A lot of questions still exist about the Meta robots tag and robots.txt despite the popularity of these terms with any search engine optimization professional. In this two-part series we will attempt to answer these questions scientifically by doing an experiment and collecting data….
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On November 21, 2009, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis
More and more, I see articles popping up as guest post’s on blogs and as premium content on websites. Of course, people are still using article directories to mass submit their articles to a variety of websites as well. But is that still an effective way to do it?
It is true that article marketing has [...]
More and more, I see articles popping up as guest post’s on blogs and as premium content on websites. Of course, people are still using article directories to mass submit their articles to a variety of websites as well. But is that still an effective way to do it?
It is true that article marketing has changed a lot in the last couple of years. The top-tier search engine marketers today are writing premium original content and sending it out to other websites for a link back. That’s becoming much more effective than the old school way of mass distribution. But I wouldn’t count mass distribution out just yet, just pick better places to submit your articles, such as eZine Articles, HubPages or Work.com.
People said the same thing about website directories. They’re no good, the provide no benefit any more, and they are a thing of the past. Not true. High quality directories such as Yahoo! Directory, Best of Web, Business.com, etc. still provide good links to marketers who know how to leverage them. True, they’re not as powerful for link building as they used to be, but that is mainly due to the search engines wising up to the ways of spammers and implementing controls to detect it. True directory submissions still work.
But keep in mind that getting an article in an article directly is no guarantee that you’ll be published elsewhere. It’s also no guarantee that you’ll see an ounce of benefit from your articles. The best guarantee of effective article marketing you have is the writing of great original content that provides value and to submit it to excellent article places, I have mentioned, but spending time developing relationships with top sites in your industry and submitting content is still a great way to leverage article marketing as part of your relevant link building program.
On November 21, 2009, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis
Somewhere over the last few years the search engine optimization industry went in many different directions at the same time. Take ten industry people and each might have a different view point or approach when it comes to search engine optimziation, why is that? Isn’t the goal across the board the same? What else could [...]
Somewhere over the last few years the search engine optimization industry went in many different directions at the same time. Take ten industry people and each might have a different view point or approach when it comes to search engine optimziation, why is that? Isn’t the goal across the board the same? What else could the goal be besides building up a business or website online?
Like everything else in a young and rapidly growing industry fundament things often times break down over time requiring a revamp or clean up to get things back on track and working how they were initially designed to work. Is the search engine marketing industry going to have to go through a clean up phase? Often times I speak with potential clients and they have been badly burned or seriously confused on how or why they need SEO for their business to grow online. The whole concept of search engine optimization should have a general theme across all vertical markets and cause very little confusion. I think in the next few years or maybe sooner we will see some very significant changes to how these online marketing efforts are handled. Who knows they might even come sooner than we think. With Google coming out with one of its most important search engine updates in the next month or so we will all likely see a significant change in how search engine results display information. This is still a very young industry and will most likely go through many rounds of significant changes and improvements but the abuse has taken its toll on not just the search engines but also many of the businesses and with the social element growing stronger each day the race to include social chatter in search results is on.
This is a very quick moving industry. A change in the search engines can happen one morning creating a domino effect for some time to come. What Bing and Google need to understand is that when done correctly an SEO expert is only helping in organization and clean up of the online information. A nice written meta tag and description is going to be much more helpful from a user stand point than one that is almost blank. The problem is getting the entire search engine marketing industry on the same page. I think it will happen and we are already seeing the wheels spinning for these changes in the industry to occur.
On November 20, 2009, In SEO, by Andrew Shotland
I’ll be speaking at the BIA Kelsey ILM ‘09 Local Search “Preconference” – sort of akin to sitting at the kiddie table at Thanksgiving – along with Mr. David Mihm, Chris Spanos of AOL/Going.com and BIA Kelsey’s Mike Boland. We’ll be doing a site clinic as part of the session so if you have a [...]
I’ll be speaking at the BIA Kelsey ILM ‘09 Local Search “Preconference” – sort of akin to sitting at the kiddie table at Thanksgiving – along with Mr. David Mihm, Chris Spanos of AOL/Going.com and BIA Kelsey’s Mike Boland. We’ll be doing a site clinic as part of the session so if you have a site that just can’t seem to get any respect from the search engines – and that’s most of you from what I can see – you might want to be there.
Peter Krasilovsky, the Larry King of local search, just announced the final line-up here.
If you’re going to be at the conference and want to connect let me know.
On November 19, 2009, In SEO, by John Lamansky
The revolutionary WordPress SEO plugin from SEO Design Solutions has just been upgraded yet again, this time with a new module that lets you fine-tune the anchor text of a class of links that point to your posts.
You may be familiar with WordPress’s ability to insert a “more” link, which is useful for posts with [...]
The revolutionary WordPress SEO plugin from SEO Design Solutions has just been upgraded yet again, this time with a new module that lets you fine-tune the anchor text of a class of links that point to your posts.
SEO Ultimate All In One SEO Plugin Version 1.3 Released!
You may be familiar with WordPress’s ability to insert a “more” link, which is useful for posts with long content. The problem is that, on a default WordPress installation, this “more link” always has the same anchor text (e.g. “Read more of this entry »”). SEO experts know that internal anchor text conveys web page topicality to search engines; and obviously, the “read more” phrase isn’t a desired keyword.
But with the new “More Link Customizer” module in SEO Ultimate 1.3, you can take advantage of this under-utilized source of internal anchor text. Just install or upgrade to SEO Ultimate 1.3, open the “More Link Customizer” admin page under the “SEO” menu, and enter in the desired text for your “more links” sitewide.
More Link Customizer’s default settings even integrate a bit of automated anchor text dynamism by including the post’s title in the link text for instant keyword integration — no setup required. For example: for a post named “Keyword-rich title,” the “more” link text automatically becomes “Continue reading Keyword-rich title »” instead of a generic “read more” boilerplate anchor.
As if this wasn’t enough, the More Link Customizer also lets you customize the “more link” text for every single post on your blog! This powerful feature lets you, in effect, give your lengthier posts almost like a “second title” for additional keyword relevance.
With the addition of the More Link Customizer, SEO Ultimate has more powerhouse SEO functionality than ever. Download your free copy from the WordPress plugin directory today! Or visit our plugin information page to watch an informative video that gives you an overview of SEO Ultimate’s features.
On November 19, 2009, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis
A recent reader of this blog asked me an interesting common question that I wanted to share with everyone, “If my Google PageRank moves up to a 3 and my competitor’s PageRank remains a 1, will that push me above them in Google’s search engine rankings?”
Sadly, the answer is no. PageRank and search engine [...]
A recent reader of this blog asked me an interesting common question that I wanted to share with everyone, “If my Google PageRank moves up to a 3 and my competitor’s PageRank remains a 1, will that push me above them in Google’s search engine rankings?”
Sadly, the answer is no. PageRank and search engine rankings are not related in that sense. PageRank is an authority number assigned by Google based on an algorithm associated with several factors that determine your site’s trustworthiness that in directly affects your rankings in the Google for specific keyword phrases. It is not used by Google to determine your rankings for keywords. It is amazing to me that in 2009 that some webmasters, business owners and marketers still put emphasis on Google PageRank when determining the goals of your search engine optimization efforts. As I have said many times, (yes I do often sound like a broken record!) the goal of your SEO campaign should be to increase relevant visitors to your website over time from the search engines.
That said, Google does use some of the same factors in its ranking algorithm as it does in its PageRank algorithm. But there are ranking factors used to determine keyword rankings that are not used in PageRank. For instance, keyword placement in your URL is a factor that Google may use for search engine ranking purposes, but it doesn’t affect your PageRank at all. Other factors such as quality content, internal linking, etc do not affect PageRank, but are used to rank you against your competitors in the search results.
Bottom line, don’t expect advances in your PageRank to affect your search engine rankings. The two are not related at all…and focus your energy on marketing your website and business online and to become an authority in the eyes of your visitors and the search engines.
On November 18, 2009, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis
YouTube now has a way for webmasters to allow site visitors to upload YouTube videos directly to their websites. But the program is designed for news sites like CNN.com and Huffington Post. That doesn’t mean that bloggers can’t participate, however. I think the program will likely be available to most websites in some sense.
But what [...]
YouTube now has a way for webmasters to allow site visitors to upload YouTube videos directly to their websites. But the program is designed for news sites like CNN.com and Huffington Post. That doesn’t mean that bloggers can’t participate, however. I think the program will likely be available to most websites in some sense.
But what is YouTube Direct? YouTube Direct is a platform that gives webmasters the ability to get user generated video content without developing their own application.
Here is a video that clearly explains YouTube Direct:
There are some advantages to being able to do this. First, you can keep your site visitors on your site a little longer. But, even better than that, you can have videos uploaded directly to your website instead of you going to YouTube and embedding videos, which can be a time consuming process. The big question is, will YouTube Direct provide webmasters and marketers with any search engine optimization benefits.
I think so, possibly. If videos are uploaded to your website then it’s possible that the search engines will index those versions of the videos. The videos will still exist on YouTube’s servers, but if you use Google Customized Search then visitors will be able to search your website to find video content. And, more importantly, searchers using the search engines to search for video content related to your niche may find it in the SERPs. That’s a huge ‘may’.
The other possibility is that searchers looking for video content will find those videos on YouTube and will have to click over to your site from there. It remains to be seen just how many SEO benefits webmasters will receive from YouTube Direct. Even without SEO benefits, however, it looks like a good deal. I’m just hoping for the best.
On November 17, 2009, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis
Bill Slawski provides some interesting insight into a Yahoo! patent regarding taxonomies of information for the purpose of answering search queries directly. This begs the question, How would that change SEO? Bill asks the question this way
If you’re a site owner, would it bother you that a search engine might mine your web site to [...]
Bill Slawski provides some interesting insight into a Yahoo! patent regarding taxonomies of information for the purpose of answering search queries directly. This begs the question, How would that change SEO? Bill asks the question this way
If you’re a site owner, would it bother you that a search engine might mine your web site to display answers and potentially keep visitors from coming directly to your web site for those answers?
The best search engine optimization people, marketers and webmasters are capable of great flexibility. Whenever a new search engine tactic appears or the search engines change their algorithms in a noticeable way, those webmasters who are observant adapt their content development tactics in response to take advantage of the changes. The result usually is a few webmasters gaining an early advantage with others following and a great Internet-wide conversation coming after. Before you know it, there’s a best practices discussion going on around those changes. What would happen if search engines routinely answered searcher queries directly? Would SEOs and webmasters design their web pages and write their content in such a way that they might gain the advantage in having their site provide that answer? I think so. But how would that play out?
In the Babe Ruth example that Bill Slawski provides, the answer to the search query at both Google and Yahoo! is linked to the web page from which that answer is extracted. But why that specific web page? Bill alludes to a few attributes of a web page that might be selected:
- Source could be “editor” selected, presuming a human bias
- Large traffic volumes
- User trust and confidence in a web page
- Search engine confidence in a web page
Of course, these are just a few examples. The real issue is how would you write your content so that your web page might be selected as a trusted source for answering a search query directly? And, secondly, would you benefit from that?
I think the answer to the second question is clearly you would benefit. You’d have the No. 1 position, the pole position of search results. But would that result be clicked upon by searchers now that they have their answer?
These are all very good questions. I’d like to hear if you have any answers. What is your take on it?
On November 16, 2009, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis
There are no quick fixes when it come to search engine optimization. Let’s get that straight right now. You have to have some patience.
This is perhaps the single most important thing to remember about SEO. It’s also one of the things that gets so many marketing, webmasters and business people hung up about our industry. [...]
There are no quick fixes when it come to search engine optimization. Let’s get that straight right now. You have to have some patience.
This is perhaps the single most important thing to remember about SEO. It’s also one of the things that gets so many marketing, webmasters and business people hung up about our industry. In our fast-paced “want it now” society there is a tendency to expect instant results from everything – even SEO efforts.
The fact of the matter, however, is there are no quick fixes. SEO is a slow, steady process. No website rises to No. 1 rankings overnight. There are several reasons for this:
One reason it takes a while to secure respectable search engine rankings is because of the age factor. The search engines favor older and trusted websites. Fair or not, they do. But it makes sense why they do. It’s a lot like paying your dues. In order to prove that you have credibility and authority in your niche you have to pass a few hurdles. This mimics real life where people seldom start at the top; you start at the bottom and work your way up. So too do you start at the bottom and work your way up in search engine rankings.
Another reason it takes a while to rise in rankings is because of algorithmic preferences the search engines have for certain elements important to SEO. Links, for instance. It takes a while to build up a good relevant link portfolio. It doesn’t happen overnight. You have to spend the time to find the right links, the right mix of links, and the right quantity/quality combination of links.
Then there’s the content. One page of content will seldom push your site up in rankings. But if you keep building on your content and update your website with fresh original content periodically, that will help you. Still, throwing up ten pages of content in ten days is a start, not a reputation. Build up your content over time and you increase your chances of having those desired rankings.
SEO is a slow, steady process. It’s not an overnight success story. Do yourself a favor and don’t treat it as such.
On November 13, 2009, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis
One of the factors that can seriously affect your on site search engine optimization efforts in a positive way is your website page load time. Interestingly, websites are rarely penalized for having slow load times, but if you increase your page load time you can often see positive results including increased page rankings that will [...]
One of the factors that can seriously affect your on site search engine optimization efforts in a positive way is your website page load time. Interestingly, websites are rarely penalized for having slow load times, but if you increase your page load time you can often see positive results including increased page rankings that will lead to more visitors over time. Also, another reason to have faster load times on your website is user experience. Your site visitors will appreciate it for sure!
This is not across the board. It depends a great deal on how much you improve your page load time. If your page already loads about average and you increase the page load speed by just a few nanoseconds, that likely won’t help you. But if your page load speed is a couple of seconds below par and you increase it by a second-and-a-half then that could be a significant factor in future rankings for your targeted keywords.
As you can see, there are some variables that operate on page load speed. The idea is to create a faster web. More people today expect faster page load times than ever before. That creates a demand for faster page load times. Therefore, the search engines want to reward those sites that deliver on that demand.
What are some ways you can increase page load time? Here are a few ideas:
- Try using fewer photos and videos. If your page is heavily packed with large files like photos and videos, they will cause your load time to slow. Try deleting some from the page.
- Use external files. If you have a lot of CSS or JavaScript on a page, you can put it into a separate file and reference that file on your page, increasing your page load time. When a browser tries to read your page it will load the elements that it can find on the page and call out for the external files when it needs them. This increases your page load speed.
- Make your images smaller. Large images take up a lot of data space and cause your page to load slower. Make the images smaller and see what happens.
The idea is to streamline your pages as much as possible. The key to faster load times is smaller images and external files. Code streamlining will go a long way to increasing page load times and it could mean an extra nudge in the ranking wars and more people coming to your website.