Understanding Google Penalties

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Posted on 10th September 2009 by iansheldon in Search Engine Optimisation

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Search Engine Optimisation techniques vary, from white hat techniques such as Link Building, Content Copy Writing and Blogging to black hat techniques bordering on SPAMMING.   Googles main aim is to provide a trust worthy search service, presenting search users with a list of useful web sites based on their search criteria.

Some, although not all, of the known black hat techniques can quickly get you to the top of the Google rankings for your chosen keyword.  In the short term you can yield some excellent results, enquiries and conversions, but you will find that eventually your site will drop like a stone or in the worst case scenario dissapear completely.

Why does this happen?  You have been penalised by Google for using black hat techniques to promote your site.

This is one of the most frustrating things to happen for any SEO, or web site owner.

Depending on how serious your violations are (against the Google Webmaster Guidelines) depends on how serious your penalty is.  In some cases you may only be blacklisted for a few weeks and you can correct your penalty by dropping your black hat techniques and working towards Googles Webmaster Guidelines.  In the most serious cases web sites have been known to dissapear completely from the rankings forever.

There are two major levels of penalty that have been reported, the -30 and the -950.

The-30 penalty basically does what it says on the tin.  It drops your web site ranking by 30 places.  Minus 30 penalty is one that filters for handling spam in Google algorithm.  The only solution to get around this penalty is to have unique content on your site, to get links from well trusted sites and to link to high quality sites.

The -950 penalty is a different beast altogether.  It only affects precise URLs for particular keywords.  However, the -950 is also the harshest penalty and web sites can be dropped to the bottom of the results for the given keywords. How can this be avoided?  The only thing you can do is to stick to the Google Webmaster Guidelines and stick to White Hat SEO tactics.

If you have been penalised by Google then don’t take it out on the Search Engine.  You have been penalised for a reason and it’s nearly always down to the techniques that have been used in an attempt to promote your web site.

The Power of the Niche Market – and how to harness it

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Posted on 17th March 2009 by iansheldon in Random thoughts

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I’ve recently been working on an online dating site for a client and friend of mine and it’s raised a few eyebrows.

Over the last few years I have seen adverts for paid online dating web sites on the T.V, namely Match.com and the business model they use is based on income from monthly subscribers.  The free dating model, however is something totally different.

I read an article today about a guy who is making thousands of dollars a day (literally) from running a free dating site in collaboration with Google Adsense.  So how does he do it?  If it were that easy we would all be doing it but essentially its all about knowing how to get your site seen on the search engines, which brings us back full circle to Search Engine Optimisation (or Search Engine Marketing if you will).

Without some form of SEO no site will succeed.  SEO is all about getting site visitors to you and then getting them to engage and take action on what your site has to offer.  Take one away from the other and you are treading water in quicksand.

So, in summary, find your Niche and stick to it.  Good SEO can take time but the key is not to give up – if you give up you fail.

SEO – Some frequently asked questions

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Posted on 29th January 2009 by admin in Search Engine Optimisation

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We are often asked questions with regards to Search Engine Optimisation, whats involved, how much it costs and how long its going to take.  Here a few FAQ’s to help get the ball rolling for anyone considering SEO.

What is search engine optimisation?

Search engines have different criterion to measure web page importance. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of increasing the importance of a web page with the goal of getting the page positioned at the top of the search results.

How long will it take for my web site to get to the top of the search engines?

Most often SEO is a long term process. Getting a new site indexed in the major search engines could take several days to a few months. But getting good positioning in the search engine is a longer process and can take up to a year or longer. There is no way to determine how long it will take to achieve desired positioning. Patience is the key to search engine optimisation.

How much traffic will my web site gain from SEO?

The traffic you get will depend on what keyword phrases you optimise your web pages for and what positioning your site achieves. If you optimize for less competitive keyword phrases you may gain a top position but receive very little traffic. Optimising for competitive keyword phrases and achieving a top position will increase your traffic. However, if you are optimised for the wrong keyword phrases you could achieve higher traffic that results in low conversions.

What will you do to optimise my web site?

Current SEO trends include: back linking, html and title tags, content copy, anchor link text and keyword analysis. Depending on your situation all or a few of these methods will be used.

How often will you submit my site to the search engines?

Your web site should only need submitting to the search engines once.  Submitting to search engines is an outdated SEO technique. With proper back linking major search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask Jeeves will crawl and index your site naturally. Most of the smaller search engines pull their information from the major search engines and directories such as Google, Yahoo and DMOZ, so there is no need to submit to the smaller search engines. Time is better spent back linking to relevant web sites and submitting to relevant directories.

How much does SEO cost?

SEO services range from several hundred pounds to thousands. Some web site owners spend over £20,000 per year on search engine optimization. Many SEOs will custom a SEO package to fit your budget. Our average price is around £5,000 per year.

What is backlinking?

Backlinking, or link campaign, is one of the most important aspects of the SEO process. Back linking involves getting other relevant web sites to create links to your web site. The text used in your back links is also very important. It should contain your most desirable keyword phrases. Many web sites have very high positioning in Google without meeting any other SEO criterion except for back links.

Do you pay to have my site listed in a search engine?

No, we do not pay for inclusion into any search engine; however, we do occasionally purchase back links.

Do you offer a guarantee?

No SEO can guarantee a position in the search engines, but you shoud look for guarantees that your web site will be optimised by current SEO trends and requirements and that your positioning will improve. We do not guarantee a particular position in any search engine, nor do we guarantee any particular amount of traffic or sales improvements.

Why do I need search engine optimisation?

SEO is essential to increasing your web presence. SEO takes research and patience, and if you are running an e-commerce web site without SEO then you are missing out on one of your greatest Internet traffic resources. SEO can make the difference between success or failure of an e-commerce venture.

Why does search engine optimisation take so long?

As search engine optimisers, we are sometimes competing with millions of web pages for positioning of a single web page. Many of these web pages are highly optimized due to being several years old and having thousands of back links, therefore, establishing a web presence among these highly optimized web pages is often a long term project requiring considerable effort.

Why did my web site disappear from Google?

Assuming your web site wasn’t penalised for spamming or over optimising, your web site might have disappeared due to the Google sandbox or other delays. It is very common for a new web site to disappear from Google for up to a year. Many in the professional SEO community believe this is a type of a web site quality control technique being used by Google. There is really nothing that can be done about the disappearance of a web site except to use the time wisely . The best approach during this period is to gain relevant back links and continue to improve on your web page content.