As we all know that Google is evolving real fast with thousands of people working for improving its algorithm, protection, spam filtering etc. Recently, Google has announced that with the help of its new algorithm, it can crawl through Adobe's Flash based contents.
Adobes's Flash is widely being used in many web-based applications and advertisements. It is used in creating banners, buttons, menus, interactive forms and sections. Previously, the contents in flash were not indexed by Google and therefore it was too difficult for the webmasters to optimize their flash based sites. Although flash used to make the website more attractive but had the drawback of lesser search engine traffic.
But now with the help the new algorithm, Flash based website would be indexed equally as the rest. One thing is for certain that this will bring a great increase in flashed based websites and contents and is expected to change the general layout of the websites. Secondly, the webmasters will lay more stress on the outlook of the websites too. Now the question is when will the arch rival Yahoo be able to index them and include them in its search results?.
After the unprecedented success of iPod, Apple Inc. launched their highly awaited Iphone. Iphone proved to be yet an other success story. With its iconic design, light weight and huge touch screen, made it a must-have gadget. Then Apple added more spice by introducing 3G iPhone. Lately, Google launched Google Mobile App along with a new version of Google.com for iPhone and iPod touch.
Google is claiming that with this new application, iPhone users can browse the web at twice the speed over 3G, Wi-Fi and EDGE. It has also introduced some nicely designed icons and shortcuts which can be added to the Home Screen.
Google has also enhanced the searching experience by removing the extra spaces. The previous or the next pages can be accessed through the back and forward buttons. The other services of Google can also be accessed using this App. The application is compatible with both iPhone and iPod touch. It also works with the 3G iPhone.
Google Mobile App is available at App Store and can be download from the phone directly.
Watch Google Mobile App in action.
Backlinks are great source for your link popularity/weight, which is eventually responsible for the search engine traffic. If you have relevant backlinks from your niche then the link worth would be more. So finding quality backlinks is necessary which can be easily done through Google Alerts.
Google Alerts is a free program which helps in finding the latest content published regarding the specified keyword or urls. You would be alerted via email regarding the selected topics. Its a great way to remain informed in you niche but it is also a valuable source of potential linking partners. Many of these links are blogs that will allow comments with a link back to your site. Just go to these blogs/links and see if you can leave a comment with some valuable additional information on what's been discussed.
Donot use it to spam otherwise you would end up blocking the search engine traffic.
About the Author: Jon Bergan is the owner of Bergan Blue, an Australian based creative design firm focused on bridging the gap between the online world of the Internet with the offline world of Marketing. Please visit http://www.berganblue.com.au for more information.
Websites are quickly becoming one of the most popular ways of advertising. Whether it be a business, its product or service or something completely different, everyone of all ages is turning to the web as a method of getting their message out there. With the popularity of this marketing medium increasing and the number of websites always growing, it is obvious that everyone wants to appear at the top of Google's search engine rankings. Achieving such a task is not an easy feat, however with a bit of perseverance, one can definitely improve their chances of reaching that glorious first page result.
Given that there is a heap of websites out there who are on the first page, what is their secret? It is a little industry term called "SEO" and it stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO basically consists of the customization of your website, its content and its internal and external links to assist in the overall indexing and ranking of your website in popular search engines. There are many contributing factors that are used in determining a website's ranking and every search engine is different. This makes trying to optimize your site for Google, Yahoo, Live and the many others quite a painstaking task.
As most of us are aware, Google is currently the most popular search engine for the majority of Internet users. As such, it is only normal that we'd want to focus our sights on achieving a higher ranking within Google first with the hope that the rest will follow. To do this, we must start a journey that could potentially take months before we start seeing any real change, however we have to start somewhere.
Our journey begins by defining some of the key contributing factors that Google uses to determine a website's and webpage's ranking within its results. These factors range from keyword use to manipulating internal and external links and the líst goes on. To get you started, we have listed the top twenty factors that you should focus on in order to help get your website that little bit closer to the top of the search engine results listings.
Keyword Use Factors
The following components relate to the use of search query terms in determining the rank of a particular page.
1. Keyword Use in Title Tag - Placing the targeted search term or phrase in the title tag of the web page's HTML header.
2. Keyword Use in Body Text - Using the targeted search term in the visible, HTML text of the page.
3. Relationship of Body Text Content to Keywords - Topical relevance of text on the page compared to targeted keywords.
4. Keyword Use in H1 Tag - Creating an H1 tag with the targeted search term/phrase.
5. Keyword Use in Domain Name & Page URL - Including the targeted term/phrase in the registered domain name, i.e. keyword.com plus target terms in the webpage URL, i.e. seomoz.org/keyword-phrase.
Page Attributes
The following elements comprise how Google interprets specific data about a webpage independent of keywords.
6. Link Popularity within the Site's Internal Link Structure - Refers to the number and importance of internal links pointing to the target page.
7. Quality/Relevance of Links to External Sites/Pages - Do links on the page point to high quality, topically-related pages?
8. Age of Document - Older pages may be perceived as more authoritative while newer pages may be more temporarily relevant.
9. Amount of Indexable Text Content - Refers to the literal quantity of visible HTML text on a page.
10. Quality of the Document Content (as measured algorithmically) - Assuming search engines can use text, visual or other analysis methods to determine the validity and value of content, this metric would provide some level of rating.
Site/Domain Attributes
The factors below contribute to Google's rankings based on the site/domain on which a page resides.
11. Global Link Popularity of Site - The overall link weight/authority as measured by links from any and all sites across the web (both link quality and quantity).
12. Age of Site - Not the date of original registration of the domain, but rather the launch of indexable content seen by the search engines (note that this can change if a domain switches ownership).
13. Topical Relevance of Inbound Links to Site - The subject-specific relationship between the sites/pages linking to the target page and the target keyword.
14. Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community - The link weight/authority of the target website amongst its topical peers in the online world.
15. Rate of New Inbound Links to Site - The frequency and timing of external sites linking in to the given domain.
Inbound Link Attribute
These pieces affect Google's weighting of links from external websites pointing to a page and ultimately will assist in the ranking of that page.
16. Anchor Text of Inbound Link.
17. Global Link Popularity of Linking Site.
18. Topical Relationship of Linking Page.
19. Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community - The link weight/authority of the target website amongst its topical peers in the online world.
20. Age of Link.
Negative Crawling/Ranking Attributes
There are also some points we should make before you start getting your hands dirty. With any type of SEO marketing, there are some things that can actually have a negative impact on your ranking. These following components may negatively affect a spider's ability to crawl a page or its rankings at Google.
- Server is Often Inaccessible to Bots.
- Content Very Similar or Duplicate of Existing Content in the Index.
- External Links to Low Quality/Spam Sites.
- Duplicate Title/Meta Tags on Many Pages.
- Overuse of Targeted Keywords (Stuffing/Spamming).
In order to promote your links, your main goal should be getting targeted traffíc to your site and any link PR should be secondary. Always put the reader or viewer first, especially if it's on someone else's site. Don't talk about your site or your marketing - just join the conversation and add your comments/opinions/suggestions... Enhance their site and they will reward you with traffic and a link. But you still have to keep your interests in the equation! You have to make sure you get your targeted keywords in the anchor text.
Keyword Market
First, if you've done your homework, your main keywords should already be in your domain name or url. Another way is to add your "keywords" + "guide" to your sig or signature. Such as: Name, Your Antique Cars Guide. If you're an expert in your particular niche, many webmasters will kindly welcome your comments and links.
Since your main goal is the traffic, many webmasters don't worry if there is a "no follow" attribute attached to the link. But if you are concerned about this - one way is to look at the source code to see if it has the "no follow" tag. I usually copy the whole source code of the page to my text editor and then do a simple "no follow" search.
No Follow
There is also a great little free comment tool called "Comment Kahuna" co-created by Jason Potash which will search blogs and tell you if they have the "no-follow" attribute or not, it will also give you the PageRank of each blog post. If you're going to use blogs as a source of your backlinks, I suggest you try Comment Kahuna - it will make the task much easier and it's free.
Actually, while the "no-follow" issue may be a concern for some webmasters, the savvy ones will realize these are links/sites Google is actively indexing and spidering, otherwise you wouldn't get the alert in the first place. You must get your links into this whole mix of related, relevant sites to help raise your rankings. Also remember the other search engines may not even consider the "no-follow" tag.
Trackbacks
Likewise, creating trackbacks are another way of linking relevant content. Keep in mind, a trackback is simply an acknowledgement via a ping signal that is sent from Site A (originator) to Site B (receptor). Then the receptor often places a link back to Site A showing its worthiness.
Again, I am mainly concerned with the quality of the blog or link, rather than the linking structure. I want the targeted traffíc, and it doesn't really matter whether the link has "no follow" because interested visitors only see a link they can click for other helpful information.
Other Linking Options
Since we are on the topic of link building, another useful way to build backlinks is to use Google Search or Google Blog search. Now if you're looking for niche-related blogs just type in:
"(Keywords)" "powered by (blog scripts)"
For example, if you're looking for some "antique cars" related links on WordPress blogs, you would search for:
"antique cars" "powered by wordpress"
And Google would give you a whole líst of sites on antique cars.
Now if you want to find the links that will allow comments, just repeat the Google search with:
"antique cars" "powered by wordpress" "leave a comment" -"no comments"
Remember the "-" means posts that have no comments will not be displayed. If you're concerned with PageRank, Number of Backlinks, Alexa Ranking... of particular posts you can download and install the SEOQuake plugin. This handy SEO plugin can be attached to your browser and will give you helpful SEO information on the link or links you're viewing.
Used in conjunction with Google, it can sort thru all these blog posts and give you the ones with the highest PR? Highest traffic? Highest number of backlinks? The more knowledge you have, the easier and more effective your link building will become.
Please see my post regarding commenting for more information.
If you do not like SPAM and want to kick the SPAMMERS` ass then report the sites supporting these activities to these abuse department of various search engines.
Overture, AllTheWeb
AltaVista
Google, AOL
Ask Jeeves
DMOZ / ODP
Lycos
Inktomi, MSN
Teoma
Yahoo
Want to check whether your site/blog is blocked by the search engines or not. Try out these free of cost services.
Google Sandbox Checker Tool
Google Banned Site Checker
Yahoo Banned Site Checker
MSN Banned Site Checker
Want to know why and how your site is banned, read this and this.
