Filed Under Facebook, Google, Google Updates, Local Business Search, Search Engine Marketing General, Social Networking, Twitter, Website Promotion
The past two months have brought about some of the largest changes in a short space of time I have seen from Google. What do these changes mean to your site? Well, depending on the current level of SEO/Web Promotion being done on your site, it may mean very little. If you are on a lower budget, or not doing any SEO work at all, it could considerably impact on your business.
So here are some of the most important changes:
While Google Personalised search has been in place for quite some time now, previously this only worked when logged into a Google Account. On 4th December 2009, Google announced that they will be opening this up to everyone, whether you are signed into an account or not.
In the past couple of years, Google blended the search listings from images, video, blogs, news etc… into a system called Universal Search. Which have been incorporated into the natural listings, pushing many sites off the first page. Now we have social media sites such as Twitter, and Facebook showing up in Google results, and is one of the reasons social media/networking optimisation has become an important piece of search.
Google local is the small map and related results you will very often see in Google results. More frequently you will notice that these results no longer appear just based on using a suburb within your search, and will appear in more general searches. What this really means is if you were doing well in the lower 5 results or so of Google, is that your site will now be much harder to see.
Real time search is where information just added onto Twitter or Facebook, and other sites, will immediately appear within Google’s results. While we are seeing very little of this in Australian results as of yet, this will be a major change to come in 2010, and will potentially have a large impact on sites currently doing well at the top of the search engines.
Google are also now using site speed as a factor in rankings sites according to how quickly though load. This means sites that are very ‘image heavy’, and have a lot of video or Flash Animation, may find their rankings drop.
Social Media/NetworkingTwitter, Facebook, YouTube and other Social Media/Networking have been around for a long time now, but with the changes to Google in terms of including listing these within their results, having a presence within Social sites such as these is becoming a very important part of your web marketing campaign. Not all Social Media sites are suitable for all businesses, so it is important to select the right solution to match your business.
As you will see, these are large changes that make web promotion more complex, and require changes in strategy to keep you driving effective traffic to your website.
Filed Under Facebook, Google, Link Promotion, News & Updates, Search Engine Marketing General, Social Networking, Tips, Twitter, Website Content, Website Design, Website Promotion
Are you going through the process of a website rebuild?
There are some very important points to take note of during this process, to make sure that your site:
Each page in your website will very often have an associated rank, especially with Google. If your page is named www.website.com.au/page.html, and in the new site this exact page is now called www.website.com.au/new-page.html then Google will view this as a new page, and your rankings could start from scratch.
Of course wherever possible keep the old page names exactly the same as the original names.
A 301 redirect in a .htaccess file on the server is the best way of doing this. The 301 redirect is a command that shows you have moved that page permanently. You may still find a temporary drop in rankings of pages within your site, but from experience, I have found that this generally ranges between no time at all, and a two to three weeks.
Please note, the above reference to a 301 redirect will not work on a windows server. Refer to your Windows hosting support for this reference.
Other important elements to think of, that can also affect your search engine rankings, as well as lost traffic/business.
Please note, that using the 301 redirect method will certainly ensure there are no broken links, however it will not pass on the same SEO value associated with each site link, so it is important to update as many of these links as possible, to ensure minimal impact to your site.
If you need help with your site move, contact us today for a quote.
Filed Under Google, Google Updates, Tips, Unethical SEO, Website Content, Website Promotion, Website Security
Has Google penalised or banned your site in the past or currently? These days, many businesses have a strong reliance on Google, and as such, a drop in rankings for whatever reason can be a cause of great stress. At times a drop in rankings may be caused simply by Google changing their algorithm, but it can also be due to a Google penalty.
So what do you do?
Well firstly, don’t panic. It is important to wait at least a few days to a week, to make sure that the cause of the drop is not due to an algorithm change. An algorithm change can make your site drop a few places, a few pages, or even drop from the rankings altogether. During this time:
If nothing obvious has been the cause, and your site is still not appearing after a week, have your SEO expert conduct a thorough full site analysis to determine anything that has caused the penalty. If you are still not getting answers, or your SEO expert is not able to help, call us today for a full analysis of your website. We specialise in search engine services, and keep up-to-date on the right techniques to help keep you at the top of Google.
You may also be interested in this video below:
Author Note: During the interview, it is mentioned that ‘link building can never hurt’. We disagree with this, and you should consult with an SEO expert before you commit to any link building within this time.
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