Google is Quickly Changing...

Google is quickly changing...

With the big buzz of Novembers fall within Google comes a newly indexed data-base...

Did Google do something bad to our great placements? No I don't think so and here's why.

While people are screaming for help and wondering what went wrong, I've noticed a MASSIVE shift in page ranking.

If you look at top placements at the moment, according to Scroogle, most of the ecommerce search terms got hit really hard. A lot of the top 100 placements were vanishing and quickly.

Now on the other hand, less impressive and especially smaller ranking sites have been bumped up top. I firmly believe this is all because of Google's "refreshing" their memory and possibly starting to take on web site ID's with 5 characters plus.

What I mean by that is the ability for Google to index more than 3.2 Billion web sites. Adding another character to the already large 4Id's deticated to each site indexed will allow Google to add a whole other list of sites within their database.

Now I could be wrong on that one but here's another phenomenon going on. I've been talking to other ecommerce web sites and helping them gain better rankings. It's been a while since they've had their Page Rank change within their site. Working real hard as I instructed, they have followed all the rules and attempted to boost their page ranks.

Up until now, nothing has changed and people are loosing their ranks within Google since Novembers algorythim change.

Around a week ago I've been getting calls left right and center about page ranks boosting like I’ve never seen.

The previous scare before this November change went something like this. Google stopped indexing more than 3 levels within your site. Ex. www.yoursite.com/level1/level2/level3

I affirm to you this: its pure baloney, more sites now have better PR ratings within their entire site than ever before. I believe that Google is rewarding most great resources online before taking on more listings within their index.

As towards se placements, I also took a major hit for my better search engine placements but a couple of days ago that started to all change. It almost seems as though Google wanted to take out the top placement companies in order to thoroughly crawl through all their information before letting them get back in the game.

I say this because one of my top placements was sitting at #1 for a long time. Since this November change, it immediately dropped to #181 and didn't move one single number for over 3 weeks. To my knowledge, that's a little strange. All of a sudden, my site stats recorded Google browsing through all my 600+ pages and presto, my site is back in the game, just like that.

In Conclusion:

It seems to me that we're all just lined up to sign an application for better search engine placements. The question isn’t if your site will get back in shape, it's a question of when your number will be called.

Have a little faith and a little patience and you too will rise again! Just keep doing what you've been doing all along and don't worry about falling down. The ones who get back up are always the ones on top in the end.

About The Author

Martin Lemieux is a young entrepreneur leading the field in Marketing for Canadians. Having been online since 1991, he knows his stuff when it comes to online marketing.

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Google's Next Big Move

November 2003 might go down in history as the month that Google shook a lot of smug webmasters and search engine optimization (SEO) specialists from the apple tree. But more than likely, it was just a precursor of the BIG shakeup to come.

Google touts highly its secret PageRank algorithm. Although PageRank is just one factor in choosing what sites appear on a specific search, it is the main way that Google determines the "importance" of a website.

In recent months, SEO specialists have become expert at manipulating PageRank, particularly through link exchanges.

There is nothing wrong with links. They make the Web a web rather than a series of isolated islands. However, PageRank relies on the naturally "democratic" nature of the web, whereby webmasters link to sites they feel are important for their visitors. Google rightly sees link exchanges designed to boost PageRank as stuffing the ballot box.

I was not surprised to see Google try to counter all the SEO efforts. In fact, I have been arguing the case with many non-believing SEO specialists over the past couple months. But I was surprised to see the clumsy way in which Google chose to do it.

Google targeted specific search terms, including many of the most competitive and commercial terms. Many websites lost top positions in five or six terms, but maintain their positions in several others. This had never happened before. Give credit to Barry Lloyd of www.SearchEngineGuide.com for cleverly uncovering the process.

For Google, this shakeup is just a temporary fix. It will have to make much bigger changes if it is serious about harnessing the "democratic" nature of the Web and neutralizing the artificial results of so many link exchanges.

Here are a few techniques Google might use (remember to think like a search engine):

1. Google might start valuing inbound links within paragraphs much higher than links that stand on their own. (For all we know, Google is already doing this.) Such links are much less likely to be the product of a link exchange, and therefore more likely to be genuine "democratic" votes.

2. Google might look at the concentration of inbound links across a website. If most inbound links point to the home page, that is another possible indicator of a link exchange, or at least that the site's content is not important enough to draw inbound links (and it is content that Google wants to deliver to its searchers).

3. Google might take a sample of inbound links to a domain, and check to see how many are reciprocated back to the linking domains. If a high percentage are reciprocated, Google might reduce the site's PageRank accordingly. Or it might set a cut-point, dropping from its index any website with too many of its inbound links reciprocated.

4. Google might start valuing outbound links more highly. Two pages with 100 inbound links are, in theory, valued equally, even if one has 20 outbound links and the other has none. But why should Google send its searchers down a dead-end street, when the information highway is paved just as smoothly on a major thoroughfare?

5. Google might weigh a website's outbound link concentration. A website with most outbound links concentrated on just a few pages is more likely to be a "link-exchanger" than a site with links spread out across its pages.

Google might use a combination of these techniques and ones not mentioned here. We cannot predict the exact algorithm, nor can we assume that it will remain constant. What we can do is to prepare our websites to look and act like a website would on a "democratic" Web as Google would see it.

For Google to hold its own against upstart search engines, it must deliver on its PageRank promise. Its results reflect the "democratic" nature of the Web. Its algorithm must prod webmasters to give links on their own merit. That won't be easy or even completely possible. And people will always find ways to turn Google's algorithm to their advantage. But the techniques above can send the Internet a long way back to where Google promises it will be.

The time is now to start preparing your website for the changes to come.

About The Author

David Leonhardt is an online and offline publicity specialist who believes in getting in front of the ball, rather than chasing it downhill. To get your website optimized, email him at info@thehappyguy.com. For a copy of Don’t Get Banned By The Search Engines: http://thehappyguy.com/SEO.html. For a copy of Get In The News: http://thehappyguy.com/publicity-self-promotion-report.html.

Why Google So Behaved..!

The month-old brouhaha over Google's 'changed algorithm', the 'Florida Update', hasn't yet ebbed. With the dawn of new year, the spectre of many 'renowned' websites loosing business looms large. Indeed, for many, Google was the lifeline. And now that comfort is gone. In the ensuing melee, many opinions are emerging. Sane advice like 'not clubbing all apples in one basket' are pouring in thick and fast.

The moot point however remains. As to why Google needed to change. In this article we'll attempt some answers.

Google, the blockbuster

There isn't a dispute here. Founded by two Stanford techies, Sergey Brin and Larry Page some five years back, Google has travelled a long distance in a short time. Maintaining a scorching climb, unmatched in search engine industry, Google is now the de facto king among all its brethrens. That, it would be so, was pointed out by Danny Sullivan of SearchEngineWatch.Com over 5 months back (refer Danny's articles here [http://searchenginewatch.com/reports/article.php/2156431] and here [http://searchenginewatch.com/reports/article.php/2156441]). Echoing similar view, Dr.Ralph Wilson in this article [http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt9/se_dominance.htm] notes that "...Google is the US search engine to focus on.".

Loosing relevance

Viewers expect 'relevant' results in searches. Of late though, Google has been failing. Why so? Because, optimization experts with bits of tweaking here and there could achieve top search results, 'relevant content' be damned. In this article [http://www.ezypost.com/website_design_articles/seo_usability.htm], Scottie Clairborne of RightClickWebs.Com speaks about frustration of not getting relevant search results. And in this article [http://www.highrankings.com/issue077.htm#seo], Jill Whalen of HighRankings.Com almost pleads with Google to recognize relevancy of sites.

Google's advantage

Ever wondered why Google mentions time it took to bring you search results! A subtle reminder that your time is important. Google takes pride in - dare I say- 'flaunting' its speediness. And why not! The fact is Google's infrastructure is spread far and wide all over globe. So, no matter where you search from, you get almost instant result.

Google's other advantage is its database. Crawling millions of webpages every single day, Googlebot has helped build a mammoth storage of data. Others charged for 'prized' entry into their databases, but couldn't make headway. Google didn't charge and is now the king.

The dilemma

With so much going for Google, why would it bother! Make no mistake, Google's earnings hasn't affected. It earns handsomely from paid advertisements, popularly known as AdWords. The question then, why Google would bother!

It would, for it knows competition is sharpening knives to strike back. Moreover, an IPO for an estimated $15 billion reportedly on anvil (Ref: Article *How good is Google?*, The Economist, Nov 1, 2003), Google needs more than ever to clean up its stable [Bloomberg.com in its Jan 5 dispatch confirms that Google has appointed Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to manage its IPO]. Bringing relevance in search results is therefore a priority. For, who else, but Google knows well that for a vast majority of about 200 million searches a day on its search engine, top search results are what that matter.

The picture ahead

Relevance of website content and that with incoming links (oh yes, 'good' incoming links assume significance like never before) will decide ranking in Google's results. Looking farther, perhaps the day is not far when niche search engines dealing exclusively in particular topics will gain prominence.

Readers may like to read related articles by Atul Gupta of SEORank.Com here [http://www.seorank.com/google-florida-update.htm] and here [http://www.seorank.com/analysis-of-hilltop-algorithm.htm].

About The Author

Copyright © 2004, Partha Bhattacharya.
Partha Bhattacharya is the author of the ebook, Sure Web Success with 1001+ Top Web Promote Links [http://www.ezypost.com/eb/top_web_promote_links.htm], that bridges gap between possibility and certainty of your web success. Partha's website, EzyPost [http://www.ezypost.com/web_templates/website_templates_1plus/1plus_1.htm], also offers nicely-designed ready templates for websites.
webmaster@ezypost.com

Being dumped by Google? Learn how to avoid becoming a victim next time around!

After Google latest update nicknamed "Florida", many webmasters discovered that their traffic plummeted.

What happened?

More importantly what can you do about it?

And what will Google do next?

What happened was that Google made an algorithm change on how they rate web pages.

Every time you make a search, Google tries to show the most relevant web pages that match your search term. By being able to give the most relevant results for queries, they have become the most used search engine in the world.

In order to keep out competitors they have to constantly adjust and improve how they judge web pages.

Because this judgment is done automatically using software, many webmaster have been modifying their sites in order to improve their position in the search results. To do this they have exploited different shortcuts and loopholes made possible by shortcomings in the software algorithm.

Periodically Google make changes in order to stop some webmasters to get unfair advantages by plugging one or two of the loopholes.

This is what happened during the Florida update.

With this update Google introduced new algorithms which intended to stop overuse of some search engine optimization techniques.

More specifically they seem to have targeted search terms found in text links also called anchor text. Web pages with good positions in the search result, which had had a disproportional number of in-bound links to them from other web pages with the exact same search term in the anchor text that the page was optimized for suddenly, disappeared from the listings.

The pages did not disappear altogether. Just for the search term that the page were optimized for.

For Google, the high proportions of anchor texts with the same text indicate that the texts were put there for one purpose only, to boost ranking.

One suggestion for you is to spread out the anchor text with a mix of different texts to keep your page in the search results. We don't know if your pages will come back after some time if you do this, but it is likely.

Apparently the search result generated after the latest update have been of a lower quality than before.

What seems to have happen is that a large percentage of web sites have traded links with one another. This link trade has been done with the same search term in the anchor text that they have optimized their pages for.

The victims more often than not have been commercial web sites that relied to heavily on search engine optimization technique.

The search results have been taken over by web sites composed of low quality directory and link farms.

Now, what will Google do next?

I don't know, but TRY TO THINK like Google! This is what I would do if I was responsible at Google for this.

First I think that they will modify and adjust the new algorithm they have introduced during the latest update. Changing the threshold or don't let the "over optimized pages" drop out of the search result so easy, but rather penalize them and put them under the threshold point.

I think, Google have a problem! You see, many "over optimized" sites are of higher quality that those that are not. To simply drop them out and say that there are enough pages for the same search term is not always true.

There is a thin line between optimization and spamming and where this boundary should be.

After this, what will Google do next? It is clear to me that the many low quality directory sites found in Google search results is a nuance to Google and to the average web user.

It is in this area that, I think, they will make the next modifications.

Google rate web pages according to relevance. The level of relevance is judge based on the web page content and/or how popular the web page is in the view of Google.

To get a page popular you need to have links from other pages. This can come from pages on your own site or from other sites.

Ideally these links should be many, come from pages dealing with similar or identical subject or come from pages that themselves are popular. The best is to have many links from pages dealing with the same subject that themselves are popular.

This had led to an intense link exchange active among webmasters. And the primary reason has been to achieve better ratings. The primary purpose has not been to increase the visitors experience value.

This goes against Google's principles.

To quote Google webmaster guidelines:

* Make pages for users, not for search engines.
* Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings.
* Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or Page Rank.

To counter this I think Google will target several popularity increasing schemes like:

- Low value directory sites which have been created automatically by robots. These sites contain extracts taken from search engines and directories.

Google can easily spot these sites.

- The building of link directories attached to web sites. They are built with link partner extracting software and services. With them you can upload directory structures directly into your site. This way you can build up a massive number of link partners and also identify link partners with high Page Rank values.

Of course, one can say that by doing this you can add to your visitors experience as the directories make it easy for them to find similar web sites.

However this is an argument that Google most likely would disagree with.

Web sites using tactics like this are easy identifiable by Google. The directory pages are composed of outgoing links which either have the Title, Meta descriptor or other content directly taken from the web pages they are linked to.

Google just have to look at the texts from the directories and the text on the web pages for matching.

Using product or services for this purpose is risking you get banned or at least being penalized by Google.

Will this happen? I think so!

When?

I don't know! Anytime soon, next month,..next year! Nobody knows, only Google can tell!

I think Google also will look into reciprocal linking as a whole.

Maybe they will start to identify pages with outgoing links on them that link to other web sites and identify which links are coming back from those domains.

What they like to see is spontaneous linking to your site from web owners that regard you as a valuable resource to link to, without you linking back. I believe that they will limit the impact of reciprocal linking, somewhat!

What can you do to improve your web traffic from Google without violating its guidelines?

Build web sites that give value to your visitors. Make it into a popular site, so that others want to link to your site. Build niche information rich sites. Either as mini sites or as larger information sites. Larger sites within a niche are given higher popularity rating than smaller sites by Google.

If you do this your web site will not be affected next time Google make a change. Unless of course your competitor drops out of Google, then your traffic will get a boost.

About The Author
Per Strandberg is a web marketer and software developer! Currently he operates a web site for backup products and data security information! At http://www.data-backup-and-storage.com

Posturing Yourself As The Expert By Utilizing Google Search

First, go to google and type "dan kennedy" into the search box. At the present time I get about 49,200 results!

Now, type in "jason blackston" into the search box. Well, it's quite a drop from the 49,200 results Dan Kennedy received. At only 123 results, I've got a ways to go to catch old Dan!

Nevertheless, the more articles that I submit to various ezines and the more websites that I have on the internet, my search results are going to continue to grow!

So what does this mean for you and me. Good question. You can establish credibility with potential clients by using the google search. Often times, people approach me wondering what I can offer them. What do I know? How can I help? The list goes on and on...

So what I tend to do, is send them to http://www.google.com and tell them to do a search for "jason blackston" They'll find old articles, news, and websites. This allows them to gain a better perspective of who you are and what you can offer them.

9 out of 10 times, they're impressed and want to learn more about me. This is great news and it generally leads to a positive relationship and potential sales.

And in the near future as your results continue to skyrocket, you'll see people bidding on your name like they do for people like "dan kennedy"!

Yes, that's another form of posturing that comes with this google search. When people type in your name and the results comes up with google adword results also, then people start thinking you're the stuff!

But first things first. Just informing your list members, potential clients, and friends, about doing a google search of your "name", will enable you to posture yourself as the expert!

About The Author

"Discover how to turn your website visitors into paying customers and keep them coming back year after year!" Free e-package available at http://www.govisitors.com.
* Also- Take advantage of your free 3 step guide to website recording at http://www.audioplayerpro.com
webmaster@govisitors.com

Google Adwords – Online Riches Without Owning A Website Or Product!

Did you know that you can make money from Google Adwords without having a product to sell, or even a website?

It’s true and there are many people all around the world quietly making lots of money doing it.

So how do you do it?

Quite simple really, you become an affiliate.

An affiliate is somebody who sells other people’s products for a share of the profits. There are loads of companies on line who are eager for you to become their affiliate, and will pay you very well for generating sales for them.

Did you know for example that mortgage companies and other financial institutions will pay up to $50 per referral? Normally your prospect doesn’t even have to take the mortgage in order for you to pick up the money, you get it for them just filling in the form.

Satellite TV companies are another example of big payers, and there a lot of “high ticket” software products that can earn you $100+ commissions. There are loads of other companies in all walks of life that want you as an affiliate, do a search on Google for affiliate – you’ll be amazed at what you’ll find!

Sign up with an affiliate program that interests you and that you would be happy and enthusiastic about promoting. If you don’t feel anything positive towards what you are trying to promote you will be less likely to commit your energy towards it.

When you do sign up for your affiliate program, you will be allocated an affiliate “link”, a short piece of text with the company’s website and your unique ID in it. Always be sure to use this link in any promotions you do, or you won’t get paid!

So how do you get these commissions from your affiliate program? Google Adwords!

If you’ve been living on Mars for the last couple of years, Adwords are the little boxes on the right hand side of the search results page which show up when you do a search on Google and other search engines.

They are paid sponsor’s advertisements and your goal is obviously to get as near to the top of the search results page as possible, so that as many people as possible will see your ad.

Now to sell the product that you’ve become an affiliate for, you simply write a short advertisement with a catchy title and two lines of text and refer the prospect to the sales website. This does not need to be a website that you own, remember when you signed up as an affiliate you already created an affiliate link to the site with your unique ID in it, so that the commission from any sale made goes to you.

There have been millions of words written about what makes good advertising copy, take a bit of time to read some of them. You’ll find many great articles and ebooks you can get for free, study them!

Google has a set of standard guidelines as to what they deem acceptable when it comes to writing your ad. You need to read these and stick to them.

The next job is to decide what people searching the internet for your product might type in as a search, for example if you decide to sell mortgages you might use “cheap mortgages” or “best mortgage deals”.

These phases are known as keywords, and you bid for the keywords on Google. Your bid is the amount of money you are prepared to pay for each click on your advert, and bidding starts at $0.05. So if you get a keyword for $0.05 and you get 100 clicks on your sales page, it costs you 100 x $0.05 ie $5.00.

Now let’s have a look at your potential profits. A good sales page might get a return of 2% - 3%, ie out of every hundred clicks 2 – 3 will be converted into sales or sign-ups. So if you are promoting mortgages, out of the hundred clicks for your $5.00 outlay you could expect two or three sales, ie a return of $100 - $150.

Realistically though you would be doing very well to pay as little as $0.05 per click for a market as crowded as mortgages, you would most likely have to bid up considerably higher. But even at $0.50 per click, you would only be paying $50 for your return of $100 - $150 in the example above, still a very healthy profit margin.

Obviously the more popular the keyword or phrase the higher your bid will need to be to secure it, so you will find that phrases like “cheap mortgages” or “best mortgage deals” will be very expensive but will attract a lot of traffic.

--------------------------------------------

This article was written by Ian McIntosh, author of Introduction to Google Adwords.

Please feel free to include it in any ezine or website as long as it is published intact.

For the whole story on how you can get started making money with Google Adwords, go to http://www.worldofebooks.com/introduction_to_adwords.htm

About The Author

Ian McIntosh is the author of several business articles and ebooks, and is the owner of www.worldofebooks.com.

The Google Toolbar & Search Engine Optimization

Like many other useful toolbars out there so is the Google Toolbar. I consider this toolbar a must have for any serious search engine optimizer and anyone who searches the internet on a regular basis. Here’s why… The Google Toolbar has grown significantly in features since inception. It now features several new useful features but the main focus of this article is on those that aid in search engine optimization. So without further ado here’s the Google Toolbar unfolded.

PageRank

Upon installation of the full Google toolbar you will notice a small bar near the center of it that may or may not be partially filled with a green color as displayed in the diagram below.

http://www.lilengine.com/images/googletoolbar/toolbar1.gif

This is the Google PageRank indicator. PageRank is one of Google’s ways of rating your website and plays a role in the position of your site in their search results. This value is calculated based on several variables including the PageRank value and the number of sites that link to that page. Sites with a higher page rank tend to have better rankings than other sites if all other things are kept equal. I have personally noticed a significant increase in the search engine placement of our Search Engine Optimization (http://www.lilengine.com) site whenever our Google page rank is increased.

The Google toolbar enable you to, at a glance, view the PageRank of your website as well as your competitors’ sites. This helps when looking for sites to engage in with link building as more links coming from sites with a higher PageRank than yours help to increase your site’s PageRank. It is also said that when looking for site to link to yours that you should aim for sites with a PR 4 or higher. LilEngine personally accepts links from any useful and related resources, links from sites with a PageRank of 4 and above are an added bonus. Contact us for an exchange at info@lilengine.com.

A side note

There are times when the Google Toolbar will display your website as having a PageRank of 0 or even no rank at all. If your site previously had a PR greater than 0 and you notice this, watch it for a while or close your browser and reopen it to check as there are times that this feature seems to be a bit buggy possibly due to updates etc at Google.

Cached Version

When Google spiders your site it records the latest version of your site that it has spidered and this can be viewed using the Google Toolbar by going to the Page Info button and selecting cached version. Your browser must be on the page you would like to see the cached version of at the time you choose to do this.

http://www.lilengine.com/images/googletoolbar/toolbar2.gif

How can this help you with your SEO campaign?

If you have optimized your website in hopes of increasing your search engine results in Google, this will indicate whether or not Google has updated their database with the new version of your page. If the Googlebot visits your site regularly the cached version of your site will be updated more frequently than otherwise.

Backward Links

The Google Toolbar also has a pretty useful feature that displays all the web pages that link to your web page, which Google counts towards your PageRank. This information isn’t regularly updated and can’t be expected to take between 1 – 3 months before changes can be seen. Backlinks deal with quality and not quantity. A site with 1000 mediocre backlinks may not have as high a Page Rank as a site with 800 high PR backlinks.

Highlighting

You have the option of adding a highlight feature to your Google Toolbar that highlights all instances of your search term on the web page reached from your search. This can help you see how many times your competitors use specific keywords on their pages and you may modify your SEO campaign accordingly. You may also use this to check your own pages and see if you are or are not using enough of your target keywords on your page for optimum search engine placement. Besides those features listed above there are also some other cool tools on the Google Toolbar such as:

Popup Blocker: This only works in IE 5.5 or later but is a great addition as we all know that there are many sites on the web that bombard you with popups. Some of these even go as far as almost preventing you from going anywhere else as more and more windows keep popping up. Annoyance factor 10/10.

Google Web Search: You can easily search the web using the Google Search Engine via the Google Toolbar by typing in your search terms in the search box area and then clicking enter or clicking the ‘Search Web’ button on the toolbar.

Translate: Easily translate sites into English that you may be interested in for one reason or another.

Unfortunately there is no version of the Google Toolbar for browsers other than Internet Explorer 5.0 and greater but hopefully they will be adding this in the near future.

There are many more features available with the Google Toolbar. Learn more and download it here, http://toolbar.google.com/.

About The Author

Alec Duncan is the founder of LilEngine.com a Search Engine Optimization resource site. Visit http://www.LilEngine.com for search engine optimization tools and strategies. Get our free search engine articles feed and also get a free Google ranking tool on your site.