I guess a lot of people have probably noticed that most of the major bogging platforms are now adding the no follow tag automatically to all links in the comment sections of blogs. The Theory is that this will prevent comment spamming as gaining a link in the comment section will have no SEO benefit. Seems like a good plan on the face of it but did anyone stop to think about all the good quality comments which do actually link to other relevant blogs? Is this not how search engines discover and rank these new blogs? In my opinion by not allowing comment links to be indexed a lot of great blogs will never be discovered. Also on a side note Yahoo still seems to follow and index these links even if it doesn’t transfer any web rank.
I guess the most sensible way of dealing with the spam would have been to force people to moderate their comments. Ah well talk about using a sledge hammer to crack an egg!
Showing posts with label SEO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SEO. Show all posts
Monday, 25 February 2008
Saturday, 9 February 2008
Google Algorithm Update – Don’t Panic!
It looks like over the past week a large Google algorithm update has been rolled out across the Google Empire, sending SEOs and business owners into a frenzied panic about search engine results. This post aims to put a little perspective on the whole thing.
First things first: don’t panic. Now this is really important as if you act in haste you will almost surely repent at leisure. Making hasty changes to a site which was previously performing well is not a good idea, the reason for this is that frequently the Googlies (people who work at Google) will roll out an update notice: it doesn’t work very well and tweak it or roll it back. Also, update seems to take time to settle down and this one clearly hasn’t yet I have had results moving from position five to thirty in a matter of hours and then moving back again.
Once things have settled down then you may decide to make some tweaks to your site. Unless you are doing something seriously black hat tweaks are likely to be all you need to make.
How should you change to adapt to the new Google algorithm? Honestly I don’t know yet. We need to let it settle down and pick through the results. Early indications seem to point to a shift away from the tradition Page Rank system towards a system based more on social media votes and up-to-date content, but we shall see as time goes by.
Why have Google changed the algorithm?
Probably a combination of two things; firstly the Google index is months behind Yahoo in displaying up to date results as Google has in the past made it very hard for new sites and content to display high up the rankings quickly and secondly because they have lord knows how many people with PHDs working there and they need something to do. A third possible reason is that Google wants to once and for all put an end to link spamming by using social media as more of an indication, which would be a foolish move in my opinion as social media can be easily manipulated, as it just requires manpower. If this is the case expect to see social media sites flooded with fake people and a ton of companies setting up in countries with low labour costs to provide the manpower to do this. Well done Google you may have just wrecked social media.
First things first: don’t panic. Now this is really important as if you act in haste you will almost surely repent at leisure. Making hasty changes to a site which was previously performing well is not a good idea, the reason for this is that frequently the Googlies (people who work at Google) will roll out an update notice: it doesn’t work very well and tweak it or roll it back. Also, update seems to take time to settle down and this one clearly hasn’t yet I have had results moving from position five to thirty in a matter of hours and then moving back again.
Once things have settled down then you may decide to make some tweaks to your site. Unless you are doing something seriously black hat tweaks are likely to be all you need to make.
How should you change to adapt to the new Google algorithm? Honestly I don’t know yet. We need to let it settle down and pick through the results. Early indications seem to point to a shift away from the tradition Page Rank system towards a system based more on social media votes and up-to-date content, but we shall see as time goes by.
Why have Google changed the algorithm?
Probably a combination of two things; firstly the Google index is months behind Yahoo in displaying up to date results as Google has in the past made it very hard for new sites and content to display high up the rankings quickly and secondly because they have lord knows how many people with PHDs working there and they need something to do. A third possible reason is that Google wants to once and for all put an end to link spamming by using social media as more of an indication, which would be a foolish move in my opinion as social media can be easily manipulated, as it just requires manpower. If this is the case expect to see social media sites flooded with fake people and a ton of companies setting up in countries with low labour costs to provide the manpower to do this. Well done Google you may have just wrecked social media.
Saturday, 26 January 2008
How to Choose The Best Paid Links
The first thing I should point out in this post, is that buying links for SEO purposes is against Google’s web master guidelines and so if you do decide to buy links for this purpose there is a risk involved. Google is not against buying links to generate traffic but recommends that paid links should have a “nofollow” tag on them to prevent search engines following the link and Page Rank being transferred. If you would like to look at whether buying links works or not, please read the post entitled “Buying links for SEO does it work?”
Right now to the business of how to chose a good link to buy.
Factors that determine what makes a good paid link:
1) The ranking of the site –not just in Google
When buying a link you need to assess the overall reputation of the site. Previously, Page Rank was a fairly good way of determining this. It is however my belief that Google places less importance on Page Rank now than it did previously, and that the visible Page Rank you see on your screen can often be a long way off the Page Rank Google actually has for the website. I would still take into account Page Rank but consider it as one of several factors. I would also look at the sites back links in Yahoo, check the sites Alexa ranking and see if the site is in the Yahoo and Open Source directories. If you use Firefox and buying links is going to be a regular occurrence, you should consider installing SEO for Firefox, which will help you see these statistics far quicker. Please be warned though, that this tool does slow Firefox down. For thorough instructions on how to assess the SEO welfare of a site visit the post entitled “How to check a web sites offsite SEO health”.
2) The relevance of the site
The relevance of the web site you are linking from makes a big difference as to whether or not you should buy a link from that site. The days when a link from a completely irrelevant site with a high Page Rank would shoot you up the rankings on your key words appear to be long gone. Look for sites that have a similar theme or topic to yours and that share some keywords. Try to remember that page links should bring your site traffic as well as just extra search engine juice. Traffic from paid links is no longer a bonus; it is a must as explained in point number 5.
3) The quality of the web site
Links from good quality web sites will be far more useful to you than poor quality ones. You should check to see that the web site has plenty of text on it that is original to that web site, that the text is of a good standard and that the site is regularly updated. You can check for duplicate content using this tool http://www.webconfs.com/similar-page-checker.php.
4) The positioning of the link on the page
A links position on the page will affect the usefulness of that link to your web site not only in terms of traffic but also in terms of the search engines. The ideal position for your link is the middle of the page amongst the main content and surrounded by different content on each page that the link appears on. It is rarely practical to be able to buy links like this (which is why they are so valued). Other good positions for links are at the top of the page and on the side above the fold. It has often been suggested that the perceived position of a link, from a search engine’s point of view, can be manipulated using CSS. I personally believe that Google has now developed ways of reading CSS styles to an extent, but I can’t prove this. The fact of the matter is you would be hard pressed to find a Webmaster who will sell you a link on a decent web site and alter his style sheet for you, so the Google reading CSS debate becomes rather a mute point. If however you’re interested in the Google CSS debate check out http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/002788.html.
5) Will the link be useful to people
I guess you may be thinking “Does this really matter if I only want the site for SEO?” The answer to this is yes it matters and it matters a lot, link popularity now seems to be having a bigger than ever effect on Google search rankings so having a link that is actually useful to people will not only bring you relevant traffic but will also boost your search engine rankings.
6) Can a search engine follow the link?
Obvious I know, but you would be amazed how many people overlook this when they buy links. You can guard against this by making it clear from the start when you buy the link that it must be crawlable by a search engine spider. Common problems include “nofollow” tags on links and links going to your site via a redirect page.
Hopefully you have found this article useful. If you would like to read more about buying links, check out “Buying links, what if?”
And “Buying links for SEO does it work?” . As always comments and questions are very welcome.
Right now to the business of how to chose a good link to buy.
Factors that determine what makes a good paid link:
1) The ranking of the site –not just in Google
When buying a link you need to assess the overall reputation of the site. Previously, Page Rank was a fairly good way of determining this. It is however my belief that Google places less importance on Page Rank now than it did previously, and that the visible Page Rank you see on your screen can often be a long way off the Page Rank Google actually has for the website. I would still take into account Page Rank but consider it as one of several factors. I would also look at the sites back links in Yahoo, check the sites Alexa ranking and see if the site is in the Yahoo and Open Source directories. If you use Firefox and buying links is going to be a regular occurrence, you should consider installing SEO for Firefox, which will help you see these statistics far quicker. Please be warned though, that this tool does slow Firefox down. For thorough instructions on how to assess the SEO welfare of a site visit the post entitled “How to check a web sites offsite SEO health”.
2) The relevance of the site
The relevance of the web site you are linking from makes a big difference as to whether or not you should buy a link from that site. The days when a link from a completely irrelevant site with a high Page Rank would shoot you up the rankings on your key words appear to be long gone. Look for sites that have a similar theme or topic to yours and that share some keywords. Try to remember that page links should bring your site traffic as well as just extra search engine juice. Traffic from paid links is no longer a bonus; it is a must as explained in point number 5.
3) The quality of the web site
Links from good quality web sites will be far more useful to you than poor quality ones. You should check to see that the web site has plenty of text on it that is original to that web site, that the text is of a good standard and that the site is regularly updated. You can check for duplicate content using this tool http://www.webconfs.com/similar-page-checker.php.
4) The positioning of the link on the page
A links position on the page will affect the usefulness of that link to your web site not only in terms of traffic but also in terms of the search engines. The ideal position for your link is the middle of the page amongst the main content and surrounded by different content on each page that the link appears on. It is rarely practical to be able to buy links like this (which is why they are so valued). Other good positions for links are at the top of the page and on the side above the fold. It has often been suggested that the perceived position of a link, from a search engine’s point of view, can be manipulated using CSS. I personally believe that Google has now developed ways of reading CSS styles to an extent, but I can’t prove this. The fact of the matter is you would be hard pressed to find a Webmaster who will sell you a link on a decent web site and alter his style sheet for you, so the Google reading CSS debate becomes rather a mute point. If however you’re interested in the Google CSS debate check out http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/002788.html.
5) Will the link be useful to people
I guess you may be thinking “Does this really matter if I only want the site for SEO?” The answer to this is yes it matters and it matters a lot, link popularity now seems to be having a bigger than ever effect on Google search rankings so having a link that is actually useful to people will not only bring you relevant traffic but will also boost your search engine rankings.
6) Can a search engine follow the link?
Obvious I know, but you would be amazed how many people overlook this when they buy links. You can guard against this by making it clear from the start when you buy the link that it must be crawlable by a search engine spider. Common problems include “nofollow” tags on links and links going to your site via a redirect page.
Hopefully you have found this article useful. If you would like to read more about buying links, check out “Buying links, what if?”
And “Buying links for SEO does it work?” . As always comments and questions are very welcome.
Monday, 21 January 2008
How to check a web sites offsite SEO health
There are many reasons why you would want to check the offsite SEO health of a web site; you may be sizing up the competition, considering buying a link or you may just want to see how your site is doing. One quick way to check the factors that affect sites offsite SEO health is to download and run SEO for Firefox. This tool, although very useful does slow Firefox down. So if you want to check a sites offsite SEO health manually here is how you do it.
1) Check the two major directories
A place in the two major web site directories will have an effect on a sites SEO health, so, to check for a sites presence in the Yahoo directory visit http://dir.yahoo.com/ and type the web sites address into the search box. To check for the web sites presence in the Open Directory Project do the same thing but instead of going to Yahoo visit http://www.dmoz.org/ and type the websites name in the search box.
2) Check the websites back links
The number and quality of back links will have an effect on the sites SEO health. The best way to check the back links is to go to www.yahoo.com and type into the search box without the link: followed by the name of your site for example link:www.bbc.co.uk . This will bring up a list of all the back links that Yahoo has for this site.
3) Check the Alexa Ranking for the site
Alexa ranking is an estimate of how much traffic the website receives. To check the Alexa rank of a site go to http://www.alexa.com and type the website address into the bar at the top, this will display the sites Alexa ranking.
4) Check the websites Page Rank
You can do this by downloading and installing the Google toolbar and enabling page rank. To do this, simply go to Google, type in Google tool bar, follow the link and install the toolbar making sure you select the option to enable Page Rank. Once you have installed the tool bar, simply visit the site and the Page Rank will be displayed in the bar at the top. If you don’t want to install Google tool bar (perhaps because of the privacy implications) - oh yes they know what you are looking at. Then you can go to http://www.iwebtool.com/pagerank_checker and type your URL in.
This post has covered the basic ways to check a sites offsite SEO health. There are, of course, other factors but these four should give you the indication of a sites offsite SEO health that you need. Any comments questions or suggestions are always welcome.
1) Check the two major directories
A place in the two major web site directories will have an effect on a sites SEO health, so, to check for a sites presence in the Yahoo directory visit http://dir.yahoo.com/ and type the web sites address into the search box. To check for the web sites presence in the Open Directory Project do the same thing but instead of going to Yahoo visit http://www.dmoz.org/ and type the websites name in the search box.
2) Check the websites back links
The number and quality of back links will have an effect on the sites SEO health. The best way to check the back links is to go to www.yahoo.com and type into the search box without the link: followed by the name of your site for example link:www.bbc.co.uk . This will bring up a list of all the back links that Yahoo has for this site.
3) Check the Alexa Ranking for the site
Alexa ranking is an estimate of how much traffic the website receives. To check the Alexa rank of a site go to http://www.alexa.com and type the website address into the bar at the top, this will display the sites Alexa ranking.
4) Check the websites Page Rank
You can do this by downloading and installing the Google toolbar and enabling page rank. To do this, simply go to Google, type in Google tool bar, follow the link and install the toolbar making sure you select the option to enable Page Rank. Once you have installed the tool bar, simply visit the site and the Page Rank will be displayed in the bar at the top. If you don’t want to install Google tool bar (perhaps because of the privacy implications) - oh yes they know what you are looking at. Then you can go to http://www.iwebtool.com/pagerank_checker and type your URL in.
This post has covered the basic ways to check a sites offsite SEO health. There are, of course, other factors but these four should give you the indication of a sites offsite SEO health that you need. Any comments questions or suggestions are always welcome.
Wednesday, 16 January 2008
Buying links for SEO does it work?
The short answer to this question is yes. The long answer is yes if you buy the right links and Google really doesn’t like it.
Firstly I have to say in my opinion, and it is just my opinion you should only ever buy links that will bring traffic to your site, don’t just buy them for SEO.
Why you ask? This is because if you buy a link that will bring you in traffic whatever and it ends up making no odds to the search engines at least you haven’t wasted your money. Also if you buy a link that will bring you traffic you can pretty much be sure the link is more relevant to your web site and more likely to be of use to people on the website selling the link than one that would never bring you traffic.
What do the search engines think about buying links?
Well Google hate it with a passion; cynical people might say that this is because they want every one to have Adsene on their sites rather than selling adverts themselves. This means Google can take a cut of all the money. The less cynical would say Google hates buying and selling links because it leads to inaccurate search results. Personally I think it is probably a little of both, Google’s guidelines on paid links are that web masters selling these links should add a no follow tag to links which prevents a search engine from following the link. This means that any paid links will not affect the search results. My opinion on Google’s stance is that it is good for them, they can recommend no follow tags on paid links to help their search results and if people want to follow the guidelines its up to them. In my opinion Google does not own the Internet and you can do whatever the hell you like with buying and selling links. It’s their job to provide accurate search results and its up to them if you want to help them. I would also argue that if you buy relevant links then it would help them create good search results. I should also point out that Google is always trying to find ways to detect paid links so it can exclude them including providing a facility for people to tell on site providing paid links. Google also recently reduced the visible page rank on a number of high profile sites known to be selling links.
MSN on the other hand does not take anything like such a strong stance on paid links describes paid links as a bit of a grey area.
What does Yahoo say? Well I am not really sure but being as how Yahoo charges a considerable amount for links from its directory I think it would be fairly safe to say that wont clamp down too hard on paid links.
I want to buy links how do I do it?
So in spite of the fact Google hates them you have decided to buy some links. I guess now you want to know the best way to do, well ok but be warned Google really hates paid links. Right now there are several ways you can buy paid links, these are:
1) Pay for directory listings. You can pay for listings in web directories that give you links, you should chose these wisely though check that the links don’t have a no follow tag on them and that the page where the link appears has page rank attached to it. The most obvious and probably best-paid directory is the Yahoo directory.
2) Buy links from text link brokers such as text link ads. These sites are fairly easy to find in the search engines, just type in buy text link ads. Sites like this allow you to search for relevant sites and pay to place links on them. I am always a little wary of buying links from sites like this as you cant see the full site where your link will appear so its hard to tell if the site as relevant or of sufficient quality. Most text links brokers give you the Alexa rank and Page rank of the site where your link will be placed. Just remember that if you found the text link brokers through Google then Google knows about them and Google really hates paid links so this could be a risky way of buying links
3) The third and in my opinion best way to buy links is to buy them from the individual web masters personally. Find web sites that are relevant to yours and approach the web masters to buy links. This way you have far less chance of search engines finding out and can be more selective of what sites you buy links off.
I hope this post has been useful to those of you that are looking to boost your search engine position through buying links. As always all comments and questions are welcomed and appreciated. It is my intention to follow this post up with a post on how to chose the best-paid links so if you’re interested watch this space.
Firstly I have to say in my opinion, and it is just my opinion you should only ever buy links that will bring traffic to your site, don’t just buy them for SEO.
Why you ask? This is because if you buy a link that will bring you in traffic whatever and it ends up making no odds to the search engines at least you haven’t wasted your money. Also if you buy a link that will bring you traffic you can pretty much be sure the link is more relevant to your web site and more likely to be of use to people on the website selling the link than one that would never bring you traffic.
What do the search engines think about buying links?
Well Google hate it with a passion; cynical people might say that this is because they want every one to have Adsene on their sites rather than selling adverts themselves. This means Google can take a cut of all the money. The less cynical would say Google hates buying and selling links because it leads to inaccurate search results. Personally I think it is probably a little of both, Google’s guidelines on paid links are that web masters selling these links should add a no follow tag to links which prevents a search engine from following the link. This means that any paid links will not affect the search results. My opinion on Google’s stance is that it is good for them, they can recommend no follow tags on paid links to help their search results and if people want to follow the guidelines its up to them. In my opinion Google does not own the Internet and you can do whatever the hell you like with buying and selling links. It’s their job to provide accurate search results and its up to them if you want to help them. I would also argue that if you buy relevant links then it would help them create good search results. I should also point out that Google is always trying to find ways to detect paid links so it can exclude them including providing a facility for people to tell on site providing paid links. Google also recently reduced the visible page rank on a number of high profile sites known to be selling links.
MSN on the other hand does not take anything like such a strong stance on paid links describes paid links as a bit of a grey area.
What does Yahoo say? Well I am not really sure but being as how Yahoo charges a considerable amount for links from its directory I think it would be fairly safe to say that wont clamp down too hard on paid links.
I want to buy links how do I do it?
So in spite of the fact Google hates them you have decided to buy some links. I guess now you want to know the best way to do, well ok but be warned Google really hates paid links. Right now there are several ways you can buy paid links, these are:
1) Pay for directory listings. You can pay for listings in web directories that give you links, you should chose these wisely though check that the links don’t have a no follow tag on them and that the page where the link appears has page rank attached to it. The most obvious and probably best-paid directory is the Yahoo directory.
2) Buy links from text link brokers such as text link ads. These sites are fairly easy to find in the search engines, just type in buy text link ads. Sites like this allow you to search for relevant sites and pay to place links on them. I am always a little wary of buying links from sites like this as you cant see the full site where your link will appear so its hard to tell if the site as relevant or of sufficient quality. Most text links brokers give you the Alexa rank and Page rank of the site where your link will be placed. Just remember that if you found the text link brokers through Google then Google knows about them and Google really hates paid links so this could be a risky way of buying links
3) The third and in my opinion best way to buy links is to buy them from the individual web masters personally. Find web sites that are relevant to yours and approach the web masters to buy links. This way you have far less chance of search engines finding out and can be more selective of what sites you buy links off.
I hope this post has been useful to those of you that are looking to boost your search engine position through buying links. As always all comments and questions are welcomed and appreciated. It is my intention to follow this post up with a post on how to chose the best-paid links so if you’re interested watch this space.
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