Could Guest Posting Be Dead?

Guest posting has long been a killer way to get links, but is it dead?  It’s no secret that the number one way online to get to page one of Google is to get links and lots of them.  Many SEO’s have been frantically submitting guest posts to 100′s of sites in hopes to boost their clients SEO with good links.  But are those links valuable?  We’re going to take a deep dive into guest posting with some expert advice from Matt Cutts of Google today. 

Matt Cutts put together a video today where he addressed guest posting as a way of getting links.  AJ Kohn asked Matt, “What is Google’s view on guest blogging for links?”  Matt Cutts put together the following video to answer that question:

So, to answer the question … No, guest posting is not dead for most people. Matt outlines some very simple principles of guest posting that I think everyone out there should pay attention to.

1. Spinning articles for guest posting will not help. It’s just like and article farm—no rankings—and sometimes negative rankings for this.
2. Writing crappy articles will not help.
3. Writing short articles of 200, 300, and 400 words will not help as much. The longer the better.
4. Having no Google Authorship will not help as much, you need to be known a little better.
5. Quality—it all comes down to quality. Make sure you’re putting time and effort into your posts.

Don’t take anything to extremes is one of my favorite quotes from the video above.

Don’t take anything to extremes is one of my favorite quotes from the video above.  There are a lot of people that outsource their article writing to low quality writers and take credit.  They simply outsource and post up the articles.  This is a no no.  Make sure that you’re putting together or getting real quality in your articles.

He recommends that you write the articles yourself.  If you can’t write them yourself make sure that you pay good money to have them written.  Some of the top places I’ve used to get real quality articles is Blogging.org, Textbroker, and Writer Access though I prefer to write all my articles personally!

Over the past 2 years I have had a very aggressive guest posting strategy for a couple of my projects that has worked very well. I have worked with some of the top sites in many industries to guest post on their sites. These are all top quality posts that bring real value to each and every person reading them.

Not all the blog posts are 100 percent unique and something new, but every post has something unique to me and my experience. All of my posts tend to be 600+ words, bringing real value to the reader. That’s what Google is looking for—quality and real value to the reader.

From this video you can tell that Google does love guest posting, they just want the crappy stuff gone. Stop trying to cut corners and put up spun posts. They aren’t going to help your site and I would imagine that Google is going to start really penalizing sites that do spin articles. Put up good quality guest post on other sites and Google will reward you for them.

Want to know if your article is good enough for Google?

Here’s a great way to know if it will pass the Google test. If you can send that article to your best friend in the industry and he learns something from it, I’m pretty sure Google and Matt Cutts will both agree that it’s a good article. Pretty simple test, but will all your guest posting articles pass this test?

This is just another example that Google is upping the SEO game. We, as SEOs, need to be constantly working hard to put out only the best for our clients. Gone are the days where we can put out really crappy information for links. Gone are the days where we can buy 2,000 article submissions for $100. The days are here where we need to step up our game and do as Wil Reynolds said at Mozcon this year: “Real Company Shit” Time to step up our game boys and girls!

Seo Wealth Building: You Have To Do The Right Things

Search engine optimization is very similar to wealth building. If you do the wrong things and listen to the wrong people, you might lose everything and you might be left with nothing. This is a lesson that many people learned after Google's Penguin update.

1. It's important to know that time is a factor

If you are young and invest your first dollars then you won't become a millionaire overnight. It takes some time to build your wealth and if you invest regularly, you will earn more than people who invest only once. If you invest too little, you won't get the same results as people who are serious about building wealth.

Search engine optimization works exactly like that. If your website is young, then it will have only a few rankings. You have to optimize the pages and the backlinks of your website and you have to do it regularly. The more time you invest in optimizing your site, the sooner you will get results.

2. Do first things first

When you start investing, you cannot participate in the big deals that require a lot of money. It's the same with SEO. If your website doesn't have many rankings yet, then it doesn't make sense to target very competitive keywords such as "mp3" or even "credit cards".

The big players in your niche have the high rankings for these keywords and they have several advantages (more backlinks, more visitors, more trusted by Google, etc.).

Start with much targeted keyword phrases that consist of 3-4 words. It is much easier to get high rankings for these keyphrases and you will also get higher conversion rates with very targeted keyphrases.

The more rankings your website has, the easier it will be to get high rankings for more competitive keywords. Then you can start to compete with the big guys for the more general keywords.

3. You have to be careful (the wrong things are very risky!)

There are many people who promise to make you rich overnight. Others promise incredible profits. The more aggressively you invest, the more likely it is that you will lose everything.

It's the same with SEO. If you use aggressive (and often shady) SEO methods then you put your website at risk. Aggressive tactics often deliver great results for a short period. Unfortunately, all of them also lead to massive problems with Google in the long run.

After Google's recent Penguin update, many websites have been banned from Google because they used spammy SEO tactics that promised quick results.

If you see offers like "thousands of backlinks with no work" or "fully automated SEO solution" then you should be very careful. In both finance and SEO, there are many snake-oil salesmen. Don't fall for them.

Getting your website on Google's first result page isn't rocket science. It requires some work but it is possible if you do the right things in the right order. Use search engine optimization methods that are approved by search engines to make sure that your website gets lasting results.

How To Get More Clicks From Rankings That You Already Have

Although the meta description tag doesn't influence the rankings of your web pages much, it can have a major influence on the number of clicks that you get. By attracting more clicks, good meta descriptions can also have a positive influence on your rankings.

What are meta descriptions and why are they still important?

The meta description tag can be found in the HTML code of a web page:

<meta name="description" content="This is the meta description text. If it is relevant, search engines will display it on the search result page.">

Some people think that meta descriptions are not important anymore. However, Google Webmaster Tools shows an alert if a meta description is not unique. That's an indicator that the descriptions still matter.

• Good meta descriptions can attract more clicks and a higher click-through rate.
• A higher click-through rate can have a positive effect on the rankings of the web page.

In other words: good meta descriptions can deliver new customers to your website while contributing to your rankings at the same time.

How to optimize your meta descriptions

• Meta descriptions should be unique: each page on your website should have its own meta description.
• Meta descriptions should be relevant: boilerplate meta descriptions won't do your website good. The meta description should be relevant to the content of the page.
• Include a call to action: think of what you want a user to do when they visit your page and then include a call to action in the description. The following verbs might help you: buy, download, shop, browse, download, etc.
• Show your USP: tell your customers what makes you different and highlight this unique proposition in the meta description.

Web searchers have many options on the result page. Offer something special to attract their clicks. The meta description tag is not an immediate ranking factor. If you want to get listed on Google's first result page, optimize the content of your web pages and try to get good backlinks to your site.

Then optimize the meta descriptions of your web pages to make sure that you get as many visitors as possible through your rankings.

Google: It Takes Time To Rank A Great Website On Google

In an online discussion, Google's John Mueller said that having a great website is not enough to get high rankings on Google. What do you need to get high Google rankings and what do you have to do?

High rankings take time

If you have a new website, it will take some time until Google fully trusts your site. Even if your website has great content, Google must be sure that your website can be trusted. 

This is what John Mueller wrote in the discussion forum:

"From what I can tell, your site is still fairly new - with most of the content just a few months old, is that correct? In cases like that, it can take a bit of time for search engines to catch up with your content, and to learn to treat it appropriately. It's one thing to have a fantastic website, but search engines generally need a bit more to be able to confirm that, and to rank your site - your content - appropriately."

If your website is several months old, it is still new to Google and Google needs other factors that confirm that your website is great. For example, the number and the quality of the links that point to your website will help your website to get higher rankings.

Automatically created backlinks don't help your website

Many webmasters think that they can get higher rankings on Google by artificially increasing the number of website backlinks through bulk link submitters.

While these tactics did work for some time, Google's Penguin update made sure that this type of link can get your website into trouble. John Mueller strongly recommends to avoid these links:

"If you're engaging in techniques like comment spam, forum profile link-dropping, dropping links in unrelated articles, or just placing it on random websites, then those would be things I'd strongly recommend stopping and cleaning up if you can."

You won't get high rankings on Google if you use spamming tools to promote your website. If you want to get high rankings that last, optimize the content of your web pages to show that your website is relevant to your keywords.

Then make sure that high quality websites link to your site. If you do these things in that order, your website will get high rankings on Google in the shortest possible time. In addition, your rankings will last because they are spam-free.

How To Get High Local Rankings

40 local search marketers around the world participated in a survey to find the most important ranking factors for local search. If you want to get high rankings in Google's local search results the survey can help you.

Why is it important to get good local rankings?

For some keywords (for example "seo ananlysis"), Google shows local results at the top of the search result list. These websites aren't listed at the top because they have good content or good backlinks.

They are listed at the top because they fit to the geographic area of the search query. If keywords that show local results are relevant to your business, it is important to be listed in the local search results.

The five most important factors for local results

According to the survey, the following five factors are the most important factors that influence the overall ranking of a website in Google's local results:

1. The physical address in the city of search
2. Proper category association
3. The proximity of the address to centroid
4. The domain authority of the website
5. The quantity of structured citations on Internet yellow pages websites and data aggregators

It also helps to have the city and the state on the landing page.

The top five factors that have a negative influence on your local rankings

The following factors can have a negative influence on your local rankings:

1. A mis-match of phone numbers across data ecosystems. For example, tracking phone numbers can negatively affect your local rankings.
2. Multiple Google Place pages with the same phone number.
3. Multiple Google Places pages with the same or similar business title and address.
4. A mis-match of the address and/or the phone number on Google Places and the landing page.
5. Including location keywords in categories.

If your website doesn't have a crawlable version of your name, address and phone number on the landing pages, Google might not also give your website high rankings.

Getting high rankings on Google is important if you want to get more customers and more sales. 

Google releases two new ranking algorithm updates

It seems that Google releases a new ranking algorithm update every week. Last week, Google’s Matt Cutts announced that there is another algorithm update that targets web spam. What does this mean for your rankings and how must you react?

Google doesn't like web spam

“In the next few days, we’re launching an important algorithm change targeted at webspam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines. We’ve always targeted webspam in our rankings, and this algorithm represents another improvement in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content.While we can’t divulge specific signals because we don’t want to give people a way to game our search results and worsen the experience for users, our advice for webmasters is to focus on creating high quality sites that create a good user experience and employ white hat SEO methods instead of engaging in aggressive webspam tactics.”

Things that Google considers spam

Google’s announcement shows two examples. The first example is a page that is stuffed with hundreds of keywords in a comma separated list.

Google doesn’t want that type of pages in the search results. The second example is a page that has normal text. However, the text contains keyword optimized links that are totally unrelated to the surrounding text.

Other things that Google considers spam are linking schemes, misleading redirects or purposeful duplicate content.

Google says that the right kind of SEO is fine

Many people confuse search engine optimization with spamming. Spamming and SEO are two totally different things. Google’s latest announcement also contains a statement about “white hat” SEO:

"Effective search engine optimization can make a site more crawlable and make individual pages more accessible and easier to find. [...]

 'White hat' search engine optimizer often improve the usability of a site, help create great content, or make sites faster, which is good for both users and search engines."

How to react to Google's latest ranking algorithm

Google released two algorithm updates: a Panda update on April, 19th and the update explained above on April, 24th. If your web page rankings dropped on April, 19th, then you have to improve the quality of your web pages.

If your page rankings dropped on April, 24th, then you have to remove all spam elements from your web pages. If you think that your website was flagged by mistake, you can inform Google through this form.

Only use white-hat SEO methods if you want to be on the safe side

Use shady SEO methods and Google might penalize your website. If you want to be on the safe side, only use white-hat SEO methods.

Duplicate Content vs Content Syndication

Just a few days ago, I receive an email from a reader about the concern of duplicate content issue when using press release. I think this is one of the myth in SEO or in general marketing context.

What Is Duplicate Content?

First of all, we need to understand the definition of duplicate content and why it happens. When Google refers to duplicate content issue, they mean the same content that can be accessed via different URL in the same domain. For example, you have a page with unique that is about dog training, i.e. YourDomain.com/Dog-Training, this page can also be accessed via multiple URLs because of session id or you have created multiple page with different design for split testing purpose, such as via YourDomain.com/Dog-Training.html, YourDomain.com/Dog-Training1.html, then this could post a duplicate content issue.

If you submitted your very same post to the article directories, this is NOT a duplicate content issue but content syndication.  There are a lot of misunderstanding about content syndication versus duplicate content. Of of the most common way that you might see is that your blog posts were scrapped and posted on some other blogs via RSS. There are a lot of content scrapping software that are able to scrap content easily and get posted automatically to the blog to generate content. Most of them will provide a link back to the original source to acknowledge the author. 

Content Syndication 

This is the situation where you have the same piece of content showing up in multiple websites with different URLs and this is not considered as duplicate content. Similarly, you can also submit the same article to multiple article directories or using software like Article Marketing Robot for mass distribution of your article. This content syndication will result in multiple backlinks to your website and direct traffic to your site because you have increased the exposure of your website.

Another good example is press release. Most of the reputable press release sites will get a lot of syndication from other news agency and blogs, therefore resulting in massive exposure of the single press release. That’s one of the reason why press release can be extremely powerful to generate buzz for product launch and any kind of event. 

Unlimited Traffic And Backlinks? 

Now, hopefully you understand clearly the difference of duplicate content and content syndication. You might be wondering do you need just 1 piece of content to get unlimited traffic and backlinks since you can “syndicate to a tons of sites”? The answer is NO.Although technically you can submit your article to as many sites as possible, the chances for all those sites to get indexed by Google is slim. Please note that there is no penalty from Google and that’s just how Google will treat the excessive syndicated content as supplemental index database, as shown below:

Having said that, you still be able to gain the benefit of having direct traffic from the sites you submitted to. If you would like to gain the backlinks that are indexed by Google, you need to provide unique content.

I hope this post clears out the myth of duplicate content vs content syndication. As usual, leave me your comment below to share your thoughts on duplicate content, content syndication or any questions you have.

How To React To Google's Over-Optimization Filter

In the News: Google announces another Panda update, paid blog networks don't work anymore, you might have to hide your location on Google Places, how Bing removes junk from the result pages and more.

Last week, Matt Cutts, head of Google's anti-spam team, announced that Google is working on a penalty for over-optimized websites. What does this announcement mean to your website and how should you react to this announcement?

Here's what Matt Cutts said in detail:

"We don’t normally pre-announce changes but there is something we are working in the last few months and hope to release it in the next months or few weeks. We are trying to level the playing field a bit. All those people doing, for lack of a better word, over-optimization or overly SEO – versus those making great content and great site. We are trying to make Google Bot smarter, make our relevance better, and we are also looking for those who abuse it, like too many keywords on a page, or exchange way too many links or go well beyond what you normally expect. We have several engineers on my team working on this right now."

Does this mean that you shouldn't optimize your web pages anymore?

This announcement is aimed at people who are trying to push the limits too far. Of course, it is perfectly okay to add your keywords on your web page and it is also perfectly okay to exchange links with other websites.

Actually, all of these methods can have a very positive influence on the Google rankings of your website. The problem starts when these elements are overused. This usually happens when you use fully automated tools and services to promote your website.

For example, it is likely that the following SEO methods will get your website in trouble:

• automated link exchange networks that add your link to hundreds on other websites
• tools that automatically create fake forum accounts and comments with a link to your site
• tools that automatically create keyword rich web pages for you on your website
• participating in paid link schemes

Fully automated solutions always mean spam when it comes to SEO

Google wants to show high quality web pages in the search results. Web pages that have been created automatically cannot have the same quality as a web page that has been created by a human editor. Fully automated solutions lead to low quality links and content that is not helpful to the average web surfers. Businesses that "optimized" their websites with these methods are the ones who will be hit by the new ranking filter. If you see the words "fully automated" and "hundreds" or "thousands" in one sentence that you can be sure that the advertised product or service is spamming and your website will get in trouble if you promote it with these methods.

Don't panic and create a symbiotic relationship with search engines

If you haven't used the spam methods described above to promote your website, then your Google rankings won't be in trouble. Optimizing your web pages remains very important because you have to show Google and other search engines that your website is relevant to a particular keyword and that your website has a high quality.

Secure your Google rankings by using white-hat SEO tools

Optimizing your web pages is important but you have to make sure that you play by the rules. If you do it correctly, search engine optimization leads to lasting high rankings, more customers and more sales. If you're pushing the limits too far, your website will get in trouble sooner or later. If you want to get lasting results, only use white-hat SEO methods.

Different keywords require different SEO tactics

Keywords with little competition require different tactics than keywords with high competition. If you want to get the best possible results for your website, you must use the right tactics with the right keyword.

1. On-page optimization has a higher impact for long keywords

The relative value of on-page web page optimization is very high if you target very long keywords with little competition:

Here's an example: say you want to be listed for the search term "buy blue nike 'the overplay' basketball shoe in Atlanta" then it is enough to optimize one of your web pages for that search term because the competition for that search term is not high. You don't need many inbound links to get high rankings for that keyphrase.
If you target more competitive keywords, you need more backlinks to get high rankings in the search results.

2. Even if you target competitive keywords, it is important to optimize your web page content

The chart above might create the impression that web page optimization is not important to get high rankings for very competitive keywords. That is not the case. Optimizing the contents of a web page is the essential basis for high search engine rankings.

By optimizing a web page for a keyphrase, you tell search engines that the web page is relevant to that keyphrase. If more than one web page has been optimized for that keyphrase (which is usually the case) then the web page with the best inbound links will get the highest position in the search results.

For example, the website www.cnn.com has 46,600 inbound links according to Google. Although CNN.com has so many inbound links, they do not rank for the keyword "buy blue nike 'the overplay' basketball shoe in Atlanta" because the website has not been optimized for that keyphrase.

3. Optimize your web page content, then work on the backlinks

If you want to get high rankings for a keyword, the first step is to optimize one of your web pages for that keyword. Then work on the links that point to the optimized web page to outrank other websites that have been optimized for the same keyword:

4. The more pages you optimize the better

When you optimize your website, optimize different pages of your website for different keyphrases. Start with longer keyword phrases that don't have much competition and then proceed with more competitive keywords.

For example, start with the keywords "buy sneakers in atlanta", "buy cowboy boots in atlanta", "buy pumps in atlanta", "shoe shop atlanta", etc. When you have managed to get high rankings for many of these keyphrases, Google will know that your website is relevant to the topic "shoes".

As soon as Google knows that your website is relevant to the topic, it will be much easier to get high rankings for more competitive keywords such as "buy shoes" or even "shoes".

The more pages of your website you optimize for different but related keywords, the better.

5. It's not necessary to have more links than your competitors

It's not always necessary that you have more links than your competitors. You need better links.

Try to get links to your website that use the targeted keyphrase as the link text (also called anchor text) and that point to the web page on your website that has been optimized for that keyphrase.

Don't focus on quantity, focus on quality. Getting hundreds of links from a link farm won't help your website as much as a few dozen links from relevant web pages with authority.

If your website has both optimized web pages and good inbound links then it will be easy to outrank web pages that only have one factor.

New year resolutions: Link Building is just like getting in shape

The backlinks that point to your website are still the most important factor that determine the position of your website on Google. Unfortunately, it's not easy to get good backlinks. Link building can be compared to getting in shape after the holidays:

1. It takes hard work and there are no shortcuts resolutions

It does not matter if you want to lose weight after the holidays or if you want to get high quality links: you have to invest time and effort.

You cannot lose 30 pounds in a month and you also cannot get your website on Google's first result page for a very competitive keyword in that time.

If you want to get lasting results, you have to work continually on your links and your web page content.

2. You have to be consistent

SEO isn't a one-shot solution. It doesn't help your rankings much if you get many links at once and then stop building links. Search engines also consider how many websites link to your site over time.

It's the same if you want to get in shape: doing a 12 hour workout on a single day and then doing nothing won't help you to lose weight. It will be bad for your health.

It's the same with link building: if you get many links at once and then no links at all, search engines might think that you try to cheat them with a linking system.

If you want to get in shape, you have to be consistent. You might not see immediate results but there is a constant change and some day, you'll find that you're much thinner.

Link building works exactly like that. Do not try to game search engines by joining link systems or buying links. Get one link at a time, optimize your pages and the rankings of your website will improve steadily.

3. There are a lot of scammers

The SEO industry is full of scammers that promise easy and quick solutions. You should be very careful. If something sounds too good to be true then it's probably not true. There are no easy and quick solutions and there are no secret tricks that nobody else knows about.

The same applies to weight loss and fitness. There are lots of diet pills and miracle machines that promise easy and quick results. These methods don't work.

4. It's possible to trick the system but you won't get lasting results

There are a lot of diets and diet products that help you to quickly lose weight. Unfortunately, you only lose water weight with these diets and you'll get your old weight back soon.

Link building is similar. Every now and then, some webmasters find a loophole in Google's algorithm. These loopholes allow people to get on Google's first result page without doing the hard work.

This usually works for some weeks but then Google finds out and websites that exploited the loophole are penalized and removed from the index. It's very risky to use these methods to get high rankings because Google doesn't like spammers.

5. The result is worth it

People who lose weight usually feel more healthy and happier. Being number one on Google's result page for the right keyword can mean many more sales for your business.

You have the choice: Don't fall for rip-off products that promise easy and quick results without much work. These products don't deliver long term results and they often put your website at risk.

If you really want to succeed, start now: optimize your web pages and get good backlinks.

Official Google information: 10 recent algorithm changes

Last week, Google's Matt Cutts published a list of 10 recent ranking algorithm changes in an official Google blog. Do these changes affect your website rankings? Do you have to adjust your web pages for the new algorithm?

What is new in Google's ranking algorithm?

Here's the official list:

1. For queries in languages where limited web content is available (for example Hind or Icelandic), Google will translate relevant English web pages and display the translated titles directly below the English titles in the search results.
2. The snippets on the search result page now show more page content and less header/menu content.
3. Google finds that boilerplate links with duplicated anchor text are not as relevant, so they are putting less emphasis on these. The result is more relevant titles that are specific to the page’s content.
4. Autocomplete predictions in Russian have been improved.
5. People who are searching for software applications will see more rich snippets, like cost and user reviews, within their search results.
6. Google retired a signal in Image Search related to images that had references from multiple documents on the web.
7. Some queries get fresher results. This change impacts around 6-10% of search results to a noticeable degree and better determines the appropriate level of freshness for a given query.
8. Google adjusted how they attempt to determine which pages are official. This will tend to rank official websites even higher on Google's result page.
9. Date-restricted queries have been improved to ensure that users get the results that are most relevant for the date range that they specify.
10. Autocomplete predictions for Hebrew, Russian and Arabic have been improved.
Matt Cutts does not go into detail. The most important change seems to be that boilerplate links with duplicated anchor text are not as relevant as before. This probably affects the texts in your website navigation most. If the navigation text was "green widgets" before, this would give the linked page a boost for the term "green widgets". Matt Cutts says that this has changed.

How do you have to change your web pages?

Google says that you shouldn't focus on the ranking factors above:

"Before you go wild tuning your anchor text or thinking about your web presence for Icelandic users, please remember that this is only a sampling of the hundreds of changes we make to our search algorithms in a given year, and even these changes may not work precisely as you’d imagine."

Google uses many different elements to specify the position of your web pages on the search result pages. The Top 10 Optimizer analyzes all important elements that determine the position of your web pages and it also tells you how to adjust your pages so that they get the best possible rankings.

Google is continually improving the ranking algorithms. If you want to keep your rankings, and if you want to get better rankings, regularly check your web pages to make sure that they are compliant to Google's latest ranking algorithm.

Has your website been penalized by Google? Here's what you can do

Since Google's latest ranking algorithm, the search engine rankings of many websites are worse than before. If your rankings dropped, your website might have been penalized by Google. This article helps you to recover from such a situation.
Step 1: check if your website has been penalized

A sudden ranking drop doesn't necessarily mean that your website has been penalized. It might be that your competitors now have better backlinks or that their websites get more mentions on social media sites.
Some of your most important backlinks might have been removed by the linking site or your website simply does not meet Google's current requirements.
For that reason, it is important to check if Google still lists your website. Search Google for "yourdomain.com" and "site:yourdomain.com". If you don't get any results, then it's likely that your website has been penalized.

Step 2: don't panic and try to find the reason for the penalty

Before you contact Google, you should try to find the reason for the penalty. There are several things that Google does not like:

• You sold links on your website: if you sell links on your website for SEO purposes and if it is obvious that you're selling links, this might get you in trouble. Use the rel="nofollow" attribute if you sell links.
• You used paid links to promote your website: if Google is sure that you purchased links to improve your Google rankings, they might double-check your site. Remove the paid links.
• Fully automated backlink systems: if you participate in a fully automated backlink scheme, it is almost sure that Google will penalize your website. Remove the automated linking scripts from your web pages.
• You use on-page spam techniques such as hidden text, keyword stuffing, sneaky redirects or cloaking.

Step 3: remove the spammy elements and optimize your web pages

Before you file a reconsideration request, you must make sure that your website doesn't contain any spammy elements. Check step 2 and remove anything that could be spammy from your web pages.
Then optimize your web pages to make sure that they offer everything that Google needs to give your website high rankings for the right keywords.
When you have done that, you can file a reconsideration request.

Google continually updates the ranking algorithm. All spam techniques on your web pages will be discovered sooner or later. If you want to get lasting rankings in Google's top 10 results, use white-hat SEO techniques that are approved by Google.

Four steps to reach customers with Google in different countries

Getting listed on Google's local country variations is very important if you're selling your products in more than one country. Google's results differ from country to country and there are four things that you have to do to make sure that Google lists you in the search results for that country.


Why should your website be listed in other Google versions?

Google redirects people from Google.com to the local versions based on the IP address of the visitor.
For example, people from Germany will be redirected from Google.com to Google.de, people from the UK will be redirected to Google.co.uk, etc.
These people won't see your Google.com listings because Google delivers totally different search results for the same keywords in the local versions. If you want to reach these customers, you must make sure that Google finds your website relevant to that particular country.

How to make sure that Google lists your website in the targeted country

If you want to get listed in Google's search results for a particular country, there are four things that you have to do:

1. Get a country specific domain name with the right top level domain

If you want to get high rankings on Google.co.uk then you should have a .co.uk domain name. It's much easier to get listed on Google.co.uk if your website uses the .co.uk top level domain.

2. Get an IP address that is located in the targeted country

If you cannot get a domain name with the right top level domain then try to get an IP address that is located in the targeted country.
If the IP address of your web server is located in Italy then Google will use this as an indicator that you're targeting the Italian market.
You can use the FlagFox Firefox extension to check the geographic location of a server.

3. Show Google that your website is located in the targeted country

If you target the French market, show your full postal address in the footer of your website if that address is located in France. Also include that address on the "About us" page of your site. That will make it easier to assign your website to that country.

4. Create country specific web page content

If you're trying to sell something in Denmark, it is obvious that your web page content should be in Danish.
Use the right words on your web pages. For example, write "aubergine" instead of "eggplant" and "biscuit" instead of "cookie" if you want to be listed on Google.co.uk.

If you do the things above, you will dramatically improve your chances of being listed in Google's results for a particular country.

The impact of spammy backlinks on your Google rankings

Can low quality links or links from spammy websites have a negative effect on the rankings of your websites on Google? If spammy websites point to your site, should you act?

Three things that you can do when you discover spammy backlinks

Most websites have links from low quality websites and it is very difficult to do something against these links. You cannot influence which websites link to your site.
For example, a competitor could add your website to a link farm network or the competitor could spam search engines and directories with your URL.

If you find that low quality websites link to your site, you can do several things:

1. Relax and let them link

   Linking is a significant factor in Google's ranking algorithm but it is just one of many factors. Other factors are the content of your web pages, the site structure and the appearance of a keyword in the different web page elements.

2. Ask the webmaster to remove the links

   If you have a high quality website and get links from spammy websites, try to contact the website owners and ask them to remove their links. Google will not help you with that. If the webmasters of the spammy website are not cooperative, don't worry and focus on the links that are under your control.
   

3. Optimize your links and your web page content

   Optimize all of the factors that influence indexing and ranking on Google.  It analyzes dozens of factors that influence the position of your website in Google's search results and it shows you what exactly you have to change so that Google will list your website on the first result page.

Focus on things that can be influenced by you
Google knows that you cannot influence all of the links that point to your site. Low-quality links come from websites with low Google rankings and they cannot pass much ranking power to other websites. Chances are that Google simply ignore these links for the ranking algorithm.
For that reason, you shouldn't worry too much about links to your website that you cannot control. Focus on web page optimization and high quality link building.

Google's new sitelinks

With Google's new sitelinks, the meta description tag becomes more important

Last month, Google announced new and extended sitelinks. The maximum number of sitelinks increased from eight to 12.

If Google decides to display sitelinks for your website, your site will get a much more prominent display than before.
How to make your sitelinks more attractive

Google uses the first 30-35 characters of the meta description tag of a web page for the snippets.
To increase the number of clicks on the snippets, you should optimize your meta description tags:

• The first 35 characters in the meta description tag should contain a clear description of the page and/or a call-to-action.
• Each page of your website should have its own meta description.

Note that Google updates the sitelinks of a website periodically. It may take some time before the new descriptions of your web pages appear in the sitelinks.

How to get sitelinks

In general, Google shows sitelinks if it is sure that a website is the exact match for a search query (usually product name or company name searches). Google generates the sitelinks for your website based on your website navigation and based on the links that point to your website.
If Google does not show sitelinks for your website then you should work on your website navigation:

• Avoid JavaScript and Flash navigation and try to use regular <a href> links as often as possible.
  
  
• If you use images for your website navigation, make sure that the images contain alternative texts that allow Google to categorize your links.

Do not use too many navigation links and make it easy for web surfers and search engines to find out which pages of your website are the most important pages. The better a web page is linked, the more likely it is that it will appear in the sitelinks on Google.

Sitelinks are a nice addition for brand name searches but they usually don't appear for searches that consist of two to four words. These words are the most important keywords for website promotion and search engine optimization.

How to check if spammers abuse your website

A new type of spam cloaking is getting more popular: spammers hack into popular websites that have high rankings on Google and then insert keyword rich links and redirects to other websites. What can you do to make sure that your website is not abused by spammers?

What is cloaking?

Cloaking is a spamming technique in which the content presented to the search engine spider is different from the content presented to regular users.
This is done by delivering content based on the user-agent HTTP header of the user requesting the page, the IP address of a user or the referring page:

1. When a user is identified as a search engine spider, a server-side script delivers a different version of the web page.
   
   The search engine spider can be identified based on the IP address and on the user-agent HTTP header.
   
   
2. When a user comes from a particular page (for example a Google search result page), the web server delivers a different version of the page than users get when they enter the URL of the page directly in the browser.

These methods can be combined. A web page can be cloaked based on the IP address, the user-agent, referring web page or any combination of these three factors.

How do spammers abuse your website?

Many websites have security holes. Spammers use them to hack into your server and to change the content of your web pages. They can do the following with your pages:

1. They insert keyword rich links to spammer sites on your web pages. These links are only visible to Google's indexing spider. For Google, it looks as if your website is endorsing the spammer website with a link.
   
   
2. They redirect your website visitors to their own pages. Google gets your regular page. People who visit your web pages after clicking on your website listing on Google's search results will be redirected to the spammer website.

How can you find out if spammers abuse your site?

There are several ways to find out if spammers change your web pages:

1. Search Google for "site:yourdomain.com" (replace yourdomain.com with your own domain). Browse through the search result pages and check the titles and descriptions that Google uses for your web pages.Click on a listing to make sure that visitors are directed to the correct page.
2. Click on the "Cached" link on Google's search result pages for your domain to see the content that Google has indexed on your pages.Look for links, Javascript and other elements that don't belong on your page.

Use the tips above to find out if hackers have changed the content of your web pages. To make sure that hackers cannot abuse your website, use the latest version of your content management system and install the latest security updates.

Optimize your internal links to get higher search engine rankings

Optimizing the content of your web pages is important if you want to get high rankings on Google. Most people know that they have to work on web page titles, web page content and links from other sites.
The internal link structure of a website is often overlooked although it has a big impact on the rankings of a website.
Why the internal link structure of your website is important

Internal links do not count as much as links from external websites. Nevertheless, search engines use them as an important signal in their algorithms.
Search engines consider links as votes. By optimizing the link structure on your web pages, you can lead search engines to the important pages of your website and you can show them the keywords for which you want to get high rankings.

1. Start by optimizing the main navigation on your website

The main navigation on your website are the navigational links that are visible on all pages of your site. The main navigation is the most important part of your website navigation.
It usually includes a "Home" link (including a linked company logo image) and links to the main sections on your website.

• Make sure that the links in your main navigation contain your most important keywords.
• Avoid Flash and JavaScript menus. Most search engines won't index your pages then. Use standard HTML and CSS to design your website navigation.

2. Consider breadcrumb navigation for sub-pages

Sub-pages can benefit a lot from breadcrumb navigation (Home > Category > Sub category > Product page). Sub pages usually aren't linked form the main website navigation.
Breadcrumb navigation links can help search engines to put the sub pages into the right context:

• Use breadcrumb navigation links on your web pages to show search engines and website visitors the exact location of a page.
• Use descriptive and keyword rich words in your breadcrumb navigation: Shoe shop > Sports shoes > Buy soccer shoes > Adidas deals

3. Make sure that the first link on the page is the right link

Google seems to consider only the text of the first link on a page. For example, if page A links to page B with the anchor text "further information" on the top of the page and with the anchor text "buy adidas soccer shoes" at the bottom of the page then only the first anchor text will be used by Google.

• If you link more than once to another page, make sure that the first link on the page contains the keywords for which you want to get high rankings.

Getting on Google's first result page

Getting on Google's first result page is important if you want to get more website visitors. How long does it take to get listed on Google's first result page? There are four factors that influence the process.

1. Trust: old websites have an advantage

It takes some time until Google shows new websites in the search results. Although you can submit your website to Google, Google will only index your website if other websites link to your site. You have to earn Google's trust before your website will get lasting high rankings. A new website can get good rankings for less competitive keywords but it usually takes about 6 months to gain the minimum level of trust that is necessary to get high rankings.

2. Optimization: make it easy to parse your pages

It can be relatively easy to get top rankings on search engines if you have an established website that blocked Google by mistake (a broken robots.txt file or problems with the website navigation). Make sure that it is as easy as possible for search engines to index your web pages. The better search engines can parse your pages, the more likely it is that your web pages will be added to the index. Optimize the content of your web pages to make sure that your pages will be found for the right keywords.

3. Keywords and competitors: it's not good to compete with Amazon

The keywords that you target are a very important factor. The more competitive your keywords are, the longer you have to wait and the more backlinks you need.If the websites that are ranked in the top 10 results for your keyword all have thousands of backlinks and thousands of pages then it's not likely that your website will be able to get in the top 10 results if it has 10 backlinks and 20 pages. Start with very targeted multiple word keyphrases and then proceed to the more competitive keywords when your website has good content and inbound links.

4. Backlinks: the better the links, the faster your site will be listed

The more backlinks a website has, the quicker Google will pick up the changes on your website. If your website has great content but only a few backlinks, then it won't get high rankings.

High rankings on Google take some time. You have to optimize your web pages and you have to get good inbound links. Without these two factors, it is not possible to get high rankings on Google.
The number of inbound links is a very important factor. If you have optimized web pages but no links, then you have to build these links and you have to wait longer. If your website has a lot of inbound links then you will get high rankings quickly if you optimize your pages.

Why Keywords Are Important To Building Your Blog

Keywords are essential for any blogger wanting to get more readers, fans, subscribers, and ad revenue for their blogs. Why is this? This is because keywords are search terms that people search on search engines like Google or Bing to find your blog. If you can get ranked highly for a keyword that is searched a lot on Google or Bing, you will get organic traffic to your site. Organic traffic is great because it is traffic through the search engines and it doesn’t cost you anything. The goal to build your blog is to find many keywords relating to your blog that people search a lot, and then rank in the top ten in the search engines for those keywords.

Now that we know why keywords are important we need to figure out how to find good keywords to try to rank for. The keywords you should be targeting depend on what theme your blog or website has. The more specific your blog is the easier it will be to rank for keywords. For example it will be harder to rank for the keyword blog then something more specific like cooking mom blog or parenting blog.

Since the term blog is very general there is going to be much more competition. Another thing that will help in ranking high for keywords is if your website is a .com instead of a .blogspot.com or wordpress.com. When you own your own domain anytime you have someone link to your website your site will get a boost in the search engine rankings, instead of blogspot or wordpress getting that boost. If you are blogging for money or wish to brand yourself, invest in the .com domain.

Let’s start finding some good keywords. I’ll use the example parenting blog. To find what keywords we should target if our blog is a parenting blog we should click on the google keyword tool We type the keyword parenting blog into the box where it says word or phrase, and fill out the annoying captcha. Then we hit the search button. 100 keyword ideas will come up. If you click on the local monthly searches you can have all the keywords organized in order of which search term gets the highest monthly searches for parenting blog all the way down to the lowest.

Notice on the left side of the screen you see match types and underneath the box, broad is checked. If you remove the check from broad and check the box exact instead you will see which exact phrases get the most local searches on Google, and the competition for each.

For example the keyword parenting styles gets 8,100 local monthly searches and appears to have low competition. To be in the top ten for keywords it is easier to find keywords that still get a decent amount of searches and have low competition, then go after a keyword that has a lot of searches and very high competition. If you eventually target many smaller keywords with low competition this can add up to some big organic search engine traffic from Google and Bing!

Everything you need to know about Google's +1 button

Google's +1 button is now available for websites. The new button will influence the position of your web pages in Google's search results. What exactly does this button do and how can you use it with your web pages?

What is Google's +1 button?

The +1 button is Google's answer to Facebook's "Like" button. It is a button that you can add to your website.

When one of your website visitors clicks the +1 button, your website URL appears on the +1 tab on the user's Google profile. Google wants website visitors to click on the +1 button when they find something interesting or recommendable.

What does Google do with the +1 clicks?

For people who are logged in to Google, their search result snippets might be annotated with the number of +1's that the listed page has received.

If someone who is connected to you through your Google account (Gmail chat list, contacts, etc.) clicked the +1 button, then the name of the person might be listed next to the search result snippet.

Google also announced that the +1 button will influence the search rankings of a page. The number of +1 clicks and the person who clicks on your +1 buttons might influence the position of your pages.

As it is very likely that spammers will try to use the +1 button, Google will perform tests before the +1 button has a major influence on the search results.

According to Google, the number of +1 clicks can also influence the position of an AdWords ad for the page with the +1 button.

What is Google's +1 button not?

The Google +1 button is not the same as the Google Buzz button. However, many sites have already replaced their old Google Buzz button with the new +1 button.

It is likely that Google Buzz functionality will also be added to +1. Google also announced analytics for the +1 button to show webmasters info on geography, demographics, content, and search impact.

Although Google's +1 button does not have a major impact on the position of your web pages in Google's search results yet, it does not hurt to add the button to your pages.