Search engines and SEO

The text that is used in the links that point to your website has a major effect on the position of your website in Google’s search results.

For example, if many people use the text “buy blue widgets” to link to your website, then it is very likely that the linked web page will get high rankings for the keyphrase “buy blue widgets” in Google’s search results.

The link text (also called anchor text) is the text that is used in text links. Example:

< a href="http://www.example.com">this is the link text

Unfortunately, not all anchor texts will be used by Google. Check the following things to make sure that the links to your website pass the correct anchor tag:

1. The nofollow attribute

This is a no-brainer. Links to your website that use the rel=”nofollow” attribute don’t pass the link text to Google. Example:

< a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.example.com">great keyword

You can use IBP to find out if the websites that link to you use the nofollow attribute: start IBP, click the “Links” button and click “Check links”.

2. Invalid characters in the URL

If an URL contains invalid extra characters then chances are that search engines won’t be able to index the link correctly. Example:

< a href="http://www.example.com ">great keyword

In this example, there’s a space at the end of the URL. Some webmasters found out that anchor text is not passed to Google if the link contains an extra space character.

Note that most browsers are able to correct this link and they will display the web page correctly. Unfortunately, search engine spiders seem to have more difficulty with malformed links (or they take them as a signal of low quality).

3. The links use 301 redirects

Google’s Matt Cutts recently confirmed that Google won’t consider all anchor texts that are used in 301 redirected links. Example:

< a href="http://www.example.com/page.htm">great keyword

The web server redirects “http://www.example.com/page.htm” to “http://www.example.com” with a 301 redirect. In that case, it’s likely that Google won’t use the link text.

4. The first link passes the link text

If a page links twice to the same page then Google will use the first link text and discard the other link texts. Example:

< a href="http://www.example.com">This is an example. The link text < a href="http://www.example.com">great keyword will be ignored by Google.

The first and the second link go to the same URL. In this example, Google will use the link text of the first link, which is “This”. The link text of the second link will be ignored by Google.

If the second link points to another page of the linked website, then both link texts will be used by Google:

< a href="http://www.example.com/page1.htm">This is an example. The link text < a href="http://www.example.com/page2.htm">great keyword will be ignored by Google.

Links are the most important factor when it comes to getting top 10 rankings on Google and other major search engines.

Copyright by Axandra.com. Web site promotion software

The SEO business is becoming more and more competitive by the day. There is no shortage of small business owners wanting to achieve top search engine rankings and there is no shortage of individuals and companies offering SEO services.  As a result of the growing demand for SEO services and the low barrier to entry to set yourself up as an SEOer, there are problems emerging.

If I can draw a quick comparison.  Cast your mind back when the Government announced the water tank rebates during 2008 and 2009.  An instant demand was created in the market place for not only suppliers and manufacturers of water tanks but also the supplementary services such as installation, cleaning and servicing.  There where existing players in all these market sectors and I would suggest that they were chiseling away at earning a decent and honest living servicing what “was” a fairly niche market.

Enter the rebate scheme and the proliferation of water tank businesses skyrocketed.  It would appear that every man and his dog wanted to get in on the action and make a quick buck.  Who knew how long the drought would last and how long we would be on ever tightening water restrictions?

Competition was fierce,  prices where slashed, and so began the battle for business.  There is generally one aspect of a product or service that you can guarantee is going to suffer when the market is driven by high demand and cheap supply…. and that is quality.  In an effort to reap some sort of margin (insert Profit), short cuts have to be made.  Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that every operator in the water tank business was “shonky”, cut corners or delivered less than standard work.  The point is simply that low barriers to entry into a market inevitably fosters (on average) a less than optimal result.  Marry that with a lack of accreditation and you’ve got a free for all.  Imagine the quality of medicine if you didn’t have to train to be a doctor.  We’ve even see the demand problem effect this market!!!

If you want recent proof of these types of market forces in action, you’ve only got to look no further than the government’s recent home insulation scheme.  Another perfect case of an instant demand needed to be met by instant supply.  The result, less than spectacular.  Enough from me – your turn.

So how does this apply to SEO?

There is a growing demand from for small business wanting to snare the coveted number #1 search engine result and there is an ever growing number of SEOers prepared to do what ever it takes to fulfill their client’s wishes.   As a result of this often frenzied scramble to the top of the search engines, unscrupulous or “Black Hat” SEO techniques are applied.  Now black hat SEO techniques are best described as those activities that are designed to trick or fool the search engines.  There are very clear guidelines set out by the major search engines as to how best to optimise your site for top results.   They even go as far as to outline what “not to do” so as to avoid any type of penalty.  Check out the Google Webmaster Tools, you can’t get much clearer than that.  For those of you that want to dig a little bit deeper, you only have to read Google’s official blog and you’ll find many articles about SEO best practice.

Simply put – SEO is an ongoing process, it is not an event.  To get lasting results it takes time.  And here in lies the problem.  The instant gratification sought by the business owner and the pressure on the SEOer to deliver on something they have over promised in a bid to win the work.  Sound familiar?

It would appear that “black hatters” need to stoop to applying trickery and deceit to deliver results.  For business owners who are looking for a solution and place their faith in the smooth and fast talking SEOer, their business is treading a very fine line between instant gratification and disaster.

Here is a blatant example of keyword stuffing. Click on the image to enlarge

Now this example appears at the very bottom of the web page.  It is clearly a list of keywords that they are either wanting to rank highly for or are bidding on through pay-per-click platforms such as Adwords.  I simply ask myself why???  This site is ranking well for a range of keywords and it would appear that they are ranking well not as a result of stuffing keywords on the page but rather good on-page SEO and a healthy network of incoming links.  There is simply no need to run the gauntlet.

I have no idea who is responsible for the above indiscretion and frankly I don’t care.  Keyword stuffing like this is usually a clear sign of a DIY approach to SEO or a “Black Hat” SEOer at work.  It is often a lack of knowledge mixed with a combination of inexperience usually fueled by a misguided article or two written by people who really don’t know what they are talking about.

The right approach to keyword SEO is first stick to the rules as laid out by the search engines and in doing so you will be doing your readers a favour by delivering quality content and making the copy on the page easier to read as it won’t be stuffed unnecessarily with keywords.  Good content leads to more inbound links, which ultimately leads to greater authority and higher rankings.

Lets take a wider view and look at the effects of “Black Hat” SEO.  We have grown to expect that the search engines are going to deliver us the best matched results for our search queries.   If the search engines are being fooled into displaying less than optimal results then we are all being cheated.  Black hat SEO effects us all.  There is no winner.

Here is the Google SPAM report link.  They take this sort of thing very seriously.  If you are aware of any sites that are “breaking the rules”, this is how you can take action.  Use it wisely and for the good of the internet.  Don’t be tempted to use it in a vindictive way.

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreport?hl=en

Sites that are found to be in breach of the rules can find themselves heading towards the back of the que or even worse de-indexed (removed from Google’s Index all together).

If you are a business owner looking for a SEO company to take on your optimisation, do your due diligence.  SEO is not voodoo, magic or a secret only known to a few, it is a logical process and any reputable SEO company will be more than happy to show you their results and tell you how they went about doing it.  If they are not comfortable telling you want they did, then chances are they use black hat techniques and you should continue your search.

Visit our Search Engine Optimisaton page to view the range of services we offer.

If you have an example of poor SEO form or have an example or cross to bare, leave a comment.

The final word, If you are going to play the game, stick to the rules, or…. be prepared to pay the penalty.

Good luck

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Google’s Matt Cutts recently made a new announcement about paid links. Buying links is a very hot and controversial topic among webmasters. Should you buy links to increase the position of your website on Google? Do paid links help your rankings? Are there any risks?

Can you increase your website rankings by buying links?

Yes, you can. Links that point to your website are the most important factor that influences the position of your website in Google’s search results.

If you buy backlinks, you can quickly get high rankings for your website on Google. However, that’s only one side of the medal.

If buying links works, why shouldn’t you use it for your website?

Buying links is against Google’s terms of service: “Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site’s ranking in search results.”

Google’s anti-spam engineer Matt Cutts recently announced that Google has been working on new algorithms and tools to detect paid links.

Google has a report form for paid links. If one of your competitors finds a paid link that points to your website, he might report it to Google.

Google actively searches for paid links and it’s likely that they will detect all paid links sooner or later. While you can get away with them for some time (that’s why paid links work for some time), your website will be penalized as soon as Google finds out that you tried to game the system.

Buying links leads to quick results and strong penalties

If you use spammy SEO methods such as buying links, you will quickly get high rankings on search engines. Unfortunately, Google will completely remove your website from the search results as soon as they find out that you use these methods:

If you use ethical SEO methods, it will take longer until you get high search engine rankings. However, your rankings will grow steadily and you’ll get a much better performance in the long run

Do not use spammy SEO methods to increase your rankings on Google. It will backfire on you.

There are better ways to get inbound links

As mentioned above, the links to your website are the most important factor that influences the position of your website in Google’s search results.

For that reason, it is very important to get as many good backlinks as possible to your website. The quality of the backlinks is more important than the quantity.

Hi Marshall and Gary here,

Here at Small Business Internet Marketing we are often asked by our small business clients “What is the one thing we can do to get a good ranking in Google?” It is like many people see that their site is lacking the one special ingredient that, when corrected or incorporated, will pump up their ranking. The number of snake oil internet sales pitches floating around seems to encourage this perception. You know “Rank number 1 in Google in 24 hours” type of push.

We feel a bit like the Christmas Grinch when we have to say “There is no magic bullet.”

As we have discussed a number of times on our posts, on-page SEO and off-page SEO is what gets your site ranking in Google. These are not overnight results. On-page optimisation by and large is within the control of a small business (with the right advice and understanding) whereas off-page optimisation is a far longer slog but certainly builds a fortress around your ranking when done properly.

Continue Reading – There is no magic bullet for rankings

Hi, Marshall and Gary here

Lots of people on who read Small Business Internet Marketing liked the Goggle Profile information in one of our recent posts. Well here is another nifty tool that Google have recently released. It is called Wonder Wheel and can really speed up finding great keywords for online marketing.

Beware – it is highly addictive and you will find yourself chasing keywords all over the internet.

Continue reading – Google provides the wheel deal

Hi Marshall and Gary here,

We like to post on many and varied online marketing topics here at Small Business Internet Marketing. We are also fairly inquisitive – so when the experts say “ipso facto, this is the truth”, we wonder “is it really so?”

We have posted a lot of late about the Google algorithm and backlinks, or so called off-page SEO. We also recently posted a list of 7 critical on-page SEO factors for small business. There is no doubting the importance of PageRank and backlinks and most SEO experts hammer on and on about it, but sometimes the simple things are often the best.

The Small Business Internet Marketing blog has been running since the start of this year. We have been diligent, if not a bit anal, about on-page SEO. This is due to the fact that quality backlinks and a good PageRank take time and effort. It is not that we are not trying, it is just that it takes lots of time. If its one thing we know its that small business owners do not have a lot of spare time to chase elusive links. It is a bit like the chicken and the egg – good sites do not want to share links with a newbie or low ranking site with no presence, but a good presence requires backlinks. See the problem?

Continue Reading – The Power of on page SEO

We have posted previously on Google and its algorithm at Small Business Internet Marketing. Google makes the following statement about its search engine:

Traditional search engines rely heavily on how often a word appears on a web page. We use more than 200 signals, including our patented PageRank^TM algorithm, to examine the entire link structure of the web and determine which pages are most important. We then conduct hypertext-matching analysis to determine which pages are relevant to the specific search being conducted. By combining overall importance and query-specific relevance, we’re able to put the most relevant and reliable results first.

So we need to spend some time to understand what the PageRank algorithm is. Fortunately, as Google notes, it is patented and we know what is in the patented algorithm. As an interesting aside, the “Page” refers to Google co-founder Larry Page and not a web page.

Google provides a very good description of PageRank, as you would expect as it is one of their key sales points:

PageRank Technology: PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results.

PageRank also considers the importance of each page that casts a vote, as votes from some pages are considered to have greater value, thus giving the linked page greater value.

For the mathematically minded, the original algorithm is:

Continue Reading – How Google’s PageRank fits in

Hi, Marshall and Gary here,

At Small Business Internet Marketing, when working with clients in developing their internet marketing strategies, we are required to explore both “On-page and “Off-page” search engine optimisation factors. The search engines look at these two areas when calculating how to rank your site’s individual web pages.

On-page search engine optimisation factors can best be described as the content contained on your pages that is relevant to a particular search query. The great thing about on-page SEO is that you have total control over it…. you can simply edit your page content to improve it.

Off-page SEO is not as easy to manipulate. Your web page rankings are not only determined by the page content but also by its popularity. Your page popularity is calculated by the number of other sites linking to your pages, the linking text used and also the importance and rank of those linking pages. Links from pages with a high page rank or authority sites such as .edu and .gov sites can weigh in heavily.

Today we are going to take a closer look at “On-page” search engine optimisation factors; you are unlikely to get back links and score well with off-page factors if your on-page content is not up to the mark in the first place. We’ve included our top 7 on-page SEO factors for small business.

Continue Reading – 7 Critical Onpage SEO Factors

Hi, Marshall and Gary here.

Much has been written about the algorithm that Google use – much of it unintelligible to the everyday internet user. A comment from “softplus” on a post in the excellent SEO site SEOmoz.org is:

How about reciprocal factors? For example: if the competition is high (threshold or range): use the age-factors; otherwise ignore age. With a sigmoid-type function it’s easy to do (given range or threshold) and it is the perfect model for the famed sandbox.

Here at Small Business Internet Marketing we do not pretend to fully understand this but we are inquisitive and ask “Why does the algorithm matter?”

Well let’s go right back to square one- to the Google corporate website.

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

One of the Google founders, Larry Page, said:

The perfect search engine would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want.

So if someone is talking about a search engines complex algorithm issues, take a deep breath and just remember what it is all about – returning the most relevant results for a search query. And remember the opposite of relevant is irrelevant – so Google will try to ignore (or punish) anything it believes is irrelevant (or deliberately misleading).

Continue Reading – Google and its Algorithm

Hi, Marshall and Gary here.

We have said at Small Business Internet Marketing quite often that 88% of searches in Australia are done on the Google search engine (it runs at about 72% in USA) – so in effect SEO means getting visible in Google.

So it stands to reason that what everyone who dabbles in the black art of SEO wants to know, is how Google determines who ranks where. Every small business would love to know so they could dress appropriately to ensure that Google whistles at them in the crowded bar of websites and blogs.

Continue reading – SEO and Google

Hi, Marshall and Gary here.

Without a doubt, the biggest buzzword that we run across at Small Business Internet Marketing with small business owners is SEO (technically it is probably a buzz-acronym). As we said in the last post, it stands for search engine optimisation.

Everyone wants it. Everyone wants their website or blog on the front page of Google. There are lots of people selling on the internet who will “guarantee” the front page. We always find this a bold claim, and one that generally is not quite true. Of course there are many businesses out there who do a great job for their clients with SEO and give them as high visibility as possible.

The biggest problem with Google is virtually all users have the front page set to 10 listings (yes – you can change it if you want, but people rarely do). So getting on this page is highly competitive. And the people who are already on it tend to be very protective of their position so they (or their website designers) will use all their skills and knowledge to stay there.

Continue reading – SEO for beginners

Hi, Marshall and Gary here.

There is no doubt that the advent of the internet has created many new colourful words and phrases to the English language.

One is search engine. A search engine is simply a software program. It allows the user to type in a words or words that the user considers relevant to what they are seeking to find. The program then searches an index of databases to see what it has that it believes user is seeking. It then displays the results to the user, who can choose a relevant result and click the hyperlink to access the site.

We all know that computers are getting faster and faster, but obviously it would be technologically impossible to search every existing website, blog, document, video, etc. Especially when it returns 57.9 million results in 0.15 seconds (this is the result in Google if you search for “search engines”).

How does it do this?

Continue reading – What is a search engine