Friday 11 October 2013

How to Use Google Disavow Tool ?


What is Google Disavow?

The disavow links tool launched in October 2012. Its purpose is simple: If there are some unnatural links in your link profile, Google Disavow can help you clean them up. The tool lets you submit a list of those sites from bad neighborhoods for Google’s consideration. Disavow will not remove the links, but it lets Google know you’d like to ignore them when it comes to your search rankings. But know this: the tool is not a cure all, and you should proceed with caution if you plan to use it as the primary means of cleaning up your link profile.

What To Do Before You Resort to Disavow

1. Gather Your Links:

You can use any source you want, but Google recommends downloading your Latest Links report directly from Webmaster Tools.  

i.  Login to your Google Webmaster account
ii. Choose the website you'd like to download the link profile of


iii. Under the "Who Links Most" section, click the more

 
iv.  Now there are two options you can choose
• "Download this table" – which downloads ALL your links
• "Download Latest Links" – which downloads all recent links


2. Analyze the link data:

As this tool enables in your webmaster tool account so you can easily analyze the back links through link audit summary.

3. Find the Bad Links:

You can do this two ways, with either automatic tools or manual analysis. Realistically, you should use both. Best Manual Analysis Resource:

Examples of Bad Link:

Here are some examples where inorganic links may appear:

Automated link exchanges
Low quality article and directory submissions
Artificial blog networks
Paid links
Fake Profiles
Blog Comment Spam
Widgetbait Tactics
Footer Link Spam
Artificial Blogrolls

The above examples typically exhibit characteristics of manipulative anchor text.

4. Formatting Counts:

Google rejects many disavow files because of bad formatting, but webmasters usually never know. Guidelines state the file type should be .txt only and “must be encoded UTF-8 or 7-bit ASCII.”

 

5. Visit the Google Disavow Link page and choose the website you'd like to disavow links from

  
6. Read Google's little warning message and click "Disavow Links"


7. Select the .txt file of the links you'd like cleared and upload

And you're done!
Now in the future if you want to make edits, Google keeps this .txt file available for download. You can download the file, add another link to ignore and then re-upload the .txt file for Google to process. 

Sunday 6 October 2013

Google Penguin 2.1 Update Live on 4th October 2013

A new Penguin update from Google has been confirmed.  Known as Penguin 5 to most in the search community, or Penguin 2.1 according to Google.  Google’s head of search engine spam, Matt Cutts, confirmed this update via a tweet which read:

Google Penguin 2.1 Now Live, penguin 2.1 update Oct 4, 2013 rolled out
  
Matt Cutts Tweet on Penguin 2.1


Check out the Tweet of Matt Cutts, Google’s Webspam Team Head regarding the launch of Penguin 2.1 update and the percentage of queries it affects.


Penguin 2.1 launching today. Affects ~1% of searches to a noticeable degree. More info on Penguin:


Previous Updates

Here are all the confirmed releases of Penguin to date:

  • Penguin 1 – On April 24th, 2012 the reign of the Penguin began, and impacted about 3.1% of all searches made through Google.
  • Penguin 2 – On May 26th, 2012 there was a second update which was far smaller, only affecting .1% of all queries.
  • Penguin 3 – October 5th, 2012 another update came out, this one only affecting .3% of searches.
  • Penguin 4 – (known by Google as Penguin 2.0) came out on May 22, 2013.  This was another significant update, affecting 2.3% of searches.
  • Penguin 5 – (known by Google as Penguin 2.1) was confirmed on October 4th, 2013 and is affecting 1% of searches made.

Now Google again come up with a new updated version of Penguin and has been rolled out already, so you all must be wondering how much this Google penguin update 2.1 is going to effect your website SEO?

Tips to recover from penguin 5

If you were penalized by this Penguin Update, you'll probably know when you go to the notable lower with targeted traffic that commences today as well as tomorrow. To recover your website, you will need do such things as disavow bad hyperlinks. Processing any reconsideration request doesn't help, because this is automated process. Until unless you don't remove bad links, you don't recover your website.

If your website previously penalized by Penguin and you have taken actions hopefully meant to correct that, today and tomorrow you can see the changes in your ranking. If you view a vast improvement with targeted traffic, that's an indicated that you've runway Penguin.

Sunday 29 September 2013

The New Google “Hummingbird” Algorithm Update:

Not content with taking away the little keyword data we had left this week, Google has again surprised the online marketing industry with a brand new algorithm.
Google marked its fifteenth anniversary on Thursday with a revision its search engine algorithm called "Hummingbird.

                  Google Hummingbird Update, What is Google Hummingbird, Google introduces new 'Hummingbird' search algorithm

What is Hummingbird?

It’s the name of the new search algorithm that Google is using, one that Google says should return better results.

The Google Hummingbird algorithm is essentially the “back end” or “engine” of Google’s organic search results. It understands our queries better than ever before. It has an effect on the knowledge graph and advanced search queries (especially when we ask Google questions). And it’s already in place, so we really don’t have to worry to much about upcoming algorithm or ranking changes. They’ve already happened.
Even if Hummingbird does fundamentally change search in the long term, its introduction went by relatively un-noticed as little more than a slight improvement in search results. And, though Google notes that the update covers about 90% of search queries worldwide, it will feel incremental from a user perspective. Marketers, however, should be cautious because the update brings a greater implication from both an operational and technical standpoint. Google continues to push towards a world where “Content is King,” and understanding user search intent is the end goal.

How will this affect your website’s organic search engine ranking?

The update will mean an improved user experience and a loss for law firm websites that do not have relevant content for users. Now, up to 40% of web traffic comes from mobile devices. Google’s Hummingbird update seeks to help users with voice-based search by providing them the most relevant results. If someone asks Google from their mobile phone, “Where can I find a criminal defense lawyer”, Google’s update should provide a local, relevant result.

Friday 27 September 2013

The Importance of W3C Validation


W3C Validation and SEO, How important is W3C validation for SEO?, What is W3C validation


W3C validation is the process of checking a websites code follows the formatting standards put up by the World Wide Web Consortium otherwise known as W3C, the main international web monitoring standards organization for the Internet. If you are planning to put up a professional website, you should know all the reasons why W3C validation is important and why your website should be W3C validated. If you fail to validate the pages of your website based on W3C standards, your website will most likely suffer from errors or poor traffic owing to poor formatting and readability. With more and more people using the internet each year, W3C validation should always be a top priority among website owners and website designers alike.

W3C validation not only functions as a code debugging tool to check for coding errors, it also makes sure that websites are formatted using international and professional W3C standards. The validation process involves checking the HTML, XHTML, and CSS code used in web pages to make sure they are well-formatted and well-structured. A validated website reflects the technical quality of all pages of the website. Aside from reflecting a professional designed and structured website, there are also many other reasons why your website should undergo web page validation including.



So, In A Nutshell, Here Are Some Basic Tips:

Use W3C to make sure your site is viewable in major browsers, especially Firefox & Safari
Test your site on mobile browsers
Check for all errors in HTML coding and fix them when possible
Pay attention to your programming errors and be aware of them when programming your next site
If you pay for a designer, put something in the contract that the site must pass W3C validation.


The Verdict Regarding W3C Validation and SEO:

At the end of the day, W3C validation doesn’t have a major impact on whether a website will rank.
There are other aspects of SEO that should be put at the forefront of a website’s strategy—content creation, link building, etc.—before worrying about W3C validation.
If you’re interested in seeing how your website validates with W3C, visit the Markup Validator.


Do you have an opinion about W3C validation and SEO?

Friday 6 September 2013

5 Panda Recovery Tips to Regain Your Website Traffic

Google Panda is an algorithm to change Google search rankings and was first released in 2011. The basic idea behind the change is to lower the ranking of low quality sites and mark the high quality sites in the top search results. It affects the ranking of an entire site rather than just the individual pages on a site.

There are several small business, e-commerce and big company websites that have faced Panda’s heat in the last few Panda Recovery Tips. However, it’s possible to recover a website smacked by Google’s Panda and regain the lost search engine rankings and traffic. But do you know the recovery tips?

If not, given below are five key tips that you can use to recover your website (in case it was hit) from Panda and regain organic traffic.
How To Recover From Panda, Panda Recovery



1. Quality Content: 
Quality content is a most important factor of a website or blog, not only for the panda but also to get quality traffic. Don't write simply one or two paragraphs with 50-100 words. This will mark your site in low quality list of Google search phenomenon.

In the post-Panda era of Google, top quality content is the backbone of your website. So, build it strong.

2. Site Speed:
Another great factor to recover from Google Panda is to speed up the site. Site speed is also most important to make visitors coming back to your site. There are many ways to speed up your site, some of them are:

Get rid of large images from your web pages
Try to put CSS in a single page, don't split up into many pages. Also the Javascript. Split the page into two, if your article is too long
 
3. Say Goodbye to Keyword Stuffing:

 The good old days are over! Keyword stuffing will not rank your website at the top in the new era of Google search. In fact, it will get your website caught by Google’s search algorithm and get penalized over and over again. To protect your website from future Panda attacks and recover from the last one, you should quit stuffing your web pages with keywords. And you should learn how to optimize a website in a way that your SEO falls into the white-hat category.

4. Go Social:

Today’s SEO is never complete without social signaling. If you want speedy recovery from Panda update and regain the lost traffic quickly, you should also pay serious attention to create as many social signals for your website content as possible. Start to use popular social networking websites like Google+, Facebook and Twitter. Make sure you promote your content really well so they get a good number of social shares on social media sites.

5. Design matters:

We should not judge the sites just by its cover, Google has stated openly that websites will be judged even by their looks. So, even when your website is non-commercial, ensure that it looks professional, well run and clean as a commercial site. Advertisements on the site seem just like the perfect way to make the site profitable however they are the double edge sword as well. In case you try to sell your products on that site, advertising will in turn cheapen commercial look of the site.

 


Thursday 5 September 2013

Google Penalty Checker – See How You’re Affected

This new tool from Fruition will quantify and visualize the impact of various Google Algorithm updates against any profile in your Google Analytics account.

Free, requires registration: http://fruition.net/google-penalty-checker-tool/


Check Your Site in Just Two Minutes: A How-To Guide


How it works: First, you have to create an account and connect your Google Analytics with this tool, which takes about a minute. Next, you’re guided to a diagram (below) which is a visual representation of how Google updates could affect your site.
This site allows you to determine whether a Google penalty has been applied to your Website. It’s called Fruition.

They offer a free basic plan which allows you to check two websites. Take a look at the result from my blog below.

seo friends - Free Google Penalty Checker Tool


  • Fruition analyses your Google Analytics data and checks your site for each Google update since the end of 2011.
  • It then shows the probable impact on your blog, be it positive, negative or otherwise.
  • By clicking on the Details link in the Description column, you can also find out what each Google update was for.
  • So you can get an idea of the types of things you need to do on your site to remedy each Google penalty.
  • In all probability, I got hit pretty hard by a couple of the updates but at least I have a better idea of what I need to work on!