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?
Get top 10 rankings on Google with IBP 10
We released the brand new version of our popular SEO software tool IBP. The new version IBP 10 has everything that you need to get top 10 rankings on Google, Yahoo and other search engines.
Seven things you can do to improve the link structure of your website
The internal link structure of your site allows you to spread the link power of your home page to the individual pages of your site. The right structure can help you to increase your search engine rankings.
Google backs out of the position 6 penalty
Three weeks ago, we informed you about Google's new position 6 penalty. At this time, it was unclear why Google assigned this penalty to some websites. It seems that Google doesn't use this penalty anymore. Why did this happen?
New technologies detect black-hat SEO methods
Search engine optimization methods are divided in two categories: black hat SEO and white hat SEO. Recent developments indicate that websites that use black-hat methods will be in trouble soon.
Mosaic cloaking: a new form of search engine spam?
Webmasters involved in rather shady search engine optimization methods invented a new form of cloaking. That new method has been called mosaic cloaking and it is an attempt to make cloaking less detectable.
Google's new position 6 penalty
A discussion in an online webmaster forum indicates that Google might have invented a new ranking penalty for websites that rank well for popular search terms. Is your website affected by this penalty?
Hot or not? Does Google really use a new ranking algorithm?
Webmasters recently found an anomaly in Google's ranking results. Has Google changed its algorithm to artificially increase the ranking of new pages? This article has the details.
All important articles of 2007
We published many articles in 2007 that will help you to get more out of your website. The categorized articles in this issue help you to increase the rankings on your website on Google and other major search engines.
Axandra's Christmas SEO crossword puzzle
Instead of our regular weekly articles, news and facts, we decided to publish a Christmas crossword puzzle about search engine optimization this week. Have fun! :-)
How Google creates the description of your website for the result page
Having high rankings on search engines is a great thing. However, it's also important that your web pages are displayed with an attractive description in the search results. If the description is not appealing to web surfers then they might not click the link.
Google, Yahoo, the X-Robots directive and your website rankings
Last week, Yahoo announced that they now support the X-Robots-Tag in the HTTP header. This new tag allows you to influence how Google and Yahoo index your website pages. Has it an effect on your search engine rankings?
Google warns against cloaking: we can detect it
In a recent blog post, Google's anti-spam engineer Matt Cutts wrote about cloaking. The blog post makes several things clear. You put your website at risk if you use cloaking.
New robots.txt commands: make sure that Google can index your site
It seems that Google is currently experimenting with new robots.txt commands. If your robots.txt file accidentally contains one of the new commands, it might be that your robots.txt file tells Google to go away.
Are you paying too much for your AdWords ads? Change it now!
Pay per click marketing can be a good addition to organic search engine optimization. However, if you do it wrong, pay per click will cost you a fortune without bringing results. If you do it right, AdWords ads will help you to make more money.
Troubleshooting: how search engines can misunderstand your web pages
This is a common problem. Your web designer has created a beautiful page with nice graphics, great content and great Flash animations. Unfortunately, it seems that search engines won't list your website no matter what you do.
Top 6 reasons why your search engine rankings have dropped
Have your rankings dropped recently? Before you do anything, you should try to find out what has caused your ranking drop.
Reciprocal links are alive and kicking
A while back there was quite a bit of scare mongering going around the SEO industry about how reciprocal links were dead. No, reciprocal links are not dead and now I have the proof.
How long does it take until a new site ranks in Google, Yahoo and MSN?
How long does it take exactly until search engines list a new site in the top 10 rankings? This test has the answers.
Are you unintentionally spamming search engines?
Are you sure that your website is free of hidden text? There are many ways to create hidden text unintentionally. Google might penalize your website for something you did not intend to do.
How to overcome Google's filter for new websites
It's easier to get high rankings on Google with older websites than it is with new websites. Why is this so and what can you do to get high rankings on Google if you have a brand new website?
The most important factor for successful SEO (hint: it's not inbound links)
If you want to get high rankings on search engines then you have to consider many different factors. There is one factor that is more important than any other ranking factors.
The perfect incoming link for high search engine rankings
It's important that you get the right kind of links if you want to get high rankings on Google. If you have 20 good incoming links then you'll get better rankings than with 100 bad incoming links. So what makes a good incoming link? There are several points that can make a link better than other links.
4 tips to increase your sales by creating a trustworthy website
Even if you have high search engine rankings, people still might not buy from you. The reason for that is that your website might not be trustworthy. Of course, you need a professional web design to create trust. However, there are a few other things that are necessary to convince your website visitors that they should do business with you.
Top 3 tips to get indexed on Google within 48 hours
If you have a new website then it takes some time until Google visits your web pages. Even if you submit your website to Google via their regular submission form, it usually takes weeks until Google visits your site. There are some things you can do so that Google indexes your web page within 48 hours and not within weeks.
The effect of unnatural linking patterns on your search engine rankings
Inbound links are one of the most important factors that Google uses to calculate the position of a website in the search results. Some years ago, it was enough to get a lot of inbound links to top Google's search results. Nowadays, it's not that easy. Google has started to detect unnatural linking patterns.
How to fake PageRank and how to find websites with faked PR
Although most professional search engine optimizers agree that the green PageRank display has little to do with the actual performance of a website in Google and other search engines, many webmasters still focus on websites with a high PageRank when it comes to link building and website promotion. The PageRank a website can be faked easily.
Search engine market shares in Europe
If you target international markets then it's important to know which search engines are used by European web surfers. Google has a large market share in the US. Astonishingly, Google's market share seems to be even bigger in Europe. Here are the numbers from Germany, France and the UK.
The importance of page 1 listings and how to get them
High search engine rankings are important if you want to get more customers and more sales. Is it important to be listed on the first result page or is it enough to be listed in the top 30 results?
How Google might filter annoying pages
Google recently filed a patent application with the title "Detecting and rejecting annoying documents". Should you check your web pages?
Google's Matt Cutts: do not stuff your keywords
Keyword stuffing is one of the oldest spamming techniques on the Internet. Many webmasters still use that technique although most search engines can detect it nowadays. Last week, Google's anti-spam engineer Matt Cutts made fun of a website that used keyword stuffing.
How your competitors can sabotage your website rankings
Not all of your competitors might have good business ethics. If someone wants to harm your online business, he might sabotage your website rankings.
A new SEO trick for high Google rankings
Some webmaster use a new search engine optimization practice to get high rankings on Google. They hotlink images from other web servers to get on Google's first results page. Will this method also work for your site?
One-way links, reciprocal links, three-way-links. What's best?
There's a lot of rumor about one-way links, reciprocal links and three-way links on the Internet. Which of these links will work best for your business and which links do you need to get higher search engine rankings?
What is better: PPC or SEO?
Many webmasters are unsure whether they should advertise their website with SEO (search engine optimization) or PPC (pay per click advertising). Actually, most commercial websites work best if you use both SEO and PPC. The exact mix depends on your goals.
The risk of over-optimization
Many webmasters overlook an important part of search engine optimization: if you over optimize your web pages, chances are that your website rankings might drop because your site has been designed for search engines and not for websurfers. Read this article to learn how to avoid over-optimization.
Insider information about Google's ranking algorithm
The New York Times has recently published an article about Amit Singhal. Amit Singhal is in charge of Google's ranking algorithm. The interview reveals some interesting facts about Google's ranking algorithm.
Google ranking tips from a Google employee
Last week, Google's Matt Cutts had a Q and A on the SearchMarketingExpo in Seattle. Here's a summary of the most important statements.
How to clear bad press from search engine 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 the first result page for your company name?
Do no-follow links count for search engine rankings?
Actually, the rel=nofollow attribute should prevent search engines from following special links. Some webmasters might have found out that nofollow links will help your search engine rankings though.
New study: which web page elements lead to high Google rankings?
The German company Sistrix analyzed the web page elements of top ranked pages in Google to find out which elements lead to high Google rankings. They analyzed 10,000 random keywords, and for every keyword, they analyzed the top 100 Google search results.
Are search engine spammers exploiting your web pages?
A recent thread in a webmaster forum indicated that some search engine spammers might exploit the new XML sitemaps files. Has your sitemaps file been abused by spammers? Can using a sitemaps file harm your rankings?
Two new Google ranking patents
Google filed two new ranking patents in April: Document Scoring Based on Traffic Associated with a Document and Document Scoring Based on Query Analysis. What do these new patents reveal about Google's ranking algorithm? How can they help you?
The influence of semantic indexing on your search engine rankings
Semantic indexing is getting more and more important to search engines. What exactly is semantic indexing and how does it influence your search engine rankings?
What Google thinks about hidden and paid links
Some webmasters use hidden or paid links to increase the link popularity of their websites. Google's anti-spam engineer Matt Cutts recently commented on these links. Can you get in trouble?
Search engine submission with the new Sitemap protocol
Ask.com has joined the team so that now all four major search engines support the Sitemap protocol. In addition, the search engines now can automatically detect your Sitemaps file. What does this mean for your web site?
How to deal with Google's latest ranking algorithm changes
There is a new change in Google's ranking algorithm. It looks as if more pages are added to Google's supplemental results and that Google might re-rank the results based on new quality criteria. How can your web site benefit from the new algorithm?
What Google could do if they were evil
You probably know Google's informal company motto "Don't be evil". Google is a very successful company that knows a lot about its advertisers and users. In addition, Google has a market share that would allow them do certain things. Read this article to learn what Google could do if they were evil.
All about Google's new PPA advertising product
Until now, Google has primarily sold pay-per-click (PPC) ads, so-called AdWords ads: advertisers pay when someone on Google or a Google partner site clicks on the ad. Google is testing a new advertising system that allows businesses to advertise on a cost per action basis.
How to work around Google's spam filters - Part 5
Duplicate content, false use of the robots.txt file and Google bowling can be the reason if your web site rankings on Google dropped. This article will help you to find a solution.
How to work around Google's spam filters - Part 4
Co-citation, too many pages at once and over-optimization and cause problems with your Google rankings. Read this article to learn how to avoid these problems.
How to use the new NOYDIR tag on your web pages
Yahoo announced support for a new meta tag called "NOYDIR". The new tag will complement the "NOODP" meta tag that is already supported by all major search engines. Read this article to learn how to use the new tag on your web pages.
How to work around Google's spam filters - Part 3
If you use the wrong search engine optimization techniques then Google won't list your web site. Read this article to learn how to avoid getting caught be Google's spam filters.
15 Google spam filters and how to avoid them - Part 2
If your web site gets caught by one of Google's spam filters, it will be very difficult to get high Google rankings. Did you check your web site against these three link filters? Read on to learn more.
15 Google spam filters and how to avoid them - Part 1
If your web site gets caught by one of Google's spam filters, it will be very difficult to get high Google rankings. In this article series, we'll take a look a the 15 most common Google spam filters and we'll tell you how you can get around them.
The top 5 factors for successful web sites in 2007
If you want to have a successful web site and if you want to get high rankings on search engines then your web site must have the right factors. Here are the top 5 factors for successful web sites in 2007.
The end of Google bombs?
Google bombs have become a problem for Google. The official Google webmaster blog recently had a statement about Google bombs and how Google deals with them. How does this new algorithm affect your Google rankings?
Google's plans for the next weeks
Matt Cutts has just revealed Google's latest ranking plans for 2007. Read this article to learn how your web site will be affected by these plans.
Will this famous Google SEO guru quit?
Matt Cutts is the poster boy of Google and the search engine optimization (SEO) community. Thousands of webmasters follow every single word on this blog. Rumor has it that he is going to leave Google.
Does Google read your CSS files?
Many webmasters reported that Google's spider started to index their external CSS files. What are CSS files, why does Google index them and how can this affect your rankings on Google and other search engines?
Official Google statement: How to deal with duplicate content problems
Duplicate content is a problem that worries many webmasters. Rumor has it that duplicate content can hurt your Google rankings and that web pages that copy your web site content can harm your rankings. Read this article to learn what Google has to say about duplicate content.
Happy Holidays!
May you enjoy family, frends and lots of laughter now and throughout the New Year!
All you need to know about search engine optimization in 2006
If you need information about Google's ranking algorithm and if you want to know how to get high rankings on Google, then our newsletter archive offers valuable information for you.
Google's Matt Cutts talks about search engine optimization traps
The head of Google's anti-spam team Matt Cutts publicly reviewed some web sites at the 2006 PubCon in Las Vegas. Some statements in these public reviews might help you to improve your rankings on Google and Yahoo.
Outperform your competitors with better keywords
If you optimize your pages for keywords that your potential customers use a lot, but your competitors haven't thought of, you win. Click here to learn how to find these keywords.
Find the very best keywords for your web site with new powerful SEO tools
Finding the right keywords is an important step that you should take seriously if you want to be successful with your web site. New SEO tools help you to find the best keywords for your site.
Google, Yahoo and Microsoft team up for Sitemaps protocol
Last week, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft agreed to support the Sitemap 0.9 protocol. How can this new standard help you to improve the ranking of your web site in search engines?
Official Google statement: Can links to other web sites hurt your rankings?
Linking to other web sites can hurt your rankings if you link to the wrong web sites. A Google official has recently commented on bad neighborhood links and how they affect your web site rankings on Google.
Google's new way to deal with dynamically created pages
Dynamically created web pages often cause problems with search engines. If your web pages are dynamically created, it's likely that many search engines have difficulty to index them. Google has a new way to deal with these pages.
Google's -30 penalty
Webmasters in online forums have discovered a new Google filter that Google uses to downrank web sites in its result pages. Has this filter been applied to your web site? How can you avoid that Google applies that filter to your site?
Google's SandBox and TrustRank filters and your web site
Google's Sandbox and Google's TrustRank are often discussed in webmaster forums. How do these factors influence your web site rankings on Google and what can you do to get out of the sandbox or to get a high TrustRank?
The right click distance can improve your search engine rankings
Click distance is another factor that shows how important it is that search engines can find and parse your web pages quickly and easily. Read this article to learn more about click distance and its influence on your search engine rankings.
How Google's latest PageRank update affects your web site
Google has updated the PageRank display in its toolbar again. How does this change affect your web site and your rankings on Google?
6 reasons why search engines ignore your web pages
Is your web site still not listed on search engines although you submitted it weeks ago? There are several reasons why search engines might ignore your web pages.
How to get out of Google's supplemental results
Google uses two indexes for its search results. The normal index and the supplemental results index. This article explains how to find out how many of your pages are listed in Google's supplemental results.
Google's new Sitelinks and your web site
Google recently started to include a set of links below some results to pages within the site. These new additional links are called Sitelinks. Read this article to learn how these links might affect your web site.
How to get links from an authority site
Webmasters are always looking for ways to get inbound links from authority web sites. For improving search engine rankings, an incoming link from an authority site is worth more than an incoming link from an average site.
What Google's SEO videos tell you
Google's Matt Cutts has released a number of videos in which he talks about the way Google works. What can you learn from these videos?
This is more important than getting more traffic
Many webmasters focus on getting more traffic to their web sites. While getting visitors is very important, there is one thing that is more important than getting as many visitors as possible. Read on to learn what it is.
Leaked AOL data: the importance of top search engine rankings
Earlier this month, AOL released sensitive search data detailing 20 million searches preformed by 658,000 subscribers.While the AOL data obviously raises privacy concerns, it can contain useful information for search engine marketers.
How to find out if visitors from search engines buy something on your web site
Do you know which search terms people use on search engines to find your web site? Do you know which search engines send you the most visitors? Do you know how many of these visitors purchase something on your web site? You can get the answer to these questions quickly and easily.
How to use the NOODP tag to influence your search engine listings
Google and MSN will often use the text that the ODP uses to describe your web site in their own search results. Unfortunately, the descriptions in the Open Directory Project are often outdated and they don't reflect the current status of a web site.
Inbound links and optimized content for your web site
The contents of a web page are important for the search engine rankings of a web page. Inbound links are even more important if you want to get high rankings on Google, Yahoo and MSN.
New study: How to get high rankings on Google, Yahoo and MSN
The search marketing company Fortune Interactive conducted a study in which they wanted to find out what factors influence web site rankings on the three major search engines. Read on to get the results.
How to submit your web site to all Internet directories
Internet directories have become very popular because they are an easy way to get inbound links to your web site. There's an easy way to submit your web site quickly to as many Internet directories as possible.
The effect of outgoing links on your web site
While most webmasters are aware that incoming links are important to the success of a web site, many site owners don't know that outgoing links also have an impact on their web sites. Learn how outgoing links influence search engines and web site visitors.
How to get high Google rankings with Flash sites
Flash movies are a great way to add multimedia elements to a web site. Unfortunately, Flash cannot be indexed by most search engines. For that reason, it is very difficult to get high search engine rankings for Flash sites. This article explains how to get top rankings on Google with Flash sites.
How to analyze the linking structure of your competitors
A web page with 50 inbound links can have better rankings than a web page with 500 inbound links. If other pages rank higher than your web pages, then you have to analyze the linking structure of these pages.
New SEO tool offers everything for on-site and off-site optimization
This new SEO software tool offers everything you need for web page optimization and inbound link optimization.
The final goal of search engine optimization
Most businesses have realized that search engine optimization (SEO) is important if you want to succeed on the Internet. If you miss the mark, search engine optimization can cost a lot of time and money without getting results. If you do it right, SEO will improve your business.
Google uses a new spider to index web pages
Google is using a new bot for their AdWords advertising system that automatically spiders and analyzes the content of advertising landing pages. What does this mean to your organic search engine rankings? What does this mean to your PPC ads and your organic search engine rankings?
What Google knows about your domain name
There's a lot of speculation about the information that Google has about domain names. What does Google know about your domain name and what do they not know?
Google official: PageRank is not a big deal
Many webmasters are still obsessed with the green PageRank bar in Google's toolbar. Matt Cutts is a Google engineer who knows exactly how the Google ranking algorithm works. He confirmed that PageRank is not the only important factor for Google.
The effect of co-citation on your rankings
The effect of co-citation is often overlooked by search engine optimizers. The other web sites to which your link partners link can influence your search engine rankings. Read on to learn more about this important topic.
PageRank, TrustRank and your web site
Yahoo has file a new patent with the name "Link based spam detection". It's another attempt from Yahoo to improve the relevancy of their search results by detecting links from link farms and other shady link sources. Read on to find out how this affects your web site.
Does Google think that your web site is spam?
Google has extended the penalty notification experiment that was started last year. Google's Webspam team now works with the Google Sitemaps team to alert some (but not all) site owners of penalties for their site.
Googlebot and Mediabot - Can you get in trouble?
Google's Matt Cutts revealed interesting information about Mediabot and how it could influence your Google rankings. If you do it wrong, your web site can get it trouble on Google.
Do hackers hijack your search engine listings?
Are your search engine rankings still yours? Other people might hijack your search engine rankings and they might steal your web site visitors. The worst thing is that you might not even notice it. This article explains how you can protect your web site.
New Google acquisition: Can we expect a shift in Google's ranking algorithm?
Google has recently acquired an advanced text search algorithm that has been invented by University of New South Wales PhD student Ori Allon. Will this change the way Google ranks web sites?
Can duplicate content really influence your rankings?
Every few months, webmaster forums discuss if search engines penalize duplicate content. Can duplicate content affect your search engine rankings? What can you do about that?
A new Google trick: how to get links from high PageRank sites
There's a new trick that some webmasters use to get high rankings on Google. Just like the trick we mentioned in a previous issue of our newsletter, this new technique exploits security holes of other web sites.
Google, your web site and CSS spam
Hiding content and links in CSS code that is not visible to human web surfers has become popular among webmasters who want to trick search engines. Should use use this for your web site?
Google's Big Daddy update- Is your site supplemental?
Google's latest update Big Daddy continues to cause problems for some webmasters. Many webmasters have reported that all of their web pages except for their index page have been moved to Google's supplemental index. What can you do to solve this problem?
What search engines plan for the future
At the recent Wharton Technology Conference in Philadelphia representatives from Google, Yahoo and MSN Search discussed the future of search technologies. The big search engine companies have different ideas on how search engines will change over the next few years.
What can you do if your web site rankings have dropped?
Some webmasters face the problem that their good web site rankings have been dropped or that their web pages have not been listed at all. If your web site rankings have been dropped, you can do the following to get your web site back to the result list.
Google hypertext matching analysis and search engine optimization
There are many rumors about the best way to get listed on Google. Every now and then, a new secret trick pop ups that promises that your web site will get top Google rankings quickly and easily. What can Google's hypertext matching analysis help you to get better rankings?
Find the keywords that convert to sales
Having high rankings on search engines is pointless if these rankings don't convert to sales. It's better to have high rankings for 10 keywords that convert to sales than high rankings for 100 keywords that only bring you visitors. For that reason, it is important to find the keywords that work best for your business. By focusing on these keywords, you can greatly increase your revenue.
The Stanford University reveals how to add credibility to your web site
The Stanford University compiled a list of 10 guidelines for building the credibility of a web site. These guidelines are based on three years of research and on several studies about that topic. What does this mean to your site?
Bigdaddy: Big changes on Google to come
Google has announced a major update that will affect the ranking of web pages in Google's index. In contrast to the usual algorithm updates, this update will be much bigger because it changes the way Google works behind the scenes.
Can online press releases really increase your search engine rankings?
Online press releases have become a popular because some webmasters think that they can increase the search engine rankings of their web sites with them. Do online press releases really help your search engine rankings? How can you benefit from these services?
New study: people judge your web site by the cover - in 50 milliseconds
A new study that was recently published in the journal "Behaviour and Information Technology" shows how important it is to make a good first impression with your web site.
Official Google statement: How does Google collect and rank results?
Google recently released an official explanation of how they rank results their newsletter for Librarians. In this document, Google engineer Matt Cutts explains how Google decides what result goes at the top of the list. Here are the most important facts from the document.
Beware the reciprocal link short sellers
Within the SEO realm, there are a number of high-profile "reciprocal link short sellers". Many of the most vocal have been doing it for several years, using their "expert" status and industry influence to disparage the practice of reciprocal linking, calling it ineffective, immoral, and worse.
U.S. online shoppers spent $25 billion in one week
Holiday shoppers in the United States had spent $25 billion online during one week ending 16 December and electronics and clothing items were their favourites. This represents a 25 per cent increase over the same period in 2004.
One year of search engine optimization
We published a number of articles that help you to get your web site to the top of Google's search results in 2005. Our 2005 archive is full of tips and tricks that help you to get better search engine rankings.
How to react to Google's latest AdWords changes
Google has incorporated a new factor to its Quality Score. If you're advertising on Google AdWords, this new factor might influence the position of your ads and the minimum price you have to pay for your bids. What do you have to do to make the best out of the situation?
Why Google is not happy with its results
Google's founders are not satisfied with the quality of Google's search results. This article explains why this is so and what you can do to survive future ranking algorithm updates on Google.
Is cloaking the holy grail of SEO?
Cloaking obviously works. Should you use it for your website and what should you do to get high rankings on Google, Yahoo and other important search engines?
New features in Google Sitemaps
Last week, Google added new features to its Sitemaps service. After verifying that you are really the webmaster of a site, you can access some statistics about the information Google has about your site. This kind of information can help you to spot possible reasons when Google doesn't index your site.
Google Analytics - is it worth its real price?
Yesterday, Google released a new web tracking service with the name Google Analytics. Google claims that the service is free. Is Google Analytics worth its real price?
How to benefit from Google's Jagger update
Google's ranking algorithm update Jagger has rearranged the result pages on Google. How can you benefit from Google's new ranking algorithm?
Are you ready for local search?
Google's upcoming service Google Base (see news below) shows a clear trend: search engines try to make their search results and ads as targeted as possible. What can you do to benefit from this trend?
Google's current ranking algorithm update
Google is currently updating its ranking algorithm. What can you do to benefit from the new ranking algorithm?
How to succeed with search engine optimization
Much has happened to search engine optimization in the last years. It has become much more difficult to get high rankings for a website. However, it's still possible to get your website at the top of the list if you do the right things.
The Google - Sun deal and its impact on search
Last week, Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt and Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy announced a distribution partnership.Google also filed a new patent. What does this mean for search?
The importance of being first
A recently conducted study examined the links users followed on the search engine results page. What does this mean to you and how can you benefit from it?
A new bad trick for high Google rankings
Some webmasters have discovered a new trick to get inbound links from authority websites. At the moment, it seems to be possible to improve your Google rankings with that trick.
Google's Matt Cutts talks about buying links
Being one of the main software engineers on Google, Matt Cutts knows best about Google indexing and quality control issues. Find out what he thinks about buying links.
Can grammar and spelling influence your Google rankings?
There's a new theory that Google might also consider the grammar and spelling mistakes on your web pages. What does this mean to your website?
An open search engine optimization (SEO) analysis
We have received more than 293 suggestions for an open SEO analysis. This week, we're taking a closer look at one of the suggested pages.
Search engine insiders talk about links
On a recent search engine conference, Tim Mayer from Yahoo, Matt Cutts from Google and Kaushal Kurapti from Ask Jeeves revealed information on how these three search engines analyze links to determine the ranking of web pages in a public discussion.
Is KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) really a good indicator for useful keywords?
Some webmasters also use the Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) to determine the value of their keywords. Does it really make sense to choose keywords that way and is KEI something you should use for your keywords?
Keywords and search engine optimization
Although many articles have been written about finding the best keywords for SEO, many webmasters still target the wrong keywords. Choosing the right keywords is a crucial step in every search engine optimization campaign.
The most important search engines for SEO
Which search engines are the most important for search engine optimization (SEO). New research numbers can give you the answer.
Can too many links hurt your website?
Many webmasters are unsure if too many links can hurt their website rankings. Others think that links to a brand-new site might be a spam indicator. How many links are good for a website? Should you wait before getting links to your site?
Why has your website been dropped from Google?
Has your website been dropped from Google and you don't know why? There are a number of factors that can get your website banned on Google. In this article, we'll tell you why your website can be banned from Google and what you can do to get listed on Google.
How to react to the latest ranking algorithm changes
MSN Search and other major search engines have recently changes their algorithms. What do you have to do now to get high rankings?
Is the Open Directory Project still important?
The Open Directory Project (ODP or DMOZ.org) has recently received a lot of negative press. Is the ODP still as important as it was?
The perfect balance between on-site and off-site optimization.
Many webmasters are unsure what they have to do to keep their websites at the top of the list. There are two factors that influence the rankings of your web pages. What is the perfect balance between them?
Is Google manually influencing its search results?
Google pays people from all over the world $10 - $20 per hour to check Google search results every day. What does this mean to your website?
Google's Sitemaps service and your website
Last week, Google released its new Google Sitemaps service. Despite the name, Google Sitemaps is not a tool that creates sitemaps for your website. Google Sitemaps is another way to submit your web pages to Google. How can your website benefit from this service?
Google's PageRank - Should it be discontinued?
As you might have noticed, Google wasn't displaying the PageRank information from 27 May to 30 May. The PageRank bar in the Google toolbar was grayed out for every web page. Many webmasters speculated that Google might have discontinued the PageRank information. Is the green PageRank bar really that important?
What Google knows about you
Much has been said about Google collecting personal information from web surfers. What exactly does Google know about you if you use their services? In this article, we present a list of things that Google knows about you.
How your firewall can destroy your search engine rankings
Poorly configured firewalls can block search engine spiders. If you use the wrong configuration, Google, Yahoo, MSN Search and others might not index your website.
What the Google patent means for SEO
We summarize the most important parts of the patent specification in this issue so that you have a quick overview about how Google might rank your website according to this patent.
How does Google track user behavior?
Last week, we informed you that Google tracks user behavior to determine the ranking of websites. Find out how Google tracks user behavior in this article.
Google ranking secrents revealed - Part 4
Google has recently filed a patent that details many points that Google uses to rank web pages. This article series discusses Google ranking secrets that have been revealed in that report. This time: how search results and user data can affect your rankings.
How to get top 10 rankings on Google, Yahoo and MSN Search
A new software program helps webmasters to get high rankings on major search engines.
Google ranking secrents revealed - Part 3
Google has recently filed a patent that details many points that Google uses to rank web pages. This article series discusses Google ranking secrets that have been revealed in that report. This time: how links to your website and their changes can affect your rankings.
Google ranking secrents revealed - Part 2
Google has recently filed a patent that details many points that Google uses to rank web pages. This article series discusses Google ranking secrets that have been revealed in that report. This time: how your domain name can affect your rankings.
Google ranking secrents revealed
Google has recently filed a patent that details many points that Google uses to rank web pages. This article series discusses Google ranking secrets that have been revealed in that report.
All about Google's latest algorithm change
Some webmasters have observed significant ranking changes in Google's search engine result pages. It seems that Google has tweaked its algorithm again or that it is still fine-tuning the way it ranks web pages for its next algorithm update.
How long does it take to get listed in Google?
If your website is not listed in Google although Googlebot regularly visits your website, this article can help you.
Cloaking: Does your web host change your web pages?
When you choose a web hosting company, you don't expect that they are going to change your web pages. You also don't expect that they change your web pages for their own benefit. Unfortunately, that's exactly what some web hosts seem to do.
Study confirms importance of other search engines
A recent study revealed that a minority of searchers exclusively use only one of the top three search engines Google, Yahoo and MSN Search. What does this mean to your site?
How to succeed with pay per click ads
You can lose a lot of money with pay per click ads if you don't do it right. This article explains how to succeed with pay per click ads.
How to get out of Google's sandbox
If your website has good rankings on Yahoo, MSN and other search engines but not on Google, it's likely that your website has been put into Google's sandbox. What can you do to get out of it?
How to deal with Google's latest ranking algorithm
Latent semantic indexing (LSI) seems to be important in Google's new ranking algorithm. This article tells you how to deal with this.
Do reciprocal links still work?
Rumor has it that reciprocal links are not as effective as one way links. Some people in online discussion forums claim that one way links from a website to another site work far better than reciprocal links. Is this true and what do you have to do about this?
How to add thumbshots to your link pages
Thumbshots are thumbnail screenshots of web pages that allow you to visualize websites before web surfers click on the link. If you use thumbshots on your link pages, web surfers know what they get before they click on a link.
Is your website dependend on Google?
Yahoo and MSN have made significant gains against Google. They can send a considerable amount of targeted visitors to your website. This article helps you to benefit from this search engines trend.
How to avoid click fraud
Click fraud is becoming a major problem for online advertisers. If you advertise your website on pay per click search engines such as Overture or Google AdWords, chances are that you pay way too much for your clicks.
7 Google interviews
Interviews with the people behind the scenes give great insight in how things work. The following interviews reveal interesting things about how Google works.
Search engine optimization: which file ending is better?
Some webmasters wonder whether they should use .htm or .html as the file extension for their web pages. Which file ending is better for search engine optimization purposes?
Google Sponsored Links search
Google has just released a special search form for its AdWords ads. The search form allows you to quickly find out the position of an AdWords ad.
How to optimize your Google AdWords campaigns
Learn how to lower your advertising costs while increasing your profit with optimized Google AdWords campaigns.
All about Google Suggest
Google Labs have just released the beta version of a new Google tool: Google Suggest. This article explains all you need to know about Google Suggest.
Google PageRank controversy
Last week, two statements about Google PageRank started a new discussion about this topic. Is Google PageRank just for entertainment purposes or is it for real?
How to get your website into Yahoo!
All you need to know to get your website into Yahoo's search engine results. Learn how Yahoo's spider works and why it is important to be listed in Yahoo.
Use RSS feeds to improve your link popularity
Although these little orange RSS images look very inconspicuous, they can help you to improve the link popularity of your website.
All you need to know about the new MSN Search
Some days ago, Microsoft launched a beta version of their long awaited new search engine. The new MSN Search doesn't rely on Inktomi technology anymore. It's a new search engine that has been built from ground up. What is special about the new search engine?
Should you buy text links?
Many text link broker websites have appeared on the Internet. These websites allow you to rent links from other websites on a monthly basis. Is this something you should consider for your website? What can you expect from these text links?
How to fake Google PageRank numbers
Recently, a new technique of faking the PageRank number of a website has become popular. For example, a rather dubious adult website managed to get a PageRank of 10.
Are your paying too much for pay per click advertising?
The cost for pay per click advertising is on the rise. The average click price will jump to US$0.47 in the near future. Do you get what you're paying for?
All about Google Desktop Search
Google Desktop Search is a program that runs on your Windows computer. It allows you to search your hard disk for files.
Google's new ranking algorithm
Rumor has it that Google tries to fight artificial link manipulation with its latest update. What can you do to get better rankings on Google?
Google's new web page spider
Many webmasters have noticed that there are now two different Google spiders that index their web pages. At least one of them is performing a complete site scan.
Why valid HTML code is important to your website
Many webmasters overlook a very important aspect of website promotion: the validity of the HTML code.
Is Amazon's A9 search engine really that good?
Last week, Amazon officially launched its search engine A9.com. A9 is the first search engine with strong personalization features. It looks as if A9 has the potential to become a major search engine.
Use Internet directories to get more visitors
Internet directories are often overlooked by webmasters because many of them deliver only little traffic. However, link directories offer many benefits to webmasters that are interested in getting more visitors.
Compare your website to your competitors
How does your website compare to your competitors? Does your website has more incoming links? How much traffic do your competitors get?
The new version 3.0 of the freeware tool Link Popularity Check helps you to get the answers quickly and easily.
Google's link command and better ways to do it
You probably know Google's link command. It's a special search query that allows you to find websites that link to another website. There's a better way to find all pages that point to your website on Google.
Block-level link analysis
Block-level link analysis is Microsoft attempt to deal with the faults in PageRank and HITS (Hyperlink Induced Topic Search). What does this mean to your website?
Reasons to delete a link exchange request
Webmasters often delete link exchange requests. Do the following things to make sure that webmasters reply to your link exchange email message..
Why website visitors don't convert into sales - part 4
When people have finally decided to purchase your product, you must make sure that your order page doesn't drive them away. If your order page isn't easy to use, all other website promotion efforts will be in vain.
Why website visitors don't convert into sales - part 3
People aren't necessarily interested in your product or in your company. You must convince your website visitors with good sales copy. Click here to learn how to write effective sales copy.
Why website visitors don't convert into sales - part 2
On the World Wide Web, you cannot speak face to face with your customer so you have to establish credibility in other ways.
Why website visitors don't convert into sales - part 1
Even if you have hundreds of visitors per day, web surfers still might not purchase something on your website. Why do visitors sometimes don't convert into sales? We'll show you several reasons that can prevent surfers from buying on your website.
Is Open Source the future of search?
Open source search engines try to compete with the big players in the search engine market. Who are these open source search engines and what can they do for you?
The link popularity software for your website success
ARELIS is a top rated software program that helps you to build a powerful business network quickly and easily. You'll benefit from highly targeted free traffic to your website, new business contacts, a higher link popularity, higher search engine rankings and more sales.
Googlebot came to call
How to automatically get an email message from your website when Google visits your pages.
Keep visitors on your website with custom 404 not found pages
You've probably seen many "404 not found" pages when surfing the web. A "404 not found" page is the page that comes up when someone tries to access a web page that doesn't exist. Learn how to keep customer on your website with custom 404 not found pages.
Don't invest too early in the wow factor
It's important that your website has a professional design and it's also important that your website looks great so that your customers have trust and confidence in your company. However, before adding bells and whistles to your website, make sure that it serves the basics.
The decreasing importance of Google PageRank
Many webmasters are crazy about Google PageRank. But is it really that important to your website?
The perennial search engine submission myth
You've probably seen them on the web and you've probably received many spam email messages from them: services that promise you to submit your website to thousands of search engines and that tell you that your website will get high search engine rankings if you just submit your website often enough. Does this really work?
Is link popularity really that important?
With the domination of Google and Yahoo on the search engine market, words like "link popularity", "link prominence" and "link reputation" have become buzzwords in the search engine marketing industry.
Many webmasters try to get as many links to their website as possible and some companies even offer "1000 links to your website within minutes". But is link popularity really so important as many people want us to believe?
The myth of the 50,000 search engines
There are submission services (and spam email messages) that promise to submit your website to 50,000 search engines. Some website promotion tools also claim that they can submit your website to thousands of search engines. Be very careful when you see such an offer.
How do search engines see your website?
Are you sure that search engines understand your website? Search engines see your web pages with different eyes than web surfers. A web page that looks great to the human eye can be totally meaningless to search engines.
All you need to know about Google's IPO
All you need to know about Google's IPO. Quotes, facts and background information.
Who works with whom in the UK search engines market?
It's essential to know which search engines and directories work together. If you want to plan an effective search engine optimization strategy, you must know which search engines cooperate and who gets the search results from whom.
How many link partners are there? How many are enough for a link campaign?
Exchanging links with other sites is a promising way to increase your Google PageRank and to draw visitors to your site. Good incoming links have a positive effect on your search engine rankings and they also bring targeted visitors to your website. But how many potential link partners are there, and what is a realistic goal for your linking campaigns? How many link partners should you have?
How to increase your sales with the right web page titles
The title of a web page is one of the most important elements. Good web page titles can remarkably increase the effectiveness of your website. If you use the right titles, your website can get more targeted visitors.
Insider tips for your Yahoo rankings
During the last few weeks, a Yahoo employee gave many tips that may help you to improve the ranking of your website on the new Yahoo search engine.
How to report spam to Google, Yahoo and others
A real nuisance for search engines are webmasters that try to deceive them to obtain high rankings (called "spamming").
What can you do if you discover other websites getting better search engine rankings than you because they use one of these spam techniques?
More than 100 website promotion and search engine optimization tips
One hundred articles full of website promotion and search engine optimization tips for your website success.
Yahoo Site Match - Does it work for your website?
Yahoo started a new paid inclusion program: Site Match. Does this program work for your site or is it better not to use Site Match for your website?
The most important search sites for your website success
Many webmasters face the problem that they don't know for which search engine they should optimize their websites. Of course, Google is the most important search engine for most webmasters. But which other search engines are also important for your website success? This article provides the answers.
Why Jim didn't make profit with his Internet business, part 2
Two weeks ago we told you about Jim who didn't make profit with his Internet business because he used the wrong keywords. We gave you a list of popular keyword search engines that help you to find the right keywords for your website. This time we'd like to inform you about more unknown ways to find the right keywords for your site.
The new Yahoo search engine and your website
What does the new Yahoo search engine mean to your website? Yahoo's search engine spider is capturing the full text of web pages, up to a 500,000 characters limit. The new Yahoo search also supports many file types, including HTML, PDF, and Microsoft Office documents. Find out how to optimize your website for high rankings on the new Yahoo.
Why Jim didn't make profit with his Internet business
You might lose lots of customers because your website is not targeting the right keywords. Read this article to find out how to find the right keywords for your website that will bring more customers to your site.
The new anti-spam law and linking campaigns
A new anti-spam federal law has been adopted by the United States. The CAN-SPAM ACT of 2003 has taken effect on Jan 1. The CAN-SPAM ACT provides definitions and appropriate penalties for misleading commercial email communications.
Some webmasters fear that it might not be legal anymore to contact potential link partners by email. This article explains what you have to do to be compliant.
How to maximize your linking success
Things you can do to improve the effectiveness of your linking campaign. How to get high link popularity for your website.
New software program for your link exchange success
This new software program can help you to quickly achieve high link popularity for your website. A serious website promotion tool with an ethical approach to website promotion can help you to get lasting results.
The ranking algorithms of the search engines in the near future
How will search engines rank your website in the future? This article tries to find answers based on patents that have been issued to the search engine companies.
The most innovative search engines in 2003
Which search engines have been the most innovative search engines in 2003. Read this article to find out who'll be leading the search engine market.
Who works with whom in the search engines market?
Search engines and directories interrelate with other search engines, for instance, they share their database contents to cover more web pages. In addition, the search engines partner with pay per click search engines to supplement their revenue.
It's essential to know which search engines and directories work together. If you want to plan an effective search engine optimization strategy, you must know which search engines cooperate and who gets results from whom.
The importance of links on your website
Some webmasters are unsure whether they should add link pages to their website, and some don't know which factors are important to determine if they should link to a certain site or not. Here are some tips about why your website should have a link directory and what makes a site worth linking to.
7 professional website promotion tools in one
More than just a search engine submission software tool. This new website promotion tool helps you with all aspects of search engine submission.
The top 5 myths about link popularity building tools
Some experienced webmasters gave link popularity building tools a bad reputation in the past. They argued that these tools would artificially inflate the link popularity score of websites in order to deceive search engines.
This may have been true for the first generation of these tools but then a new tool entered the market, promising to be the first serious reciprocal links management tool.
How to rank well with Flash movies
Flash movies are a popular way to make websites more compelling. They are useful if you want to impress your website visitors or if you offer web design services.
Unfortunately, if you use Flash movies, or if you even design your complete website based on the Flash technology, your odds of getting listed in the search engines are greatly reduced.
Read this article to find out how to rank well with Flash movies.
Is your HTML code valid for search engines?
If the HTML code of your website is not valid for search engines, it's very difficult to obtain high search engine rankings. Read this article to find out whether the code of your website is search engine ready.
Use sitemaps to improve your search engine ranking
Which page on your website is the most important page? The product page? The contact page? Or the order page? Whatever it is, the sitemap page is among the most important pages on your website.
How to improve your link popularity with articles
Articles can help you to improve the link popularity of your website. High link popularity will result in better search engine rankings and more website visitors.
Complete overview of major search engine toolbars
Many search engines now offer web browser toolbars so that you can instantly use their search engines whenever you have your browser window open.
The search engine toolbars search the World Wide Web but they also offer additional useful features, for example there are pop-up window blockers, dictionary and stock quote lookup tools, translation features and much more.
This article gives a complete overview of major search engine toolbars.
How to choose the right keywords for your site
Many businesses recognize that search engines can bring volumes of highly targeted prospects to their website, typically at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing.
Unfortunately, these same companies often overlook the most important part of their search engine marketing campaigns, which is keyphrase selection and evaluation.
Nutch - an open source Google rival?
Nutch aims to provide a transparent alternative to commercial web search engines on an open source basis. Its idea is that only open source search results can be fully trusted to be without bias.
Does advertising in PPC search engines really work?
Maybe you've considered using pay per click (PPC) search engines to promote your website on the Internet. PPC search engines are search engines that allow you to bid for a special position on their result pages. You pay a certain amount for every click your listing receives. But will this really work for your website?
How to make your website more effective
A high search engine ranking is not enough. Many webmasters have the problem that their visitors don't buy something on their site even if the way the visitors reached the site indicates that they're interested in the products. This article explains how to turn visitors into customers.
The importance of robots.txt
lthough the robots.txt file is a very important file if you want to have a good ranking on search engines, many Web sites don't offer this file.
If your Web site doesn't have a robots.txt file yet, read on to learn how to create one. If you already have a robots.txt file, read our tips to make sure that it doesn't contain errors.
Ten ways to link popularity
Link popularity has become an important factor in the ranking algorithms of most search engines. If many quality Web sites link to your site, you'll have a good position in the search engines.
There are a number of ways to improve the link popularity of your Web site. Here's our top 10 list on how to improve your link popularity.
How link popularity can help you rankings
Find out how links to your website can help your website to get more customers and more sales.
19 common mistakes that prevent your Web site from getting top rankings on search engines
Many webmasters have the problem that their Web site is not listed in search engines at all. There can be a variety of reasons that your Web site doesn't show up on search engines.This article shows you 19 reasons why your website might not be listed in search engines.