Technology, the Internet and information transfer is evolving at an ever increasing pace. Having a website and getting it found online is way different than it was 10 years ago…even just 4 years ago! There is a lot of misinformation with regard to SEO and what to do/what not to do.
For instance, Google hasn’t indexed metatag keywords on your website in over 2 years – and now they penalize you for them – yet many SEO providers still encourage you to use metatag keywords as part of your website’s optimization. Just today one of my clients shared an email with me from one such provider that discussed how important metatag keywords are. I was absolutely floored.
In your web development, web design and SEO efforts, ask targeted questions before you decide who you will work with. It is important that your SEO provider is current in their knowledge of today’s SEO best practices, and this video will give you better understanding of how search engines work so you can ask better questions when you’re deciding who you want to work with.
The gentleman in the video is noneother than Matt Cutts, head of webspam at Google. Basically this is the division of Google focused on eliminating spammy/unwanted websites from Google searches and maintaining an even playing field for businesses wanting to be found in Google searches.
If you want to understand search engines better than ever before, watch this video over your lunch break. Great stuff…straight from the horse’s mouth.
So you see your competitor’s website with the cool Flash display.
So you think your competitor is doing better business than you and you think (for some reason) that the cool Flash display is the reason for it.
So you wonder why Mick Jagger can still do it on stage after all of these years and are convinced that the secret is encased somewhere in his lips!
Ladies and gentlemen, this is called “Keeping Up With The Joneses” and it’s a wonderful and effective way to waste time and money when you have a lot of both to spare.
Yes, we know and we agree…some of those Flash displays are really rockin’ and it’s hard to not want one of them to spice up your own website. However, Flash is now behind the times and there are many compelling reasons to not use it in your web development and web design:
Adobe now backs HTML5 and has effectively abandoned Flash
It’s very slow on mobile devices, which is a major detriment in our increasingly mobile society.
It doesn’t work on iPads or iPhones, and in case you have been asleep the last few years, Microsoft’s Windows Vista fiasco a few years ago allowed Apple to gain a much stronger market share for its products.
In order for it to work on web browsers, it requires a plug-in…which is an additional download…which is an additional hassle…which is, well you get the idea.
It’s horrible for your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) because search engines can’t see the content…therefore, search engines can’t index the content. In the end, you’re not found on Internet searches.
Animations and active displays on your website may look cool but before you jump in, Jack, remember that Flash has been effectively replaced by HTML5 for many of the above reasons. Even still, make sure you’re working with a web development and web design team that understands both the pros and the cons of having animated displays on your website…particularly when it comes to the time it takes for the average computer to load your site.
The longer it takes, the more likely it is that the visitor will lose patience and wind up going to a different site.
One of the biggest gripes in web design has always been the use… or lack thereof, fonts. For years web designers and developers have had only specific fonts to work with and as any designer knows, that can be quite limiting. Over the last 3 years or so, however, the font world caught up and folks started coming up with ways of displaying custom fonts on web pages. Granted the tech like sIFR has been around a while longer but it was always buggy and heavily dependent on which browser you were viewing it on. Nowadays the process has been slightly more streamlined and easier to accomplish. With sites such as The League of Moveable Type leading the way, custom fonts have become a new standard in website customization! Take a look and read more about the Open Source Typography movement!
The original title of this post was, “How To Free Sex Properly Optimize Free Sex Your Website Content”. Now obviously there is a reason that it’s not the actual title of this post, but notice a few things stick out in this post, like, “Free Sex”. This is an example of the same kind of tactics used by spammers and spam link builders. Well, Google got wise to this abuse and unleashed an updated algorithm that sent this kind of optimization to the pit.
Yep.
Google’s Penguin update at the end of April really packed a wallop for websites practicing (deliberately or unknowingly) spammy linking tactics. Websites all over the Internet lost their ranking and were flagged for spam virtually overnight.
Why?
Simple…for abuse of links. Too many links from too many irrelevant sources, all to make one’s website look more popular than it actually is in the eyes of the search engines. It was only a matter of time until the search engines caught up with the tactic and created something to stop it.
The next big Panda update is coming up in August, and if your site is over-optimized you could be in trouble. Keyword stuffing has long been a problem in SEO, and the most common place for the stuffing was in meta tags on the back end of websites. To combat this, Google stopped indexing them around 2 years ago. Now, actual page content is being scrutinized like never before.
Links have already been addressed, and to avoid losing your ranking for over-optimization of your content now is the time to go over your website with a fine tooth comb. Over-saturation of keywords and duplicate content are two big areas you must address.
Do any of your pages have more than a 3% saturation of any given keywords? Is there identical content on any of your pages?
If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” you should fix those issues as soon as possible. Make sure your content flows and reads properly…like any other legitimate source of information would. If you have duplicate content within your site or if you have content that is identical to any other website, get rid of it or rewrite it completely in your own voice.
The days of cut and paste content are over. Original content takes more time, but it’s the right thing to do and it will build you a solid foundation for your future higher ranking with Google and the other search engines.
*Editor’s note: The original post had a number of “free sex” references scattered within the post as an example of what NOT to do and how over-optimized content may be viewed or read by the search engines. That being said, we removed many of these phrases as a protective measure.
One of the most popular (and widely abused) methods of SEO is links. For years, the number of inbound links to your website weighed more heavily than your own onsite content in getting your site found online.
Because of this, many sites (possibly even yours or your competitor’s) engaged in the act of buying links. On the surface, this doesn’t sound too bad since other services cost money as well, but unfortunately there were too many companies that were placing quantity over quality and Google frowns on that. Some businesses were buying links by the thousands…including many irrelevant links.
Since the very essence of being found through the search engines is based on relevance, Google had to do something. And they did.
At the end of April, Google’s Penguin update changed the game when it comes to getting links to your website. Not only are they now not nearly as important as they once were, you will now be penalized for having too many links from the wrong places. This includes too many affiliate links, irrelevant links, etc.
Many businesses lost their ranking completely as a result of this update, and once that happens you’re basically starting from scratch again. If you’re buying links in huge quantities for your website, just stop it. You will regret it as the search engines continue to de-emphasize links and penalize you for having the wrong links.
Now, that doesn’t mean to stop link building completely. It is still an important part of the equation and, done properly through article writing and guest posting, can help you build a stronger online presence.
Technology, the Internet and information transfer is evolving at an ever increasing pace. Having a website and getting it found online is way different than it was 10 years ago…even just 4 years ago! There is a lot of misinformation with regard to SEO and what to do/what not to do.
The gentleman in the video is noneother than Matt Cutts, head of webspam at Google. Basically this is the division of Google focused on eliminating spammy/unwanted websites from Google searches and maintaining an even playing field for businesses wanting to be found in Google searches.
Yep.
