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

Don’t Panic! No-Do-Follow-You Pagerank Linking Problem Solved!

Is anyone else confused by the whole Google ruckus going on right now with regards to “nofollow” links?

What the dickens is going on?

Well, to prevent blog comment spam, Google implemented “nofollow” years ago as a parameter webmasters and blog owners could use in links to stop the link passing PageRank and being counted as a “vote” for the site the link pointed to. There was much rejoicing in the blogosphere as the dastardly blog comment spammers were defeated (or not).

Anyways, the dastardly SEO optimisers used “nofollow” in links to their privacy pages, legal pages and other webpages to “conserve” PageRank and send the wonderful “Google juice” to the pages they wanted to rank highest in the search engines. Google accepted this as pretty much a side effect of the introduction of “nofollow”, and all was well and jiggly with the world.

Until Matt Cutts (a Google uber-meister, engineer, or somesuch), recently said that nofollow now doesn’t work like the SEO guys thought it did. Instead of helping conserve PageRank, nofollow voids what would have been passed through the link had it not be nofollowed. Well, that threw a spanner in the works and everyone in the SEO world howled in rage! It didn’t help when Matt added that the change had already been implemented, and no-one noticed… “we figured that site owners or people running tests would notice, but they didn’t“.

Leslie Rhode said, “no way dude” (ok, he actually said, “First, the entire idea is just competely silly to start with and would have noticiable and really really bad ramifications that every SEO on the planet would have already noticed.”) and various other SEO’ers put forth ideas for working with Google and their new way of working with nofollow. One analysis I particularly like is Dr Andy Williams’ explanation of the changes and their effects, here.

So, what should you do?

Relax. Link to people who provide good content, nofollow any links that may potentially link to bad content (like your user-generated links) and then create more great content yourself in the time you would’ve spent worry about “pagerank bleeds”!




Source : neilshearing.com

Three SEO Don’ts

With SEO being a buzz word of the times every body wants their website to be search engine friendly and up there in the first page rankings, but there are some errors which people are regularly making when trying to optimize their sites that are preventing them from getting the first page listings that they are striving for. The following is a list of 3 SEO don’ts when optimizing your website.

Don’t use the same page title on every page on your website. By using your different keywords in the page titles of the different pages on your site and making those pages more specific to those keywords you increase your chances of being listed on the search engines for more than one set of keywords.

Don’t forget to use your keywords within the content of the pages on your website. Be sure to use your keywords in the body text on your page but do not over use them by just sticking them in here, there and everywhere! Also, make sure that your keywords are in the ALT tags of any images that are on the page. This is another place where keywords can be used but again, be careful of the overuse of a keyword - you do not want to risk being penalised by the search engines.

Don’t make the content of your site just for the search engines. Actual human beings will be reading your pages and are ultimately who your website is for so make sure that your content is relevant, interesting and informative and include your keywords where you can but make sure they fit effortlessly into the flow of your wording.

Source : seoservicesaustralia.blog.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

For the Best SEO, Google Says Think Text

Even though a recent Google gadget has provided us a potential glimpse at Google’s future video indexing technology, and even though both Google and Yahoo! are working with Adobe to get better at indexing the textual content within Flash movie files, for proper search optimization, thinking about your text is still king. According to Adam Lasnik, who is a Search Evangelist at Google, webmasters really need to focus on their text content to make their sites visible to Google and accessible to all users.

Beet.tv has a short video up with Lasnik, in which the Googler talks about SEO and accessibility. Lasnik spends much of the video talking about Google’s efforts working with Adobe to index Flash content, and says that even though Google is making strides in indexing rich media content like Flash, videos, and photos, webmasters need to think about text as the “primary means of communicating.”

Andy Plesser of Beet.tv says the key takeaway from what Lasnik says is that rich media publishers should always use descriptive text around their rich content.

This isn’t ground breaking stuff — anyone interested in building accessible web sites should already be concerned with making sure their text content and descriptive tags are up to snuff — but it is short and worth the watch. And if you’ll recall, last month we called the announcement that Google was working with Adobe to index Flash content a PR disaster for the company, so Lasnik’s video is perhaps a small salve on that public relations wound.


Source : seoseonews.com

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