Webmaster Papers








SEO Tips - Google Has Changed - Learn Why And What To Do


Google now checks the year your domain name was first registered.

This just makes sense. Those that care about their domain and their brand will register their domain for a long time. This demonstrates commitment. Of course it's not very hard for a spammer to do the same but the upfront costs are just that little bit higher and might help act as a deterrent. If anything a short domain registration period will be yet another flag in the Google system that will keep certain sites away from top rankings. Hopefully it will be the spammers that trigger the penalty when combined with all the other spam flags they trigger.

If you are anything like me and you like to register domains for an "idea" you have for the future there is no way you will be investing in a 10 year registration for something you may never pursue. An idea is an idea and I know half of the domains I buy amount to nothing. However buying the domain also signifies *some* commitment to the project and on many occasions is the motivational spark I need to get the website built and a new project off the ground. A one or two year registration is not a significant cost. Securing a domain for 10 years is. The easy workaround is to initially register a domain for the minimum period, if things take off then renew the domain for a longer period. Simple.

Google now places huge emphasis on links. They want to see a slow, gradual increase to the number of incoming links to your websites. Links need to have a variety of anchor text phrases. If all your anchor links are the same you could get de-listed or lose ranking position.

Ahh, natural linking patterns. I've mentioned this before - Google in many ways destroyed what it relies on to create such a great search engine. Before Google linking patterns were very natural, organic with sites linking to each other in many different ways, with different anchor text built up over a long period of time. Sites grew in popularity slowly and incoming links increased subsequently at similar rates of growth. Google stepped in and used these patterns in a ranking algorithm to accurately value sites. It worked, almost too well. Google became so popular that people began to study what it takes to rank highly. They learnt it was all about incoming links so they started an unnatural linking process, creating link farms and chasing incoming links with a vengeance.

Google wants natural linking back and will reward those sites that appear to be popular based on natural linking. This is not an exact science of course but if you do these things you are on the right track:

  • Make sure your incoming links are not all carbon copies of the same keyword phrase. Vary the incoming anchor text with different phrases.

  • Make sure you get links from many sites with varied PageRank. Assess link swaps based on the site (content, relevance) asking for the exchange, not solely on the green PR bar at the top of the site.

  • Chase back links naturally, slowly increasing their number over time. If you go from 10 - 5000 backlinks in one month Google is going to think you are link farming and penalise you.

  • Don't get paranoid. Stressing over why your site won't get listed and pressuring other sites for link exchanges can drive you crazy. Take it easy and work on building a great site slowly, tell the right people about it and they will spread the word for you.

Google is telling us that they look for relevant, quality content on your websites, which is no surprise, and that PageRank is a good indicator of a website's "authority" and relevancy.

The key term here is authority. Those sites that have been online for a long time with established authority in their field wield the power. One link from an authority site can boost you to the top of the rankings but take it away and you can just as easily fade to the bottom of the rankings. Again the emphasis here is on establishing links from many sites with various rankings. If you build an amazing site eventually the authority sites in your field may just link to you anyway and won't that make you feel special!

How do you build an authority site? With hard work of course. Authority sites don't appear out of nowhere, they build their authority over time by consistently working on quality content and audience creation. Don't expect overnight success, if you want a popular website you have to work at it for years, not weeks.

By Yaro Starak
http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com

Do you want to profit from your own successful home based Internet business?

Learn from Yaro Starak, a young entrepreneur from Australia. He works part time from home on several web based business that generate between $2,000 and $8,000 per month. Get your free articles and audio now - visit his Internet Business Blog.

RELATED ARTICLES

The Wonders of Wordtracker: Its More than a Hunt for Keywords
For me personally, Wordtracker.com is not just a tool for looking up keywords. Sure, that's one good use for it, but what I want to distinguish is another influential and exciting use for Wordtracker as an SEO resource.
Getting Your Site Seen By Search Engines
Is your website listed on search engines? When people search for you, does your site show up on page 1 or page 20 of the search engine results?
Spamglish; A Search Engine Comedy With A Language All Its Own
When the movie Spanglish hit the screens in 2004, it was dubbed "A comedy with a language all it's own." I don't think the producers even knew they were slipping a lesson for website owners who want better search engine listings into the movie.
SEO Training - Avoid Making this Costly Mistake!
SEO training can be overwhelming. There are literally hundreds of factors that go into search engine ranking on today's major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. When designing a web site or a web page for high search engine ranking,avoid making this one mistake that alone could prevent you from achieving a top ten ranking on your target keywords. What is this one costly mistake? Read on to find out.
3 Deadly Search Engine Marketing Sins
My inbox this week provided glaring examples of three all too common rookie search engine marketing mistakes. What you could call three deadly search engine marketing sins. Starting with
How To Find Good Keywords
Good keywords are frequently searched for (high demand) but not being targeted by many other websites (low competition). There are a number of tools out there that can help you find them.
Search Engine Optimization: Get the Low-down
Been hearing the words Search Engine Optimization lately? I know I have. But what is it, you wonder? Well, that's what I'm here to talk to you about.
How To Syndicate Your Content
Note: In order to preserve the proper format for the HTML code snippet in this article, copy and paste the article into Notepad, then copy and paste it from Notepad into your HTML web page.
10 Minutes to Your Google Sitemap
Google's calling your name...
Why Optimize Your Site For Search Engines?
Sometimes a search engine optimization company will miss that glaring question posed by potential clients and assume the benefits of search engine optimization are obvious to everyone. While shelling out a couple thousand on an SEO campaign is common sense to some, others may find it hard to part with the cash unless they know it is an investment in their business that is sure to bring a good return.
The Changing Face of Search Engine Optimization
With the ever evolving internet market for just about anything you can imagine and Google's index growing to almost 9 billion pages, and counting, there is little dispute amongst search engine optimizers that our job is getting much harder. From linking to articles, and density to ontology, our industry changes as fast as any other. The search engines, especially Google, seem to be on a daily diet of change and their algorithm seems to be growing at the rate of their index.
Martial Arts Webmasters: Time to Optimize Your Site!
A few months ago I was looking through the search engines to see if my website was even found for certain keywords. Well it wasn't. I knew something needed to be done, because I was losing potential customers to my Martial Art and Self Defense Classes. As the Internet grows exponentially, the important of a web presence is important.
Optimizing For Visitors Not Search Engines
Most people feel that optimizing is to target the search engines alone. In my opinion, this is not the only case. Optimization requires a balance of traffic enhancements and a user friendly atmosphere that provides clear navigation. Most will agree it would be much better to have people accept offerings from a Site, rather than masses of people who do nothing. Here are some general tips and thought to make pages user-friendly.
Search Engine Marketing 101: What Search Engines See When They Visit Your Web Site
If you have a Web site, have you ever wondered what a search engine sees when it visits your site to add the site to its index? Do you know that it doesn't see the beautiful graphics or the fancy Web design? Do you know that it only sees the source code, or the "skeleton" of your Web site?
Google Zombies Need To Wake Up
Over the last couple of weeks, I've received more e-mails in response to my article, "Google's Trap, DMOZ's Nap, And Yahoo!'s Crap," than any other article I've ever written. And that's saying a lot because, I've written close to forty articles.
MLM and SEO - Bad Business! No Business!
MLM has been around way before the Internet. It is a few steps above a chain letter. Well, maybe more then a few steps. MLM has paved the way for people to have their own business. It can start out as side money and flourish into a very profitable business.
Link Popularity
In today scenario when we talk about Search Engine Optimization, we also talk about one of the most important aspect of SEO, which is Link Building. But there are different types, aspects and limitations of Link Building, which would be discussed now under
Banned from Google and Wondering Why?
There are those that get on the computer one night and find that all of their Web pages have disappeared from Google. While, others are still in the search engine index, but don't rank high for nothing, not even for their Web site's name. It's a Web site owners worst nightmare, getting kicked out of the search engines.
What is PageRank?
Chances are you have been on the Internet and have been surfing in and out of websites looking for valuable information pertaining to a favorite topic or researching a subject for school or work. As you type in keyword(s) you match the information you are searching for on Google, you come up with 10,000 pages of information. It's virtually impossible to go through every one, so you refine your search by adding more exclusive keywords. Voila the number of pages reduces to around 1,000. Still this is a lot of pages, but you start looking through the information to find what you want. 
Google, BackRub, Backlinking, and the Link Hunting Obsession that Takes Its Toll
Google is currently one of the dominant entities on the net period. The question is - is it really that omnipotent, is it really that advantageous. The question is ? IS IT REALLY "ALL THAT".