On June 8th Google launched caffeine. When I first heard about this I thought that perhaps Google was attempting to take on Starbucks with some type of coffee delivery service where you ordered online. It seems that was completely wrong though and caffeine is actually the name of a new Google algorithm. It is not just any old algorithm because this promises to be faster and more comprehensive than anything else we have seen so far – sounds impressive doesn’t it.
This new Caffeine algorithm promises to improve our experience when searching on Google. Unlike the previous algorithm this will be constantly updating the index while analysing the web in small portions; the old system consisted of an index made up of different layers. The new system will be able to add 100,000 gigabytes of information to its database every single day. It is also thought that the new algorithm will continue Google’s efforts to ensure that their users get quality search results and not just SEO dross.
Many people who rely on SEO to promote their content may be worried by the arrival of a new algorithm. The fact is though that while Goggle Caffeine was only launched a couple of days ago it has probably been affecting web results for months already. It shouldn’t mean too much of a change to search engine results overnight. What it does mean is that there might be more of a push for quality with the new algorithm and some of the old SEO tricks might no longer work so well. Google seem determined to provide quality results for users and every change they make to the algorithm seems to reflect it. Quality always seems to win in the end so maybe the thing that Google Caffeine will achieve is to emphasise this.
The guys from MyArticleNetwork have been kind enough to supply some training videos for our blog readers.
The second video teaches you the Best Way to Get Daily Traffic to Your Website… The Answer.. Don’t forget to join MyArticleNetwork if you are looking for free unique content on your blogs or you are looking to distribute your articles on other users blogs and get great natural links.
The guys from MyArticleNetwork have been kind enough to supply some training videos for our blog readers.
The first video teaches you how to Generate Long Term Traffic to Your Website.. Don’t forget to join MyArticleNetwork if you are looking for free unique content on your blogs or you are looking to distribute your articles on other users blogs and get great natural links.
It isn’t just those of us who are trying to get our websites and blogs noticed that are using SEO tactics. Cybercriminals are also keen to do all they can to get there links to appear high in the different search engines. I suppose this is to be expected; after all, if these people are going to go to the trouble of designing malware or viruses they want to be sure that people find their work. I am probably not the only person who notices plenty of dodgy links appear when almost any keyword is entered into Google.
It is possible to get software that indicates potentially dangerous websites: I use WOT. Many people don’t take the trouble to do this though and who knows what they are getting themselves into when they click on a link. The really annoying thing is that this is going to affect all of us who depend on SEO to make a living. People are going to become fed up with clicking on sites that contain malware and viruses and they will likely stick to big names that they trust.
This all means that those of us who are starting off or trying to build up our web business are going to struggle to get people to visit. Even though we do all the right things when it comes to SEO, and make it high on the search engines, we still might find it hard to attract weary visitors. Of course the obvious answer to this would be for Google and other search engines to toughen up the way items are ranked. The problem for us though is that this approach could conceivably harm the innocent as well as the cybercriminal. If the rules of SEO were to change overnight then it would make life difficult for many of us who have only recently started to get the hang of it. It is hard to imagine where this is all going to lead to, but one thing for sure is that cybercriminals are not only harming their targets; they are hurting us all.
What’s the key to getting good rankings? There’s a lot of debate about this and if you talk to ten SEO professionals, you’re likely to get ten different answers. Word out of the SEO camp this week is that it’s possible to boost your engine rankings using two little known methods:
Searching By Brand Name:
The common convention is to have people search for a keyword or key phrase and if enough of them land on your page then this can increase your rankings. It makes sense from the search engine’s point of view. If a lot of people are going to your site then there must be something important there. The problem with that is competition. One strategy suggested to overcome this is naming a brand or domain at the end of an article etc. without linking to it. People would have to search directly in order to find it, thereby targeting the brand/domain.
Using Guest Blogging:
Unfortunately some in the SEO world tend to abuse this, but it is still a viable method for increasing traffic. Simply find some blogs within your niche that allow guest blogging, write an excellent post that contains a link to your site, and submit it to them. If your work is relevant and of a high quality, you get another incoming link and the blog gets great content. Everybody wins.
Does this work? Well many people seem to think that it does and, on the surface, it does seem plausible.
So we all know by now that Google is trying to make inroads into the social networking craze with Google Wave. We also know that, feature-wise, it’s not really anything to shake a stick at…yet. Luckily for Google, it’s still in the developmental phase and that means that they’ve got a great opportunity to listen to users’ feedback and make adjustments accordingly. It seems they’re doing just that by adding a whole bunch of new, and very cool, extensions.
It’s not that Google wave didn’t have any extensions before. Far from it, but they were kind of limited. Sure you could send out a bunch of increasingly silly polls, but what else could you do? Not much. Now you’ve got about 15 or so extensions to choose from. You can ‘like’ things that others post on their page; similar to what’s possible in FaceBook. Sudoku addicts can even get their daily fix using Wave Sudoku. That’s great news for those who spend their lives on social networks, but how is this important for SEO? Just think advertising.
Google already has an effective advertising system through AdSense. Imagine if those capabilities could be meshed with could become one of the biggest social networks…if it’s handled right. All Google really needs to do is listen to their users, and take note of some of the complaints that other networks have had to deal with. So far so good.
Everybody knows that article directories are the only way to use your literary works to get those oh-so-valuable backlinks, right? That’s been the way of thinking for a long time, but it might not be quite that accurate. In fact, many SEO pundits are pointing towards using document sharing sites over article directories. This might well be the big link building trend for 2010.
But why document sharing sites? Well, Google seems to like them better. Might that have something to do with their very own Google Docs? It’s possible. Whatever the reason, Google appears to rank document sharing sites higher than article directories. Documents are also indexed at a faster rate, usually within a few hours of being published.
Perhaps the biggest reason to consider document sharing sites though is the fact that most of them don’t limit the number of links you can have in an article. Obviously you don’t want to overdo it, but it would be nice not to be confined to the resource box. It’s not just articles. Links can be added to anything because many types of documents are allowed, from simple .doc files to PowerPoint presentations. This can result in a higher click-through rate because it’s easier to use images, etc. to draw a reader’s attention.
It’s certainly seems worth the effort to check out sites like Scribd and DocStocs. It might be the wave of the future for those article marketers out there.
So you think that SEO has nothing to do with programming? Well by and large this might be so, but anyone even thinking about starting an SEO campaign needs to know a little HTML. Why? Well, because Google says so of course. Or at least they’re saying so with the introduction of the HTML 5 Version of their YouTube video player. Since Google is the standard by which many SEO professionals measure the success of their campaigns, this is not to be taken lightly.
Why introduce a new HTML system at all? HTML 4 first came into being in late 1997, over 10 years ago. That’s a lifetime when it comes to technology. In those days websites were mainly static and didn’t include the level of interactivity that exists on a lot of sites today. HTML 5 is designed to address this issue and essentially speed up the internet.
Websites will be better able to be standardized, making it easier for web developers to work on and update projects. New tags will also allow page divisions to be read better by search engine spiders. This means that they will be able to read the content as opposed to the whole page and this will translate into more precise search results. It remains to be seen whether HTML 5 will take over the internet but, with Google backing it, the chances are pretty high.
Well the news is out. Apparently the much discussed search advertising deal between Yahoo! and Microsoft has been given the go ahead by both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Union. Many are heralding that decision as the end of the Yahoo! search market share, which is sad because that’s kind of what Yahoo! has become known for over the years. Sure Yahoo! has their Shopping, Mail and News categories but they’re most thought of as a search engine.
So what does this deal mean for Yahoo! Essentially their free search capabilities will be transferred over to Bing while a paid search platform will become known as adCenter. The justification for this was that the deal would increase the level of competition amongst advertisers. Well this is good news for the companies, but not so much for search engine advertisers since more competition for ad space will ultimately drive those prices up.
So what’s an advertiser to do? The most logical step is to disperse advertising resources across fewer high cost methods and look for effective low cost methods to invest in. One of these is social media, which is possibly the cheapest way to get access to a large number of people. Some SEO gurus are already predicting that 2010 will be the year of social networks, with more and more advertisers moving away from search campaigns. After all, there aren’t that many effective search engines left.
One thing you’ll quickly realize about the SEO world is that there’s always some debate or the other. Take the example of RSS feeds. Some people firmly believe that they’re a waste of time and create nothing but duplicate content which search engines will ignore. Others argue that RSS feeds should be a part of any SEO strategy, if used properly. There might be something in this if you can write summaries which include your keywords but are different from the wording on your site. This way you can actually increase the number of times your keywords appear without being accused of keyword stuffing.
RSS feeds are common on a lot of sites now as webmasters are seeing their value in reaching potential visitors. By giving them an interesting teaser, it is possible to entice them to your site thereby increasing your traffic. RSS feeds work best on sites which are regularly updated though so if you have site that isn’t updated more than once a month you won’t be getting its full benefits. These include:
• RSS feeds are a convenient way to update content.
• RSS feeds allow potential viewers to find out about your site without feeling as though they’re being forced to visit.
• RSS feeds are compatible with both human readers and search engine spiders.
• RSS feeds are an excellent way to market blogs since these tend to updated most often.
• RSS feeds have the potential to be ‘syndicated’ by other webmasters and this can increase your back-links.
