Thursday, 26 April 2012 10:22

Some of you might have some questions. I know many people in the SEO circles and internet marketing communities are freaking out right now, wondering what to do? A lot of people have lost clients, some have lost money because now they don't know how to optimize their websites or handle their SEO campaigns for their clients.

My goal is to provide some answers and guidance to those of you freaking out right now!

A couple things we have noticed with our observations of the hundreds of websites we manage and many of the keywords we monitor is that this update didn't impact us very much at all.

This update seems to have effected websites that didn't do much backlinking as well as those that have done a lot of backlinking.

Here are a couple steps to avoid any problems with this update.

Using Profile links is no longer an effective way to rank websites. They are useless and Google doesn't like seeing them. Profile links such as twitter and web 2.0 properties are perfectly fine. Using message boards and online forums with profile links is now a no no and doesn't benefit your rankings at all. It will only hurt your rankings.

Some people in the past would use profile links to create a link pyramid or something similar, and mash up the profile links in RSS feeds so they will be indexed. RSS feeds also are not very important and have been associated by Google as trash links and now the google bot crawls maybe 5% of links in an RSS feed without passing any link juice.

If you are using black hat methods to spam out links, cloaking, doorway pages, hidden backlinks, chances are you are going to be hurting this update.

One of the companies that have been great at ranking high for competitive keywords in the web design niche, has lost all their rankings. The unfortunate thing about this is that the reason they were ranking was because of a free slideshow component that people can download and integrate on their website for free. This component has been downloaded thousands and thousands of times. How is this relevant? Because this company had hidden back links in their slideshow. Not only are they effected but EVERYONE that has used this slideshow is now effected because of the blackhat methods used to rank the website.

You may say... oh well this isn't fair, I didn't know! Of course, and no one is blaming you but according to Google you are responsible for your own website and your server. If you have malicious code, hidden backlinks, cloaked text, expect to be hit this update!

For those of you who want to know what the slideshow component was, it was put out by autson. They were ranking #1 for web design, web design company, and other high profile keywords.

Here is the beautiful thing about SEO. No matter what update that happens, there is a new way of doing things. Google makes an update that changes how things are done and SEO companies ADJUST and continue to perform their duties.

Let's get a couple things out there.. Google does not want you to intentionally screw up your websites to avoid over optimization. Google does not want you to remove backlinks, or any of this other garbage that you hear on the SEO forums. Ignore the myths and misinformation, stop learning from people who are learning as they go, what you hear on these message boards is utter nonsense most of the time.

Over optimization can mean keyword stuffing.. and what I have noticed is those that have been demoted in the SERPs have had a keyword density of 3.25-3.5%+. From what I have been able to tell in my own websites and my client's websites is that keyword density should NOW be around 2.5% for optimal results.

h1 tags, don't abuse them and don't stuff your keywords. If the heading is relevant, then use the h1 tag, if the heading contains multiple keywords then you're going to be in trouble. Keep it SIMPLE!

On Page Optimization You May NOT KNOW!

• Have the language tag in your html to explain which language the website is intended for. For multi-language websites, have it in the url for www.website.com/en/langauge as an example. Substitute the en for whichever language.
• Always have the doc type, xhtml, html, php, etc. Google bot likes seeing that!
• Declare your character encoding, such as UTF-8
• Make SURE you use an XML sitemap!
• For every h1 tag you use, plan on having 5-6 h2 tags to expand on the keyword and subjects.

This update really comes down to a few things that a lot of people aren't talking about. You always hear to build your website for people, not search engines, but what does that mean? That DOESN'T mean what you have been told.

It means optimizing the website in a way that it loads FASTER! Are you on a mediocre server, shared server that times out when you have more than 10 people on your website? Are you on a godaddy shared server? Move servers to one that is faster.. or move to a VPS or dedicated if you can afford it. Speed, and dependability are what matters quite a bit. iPage, Godaddy, lunarpages, 1and1 and other low grade hosts are not ideal.

Ask your web designer to use CSS sprites for images, this will speed up your website. You can also ask your graphic artist to reduce the file size of some of the bigger images.

Gzip, is another thing to use to improve website performance because it reduces the load time of your website.

NO FLASH... flash can be indexed... and some websites do well in flash, even rank. However, that isn't the norm, and it isn't likely to be the same for you! Websites with flash are not likely to be ranked highly. It also is a problem for user experience because it isn't compatible for each user.

Internal linking structure should be done in a way that it makes SENSE! Don't do it just because some SEO blog said to link all your pages with certain keywords. Do it because it will help the user know what is relevant.

I have noticed on many different websites in the SERPs that websites with YouTube Videos seem to be ranking well! Even sites that are clearly done by internet marketers with opt ins and a bunch of junk, seem to have a youtube video above the fold. It increases interaction, it keeps people on the website longer, possibly reduces bounce rate.

I have noticed on the sites I have that have gone up in the rankings, 50% of them have youtube videos above the fold.

Integrate youtube videos for your client websites. Even if you do not have similar results, you are increasing interaction and time on the website. The more time a possible client spends on your website, the less time they are searching for other companies you compete with!

Yes, I realize this is a very BOLD statement to make right now. I know many people cry wolf and say it is the end of this and that, and the whole 9 yards.

Let me continue this phrase by saying, SENUKE was NEVER a good program for SEO. Why? Because it only helps if you have a low competition niche and keyword. Now, it is less effective than just optimizing your title tags and being done with SEO.

Using an article spinner, and submitting to these websites is reducing relativity to your backlinking and your entire campaign. It isn't about HIGH QUALITY BACK LINKS OR HIGH QUALITY CONTENT... it is about RELEVANT content. Don't link to an affordable dentistry website if your article is about horse manure!

Backlinks to build with the new algorithm isn't much different than before. You have to avoid using profile links, irrelevant contextual backlinks, spammed article directory backlinks, spammed blog comments, etc.

When you build backlinks, you should focus on a couple things.

1.) Is this backlink for the search engine or for traffic?

2.)Is this backlinks shameless self promotion with no value added?

Focus on traffic. Focus on bringing RELEVANT traffic to your website. Have you heard about the dofollow vs. nofollow debate? Ignore it.. it isn't relevant and it is based on misinformation. A nofollow backlink is just as important. You need to focus on building up your traffic when you build your backlinks, don't do it just because you want a #1 ranking in google, do it because it can get you immediate traffic.

Yes! Social signals DEFINITELY help in ranking your website now. The more likes, the more shares, the more you're on twitter, linkedin and google + the better! Google wants a more social search, it matters. It will help you move up in the ranks.

Before you go crazy with blasting your followers and fans... you need to remember what you do in social networks and social media for SEO is different than what you should do in social media marketing. You will need to find a nice balance between!

If you have ignored social media until now, it isn't too late! Sign up, start figuring all this stuff out and be a student of your industry!

• Social Media / Social Signals
• Exact Match Domains
• Keyword domains and secondary pages for exact matches
• On page optimization for loading time
• Video integration
• Backlink Building For Traffic
• Lower Keyword Density

I also want to expand on the keyword domains. Even sub domains seem to be ranking better with this update. If your main keyword is SEO Company Alaska and you want to make your next keyword on another page SEO company USA, make your links structure appear as /seo-company-usa

Keywords in the URL are VERY important to your SEO.

Myths that I haven't been able to prove yet

There are a few myths, that may or may not be myths. I haven't been able to test effectively yet but I plan on doing so and will let everyone know of the outcome. I would recommend subscribing to my list on this website so you will receive updates and information on my results which I will find out in the next couple weeks or a month.

1.) Google Webmaster tools hurts your ranking

Not sure if it is true... I can see why it could and why it won't.

2.) Google Analytics can hurt your ranking.

I love analytics, and it hurts me knowing this could be a possibility. I have noticed the top 5 results in many competitive niches do not have Google analytics installed. This is kind of mind boggling to me!

I think I may test out piwiq on a new website I'm building to test the results.

The reason GA may hurt your rankings, in my opinion is because they can judge how relevant a site is to the visitors based on average time on the website, exit pages, and bounce rate.

We will see what happens.

Anyway... that's it for now, I will keep this updated, and would like your comments posted.