SEO
Google Webmaster Tools Now Sees Subdomains As Internal Links
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011 | SEO | No Comments
A previous post of mine Subdomains – Pros and Cons for SEO/ explained how search engines were seeing subdomains as a separate website to the naked domain.
This has some serious points for consideration when deciding whether to use a subdomain from an SEO perspective as any link juice from the root domain may not be shared onto the subdomain.
However a recent announcement by Google Webmaster blog has changed this strategy as now subdomains are regarded as internal links in Google Webmaster Tools.
So what does this mean?
Basically links from subdomains such as cats.example.com or pets.example.com will also be categorised as internal links for www.example.com.
| Links for www.google.com | External links | Internal links |
| Previously categorised as… | www.example.com/
www.example.org/stuff.html scholar.google.com/ sketchup.google.com/ google.com/ |
www.google.com/
www.google.com/stuff.html www.google.com/support/webmasters/ |
| Now categorised as… | www.example.com/
www.example.org/stuff.html |
scholar.google.com/
sketchup.google.com/ google.com/ www.google.com/ www.google.com/stuff.html www.google.com/support/webmasters/ |
Large publishing networks such as ninemsn often use subdomains for different aspects of their site i.e. News, weather etc – linking from subdomains to other subdmains on their own network will have previously given authority as these subdomains were treated as separate websites but now this network linking will only contribute to each as an internal link.
For these large websites it is worth now considering external link building pratices outside of their network directly to the relevant subdomains to aid authority in each aspect of the site.
Note that, if you own a root domain like example.com or www.example.com, your number of external links may appear to go down with this change; this is because, as described above, some of the URLs we were previously classifying as external links will have moved into the internal links report. Your total number of links (internal + external) should not be affected by this change.
Everybody loves an Infographic – Infographics in SEO
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011 | SEO | No Comments
Anyone who spotted the Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors as featured on SearchEngineLand.com will know this quirky little illustration summed up basic ranking factors in a niffty graphic that people can share with their pals.
That is the beauty of inforgraphics, if the are interesting or relevant enough people will share them. And did they ever! check out the shares on this one!
Now as previously mentioned social signals are important to driving traffic after all if you can get people to spread the word about you, your product or your service then volia! your reach increases considerably making it great for increasing traffic.
What to remember if producing an infographic-
- Make it simple – don’t over egg the pudding with snazzy graphics if it means the infrographic is confusing or does not tell a story
- Provide something useful – make sure that it has a “stickiness” to it, that people want to read on and find the information on it useful so they might want to pass it around
- Consider technical issues – the aim is to get people to share this so consider making that easy for them, offer them the code to embed on their own sites and blogs, don’t make the image too large in physical size and file size
- Include a back link – now you want people to share this but if they are going to find it useful enough to promote on their own websites why not ensure that in the embed code you include a back link to your site to help with link building
- Optimise the image – if your subject is around stats on a certain subject ensure the title etc is relevant to a search around this subject. Also make use of the ALT and TITLE attribute to allow for it to be found via Google images.
- Make it relevant – make sure it relates to you, your business or your service, develop a page to place it on and optimise this page around the subject of the inforgraphic to allow for a better chance of this page ranking. (don’t forget all your share buttons and embedded code elements on this page also)
And there you go. Whether you are producing an infographic for link baiting, link building or to help drive traffic and increase your reach bear one thing in mind…make it shareable!
Track your Social Signals in Google Analytics and Webmaster tools
Thursday, June 30th, 2011 | SEO | No Comments
Its been a busy couple of weeks for Google, with the launch of their +1 and Google+ set to rival Facebook they are proving to have their finger on the pulse when it comes to becoming more social after appearing to be a little reluctant to jump on the social band wagon.
Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools have added new tools for tracking the impact of tweets, likes, +1s & more on your website’s traffic.
Google Webmaster Tools now allows you to report on the impact of the +1 Button and how this can affect your click through rate. You can also view the new “Activity Report” within Webmaster Tools which will help you see how many +1’s your site pages have received
A great new tool launched within Google Analytics is the Social Plugin Tracking tools. This not only tracks +1s but other Social Signals such as Twitter tweets, Facebook Likes and Facebook Sends.
Google recently admitted that Social Signals now do play a part in ranking success and this is backed up in a study by SEOmoz’s Rand Fishkin for the new Ranking Factors for 2011 have been revealed with Social Signals play a significant part.
The Social Plugin Tracking allows you to create three reports: Social Engagement, Social Actions and Social Pages.
Social Engagement tracks behavior changes (time on site, pageviews, bounce rate, etc.) for visits from social plugins.
Social Actions tracks the number of social actions users take on your site,
Social Pages compares your pages on the number of social actions they are receiving.
These new tools offers a greater insight into Social Signals and the impact of such on your website. Especially how Social Signals are driving traffic to your website.
This is invaluable data and means web masters can better devise a social strategy to aid website rankings.
PageRank – what does it mean for linking strategies?
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011 | SEO | No Comments
For many search marketers PageRank is an important factor both on their own website and those they approach for backlinks – and rightly so, PageRank needs to be a key consideration when devising an effective strategy.
The PageRank is a numerical value assigned by Google that represents the importance of that page on the web.
A higher PageRank can be achieved by another relevant and highly PageRanked website linking to your site. This will act as a “vote” for your site from theirs and you inherit reputation for this.
However it is worth noting that PageRank is called PageRank as it applies to the page of a website only, not the whole website. For example, the PageRank (or PR) of a websites homepage can greatly differ from that same websites privacy policy page. This is mainly due to the fact that typically the homepage of a site will acquire the most backlinks and deeper pages, although maybe more relevant, tend to be harder to promote via backlinks from other websites.
Search marketers need to ensure this is taken into account when devising a linking strategy. If part of the strategy applies to directory submissions for example, it is worth noting the PageRank of the page within the directory’s category that the link will appear.
Just because a website has a homepage with a PageRank of 5 doesn’t mean that every page within the site will be attributed with this level of PR. If fact, generally speaking, the deeper the link the lower the PageRank.
However, if a website has a homepage rank of 5 it indicates this site is reputable and will be frequently crawled, giving your link a good chance of being picked up even if it appears deep within the directory.
Quality V Relevance
So is a backlink from a PageRank 5 page better than a website which shares common themes with yours and is therefore highly relevant to the keywords you want to rank for? This is the $64 million question.
Both play a part but lower PageRank sites can rank very well for keyword relevant to your website, same as websites with high PageRanks and limited content quality can rank highly and are seen as reputable thus contributing to your own PageRank should a backlink be granted.
So the question you need to ask yourself is are you more interested in link reputation and gaining a higher PR for your own website or are you looking for improving your ranking for specific keywords quickly?
The ideal solution is to use a blend of both strategies. It could be argued that a small sacrifice could be made in PageRank if the site is highly relevant as it is not always possible to achieve both.
HAPPY LINKING.
Advice for those who have lost rankings in the recent Google The Farmer/Panda Update
Friday, March 11th, 2011 | SEO | No Comments
Google have written a new algorithm to combat content farms and to help eliminate these from the search engine results pages.
The aim of the update was to target sites with the following and stop them from ranking on the SERPs:
- Shallow content (not enough content to be useful)
- Poorly written content
- Content copied from other sites
- Content that’s not useful
The update has been met with mixed emotions as some legitimate sites have suffered lost rankings due to the update. Google have acknowledged this and are implementing an extra layer to the algorithm to accommodate for this.
However it is worth noting that although this update is targeting content quality there are other factors being taken into account when your site is assessed.
Bounce rate for instance, if visitors are not spending a decent amount of time on your site i.e. not enough time to read the articles and content it is an indication that the content is not compelling or useful.
Brand awareness and credibility also play a part in the bigger picture of whether your site will be targeted. Design and user experience need to be considered as well.
Some advice from Matthew Brown of AudienceWise (previously with the NY Times) given at the recent SMX West event was:
- Getting rid of poor quality pages entirely (redirect them if it makes sense, otherwise 404 them)
- Building out brand signals
- Working on promotion and engagement
The key advice to those who have lost rankings is to remember that it’s the quality of the content that’s at issue and this is not exclusively targeted to content farm sites.
At the moment the changes have only been rolled out in the US so the full scale of the impact still remains to be seen.
Latest Google algorithm change (Farmer Update) in US could mean a clamp down on content farms
Monday, February 28th, 2011 | SEO | 1 Comment
Google has finally taken a step towards weeding out content farms from search results. These sites have been a bain for many a user over the years and Google have announced an algorithmic change to help combat searchers frustration, affectionately named within the SEO community as the “Farmer Update”.
Officially, Google isn’t saying the algorithm change is targeting content farms. It is more targeted to those sites that scrape or automate content. This should reduce the chances that sites who use duplicated content from outranking the original source.
However this may indeed pose questions for those who use article sites to submit content as part of an offline strategy and whether this tactic will now be penalised.
In a recent article on SearchEngineLand by Danny Sullivan it appears that this should not be an issue as long as the content submitted is of course original and interesting and the sites themselves are of high page rank and relevance to the subject.
So far 12% of sites in U.S have seen drop in rankings, in particular article sites i.e. Hubpages.com, buzz article.
The long term effects of this Google algorithm change in other countries remains to be seen but for many SEO consultants now would be a good time to review your offsite strategies.
Best practice – ensure relevance to your subject and avoid spamming within your content. Make it interesting and compelling but be sure to watch this space as this could be a shake up of things to come from Google.
Preparing for the move
Tuesday, December 28th, 2010 | Career, Events, General Interest, SEO | No Comments
Well the countdown is on for the move to Sydney and I must say we are pretty organised, albeit I am flapping like a chicken and writing lists until they come out my ears. Flights are booked so no turning back now.
Living at my dads so his front room resembles some sort of storage facility but we are getting there with the packing.
Looking forward to starting my new SEO job, nerves are getting to me a bit but I am sure I will be fine, its like anything, you can have your doctorate in Nuclear Physics but start a new job and you can struggle working the fax machine!
Christmas as bizarre and a little bitter sweet, it was nice to have that family feeling of everyone coming together but knowing that a move of nearly 12,000 miles is pending its sad to think this may the last get together for some time.
Anyway on with the rest of the packing.
Open and Honest Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation Consultancy
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 | SEO | No Comments
A new company called Search Marketing Consultancy has emerged with the view to reveal those closely guarded secrets within SEO and Search Engine Marketing.
I believe this could be a very good move as it seems this industry often exploits peoples lack of knowledge. When providing a service to a business they may not want to know how everything works but I believe it a positive to offer them the tools carry out their own on line marketing strategy and best of all not be baffled by science!
Why shouldn’t SEOs be open and forthcoming with techniques – yes I know people want to work out the best strategies and stay ahead of the competition but by offering the everyman (or woman) the comprehension of what needs to be done and more importantly why and the potential affect on their business! Isn’t this above and beyond what most agencies offer?
I know this overt approach is definitely something I have not experienced working within agencies. Most SEO Managers will be reading this thinking “surely this approach makes us obsolete?” — no I don’t think so. Open and honest advice is the name of the game here so it can only excel our reputations. To long we have been tarred with the same brush as the cowboys out there (and there’s a lot of them with a copy of Dreamweaver thinking they can do SEO) I say lets take a different approach and embrace Search Marketing Consultancy’s ethos and values.
It seems too many online marketing and SEO agencies are out to take hard working peoples money and relish in the fact that not everyone understands search engines which is a shame – surely we can share this knowledge with them and help enhance their marketing from all sides.
I think this is a refreshing approach to SEO and Search Engine Marketing Consultancy.
Subdomains – Pros and Cons for SEO
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 | SEO | 4 Comments
I have recently been looking into the impact of subdomains on SEO, so I have put up a post about what I have found.
What is a Subdomain?
A subdomain is just as it sounds, a sub or second-level of a domain. A standard domain looks as follows: www.mydomain.com. A sub domain would be http://prefix.mydomain.com. Subdomains do not take on the “WWW”.
Subdomains will rank as well as regular domains however Search Engines will treat each subdomain as a new, individual site. This will mean new work on building PR and links.
It is a good idea to adopt subdomains if site is large and convoluted although there is alot of extra work involved in terms of SEO in order to get that subdomain ranked well.
Each subdomain should reflect a section of the site (used as an alternative to folders) but If the site is easy to navigate folders will be a better option as any back links, page rank optimisation can be inherited from the main domain without having to start again.
An advantage of subdomains is that If you were to submit to directories (i.e. Dmoz) you could submit each subdomain as its own individual category and not get penalized.
However it is worth noting that If a subdomain becomes banned will it will affect the main domain
• Don’t create pages with malicious behaviour, such as phishing or installing viruses, trojans, or other badware.
• Avoid “doorway” pages created just for search engines or other “cookie cutter” approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.
• If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.
If you determine that your site doesn’t meet these guidelines, you can modify your site so that it does and then submit your site for reconsideration.
Meta Tags Quick Tips
Thursday, November 19th, 2009 | Career, General Interest, SEO | 2 Comments
For those of you who find a distinct lack of creative inspiration when it comes to writing meta tags you are not alone. I also feel slightly perplexed when it comes to writing meta as common knowledge will tell you that the tags need to be unique and not duplicated across a site it can be quiet a challenge, especially on larger websites.
I have also read various “guides” on writing meta and all seem to suggest that the keywords meta tag is now of little importance and not reviewed by some search engines. So that leaves the title tag and description. I can understand that the description tag is important as I have seen it used as the excerpt on SERPs so this needs to be thought about.
So here are a few of my thoughts on writing meta tags – hopefully it is helpful
Title Meta Tag
Include the keyword or phrase the page is trying to be optimised for as the primary keyword followed by any secondary keywords which will reinforce it i.e.
Primary Keyword – Secondary Keywords | Brand
Or
Brand | Primary Keyword and Secondary Keywords
If you are trying to rank for a very competitive term, I have found that it is best to include the keyword at the beginning of the title tag. If you are competing for a less competitive term and branding can help make a difference in click through rates, it is best to put the brand name first.
Description Meta Tag
Acknowledged by all search engines so this is important and needs to be included on all pages and be unique per page.
Summarise the page as best you can using the pre-defined primary and secondary keywords and limit it to 170 characters or 200 characters.
This requires using the most creative juices and you need to ensure it is coherent.
Keywords Meta Tag
This is more important for Yahoo then Google or Bing – try and limit to no more than 10-15 keywords to a page.
Include the keyword of phrase the page is trying to be optimised for first.
KeywordsMore important for Yahoo then Google or Bing – no more than 10-15 keywords to a pageTo include the keyword of phrase the page is trying to be optimised for first:
Ads
Pages
Recent Posts
Businesses
Social
