The Rank Magic Blog
Can Your Competitors Sabotage Your Search Engine Rankings?
October 30, 2005 :::
Up until now, its always been thought that there was nothing a competitor could
do to damage your rankings in the search engines, other than by making their
site better and more relevant than yours. But it looks like the latest Google
algorithm change has introduced a loophole that could allow an unscrupulous
competitor to force your web site out of the Google listings altogether. Yikes!
Michael Pedone writes about this in SearchEngineWatch.com. He explains the
loophole and offers some advice on what Google needs to do to correct the
problem. He writes:
A small loophole has turned into a devastating black hole, sucking in and wiping
out countless quality websites in the process. And it just may be their
competitors sending them into the abyss.
Is your head spinning yet? I mean, it was bad enough knowing that with every
Google update, your business may go up or down in the rankings depending on the
whims of the Google geeks. But now add into the mix the fact that your
competitors also have a hand in your search engine health and wellness ... well,
Houston, we have a problem. |
October 28, 2005 :::
You may have noticed that
Google is currently updating its ranking algorithm. This seems to be a major
update because many people are reporting significant in their rankings. The
PageRank of www.MSN.com dropped
to PageRank 2 in this latest update so there really seem to be some big changes
in the new algorithm.
Google engineer Matt Cutts more
or less denies that this is a big update in his
blog:
"These days rather than
having a large monolithic update, Google tends to have smaller (and more
frequent) individual launches. [...]
My point is that more than ever, we are constantly working to improve our
algorithms and scoring. Some changes are hardly noticed at all. Some changes
(e.g. user interface improvements) are more visible. Some changes have nothing
to do with spam [...] Some changes do try to decrease spam or increase core
quality. [...]
And again, these PageRanks and backlinks have already been incorporated into
scoring a while back (Google updates PageRank continually and continuously), but
some people just love to look at PageRanks.)" |
There are a few factors that seem to be important
in this update:
-
Hidden text spam seems to be more penalized. While
most search engines consider white text on white background spamming, it seems
that Google now also recognizes text that is hidden in invisible CSS layers. (CSS
is a technical web coding protocol. Invisible CSS layers work like white text
on a white background: they show some text to the search engines that normal
people visiting your page can't see.)
-
Links from automated link exchanges and text link
advertising systems seem to count less.
-
As with every algorithm update, Google tries to
remove the spam from its database with this update.
How should you react?
First of all, don't panic. If your web site rankings have dropped, wait another
week to make sure that the index update is over. If your web site is still not
listed, take a look at what you might have done wrong.
If you use CSS to hide text on your web pages, remove
it. Google doesn't seem to like that at all. If you use other
techniques that might be considered spam, remove them from your pages.
If you have a links page, do not use a link exchange system with a central
server but host your link pages on your own web site. Being part of a
centralized system makes your web site vulnerable if the centralized system is
considered spam.
October 22, 2005 :::
Jacob Nielson, the
famous usability expert, recently did an experiment that shows web content
designed for lower literacy users helps higher literacy users, too. Apparently
30% of web users are "low-literacy" users; these are people who can read, but
who have difficulty doing so. This is not a function of intelligence; many
people with dyslexia are highly intelligent.
Nielsen says "The most notable difference between lower- and higher-literacy
users is that lower-literacy users can't understand a text by glancing at it.
They must read word for word and often spend considerable time trying to
understand multi-syllabic words."
His article covers the characteristics of low-literacy users, how to
improve usability for low literacy users, how large the low-literacy population
is, and who should care about low-literacy users.
I found fascinating his study that shows improving usability for low-literacy
users significantly helps higher-literacy users as well, at the 5% level of
significance.
I
recommend his article.
October 17, 2005 :::
Tricking search engines with techniques such as cloaking, doorway pages and
other dodgy tricks might be tempting because it seems that you can save so much
time and effort with them.
Be very careful with that. Search engines don't like to be tricked. It
compromises the accuracy and value of their results. You might get away with
this for awhile but as soon as search engines find out that you're tricking
them, they will ban your site.
October 12, 2005 :::
Search engine market shares for August 2005: Google - 45.9%, Yahoo! - 23.2%, MSN - 11% by ZDNet's ZDNet Research -- The total number of online searches in August 2005 topped 5
billion, with the leading three Web portals accounting for 80% of them, Nielsen//NetRatings
said. Google was #1 with 45.9% of all searches, followed by Yahoo with 23.2%;
and MSN with 11%. MSN lost market share from July 2005, when it had 12.2%.
Google and Yahoo gained 1.2% and 1.4%, respectively. The average Web searcher
conducted nearly 42 searches, a 7% increase from the previous month.
October 11, 2005 ::: "The only working
feature on the fake Google Toolbar saves credit card details, according to
Christopher Boyd, the security research manager of Foster City, Calif.-based
FaceTime Security Labs."
From a story on eWeek.com.
October 8, 2005 ::: "Geri Agalia doesn't
appear to leave less of a data trail than most Americans. She has a phone in her
name, a bank account, utility bills, a mortgage and a credit card. But the
stay-at-home mom and part-time student is among a select and ever-shrinking
group of the digitally privileged -- her name does not appear on Google."
From Wired.com.
October 5, 2005 ::: RankAttack is a new
"black hat" search engine optimization tool that claims to get top search engine
rankings quickly and with little or no effort. They claim:
"RankAttack Technology is one of the most aggressive SEO packages available. It
does not use traditional technology nor does it follow the typical procedures
outlined under standard SEO concept. RankAttack is different then anything you
have ever seen. This technology is brand new and the engines are not ready for
the effect it will have on the SEO industry. If you are actively seeking to
compete for placement on the search engines -- you need this program in your
toolbox."
[from their web site]
 Ethical
SEO practitioners will know just from the above that these techniques do not
comply with search engine terms of service. That means if you use these
techniques and the search engines catch on, woe is you!
Here are a few places on the web that have been covering this story since the
first of the month:
CJK
CyberMedia.com
SEO Chat
Forum
Matt
Cutts Blog on Gadgets, Google, and SEO
October 1, 2005 ::: Our latest article has
just appeared on Entrepreneur Magazine's web site. It's titled
Improve Your Website's Reputation. If you're ignoring your link
popularity--the number and quality of other sites that link to yours--your
search engine rankings will suffer. Find out what makes good links and how to
get them.
Intro:
How well you rank in the
search engines when someone searches for your products or services is
a function of two things: relevance and reputation.
Relevance has to do with how easily the search engines can tell
if your page is relevant to the terms that were searched for. That's
addressed through classic search engine optimization techniques for
enhancing on-page keyword relevance.
Reputation, on the other hand, is measured by your link
popularity, which is the number and quality of websites that link to
you. Search engines view incoming links as "votes" for the quality of
your site by the websites that link to you. So obviously, it's
critical to obtain a good number of inbound links to your site.
But ... not all links are created equal, and it's important to
understand why, especially if you want to improve your link
popularity.
This article provides concrete strategies that'll spell out just where
to look for links, how to evaluate potential links and -- when you
request a link -- how to specify the exact link you want. |
|
October
2005
|
Comments?
If you'd like to
contribute to the blog with an opinion, observation or question, please
drop us an email
|
Archives
Current
May, 2008
April, 2008
March, 2008
February, 2008
January, 2008
LAST YEAR ...
December, 2007
November, 2007
October, 2007
September, 2007
August, 2007
July, 2007
June, 2007
May, 2007
April, 2007
March, 2007
February, 2007
January, 2007
THE YEAR BEFORE ...
December, 2006
November, 2006
October, 2006
September, 2006
August, 2006
July, 2006
June, 2006
May, 2006
April, 2006
March, 2006
February, 2006
January, 2006
THE YEAR BEFORE THAT ...
December, 2005
November. 2005
October, 2005
September, 2005
August, 2005
July, 2005
June,2005
May, 2005
April, 2005
March, 2005 |
|
