Do you have a website?
Does anyone else know?
With
millions upon millions of web sites out on the Internet you
may have a website but does anybody else know? Without specialised
search engine optimisation it can be a near impossible task
to get your site to to the top spots with all the major search
engines.
We will add and change keywords to get the best possible
results so potential customers do not bypass your website.
We use Web Position Platinum 4 Professional and charge a small
modest fee that has a big effect on your rankings.
This service is available
on a bespoke site by site basis.
26th February 2006
Google Removes Large SEO Company from their Index
by Richard Drawhorn
In a recent post in his search engine related blog, Google representative Matt Cutts has confirmed that Google has removed traffic-power.com and domains promoted by them from Google's index. In this post, I'll review the reasoning behind this decision and provide a few tips on how to avoid this fate for your own web site.
In September, 2005, the Wall Street Journal Online published an article describing a scenario that would be a nightmare for any online business: your web site suddenly disappears from both Google and Yahoo seemingly overnight. This is exactly what happened to many web sites owners who had hired Traffic-Power.com to perform search engine optimization for their site.
The problems started when the major search engines detected that Traffic-Power.com had been using illicit practices to optimize web sites. According to the Wall Street Journal article, they employed techniques like creating pages that are stuffed full of keywords (this is known as "spamming"), or even presenting content not really related to the site and then redirecting the visitor when the link is clicked (this is known as "cloaking"). We have been warning our readers against these practices for years.
Another illicit technique used by Traffic-Power.com was to artifically promote the Link Popularity of their clients' web sites by linking them extensively within their own network of sites. Search engines measure inbound links to get a sense of how popular a site is amongst internet users. Such networked linking strategies are attempts to give the impression that the web site is more popular than it actually is, and are frowned upon by search engines. This is in fact one of the issues Google is attempting to address with their most recent algorithm change, as described in a recent article we published entitled Google's Jagger Update.
In his blog about search engine optimization topics, Google representative Matt Cutts recently confirmed that Traffic-Power.com has been removed from Google's index, along with any sites that have been promoted by Traffic-Power.com. One lesson to learn from this is that you are responsible for any actions that SEO consultants you hire perform on your web site. Last year, we published an article here at Marketposition.com called Outsourcing a SEO program that makes the point that you should be aware of the SEO practices of any consultants you hire. Here's a quote from the article: "Full disclosure - Ensure that [your SEO consultants] are willing and supportive of keeping you 'in-the-know' on their SEO practices. Don't risk your brand and search engine marketing by being punished by suspect SEO tactics that some SEO companies unfortunately do employ." In light of the recent events with Traffic-Power.com, this is a good time to review the important points made in that article.
Another example of Google's determination to enforce the guidelines for inclusion in their index is the recent removal of BMW.de from Google. In this case, BMW.de was presenting a different version of web pages to search engine spiders than it was presenting to human visitors. This is another example of cloaking, a practice to be avoided. Of course, BMW.de was promptly reincluded in Google's index, due to BMW's "quick response" in getting these issues resolved. Keep in mind, however, that just because BMW.de was promptly reincluded in Google's index does not mean that every site will be treated the same way. In fact, most web sites that are removed from Google's index will have a difficult time getting listed again. Getting reindexed is a process that involves submitting a reinclusion request and it may take months before your site regains its visibility in Google.
Conclusion
Google and other major search engines are evolving over time, and the intelligence of their algorithms is increasing. The ability of the engines to detect illicit optimization practices is improving, and it's more important than ever to ensure that your web site is not employing any techniques that violate search engines' terms of service. As a web site owner, it's your responsibility to make sure that SEO consultants you hire to improve your site's visibility are not employing these techniques.
26th January 2006
MSN Search's Ranking Algorithm uses a Neural Net
by Richard Drawhorn
In June, 2005, Microsoft revealed that they have introduced a new ranking algorithm that employs a neural net. This article reviews what a neural net is, and how this type of ranking algorithm might affect your web site visibility.
In this entry in MSN Search's WebLog, Ken Moss, the MSN Search General Manager, explains that a new ranking technology is being employed by MSN Search. An artificial neural net is now being used as the basis of the MSN Search ranking algorithm. For those interested in additional details of Microsoft's vision of this technology, read the patent abstract (but be warned, the language used in the abstract is not for the layperson).
A little research on the topic will quickly convince you that a neural net is not something the average person can comprehend easily. Artificial neural nets are models inspired by the study of biological neural networks, and consist of a collection of interconnected units that perform a collective task. The units are modelled using mathematical functions, which themselves depend on the other functions in ways defined by the structure of the network. As you can imagine, the larger the network, the more complex the set of interrelations between units can become.
One of the fascinating, and very desirable features of neural nets is their ability to learn. This is undoubtedly the reason that MSN (and very likely other major search engines) have chosen to make use of this type of model. The goal of these search engines is to provide the most relevant search results possible for a given search term. The neural net model produces an improved set of results over time, as it learns from past searches. Ken Moss illustrates this concept with the graphic displayed in his blog entry. In his example, the relevance of the search term "pbs evolution videos" has improved over a period of a few weeks because the MSN search engine "learned" to produce more relevant results.
All of this information leads us to the question of what exactly are the factors that the algorithm considers relevant? The answer is exactly what any search engine optimization (SEO) professional already knows: relevant content, good web site design, and inbound links. These are the fundamental principles behind SEO that we have been emphasizing here on marketposition.com for years.
Creating relevant, high quality content is critical to the success of your web site. First identify the keywords that are most appicable to the theme of your web site. Next, write compelling copy that makes use of the keyword(s) throughout the page. Keep in mind that it's best to focus on a single keyword or phrase on each page. If you have identified several keywords, then you will need to create several pages to accomodate them. Use a search engine optimization tool like WebPosition's Page Critic to help you optimize each page for the keywords of interest.
The design of your web site can have a profound affect on your search engine visibility as well. There are a few important concepts to consider when working on your web site design. First, a consistent web site theme should be developed. Web site content that revolves around a common, central theme generally performs better in search engine results than web sites containing mixed content. Secondly, create a solid network of links throughout your web site so that a search engine spider (and your visitors) will have no trouble navigating around the web site. Create a site map that contains links to all pages on your web site that contain content you want to ensure is indexed by the search engines. Link the site map to your home page to ensure that a search engine spider can find it easily. Be sure to make use of the robots.txt file on your web server to help direct the behavior of search engine spiders that visit your web site. Finally, use an HTML validator (like this one provided by W3C) to validate your HTML code. The validator will help you identify any poorly formatted HTML code on your pages. This is important because improperly formatted HTML code can cause problems for search engines when they are attempting to index your content.
Search engines measure the number (and quality) of links pointing to your web site from other web sites. It's therefore very important to work on increasing the number of incoming links from other quality web sites, preferably sites in the same general content theme as your own. Read this article for a good overview of things to consider when working on Link Popularity.
Conclusion:
The intelligence of neural nets is great news for the search engine user, who will find relevant search results more readily. It's also good news for SEO professionals because it will reward efforts to conform to the search engines' terms of service. Those who choose to violate the engines' terms of service, however, will not be happy with these developments because efforts to artifically inflate search engine rankings are more likely to be discovered as the neural nets "learn" over time. For a review of illicit practices to avoid, read this article from the marketposition.com archives.
|
