right keywords, then you will pay as little as possible for your ads and you will get more sales. This new tool helps you to quidkly create long tail keywords and keyword lists for Google AdWords.

A new keyword tool with a unique keyword database

This week, we're taking a look at a brand new keyword suggestion tool that uses a unique keyword database that no other tool on the Internet can offer you. Finding the best keywords for search engine optimization is crucial if you want to succeed with your website. That's why you should take a look at this tool.

Microsoft's new search engine Bing - and how to optimize your website for Bing

Microsoft's Bing search engine has just become publicly available, allowing you to decide whether Microsoft's latest effort has the goods to take on Google. Bing promises to be a success and this article reveals everything you need to know about this new search engine.

Has Google a new -50 penalty?

Webmasters in an online webmaster forum observed an anomaly in Google's results that might indicate a new Google penalty. Which websites have been penalized and could this affect your own website?

How to find out which websites are hosted on the same server as your website

Are you living in a bad neighborhood? Your website could. Did you know that your web host probably hosts several websites on the same web server as yours? Some of these websites might belong to shady businesses. If they are major spammers, your website might be banned on Google.

How to create trust for high Google rankings

Trust is a major factor in Google's ranking algorithm. Some websites can get high rankings on Google for nearly any content they publish while other websites cannot get high rankings at all although they have optimized web page content. The reason why some websites do better than others is trust.

How to get indented listings for your website on Google

Wouldn't it be great if your website was listed twice in Google's top 10 results for your most important keywords? Although Google usually shows only one page from every site in the top results, it is possible to get two listings if you do the right things.

Three easy steps to optimize your existing links

Link building is one of the hardest and one of the most important things that you have to do if you want to get high rankings on Google. As it takes so much time to get inbound links, it is very important to make sure that the links to your website contain the right keywords. Here are three things that you can do to optimize your existing links.

Improve your Google rankings with second-tier links

Getting high quality links is crucial if you want high rankings on Google for competitive keywords. Links from old and reputable high authority sites work best. Unfortunately, it's often not easy to get links from high authority websites.

Do keywords in URLs improve your search engine rankings?

Should you use your keywords in the URLs of your web pages? Do search engines look at the keywords that are included in the addresses of your web pages and do these keywords have an effect on the rankings of your website? Google and Yahoo made some statements about it.

How Google's latest algorithm changes affect your website

During the last weeks, Google changed three things on the result pages that are visible to all Google users. The changes are good for searchers but they might be bad for your website.

Ten things that you should know about search engine optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization is not difficult if you understand the basic concepts. If you know what to do, your website will get the best possible rankings on Google and other important search engines. This article will help you to better understand SEO or to explain SEO to your clients.

How Google analyzes the top keywords on your website

Google recently filed a patent application that deals with the keywords that Google finds on your web pages. How does Google find the keywords on your website and how do they rank your website? What can you do to get better rankings?

Google's sandbox filter is still alive

Google's sandbox is a filter that Google's search quality team created to fight spam in the search results. This Google filter is still alive and it might be the reason why your website is not listed as high as it could.

Nine factors that affect your website usability and SEO

Optimizing web pages for search engines is often the same as optimizing web pages for web surfers. This week, we're taking a look at nine factors that can improve the usability of your website as well as your search engine rankings.

Action plan: how to get listed in Google's search results for many keywords

Targeting several keywords on your website is crucial if you want to get high rankings on Google. The more keywords that are related to a special topic can be found on your website, the more likely it is that Google will find your website relevant to that topic.

100% natural: how to get high rankings with natural links

Some years ago, it was enough to get many inbound links to get high rankings on Google. This has changed. As Google and other search engines continually improve the way they rank web pages, getting the right links is crucial if you want to be listed on the first search result page.

Google warning: is your site abused through redirects?

Google recently wrote in one of its official blogs that it is possible for spammers to take advantage of your website without ever setting a virtual foot in your server. Spammers can do this by abusing open redirects. What can you do to avoid this?

Three tips to compete with established websites on Google

Old websites have a big advantage over new websites. Websites that were around several years ago had far fewer competitors and it was much easier for them to get high rankings in that environment. How can you compete with these websites? Here are three tips.

How long does it take to get top rankings on Google?

Many people who start a website think that it is possible to get high rankings on Google within a few days. Unfortunately, this is not possible. Competition on the Internet is fierce and there are several factors that influence how long it takes until Google lists your website.

The art of writing a link exchange request that is not spam

Link exchange requests have a very bad reputation. The reason for that is that many people send mass link exchange requests that are nothing more than spam. However, if you want to get links from authority sites, you have to send link exchange requests. The secret of successful requests is to write link exchange messages that aren't spam.

Why link building is like losing weight

This week, we're telling you why link building is like losing weight and how this will help you to get better rankings on Google.

How to feed, indulge and guide Google's robot

Google's robot decides whether your website will get high positions in the search results or not. Give Google's robot what it needs and your website will get better rankings on Google.

Website checklist for 2009: is your website ready for the new year?

The new year 2009 might be a tough year for many businesses but if you do it correctly, it can be a very successful year for you. Use our 5 step checklist to find out if your website succeeds in the new year.

News 2008: the dollar value of a Google ranking and much more

What is the dollar value of a top ranking in Google? How can you increase your rankings? What has changed? This and many tips and tricks can be found in our 2008 summary.

Find the hidden message

This week, we're bringing you our Christmas puzzle instead of the main article. Can you find the hidden message?

How the bounce rate of your website can affect your Google rankings

Does Google use the bounce rate of a web page to specify the position of that page in the search results? What does this mean for your website rankings and what can you do to get a better bounce rate?

Ranking test: can there be too many links to your home page?

In an online webmaster forum, a webmaster described the link experiment that he did with his websites. He tried to find out how linking to the home page affected his rankings. Can too many links to the home page of your website have a negative effect on your rankings?

Action plan: what to do when your Google rankings have dropped

Has your website lost its rankings in Google? Did your rankings drop or did your website vanish completely from Google? Many things can cause a ranking drop. This article explains what you can do to get your rankings back.

Google's search engine optimization starter guide

Two weeks ago, Google released a so-called search engine optimization starter guide for webmasters. While the Google document does not tell you how your website can be listed on Google's first result page it will tell you what you shouldn't do if you want Google to index your web pages.

Do search engines think that your website is spam?

About three weeks ago, Microsoft was granted a new patent with the name Web Spam Classification Using Query Dependent Data. Although this patent application was filed by Microsoft, all major search engines probably use similar methods to classify web pages. Do search engines think that your website is spam?

Official Google statement: the effects of outbound links on your website

Do links to other websites have a positive or a negative effect on their Google rankings of your website? Are there right and wrong links? Google has published an official statement.

Five internal linking tips that will improve your search engine rankings

If you want your website to be indexed by search engines, it is important that your site has a good link architecture. Here are five tips that will help you to improve your link architecture as well as your search engine rankings.

Inbound link analysis: how long should a text link be?

The words that are used to link to your website improve your search engine rankings for these words on Google. But how long should the link text be? Which words will be considered? Is there an optimal length for text links?

Official Google statement: how to get high rankings

This month, the Google Webmaster blog published an article in which Google's Maile Ohye officially explained what it takes to get high rankings in Google's search result pages.

Two new spam tricks to get higher rankings on Google

Many people will do anything do get on Google's first result page. That's why some webmasters regularly come up with new spam methods to get on Google's first result page. Here are two new methods that people use to get high rankings on Google.

How to increase your sales with less traffic

Search engine optimization is not about getting as much traffic as possible. It's about getting the right kind of website traffic. Sometimes, less traffic can be better. This week, we're showing you that your sales can increase if your website gets less traffic. If you optimize your web pages correctly, you can multiply your revenue without working more.

Does Google ever forgive a penalized website?

Many of the methods that promise high search engine rankings are basically spam. Google doesn't like spam at all and if Google finds out that your website contains spam elements, your website will be penalized. Will Google forgive you if you remove the spam from your site?

Four important rules: how to get a #1 ranking on Google

Many people still don't know what it takes to convince Google that your website is more relevant than the millions of other websites on the Internet. There are four simple rules that will help you to get your website on Google's first result page.

How your web page titles can help you with local search

If you're selling products and services that are related to a special area, it is crucial that your website gets found by the right people. One of the easiest ways to get found by people that live in your area is to optimize your web page titles.

How to convince webmasters that they should link to your site

Suppose that you have a great website with great content. Your web pages are perfectly optimized for visitors and search engines and you have found many related websites that could link to your site. How do you convince these websites that they should link to your website? Here are five tips that will help you to convince other webmasters.

How Google Suggest influences the traffic you get from Google (+ Google web browser)

Last week, Google added the Google Suggest feature that had been available in beta for a long time to its main page. This might sound like a small change but it can have a big effect on the traffic that you get from Google. In addition, Google has released its own web browser today.

Five easy to make mistakes that keep search engine robots away from your website

Many webmasters don't get high rankings on Google and other search engines just because Google's indexing robot has difficulty to index their web pages. Read this article to find out how you can get Google to index your web pages.

Being first in the search results is not always the right thing

The number one position on Google is something that most webmasters try to achive. Unfortunately, many webmasters don't take the time to plan to find the best keywords for optimization. This can lead to problems with pay per click and with organic search engine optimization.

How to write link texts that will increase your Google rankings

Good link texts can give your website a boost in Google's search results. Unfortunately, many webmasters still don't take advantage of the full potential of optimized link texts. This article explains how you can make the most out of your links.

What Google's improved Flash indexing means for your website

A month ago, Google announced that they had improved the way it indexes Flash files. Has something changed in Google's search results in the meantime? Is this change good news for you if you have a Flash site?

A new search engine from Ex-Googlers challenges Google

A new search engine has been started by former Google employees. Could this be the next Google killer? How will this affect Google and your rankings?

Patent analysis: how search engines treat inbound links

This week, we're taking a look at a new ranking patent that has been granted to Yahoo. This patent can help you to better understand how to get higher rankings on Yahoo and Google.

How to GEO target Google

Do you want to get customers from outside the United States? Is your business located in Europe or another part of the world? There are a few things to consider if your website is aimed at people outside the United States.

Step-by-step guide: How to get high quality links

Link building is one of the most important search engine optimization steps. Without good inbound links, your website cannot get high rankings. These four easy steps will help you to link your website with some of the best sites on the Internet.

Top 4 reasons why your Google rankings have dropped

Most webmasters face this problem sooner or later. The rankings of your website on Google have dropped and you don't know why this happened. Read this article to find out why this could happen to your website.

Does your CTR influence your Google rankings?

Google uses the click through rate to rank the paid search results. The more clicks an ad gets, the higher it will be ranked in the search results. Does Google also use this method for the regular search results?

Can your business afford a quick and easy SEO solution?

Webmasters want quick and easy solutions to their problems. Most people want to get high rankings in Google and they want these rankings now. Here are the most popular quick fix solutions.

Does your website have no or the wrong Sitelinks in Google?

More and more websites get Sitelinks in Google's search results. What are they, how can they help your website and how can you influence which links Google will use for your Sitelinks? What can you do if Google displays the wrong links?

Does your domain name prevent your website from getting high rankings?

Does your domain name prevent your website from getting high rankings? This week, we're taking a look at the ranking problems that many webmasters experienced with .info domains. Is there a ranking filter for .info domains?

All you need to know about duplicate content

Although there is no such thing as a general duplicate content penalty it is difficult to get high rankings for a web page which contents can also be found on other web pages. What do search engines do with duplicate content and how can you avoid problems with duplicate content? All you need to know can be found in this article.

How to explain to your boss why website optimization is important

People not involved in website optimization often have difficulty to understand search engine optimization and the different methods that are involved. If you have to explain the basic SEO concepts to your boss, the following list will help you.

Google's -60 penalty and how to avoid it

During the last weeks, people in online forums observed some strange Google result changes. Rumor has it that there is a new -60 penalty. Which websites are penalized? How can you avoid getting penalized?

How much is a Google top ranking worth?

High rankings on Google can make the difference between an extremely successful online business and a total failure. The position of your website in Google's search results can make or break your business. But how much exactly is a top ranking on Google worth? What can a top ranking on Google do for your business?

Can your website usability influence your search engine rankings?

Do search engines care about the usability of your web pages? Does it make a difference whether your web pages are easy to navigate or not? A recent patent application from Yahoo indicates that search engines might take a look at your web page design.

How the age of your and other people's websites affects your rankings

A new patent application with the name "Ranking Domains Using Domain Maturity" shows how search engines could determine the quality of a web page by its age.

Study: what do people click in search results?

A new study about the click behavior of web searchers has been released this month. What do people click and what does this mean for your website rankings?

A major Google algorithm update might be on the way

Webmasters in a discussion forum have noticed changes in Google's search results. Do we have to expect a larger ranking algorithm update? How will this influence the ranking of your web pages in Google's search results?

Is your website text too complicated for your website visitors?

Are you sure that your website visitors understand the text on your web pages? If your web pages are difficult to understand, you might not earn as much as you could with your website. There is a simple test that enables you to check the readability of your web pages.

Does your website look like spam to search engines?

Is your website nowhere to be seen in Google? It might be that Google doesn't like your website because it looks like spam. Check this list to find out whether your website might look like spam or not.

Are your AdWords results getting worse?

If you find that your per click prices are going through the roof while your conversions are going down you should check your AdWords strategy. These tips will help you to save a weak campaign.

How to get Google Sitelinks for your website

Many webmasters wonder how they can make Google display additional Sitelinks for their websites. What exactly are Sitelinks, how can you get them and are they worth the effort?

Google's new method to detect duplicate content

Google's new patent application on near duplicate content describes a new method how Google tries to keep its users from finding redundant content in the result pages. How does this affect your web pages?

How Yahoo's phrased based indexing affects your website rankings

Yahoo recently published a patent applications that gives some insight on how Yahoo finds and evaluates keyword phrases on web pages. How does this affect the position of your web pages in the search results?

GoogleGuy's Secret Identity Revealed

Importance: High

It is now official. The true identity of GoogleGuy has been reveal by the Guy himself. It won't come as a surprise to most people in the industry, because it was all but certain by this point. Matt Cutts is GoogleGuy.

Danny Sullivan report that the admission came at a recent Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference:

I moderated the panel, and the confession came out when a member of the audience flat out asked Matt if he was GoogleGuy. Matt hesitated just a moment, and I could swear I could almost hear the internal debate of "should I finally confess or not." And then he did, saying as Rand notes that he sort of backed into being the GoogleGuy who posts on forums and blogs. Matt then added that today, GoogleGuy might be one of many different people from Google commenting in public areas.

For the past several years, many people have strongly believed that Matt Cutts was GoogleGuy, to the point of feeling certain of it. Still, to my knowledge, it wasn't "proven", and until now, he has not made a public admission. For for what its worth, it is now official: Matt Cutts is GoogleGuy.

Or maybe its not official?

In a postscript to the Search Engine Watch article, it is mentioned that Matt Cutts has disputed the reported admission over on the seomoz blog, saying:

I didn't take the question as "Are you GoogleGuy?". I took the question as "How did you end up doing a bunch of webmaster communication duties?". Maybe I misheard the question though.

So there you go. You can decide for yourself. ;)

Discuss

Google's Secret Lab

Importance: High

It has been reveal by Henk van Ess that Google has a secret search quality lab that utilizes human testers with the goal of improving search quality. More info can be found on his SearchBistro blog. According to Henk, "It's a lab of humans from all over the world (from China to The Netherlands, from Korea to Brasil) They are paid to check search results of Google every day. Most of the employees, called international agents by Google, were recruited through universities all over the world. The aim is to avoid spam, to get the right sites at the top of the listing and to test new features, not shown to the public yet."

GoogleGuy responds to ethics issues surrounding the collection and posting of this information on the web:

I have serious reservations about Henk van Ess taking information from one of his own students (who presumably signed a non-disclosure agreement when the student agreed to help rate the quality of our results) and posting that information online. I also believe these web pages said things like "Google Proprietary and Confidential," but it appears that the screenshots have been cropped to exclude that information. Those are the two things that really made me sad, not the "breaking news" the Google evaluates its own results quality. It shouldn't be a surprise that Google evaluates the quality of its results in lots of ways--the fact is that every major search engine evaluates its relevance in many ways.

Henk van Ess response can be found here.

Discuss

Google Do's and Don'ts

Importance: High

While giving more clues about the latest Google 'Bourbon' update, GoogleGuy has also talked about a few important things that should be done or not done, when optimizing your website for Google (but not only for Google).

I've been aching for a long time to mention somewhere official that sites shouldn't use '&id=' as a parameter if they want maximal Googlebot crawlage, for example. So many sites use '&id=' with session IDs that Googlebot usually avoids urls with that parameter
And then

I've never heard the suggestion that Google would penalize for iframes before reading it in the thread. Plenty of legit sites use iframes, so it wouldn't make sense to penalize for it. Powdork gave the right response in message 337 of the first Bourbon thread. Now I can easily believe that some search engine spiders would have trouble with iframes just like some spiders have trouble with frames. But I wouldn't expect iframes to cause any penalties.
And finally

My rule of thumb is to pick a root page and be as consistent as possible. I lean toward choosing http://www.yourdomain.com/ but that's just me; http://yourdomain.com/ would work as well. Then I recommend that you make things as simple as possible for spiders. I recommend absolute links instead of relative links, because there's less chance for a spider (not just Google, but any spider) to get confused. In the same fashion, I would try to be consistent on your internal linking. Once you've picked a root page and decided on www vs. non-www, make sure that all your links follow the same convention and point to the root page that you picked. Also, I would use a 301 redirect or rewrite so that your root page doesn't appear twice. For example, if you select http://www.yourdomain.com/ as your root page, then if a spider tries to fetch http://yourdomain.com/ (without the www), your web server should do a permanent (301) redirect to your root page at http://www.yourdomain.com/

So the high-order bits to bear in mind are
- make it as easy as possible for search engines and spiders; save calculation by giving absolute instead of relative links.
- be consistent. Make a decision on www vs. non-www and follow the same convention consistently for all the links on your site. Use permanent redirects to keep spiders fetching the correct page.

Given that GoogleGuy is quite talkative, in this period, we should probably expect more revelations soon.

Discuss

Google Update Bourbon Not Over Yet

Importance: High

Google's latest updated, nicknamed 'Bourbon' is not over. Many people thought the update was completed more than a week ago, but GoogleGuy is now suggesting that the update is only 14% completed and that there may be 2 more weeks of rankings changes until things settle.

Here's the advice that I'd give now: take a break from checking ranks for several more days. Bourbon includes something like 3.5 improvements in search quality, and I believe that only a couple are out so far. The 0.5 will go out in a day or so, and the last major change should roll out over the next week or so. Then there will still be some minor changes after that as well. So my "weather report" along the lines of http://www.ysearchblog.com/archives/000095.html would be a recommendation that rankings may still change somewhat over the next several days.

So who knows what could be next: spam filters, sandbox releases, more algo changes?

Thanks to Threadwatch for the pointer to this quote.

Discuss

Google Bans Itself for Cloaking

Importance: Medium

Responding to a post stating that Google makes use of forbidden cloaking techniques itself, googleguy admits it and promises an "exemplar punishement": banning its own pages from its own search engine for cloaking.

Cloaking, also know as stealth, is a technique used by some Web sites to deliver one page to a search engine for indexing while serving an entirely different page to everyone else.
This is clearly forbidden by Google and many other search engines guidelines and it sounds really odd (but does not really surprise me) that Google itself went against its own policy.
The funny thing, in my opinion, is the action that they are going to take against themselves, in order to fix the matter.

Googleguy says:

To be consistent with our guidelines, we’re removing these pages from our index. I think the pages are already gone from most of our data centers–a search like [site:google.com/support] didn’t return any of these pages when I checked. Once the pages are fully changed, people will have to follow the same procedure that anyone else would (email webmaster at google.com with the subject “Reinclusion request” to explain the situation)

I say it is funny because in many cases like this one, Google would ban an entire website from its search engine, but banning Google from Google i guess it wouldn't work really nicely: Internet has already had is "big Bang" a few years ago ;-) and quite a bunch of supernovas...but the time for a blackhole still has to come...

Discuss

Remove Keywords, Increase Impressions: AdWords

Importance: AWA

AdWordsAdvisor talks about the option of removing keywords with no clicks from your AdWords campaigns and its advantages.

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Google Bans Traffic Power and its Clients

Importance: High

Update: Traffic Power has changed there name to "1P" or "First Place". They are using the domain 1p with a .com after it (please do not link to them). Please spread the word and help others avoid getting burned by them.

GoogleGuy recently broke his silence to confirm that Google has taken action against an SEO firm and it's clients for spammy techniques. The SEO company convinced some its clients to use javascript redirects and place hidden links to doorway pages created by the firm. GoogleGuy explains:

I believe that one SEO had convinced clients either to put spammy Javascript mouseover redirects, doorway pages that link to other sites, or both on their clients' sites. That can lead to clients' sites being flagged as spam in addition to the doorway domains that the SEO set up.

GoogleGuy later reassured webmasters that those who use javascript mousover to place text in the status bar do not need to worry about beeing banned.

While the SEO company was not named in the thread, discussions in other forums reveal that the company in question was Traffic Power. I think it is important to mention the company name, so that others can learn to stay away from them. There have been numerous reports of people losing their job for hiring this firm to do their SEO, and rumors are brewing about a lawsuit in the works.

Update:I have heard that one of the efforts at a class-action lawsuit has been discontinued, but others are pending. If you are a former Traffic Power customer, you can send an email to Dave over at Traffic Power Sucks to get involved.

Thanks to Jan Willamowius for pointing me to this thread. I have been quite busy lately, without much time to scan the discussion threads looking for GoogleGuy's comments, which have been few and far between, and mostly insignificant. If you notice any significant posts by Google, please send me an email at googleguysays@markcarey.com. Thanks

Discuss

AdWords Selling PageRank Not Allowed?

Importance: AWA

AWA provides an update on a question about AdWords selling PageRank. In this response, AWA seems to suggest that doing so it not allowed (without makinga direct statement either way).

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AdWords Selling PageRank are Allowed

Importance: AWA

AWA says that it seems like you are allowed to use AdWords to advertise PageRank for sale (at least for now).

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Not at SES or PubCon

Importance: AWA

AWA replies to a member.

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GoogleGuy Goes Quiet

Importance: High

A couple of people have inquired as to whether I have stopped reporting on GoogleGuy's comments altogether. I have not stopped, and I do intend to report any significant comments made by GoogleGuy.

The reason I have reported anything recently is because GoogleGuy has gone quiet. Though I may have missed some, I have only seen one comment from GoogleGuy during the month of May, and that was to tell a member that the best way to contact Google was to email support (though he did mention that he would pass the particular issue on to others internally). If anyone has seen any other GoogleGuy comments this month, let me know.

With the Google IPO annoucement, Google is now in the "Quiet Period". And it appears that GoogleGuy is also in the quiet period. Many, including myself, expected this to happen (especially after GoogleGuy asked me to be quite).

Just one year after this site was launched, GoogleGuy isn't saying anything (at least for now).

Discuss

Problems for a new AdWords User

Importance: AWA

AWA replies to a new AdWords member.

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PageRank For Sale

Importance: AWA

AdWordsAdvisor responds to a question about using AdWords to advertise PR for sale.

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What is Wrong with AdWords?

Importance: AWA

AWA responds in a thread about listing recent compliants about the adWords system.

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Google Banner AdWords

Importance: AWA

AdWordsAdvisor talks about the recent annoucement that Google is now offering banner and image ads as part of the AdWords program. The ads will not appear on Google though (at least not yet).

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Web 3.0- A Semantic Web Experience

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Link-Building-101-How-to-Find-the-Perfect-Backlink-Source

One of the toughest jobs a SE marketer deals with on a regular basis is finding quality webpages and domain names to embed their backlinks on.

SEO Tools To Check Backlinks To A Website All About SEO and More

Some related posts from Technorati and Google . [Attorney Directory Attorney Directory Attorney Search : But this SEO is actually part of Search Engine Marketing or SEM where the promotion of any official website is being carried by increasing the number of visibility in the search engine result pages with the help of SEO.

Is it Worthwhile to Bother with DMOZ These Days?

Filed under Thread Picks by Kim Krause Berg on June 9, 2010. What caught one member's attention was the discovery that several web sites that WERE in DMOZ are no longer there.

United States Best & Worse Stocks On The Planet Earth Back By Financials To Prove It From Our Study

Business Capital Loans & StockBooth.com and PrettyPennyStocks.com all agree that these are the worse financials seen on a long time, while finding some good buys.

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Multi-Level Marketing BS

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I Like it, I Love it, I Want Some More of It

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