While Google has condemned buying and selling links that pass PageRank, they’ve encouraged listing in paid directories like Yahoo for years. It seems that era may have come to an end.
They have updated their guidelines concerning linking to directories.
Once your Web site was ready they used to encourage us to:
* Have other relevant sites link to yours.
* Submit it to Google http://www.google.com/addurl.html.
* Submit a Sitemap as part of our Google Webmaster Tools. Google uses your Sitemap to learn about the structure of your site and to increase our coverage of your web pages.
* Make sure that all the sites that should know about your pages are aware that your site is online.
* Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites.
They have updated the guidelines to encourage us to follow these steps when your site is ready:
* Submit it to Google at http://www.google.com/addurl.html.
* Submit a Sitemap using Google Webmaster Tools. Google uses your Sitemap to learn about the structure of your site and to increase our coverage of your webpages.
* Make sure all the sites that should know about your pages are aware your site is online.
So what does this really mean to us? It was asked of one of Google Techs and his response was this:
This line was removed because we feel that you should not “force” other sites to link to yours. Obviously it’s good that sites link to each other, it’s fine to encourage that on your sites to link out and to make it easy for them to link to yours. However, I don’t think we need to make it a part of the guidelines that you should “have other sites link to yours” — they should be willing to do that on their own, it should be their decision not yours.
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The Link Popularity Checker tells you how many websites are linking to yours. Website popularity is an important factor in your search engine ranking. The more popular your site is, the better it will be ranked on the search engines. The first link will even tell you what the anchor text that site is using to point to your site.
Check them out!
http://www.webuildpages.com/neat-o/
http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/link-popularity-checker.shtml
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The Search Engine Academy was just introduced to a new SEO Audit Tool called SEM Check Audit, by Michael Marshal Academy Instructor.
The tool allows you to run and Web site through a series of Search Engine Optimization checks and provides you a report of the most common SEO challenges along with a brief description on how to correct each item.
SEO Check Audit will report on number of SEO factors such as:
- Deep-nested Site Hierarchies
- Alternate Domain Availability
- Domain.com to www.Domain.com Redirects
- Dynamic URLs
- Frames
- Home Page Redirects
- Flash/Splash Home Pages
- HTML Validation
- HTTPS Link Splitting
- Embedded Javascript/CSS
- Virtual Hosting
- Robots.txt
- Server Status
- Text Link Sitemaps
- Index/Supplemental Content Status
- Unique Description Tags
- Unique Title Tags
- If-Modified-Since
- Plus more
Give SEM Check a try and see how your Web site performs today on all of the various SEM check points.
It’s quick and easy to use. Visit SEMCHECK.com
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As you may have noticed by now my blog got a face lift!! SEO does not need to be techy or stuffy. I felt my old blog was to formal and was not a good indication of my true personality. I truly love sharing my SEO experience with others through our SEO Certification Workshops and this blog.
Enjoy the new look and if you liked the old one…sorry…this is by far “me” in a nutshell!
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Imagine being able to attend a SEO workshop tailored just for you, where every question is answered and your Web site is well on its way to becoming successful.Whether you’re a Business Owner, Webmaster or a Professional SEO our new smaller classes will give you the individual attention you need.Learn search engine optimization in a stress free, laid back, step by step study, with hands-on and personal attention to you and your Web site.
Each workshop is 100% focused on building YOUR SEO skills with close attention to detail. Class size is now limited to 6 students and you will receive a 2:1 student/instructor ratio of personalized individual attention!
No other SEO workshop or seminar offered throughout
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We have just returned from a 2-Day SEO leader’s conference in
landscape?
One of the sharpest techniques for “competitive intelligence” was
introduced by Michael Marshall and will be added to our October Class Agenda.
Competitive intelligence will be able to accurately analyze multiple factors
saving literally months of research time and easily discern exactly
what needs to be done to your Web site so that you can truly compete
based on the accurate measurement of many influences?
This technique does not require you to buy any software but it’s relatively easy to learn and puts the power of truly advanced competitive intelligence into your grasp
quickly.
Watch our class agenda for more updated information soon.
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SEA of
We will be covering all the new search engine optimization principles and techniques. We will be brining these new items back to our students and class curriculum. Watch our class agenda for news sessions that will be added after our return.
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When was the last time you reviewed Google’s Webmaster Guidelines?
You should re-read it from time to time. It is an excellent resource and it can and does get updated from time to time.
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769
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Most of us concentrate so much on optimizing our sites for the popular keywords that we completely forget about making sure our site is optimized for our local area. If you are a “Google Junkie”, like I am, you will have noticed that Google displays 3 local search results before the regular organic results.If you are a local retailer or offer a service that is mainly purchased by local customers it makes more sense to be sure your site is getting good listings for your local area then fighting for those popular keyword phrases?
Here is a list of sites that play a key factor in local search results. Most of these sites will let you register your site for free.
Google Maps
Yahoo! Local
MSN Live Local
SuperPages
YellowPages
Switchboard
CitySearch
Another key factor in getting your site to show up in local search results is to include your geographical information, such as zip code, area code, street address and city and state. The search engines read this information and use it when displaying local search results. A clue to this is being sure this information is in straight html text and not embedded in a graphic you want it spiderable to the engines.
These are just a couple tips to help guide you along the way to making your site appear more local search friendly.
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One of the most important issues with PDF’s and Search Engine Optimization is how the original PDF was created. Like any other page on your Web site the search engines love to see text.You need to write your document in Word and then convert it to a PDF file. What you don’t want to do is create your PDF using Photoshop. When creating a PDF in Photoshop you are actually making a big image file, spiders cannot read “image files” only “text.” You should always make a PDF that you want indexed with MS Word or Adobe Pagemaker so that the final document is text-based and is crawlable.
You can tell is your PDF is Search Engine Friendly. Copy and paste the body from the PDF into a text editor like Word or Notepad. If it copies over then Google, Yahoo!, MSN/Live and Ask will index those files.
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