SEO insiders share all on SEO news, tips and theories.
Once again, Google has updated backlinks without updating the toolbar PR. It looks to be the same kind of quirky backlink update as we have seen in the recent past. Not much to say about this, except perhaps Bah Humbug!
It has been said many times before by many people, but it bears repeating. If you create interesting, useful content, people will naturally link to your site. Of course, that does not mean that you can create an interesting, useful page and then sit back and wait for others to find it. SEO involves work that goes beyond the mere creation of a page. Still, the better your content is, the more likely it is that others will want to link to it. An obvious observation, you may think. So, why do I bring it up? I mention it because…
Yet another site to add to your arsenal of keyword targetting tools is NicheBOT. NicheBOT, although based upon WordTracker, adds enhanced features such as page count and competition stats from Google. Combined, this information can be very useful in deciding exactly what keyword phrases would be best to target when optimizing your pages for the search engines. Check out NicheBOT at www.nichebot.com
A new article that discusses the rules for calculating the value of PR has been created by bobmutch. Of course, all PR calculators are basically guesstimates, but they can be helpful in determining the possible value a backlink will have to your page. Bobmutch uses Bob Wakfer’s pagerank calculation chart as the basis of the article. Check out the new formula, or rules as bobmutch calls them, at http://www.seocompany.ca/pagerank/page-rank-calculation.html.
There are quite a few forums dedicated to search engine optimization, but not all are right for everyone. Each forum has a different style, with its members generally reflecting that style. In order to feel comfortable on a forum, a member should fit the style of the forum. No one style is better or worse, so finding the one that is right for you is what matters. If you find a good forum that fits your own style, you can gain incredible knowledge and you are better able to pass along knowledge. Check out http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/google-webmaster-forums.htm for one person’s review of the…
Are you an expert on a particular subject? Offer people one free consultation via e-mail if, in exchange, they link to your site. This can be a huge draw, as consulting fees can be very expensive. Be sure to state in the offer, that the link to your site must already be placed before requesting a consultation. Have a form on the page for the user to fill out that includes the url to the link they have placed, along with their question and email address.
The latest buzz in tools is one that is like a swiss army knife of SEO and webmastering. It has so many features that I cannot even begin to try to categorize it. The site itself describes the tool as a tool for handling web pages: finding information about it, translating it, finding related pages, etc. The tool is called URLinfo and can be found at http://www.faganfinder.com/urlinfo/. The best thing to do is to try it out for yourself and see if any of its features are useful to you in your SEO work.
Microsoft has released a publication that outlines what may be the new algorithm they will use when they release their new search engine. You can find the paper at http://research.microsoft.com/research/pubs/view.aspx?tr_id=754. The basic premise behind this algo is that it breaks down a web page into smaller sections (or blocks), and then evaluates the importance of the information and links within that block. If, for example, a page has a block of sponsored links at the bottom of the page, that block would not be given as much weight as an informational block at the top of the page would be…
If you are looking for programming help along with a few seo discussions, Daniweb forums are a good place to get it. A successful website often depends upon good programming, and these people are friendly and have the answers.
Find a site that you feel is useful and that is topically related to yours (but is not a direct competitor). Write a review or testimonial for the site, describing the reasons why the site was useful to you, as well as the benefits you obtained from the site. Email the webmaster and inform him that you have reviewed his site, and he may publish it on his web site as long as he includes a link to your web site. (Attach your own bio to the review so the webmaster uses the exact link you would like).
Every so often, theories crop up that perhaps Google randomizes search results in order to thwart SEO attempts. One hypothesis is that there could be more than one algorithm, and depending upon which algo is run for a search, a different set of results would be shown. These algos might depend upon the datacenter used, or even be keyword-phrase specific.
I do not believe in this theory, but I always entertain the idea that any semi-logical theory is worth considering. In this case, however, I think the minor (or sometimes major) algo tweaks and tests that Google makes on a continuous…
I love watching the major search engines scramble to keep pace with each other. In the latest, Yahoo! has followed Googles lead by creating their own search blog at http://ysearchblog.com/. So far, there is only one promotional post that is pure puffery. It is unlikely that any earth-shattering information will spill from any of these official blogs, but we may as well glance at them occasionally to make sure nothing important is missed.
The long-awaited Google IPO finally took place today, with the shares closing at $100.34 on its first day of trading on the NASDAQ. Now that this event has taken place, perhaps we can hope to see the Google employees getting back to the business at hand. An update of the public display of PageRank on the toolbar would be a nice start. Despite the fact that the PR display is relatively meaningless for SERPs results, it is still an important tool for search engine optimizers when requesting backlinks. So come on Google, the fun is over. Time to get back…
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