Panda Update From Google Means – Get Better Quality

Good, unique and useful content is no longer enough to keep your web site ranked high with Google. So says the experts regarding the Panda 2.2 update from Google. This Panda update was designed to knock down cookie cutter sites with duplicate and boring content.

It has done exactly that as many sites have been sandboxed and are now AWOL from Google’s search engine results for a site’s desired keywords.

What this means is that website developers need to now pay more attention to other factors including the presentation of good unique and useful content. Other factors include:

  • Design and esthetics of your site
  • The length of time visitors spend on your site
  • The bounce rate
  • The browse rate
  • The diversity of traffic
  • Click through rate from SERP
  • The value added that your articles bring to

    • As a web designer, you will now be asked to create a high quality, attractive site – that kind that you would want to share with your peers and friends. This is a tall order – but may provide an opportunity for those we are able to put together and maintain such a top notch site.

    Below is an excellent video from Rank Fishkin of SEOmoz that helps explain Google’s Panda 2.2 update and what it means to you.

    Wistia

     

    Filed Under: SEO, Web Design Tagged With: , ,

    Building Links to Your Site

    Building Links Using Relevant Content

    Linking is important for website ranking, but link building is not the easiest thing to accomplish. When people get to know you hopefully they will want to link to your site. To help them along, give them some content they canít resist.

    Inbound Links

    A website is your place in cyberspace. When people learn how great you and your products are, they can let others know about you. Linking to your website is one way to do that. It is also called a backlink. It is a link to your site on their website or blog.

    There are two kinds of inbound links: reciprocal links and organic links. Reciprocal links are those that you get when you agree to swap links with another site. It could be a friend who wants to help you out and vice versa. Getting links like this is okay but not the best when it comes to moving up in the ranks.

    You have to look at the quality of the sites that you are linking with. They may offer to swap links but if the site is not optimized, reputable and/or well-presented it can backfire. You can be marked down for poor link building. And paying for links isn’t much better. After you have worked so hard on your site, you donít want it to go to waste like that.

    Organic links come from those who are not asked to link to you. They have heard about you (through your stellar marketing campaign) and want to let others know something awesome is in their midst. These links are rated higher by search engines. When you are just getting started it is hard to get links like this.

    Obtaining Links

    How do you get the links you need and want?

    + Use your content. Writing content that is optimized for keywords in your niche can rank high. Others will click on you first. Sites within your niche that are trying for those higher spots will check you out to see why they canít knock you off the top.

    + Establish expert status. Post content to article directories. Write for other blogs. Being found in other places increases your visibility and adds to your credibility. Everyone wants to be associated with an expert.

    + Comment on blogs within your target market. Go to where your potential customers are. Give sound advice and add a link to your website. Pretty soon these people may become loyal readers who will link from their blogs to your website.

    Use your content to help build quality links. The combination can lead to increased traffic and subsequently more sales.

    Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: , , ,

    SEO Defined

    What is Search Engine Optimization?

    To be successful online in business or even just for fun, you need to get noticed. No one will read or buy from you if they can’t find you right? But, how do you get yourself out there so people CAN find you? That is where search engine optimization, more commonly known as SEO, comes into play.

    SEO What?

    Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, is a series of tools, or thought processes and tasks completed on your web pages, that help your website or blog to get noticed by the search engines. Search engines use clever things called bots and spiders to crawl sites for anything that makes them relevant to search parameters entered by Internet visitors.

    Most people either don’t know what they are looking for or they don’t know where to find it on the Internet. They rely on the search engines to do the work for them. The words that visitors use in the search boxes are termed keywords by Internet marketers. When you use the same words in various places on your site, search engines will rank your web pages in relation to others using the same keywords. The web designer who use research and optimization techniques the best, will end up on top of the list. Why does being at the top of search engines matter?

    Research has found that 60% of all web searchers will click on one of the top 3 sites they are presented with. The majority of those will choose the number 1 ranked spot. Having one of the top three positions, therefore, can results in a much greater amount of traffic. It’s not just the amount of traffic that’s important to note, though. After the 3rd spot, the response from search engine users diminishes greatly. This means that the visitors that you get from position 4 and below are less likely to become paying customers.

    How to Use It

    So, how exactly do you get to the top spots in the search engines? There are several tools and resources that can help with creating top notch SEO for your websites. They revolve around keywords and keyword phrases but the problem is what words to use for your particular business niche.

    Think like a customer. After all, you own a business but at times you are also a customer. If it were you, what words would you enter to find the information that your potential customers are trying to find? This will be a short list but one that you can start with.

    From there, use some online keyword software to get more ideas. There are programs like Overture that can take one keyword and return a hundred more for you to look at using in your content and elsewhere on your website. Many marketers also use WordTracker’s Free Keyword Tool to help them determine which keywords are hot. www.freekeywords.wordtracker.com These keyword programs get their results from various search engines so you can be assured that your keywords represent current parameters.

    Search engine optimization is useful for content but that is not the only place. Use keywords to get ranked through other places on your site and other sites too. Here are just a few:

    + Headlines (for each web page and article)
    + Anchor text (for links within articles and elsewhere on the page)
    + Picture tags
    + Tabs (pulldown menus)

    Search engine optimization helps you to create a relevant website for the search engines. After you take the time to set up your website with all the information customers will want to see when they visit, use your keywords. This gives the search engines what they need to rank you well so that those customers can find your products or services when it’s most important. That is – when time to buy!

    Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: , ,

    5 Things Not to Do When Optimizing Your Site

    Search engine optimization can be one of the hardest and most rewarding tools in your business arsenal. It helps with marketing, advertising and selling your products or services. Because it is a wide category, there are plenty of places where you can go wrong with it. Here are just five of them.

    Under-Using Your Website – Optimizing your website involves every aspect of your site. Most people think that the only important part is the content. Optimizing content is only one piece of the pie. When you concentrate on content and not on leveraging all areas of your site, you are robbing your own pockets.

    You will get visitors if your content is on point, but the search engines can rank you even higher if you used keywords in other places. Articles have titles, pages have headlines and pictures have captions. Learn to use them all to your advantage.

    Keyword Overload – Search engine bots are smarter than most people give them credit for. Using keywords too much will cause them to just skip over your content and thus give you a lower ranking for those keywords. It seems like you could use as many as you wanted in an article and that would make you more visible but itís not true.

    Search engines recognize when people are cheating by overstuffing their articles with keywords. Content that is well written will stay within the allowable keyword density. And, those keywords will show up naturally throughout the article so it doesnít sound like it was thrown together just for the keywords.

    Keyword Density – You can have too few keywords as well as too many. Some people write their content without even thinking about keywords. You might have a strong article that talks about cutting edge information but without something to help the search engines look upon you favorably; no one will ever read it. Using the word once or twice in an article is not going to cut it.

    No Variety – For better optimization, a website doesnít use just one keyword. If you started with the word ìchocolateî, your entire website wouldnít be based on it. People use a variety of similar words alone or in combination to find what they are looking for with search engines. If you make and sell chocolate fudge, there are better words to use: fudge, Candaceís fudge, how to make fudge, etc. itís like throwing all your eggs in one basket if you donít diversify your keywords.

    Reciprocal Links – While it is true that backlinks can increase your search engine ranking, all links are not equal. And search engines like organic links better than simply offering reciprocal link sharing. You want others to link to you because they like your product and what your website presents to others. Using quality content on your site, in article directories and on social bookmarking sites can increase your quality inbound links for higher ranking.

    Start out on solid footing with SEO. Learn how to avoid common mistakes that first-timers make.

    Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: ,