Latest Google Algorithm Update
Google has released a new update to their ranking algorithm this week, aimed at isolating and penalizing websites that use particular spam techniques. From the official blog post:
“In the next few days, we’re launching an important algorithm change targeted at webspam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines.”
So what constitutes a violation of Google guidelines? While deliberately avoiding being specific, Google has highlighted these tactics as problematic and likely to be targeted:
* Duplicate Content
* Keyword Stuffing
* Link Schemes
* Cloaking
* Deliberate Redirects
* Doorway / Gateway Pages
The Next 10 Online Trends
It’s never been harder to keep up with the latest web trends with the expansion onto mobile platforms, the growth of social media and the need for start ups to be aware of new SEO techniques.
As a result, we’ve assembled a team of web experts to help you and your business keep on top of the most important trends on the web. Constructing a mobile website, creating social media campaigns and selling online are just some of the challenges businesses will face.
Here are top online trends for the next 12 months.
The Google Duplicate Content Penalty
The truth of the Google duplicate content penalty is quite simply that there is none! If that confuses you, then you have been reading too many misinformed forums or blogs where people get stuck on some popular term that they have no idea what it means, and then profess to be experts.
The only experts on the Google duplicate content penalty, and the only people who are qualified to define it, are Google, and in Google’s own words “There is no such thing as a duplicate content penalty”. This comes directly from Google’s Webmaster Central Blog.
That should be the end of this article, at precisely 96 words excluding title as I define my word count. But it is not. Why? Because even though this blog is operated by Google, and even though much the same has been stated by Matt Cutts, Google’s main software engineer, and other Google experts, people still argue and complain about the Google ‘duplicate content penalty’.
So here is the truth: you might ask who am I to know the truth, but I read all the Google blogs and their official statements, and in applying what I learn, I achieve excellent results for my web pages on Google search engine listings: and those of Yahoo, MSN and Bing. So I am coming from a sound base that my results can prove.
Generating Targeted Traffic
Without traffic, a website sits unobserved and unvisited in the blackness of cyberspace. So, website owners go through great expense to find traffic. But they don’t want just ANY type of traffic. It needs to be targeted. This type of traffic is the “holy grail” for webmasters that are looking for sales results from their websites. It’s a fairly simple concept. You want, for your “rain umbrella” site, customers coming to you that typed in, ideally, “buy rain umbrellas.”
Now, one of the problems with generating targeted web traffic is the fact that there are likely a lot of webmasters out there trying for the same thing. Competition, in other words. It can appear daunting, but if you keep the following tips in mind, and you work at them, you can increase the targeted traffic to your website for what is called your “buyer keywords.”
Online Searches have finally overtaken phone books
Online search engines have replaced phone books for 54% of Americans searching for local businesses. As a result, it is now more important than ever for businesses to ensure that they have a high-quality online presence. If not, they may never truly realize the power and potential of the Internet to deliver qualified, low-cost sales leads.
It’s widely accepted that businesses that market online have the ability to both reduce their overall marketing costs while also reaching more targeted prospects in order to add to their bottom line. The Internet is no-longer up-and-coming: it’s here and now, and if you’re not leveraging it to its full potential for your business, you are significantly reducing the effectiveness of your marketing. If you’re currently using direct mail or display advertising as a part of your overall strategy, the Internet can help slash these costs and can even improve response rates from within the local community.
