Pro-SEO

The link: operator sucks, Right? Well luckily we don't have to worry about this inaccurate crapshoot "advanced operator" anymore.

Google webmaster tools has launched a tool that will report all of your backlinks on Google, Not just the small selection the link: operator decides to tell you about.

How to use it:
1 - Log in to your webmaster tools account and click the site you want to check backlinks for


2 - Click the "links" tab

Labels: backlinks, google, seo

I have noticed a lot of confusion regarding backlinks in Google when people use the link: operator lately. A lot of people get worried if their backlinks have dropped in Google.

Google say "The query [link:] will list webpages that have links to the specified webpage. For instance, [link:www.google.com] will list webpages that have links pointing to the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "link:" and the web page URL."

Some people have read this to mean "Link: will list all webpages linking to the homepage", Which is untrue. The link: operator lists a small selection of links pointing to a page in no specific order.

If Google showed 200 links one day and 100 the next it doesn't mean they only know about 100 backlinks and it doesn't mean they have started ignoring half of your backlinks. The amount of backlinks Google shows depends on which datacenter you are querying with that search.

Google use all backlink in their algo as soon as they find them, Regardless how many links are displayed in a link: search.

Labels: google, seo

This week i was fortunate enough to be offered a position as moderator at my favorite forum, Webmaster-Talk.com, Which i of course accepted straight away.

Over the past few years i have posted on a lot of webmaster forums and i have to say, In complete honesty, that webmaster-talk is the friendliest and most professional webmaster forum i have been on. There are a lot of talented people there who know a lot about coding php, Mark up and SEO and every one of them is happy to spend time to help people who have webmaster questions. So i felt very honoured that i was asked to be a moderator on a forum i like so much.

The forums i help look after, Among others, are the Google Adsense Forum, MSN Forum, Pay-Per-Click Advertising, SEO Talk Forum, The Google Forum, The Other Search Engines, and the Yahoo Forum

So if you are looking for a great webmaster forum to join, Head over to webmaster-talk and I'm sure you will get answers to any questions you have.

I'm stOx by the way.

Labels: forum, seo

It's not often we are able to bring you news about del.icio.us, It is a website that was created to do a task, Which is allow people to save-tag-share links, And it has done it perfectly since it's creation with very little change.

Recently, though, it looks as though the del.icio.us dev team have been hard at work to produce something which was probably an obvious feature del.icio.us should have. It is a widget that you can put on your blog that will allow your visitors to save that page, but it will also display the number of people who have already saved that page and the tags they attached to it.

We have already implemented the widget on Pro-SEO on article pages, So don't forget to have a look around and save/tag any articles you think you may like to read again in the future.


del.icio.us are offering two layouts for the widgets. One is a square block which will fit perfectly in a sidebar and the other is a single line block which will work well above or below your articles or blog posts.

Click here to read the announcement of the widget
And here to get your Widget Code

Labels: delicious, seo

At last google have come out and given some very clear guidelines regarding images near adsense ads, And guess what, They don't allow them, At all.

We have covered images near adsense and images near YPN in previous posts, But the clarification from google regarding this, Possibly due to Yahoo!s YPN terms, Makes the images near adsense confusion a lot simpler.

For a while people were under the impression that as long as there was a divider or space between the images and the adsense ads that it was allowed, But google have clarified their position by giving examples of what isn't allowed on their recent blog post

Google say that even though images are allowed on the page they ask Adsense publishers not to align the images with the adverts as to suggest a relationship between the images and the adsense block.
They also ask owners of game sites and directories not to format their adverts in a way which "mimics" their sites content as to reduce the chance of a user clicking the advert thinking it leads to site content.

The Google Adsense team were even nice enough to provide examples of adsense implementations which are not allowed, Which is probably something they should have done a long time ago.

These are not allowed

Labels: adsense, google, seo

Dmoz, Or the Open directory project, has had years of being the number one directory on the internet thanks to to it's huge amount of catagories, Strict acceptance policy, Open database and the fact that many search engines relied on it for indexing.
But has the time come to pull the plug on dmoz? I think it has.

As we move into the "web 2.0" era there isn't room for stuffy old sites that don't actually do anything. I can't imagine the dmoz directory being of any real use to anyone anymore. We go to search engines to find information now, Not to a directory that contains less than 1% of the sites on the internet.

This isn't just an anti-dmoz rant. There are arguments for and against dmoz, I guess, Though unfortunately i can only think of arguments against, If you can think of an argument for Dmoz, Besides a free backlinks for webmasters argument, Please let me know.

So i have compiled a list that I'm going to call "Matts Top * Reasons To Kill DMOZ"

1. Catastrophic system failure - In case you don't know, For a couple of weeks now dmoz has been running off of static cached pages because some clever sausage decided to completely delete the admin server. This has meant editors can't login, Admin can't login and no new sites can be listed. Sombody has likened the process for fixing this like "trying to glue back together a vase after it has been completely smashed".
2. Corrupt Editors - The debate has been raging for some time regarding corrupt editors over at Dmoz. I have personally had no experience with this and i am unable to give any names, but think about it, Why would an editor accept sites into dmoz if those sites are competing with his own sites?
   Not all editors on dmoz are going to be corrupt, But it only takes a few to make dmoz as a whole worthless.
3. Lack of editors - Some catagories have no editors at all. Let's face it, Who would want to go through all the crap that gets submitted to dmoz looking for quality sites to include in a directory nobody uses? It's a boring, thankless task.
4. We have search engines now - These days the last place someone is going to look for information is in a directory that doesn't even list 1% of the sites on the internet, Especially when thier search algorithm is below poor. We just "google it", Right?
5. Nothing done about changed or dead sites - Dmoz works under the assumption that after a site is created the site will remain on the internet forever and will always be the same site. But now we have a "dynamic web" where sites are changing all the time, Dmoz has no system for searching for and identifying sites that have changed thier subject or are no longer online

Dmoz is a web 0.1 site trying to stay alive in a web 2.0 world. It's time to let it pass with dignity so we can kick it to the curb and move on to bigger and better things.

Labels: directory, dmoz, seo

A lot of the time SEO articles focus on telling you what you should be doing to increase your position in SERPS and how to improve your sites SEO. This is all well and good, But how do you know if some things you are already doing are not having a nagative effect on your SEO efforts?

In this blog post i will go through some of the most common SEO mistakes so you can better understand where your efforts should be directed. Remember, SEO is partially about what you do, But it's also partially about what you don't do. One SEO mistake could mean all of your possitive SEO efforts are going to waste. You have to put bad SEO habbits to rest before concentrating on good SEO habbits.

Lack Of Titles

A title is one of the most important on page SEO factors on any search engine. Whether you are talking about Yahoo, Google or icerocket, Your titles need to be different for every page and they need to be descriptive of that pages content. The title is the first thing search engines, And users, look at when deciding if that page is relevent for the term searched for.

Non-descriptive Hyperlinks

Your hyperlinks need to be descriptive of the page it is linking to. This goes for your internal linking and for backlinks from other sites. Too often i see people putting "click here" as the anchor text of hyperlinks.

If you have a page about dog grooming don't put "click here for info on dog grooming".
Use the phrase "follow this link for information on dog grooming".

Use of images and SEO

Never use images where you don't have to. Especially if those images contain text or are a hyperlink. Remember, Search engines can't see images so by using images instead of text you are reducing the amount of phrases search engines can see and are also missing out on having descriptive hyperlinks pointing to your content.

Judging your sites SEO success based on PR

Many, many times i have seen people worrying about page rank. They think that because they have PR 2 Google must hate them or have some personal vendetta against them. When judging your sites sucess look at only two factors. Visitor stats and conversions. If month after month you are getting more visitors and selling more products what difference does it make what pagerank Google has given you? SERPS are not ranked in order of PR and the fact is PR (real PR) is only a small factor of over 200 factors that google uses when ranking sites in the Google index, And toolbar PR is 100% meaningless.

Blackhat SEO

Under no cicumstances should you ever do anything considered to be blackhat SEO. There are many tactics that could be labeled "blackhat", like doorway pages, cloaking, keywork stuffing and spamming. But you shouldn't need a list to know if what you are doing is unethical, You do have a conscience don't you? Just think to yourself "would i be prepared to tell Google what i am doing?". If the answer is "no" then you probably shouldn't be doing it.

For more inofrmation on what google think is acceptable you should review their Webmaster Guidlines

Submitting to search engines

While there is no evidence to suggest submitting your site to seach engines has a negative effect, it certainly doesn't have a possitive effect. Search engines should be able to find you on thier own. So repeatedly submitting your site to search engines, Or even submitting once, is a mistake. And paying someone to do it for you is certainly an SEO mistake.

Using flash and javascript

Usually there is no problem with using flash and javascript. But remember, Search engines can't see it. Google bot doesn't have flash installed (and even if it did it doesn't have eyes to see it) and it doesn't use a browser so javascript goes unexecuted. By all means, use flash and javascript where you have to (or want to), But remember that the google bot can not see it. So if you have a site entirely made using flash you might as well not even bother trying to SEO it.

Labels: seo

A friend of mine from WMT, Steve, wrote an interesting article looking at how SEO is Nothing but Karma. His article was submitted as part of a competition, So we wish him luck with that, But that aside the article raises some good points.

In the article Steve tells us that to succeed in SEO you simply have to give things away. Whether that be knowledge, a service, videos, Your time posting on a forum - anything. Do good things and good things will happen to you.

So what happens when you do good deeds or give something away? Well it's simple. People like it, They like you, They tell people about it and they link to your site which in turn brings more people, who in turn like it, Like you, tell people about it and link to it. See how it works?

So let's all take a minute, Sit crossed legged on the floor, Drink some herbal tea and think about our websites, Karma and SEO. Let's also wish Steve good luck in the competition.

(you can earn some karma right now by telling your friends about Steves article)

PS. I look forward to googles KR (karma rank)

Labels: seo

I have had about three discussions with various webmasters and SEO's lately regarding whether W3C validation helps with SEO, Some of these discussions become fairly heated, Though most were civilized and polite (my preferred method of discussion). So what i thought I would do is make a post about whether W3C Validation helps with SEO or not.

My personal opinion on this is that No, It doesn't. I have various reasons for thinking it doesn't, The main reason being that Google doesn't care about styling, They only care about content and information. So even if your site has broken tables and a layout that looks like something out of Texas chainsaw massacre why would google care? If it has the information that the searcher wants then it's the ideal site to send them to. We have to remember, Google aren't quality control, they are simply people we go to when we want to know what sites contain certain information. We don't go to google and say "show me a site that has the menu on the left and a blue background.".

Another good reason to think that W3C validation doesn't help with SEO is the fact that Matt Cutts, Google engineer who specializes in SEO, has said it doesn't in one of his grab bag videos. Matt Cutts said "Google have no signal for validated code". I read this as "Not only does Google not use validation as part of it's ranking algo, But it doesn't even have a way of telling if a site contains validated markup or not".

I figured you probably wouldn't be too interested in my opinions regarding W3C validation and SEO so i decided to do some research. I done a Google search for some of the more competitive keywords such as casino, Cheap flights, Hotels and web hosting to see if the sites that appear #1 in these results do in fact have markup that validates according to W3C. Here are my findings.

1. A Google search for "casino" returned www.casino.com as the #1 result. This site failed validation. In fact, It failed because it didn't even have character encoding labeling.
2. A Google search for "cheap flights" returned www.cheapflights.co.uk as the #1 result. This site failed validation because of a Character Encoding mismatch and 9 markup errors.
3. A Google search for "hotels" returned www.hotels.com as the #1 result. This is my favorite, It failed validation because it contained No Character Encoding, Contained No DOCTYPE and contained 298 markup errors.
4. A Google search for "web hosting" returned www.fortunecity.com as the #1 result. This site failed validation with 128 markup errors

As you can see, Having markup that does not validate according to W3C has not stopped these sites appearing top for some very competitive search terms.

Having said all that, if you were to ask me the simple question "Should i use W3C to validate my site?" i would say yes, you should. But not for SEO. Having a Validated site may increase your end user optimization and may mean more people visit, more people keep coming back and may even mean more people link to your site. But while these are beneficial to your site optimization and end user optimization they aren't SEO related issues.

When i make a site i simply check the site in various browsers to check the sites cross browser compatibility, But as for spending a day validating pages i just don't see the point. People are human and humans make errors. Google knows this and it's not in their interest to punish you for making tiny errors when your site has quality content or provides a great service.

Labels: seo

SEO is a strange business, It is always changing and being developed which means unless you keep up with the changes you can soon find yourself practicing SEO methods that are outdated or even damaging. What i am going to do in this blog post is go through some of the most common SEO myths and explain why they are not true.

• PR Is Important - I am starting with this SEO myth because i am sick of people worrying about it. Heres the deal people. Even if PR was once a big factor in where your site appears in SERPS it isn't any longer because of how easy it is to manipulate PR. You can purchase pagerank so easily it was obvious google would drop the importance of PR in time. Not only that, But we only get to see toolbar PR which is 4 months out of date. Carry on getting backlinks, But don't worry about PR, Worry about getting links from related sites and worry about the anchor text used in those backlinks. You can read in another blog post about How important is PageRank


• Google prefers static pages over dynamic - This SEO myth was recently debunked in a Matt Cutts grab bag video. Matt said that google will pass pagerank to dynamic pages (not that that matters) and they will be treated the same as static pages by the ranking algo. But he did advise keeping the number of parameters in your dynamic URL's few and don't use anything that looks like a session id. The example i always give to prove this myth is untrue is the official phpbb support forum. They use a 'straight out the box' phpbb instalation and they have no trouble what so ever ranking well for phpbb support related searches.


• Adwords helps increase PR - This myth is usually fueled by people not knowing how adwords ads are generated and how google sees the internet. Adsense/Adwords ads are generated via javascript. Your browser downloads the JS file from google, Executes the script then displays what is in that file on the page. The google bot has no ability to read or execute javascript. So unless something is hard coded directly in the HTML of a page the google bot will not see it.


• Sites that display adsense rank better - I don't really know what the origins of this SEO myth are, Perhaps people thought if you are showing adverts for google they will want you to get more visitors so they can make more money. The truth is adwords and adsense has absolutely zero effect on whhere you appear in the google search engine. Google relies on people using thier search engine, So they aren't going to risk the quality of thier search results just to make a few extra dollars.


• .com ranks better than .info - recently i have read on a few forums people claiming that google favour a .com domain more than any other. I don't know why people would think this. Think to yourself, 'Why would google do that?" and unless you can think of a very good reason it's unlikely that google would do it. There is nothing to suggest a .com domain is going to have better quality content than a .info .cc or .ws so it won't be included as a factor in the google ranking algo. Google do not rank .com domains better and they do not spider them more frequently.


• Meta Keywords are important to how a page will rank - Thanks Steve, I had forgot about this one. Like Steve pointed out (below), A lot of people worry about thier meta keywords. They want to know what words to use, how to seperate them and how many to use. The truth is it doesn't matter. In fact it matters so little that many people don't even bother using them anymore. As i understand it google doesn't take any notice of them. So if you think you are going to boost rankings or rank well based on what you have in your meta keywords think again.


• Submit your site to search engines - I was reminded of this myth by Minaki over at WMT. When people create lists or small tutorials about what to do when launching a site they usually put "Submit your site to search engines" high on the list. This kind of practice is pointless, and according to some can be damaging. Search engines like to find you, they don't like to be told about you. If you want to get listed in search engines work on getting backlinks. There is a school of thought that says google put submited sites in a "special index" for some time simply because the sites were submited, I doubt this is true, But i wouldn't risk it. At best submiting your site to google does nothing and will not help you get listed in google.


• Guaranteed first page on Google - Stay well away from any SEO that claims to be able to guarantee you a first page place on google for any search term. They are lying. If they really could do that thery would be millionaires. If after they look at your site that guarantee to improve your SERPS, that's ok. But they can't guarantee the first page


• The more links the better - There is a common SEO myth that says you need lots and lots of links pointing to your site. In recent times google has got very good at spotting quality links, And any links that are from unrelated sites will count very little, if at all, towards your google ranking. The rule here is to go for quality over quantity, Get links that are related and don't waste your time getting 1000s of unrelated links.


• You must use "index" and "follow" META tags - Don't use these tags at all, They are pointless. Google will follow and index everything unless told otherwise. You don't need to tell it to do this.


• Getting in DMOZ is important for high rankings - While i would say you should try to get into DMOZ, Don't worry if you don't. DMOZ is not a make or break kinda thing, It's just a directory. If you don't get into DMOZ accept it and move on.


• Keywords in a domain name are important - There may have been a time when google looked at a domain name and decided what the site was about based on the words in the domain. But now the words in a domain name are no more important than the words on the page. The only time keywords in a domain name could be useful is if the words are sperated by hyphens (-) and people link to you using your domain name as anchor text. Like when links become clickable on forums


• PageRank prediction tools are accurate - Pagerank prediction tools are not inaccurate, They are completely fabricated. Unless the creator of the pagerank prediction tool knows the google pagerank algorithm, Which they don't, There is no way on earth they could even attempt to predict pagerank. Do not believe what a pagerank prediction tool says, It is not accurate and is completely made up.

These are all the SEO myths i can think of at the moment, But i'm sure i will add to the list as more come up. If you have any SEO myths you can post them and i'll do my best to explain them for everyone.

Labels: seo

Free SEO and Adsense eBooks

Ebooks have become quite popular, Especially in the world of SEO and Adsense where webmasters want to get the best from search engines and want to make the most money from Adsense. Ebooks usually cost money, upto $167 for some (or more), But Pro-SEO have been lucky enough to find you a selection of Free SEO Ebooks and Free Adsense Ebooks to download and we intend to bring you more as we find them. If you have written a free SEO ebook or free adsense ebook (or a paid one you want to give away) contact me and we will include it here for download.

As these SEO and Adsense Ebooks were not written by us we can't vouch for their content, and as always, You should read them with discretion. While not everything you read in ebooks will be true it's always a good idea to get an all round opinion of SEO and Adsense and then making your own mind up.
So far we have been able to get hold of the following free SEO ebooks and free adsense ebooks.

1. Blogging For Profit Ebook - The blogging for profit free ebook gives you a guide for finding that niche blog theme and building it to the stage where it can make you money. I have only skimmed through this free blogging ebook but i looks to give solid advice that every blogger looking to create a profitable blog should read.
2. Free Adsense Ebook - The Free Adsense Ebook is about, You guessed it, Google Adsense. It will give you tips about increasing your CTR and how to select he right adsense colors and adsense positioning to achieve maximum earnings. The writer claims to have increased CTR significantly simply by altering, and monitoring, his adsense colors and position.
3. Overture and Adwords Free Ebook - The free adwords and overture ebook explains to webmasters how to select the right keywords to maximize their CPC campaign. It makes sense that if you are going to pay for clicks you want to pay as little as possible and organize your overture and adwords campaign so that you can maximize profits.
4. SEO Made Easy Free Ebook - The SEO made Easy Free Ebook is a one stop shop, especially for new webmasters, Full of information about the basics of SEO and what you need to do to increase your footprint on the internet. We all know that SEO is the second thing webmasters need to worry about (content being first), So why not read up on it with this free SEO ebook.
5. Adwords Made Easy Ebook - The Adwords made easy ebook explains why so many online businesses throw hundreds of dollars away simply because they don't understand how Google Adwords work. You don't have to make the same mistakes they made, You can bypass the part where you throw money away and go straight to the part where you make money with google adwords. This free adwords ebook explains how to market your site using adwords, How to select your keywords and what to do once you get visitors.
   
6. Basic SEO Ebook - This free SEO book is designed for beginners. Not for advanced SEO folk. But if you are a new webmaster looking to learn the basics of SEO, Give it a read.

Labels: seo

Firefox is a web browser, But surely you must know this..

One of things that has made firefox the success it is, apart from its functionality and security, Is the amount of Firefox extensions there are. The extensions for Firefox are so vast that there are even extensions aimed at webmasters and extensions designed to help with your SEO. What we are going to do in this post is list some of the most useful SEO and webmaster Firefox extensions.

• IE Tab - The IE tab Firefox extension allows you to embed Internet Explorer in Firefox at the click of a button.. This is very handy if you are testing the cross browser compatibility of your website.
• Search Status - The search status extension displays google pagerank and Alexa rank in your Firefox status for you to easily view a sites popularity.
• ColorZilla - The ColorZilla extension allows you to easily find out the color of any element on a webpage. Saves having to look through the source.
• Live HTTP Header - Live HTTP headers lets you see the headers that are sent to and from your browser in real time. Great extension for Web developers.
• switch User Agents - This extension allows you to change the identity of your Firefox browser. Want to know what your website does if you are in opera or IE? You do? Great, then use this Firefox developer extension.
• URLparams - Shows you the GET and POST parameters of the current website in the sidebar.
• DNSStuff Toolbar - With the DNSStuff toolbar you can easily do a domain lookup directly from Firefox.
• HTML Validator - The HTML validator Firefox extension allows you to easily validate your HTML markup, It does require the HTML validator for windows.
• Fire FTP - Fire FTP is an FTP client that runs straight from Firefox.
• Blog This - Adds a blogger's "blog this" function to right mouse click.
• Link Checker - This extension allows you to check the validity of every link on the page.
• X-Ray View - Let's you view how a page was constructed without having to go back and forth between the page and source code.
• CSS Edit - edit the pages CSS from the sidebar of Firefox.
• Customize Google - This handy extension allows you to customize Google. It will remove adverts and provide you with links to other search engines so you can compare results.
• Adsense Notifier - Keep track of your adsense earnings with this Firefox adsense extension by showing earning in the status bar and have it update every 15 minutes.
• SEO Links - This handy Firefox extension will display link popularity on mouseover.
• Niche Watch - This Firefox SEO extension provides you the technical information required to beat your competitor websites in serps.It gives you backlinks number, indexed pages, keyword occurrences on the page and page rank.
• JSView - The JSView Firefox extention allows you to view the source code of JavaScript and external CSS.
• View Source Chart - View source chart Firefox extention allows you to view even the most unorganized html script in a nicely laid out chart. (Thanks Jumpenjuhosaphat)
• Server Spy - The server spy webmaster firefox extension will reveal the server type in your Firefox status.
• Screen Grab - The screen grab Firefox extension will allow you to easily take a screen shot via firefox and save it as an image.
• Codetch - web page editor that has the feel of Dreamweaver. An amazing webmaster Firefox extension for anyone doing web design that doesn't want to fork out a few hundred dollars for Dreamweaver.
• FireBug - an advanced debugger console that lets you monitor your JavaScript, CSS, HTML and Ajax scripts in firefox.
• PDF Downloader - Isn't it annoying when you click a link and it turns out to be a PDF file? You have to wait about 3 weeks for acrobat to fire up. With this extension it does not automatically open, It will ask you what you want to do with that file. Either open in acrobat, Save it or view as HTML.
• Linkification - Linkification is a extension for firefox that will convert all text URL's into clickable ones, Saves you having to copy and paste the url into the address bar
• TinyURL Creator - Sometimes long URL's are a pain if you are posting on a forum, In IRC or in an email. With this firefox extension you can easily convert those long URL's into shorter URL's.

This list of Webmaster and SEO Firefox extensions will be updated as time goes by and i find more. If you know of more SEO and webmaster Firefox extensions post them in a reply, Especially if you have written your own SEO, Webmaster or Developer Firefox extension.

Labels: Firefox, seo

BlackHat SEO is a term used to describe tactics that are supposed to increase your position in the SERPS, But in reality BlackHat SEO will do nothing apart from get you banned from google.

In this post i will go through a few of the tactics and techniques used in blackhat SEO so you can avoid accidentally putting them in place, I would strongly advise against using any of these blackhat SEO methods.

Cloaking

Cloaking is a blackhat method that involves displaying one page to search engine bots, and a different page to your visitors.
The idea is to get a keyword stuffed page listed in the SERPS, But show a more readable page to visitors.

Leader Pages

Leader pages are a set of pages, all showing basically the same information, but each designed to rank well in different search engines.
This doesn't work anymore for 2 reasons, Google may penalize the pages for duplicate content, And people don't really worry about SEO for MSN and Yahoo anymore, it's all about google.

Link Farms

Link farms are like mass produced link exchanges. They usually involve you placing some code on your site that automates the process.
This is a bad idea because you have no control over what links are being displayed on your site, so god knows how many banned sites you are linking to, and linking to banned sites can see you being banned too.

Hidden Text

Hidden text is sometimes used to hide keyword stuffing. It is when the text on the page is the same color as the background so it is invisible to your visitors, But visible to spider bots. The bottom line is, If you need to hide anything you are doing something very wrong with the SEO of your page.

This is by no means an extensive list of BlackHat techniques, But it is the most common forms of blackhat tactics.
If you think you have done any of this on your site my advice would be to remove it right now. If you think you can use an unfair method of increasing your SERPS and not get caught, You are very wrong. And when you are caught your site will be completely removed from the google index and the PR bar will be grayed out.

Labels: blackhat, seo

This blog entry is partly a rant, mostly because i am tired of answering the same question on various SEO forums regarding when the next Page Rank update is going to be with the same response.


Here is the deal people. Every time you ask "when will the next Google page rank update be?" God kills a kitten, Then he cooks it and then he eats it. It's a stupid question which begs the same answer every time it is asked.
nobody apart from google knows when the next google Page Rank update will be
They happen, On average, Every 4 months, And just before the google PR update we usually see a backlink update, A backlink update is when google update the information you see when you search link:domain.com in google.

So if you could understand that the question "when is the next Page Rank update?" is not only pointless, But has been answered many times before, We can all stop playing this silly PR game and get on with making sites for people, Not for google.

And on top of that, the ironic thing is that by the time the google PR is updated, It's four months out of date!

Labels: google, pagerank, seo

Getting backlinks is one of the most important things you need to do to get your new site noticed.
The more backlinks you have the easier it is for search engines to find you, and they find you more often the more you have. But for new webmasters finding out how to get backlinks can be quite confusing.

In this blog entry i will tell of a few methods you can use to encourage other sites to link to you.

Submit to Directories

There are a lot of free web directories on the net now and there are an equal number of sites that list free web directories.
So your first step should be to visit every directory here and here and submit your link to every free web directory you can find.

Link Exchanges

If you are taking part in reciprocal link exchanges it is important that you 1) Exchange links only with related sites. If a site has nothing to do with your site a reciprocal backlink from it will serve little to no purpose and 2) Do not mass mail webmasters. If there is one thing that will guarantee i will ignore you it is if i receive an email that has been BCC'ed to a thousand other webmasters. You could also get other webmaster to ask for a link exchange by putting a contact form on your site and letting people know you are open for link exchanges.

Link Baiting

Link baiting is when you post something controversial, a flame or something very interesting on your site with the intention of getting people to blog about it or post it on forums. Link baiting is sometimes seen as "spam" but take no notice of that, It's not, People are choosing to link to you, It's upto them.

Providing Quality Content

This is my favorite way to get backlinks. Make a good site with good content.
If there is one thing people like, and like to link to, it is a good site.

Posting on forums

I am hesitant to include this suggestion, But i will, and i will explain exactly what i mean.
When i say by posting on forums read it as `join a forum and contribute`. It does not mean join a forum, spam your link 50 times and then leave. Most forums allow you to include a signature in your posts so it's an easy way to get backlinks. If you become a trusted regular poster it will also mean you get a lot of traffic from these backlinks. Spamming not only make you look like an amateur, But it will be deleted that same day by a moderator, Probably before a google bot even gets to see it.

RSS Feeds

RSS feeds allow you to syndicate your content. This means other sites display your content on their pages via a feed which includes a backlink to the original article or page. So you could syndicate us ;)

Submit Articles

If you know a lot about the area you work in (as you should) then writing articles could be very beneficial. Every time you write and submit an article that is one backlink, and the good thing about articles is they are often copied and used on other article sites, sent in news letters or posted on forums, Each time this happens you get another backlink.

Provide a link to me code

Put a page on your site that contains link to me code. This will be HTML code that people just have to cut and paste into their site to link to you. But don't use all text. Provide a few banners, some buttons, Be creative. Sometimes if people are trying to find filler for their site they will be more than happy to include your sexy looking banner or button on their page.
The trick is to make it easy for people to link to you.

Buy Text Links

If you have money set aside for your advertising you can also Buy Text Links from companies such as LinkWorth, Also good if you want to make money and sell text links.

Labels: backlinks, google, seo

A lot of discussion comes from the area of the importance of alt attributes on images and their effect on search engine optimization.
If you don't know what an alt attribute is, Is the attribute that makes text appear when you mouseover an image, It is not a tooltip and it is not a tag.

Alt attributes were created initially for text based browsers, Like lynx, Which can not display images. The alt (or alternate) text was to describe what it is an image of, and should still be used only for that.
Alt attributes are put into code like this:
<img src="http://www.domain.com/images/logo.gif" alt="Some Text Here">

Google does include the alt text as body text,So in theory people could find your page by searching for what you have in an alt attribute. But it is believed that not much weight is given to this text, So really it's a good idea to use it for what it is intended, Too describe the image, and keep your text in the body of the page in areas that are readable to your users.

Labels: seo

Welcome to the Pro-SEO blog on blogspot.
The purpose of this blog is to clear up some of the misconceptions people sometimes have when entering the confusing world of Search Engine optimization. So it's only natural that the first post on Pro-SEO should explain some of the terms that you will come across while studying search engine optimization.

What is anchor Text?
Anchor text is the visible text on a hyperlink that you click that takes you to another page. In this sentence the word Google is the anchor text. Anchor text is important because it gives search engines a first glance at the content of the page, So if the page you are linking to is about Soccer Kits your anchor text in the link should be "Soccer Kits". A common mistake people usually make is having "click here" or something similar as the anchor text, This will drastically reduce the full potential for the text link.

What is a backlink?
A backlink is any link from one site to another. (and to a lesser extent internal links on your own site). Backlinks are important for search engine optimization, Backlinks from related sites are the best. These are sometimes called an IBL, or inbound backlink.

What is a bot?
A bot is what search engines use to spider the internet looking for sites, These are often referred to as spiders or spider bots.

What is cloaking?
Cloaking is a black-hat SEO techique sometimes used to deliver one page to a bot and a different page to human visitors. This is usually achieved by using a server side language to determine if the visitor is a spider bot or human. The page delivered to spider bots is usually stuffed full of keywords. This may result in your website being banned from Google.

What is keyword stuffing
keyword stuffing was used when search engine results were ordered by which sites had the word appear more frequently. So back in the day, If you wanted to rank well for "football kits" all you had to do is have "football kits" appear more times on the page than anyone else. These days though keyword stuffing is more likely to cause your site to drop down the SERPS.

What are SERPS?
SERPS are the search engine results page. It's the page you see when you search for a term on google or other search engines. Your goal as a webmaster is to get your site as high in the SERPS as possible and appearing as often as possible..

What is a Google Dance?
A Google Dance is what happens when google are in the process of updating their index. During this time you may see your rank in the SERPS drop, or you may disappear altogether. But don't worry, In most cases the SERPS are back to normal when the Google Dance is complete.

What is PageRank?
PageRank, Or PR, is something invented Larry Page at google.
It is the score google give you between 1 and 10 based on link popularity and the quality of sites linking to you. You shouldn't pay much attention to this, While it is fun to see the green bar move it has no actual value.

What is a stop word?
A stop word is a word that is ignored by Google. These are common words such as a, the, and.

Labels: seo