21 Jan 10 How Google’s Speeding Things Up Could Affect You

Google’s need for speed could begin to influence the transition to the next generation of search and page-ranking factors in query results, as the company makes a transition to Caffeine, the next-generation of Google Search. While the move to speed up the Internet mostly touches Google’s architecture and organic search results, some search marketers believe the move affects search advertisers, too.

Read article http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=120970

Tags: google caffeine, load time, Speed

21 Jan 10 SEO: five developments we can expect to see in 2010

There have been many recent blog posts about potential SEO developments for 2010, so I thought I’d gaze into my own crystal ball and see what patterns emerged from the mist.

So, if you want to dominate the natural SERPs over the next 12 months, these are the factors that I think are going to be the most important.

1. Website load time

Check into Google’s Webmaster Tools and you’ll get plenty of feedback on website load time - a sure sign that it’s an element you need to get right.

When the GoogleBot crawls your site, it needs an easy and unblocked route to your content. Many posts on the Google Webmaster Central blog suggest allowing the GoogleBot to crawl all areas of your site - they could be key areas in your visitors’ journeys, and they could have high load times. Giving GoogleBot free rein over your sitemap will make sure you get the best possible feedback about page load times.

Google’s ‘Caffeine’ update incorporates load times as part of its algorithm. So far it’s been difficult to measure the impact of this change in the UK SERPs; but as we move through 2010 this update will affect more sets of keywords and themes. In August last year, the big shake up had a big impact on a set of ‘Hollywood’ search terms, which also gave more power to brand owners. I expect this to roll out even further and - of course - throw up odd results (i.e. from other countries) as we go along.

2. More competitive local search results

Google Local Business listings have proven to be a fantastic channel of traffic for website owners. As more SEO agencies look to leverage the power of these listings at the top of the SERPs, I expect Google to reward top spots by focusing on quality and relevance.

The current set up means you can easily bump your listing into the top spots for relevant searches like ‘Solicitors Kent’, but as we move into 2010 I expect listings that have more reviews, similar location-based inbound links and use other Google products (e.g. AdWords, Product Search) will benefit the most.

I expect Google to tighten the algorithm of local listings further, so it won’t be (potentially) as easy to achieve quick wins in this area.

3. Authority websites to continue to deliver more weight for SEO

The way we search is changing. Whether your original search stemmed from Facebook, a Twitter post or elsewhere, these days we can avoid trawling through pages of search results to find what we’re looking for. In some cases it may just be easier to ask someone within an online community - we are guided by recommendation more then ever.

Although it’s hard to predict the longevity of Twitter’s growth (or decline), networks of this kind will be a growing source of direct visits to your website. Regular visits from authority websites will strengthen your position in the SERPS and need to be taken into consideration for your SEO.

This means you need to embrace social networks: tweet regularly, generate discussion and get your news read!

4. Link building: chasing PageRank will be a thing of the past

Link building strategies are often guided by chasing a link from a site with an awesomely high PageRank; but I predict we will soon be switching our attention to websites that have greater relevance and high crawl rates. Inbound links from static websites that are never updated will be worth very little, whereas a link from news source that isn’t necessarily ‘anchored up to the nines’ will be of greater value.

I also expect PageRank will be removed from the Google toolbar in 2010.

5. Long tail will (still) be the future for 2010

As we use increasingly accurate searches, the user journey through Google’s results pages may be much shorter then previous years.

This means that websites (especially eCommerce or news-related sites with lots of fresh content) need to focus on higher quality ‘SEO friendly’ content. Good descriptive copy, metadata and headings all count towards achieving accurate results.

There will be more pockets of opportunity for long tail searches in SEO; the trick is to identify these terms and build your strategy around them, rather than getting distracted by the the ego-inflating terms that don’t necessarily convert.

So, there you go - a few little gems from Coast Digital’s SEO crystal ball! Let’s hear your predictions for 2010 too… ideas in the comments please.

Source: Ashley Fletcher for Coastdigital.co.uk

Tags: 2010 seo, google caffeine, load time

06 Jan 10 Google Caffeine - It’s Started

For those of you in the SEO world, you’ll have known for some time that Google has been planning some major new changes, and has recently started to implement them. The full-blown Google Caffeine is coming soon, so this is just the start…

However if you are just a regular user of Google with little or no knowledge of SEO, you may not know that Google now personalises your search results, based on sites you have clicked on before!

Now, in the past, if you’d been logged into a Gmail account, or other Google service which required you to login, then Google would have already been personalising your search results. To stop it from doing so, you could just log out.

However, now the new changes have taken effect, you’ll notice a couple of subtle changes…

1. When you mouse-over the very top of the Google search home page, you will see that there is a menu bar which auto-hides itself.

 

Now move your mouse:

Okay, not much new here, but now do a search for anything you like, and look at the new option in the Top Right-Hand side…

Now click on the Web History feature (see arrow above), and you’ll see the following option:

You can now select: “Disable customisations based on search activity”.

Doing so will (for this browser session only), leave your SEO search results unaffected. If you have a Google account, you can sign in and change the settings by selecting “Web History” at the bottom RHS of the above screen, and logging in. This way, if you have a Google account, then it will mean that you can disable Web History whenever you are logged in.

So what does this mean for me?

Well if you are doing some SEO or having some done, and want to check your Google position, don’t get excited unless you have disabled Web History – you haven’t shot to #1 overnight!

If you are a Google user who finds it hard to remember the URL of your favorite sites, and doesn’t bookmark them, then Web History can be handy. Say you search for Car, and click on a specific site, next time you search for Car that site may appear closer to the top of the results – in a nutshell that’s what Web History does. However this will skew your results so that if a super new Car website appeared that is cheaper and otherwise superior to your old favorite, it could take you longer to notice it exists. It also means that Google knows exactly what you search for, and gathers data from your every move, using it to manipulate the data it provides you with…

So we’ve at least told you how you can opt-out of this service if you want it.

Other changes which have been happening for the last six months or so, are where US, Australian, and other non-UK English-speaking sites appear in the SERPs. For example, searching for Sandwich Shop Cheltenham (despite that fact that Google know’s I’m in the UK), brings up results of Sandwich shops in Cheltenham Australia, amongst those in the UK – oops! How could that be even remotely relevant?

OK, so this could be useful for those of us in the UK for specific information-related searches, but if you are looking for a product or service, then this is highly irrelevant and makes the likes of Yahoo, Bing or another top search engine perhaps preferable?

Google deny there is any fault with this particular change, however the internet jungle drums say otherwise.

Only time will tell as to whether this is a permanent change or a temporary blip, but it’s good to know that with Bing’s popularity on the up, we do have other options, if we aren’t happy with what Google are up to. However for the time being, Google is still THE Search Engine of choice for the masses, the question is, how long for?

Source:  Google Caffeine - It’s Started

Tags: google caffeine

05 Jan 10 Siloing revisited

While the concept of siloing (also known as theming) has been widely adopted into SEO jargon, it’s clear that the technique itself is not widely understood. It is for this reason that we chose to revisit the concept of siloing after first addressing it in our SEO Newsletter last spring.

In its simplest terms, siloing is a site architecture technique used to split the focus of a site into multiple themes. The goal behind siloing is to create a site that ranks well for both its common and more-targeted keywords.

We developed our siloing technique after discovering that many of our clients expressed difficulty in ranking for both their site’s generic keywords (i.e. jelly) and specific page terms (i.e. organic strawberry jelly). We found that by haphazardly linking to unrelated (or even semi-related) internal pages, clients were actually diluting the theme of that web site. This, in turn, caused lower rankings because the search engines were unable to identify what the site was supposed to be about. By implementing proper siloing, site owners can ensure that their pages rank well for theme-specific keywords, as well as general site keywords.

There are two distinct methods of siloing: directory silos and virtual silos. Both allow site owners to create tight themes through linking strategies, however, they approach the concept very differently.

Directory silos: Directory silos reinforce themes by grouping like content pages under one, highly organized directory. A minimum of five content pages are needed to establish the theme and each must be named to reinforce the subject matter.

Think of a directory silo like a file cabinet. In order for the file cabinet to be effective, everything must remain tightly grouped in its place and filed under the appropriate, structured heading. Every distinct category will have its own heading. This means if you are a site specializing in peanut butter, all of your creamy peanut butter pages would be grouped together and all of your chunky peanut butter pages would be grouped together. The two would never be mixed.

Your creamy peanut butter silo might look something like this:

Peanutbuttersite.com/creamy/traditional.html
Peanutbuttersite.com/creamy/organic.html
Peanutbuttersite.com/creamy/lowfat.html
Peanutbuttersite.com/creamy/jellyhybrid.html
Peanutbuttersite.com/creamy/honeyroasted.html

In the example above, each page is named to help the search engines see the like theme. The directory naming system helps establish that these pages are all about creamy peanut butter. Sticking to this format will help prevent your themes from blurring and keep them unique.

Most sites will find that their topic is widespread enough that they need to separate it into multiple themes. If you find that your creamy peanut butter silo can be divided even further, don’t be fearful of creating multiple sub silos, however keep it within reason. We recommend keeping the pages about 2-3 directors deep. Delving any further than that and you may run into trouble. Additional silos give you more room for keywords and keyword synonyms. The tighter your silos are, the better your chance at ranking for your theme-specific keywords. Just make sure you’re not forgetting your more general terms in the process. Your silos should target both sets of terms.

Once you create your separate themes, you may find instances where you want to connect them. For example, let’s say your peanut butter site has a silo about the health benefits of different types of peanut butter. If you have a page that specifically addresses the health benefits of creamy peanut butter, it may make sense for you to link the two pages. The best way to do this without diluting your theme is to link from the creamy peanut butter page to the health benefits landing page. This shows the engines that you have two unique silos and makes it easier for both pages to stand out. Linking at will can cause confusion for the engines as they try and decipher what your page is about.

Virtual Silos: Virtual silos use a vertical cross-linking structure to create subject themes. In other words, the theme of the top landing page is created by supporting pages linking to it. This form of siloing may be useful for an established site that does not have a directory file system already set up or is fearful of breaking established page links.

In a virtual silo, each supporting page is linked to the theme’s landing page and also linked to the other supporting pages for that theme. The theme of the silo is created and reinforced by this type of cross linking of the pages. With virtual siloing, pages don’t need to be in the same directory in order to be in the same silo; the theme is established solely through the use of links.

For example, let’s say you want to create a virtual silo for crunchy peanut butter using the five crunchy peanut butter pages listed below:

Peanutbuttersite.com/crunchy/superchunk.html
Peanutbuttersite.com/crunchy/lowfat.html
Peanutbuttersite.com/crunchy/organic.html
Peanutbuttersite.com/crunchy/jellyhybrid.html
Peanutbuttersite.com/crunchy/almond.html

To create the virtual silo, all five pages would link to the crunchy peanut butter landing page. This tells the search engines that these pages are related to- and support the topic presented in the landing page. Each page should then also include a link to every other supportive page in the virtual silo. In this case there are four other pages in the silo. The easiest way to do this is to include navigation on the page to link the pages together and basically creating a mini-sitemap on the page.

When linking out to other pages within the site, you must be very cautious about not risking the integrity of your silo. To link two related peanut butter pages found in separate directories, link the same as you would in a directory silo. Each page should be linked to your main landing page, as well as linked to one another. Linking this way will help build the theme of that silo. As mentioned earlier, when linking this tightly, beware of failing to address your general keywords.

Sticking with our peanut butter example, say your site sells a type of jelly that is particularly complimentary to creamy peanut butter. It may be fitting to link from your peanut butter page to the flavored jelly page. Since the jelly page would be a supporting page in the Jelly silo, you would want to link your creamy peanut butter page to the landing page of the Jelly silo instead of to the particular flavored jelly page. Doing this would dilute your theme of the creamy silo. By linking to the top of the Jelly silo, you not only keep the integrity of the two silos, but you also are helping to establish the Jelly landing page as the main page for that silo. If you absolutely had to link the creamy peanut butter page to the flavored jelly page you would want to do it with a rel=nofollow in the link command.

Whichever method of siloing you plan on choosing, we recommend designing your silos before creating your Web site, whenever possible. Doing it this way will allow you more options with your design process. If you’re not sure what silos your site will need, you may opt to run your keyword testing to see which terms you plan on targeting. If you know you want to rank for the terms “creamy peanut butter” and “jelly hybrid”, then you will need to create unique silos that address both of these themes. This will allow you to create deeper silos, while keeping your original structure intact.

Source:  lisa-barone

Tags: internal linking, siloing, Site architecture

05 Jan 10 Google caffeine is coming - 2010

Irbtrax is confident Caffeine is going to have a positive impact on companies that follow Search Engine Optimization best practice procedures.

Online PR News – 31-December-2009 – SEO Internet Marketing firm Irbtrax started intensive research on Google Caffeine back in early August. While opinions have varied, Irbtrax is confident based on their research that Caffeine is going to have a positive impact on companies and individuals that follow Search Engine Optimization Internet Marketing best practice procedures.

Caffeine should be fully launched sometime after the Holidays. Which is assumed to be in early January. To assist individuals and companies, Irbtrax has dedicated a page on their website to Google Caffeine Algorithm enhancements. A sample of suggestions that will help your web marketing efforts take advantage of Caffeine include:

Keeping website content fresh, unique, and updated.
Social Media Optimize your website where applicable.

For more information see:

“These practices will not only help you take advantage of Caffeine’s unique features, they will also enhance your website visitor experience. So in that regard, Google is aligned with your best interests. And one other thing. We’d like to wish everyone a safe, healthy, and prosperous New Year.”http://www.onlineprnews.com/news/15810-1261854533-google-caffeine-real-time-search-increases-value-of-social-media.html

Properly formatting your Meta Title and Description Tags.
Adding quality outbound links relevant to your site’s theme.

For more information see:

http://www.onlineprnews.com/news/16218-1262216513-seo-firm-provides-google-caffeine-tips-for-optimizing-your-website.html

Place keywords in strategic locations, but don’t saturate.
Test your website’s universal download page time rates.
Efficiently format internal links and using proper Siloing.

For more information see:

http://www.onlineprnews.com/news/14891-1261074789-study-shows-most-websites-arent-optimized-for-google-caffeine.html

Irbtrax founder Scott Moir states “These practices will not only help you take advantage of Caffeine’s unique features, they will also enhance your website visitor experience. So in that regard, Google is aligned with your best interests. And one other thing. We’d like to wish everyone a safe, healthy, and prosperous New Year.”

About Irbtrax: www.Irbtrax.com provides specialized Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, and Market Research Solutions for business’s seeking a competitive edge. Including Google Caffeine expertise. After all, being cutting edge is good, but being leading edge is far better.

Source: http://www.onlineprnews.com/news/16303-1262291387-google-caffeine-is-coming-new-year-update.html

Tags: google caffeine, SEO

29 Jun 09 Are backlinks nothing unless your branded?

Following googles recent update, some are talking about how unless you are an established authority site and well branded, you may need to more than your link building efforts.

The main questions now on most marketers minds are:

How to brand your business, so that searchers are typing your name directly into google!

Who is talking about your brand?  Some think this has become a main part of google’s view to who is an “authority” site.

Which sites are continually coming up in the social media scene?

Who is coming to your website outside of search? Volume, duration, navigation etc..

What is the related search volume, how many search for ’Nike’ and ’trainers’ in the same session?

Following the resent update, many major brands have benefited in serps for unexpected competitive keywords.

Tags: backlinks, brands

16 Apr 09 The 5 Minute SEO Site Audit Checklist

Tags: SEO, seo health check

13 Feb 09 Specify your canonical urls for duplicate content issues

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have announced support of a format to help prevent the notorious duplicate content problem. With the inclusion of a new header tag in the HTML code of pages that are accessible through multiple URL’s you can tell search engines which URL is the preferred, ‘canonical’ version.

The new feature announced yesterday by the big three search engines provides a simple, elegant solution to this persistent problem. Now all a webmaster has to do is include a <link> tag in the header of the page’s HTML code that specifies which URL is the canonical URL, and the search engines will update their indexes to reflect this. Google even claims the page rank of the duplicate URL’s will be transferred to the canonical URL.

Hopefully this will spell the end of on-site duplicate content issues. More information about the exact use of the <link> tag can be found in the Google Webmaster Central blog post.

Canonical tag announced googles  Matt Cutts interviewed