Eight Types of Links (External or Internal) that Will Harm Your Site’s Rankings Friday, Aug 31 2012

Online Marketing/SEO

Unnatural linking warnings via the Google Webmaster Tools are quite common now. A lot of SEOs and webmasters have been receiving such notifications through their GWT accounts. However, analyzing a site’s backlinks profile is not a cakewalk, particularly when you have tons of them. In any case, bad links (whether internal or external) can do serious harm to your website’s or blog’s search rankings. That’s why it’s vital to put things in order before you get the much-feared Google slap.

web link

Whether externally or internally, there are some specific types of backlinks that you should avoid at all cost. Given below are eight of such links that can quickly impact the rankings of your site negatively in search engines like Google.

1. Irrelevant Links
Whether it’s about linking out or getting linked, links have got to be relevant. After Google rolled out its Penguin update, link relevance has become an issue you can’t ignore anymore. Links that fall outside of your own niche are considered to be irrelevant by Google because they are not of any help to the user.

What benefit does a blog that caters to the SEO industry intend to bring to its target audience by linking to or getting linked by an “obscure sport bike lights site,” for example? Trying to build backlinks from sites with a high page rank that don’t fall under your niche, therefore, is an unethical SEO practice.

Whether you link to someone or somebody links to your site, link relevance must never be ignored. Period.

2. Paid Links
Buying links to blast your way to the top of Google search engine results is a serious SEO crime. John Mueller, a popular Googler, made it quite clear that if you have been buying links for the last three years, you should go back three years and get those paid links removed. John further advised not to wait out search rank penalties, as it can take months or years to recover.

3. Link Farm Links

Leave a Response »

 

Why Would Twitter Resist Google’s Search Plus Your World? Thursday, Aug 30 2012

When Google introduced Search Plus Your World, it described the update as an enhancement that would create a more relevant discovery experience for internet users. With the feature in full effect, users logged into Google+ are now receiving personalized results based on their activity on the social network. Despite the internet giant’s claims of innocence, not all were on board with Search Plus Your World, including social media competitor Twitter.

google

Battle of the Internet Giants

Shortly following the launch of Google’s Search Plus Your World, Twitter released a statement voicing its stance on the matter. In the statement, the San Francisco-based company explained that the enhancement was a raw deal for internet users because it makes information harder to find in the results, due to the fact that the personalized results are positioned above the standard listings. It gets even more interesting when we learn that the information in reference is streamed through none other than Twitter itself.
If you’re hip to the phenomenon that is social media, you probably know that Twitter has become a viable resource for relevant information.

Leave a Response »

 

Will Anyone Pay for an Ad-free Twitter-style Social Network? Wednesday, Aug 29 2012

A social network that charges its users $50 a year would have been almost unimaginable just a few weeks ago, but is now a reality. A challenger to Twitter called App.net exceeded its crowdsourced funding target of $500,000 over the weekend, and will bid to make a profitable social network free of ads.

I previously wrote about App.net and its creators goals (see “A Social Network Free of Ads”). Now the project has received the money needed to go ahead, the real work begins, and the public scrutiny is already ramping up. As you might expect, many are expressing skepticism about the venture, for example tweeting that few Web users will want to pay when so many alternatives are free. Even users of App.net itself asking that it become significantly cheaper, or even offer a free tier (others vehemently oppose that idea).

With more than 11,000 people that have invested at least $50 in the project, App.net will probably have few problems in the short term. The “alpha” version of the network is already buzzing with conversation, albeit mostly about the project itself–its existing bugs and possible future features. Some third-party clients are already available, including Web services and iPhone apps at an early stage of development.

But, as of yesterday, only 3,500 people had actually begun using the service, mostly from the tech industry. Things will get busier when the rest of the 11,000 become active, and some people with high profiles on Twitter and other social media have already signed up. British actor Stephen Fry, who boasts 4.7 million Twitter followers, is one of them:

Leave a Response »

 

Hidden Gems: Keyword Research with Searchmetrics Essentials Tuesday, Aug 28 2012

Essentials Keyword Research does exactly what you would expect a keyword research tool to do. However, you should never underestimate the hidden power of this tool. Essentials Keyword Research can help you to identify Universal Search Integrations for your selected keywords using the unique technology of our Searchmetrics bot. Just take a look at the example reports below – these little icons have more to reveal than you would imagine from first impressions.

At first glance, the Universal Search icons in Keywords Research indicate whether a OneBox has been identified for News, Images, Videos, Maps or Shopping results. As previously mentioned, this is what you would expect from a keyword research feature.

Extra info for OneBoxes

However, in-depth information is only a click away because Google does not simply intersperse OneBoxes at random through out its Universal Search, but only when the algorithm thinks it is appropriate.  And when is that exactly? Well, a Maps OneBox might appear when Google assumes a user has a localized motivation.  For example, “Detroit pharmacy” would give a OneBox whereas “pharmacy qualification” is of course non locale-specific just like “insurance coverage pharmaceuticals”.

This is similar for Shopping snippets as well. Slack lining, for instance, is a popular sport involving a nylon ‘line’ strung-up under tension between couple of trees or perhaps mountain peaks if you are really looking to get a big audience. That the product “Gibbon slackline” has a Shopping integration makes just as much sense as “buy slackline”. However, it is interesting to note that “slackline set” is recognized as a transactional search with a Shopping integration but “slackline tricks” is quite logically not identified in the same way.

Upon consideration this seems hardly surprising. And yet…

Universal Search Integrations as selection attributes

Leave a Response »

 

Directory Submission: Submitting Your Website in the Right Way Monday, Aug 27 2012

Directory submission is the process of submitting to the directories. There are a lot of different types of directories. Some directories require you to pay for listing while others don’t. There are thousands of directories that allow free listing. The free listing option is the most popular choice among webmasters. With free listing option, you don’t have to pay a cent to get your site listed on the directories.

Online Marketing/SEO

When submitting to directories, you have to write a few titles and description. Preparing a variety of titles and descriptions allow you to prevent duplication problem. Duplicated titles and description can cause your listing to not get index by the search engine. In order for the listing to get indexed, you must write unique titles and description. The unique titles and description prevent the search engine from suspecting that the directory submission is performed purposely. It makes the directory submission process more natural. When the search engine perceive that the submission process is natural, it is more willing to get your listing indexed. Every listing has to be indexed so that the backlink is counted. If you use the same title and description for submission to 1000 directories, there is a high chance that the search engine will not get them indexed. The title and description should be completely different from each other. You must write the title and description yourself. You cannot copy them from other listings. Copying the title and descriptions will also cause duplication problem.

Leave a Response »