How to Counter Web Spam-Matt Cutts

It is not a secret for now that spammming pollutes Web sites as well as inboxes of email users. It is a hot topic in many SEO Forums among Web site owners and webmasters and they have taken many steps and actions to combat it that sometimes work an sometimes not.

According to post at news.com you can find Google's pointers on countering Web spam from Google's Matt Cutts head of Google's Webspam team and an engineer who's been working on the problem for eight years.

During a speech at the Web 2.0 Expo Matt Cutts expalained about countering Web spam as-
"Spammers are human," Cutts said. "You have the power to raise their blood pressure. Make them spend more time and effort...If spammer gets frustrated, he's more likely to look for someone easier."
How? Forthwith, some tips for those who manage their own or others' Web sites.

• Use captcha systems to make sure real people, not bots, are commenting on your site. He uses a simple math puzzle--what's 2 + 2?--but he also likes KittenAuth, which makes people identify kitten photos.

One blogger merely requires people to type the word "orange" into a field. "The vast majority of bots will never do that," Cutts said.

• Reconfigure software settings after you've installed it. A little modification of various settings will throw bots off the scent. "If you can off the beaten path, away from default software installations, you'll save yourself a ton of grief," he said.

• Employ systems that rank people by trust and reputation. For example, eBay shows how long a person has been a member and how satisfied others are with transactions with that person.

• Don't be afraid of legitimate purveyors of search-engine optimization services. "SEO is not spam. Google does not hate SEO," Cutts said. "There are plenty of white-hat SEO (companies) who can help you out."

Registering your Web site at Google's Webmaster Central site can help find bogus search-engine optimization tricks others may use on your site, such as keywords written in white text on white backgrounds, he added.

Source : coolslko.blogspot.com

Google’s Tetris Logo

Google Australia, China and some other places where it’s Saturday already are displaying a special logo doodle celebrating Tetris. The alt text reads “Celebrating 25 Years of The Tetris Effect - courtesy of Tetris Holding, LLC”, and the logo is linked to a search for tetris. Wikipedia knows: “Tetris ... is a puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov. It was released on June 6, 1984”.

And did you know? One of the original makers of Tetris is now working at Google – Google Australia, specifically, on the Google Wave project. Sydney Morning Herald reports: “Vadim Gerasimov was just 15 when he was taken under the wing of two Russian computer engineers – Alexey Pajitnov and Dmitry Pavlovsky – at the Moscow Academy of Sciences and helped them create Tetris ... Since around 2003 Gerasimov has lived in Australia, where he worked in complex systems research with the CSIRO [Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization] before joining Google about a year and a half ago.”

[Thanks Hebbet, Tom & Tony!]

Google’s Tetris Logo by Philipp Lenssen


Source : blogoscoped.com

Advanced SEO Tactics

If you're like most online webmasters, then you have probably read one article after the other about search engine optimization. Most of them rehash the same old information and you end up wading through tons of fluff. However, this isn't one of those articles. Listed below are 7 advanced SEO tips that you won't find on every digital corner.

1. Syndicating Articles that Link to Your Sitemap

As you probably know, syndicating articles is one of the best methods for obtaining one-way backlinks. They are also valuable pieces of search engine bait because search engine crawlers are frequent visitors to many high-profile article directories. If you want to get the spiders quickly crawling your site, simply submit an informative article to a site like EzineArticles, GoArticles, or ArticleCity. However, there's another article marketing strategy that isn't mentioned much in marketing circles. This tactic can get the crawlers searching deeper into your site and indexing more of your pages. Simply link to your sitemap within the resource box. This will send the spiders straight to a content buffet where they can quickly slurp up all of your pages.

2. Translating Your Website Into Other Languages

Are you marketing in just one language? If so, you are missing out on 64.8% of your marketing potential. This is because 64.8% of the world is surfing the internet in a language other than English. By becoming a multilingual marketer, you immediately open up a stream of new markets. Google alone crawls web pages in 35 different languages. One of the best ways to attract worldwide traffíc is to translate your site and register it with both English and foreign-language search engines and directories. If you are a seasoned SEO, you'll be happy to hear that the competition in foreign search engines is much less than in those of the United States. In addition, online foreign language markets are currently growing at a much faster rate than English speaking markets. You have the opportuníty to tap into this market while it's in an exponential growth phase.

3. ROR Sitemaps

As you probably know, sitemaps are important for making sure your site can be completely spidered and indexed by the search engines. Unfortunately, many of these sitemaps are specific to one search engine or another. For this reason, there have been a number of Google and Yahoo site map generators produced in recent years. However, there is an alternative that is even more exciting. These are ROR sitemaps and they are readable by all search engines, not just by Google or Yahoo. ROR is an exciting new sitemap tool that uses XML feeds to describe your website. These sitemaps are structured feeds that enable search engines to complement text search with structured information to better interpret the meaning of your site. With a ROR sitemap, search engines can better understand your products, services, images, newsletters, articles, podcasts, and anything else that you want to describe.
For example, if you are selling products, a ROR file enables you to document your product names, descriptions, prices, images, availability, affilíate programs, and any other
relevant information. Search engine crawlers like the Googlebot have an enormous job to do. It's time we start helping them to better understand our content.

4. Keyword Phrases that Convert

Selecting the right keyword phrases is the single most important aspect of any SEO campaign. Unfortunately, many webmasters target the wrong keywords. Too many of us target very general keywords like "real estate" or "internet marketing". Although these terms get lots of visitors, it is unlikely that you will be able to rank highly for them. Then, even if you do, this type of traffíc produces very low conversion rates because it does not target prospects. You will be much more successful, if you target keyword phrases that are 3-4 words long. These terms are much less competitive and have been proven to convert much better than keywords that are 1 to 2 words long. Who do you think is more likely to buy; someone who goes to Google and searches for "ipod" or someone who searches for "4gb black ipod nano"? Obviously, the person who searches for a more specific phrase is much closer to making a buying decision.

5. GoogSpy

Would you like to get an in-depth view of how your competitors run their business? Well, you can do exactly that with an online service known as GoogSpy. GoogSpy is a free research tool that will tell you what keywords your competitors are bidding on. This tool tracks over 500,000 keywords every day from Google and then loads this goldmine of information into the GoogSpy.com database. Using this tool, you can browse by company or by search term. This tool is extremely powerful. Unfortunately, many people take it for granted. This service basically hands you a business strategy on a silver platter. Maybe we should just keep this one to ourselves and enjoy the benefits of being one step ahead of our competition.

For example, let's say you wanted to do some in-depth research on Overstock.com, one of the largest companies online. You would simply go to googspy.com and type in overstock.com. You will then be shown thousands of words that this company bids on. These keywords are proven profít generators. Research like this would normally cost thousands of dollars, but they are providing it free of charge.
If you want to find keywords with high conversion rates, simply type in words such as buy and purchase. You will be shown keyword phrases that are bid on that include the words buy or purchase. These are very lucrative keyword phrases because the person who types in "buy sony playstation 2" knows exactly what they want. They're not just looking around, they are in buying mode. These are the type of keywords you want to bid on. Using GoogSpy, you can uncover these hidden gems in seconds.
Other high-converting keyword phrases include brand names and product names. Type in the keyword "camera" and you will find thousands of different brands and product names for cameras. These keywords are some of the best keywords because of their high conversion rate.

6. Internal Links Within Content

The navigation of your site is a crucial element of your search engine optimization campaign. Each link within your navigational structure should correlate with a keyphrase that you are trying to rank for. However, you can also include internal links within your content. For example, let's say you have written an article about online marketing. Within the article are a number of keyword phrases. Some of these phrases include "link popularity" and "web site traffíc". If you have other articles within your site that pertain to these topics, then you should definitely link those keyword phrases to those articles. By doing this, you can increase the link popularity of other pages within the same site. There are very few sites that take advantage of this optimization technique. By doing this, you enable the search engines to find and index much more of your site. These internal links also contribute to a higher ranking because of the anchor text that is used. Many people only think of inbound links from outside websites when trying to raise their link popularity. However, the internal link structure is also a major ranking factor.

7. Using Your Log Files for SEO

Your server logs reveal very important information about your site. If you learn to use them properly, they can quickly help to maximize your site's traffíc and conversion rates. One of the most valuable pieces of information found in your log files are search phrases. The log files will tell you exactly which keywords people are using to find your website. Once you have optimized a page, the log files will tell you how people are finding that page and what keywords they are searching for to get there. If you find that people are using keywords that you hadn't thought of to get to a certain page, it would probably be in your best interest to further optimize that page for those keywords. You might also want to create a new page optimized for that particular term. This is especially true if a new page would enable you to serve better information on the phrase being searched for. In addition, by looking at how your site is found organically, you can determine whether the same keyword phrases belong in your paid search campaigns. Only choose the ones that are highly relevant. You will find that these keyword phrases have the best conversion rate.

Article Source : ifergan.org

Bing Bing: Microsoft’s Search Engine Unexpectedly Live, But Not Live

Microsoft has made its new search engine available ahead of schedule, and is redirecting searches from Live Search to the new site

If you fancied using Microsoft’s new search engine, it’s unexpectedly live at http://www.bing.com/ . (According to Microsoft, it was being opened at the SMX search marketing conference in Seattle on Wednesday.)

Or rather, Microsoft’s new “Decision Engine and consumer brand” is unexpectedly live. Microsoft says:

“Bing is specifically designed to build on the benefits of today’s search engines but begins to move beyond this experience with a new approach to user experience and intuitive tools to help customers make better decisions, focusing initially on four key vertical areas: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business.”

Bing is not Live Search, though obviously it’s based on it, and the current UK beta version still has Live’s front page layout, rather than a menu down the left hand side, which is the format for the US version. The UK also doesn’t seem to have any image hot spots, and other features. To get the “real thing,” go here.

It’s too soon to say whether Bing will attract long-term users, rather than tyre-kickers. However, the reception on Twitter has been reasonably positive.

It does seem to work much better than Google for finding real product info and reviews, where Google’s results are loaded with spam and price comparison rubbish. As @studentsoftware noted on Twitter: “Keyword stuffing that skews Google search results doesn’t quite work in bing. Bing 1 Google 0. Over to you SEO gurus…”

Some Google commands also work — for example, try ["psp go" site:guardian.co.uk] — which could ease the changeover.

The Search History feature, which keeps a list of your previous searches down the left hand side, is obvious but excellent.

But in most respects, Google still rules. The fact is that Bing is an incomplete beta, and while it’s not bad, it’s not actually a match for Google at the moment.

Microsoft knows perfectly well that it’s going to take it “years and years and years” (in Steve Ballmer’s words) to get anywhere in search, if it ever does. It knows it has to overtake Yahoo first. In that sense, comparisons with Google are misguided, though we’re all making them. In reality, Bing is competing with Yahoo and Ask to be the leading Google alternative, and that’s how its success — or failure — should be evaluated.

Acronym note: Microsoft PR reckons Bing is “the sound of found” but the common joke is that it stands recursively for Bing Is Not Google. This has prompted another acronym, Wanger, for Wolfram Alpha’s Not Google Either, Really”

Source : guardian.co.uk

The Evolution Of SEO

With all of the conference events, podcasts, and social media buzz focused on SEO, it's easy to lose sight of how young a profession SEO truly is. You don't have to think back too far to remember the days of keyword stuffing, Web rings, irrelevant meta data ploys (back when Britney Spears was a keyword for every site), and old-fashioned black-text-on-a-black-background cloaking.

How far we've come.

We've seen a natural progression from back rooms to boardrooms -- from the basement to the mainstream. SEO has not simply shed its dubious roots; it has become a legitimate, reputable component of a proper client marketing mix.

It's rare to witness evolution as it happens. Let's look at what a few short years of professional SEO has given us.

Getting Thrown in the Mix

Once an afterthought to many of our clients, SEO has slowly become a big part of the overall marketing strategy. Maybe these clients have just woken up to the idea of free traffic, or maybe their marketing teams have finally become savvy about the online landscape. Either way, strategic SEM benefits the users, clients, and agencies involved.

After having to justify itself for so long, it's good to see SEO as a regular in many a client marketing mix.

Becoming On-Site Evangelists

Now that marketers understand the value that SEO can add to their bottom line, they need to navigate the nuanced waters of proper optimization. Unfortunately, they sometimes make mistakes that can land them, intentionally or not, in the realm of black hat marketing.

The role of the SEO agency has grown from just fixing a client's site to championing proper on-site optimization. We educate as we address site issues and put client Web sites back on the right track.

Even better, we're now brought into client Web projects much earlier, often before the site is even built. Being given the chance to create a search-friendly site from the ground up is a fantastic indicator of client trust and of the legitimacy of the profession.

Building Connections

As SEM matured, it headed off to high school, and we left the confines of our home pages to build links and connections with others. Link building marks a major turning point for SEO, not because it hadn't been done in the beginning, but because of the level of sophistication it has achieved.

Our desires to build link popularity and the illustrious Google PageRank have created a boom in SEO strategy, marrying SEO to public relations and sales strategy. This is when SEO truly began to permeate every facet of the Internet. Every site could be a partner; every page presented opportunity.

Link building was the step in evolution SEO needed to move from a strictly technical discipline to an accessible marketing discipline. In short, it was the element we need to make SEO understandable to the layperson (not that I don't think 301 redirects are great).

Joining the Conversation

Back to high school again, the burgeoning social media scene gave everyone a voice... and they used it to gossip. SEO became about harnessing this online water cooler to build relationships with key communicators, create buzz, gauge consumer opinion, and create new links to receptive audiences.

And content was once again king. A new breed of social media marketers emerged to generate Digg effects and build followings for clients through audience tailored articles and viral materials. Users digested content that interested them, bloggers received grist to churn out new posts, and client sites slowly slid up the SERPs.

Making It In Film

Remember when MTV first hit the airwaves to the tune of the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star"? Well, now the video star uses a Webcam. The popularity of sites like YouTube, and the creation of new sites like FaceSpook (which creates a 3D movie of images you upload), means that video will continue to play a large role online.

Now that everyone's a mini-Spielberg, it's up to SEO professionals to ensure that our clients' content isn't lost in the shuffle. With this newfound responsibility comes a new set of optimization tactics focused on boosting this content's visibility in Google and all the other video engines. And we might just sneak a link in there for good measure.

Going Universal

Once long ago, there were creatures known as the Top 10 Search Results. These once-pure content pages ruled the SERPs without fear of indented listings or local search feeds. But times have changed.

The proliferation of images, video, books, and news has flipped the concept of search results "real estate" on its head. Now you'll likely be served images, video, news, or books along with the list of links for your query.

SEO must to go beyond the text-on-the-page approach and encompass all digital assets. This will continue to gain prominence and importance, making it even more important to take a holistic approach to your SEO marketing program.

Upward and Onward

This progression is so astonishing because it didn't happen over a series of decades or ever years. SEO has evolved into more than what it was 24 months ago. As Google slowly expands its ability to read Flash objects, as mobile search begins to pick up steam, as new search engines hit the ground running, SEO shows no signs of stunting its evolution.

Ensuring you get the best ROI for your marketing program means taking advantage of all the different flavors of SEO. And, like in high school, the most popular technique today may be yesterday's news in the next few months.


Source : searchenginewatch.com

Pay Per Click: 10 Steps to Success

Step 1: Set Goals

Set goals for Cost Per Conversion. This should always be the primary measure of success.

* When your total cost per conversion is lower than your break even point, the campaign is profitable.
* You goal should be to have the lowest cost per conversion with the most conversions. These two sub-goals are opposed to one another because the more you pay per click, the more traffic you will be able to drive. It is important to determine the optimum compromise between low cost conversions and more traffic. But any time your cost per conversion goes above your break even point, the campaign will no longer be profitable.

Secondary goals can include:

* Traffic (total clicks). Issue: Traffic without conversion is wasted money.
* Click-through rate (CTR). Issue: Clicks without conversion is wasted money.
* Conversion rate. Issue: Good conversion may still lose money if the cost per click is too high.
* Average cost per click (CPC). Issue: Low cost per click is still not valuable if the clicks don't convert. The secondary goals represent valuable data points, but all of them can show good numbers and still be part of a failing campaign. Always use these other measures in the light of your average cost per conversion.

Step 2: Develop Initial Keyword List

Starting with what you think your prospects are searching for and using the available tools from Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing and/or others, develop an initial keyword list. The list should include every keyword you think someone interested in your products or services MIGHT type into Google, Yahoo, MSN or other search engine.

Step 3: Develop Initial Keyword Bid List

Starting with the keywords in your Initial Keyword list, determine what you believe your conversion rate will be on clicks you get from those keywords. If you have no idea, begin with your average conversion rate for your site and adjust up or down based on how targeted you believe the keyword is. This is just needs to be an educated guess at this point. Soon after you launch your campaign, you'll have real data to replace your estimates with.

Based on your cost per conversion goal, determine what the maximum amount you can afford to pay for that keyword is. Multiply your cost per conversion goal by your estimated conversion rate. The result is the maximum you can afford to pay per click. So if your cost per conversion goal is $20 and you estimate a 2% conversion rate, you can afford to bid up to $0.40 ($20 x 2%) per click.

Finally, use your PPC vendor's tools to check whether or not you can pay that amount or less per click to buy the keyword. If so, add it to your initial Keyword Bid List, and note the maximum bid amount. If not, put it on a backup list, which you may revisit in the future.

Step 4: Determine what landing pages to use for each keyword on your Initial Keyword Bid List.

The landing page for each keyword should be as relevant to the keyword or phrase as possible. DO NOT send traffic from a specific keyword to your Home Page. If you are bidding on keyword phrases that do not correspond directly to any pages on your web site, create specific landing pages that speak directly to your ad copy, and direct users from that landing page to where you want them to go.

Step 5: Write Ad Copy

Write copy for each listing. For Google, you can write several ads for each. Consider exactly what the user is looking for when they search for a specific keyword phrase, and write copy that is compelling to that mind set. Ad copy with the exact keywords in it generally produces a higher click-through rate.

Step 6: Launch Campaign and Analyze Results

Once you have your list of keywords, your maximum bids and your ads ready, launch your campaign. Initially, you should keep a very close eye on it, generating reports every day or two. Key things to look for include:

* Keywords that are getting a lot of clicks but no/low conversions.
* Keywords that are getting very high conversions.
* Keywords that are getting no clicks.
* If you are running multiple ads for some keywords, which ads are doing better?
* Are there trends in conversion rate associated with time of the day or day of the week?

Step 7: Make Adjustments

Based on your analysis, adjust you campaign. For keywords generating a lot of traffic but low or no conversions, try either changing the copy of your ads to better qualify prospects, lower your bid amount or stop bidding on the keyword.

For keywords performing better than expected, if you are not already placing #1, analyze the cost per conversion of increasing your bid to a higher placement position and compare that with the expected additional traffic from higher placement. If it will be more profitable, raise your bid. If you're not sure, test it and see.

For keywords getting impressions but few or no clicks, try different ad copy.

Step 8: Refine Your Keyword List

As you get more data, and test more bidding strategies and ad copy, you should be refining your keyword list, removing unprofitable keywords and potentially identifying new potential money makers.

Step 9: Use the Click-Through and Conversion Data to Inform Your SEO Campaign

The data gathered in a well-run SEM campaign can be invaluable to a SEO effort. Knowing exactly what keywords are actually converting into sales and driving traffic should be used by your search engine optimization team to target the appropriate keywords in their campaign.

Step 10: Continue Monitoring and Adjusting

Over time, less analysis is needed, but you must still monitor your results, look for changes and adjust accordingly. New competitors enter the market. Old ones leave. Bid prices change. Users start searching for more specific terms. Left unattended, all of these can lead to a stale campaign decreasing performance. Run at least high-level reports weekly and detailed reports monthly.


Republished By : Vishal Shastri