What is going to change?

Of course, Google hasn’t revealed the details of Google Caffeine yet. However, the new index has been live on some test servers and some Google employees also talked about the next index. The following factors might play a larger role in Google’s next index:

• Website speed: if you have a slow loading website, it might not get high rankings on Google.
• Broken links: if your website contains many broken links, this might have a negative impact of the position of your web pages in Google search results.
• Bad neighborhoods: Linking to known spammers and getting a lot of links from known spammers isn’t good for your rankings in Google’s current algorithm. The negative impact of a bad neighborhood will probably be even worse with Google Caffeine.
• The over-all quality of your website: Google’s new algorithm probably will take a closer look at the over-all quality of your website. It’s not enough to have one or two ranking factors in place.You’ll probably need good optimized content, a good website design with a clear navigation, good inbound links, a low bounce rate, etc. The number of social bookmarks might also play an increased role.

Factors like the age of a website, its past history, authority etc. will still play a role in Google’s new index. However, the effect of the different factors on your rankings will shift.

How can you adjust your web pages to Google’s new Caffeine index?

Although Google’s Caffeine update hasn’t been release yet, there are some things that you can do to increase the chances that your website will get good rankings in Google’s new index:

• Remove all spam elements from your web pages. Anything that might be considered spam can and will have a negative effect on the position of your web pages sooner or later. This includes text that has nearly the same color as the background, cloaking and fully automated linking systems.
• Check your website design and the navigation of your website. Your website should have a professional look and feel. The navigation should be easy to understand and your web pages should easily be parseable by search engine spiders.
• Get links from social bookmark websites. Social bookmark links already play a role in Google’s current algorithm and that role might increase.
• Check your links. You shouldn’t link to websites that look like spammers. It’s better to focus on selected quality links instead of as many links as possible.

Google Caffeine is going to be released after the holidays. If you follow the tips above, your website will be in a good position when Google’s new index will be online.

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With this company, I agreed to work 3 hours per day in their offices for a set amount.  This has worked very well as I have been able to focus my efforts every day for 3 hours to achieve the results we have set out.

Today, we achieved our first big success as we obtained the #1 organic position for the term “title loans” in google and AOL. 

Every time you take on a client, you never know how long or how fast you can achieve your goals.  You have an idea based on your experience, but you don’t know what your competition is doing or other aspects that are beyond your control.

Every SEO “expert” goes through phases wondering if they are ahead of the curve or behind the curve. In this case I don’t think I am either ahead of the curve or behind the curve, but this result gives me added confidence that by applying sound principles of SEO, I am able to affect the organic results of my clients.

This keeps me going and belieivng that even though you can’t guarentee results, your efforts will be worth the investment companies invest in you on their behalf.

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I think one of the biggest changes I have seen is a grey hat technique which was never widely used because it really was a coding trick, but is now definately a black hat trick today.  That change is having separate stylesheets per page and then naming the stylesheet after the key words on the page. For example,  if you wrote a page about “crystal chandeliers”, you would also create a unique stylesheet for that page and name it crystalchandeliers.css.  As I said before, I never really saw it widely used, but it was the latest and greatest technique created by SEO experts in the field to figure out a way to beat the system. 

The fundamental techniques have really not changed in 2007 and I don’t see them changing in 2008. They remain as follows:

1. Proper Keyword Research
2. Title Tags
3. Unique Content
4. Alt tags
5. Site Map

On a secondary level to the main fundamental techniques, you see additional techniques which shouldn’t get you in any trouble:

1. Using your keyword in the name of the URL
2. Meta Keywords
3. Meta Description
4. Table Atributes
5. HREG Tags
6. Keywords used in naming the image files on the page
7. Bold tags around keywords

What 2007 did see was the establishment of the blog as a must have item on every website. Not only for SEO but also as a tool for users. It will be interesting to see what 2008 brings. Offsite SEO will most likely see the importance of online social networking as an SEO Tool, but how it plays out is still up in the air. Stay Tuned….

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My first thought on the merger was that the sale of Yahoo would be a great monetary boost to Microsoft. This would be done through the consolidation of their competing PPC services and unique searches as well as other operational areas. That being said…..the biggest obstacle would be the integration of cultures and how to continue to manage competing websites.

Yahoo’s user culture and corporate culture are very different from MSN, and more importantly, anything Yahoo would do in the future would be second to Microsoft’s primary business. This can’t be good for Yahoo users, the Yahoo corporate culture and the search engine industry.

Having said all that, how could this merger affect the marketing of websites on the internet. Well, I think that overall, it has the potential to attack Google right where it hurts, their bread and butter of search engine traffic. The biggest obstacle SEM and SEO experts have had in the past in regard to putting effort forward to rank well in either Yahoo or Google or to focus efforts on their PPC programs has been traffic. Without the traffic, the efforts don’t justify the returns. By combining the search results and PPC programs, there can be a justification of putting forward the effort.

I have always felt and many people would disagree with me, that MSN has the best search engine of the big three. The reason is very simple. It is the newest engine and as a result integrates many of the additional models that exist on the internet. For example, Google heavily favors websites with backlinks. This has been the basis of their model from the beginning and this focus has allowed them to flourish.

Yahoo on the other hand launched their own search engine in 2004 and were able to build a better search engine by not only focusing on backlinks, but also by giving credit to well designed websites. A year later, MSN launched their own search which not only integrated the value of backlinks and the value of properly built websites, but also gave credit to web activity through blogs and other forms of online activity. This is not to say that over time Google has not continued to improve their search results, but because the core of their search is based on backlinks, this continues to drive search results today and has hurt their overall search results in my opinion.

So, if this merger happens and I think that is still a big IF, and Microsoft is able to integrate Yahoo in a way where they can consolidate some areas while at the same time keeping Yahoo independent, this can be a big win and they can create a better platform to compete against Google. Otherwise, Google will continue to be the dominant player in the search industry, and SEO and SEM professionals will continue to focus their efforts on Google with Yahoo and MSN being an after thought.

Clearly this is a bold play by Steve Balmer, but he and Bill Gates have done it before with Explorer. The question remains whether Steve can accomplish this without Bill now that he has partially retired.

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Now many of you have heard me say this before, but SEO for SEO sake is NOT a useful use of your time. Yes, many of the reasons clients use our services is due to our SEO abilities, however it is the integration of our SEO knowledge in your website which differentiates your website from the billions of other websites on the internet. Now, If you are a large company and can afford to invest now to see the returns on your investment in 6 months to 1 year, then that is a different story.

However, small companies in general don’t have the resources to invest monies now without seeing some type of return on your investment now. This is why I have always said that when investing time and money into your website, always have multiple reasons for making the effort. One of those reasons should be the SEO affects you receive down the road, but not the only reason.

Blogs are a perfect example. Most people look at their blog as a way to add cheap content to a custom website which is static. This is not a reason to spend a hours upon hours of your valuable time. Your blog should be your primary online way to communicate to your current, future and past clients in a cost effective manner. If you look as your blog as a communication tool to reach a wide variety of people, then you are going beyond the SEO aspects received by making the effort.

Many of my clients have newsletters they send their clients. I have said on many occasions, make your blog your newsletter. This way you are not duplicating your efforts and in addition your are receiving the SEO benefits as an added bonus. Also many people send out mass emails to clients with new information. Instead, send out your emails with a strong subject line, a 2 or 3 sentence summarizing the information, and then a link to your blog with the full article or information. These are ways to utilize the efforts you are already making and instead of adding additional work, you are using that same effort in a different way to provide more benefits over the long term at the same cost in time and money.

By now you are asking, how does this relate to the title of this blog post. Well, the answer is simple. Most people who are new to blogging see all these other options when they are posting like trackbacks, summary, custom fields, tags, categories etc…. These are the tools which will help maximize the content of your blog in the search engines and therefore maximize your efforts. By taking the time now when you are just getting started to learn about the SEO tools associated with blog posting, you will see a tremendous increase in the results of your efforts. Now, to get started on learning about blogs and how to use the various tools associated with them and how they will benefit your efforts, click on the link below to see what each piece of the blog puzzle means and how by knowing what they do, you will be more efficient and more successful with your efforts all at the same time.

Since we use wordpress blogs in our development, I have linked to the Wordpress Glossary to get you started in your knowledge quest to become the best and most efficient blogger online in your industry.

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1. REGISTER YOUR DOMAIN – If you allow your developer to register your domain name, they are the legal owner of the domain. You need to OWN your domain name. This is a very easy process. There are many registration companies in the market, but I usually use either Go Daddy or Network Solutions. It takes about 5 minutes to set up a free account and once you own the URL, your webmaster can tell you where to point the domain. This is called the DNS settings. Just remember that you are the owner of the domain, so if you bought the domain for only a year, you are responsible for renewing the domain.
2. OWN THE CODE – Most affordable companies utilize a system (templates) which connects all their websites together. As a result, if you want to move your website, you can’t and the design is owned by the company. In these cases, it is not possible to own the code. If you are working with an independent web designer/developer, make sure that you own the design and the code. Also, make sure you have access to the website so you can download a copy of your website to your computer any time you make changes. This way, if you ever have a falling out with your designer/developer, they can’t hold you hostage.
3. USE PAYMENT MILESTONES – Since the custom design process happens in 3 stage, it makes sense to make 3 payments. Various companies use a variety of methods, however the in general, the concept is to make a down payment, and then make payments over the course of the development so that if you come across a scam artist, your monetary loss is limited.
4. CHECK REFERENCES – Most clients when they begin the process think websites are all the same. The reality is that not all websites are created equal and depending on your goals, the type of website you built will depend on your goals. Just remember that in general there are 3 specialists in building a website and finding someone who can do all specialties is very rare. These specialists are as follows:
   1. DESIGNER – This is the person who provides the graphic look and feel of the website
   2. DEVELOPER – This is the person who builds out the basic code on the website which is used to display the graphics. In general, a developer builds out static websites and doesn’t use a database to create dynamic pages. For example, a basic custom website which doesn’t offer interactive tools, but only basic information via text and pictures would be an example of a website provided by a developer.
   3. PROGRAMMER – A programmer uses databases to develop dynamically based pages. For Example, ecommerce websites use platforms developed by programmers.

   Make sure the company explains their system. In today’s market, the only major reason to build a fully customized website as a small business owner is for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) reasons and the only reason to undertake the build-out of a custom website is to generate leads or sales via the internet. Also, it is important to note that NO website by itself will generate leads or sales from the internet. To be successful however, it is very important to integrate all proven SEO tacits into the initial build-out of your website if you want to take true advantage of the internet.

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Duplicate Content Video with Matt Cutts from Google

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New York Times Article on Google Search

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We have always outlined our linking strategy as follows:

• First and Foremost, don’t involve yourself in straight linking just to get a link. Pick and choose your links carefully. Follow the following guidelines:(reciprocal linking)
  • Make sure that any page you choose to link to (not website) but page you choose to link to is indexed in the search engines.
  • Make sure that all the links on the page you are linking with are all industry related.
  • Don’t link with a website owner or webmaster you don’t trust.
• Secondly, don’t get your links from one source. Your one way links should come from a variety of sources. These sources may include the following:
  • Posting in online forums that allow signatures
  • Posting appropriate comments in other blogs
  • Listing your website in appropriate industry related directories
  • Writing articles about the industry which you allow other websites to use with a link back to your website in the footer.
  • Get your vendors and clients to link to your website.

If you follow these basic steps, you will find that your website will not only be indexed, but will receive placement in the search engines.

To read the complete article CLICK HERE

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