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Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) News

Jan 2010: Link Building Changes

A recent Google patent application gave an insight into how they rate links.

Going forward, not every link is weighted or valued the same. Google is weighting them based on how likely a "reasonable surfer" would be to click on that link. Specifically, Google is looking at 2 things:

1. link visibility (placement and appearance)
2. link relevance

So, no more small text links in footers, no more links buried in comment spam, no more link exchanges where your link sites on a link page with a bunch of others. You need quality links that stand out and are likely to get the click.

(Hear that link spammers, no need to keep emailing to ask for link exchanges!)

Linking methods that are no longer as effective:

• Forum posting and blog commenting. (Still do it to add value to a conversation and help people but don"t count on link juice from it)
• Social bookmarking. It"s still a helpful resource so use it to be helpful but don"t count on link juice from this.
• Bulk directory submission. This has been a bad idea for a while but it"s worth repeating.
• Bulk link exchange. Bad idea and could result in penalties or being banned from the engines.

Linking methods that are effective:

• Guest blogging. Great way to get exposure for yourself and get a high quality link back to your site.
• Link baiting. This means just putting great content out there that acts as bait and people can"t resist linking to it. The content has to be really good and it really needs to be spread around.
• Press releases. With some effort and some luck, you can get a quality link from big media.
• Social Media. You can attract links via Twitter (and Facebook).
• Article Syndication. A great way to spread your content (but it has to be good)

Dec 2010: Insight into Google Local Search Factors

Google is placing a great deal of emphasis on local in its search results these days. In fact in some cases, it would appear to reduce the importance of ranking in the regular organic results.

Google talked a little about how local search ranking works today in a blog post on its Lat Long Blog, which includes a video of Google Product Manager Jeremy Sussman discussing the basics.

"Say you're in Union Square in New York City, and you want to find a nearby coffee shop, so you go to Google and type in 'coffee shops in Union Square, NYC'. You'll find a list of just what you typed in - local coffee shops near Union Square with all the basic information you would expect to find, such as name, address, and phone number, and if they exist, you'll also find reviews, ratings, and links to other relevant resources," he explains. "These organic listings are free to both the user and the business. We give you the best results we can find."

"Now, there are a variety of relevance factors Google uses to match or answer your search query, in this case, locating coffee shops near Union Square. Three of the key factors are: relevance, prominence, and distance," he continues. "Relevance is showing you only coffee shops and not unrelated businesses such as retailers, dry cleaners, and so on. Prominence is determined by how well known or prominent certain coffee shops are, based on sources across the web. Distance is easy. We calculate how far each coffee shop is from Union Square. And if you don't specify Union Square in your search, we'll show you coffee shops based on your general location."

Google recently launched Hotpot, a social recommendation engine for local search. You can read more about that here. Hotpot listings can show up anywhere business listings show up in Google search results.

Nov 2010: Google Now Lets You Preview Search Results Before You Click Them

Google have launched "Instant Previews", which gives users the ability to see a preview of the web page before they decide visit it (or not!). There is a magnifying glass icon next to every search result. When a user clicks or hovers over the magnifying glass, a screenshot of the page will appear on the right side of the search results page. This provides an at-a-glance view of the page's content without actually having to visit the site.

An important and useful element of the Preview is that it highlights the section of the page where the search term appears. This allows you to see at a glance what info related to your query is on the page.

Instant Preview means two very important things to you:

1. You should be using your keywords well, in informative and well written sentences. If your information looks lame or unhelpful, you are not likely to get the click.
2. Your page has to look professional, inviting, well organized and easy to use or you will likely not get the click.

The predominant trend in SEO and social media is to continue to make changes that enhance the users experience. If you don't follow suit and make sure your site creates a good user experience, you will get left behind and your business will suffer because of it.