Google have sought to undermine attempts by black hat SEO companies to falsely rank for webpages with their new algorithm update, Panda. Roughly a week after this development extended to all English language searches how successful has the change been and how should website developers respond?

The answer to the first question is that it seems, so far, to be generally favourable. A few websites have suffered seemingly unfairly, such as that of the British Medical Journal, despite being authoritative sources of information. Even Google’s own “Places” category originally suffered from the algorithm mislabelling it as spam, proving that there are still kinks to iron out. Some companies claim to have noticed little difference in traffic after the update and some smaller websites still inexplicably rank well despite being visibly flawed. There was never any promise that Panda would be a perfect instant solution to all search results though. Chatter on the blogs and forums seems to indicate a positive response to the new update; that Google’s intention is appreciated by users, and that the high ranking of “content farms” which don’t return the desired data has been generally impaired.

In many ways the answer to the question of website developer response is not a new one, just one that is more important to heed. Relevance and authority are still the fundamentals of a Google search result, but Panda does suggest that certain tweaks may help prevent your ranking slip.

The anticipation of this update has led Norfolk based Web developer Innershed to recommend some of the following SEO measures for client websites in the build-up to this update.

Content

• Use original content, stay on topic and include unique information where possible. This will help promote your website’s relevance and authority.(Shallow content or copied content is as alluring to Google Panda as…..another Google Panda)

Link-building

• Pursue organic links and think about where you put them. A link with a disreputable website can bring you down. Running your own blog can help this.
• Social sharing – Get as much of your information into the public domain to be disseminated naturally through online networks.

Advertising

• Original Content to Advertisement Ratio. Ads should be supplementary to content, content should not lead to ads. Relevant information was what the original search term looked for, not adverts.

Other

• Enough bad pages will likely drag down a website which has otherwise good pages. Expect the domain to be judged, not just the unique URL. Remove any content which you know is not up to scratch.

Whilst the exact details of the metrics Google uses to rank are closely guarded to prevent bad content being optimized back into the rankings, one can fairly speculate that “Click-Through-Rate” (the percentage your link is clicked), “Bounce Rate” (the percentage of people immediately leaving your website) and “Time on Site” are important in Panda. They are requirements that poor sites just cannot can’t cheat a user into fulfilling.

If you want to raise your ranking in Google then your site needs to provide the means to fulfil them. This will inevitably entail more in-depth Search engine optimization work to provide original content which, however bemoaned by businesses looking for a quick fix, is ultimately what is best for users and fairest for search rankings.

Find out what to consider when ranking websites in a simple quality guidelines introduction here

After enjoying a period of being “blissfully unemployed,” James Gosling, the father of the Java programming language is returning to the forefront of the computing industry to work for the internet leviathan Google.

Whilst it has not been revealed what job title and responsibilities the former Sun Microsystems employee will adopt at the company, one can imagine that the hiring will prove mutually beneficial to both parties.

Gosling will expect a greater degree of creative autonomy in his new role, the absence of which seemed to weigh heavily in his decision to leave Sun Microsystems after it was acquired by Oracle; in his words an “extremely micromanaged company.” With his outstanding credentials and Google’s famously relaxed working environment this seems more than likely to be fulfilled.

The search engine leader will surely also be pleased with their new acquisition. Google is in the process of being taken to court by Oracle, accused of infringing upon Java based patents in its Android software, and will benefit from Gosling’s previous history at his former company and in-depth technical knowledge of the Java programming code.

The appointment should be viewed as part of Google’s recent drive to expand their workforce and hire the industry’s most talented individuals. With Google battling with Facebook to remain the preferred homepage of internet users and trying to develop and promote Android in competition with Apple’s increasingly popular iOS, it seems likely that we can expect to see the internet giant continue adding big names to the company’s roster, joining recent additions like networking expert Milo Medin, Sun engineer Tim Bray, and now Java guru James Gosling.

Google wants to reward web sites which fulfill the criteria as providers of unique and quality content to the internet…

‘Our goal is simple: to give people the most relevant answers to their queries as quickly as possible. This requires constant tuning of our algorithms, as new content – both good and bad – comes online all the time.

Many of the changes we make are so subtle that very few people notice them. But in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking – a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries – and we wanted to let people know what’s going on. This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites – sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites – sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.

We can’t make a major improvement without affecting rankings for many sites. It has to be that some sites will go up and some will go down. Google depends on the high-quality content created by wonderful websites around the world, and we do have a responsibility to encourage a healthy web ecosystem. Therefore, it is important for high-quality sites to be rewarded, and that’s exactly what this change does.

It’s worth noting that this update does not rely on the feedback we’ve received from the Personal Blocklist Chrome extension, which we launched last week. However, we did compare the Block-list data we gathered with the sites identified by our algorithm, and we were very pleased that the preferences our users expressed by using the extension are well represented. If you take the top several dozen or so most-blocked domains from the Chrome extension, then this algorithmic change addresses 84% of them, which is strong independent confirmation of the user benefits.

So, we’re very excited about this new ranking improvement because we believe it’s a big step in the right direction of helping people find ever higher quality in our results. We’ve been tackling these issues for more than a year, and working on this specific change for the past few months. And we’re working on many more updates that we believe will substantially improve the quality of the pages in our results.

To start with, we’re launching this change in the U.S. only; we plan to roll it out elsewhere over time. We’ll keep you posted as we roll this and other changes out, and as always please keep giving us feedback about the quality of our results because it really helps us to improve Google Search.’ Source Amit Singhal, Google Fellow, and Matt Cutts, Principal Engineer

So how do you position your website and your business online to take advantage of this change?

Install a blog on your website!

Many of you were smart enough to see the value of blog for your website and are enjoying improved search rankings as a result.

However it is not too late to make sure you are prepared. You still have time before Google rolls this change out globally.

At InnerShed, we anticipated that this change was coming and have been using the best in blogging software called WordPress, developed specifically to deliver great search results in Google. Not only for our own company blogs but also successfully for our clients.

Now all our new client web sites will include blogging software as standard. For existing web sites we can install a blog package.

We even have experienced web copy writers on hand who can take your latest information and turn it into great search engine friendly online content.

If you want Google to see your web site as a great source of unique and quality content install a blog.

We offer a full installation of an optimised blog to a web site for £199.00 + vat. Monthly blog management services to ensure your content delivers online is available from £99.00 + vat per month.

It could be easy to seduced by the sales e mails and calls which offer guaranteed results in Google. But  the only way to do this is to employ tactics which Google considers to be Black Hat and Google takes a dim view of this even if you are a multi million dollar

Blue Chip retailer who happens to be one of it’s biggest customers..

‘A recent article in The New York Times, The Dirty Little Secrets of Search, by David Segal exposes the backhanded tactics some SEO firms utilize to improve their clients’ search engine rankings.

Segal investigated the unusually high rankings by J.C. Penney the last several months for a broad range of keywords. Through the help of a search expert, The Times uncovered the use of paid links scattered across the web, on mostly obscure, unrelated websites. These paid links pointed to the jcpenney.com site. This technique is considered a no-no in Google’s SEO rulebook, and is part of practice known as “black-hat” optimization.

Segal explains black-hat services “are not illegal, but trafficking in them risks the wrath of Google. The company draws a pretty thick line between techniques it considers deceptive and “white hat” approaches, which are offered by hundreds of consulting firms and are legitimate ways to increase a site’s visibility.”

Turns out J.C. Penney issued a statement saying it was not involved with or aware of the paid links, but shortly thereafter fired its search engine consulting firm.

Upon notification, and after investigating the findings, Google has adjusted J.C. Penney’s ranking for a variety of keywords. In one case, in a span of two hours J.C. Penney dropped from the number one search result for “Samsonite carry on luggage” to a dismal number 71.

J.C. Penney’s story is fair warning for small businesses to ensure their hired SEO help only employs white hat optimization techniques.

ScuttleButt.co.uk is a relatively new business to business directory website on the block.

It has been designed from the ground up to take advantage of Googles new algorythms.

Anybody who wants to help boost their website Google rankings should seriously consider taking out a link with ScuttleButt.co.uk.

Remember, business directories are a great way to get those all important citations and backlinks.

£10 Per Year + Vat gets you a full business profile including photos and videos.

What does the online world hold in store for your business in 2011?

Google will be pushing more fragmentation of online searches in 2011 We have seen the change to local business searches expect them to push their local product finder options and Google Googles in 2011.

Usability is going to be a big buzz word in 2011 and once you strip all the jargon away it boils down to how do visitors use your website?

Is the journey from the landing page to the action you want them to take as clear and as simple as possible?

From here you can work out if you are converting visitors into taking the actions you want them to take.

Content is now the fastest way to gain authority for your website. Look at adding a blog to your site so that brand new fresh and bespoke content benefits it.There is an amazingly simply way of doing this through a content management system called Word Press. Adding a blog is the best way for you to stay in charge of your content.

Look out for social media Facebook has created it’s own social media friendly browser called Rock Melt this lets you stay in touch with friends and your social media accounts like Facebook and Twitter all from you internet browser.

For business users this is a powerful tool. So sharpen up your social media accounts this year. Facebook means business and Rock Melt has over 500,000 users who have downloaded the browser since mid November alone.

Remember Google and Facebook are massive businesses what they decide to do has immediate impact on your business, they can afford to spend millions on a product only to watch it fail and then spend more to redesign it until it takes off? Microsoft and Internet Explorer have a lot of catching up to do.

2011 promises to be the year that online searches and results change forever. By December the number of mobile internet devices in the world will mean your Google stats will be showing regular traffic from this medium.

Attacking search terms for the purpose of traffic will become old hat. Mobile internet just does not deliver on this front. That’s why developers build applications or ‘apps’ for short. Apps right now tend to be games and tools, very soon the first search apps will start to appear. We are developing the NorfolkBroads.com app as we speak. Users will not have to search a website but can use the app to find the product or service they want on the Broads very quickly.

Have a great 2011 if you need to know more simply call or email us and we will be happy to talk you through how best you can take advantage of the coming changes.

But what will the year serve up for SEO Norwich and SEO in general.

Google Places

Expect more refinement from Google of the combined algorithm. Distance from the centroid will always be critical to listing. Those businesses not lucky to be in the centre of Norwich will have noticed a decline in online traffic.  2011 for many many Norwich Businesses will be a year of working on strategies to navigate around the Google changes.

Bing

2011 might just be the year that we have to take alternatives to Google seriously as Microsoft predicts growth in the use of their search engine.

HTML5

The advances in the new version of HTML may mean a rebuild / re coding exercise is required in 2011. HTML5 offers advanced functionality which can render Flash like effects on a web site in HTML. So you do not have to suffer with an existing poorly built Flash feature. Thats not to say all existing Flash sites are poorly built. But HTML5 should allow you to have Flash like content and good SEO at the same time.

More from us as we go forward this year. Watching developments over Christmas keep an eye out for Google looking to separate further the different search types and also look for them to be be pushing voice search this year.

Would not be surprised if by the end of the year we have the first versions of augmented reality search in testing…

The next major change to come into effect will be Local Product Search, where users can search local maps to find which businesses in their area are supplying the products they want.

This development is aimed at retail sales.

The system is undergoing testing on American servers, this is what it looks like currently…

Google is determined to reorganise its index and will continue to develop local search options. The team at Google are convinced that mobile internet is here to stay and is the way forward.

Google wants to integrate with iPhones etc, to provide information whilst people are out shopping. So online research and the shopping can be combined.

Google Places

The rankings for Google Places search seem to have settled down now. If you want to learn how to make this work for your business email me for our white paper on the subject at:

seo@innershed.com

Make Google Work For You

As a local business you are increasingly dependent on how people find your business online. The majority of internet searches are carried out on Google.

The new Google Places launched on the 1st Nov 2010 and changed the way that local business searches work on Google.

Why Worry About Google?

Google has over 70% of the Global Search Market!

What is Google Places?

Google Places is a combination of your local data such as customer reviews, location and the content of your Google places page. This is then combined with your existing Google ranking.

Google scans all your information that you have on Places and on your website and decides how relevant your online information is, and how high your information should appear in the search results.  The higher you appear in Google, the more traffic you are likely to receive.

Do not get left behind! Optimise your business online…

What Can I Do?

One of the easiest ways to do this is to use a Local Business Directory to boost your Google Ranking.

I am sure that a lot of local directories are contacting you for your business right now. I want to sell you our directory, but first I want you to test our claims…

Ok, How?

Check the Page Rank of our website. Using this tool will instantly show you the Page Rank of any website. Any site with a Page Rank of 3 or higher is considered authoritative by Google. Page Rank is a vital means by which Google decides how important a website is.

Type in the site address in full – www.norfolkbroads.com

Then, demand to see a screen shot of the websites Google Analytics. Do not just accept what is being said on the phone or in an email. Any self respecting directory site should be happy to provide a screen shot of Google Analytics to show you exactly how much traffic the site gets.

Additionally, you need to know if a directory has content about your location and business type. This can be either in the domain name and or on individual pages. For example, www.norfolkbroads.com is clearly about Norfolk and the Norfolk Broads.

You can also search for the directory website address online to see how many pages Google has indexed. For example type ‘site:www.norfolkbroads.com’ into Google.

Only use the most relevant and powerful local directories online. Why not go through the above steps and see how your web site is doing.

OK! I Get It… NorfolkBroads.com is a Powerful Google Ranking Resource… What Now?

We can offer a link in our directory for only £60.00 + Vat for a whole year – a saving of £37.00! Join the hundreds of other business that use www.norfolkbroads.com to increase their Google Ranking and increase their business’s internet exposure.

Give us a call on 01603 735573 and we would be happy to show you how NorfolkBroads.com can help your business and show you our impressive Google Analytics results for 2010.

Remember, this is a fantastic offer that your competitors are already embracing. Claim your discount and sign up today.

NorfolkBroads.com – Supporting Local Business in Norfolk for over a Decade.

That could involve a change of focus in SEO strategies.

The new feature will include a magnifying glass icon next to returned search results.  This allows users to see a preview of a website before they click on a search result.

Now searchers are no longer relying just on the description to decide which is the best result for them to use.  Now searchers can visually compare results, another feature of instant preview will be the ability to see where on a web page the text relevant to a search term appears.

On first review instant preview appears to be a user aid rather than a ranking device. However we will all soon learn about how the aesthetics of a site affect user choice.