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.

5 steps to beat your competitors

Your website does not have to be perfect to get high listings on Google. It just has to be better than the websites of your competitors. If your website is only slightly better than the sites of your competitors, your website will get the click. If more than one web page has been optimized for a keyword, it's the quality of the links that makes the difference. The following tips will help you to beat your competitors.


Step 1: Find your real competitors

Your main competitors are the websites that have high rankings for your keywords. Search Google for five of your keywords and write down the URLs of the websites that rank best for these keywords. These websites are your main competitors.

Step 2: Analyze the backlinks of your competitors

The next step is to find out how many of the links to your competitors contain your target keywords. To outperform your competitors, your website should have more inbound links that contain your target keywords than the websites of your competitors. 

Step 3: Check the PageRank spread of the linking pages
       
         Although the official PageRank number that Google displays in its toolbar is a flawed metric, it can
         still help you to find out why some websites rank higher than others. If your competitors have more
         backlinks from web pages with a high PageRank than your website then you should try to get more
         high  PR links.


Step 4: Check the top level domains of the linking pages

If you target local Google versions (Google.com.au, Google.co.uk, etc.) then your website should have more backlinks from websites that use the corresponding top level domain than your competitors.
For example, if you want to get high rankings on Google.com.au then try to get backlinks from .com.au websites.

Step 5: Check the content of the linking pages

Google prefers websites that get links from related websites. If you sell shoes then a link from a fashion blog is much better than a link from a website about puppies.
Your website should have more inbound links from related websites than the websites of your competitors.

Do the things above and your website will get better rankings than the websites of your competitors.

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.

7 Tips on how to write optimized webpage titles

The HTML Title is the text within <title> tag that can be found on the head of the HTML code. As it is the key element that appears in search results, your web pages’ titles are very important for your SEO strategy for two main reasons:

1. Title relevancy is taken into account by the algorithms of Search Engines.
2. Good descriptive titles increase the click through rate.

Here are some tips in order to enhance your website’s visibility through title optimization:

1. Write short Titles

Google has a maximum title length of 64-70 characters. Do not make the title longer, because Google cuts down its display in the search results. 

2. Identify your Keywords

Indentify the keyphrases of your web page’s content. List down all possible words describing the content of your page. Step in the shoes of the user and list all the relevant search terms that he/she may formulate. The words used in your title will be displayed in search engine results as a clickable link. Therefore it should contain your page’s main keywords.

3. The important goes first

Start your title by adding the important keywords that you found during research. The words appearing first are considered to be more important.

4. Use targeted keywords

Choose specific keywords for your title in order to have more targeted traffic.

5. Be descriptive

Make sure that your title summarizes the content of your web page. In this way users will know what the topic of your page is, when it appears in the search results. This will help you decrease the bounce rate and increase the click through rate.

6. Create unique titles

Make sure you use unique titles for each web page. Duplicate titles might lead to duplicate content issues.

7. Avoid Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing or any other spam technique should be avoided. Even if you manage to rank first, an “over optimized” title will reduce your click through rate.

Don’t forget that you should always write webpage titles and content that is attractive to users! By trying to achieve high rankings, SEOs often forget that the most important factor of our success is the users’ “click” on our website link.

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.