Google Penguin Update Recovery Tips and Advice

Struggling to know what to do in the wake of Google’s Penguin Update? Judging from all the comments and forum discussions we’ve seen, plenty are. We’ve got a little initial advice from Google on the topic, mixed with our own.

What Was Penguin?

The Penguin Update launched on April 24. It was a change to Google’s search results that was designed to punish pages that have been spamming Google. If you’re not familiar with spam, it’s when people do things like “keyword stuffing” or “cloaking” that violate Google’s guidelines. To learn more:

• Google Webmaster Guidelines
• Iolations & Search Engine Spam Penalties

Is Penguin Fully Live?

Sometimes it can take a few days for an update to fully rollout across all Google’s various data centers, which in turn means impacting all its search results. In this case, the rollout is complete. Google confirms that Penguin is fully live.

Was I Hit?

It’s easy to run some search, see that your site has gone and assume the worst. While Google does report some spamming offenses through Google Webmaster Central, it tells me there’s no way currently to log-in and know if the Penguin Update hit you.

My advice to people worried has been this. The update launched on April 24. Look at your search-related traffic from Google immediately after that date. Do you see a major drop compared with a day or two before? If so, you were probably hit by Penguin. See a rise in traffic? You probably benefited from Penguin. See no change? Then it really had no impact on you.

I ran this advice past Google; I was told it was good advice. It’s also exactly the same advice we and others have given people trying to understand if they were hit by the various Panda Updates over time.

How Do I Recover?

Since this was targeting spam, you need to remove any spam you might have. In some cases, Google may have sent messages to you about spam activity in the past. Messages may even be waiting for you in Google Webmaster Central, if you’ve never verified your account.

Obviously, correct anything that Google has flagged as spam with your site. If nothing’s been flagged — and you’re sure it was Penguin that hit you — then correct whatever you can think of that might be spam-like.

Within Google Webmaster Central, there’s the ability to file a reconsideration request. However, Google says this is an algorithmic change — IE, it’s a penalty that’s applied automatically, rather than a human at Google spotting some spam and applying what’s called a manual penality.

Because of that, Google said that reconsideration requests won’t help with Penguin. I was told:

Because this is an algorithmic change, Google has no plans to make manual exceptions. Webmasters cannot ask for reconsideration of their site, but we’re happy to hear feedback about the change on our webmaster forum.

What If Google’s Wrong!

Feel like Penguin has nabbed you for spamming incorrectly? As explained, there’s no reconsideration request process. As the statement above explains, you can post feedback through Google’s webmaster forum.

My advice is not to go in with the attitude that Google has wronged your site. Maybe it did, but Google’s more interested in whether its search results that are doing wrong by searchers.

Give an example of a search where maybe you were previously listed. Explain the quality of your site. Explain what remains, especially if what remains seems to be benefiting from spam or is of low quality.

Of course, giving examples like this is also seen by some as “outing,” and there’s a belief among some SEOs that it should never be done. Others disagree. If this bothers you, then at least explain the quality behind your site and what’s being missed by searchers, not an emphasis on things like how much traffic or business you’re losing.

Postscript: There’s now also a specific form you can use. See Penguin Update Peck Your Site By Mistake? Google’s Got A Form For That.

What About The Over-Optimization Penalty?

Google had initially warned that an “over-optimization” penalty was coming. This is the penalty it was talking about, but it has clarified that it’s not meant to target some hard-to-pin down “over-optimization” but rather outright spam.

What About Panda 3.5?

Yesterday, Google confirmed that it also released an update to its Panda algorithm, Panda 3.5, on April 19. Unlike Penguin, which is meant to target spam, Panda is designed to target pages that aren’t spam but aren’t great quality.

The date is important. If your traffic dropped on April 19 and never recovered, then you were probably hit by Panda rather than Penguin, and you need to follow advice for recovering from Panda, such as these:

• Your Site’s Traffic Has Plummeted Since Google’s Panda Update. Now What?
• Hit By Panda Update? Google Has 23 Questions To Ask Yourself To Improve
• 5 New Tactics For SEO Post-Panda
• Can You Dig Out Of Your Google Panda Hole By Offloading To Subdomains?
• Yet More Tips For Diagnosing & Fixing Panda Problems
• Google: Low PageRank & Bad Spelling May Go Hand-In-Hand; Panda, Too?

What About That Parked Domains Mistake?

Around April 17, a number of sites reported lost traffic. That turned out to be a problem with how Google was incorrectly classifying them as being parked domains.

If your traffic dropped around April 17, it’s probably related to that, especially if you recovered by April 18. It shouldn’t be responsible for any drop you might see after April 18. Rather, Panda and Penguin are more likely culprits.

What About All Those Link Warnings?

Around mid-March, Google began taking action against some blog networks that seemed chiefly designed just to generate links to those participating, in hopes of boosting rankings. Then around the end of March, Google also sent warnings about “artificial or unnatural links” to a variety of sites.

If you saw your traffic drop in mid-March, it could be for one of two reasons. First, Google might no longer be letting the traffic from the link networks you were in carry weight. You’re not penalized. You’re just not benefiting any longer. Second, Google might have actively attached a penalty to your site.

It’s really not clear which has happened to people. Getting a warning doesn’t necessarily mean you got a penalty, it seems. But we’ll try to confirm this more from Google in the coming days.

What About Negative SEO?

Especially in the past week, there’s been a huge rise in forum discussions that “negative SEO” is now a serious problem. The idea is that if being in a blog network or having paid links could hurt you, then anyone could point bad links to harm another site.

This fear has existed for years. It’s not new. It’s even something Google acknowledges can happen in some limited cases. The fact that we’ve not had many sites over the years complaining that negative SEO has hit them should be reassuring.

For most sites, it’s not a problem because good sites have enough good signals in their favor that bad ones stand out as an oddity. It’s more a liability for smaller sites that haven’t built my authority, in my view.

I’ll be following up in more depth on the current round of worries, and I’ll try to get Google to weigh in more on the fresh concerns.

Is Penguin Bad For Searchers, Small Businesses…

If you read forum discussions, the Penguin Update has ruined Google’s search results. The reality is difficult to tell.

Make no mistake, it’s easy to find plenty of weirdness in Google’s results, as I covered in yesterday’s post, Did Penguin Make Google’s Search Results Better Or Worse?

However, these still remain anecdotal reports. It’s always been possible to find oddities like this.

There’s been no mass outcry from ordinary Google searchers that it’s suddenly gotten worse. There’s also typically outcry mostly from publishers who have been harmed by updates and not from publishers who have gained. Those who’ve gained have no reason to speak up.

As a result, after any update, it’s always possible to come away with a skewed view that the sky is falling in terms of relevancy. The reactions I’ve seen to the Penguin Update? They could have all been drawn directly out of reactions from the Florida Update of 2003. This presentation I did for concerned publishers at the time are equally applicable today.

After that update, Google was accused of trying to do everything from put small businesses out-of-business to trying to get more AdWords cash out of big brands. And SEO was dead yet again.

If SEO is dead, it sure has been taking its time dying, as I’ve written in the past. If Google really does have a grand master plan to wipe out small businesses, then it’s going on 10 years now that it hasn’t managed to do it.

The reality is that I’d say the vast majority of small businesses are getting plenty of traffic from Google, real small businesses that make real things or provide real services.

Of course, if the definition of small business is someone who writes hundreds of articles for a blog, to carry Google’s or someone else’s ads alongside, then “spins” those articles using software into slightly different versions for three other blogs to carry more ads, then yes, those types of businesses are in danger. They were from the beginning, actually, and it’s surprising they’ve lasted so long.

None of that is meant to take away from anyone with a quality site who has been harmed by latest update. If Google’s screwing up on listing relevant sites, we want to know, and we sure want that corrected. But as someone who has witnessed Google updates for as far back as we’ve had Google — who can remember panic over updates with Excite that existed before Google — this seems fairly normal.

Search didn’t suddenly stop sending everyone traffic. Google didn’t just stop sending sites tons of traffic. A bunch of people were definitely hit, some of whom probably should have been hit. A bunch of people were rewarded, some of whom should have been rewarded. Most people probably noticed no change at all. Here’s hoping the people who were hit mistakenly, or who weren’t rewarded as they should have been, get corrected in future updates.

Read More

The Penguin Update - Google’s Webspam Algorithm Gets Official Name

Move over Panda, there’s a new Google update in town: Penguin. That’s the official name Google has given to the webspam algorithm that it released on Tuesday, 24 April 2012.

What’s An Update?

For those unfamiliar with Google updates, I’d recommend reading my Why Google Panda Is More A Ranking Factor Than Algorithm Update post from last year. It explains how Google has a variety of algorithms used to rank pages.

Google periodically changes these algorithms. When this happens, that’s known as an “update,” which in turn has an impact on the search results we get. Sometimes the updates have a big impact; sometimes they’re hardly noticed.

Who Names Updates?

Google also periodically creates new algorithms. When this happens, sometimes they’re given names by Google itself, as with the Vince update in 2009. If Google doesn’t give a name, sometimes others such as Webmaster World may name them, as with the Mayday update in 2010.

With Penguin, history is repeating itself, where Google is belatedly granting a name to an update after-the-fact. The same thing happened with Panda last year.

When the Panda Update was first launched in February 2011, Google didn’t initially release the name it was using internally. I knew it, but I wasn’t allowed say what it was. Without an official name, I gave it an unofficial one of “Farmer,” since one of the reasons behind the update was to combat low-quality content that was often seen associated with content farms.

In the end, I suspect Google didn’t want the update to sound like it was especially aimed at content farms, so it eventually let the “Panda” name go public, in a Steven Levy interview for Wired about the update about a week after it launched. Panda took its name from one of the key engineers involved.

Say Hello To Penguin

Since Panda, Google’s been avoiding names. The new algorithm in January designed to penalize pages with too many ads above the fold was called the “page layout algorithm.” When Penguin rolled out earlier this week, it was called the “webspam algorithm update.”

Without a name for the new webspam algorithm, Search Engine Land was asking people for their own ideas at Google+ and Facebook, with the final vote making “Titanic” the leading candidate. A last check with Google got it to release its own official name of “Penguin.”

Read More

Why Google Panda Is More A Ranking Factor Than Algorithm Update

With Google Panda Update 2.2 upon us, it’s worth revisiting what exactly Panda is and isn’t. Panda is a new ranking factor. Panda is not an entirely new overall ranking algorithm that’s employed by Google. The difference is important for anyone hit by Panda and hoping to recover from it.

Google’s Ranking Algorithm & Updates

Let’s start with search engine optimization 101. After search engines collect pages from across the web, they need to sort through them in demand to searches that are done. Which are the best? To decide this, they employ a ranking algorithm. It’s like a recipe for cooking up the best results.

Like any recipe, the ranking algorithm contains many ingredients. Search engines look at words that appear on pages, how people are linking to pages, try to calculate the reputation of websites and more. Our Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors explains more about this.

Google is constantly tweaking its ranking algorithm, making little changes that might not be noticed by many people. If the algorithm were a real recipe, this might be like adding in a pinch more salt, a bit more sugar or a teaspoon of some new flavoring. The algorithm is mostly the same, despite the little changes.

From time-to-time, Google does a massive overhaul of its ranking algorithm. These have been known as “updates” over the years. “Florida” was a famous one from 2003; the Vince Update hit in 2009; the Mayday Update happened last year.

Index & Algorithm Updates

Confusingly, the term “updates” also gets used for things that are not actual algorithm updates. Here’s some vintage Matt Cutts on this topic. For example, years ago Google used to do an “index update” every month or so, when it would suddenly dump millions of new pages it had found into its existing collection.

This influx of new content caused ranking changes that could take days to settle down, hence the nickname of the “Google Dance.” But the changes were caused by the algorithm sorting through all the new content, not because the algorithm itself had changed.

Of course, as said, sometimes the core ranking algorithm itself is massively altered, almost like tossing out an old recipe and starting from scratch with a new one. These “algorithm updates” can produce massive ranking changes. But Panda, despite the big shifts it has caused, is not an algorithm update.

Instead, Panda — like PageRank — is a value that feeds into the overall Google algorithm. If it helps consider it as if every site is given a PandaRank score. Those low in Panda come through OK; those high get hammered by the beast.

Calculating Ranking Factors

So where are we now? Google has a ranking algorithm, a recipe that assesses many factors to decide how pages should rank. Google can — and does — change some parts of this ranking algorithm and can see instant (though likely minor) effects by doing so. This is because it already has the values for some factors calculated and stored.

For example, let’s say Google decides to reward pages that have all the words someone has searched for appearing in close proximity to each other. It decides to give them a slightly higher boost than in the past. It can implement this algorithm tweak and see changes happen nearly instantly.

This is because Google’s has already gathered all the values relating to this particular factor. It already has stored the pages and made note of where each word is in proximity to other words. Google can turn the metaphorical proximity ranking factor dial up from say 5 to 6 effortlessly, because those factors have already been calculated as part of an ongoing process.

Automatic Versus Manual Calculations

Other factors require deeper calculations that aren’t done on an ongoing basis, what Google calls “manual” updates. This doesn’t mean that a human being at Google is somehow manually setting the value of these factors. It means that someone decides its time to run a specific computer program to update these factors, rather than it just happening all the time.

For example,  a few years ago Google rolled out a “Google Bomb” fix. But then, new Google Bombs kept happening! What was up with that? Google explained that there was a special Google Bomb filter that would periodically be run, since it wasn’t needed all the time. When the filter ran, it would detect new Google Bombs and defuse those.

In recipe terms, it would be as if you were using a particular brand of chocolate chips in your cookies but then switched to a different brand. You’re still “inputting” chocolate chips, but these new chips make the cookies taste even better (or so you hope).

Note: In an earlier edition of this story, I’d talked about PageRank values being manually updated from time-to-time. Google’s actually said they are constantly being updated. Sorry about any confusion there.

The Panda Ranking Factor

Enter Panda. Rather than being a change to the overall ranking algorithm, Panda is more a new ranking factor that has been added into the algorithm (indeed, on our SEO Periodic Table, this would be element Vt, for Violation: Thin Content).

Panda is a filter that Google has designed to spot what it believes are low-quality pages. Have too many low-quality pages, and Panda effectively flags your entire site. Being Pandified, Pandification — whatever clever name you want to call it — doesn’t mean that your entire site is out of Google. But it does mean that pages within your site carry a penalty designed to help ensure only the better ones make it into Google’s top results.

At our SMX Advanced conference earlier this month, the head of Google’s spam fighting team, Matt Cutts, explained that the Panda filter isn’t running all the time. Right now, it’s too much computing power to be running this particular analysis of pages.

Instead, Google runs the filter periodically to calculate the values it needs. Each new run so far has also coincided with changes to the filter, some big, some small, that Google hopes improves catching poor quality content.  So far, the Panda schedule has been like this:

• Panda Update 1.0: Feb. 24, 2011
• Panda Update 2.0: April 11, 2011 (about 7 weeks later)
• Panda Update 2.1: May 10, 2011 (about  4 weeks later)
• Panda Update 2.2: June 16, 2011 (about 5 weeks later)

Recovering From Panda

For anyone who was hit by Panda, it’s important to understand that the changes you’ve made won’t have any immediate impact.

For instance, if you started making improvements to your site the day after Panda 1.0 happened, none of those would have registered for getting you back into Google’s good graces until the next time Panda scores were assessed — which wasn’t until around April 11.

With the latest Panda round now live, Google says it’s possible some sites that were hit by past rounds might see improvements, if they themselves have improved.

The latest round also means that some sites previously not hit might now be impacted. If your site was among these, you’ve probably got a 4-6 week wait until any improvements you make might be assessed in the next round.

If you made changes to your site since the last Panda update, and you didn’t see improvements, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve still done something wrong. Pure speculation here, but part of the Panda filter might be watching to see if a site’s content quality looks to have improved over time. After enough time, the Panda penalty might be lifted.

Takeaways

In conclusion, some key points to remember:

Google makes small algorithm changes all the time, which can cause sites to fall (and rise) in rankings independently of Panda.

Google may update factors that feed into the overall algorithm, such as PageRank scores, on an irregular basis. Those updates can impact rankings independently of Panda.

So far, Google has confirmed when major Panda factor updates have been released. If you saw a traffic drop during one of these times, there’s a good chance you have a Panda-related problem.

Looking at rankings doesn’t paint an accurate picture of how well your site is performing on Google. Look at the overall traffic that Google has sent you. Losing what you believe to be a key ranking might not mean you’ve lost a huge amount of traffic. Indeed, you might discover that in general, you’re as good as ever with Google.

Read More

YouTube Improves Audio Editing With New Interface And More Tracks

YouTube has updated the audio editing capabilities it offers users, with several important improvements including an extended library of more than 150,000 backing tracks.

Other improvements include a new interface (pictured above), the ability to mix music into your video at different volume levels (from “soft background” to “completely replace”), and a choice of featured tracks that makes it easy to find a song that fits with your video’s mood.

To try out these new features, go to Video Manager — Edit — Enhancements — Audio.

The new features will be available worldwide over the next day, and YouTube promises more improvement to come in the future. Check out a video demonstration below.

Read More

Yahoo India Launches Cricket App for Windows Phone Users

Yahoo India has launched a cricket app for Windows Phone users in India. The app, available for free on the Windows Marketplace allows users to follow live matches, and also keep a tab on the recent and upcoming ones.

The app offers live scores, detailed ball-by-ball commentary which can be filtered by wickets, 4s and 6s; an interactive score card which allows the user to browse through the batting line up, fall of wickets and a complete chronology of how a match progressed. On a non-match day, the app will connect the user to photo-galleries, latest news articles on the game, player and team profiles, as well as results of completed matches, and schedules of upcoming ones.

Developed at the R&D centre in Bangalore, this is the third cricket app released by Yahoo, following the earlier apps built for iPhone and Android. Yahoo claims that its Android app has seen 11,000 downloads within 10 days of launch.

Yahoo! Cricket is the best place to enjoy the game of cricket (and not just follow) on the web, and now you can do that on your Windows phone too. This App comes with a slew of features and user-friendly interactions not seen on any Cricket App for and Windows phone yet.

App Description:

Here are some of them:

• A quick look at all the live scores of matches currently happening.
• A very interactive scorecard. Browse through the batting line-up to know about partnerships, who got out when, and who is coming up next.
• Provides users with various ways of enjoying a cricket match – from the basic scores, all the way up to a detailed ball-by-ball commentary
• Nifty shortcuts like shaking to refresh scores, flipping to switch between a summary view and a detailed view
• View specially created photo galleries showing the latest from the world of cricket.
• Read all the latest news articles on the game.
• A simple way to browse through results of completed matches, and to know schedules of upcoming matches.
• Browse through all international teams and players

Download the free app here

Read More

New 'Affordable' BlackBerry Smartphone Launched in India

(Reuters) - Research in Motion (RIM) on Wednesday launched in India what it called its "most affordable" BlackBerry smartphone, part of an aggressive push in one of its few growing markets.

The new Curve 9220 is priced in India at 10,990 rupees, higher than the price of Curve 8520, which is RIM's best-selling phone in India, and comes with an introductory offer to download free applications worth 2,500 rupees.

RIM, which will start selling the new phone in India on Thursday, will launch it in a number of other countries in coming weeks, Carlo Chiarello, executive vice president of RIM's smartphone division, told reporters.

The BlackBerry Curve 9220 has a dedicated key for accessing BlackBerry Messenger and FM radio, along with a 2 mega pixel camera, and works on second-generation mobile networks.

(Also read: In Asia, BlackBerry's RIM sees a glimmer of hope, click here)

RIM's BlackBerry devices have struggled to compete with Apple Inc's iPhone and iPad and a slew of devices based on Google's Android platform, and the Canadian company reported a quarterly loss last month as sales of its phones slumped.

While RIM's U.S. sales have fallen for five straight quarters, and analysts say consumer acceptance of its smartphones is starting to erode in Latin America and Europe, countries in Asia such as Indonesia and India offer hope for the Waterloo, Ontario-based company.

In India, for example, RIM has seen fast growth as it expanded aggressively into the consumer segment with low-cost offerings and by positioning the device as a gadget for aspiring young professionals and even college students.

Last year, RIM had a 15 percent share of the Indian smartphone market, while Nokia led the segment with a 38 percent share, according to data compiled by technology researcher CyberMedia.

Patrick Spence, RIM's global head of sales, said smartphones account for just about 15 percent of mobile handsets sold globally, but was bullish on the potential for their growth.

"We are very early in this game," he told reporters in New Delhi.

India has are more than 900 million mobile subscribers, making it the second biggest wireless market after China, but smartphones account for just about 6 percent of total handset sales but are growing quickly.

Read More

What does Semantic Search mean for SEO?

Semantic search uses artificial intelligence in order to understand the searcher’s intent and the meaning of the query rather than parsing through keywords like a dictionary. When you search now, Google gives you results based solely on the text and the keywords that you put in that search. Essentially, Google gives you its best guess.

When you use semantic search, Google will dive into the relationship between those words, how they work together, and attempt to understand what those words mean. Google will understand that “their” and “they’re” has two different meanings and when “New” and “York” are placed together, it changes the meaning.

Semantic search isn’t a new concept. As early as 2008, search engines were popping up that focus on natural language over keywords. But we’re really only taking notice now because of Google. And Google is really only taking notice because of Siri and Google’s response to Siri, Google Assistant, which will be out on Android devices later this year.

Semantic Search for SEO

Keywords are easy to manipulate; intent, not so much. In order to rank well in semantic search, you don’t just have to put your keywords in the right places, you have to figure out the actual meaning behind those keywords and create content around that specifically. That puts more emphasis on your keyword research.

When people search, they aim to answer a question. They just search in the truncated version of that question. Keyword research is largely data-driven around the popularity of the terms in their question. Keyword research in semantic search will have to focus on what that person actually means when searching for that keyword.

For example: Physiotherapy. What could people mean they search “Physiotherapy?”

• What is physiotherapy?
• The different procedure of physiotherapy
• How to handle different physiotherapy cases
• Physiotherapy learning videos and guidelines.

The possibilities are endless. When you’re framing your content in a semantic search world, it has to be around answering the specific questions people have as it relates to that keyword. With every sentence you write, ask yourself: How does this answer the searcher’s question? You will have to focus on the natural language even if those users are still focusing on keywords.

Read More

Google's Algorithm Update to Penalize Over Optimized Sites

Few week during a SXSW panel, Matt Cutts, head of Google's search spam team, announced that Google has been working on a new tweak to its algorithm that will punish sites that are too optimized for SEO -- what he called "over-optimized" or "overly SEO'd," according to the recording of the announcement posted on Search Engine Land. Here's what you need to know about the new Google algorithm update, which has not been released yet but will go live in the next few weeks, according to Cutts' announcement.

What Cutts Revealed About the New Algorithm Update?

Cutts hadn't planned on mentioning the algorithm update, but was given the perfect opportunity when an attendee asked the following question:

"With so many SEO companies showing up claiming to do SEO, a lot of markets are getting saturated with optimized content...What are you doing to prevent, for example, if you're looking for something, and the first page is just optimized content, and it's not what you're actually looking for? Are you pretty much out of luck if you're not optimizing your site but it has relevant content? If I'm a mom or pop and I'm trying to optimize a site by myself, I'm going to get beat by people paying thousands of dollars."

This algorithm update is working to level the playing field for sites without as many resources to dedicate to SEO. Matt explained the changes as "trying to make the algorithm more adaptive," or being more understanding of sites that have good content even if it isn't search engine optimizedlike many marketers have learned to do. The sites that will be penalized are those that "throw too many keywords on the page, exchange way too many links, whatever they're doing to go beyond what a normal person would expect."

What Google's Algorithm Update Means Practically for Marketers?

If your content is driven by topics, you shouldn't expect to be penalized when the new algorithm update rolls out, even if you do take the time to search engine optimize that content with keywords and relevant links. If your writing is driven by keywords, however, we predict it's more likely you'll suffer some search ranking slips.

What's the difference between a keyword-driven content strategy and a topic-driven content strategy? A content strategy driven by what readers want, not what search engines want, is the direction that Google has been actively working toward rewarding even since last year's Panda updatesrolled out. So if you're selecting topics based on what your audience would find helpful, you're doing content strategy right. If you're choosing what to write about based on the keywords you want to be found for, you don't have the reader top of mind; and Google is doing everything they can in its algorithm not to reward such sites in the SERPs.

Said Cutts on the panel, "Make a compelling site. Make a site that's useful. Make a site that's interesting. Make a site that's relevant to people's interests...We're always trying to best approximate if a user lands on a page if they are going to be annoyed...All of the changes we make are designed to approximate, if a user lands on your page, just how happy they are going to be with what they're going to get."

Marketers, business owners, and SEOs could also take a cue from Bing's Duane Forrester, who was also on the panel and addressed the attendee's question after Matt Cutts' initial response. He highlighted the importance of social sharing as a signal others actually like your content -- one of the key indicators of relevancy for search engines. "Does the rest of the world think you have a great product?" Forrester asked. "If they do, they will amplify this. If you're not engaged socially, you're missing the boat because the conversation is happening socially about you and about your content. Those are really important signals for us. Whether you're involved or not is your choice, but those signals still exist whether you're in the conversation or not."

Thankfully, Danny Sullivan asked the burning question we all had (or still have) on our minds -- whether Google is going to release an algorithm update that's designed to hurt the kinds of SEO activities that have been recommended to marketers to help their search rankings. In short, no; this algorithm update won't do that. Cutts clarified by saying, "SEO can often be very helpful. It can make a site more crawlable; it can make a site more accessible; it can think about the words users are going to type whenever they come to a search engine to make sure those words are on a page. The same things you do to optimize your return on investment and make sure things spread virally or socially are often the same things that work from a search engine perspective...but there are some people who take it too far. If you're white hat or doing very little SEO, you're not going to be affected by this change."

So marketers, it sounds like the same rules still apply. Create great content with readers in mind first, search engines in mind second. Then make sure your site is easily crawlable so bots can actually read and index that content. As more information is released, we'll keep you updated on whether this algorithm update will affect the way you approach your content or search engine optimization strategy.

Read More

Google Analytics Social Media Reporting Launched

Google Analytics has been working on social media reporting for a long time.

They started off with the Social tab under the Audience drop down. But this was limited, and it only relies on Google + Engagement, Actions or Pages +1ed by default. This wasn’t enough for Google and now they have launched an entirely new social media report that takes steps to prove how social contributes to conversions.

How to Access Social Media Reporting?

To access the new Google Analytics social media reporting tab follow these steps.

1. Login to Google Analytics
2. Select your account
3. Select Traffic Sources
4. Select Social

Under social you will see:

• Sources & Pages: Identify networks & communities where people engage with your content.
• Conversions: Measure the value of social by tracking your goals, conversions and ecommerce transactions.
• Social Plugins: Measure your on-site user engagement.
• Social Visitors Flow: Compare traffic volumes and visitor traffic patterns through your site.

Google Analytics Social Overview Tab

This tab shows you total visits, the number of social visits and how the social visits assist in conversions. It also breaks down the social networks and the traffic they deliver.

Google Analytics Social Sources Tab

This gives you a better look at how each one of your sources of social traffic compares to your overall traffic.

Google Analytics Social Page Tab

This report shows you the pages that are the most engaged socially.

Google Analytics Social Conversions Tab

This tab will show you both conversion from a social network and conversions that were assisted by a social network.

Google Analytics Social Plugin Tab

This area allows you to track likes, Tweets, etc. However, it only shows Google +1s as default.

Google Analytics Social Visitors Flow Tab

This tab is really amazing. It shows how visitors from social flow through your website. You can see where they start and where they finish.

Now that you know a little about Google Analytics Social reporting it is time for you to jump in and try it for yourself.

Read More

Top 3 Computer Security Practices for Businesses

It is very important for an enterprise to secure their security to evaluate their network.Microsoft has compiled a list of best practices for securing an enterprise from various threats.This list is meant to assess your infrastructure, not to replace your present infrastructure.

1. Assess your enterprise Environment:

To secure your network environment effectively one must be first familiar with all of its components. First of all assess your infrastructure which includes all assets and security issues, by monitoring the quality of your security program. You have to decide your exact network safety needs first, by considering various factors or issues. To run security program successful in an enterprise, first you have to make sure that your technician staff has necessary skill to support it. If can manage to process it, then you should focus on establishing a process to analyze and indentify security risks on an ongoing process. Without such a preplan in place,even if you run the risk of initiating projects that may not solve your larger security problems.

Once a risk management process have established, then you should create a document with a set of security policies that control the usage of the resources and the technology within your organization. If your infrastructure has lack of main security policy, like an insecure computers,should first be indentified and then remove from your network until they come under your policies. By removing these computers, one should define the process and by following these processes you can recognize these potentially susceptible devices.

2. Protect Your Network

Being connecting to the world of internet has many benefits as well as challenges. Any computer connected to the internet within your network, directly or indirectly, has a possible risk for external attackers and viruses. Usually, firewall defenses these kinds of activities or attacks. To prevent these activities you should review or update your firewall very frequently and maintain them as valid. Always take necessary steps to protect your hardware devices such as laptops with technologies with host-based firewalls. You shouldn’t exclusively rely on firewalls as your sole ways to defense. You should also consider some added factors to protect your network. By providing safe remote access along with strong verification techniques and you should also know if your computer employs updated quarantine technologies.

You can secure your wireless network by preventing unauthorized user from gaining the access to the network possessions. By improving all internet servers to Microsoft windows server 2003 and all laptops to Windows XP, then you can reduce attacks risk to your network.

3. Protect Your Servers and Clients:

First of all, you should protect your servers and clients from internet attacks because you have been working with them from many years and spent huge amount to protect their perimeter networks by allowing their internet infrastructure to wait very vulnerable. By taking some crucial steps to harden your operating system and security tools you can minimize your attacks from various internet threats, so that you can protect your servers and clients more effectively.

Read More

5 Things To Do If You’re A Wireless Broadband Internet Users

There are several ways by which you can access the internet and one great thing about the internet is that it is the best thing that has ever happened to the world. 

You should know that there are two major ways by which you can access the internet – these two ways can either be wired or wirelessly but in my own opinion the best way to access the internet is wirelessly.

This article will be listing 5 things you should do if you’re a wireless internet user or if you plan to be one soon.

Think Security, Think Effectiveness

The first thing you have to realize as a wireless internet user is that wireless technology is entirely different from other forms of broadband technology and it is one of the easiest to hack forms of internet connection. You need to take your security paramount to enjoy your wireless internet and this means you need to have strong wireless encryption keys while at the same time ensuring you use strong passwords.

The more secure your internet is the more effective your work will be so do all you can to ensure your computer is always secure.

Beware of Public Wireless Hotspots

Even though it can be fun trying to access the internet wirelessly using a public hotspot, especially if it is something you’re not paying for it is highly important for you to realize that public wireless hotspots can be very dangerous for you so always do your best to ensure you don’t use public wireless networks and if at all you will, make sure you do all you can to ensure you’re always secure.

Hide Your Network and Only Give Trusted People Your Network Name

A wireless network is one of the most vulnerable and easiest to hack networks and this means you have to be extra-cautious when using one. The more people can access your wireless network, the more risks you are exposed to so make sure you do your best to hide your wireless network from the public and also make sure you don’t give anybody your details unless you trust the fellow completely.

Always Change Your Details Regularly

It is also very important for you to ensure you don’t use the same passwords and security keys for a long period of time. Try to change your passwords at least once every three months, and if possible you canchange your passwords more often. The more often you change your passwords the difficult it is for others to guess it and monitor you and the more secure you are.

Make Sure You Have the Latest Tools

The final tip in this article to ensure you’re getting the best from your wireless broadband internet is to ensure you have the latest tools, both in terms of hardware and software. By this I mean you should always have the latest router, the latest computer and the latest software – this will ensure you’re greatly protected from hacking attempts.

Read More

Best 5 WordPress Quiz Plugin

What makes WordPress stand alone among all blogging platforms is the rich library of plugins .

With plugins you can do almost anything on a WordPress blog . If you wish to conduct quizzes or surveys on your blog , then here are the best WordPress plugin for you .

Quiz WordPress Plugin lets you add quiz to your blog. This plugin is designed to be as easy to use as possible. Quizzes, questions and answers can be added from the admin side. This will appear in your post if you add a small HTML comment in your post.

1. Quiz Master

This plugin adds a quiz function to your WordPress website.you can handle Multiple Choice and True/False questions. Quiz master is also capable of storing a library of questions and randomly selecting a certain amount. Features email sending to admin or any other email address upon person completing quiz. Also gives option to show score, incorrect and correct answers to the person taking it upon completion.

2. Quizzin

Quizzin lets you create quizzes with any number of questions in it. Each question can have many answers in which one should be marked as the correct answer.You can add the quiz in a post by including the html comment [QUIZZIN 1] in the post. Here 1 is the ID of the quiz to be included.

3. Hexam

Hexam is very easy to use wordpress quiz plugin, you can create a lot of tests in your site and place it in posts or pages. You can choose how many questions each quiz may contain, you can also set number of answers for each question. Users can send their results after doing test. You can also view how many points each user has scored and you can see and post users’ ranking table in wp.

4. WP Quiz and Survey Tool

This plugin allows users to create quizzes, surveys or polls hosted on their WordPress blog. It features the ability to limit quizzes and surveys to one submission per IP address.You can also limit the quizes and surverys to registered users only . You can also issue PDF certificates to the successful quizzers .

5. MTouch Quiz

This quiz plugin provides touch friendly interface .You can specify hints based on answer selection; give a detailed explanation of the solution; choose multiple correct answers; specify when the correct answers are displayed; specify if a question may be attempted only once or many times; specify point values for each question; include customized start and finish screens; randomly order questions and/or answers; and more.

Read More

Best 5 WordPress SEO Plugins

WordPress is one the most popular tools for publishing content on the web. Everything from e-commerce Websites to blogs can be developed using WordPress.
Additionally, the WordPress community has built up a huge offering of free themes and plugins to make it easy for newcomers to get content published on the web quickly and easily.

There are lot of SEO plugins available for wordpress but these are the SEO plugins which are Must Have in any wordpress blog .

1. All in One SEO Pack

This is a very popular SEO plugin . It allows you to easily add title , description , meta tags and meta keywords to your posts .

2. SEO Smart Links

This is the best plugin for inter linking your posts . SEO Smart Links can automatically link keywords and phrases in your posts and comments with corresponding posts, pages, categories and tags on your blog.SEO Smart links also allows you to set nofollow attribute and open links in new window.

3. Google XML Sitemaps

This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google , Yahoo , Bing etc to better index your blog.

4. SEO Friendly Images

We generally forgets to add alt tag to the images in the posts . It describes your images to search engine and when a user searches for a certain image this is a key determining factor for a match.SEO Friendly Images automatically adds alt and title attributes to all your images.

5. Simple Tags

Simple tag is a perfect tool to perfectly manage tags . It helps you choose the best tags for your posts by offering suggestions, auto-completion of tags as you type, an AJAX admin interface, mass tag editing and a whole lot more.

Read More

Top 10 Free SEO Tools

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a very important for your successful business in the world wide web . 

No matters whether you are a blogger or websites owner SEO is very important . There are lot of tricks and tips available for SEO , but SEO goes well beyond tips and tricks .There are lot of tools available for SEO some are free while some are not . Here I am listing some popular free available SEO tools , which you can use easily for a high search engine ranking of your Blog or website .

1. Bing WebMaster Tools

When talking about SEO most of us pays attentions to Google search only . Bing and Yahoo search are generally ignored . We should keep in mind that Bing and Yahoo together consist of 30% of search market .

With Bing WebMaster Tools you can improve your blog or sites ranking on Bing . Bing WebMaster Tool provides information pertaining to content performance: content crawled, indexed, and trafficked.

2. Yahoo Web Analytics

Yahoo Web Analytics is a highly customizable free web analytic tool .The only problem with it is that you cant use it directly you have to know someone who is a member of the Yahoo Consultant Network.

3. Google WebMaster Tools

This is a very useful tool which could improve your sites performance in Google search . Adding your site to Google webmaster will get it immediately indexed in Google search (sometimes less than 24 hrs ) .Google webmaster tool helps you diagnose Google search indexing issues, research keyword visibility (impressions, clicks, click-through rate, average position, position distribution), article popularity on Google search engine results pages and overall website speed.

4. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is one of the most popular and widely used analytic tool . It gives you rich insights into your website traffic and let you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way.

5. Google External Keyword Tool

This tool provide keyword research information such as average competition, global monthly searches, local monthly searches, and local search trending.

6. Google Trends

This tool provides the most popular topics and searched queries . This tool could be a great help for those blogger who are confused about what topic they should write on .

7. Google Instant

Google instant can be used as an keyword research tool . Search anything on it and you will get keyword suggestions . It also gives you competitive content idea .

8. Google Insights for Search

This tool can be considered as an advance form of Google external keyword tool . With Google Insights for Search, you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties

9. Xenu Link Sleuth

This tool checks your website for broken links and ensures they are valid, executable (when pointed at files), and search engine friendly .

10. MozBar SEO Toolbar

The mozBar, SEOmoz’s SEO toolbar is available for both Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. The mozBar provides easy access to some of the most powerful SEO tools and data while you surf the Web.

Read More

Best Online SEO Tools

What is the best way to improve Search Engine Optimization or simply put, to boost your position is search engines? 

Which tools to be used to improve link popularity, quality of backlinks and rankings in Google? What keywords to be used? We give answers. Mentioned is the list of very useful SEO tools, which if used, will definitely help you in developing and optimizing your web site. For resources, we recommend the following very useful SEO Tools; one of the most comprehensive list of SEO tools.

Alexa & Backlink

Alexa Ranking:

This tool allows you to create traffic history for your site. It works out traffic rankings by analyzing the usage of millions of Alexa toolbar users.

Backlink Anchor Text Analyzer:

It will help you determine the anchor text used by your backlinks to link to your site and the backlinks.

Backlink Analyzer:

This tool researches and analyzes websites for the quality of link. It checks for DMOZ listing, Domain Age & Expiration, Indexed Pages, EDU & .GOV Links, Google PageRank, Links to Website, Alexa Traffic Rank.

Backlink Builder:

Quality backlinks are of utmost importance for site optimization, this tool helps you do that.

Domain Popularity, Domain Stats Tools

Domain Age Tool:

This tool allows you to check how the site looked when it started, and also displays the approximate age of the site.

Domain Dossier:

Domain Dossier is an exemplary tool, investigates the IP addresses and the domains, as the name says.

Domain Popularity:

This tool can show up to ten subpages/backlinking domains, Google PageRank and host IP. It also displays all the backlinks for the given domain.

Domain Stats: A Tool Presenting Required Stats:

It helps you attain all the stats you need to know about competitor’s domain. Stats include: Age of the domains, Yahoo WebRank, Alexa Taffic Rank, Dmoz listings, number of backlinks and pages indexed in Search Engines.

HTTP / HTTPS Header Check:

This tool inspects the HTTP headers that the web server returns when a URL is requested. It works with both HTTPS URLs and HTTP.

View HTTP Headers & HTTP Path:

HTTP Headers allows you to view the HTTP headers for a HTTP request, whereas View HTTP Path tool lets you view the path, a request takes to get fulfilled.

Check Google PageRank:

This tool allows you to check the PageRank of any site you want without having to install the Google toolbar.

Check PageRank by Google Data Center:

This useful tool allows the user to check the PageRank of the site from many different data centers.

Adsense Keywords & YPN Keywords Search Tool:

Lotaweb allows Optimizers to focus on the right keywords and phrases for their content, to monetize their site, with the ability to search thousands of highly effective Adsense keywords.

Google Adwords Keyword Tool:

This Keyword tool from Google provides Specific and alternate keywords, best suited for your site. They will still have to be analyzed to determine their worth.

Google Banned Tool:

It’s a way to check if your site has been banned by Google for some reason. It has two ways to check in the Google database.

Google Keyword Ranking Tool:

It checks the search engine position ranking for keywords in the major search engines and helps you generate an advanced report.

Page Rank Tool:

PageRank tool shows the Google PageRank values for the URL submitted from various Google datacenters.

Google Page Rank Checker:

Google PageRank checker is a very simple tool that is used to check your PageRank so it can be displayed on your website.

Page Rank Authenticity Check:

This tool allows the PageRank to be checked for authenticity and also shows the PageRank of the given domain.

Visual Page Rank:

The Visual PageRank – tool shows all links and there corresponding PageRanks visually rather than in text.

Keyword Density, Keyword Suggestion Tool, Keyword Analysis Tool

Keyword Density:

It helps the SEOs and webmasters achieve their goal of optimum keywords density for a set of different keywords.

Keyword Difficulty Tool:

This tool is used to analyze the competitiveness of a keyword or a phrase. It gives a detailed analysis of the top ranked sites and the percentage score at Yahoo and Google.

Keyword Density Checker:

It shows the percentage of number of times a particular keyword has been used in the content. It crawls the URL, removes common stop words and analyzes the density.

Keyword Suggestion Tool:

It shows the popularity of key phrases and also gives ideas with alternate key phrases. It helps with selecting the right key phrase for the website.

Website Keyword Suggestions:

Website Keywords Suggestion tool provides keyword suggestions and traffic estimates, by determining the theme of the web site.

Ontology Finder:

The Ontology Finder tool checks the top one thousand Google results for the keywords by running a related query.

Link Value, Link Popularity Check, Site Link Analyzer

Deep Link Ratio Tool:

This tool can be used to compare the DLRs for the best ranking sites for the search term. It also analyzes if the ranking in search engines is affected by the deep link ratio of the site.

Link Validation Spider:

Link Validation Spider Tool is not only free but a very useful online tool mainly used to check for the broken links.

Link Value:

This very effective and free tool is used to calculate the value of the link per month of the submitted web site.

Link Price Calculator:

This tool helps you determine the approx. amount that you should be paying/month for a text link (ad) from all the pages of the specified website.

Reciprocal Link Check:

This tool determines whether your link partners have used the anchor text to link to your site.

Site Link Analyzer:

This tool analyzes the given URL and returns data containing columns of their associated text and outbound links.

Outbound Links:

The Outbound link tool displays every outgoing link from the given URL; separated in internal and external links.

Meta Tag Generators

Meta Tag Generator:

Meta tag generator only picks the most searched words from the content after crawling it. It also generates meta keywords tags using the same words. It is also used to generate meta head tag.

Title & Meta Tags Generator:

This tool generates the title and meta tags for the page and helps improves rankings using the meta tag generator.

Miscellaneous Tools

Copyscape:

This useful tool searches for copies of your web page on the Web.

Site Analysis Including Link Popularity:

This tool is used to generate complete site analysis e.g. Google PageRank, backlinks, indexed sites and also the domain if it’s in DMOZ and Yahoo directory.

Similar Page Checker:

Search engine penalize sites with duplicate content. The content used on your site could be similar to another site on the net or could even be similar to the content of your own site. The tool shows amount of similarity between the two pages and sites.

Sitemap Generator:

This tool generates Google sitemap online, which is of huge importance when it comes to improving the rankings of your site.

Robots.txt Syntax Checker:

This robots.txt syntax tool checker checks the contents of a site’s robots.txt.

Speedtester:

This tool shows how long a site takes to load and then decides if the IP needs to be changed or the site needs to be optimized more.

URL Rewrite (mod_rewrite):

This tool helps you change the dynamic URLs to URLs that are search engine friendly.

Mod_rewrite Rewrite Rule Generator:

This tool generator takes a dynamic URL, and generate the correct syntax to put it in .htaccess file to allow the URL to be written in a format which a spider can crawl.

Cloaking Detection Tool:

Cloaked content is detected by the Googlebot (based on User-Agent) stimulated by this tool.

What is Hosted on that IP:

This tool displays the virtual hosts on a particular IP (Internet Protocol).

Search Engine Spider Simulator:

This tool shows the information received from the website by a search engine spider.

Search Engine Position Checker:

This tool automatically queries the search engines specified and check if the URL is in the top 50 results of the targeted keywords.

Marketleap Search Engine Verification Tool:

This tool checks if the site is in the top 3 pages of a search engine for the targeted keyword.

Number of Pages Indexed:

This tool generates the report showing how many pages of the site have been indexed by the search engines. It supports all the top search engines: Google, MSN, Hotbot, Yahoo, Alltheweb and AltaVista.

SERPs Position:

This tool displays the position of your domain in the rankings for the targeted keywords and compares it with the first 100 results by Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

Read More