SEO Best Practices
Since the release of Google’s algorithms Panda and Penguin, a lot of SEO practitioners have been left wondering how effective the traditional optimisation practice are, which formed the foundation of SEO.
Articles
Bing Launches Link Disavow Feature
We recently reported on the possibility of Google adding a feature to their Webmaster Tools that would allow websites to disavow certain backlinks. The links would still remain connected to your site but Google would ignore their weight in your link profile. So many were somewhat surprised when Bing introduced the feature on their Webmaster Tools before Google.
SEO For B2B Market Websites
Marketing to businesses on the internet has been somewhat of an uphill battle since its inception. The main issue is the level of complexity involved in these sales. A consumer is far more likely to take a chance buying a DVD online than a business looking to purchase a R 1 million supply of building materials.
Link Building for People Rather Than SEO
We’ve reported at length on the decreasing importance of link juice in Google’s ranking algorithm. Many were relieved and many angered when the focus shifted to content.
Structuring Your Content Around Reading Behaviour
With the new emphasis search engines are placing on content, many are wondering what kind of content to have on their sites. Google’s algorithm wants them to have natural and diverse keyword rich content. But is that what the average website visitor wants?
Content Freshness
‘Content is king’ has long been a web and SEO mantra, but recently the concept is getting a fresh boost, with the great emphasis Google is placing on it in their recent weighing algorithms.
Google May Help Fight Negative SEO
For a long time, negative SEO was seen as sort of a myth, spread amongst webmasters. But it may finally be recognised, not only as very real but also quite a substantial threat. It doesn’t really affect sites with solid link profile and powerful reputations. Smaller websites, trying to carve out a web presence through organic SEO, are very much at risk though.
Avoid Penguin Penalties
A big fuss has been made after the launch of Google’s new algorithm update, Penguin, in April of this year. The main issue, of course, being that it seemed many sites suddenly fell in the wake of its introduction.
Google Update May 2012
As has become usual at this time of the month, Google has released an announcement about the latest updates they’ve made in the previous month.
Google Penguin Update Updated
The latest Google update, now known as Penguin, has itself undergone its first update.
Google Knowledge Graph
Google is making major changes to the way that search engine results may be displayed, and how humans will interact with search and vice versa.
Webspam Update Named Penguin
The latest Google update targeting web spam still has SEO’s worried.
Yahoo Site Explorer Shuts Down
Effective yesterday, Yahoo has shut down its long-running site explorer, coincidentally robbing SEOs of a valuable source of freely available data.
Google Algorithm Changes
Last week Google announced the 10 latest changes to their algorithm.
Fresh Google Algorithm Update Planned
Google announced today that they’ve started testing their next algorithm change, designed to provide the freshest results for searches.
Encrypted Search Data Affects SEO
Recently, Google has instituted a policy of encrypting searches that people make when they’re logged in to Google, and as a result, not providing the search terms they used to Analytics.
Google Expands Site Links
Site links have been around for a long time now. Since 2006 in fact. You’ve probably noticed them, used them, and forgotten about them without ever knowing what they were called. And now they’ve been updated by Google.
Google Places Pages Updated
The Google Places page has undergone a bit of a revamp, according to an announcement made last week by Google on their LatLong Blog, the official Google voice for all things map related, including local search results.
Bounce Rate And Search Engine Ranking
Recently, WebProNews published a very interesting article that asked whether the bounce rate of your website is, (or should be), taken into account by Google as a factor in search engine ranking.
Google Algorithm Never Complete
I’m sure that by now, everybody is aware of the latest big update to Google, that launched in February, and went global just a few days ago. And you’re probably equally aware that Google makes regular changes to its algorithm. What you might not know, is that Google is pretty sure its algorithm will never be complete.
Google Panda Update Goes Global
As you’ll know if you follow the online news, (or keep up with our articles), Google launched a major update a couple of months ago, now known as the Panda Update. Initially, it was only implemented in the US, but Google assured everybody that it would soon go global, so worldwide, online marketers held their breath in anticipation. Well, yesterday, it went global.
Surviving The Algorithm Change
Google changes its algorithm a lot. More than most people ever realise in fact. Last year for example, Google changed their algorithm 550 times. And in most cases, nobody really notices much, except for the SEO professionals.
This time round though, there’s been a bit more noise than usual about the latest change. It might have something to do with the size and extent of it. or it might have something to do with how many sites took a hit thanks to the update.
New Google Update Details
We’ve already written a couple of articles on the latest update by Google. One on the announcement of the update, and another on what Google has said about the update. Now it’s time to take a look at the experiences people have been having with it, and what it can mean for SEO. Google has called it the Panda update, but some people are calling it the Farmer update, because of its focus on so-called content farms.
Google Panda Update
Although the latest update to the Google algorithm, now known as the “Panda” update, (but also called the “Farmer” update) has so far only come into effect in the US, its implementation over the rest of the Googleverse is imminent, and it looks like this one is going to have a significant effect on search engine optimisation.
Major Update To Google Algorithm
In it’s latest move to keep delivering highly relevant content in its search results, Google announced the newest update to its search algorithm late last week.
Local Search Optimisation
As we mentioned in some recent articles, Google is currently paying an awful lot of attention to its local search / Google Places listings when it comes to delivering search results. To such an extent, in fact, that the place listings are trumping natural, organic results.
Is Google Becoming A Directory Site?
We mentioned in an earlier article that we’ve been doing some research into the way that Google Localisation is affecting search engine results, and we’ve started to wonder if Google has forgotten that it’s a search engine.
Synonyms In Google Search
Since the beginning of this year, Google has been gradually including synonyms for the words that users are searching for in its results. It hasn’t necessarily been a dramatic change on the face of things, nor does it mean that Google always displays synonymous results. But there could be SEO implications to their use of synonyms in search results as well.
Google Instant And SEO
Earlier last month, we published an article about the launch of Google’s new search service, Google Instant. This is the new “real time” search service that provides results as you type, and in which Google effectively tries to predict what you’re searching for, and displays results that change as you type more letters. The real question though, is what effect this will have on SEO.
Building Links The Right Way
As everybody in the search engine optimisation trade knows, and as we’ve mentioned countless times before, building good quality back links to your site is a vital and integral part of doing well in search engine rankings. But it’s important to make sure you’re going about building your links the right way.
Why You Shouldn't Have A Flash Website
First introduced in 1996, Flash quickly became a popular tool online, allowing the combination of different types of graphics in animation that could be displayed in web browsers. These became known as Flash websites.
Understanding Google SEO
Google SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is becoming a vital part of online marketing and success. It is aimed at making Google see your website as very relevant in response to certain keywords and key phrases.
About Ezine Article Directory
EzineArticles.com is perhaps the most popular online article directory on the internet. Publishing articles in an online article directory is a popular method of gaining online exposure for your site.
Link Anchor Text & Google
As you’re probably aware, off-site links which point back to your website are a critical part of the calculation that Google makes when determining where in the search engine results your site appears. Part of the effectiveness of your links have to do with the anchor text that the link employs.
When Will My Site Show On Google?
One of the most frequent questions we hear from new clients is “how long will it take before I can find my site on Google?” It’s a simple question. Unfortunately, the answer is not quite as simple as all that.
Google Changes Mean Sleepless Nights
Do you ever feel that you’ve got a difficult job? You probably have. But let me tell you, you’ve got no idea what we have to go through working in the search engine optimisation field. Every time a search engine changes the way it does things, the SEO team at Net Age has to find new ways of optimising our clients sites.
Keyword Order Matters
With the latest updates to Google’s insanely complicated (and effective) algorithm, it’s no longer enough to just make sure that you have all your keywords on the page. Now, it’s turning out that keyword order has started to matter a lot more too.
Search Engine Optimisation And How People Search
We’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently about the way that people use the internet. And especially about the way that they use search engines. As a company interested in search engine optimisation, that’s perfectly understandable. And our most recent interest has been sparked by the ongoing rise in navigational searches, which has led us to wonder how exactly the general public use search engines.
Website Speed Important For Optimisation
Search engine optimisation has always been an attempt to understand the factors that search engines like use to determine search engine ranking, and then making sure that you perform well according to those criteria.
Using Adwords For Organic SEO
Although not many people seem to realise it, Adwords can actually be a search engine optimisation tool as well as a paid traffic generator. In addition to bringing in traffic from your PPC advertisements, it can help you with your organic rankings too.
Keyword Density Reconsidered
For a long time, keyword density has been taken very seriously in search engine optimisation. It’s long past the time that the relative importance of keyword density is reconsidered though. Read on to find out more.
Meta Tags Still Matter
Despite the recent announcement on meta descriptions by Google, we feel it’s important to mention that, regardless of what’s been said on the topic, meta tags are still important. Afterall, all Google said was that they don’t pay any attention to the meta keywords tag, when it comes to determining ranking.
PageRank Sculpting
PageRank sculpting is the process of attempting to direct the way that PageRank flows within (and into and out of), your website. PageRank is a link analysis algorithm named after Google co-founder Larry Page, that assigns a numerical rank (from 0 to 10) to each element of a hyper-linked group of documents, to measure its importance within the group.
Buying Legitimate Links
Although buying links for the purposes of manipulating search engine rankings is rightly frowned upon by Google, the search engine company has explicitly recognised that the buying and selling of links for advertising purposes is a recognised part of the economy of the internet.
Long Tail Keywords Are Better
As we all know by now, keywords are the words and phrases that users enter into search engines when they’re looking for something. When it comes to optimising your website, keywords are the phrases for which you’d like to appear in the search engine results when people are looking for your products or services.
Internal Links - An Overview
Search algorithms rely heavily on internal link structures, using them to determine the importance of internal pages on your website. As a result, the pages that you link to the most frequently are usually considered the most important ones. With that in mind, here’s an overview of internal linking.
Outbound Links - An Overview
We get a lot of queries about the advisability of having outbound links to related resources in the content areas of a website, so we thought we’d put up an article on the various aspects of outbound links, to give you some information about the subject.
Searching For Perfect Back Links
Since in-bound links are an important part of search engine optimisation, here are some useful tips to bear in mind when you’re trying to develop the perfect back link.
Paid Links - Good or Bad?
As we all know, search engines like Google make use of the existence of links from external sources that point to your website to assist them in determining the reputation of your website.
Becoming An SEO Expert
It’s not easy to become an expert at SEO. Sure, there is plenty of information out there, and plenty of handy tips, tricks and guides. The problem though, is that the rules of engagement don’t stay the same for long.
Link Development Methods
Link development has long been a key component of both search engine optimisation, and the all important issue of online credibility, in terms of both users and search engine indexing.
Nobody Can Guarantee First Place On Google
If anybody ever tells you that they can guarantee you a first place result on Google, then it’s time to tread very warily. Net Age has been in the business of search engine optimisation for more than ten years, and we won’t guarantee any such thing.
Search Engine Optimisation Through Link Strategy
An effective link strategy can be one of the best ways of increasing your sites search engine optimisation. The reasoning behind this is very simple. Inbound links are one of the ways in which Google determines the importance of your site.
Links To Article Directories
For your interest and convenience, we’ve provided links to some article directories.
Please ensure that you read the terms and conditions of each of these sites before you decide to make use of any of their articles.
The SEO Quick-Fix Illusion
One of the major misconceptions about search engine optimisation, (SEO), is that it’s a quick fix that SEO professionals can simply add onto your finished website after the fact, to help you get the best rankings.
Keyword Density
One of the most controversial search engine optimisation topics, keyword density refers to the percentage of your written content that is made up of the keywords you’re using to target your online market via the search engines.
Importance of Keyword Research in Optimising Your Website and Getting Business
Keyword research is the art of finding the keywords your potential customers are using on the search engines, then determining how to incorporate those keywords into your marketing strategy.
Is Content King?
The importance of content, good, quality content, on your website is second-to-none in terms of link-building and optimisation for organic searches.
White Hat Vs Black Hat - (The Light and Dark Sides of SEO)
In keeping with the sci-fi geekery of most of us involved in the IT or Internet industry, SEO’s tend to be Star Wars fans.
SEO Wars IV: - A New Hope
Despite the proliferation of Black Hat techniques in the SEO community, there is a shining beacon, a last bastion of hope in which we can all take refuge… Search engines hate Black Hat.
SEO Wars III: Revenge on the Search - Black Hats War on the Search Engines
SEO wars are not really between practitioners of Black Hat and White Hat SEO. Both groups aim, simply, to help their clients by getting them as close to the top of search engine listings as they can. Other than occasionally commenting on the other groups tactics, White Hat and Black Hat practitioners pay little attention to one another.
The SEO Interview
The whole SEO field is somewhat obscured by a kind of industry mystery, where no one but those directly involved really know what it is all about, and sometimes even those involved seem to be a bit clueless. So, where does this leave you, looking to employ an SEO professional?
SEO is Not IT - Not Just For Techies
The accessibility of the Internet has made it a tool to be used, and a world to be explored, by one and all. Today, one of the groups most benefited by the information revolution, aside from the techno-geeks, are marketers and advertisers.
SEO Wars II: Attack of the Clones - Website Content Scraping And Duplicate Content
In SEO circles it is commonly believed that content is king. This is largely true. Relevant content attracts search engines, and well-written content maintains healthy site traffic. But the Dark Side seeps into every aspect of SEO, seeking to unsettle the balance.
Professional SEO Tools
Every good SEO will make use of, and have access to, a wide range of professional SEO tools. With the wide variety of SEO tools available for download to the modern search engine optimiser, the tasks that make up successful search engine optimisation can be drastically expedited through automation.
SEO: Human Optimisation And The SEO Case Study For Injection Moulding
SEO, or search engine optimisation, has become almost a paradox of terminology. While SEO is aimed at websites that comply with search engine guidelines, these guidelines seem to be entirely against building websites with search engines in mind.
