Līve Ambitions

There is a lot of discussion in various webmaster forums about whether “nofollow” links are good or not.  Generally speaking, “nofollow” links do not provide any SEO value, but digging a little deeper, they may be more valuable than you initially think.

Here’s a few reasons why “nofollow” links maybe be beneficial:

• To diversify your link portfolio.  I think it’s important to mix up your backlinks so Google doesn’t see it as a red flag.  Building your links using a single source is like putting all your eggs in one basket – not a good idea.
• If the link is placed on a high-traffic website, you may be able to receive a fair amount of direct traffic.
• Although “nofollow” links do not pass PR or link juice, Google does still follow the link, which means the destination URL may get indexed as a result.

So, the bottom line is: diversify your SEO strategy.  Experiment with different marketing opportunities because you never know how effective something will be until you try it out.

It isn’t surprising to see Google challenging the most innovative companies in the most competitive market today – technology.  Yesterday, Google introduced their newest smart mobile phone: Nexus One.  From search to software and hardware, Google is applying pressure in all directions.

BillShrink released a comparison of the top smart phones yesterday.  From the looks of it, Nexus One is not only competitive in specs, but also more cost effective than the iPhone and Droid.  T-mobile is the only carrier for this phone at this time.

If you’re a SEO (Search Engine Optimizer), you’re either going to love this idea or hate it.  Google has decided to show personalized results for everyone, regardless of whether someone is logged in or not.  For well-established sites, it may be easier to rank since you already have a good presence in the search engines.  However, if your website is new and has no existing traffic, then it will mostlikely be competing against more established websites.

This decision may have a drastic effect on the current SEO industry.  Since all searches are now personalized regardless of whether a user is logged in or not, the results will be heavily influenced by user search activity.  According to Google, search activity is tracked by an anonymous cookie set in your browser for 180 days.  So, if you visit a particular website frequently, it may show up in your search results most of the time, of course based on the search terms.

While I understand Google’s intent to offer more “personalized” results, it gives an unfair advantage to already-established websites.  This will mean that new websites will have to work harder than older websites to get the same results, even if the new website has better content.  This also means that online mom-and-pop shops may not get discovered simply because they are new and have to compete against the big boys on the block.

I can see arguments from the advocacy side saying users will have a better experience from “personalized” results.  However, I’d rebuttal by saying that users may “miss out” on new websites or opporunities because it’s not being shown in the 1st page.

Personalized search not only affects SEO, but also PPC.  Here’s my logic.  Since new websites won’t get much exposure through organic traffic, they’ll mostlikely have to resort to PPC marketing in order to get any type of search traffic.  I guess if there is an increase in PPC marketing, it can only mean more money for Google and Internet Marketing firms. 

So, I’m a little torn on this subject being that I’m both a SEO and Internet Marketer.

What’s your opinion?

According to a recent WebProNews interview with Matt Cutts, a Google software engineer, page load speeds may become a factor of Google search rankings. 

In Matt Cutts’ own words:

Historically, we haven’t had to use it in our search rankings, but a lot of people within Google think that the web should be fast.  It should be a good experience, and so it’s sort of fair to say that if you’re a fast site, maybe you should get a little bit of a bonus.  If you really have an awfully slow site, then maybe users don’t want that as much.

While it hasn’t been confirmed that Google will implement this new factor into their algorithm, it does seem plausible.  Afterall, Google currently uses speed as a factor in the Adwords algorithm.

There are 2 primary arguments against this proposed SEO factor.

Certain web pages run scripts which may slow down load times. 

It’s true, but there are ways to optimize the speed of your website even with certain codes running.  Google offers tools and tips to help you speed up your website: Let’s make the web faster

Users are concerned with content, not speed.

Not always true.  Loading times often affect user behavior, such as leaving websites before they finish loading.  Also, slow load times can be a frustrating experience for the user.  SEO is not just about content anymore.  Experience is also a big factor.

Google has officially jumped on the Twitter bandwagon.  According to their press release last week, Google has agreed to include Tweets in their search results.  I really hope Google does this in a way that isn’t obtrusive with the current search interface and layout.  Hopefully, the extent of Tweet results will be limited to Google’s search options.  It would be a bad mistake to include Tweets within the “normal” search results.

What do you think of this deal?

I believe companies like PayPerPost and Text-Link-Ads are killing the SEO industry.  Why do I think this?  Because they openly advertise their services to the world. 

Google has always been opposed to paid links.  But now, with these paid linking services out in the mainstream, it would only be natural for search engines to react with stricter guidelines on passing link juice.

I’m sure these companies could care less about what they are doing to the SEO industry.  Why would they?  They’re making money by exploiting the system.

SEO is still important and effective, but companies like PayPerPost and Text-Link-Ads only add fuel to the fire.  Can you imagine what would happen if one day Google decided to remove backlinks as an algorithmic criteria for ranking websites?  It would pretty much kill the SEO industry as we know it, and all the link building that has been done in the past would be worthless.  Yes, there other factors of SEO besides link building, but it’s undeniable that link building is the biggest service market in SEO.

One should keep in mind that Google can easily cut off the link juice from any website or blog.  This means that you’re taking a greater risk when you buy links from a ”known” link seller.  PayPerPost and Text-Link-Ads exposes these “known” link sellers.

From what I can see, Google has penalized Text-Link-Ads.  When you run a search for “text link ads,” they are no where to be found.  But why isn’t PayPerPost.com penalized yet?  Their business model is based on the same concept as Text-Link-Ads.  I guess PayPerPost has a bigger problem to worry about.  The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has made it mandatory for bloggers to disclose when they are getting paid for posts.  This means that everyone will know exactly who is selling blog posts.  Those who do not disclose payment information risk getting fined by the FTC.

Ever since Bing’s search deal with Yahoo, everyone’s been talking a lot about search engine market share.  Most articles I’ve read talk about Bing’s increase in market share, while others talk about its loss in market share.  So, who do you believe?  It’s hard to say because it comes down to the accuracy of the data.

Currently, there are 3 main sources of data for search engine market share: ComScore, StatCounter and Nielsen.  When you compare the data between the 3 sources, you’ll notice that there’s pretty significant discrepancies in the market share data.  Take for example the US search engine market share for August 2009. 

For the month of August, ComScore reports 64.6% for Google, 19.3% for Yahoo and 9.3% for Microsoft. 

StatCounter reports 77.83% for Google, 10.5% for Yahoo and 9.64% for Bing. 

For the same month, Nielsen reports 64.6% for Google, 16% for Yahoo and 10.7%  for Microsoft. 

As you can see, those numbers are pretty drastically different.  At numbers of this magnitude, every percentage counts.  StatCounter and Nielsen reported gains for Google, while ComScore had Google losing .1% of market share from July to August.  However, all agreed that Microsoft/Bing increased its market share.

The discrepancy comes not only from the methods in which the companies collect their data, but also from which web properties they collect the data for.  Google, Yahoo and Microsoft all have various web properties from which they receive significant traffic from, so if the data is not uniform, then you’re pretty much comparing apples to oranges.

According to Web Guild, ComScore collects their data from Internet usage:

• Personal demographics (age, gender, education, etc.)
• Internet usage status
• Connection speed
• Census region
• Household size
• Computers in home
• ISP
• Operating System
• AOL usage
• Work usage

StatCounter collects their data from tracking codes installed in nearly 3 million websites around the world.  From this raw data, they are able to analyze every hit referred by search engines.  In July 2009, StatCounter recorded 136 million referrals made by search engines.

Nielsen utilizes data collected from nearly 100 million blogs, social networks, groups, boards and other consumer-generated media platforms.  They also use consumer panels to supplement their data.

Remember the days when it was common to see a PR5 or PR6 site?  Prior to the BigDaddy update in early 2006, Google was more generous about giving out PageRank.  Nowadays, you’d be lucky to get a PR4.  Even authority websites have a tough time reaching PR5 or PR6.

Google has changed the landscape of the SEO industry.  Shortly after the BigDaddy update, link buying slowed down because so many websites, blogs and directories lost their PageRanks.  Then, webmasters realized that most websites were affected by the PR update, and began to adapt to the trend.  The game has changed.  Today, webmasters are still buying links, but with less regard for PR.  PR3′s and PR4′s are the PR5′s and PR6′s of the pre-BigDaddy days.  I believe the prices of links have adapted to the change as well.

There’s another hurdle for the SEO industry.

Google has become more savvy about detecting paid links.  Buying links for SEO seems to be a hit and miss situation.  Some links count towards PR juice, while others don’t.  It’s no secret that Google has had the capability of discounting certain blocks of links from any website.  Here’s what Matt Cutts had to say regarding backlinks: “Do not assume just because you see a backlink that it’s carrying weight.”

The traditional way of checking for backlinks in Google was to run a search query like this: link:www.domain.com

Unfortunately, the traditional way won’t give you an accurate measure of your backlinks because most of the results are filtered out.  Based on speculations, Google supposedly only shows PR3 links and above using their link query.

Google does, however, offer a more accurate backlink tool via their Webmaster Tools section.  You will need a Google account, and you are limited to websites you own or have access to.

If you check Yahoo’s index tool using Site Explorer, you’ll see some drastic differences in the number of backlinks.  Unfortunately, Site Explorer counts some internal links as backlinks too. 

No backlink tool is 100% perfect.

By keeping SEOs in the dark, Google hopes to deter link buying as much as possible.  We must admit, it has worked to some degree.  There are webmasters who have stopped selling links from their website due to fear of getting penalized or banned by Google.  While others have adopted the “nofollow” tag policy for all paid links.

Google has finally confirmed it.  As I wrote in this post, in May, it turns out that meta tag keywords and descriptions are not factors in Google optimization.  However, meta tags may still be useful for Yahoo and Bing optimization.

You may also use meta tag descriptions to show in the search results if you are not satisfied with Google’s description of your website.

Update:  All the major search engines do not use meta keyword tags, not even Yahoo.  Yahoo confirmed it a few months ago.  However, meta descriptions may still be used as the displayed description text within SERP results.

I see a lot of articles on how to optimize for a specific search engine, such as Google, Yahoo or Bing. But, I wonder why anyone would do such a thing. SEO takes a lot of work and manhours, especially if the site is new or if you manage more than 1 website. Who has time for it? Yes, there are some differences in the algorithms, but for the most part, search engines like the same basic characteristics in websites. Take your thoughts to grassroots level. It’ll simplify your job and also provide the best user experience.

To understand why the search engines are so similar you simply have to look at their business model. Their business model is based around providing the best experience for their users. They are not in business to make website owners money. They are in business not because of webmasters, but mainly because end-users find their service to be useful. Without practicality, usability or relevancy, search engines would be worthless to users. Without user traffic there is no money, and without money, there is no business.

You should think the same when developing a website. Build for the user, not for yourself or the search engines. Of course, if you don’t care about visitors or making money, then feel free to make your site as hideous as you’d like.

The search engines had the users in mind when they 1st developed their search engine algorithm, and it is still the users today that influence the factors of search engine algorithms.

So, let’s get down to the very basics. Why do people visit Google or Bing?

• To find an answer
• To learn about something
• To search for something
• To buy something

What is the best possible way for a search engine to provide a solution for its users?

• Provide relevant results
• Provide answers
• Eliminate clutter and spam
• Give speedy results
• Help protect the public

As you already know, algorithms are what determines how search engines show results. And, we know that Google and Bing care about the same things despite having separate algorithms. 

Here are the key factors that search engines agree are most important:

• Strong / quality backlinks
• On-site factors, such as keywords, meta tags, titles, alt tags, etc.
• Site architecture, such as coding, URLs and link structure
• Age and authority of website
• Unique content

Everything else is small potatoes. Optimizing for all search engines is not only efficient, but also helps you stay focused on what is important. Wouldn’t you rather receive organic traffic from all the search engines and not just one?