Cached pages now include date cached

Check out the cached pages in the Google SERPs. The first line now reads something like, This is G o o g l e s cache of yourdomain.com as retrieved on Jul 29, 2004 01:30:02 GMT. This is very useful information. If you are unsure if Googlebot has visited your page lately, this piece of information will let you know.

Google IPO process begins

The first step in the IPO process for Google has begun. Sign up to obain a bidder ID at www.ipo.google.com. After registering, you will receive further information on how to proceed. The IPO is expected to be complete within about two weeks or less.

Google unbans itself

It did not take very long for Google to get back its PR10 and its rankings in the SERPs after accidentally banning themselves last night. Hopefully, they learned something from the experience, and will be a little more willing to listen to webmasters who experience the same problems. (Not likely, but I can dream).

Google banned itself?

Tonight, www.google.com shows a PR0. You heard that right. In addition, searches in Google that would normally return google.com high in the rankings, are nowhere to be found. Try searching for search engine or adsense or adwords or even…google! You won’t find google.com on the first page of the SERPs. Look at it quick, as I suspect Google will fix the problem much sooner than it would fix it if the site were yours or mine!

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SEO Testing Ground

Stumbled across a new site today that is dedicated to testing and proving SEO theories. For a short period of time, they are accepting new members for free, so it might be interesting to sign up and get your own theories tested. The url is www.seotesting.com.

Just In Case theory

When it comes to search engine optimization, I generally subscribe to the Just In Case theory. If Google *might* penalize an action, do not take the action – Just In Case. If Google *might* reward an action, take the action – Just In Case. All seo work is based on educated guessing, with hopefully, some sort of logical research to back up the guesses. On any given day on the seo forums, you will find an abundance of rumors, theories, and even conspiracy theories. Many of these, however, are logical, and some of them are backed up by some serious research. These are the ones that I would put into the Just In Case category.

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Search engine optimization checklist (onpage factors)

After optimizing a page for the search engines, I run through my checklist to make sure I have covered the basics. Of course, I may not use all of these on every page, as that would probably make the page look spammy, but I keep them all in a handy checklist to make sure I don’t forget anything important.

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Google sets share price

Google finally sets the share price for its upcoming IPO at $108 – $135 per share, which will likely raise between $2.7 billion and $3.3 billion for the search engine company. The ticker symbol chosen by Google is GOOG.

What is Keyword Density?

Keyword density is the percentage of keywords contained within the total number of indexable words within a web page, or to put it another way, the ratio of a keyword or key phrases to the total number of words on that page. If the keyword density is too high, you run the risk of keyword stuffing. If the density is too low, you run the risk of not ranking well. There is no right or wrong keyword density, as the proper level can be different for every phrase. Some pages rank well with rather high density, some with very low density. If you’ve used your keywords a few times within the page, and the page makes sense when read by a human, you’ve probably hit upon a fairly decent density. Like everything, keyword density is only one of many ranking factors, so don’t spend all your time stressing about it. You can use the free keyword density analyzer below to compare the density between your page and your competitor’s page.

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What is Keyword Proximity?

Keyword Proximity refers to the distance between two words or phrases, or how close keywords are to each other within a body of text. The closer the two keywords are to each other, the higher the weight for that phrase. Consider these two examples:

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Content is King but Links are the Bling

To successfully optimize your site and rank well in search engines, you should keep in mind this phrase: Content is King but Links are the Bling.

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What is a fresh date?

Ever wonder what the dates mean that you see within some of the Google search results? That date is generally called a fresh date, and it is the date that Google last crawled that page. So why do some results show a fresh date and some do not? According to Google sources, the date will only be listed for those pages that have been freshly crawled within 2-3 days of the date you are looking at the SERPs.

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Using CSS for SEO purposes

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) can be useful when optimizing your site for search engines. Some of the more common SEO uses are:

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