SEO CheckList

In my last post, I reported about the PageRank roller coaster. Popular and high-profile web sites went from being in the upper echelon of the PageRank hierarchy to the bottom half. Within a few days, however, many web sites saw their PageRanks restored to their previous glory, or at least saw their diminished PageRanks climb up the ladder again. I presented three possibilities of why this happened: Selling (text) links, Google algorithm change and WidgetBucks. Well, now you can scrap the other two because the cause for everything that’s happened is confirmed to be paid text links.

Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal reports that popular Google personality, Matt Cutts, emailed them proclaiming that the fluctuations in PageRank all around the web recently has been due to web sites selling text links.

The partial update to visible PageRank that went out a few days ago was primarily regarding PageRank selling and the forward links of sites. So paid links that pass PageRank would affect our opinion of a site.

Going forward, I expect that Google will be looking at additional sites that appear to be buying or selling PageRank.

Google has always had explicitly stated in their guidelines that they were against selling of text links. However, because they haven’t taken a proactive stance to penalize those who do chose to sell text links, web sites cared little for the guidelines and sold text links anyhow. This time, however, Google has finally waged war against web sites selling text links. As of now, there is still no news on what could redeem the “PageDunked” web sites.

What will people do after this? Will they completely let go of selling text link advertisements to be in Google’s favor or do they, “screw it” and go on with selling links? It all remains to be seen.

Imagine my surprise when Darren Rowse of Problogger reported that his web site went from PR6 to PR4. And it wasn’t only him, many other prominent blogs have also experienced PageRank drops.

There have been many theories and speculations on why such a thing happened. Here are some of the mor prominent ones I’ve read:

1. Selling Links

It’s such an irony, really, that this would happen soon after I blogged about selling links. Blog networks who usually sell links as part of their revenue making plan were given a lot of think about — do they play by Google’s rules and give up a big part of their revenue or do they do what they usually do?

2. Google Algorithm Change

You didn’t think the Google algorithm would remain the same forever, did you? It might have changed, they might have tweaked it, the possibilities are endless.

3. WidgetBucks

I’m supposed to blog about Widgetbucks this week in the online marketing blog and this happens. Thing is, WidgetBucks has a hidden text link ad behind the Flash animation. The hidden link is reportedly:

<a href=”http://www.widgetbucks.com” target=”_blank”>WidgetBucks - Trend Watch - WidgetBucks.com</a>

However, WidgetBucks had an update just after the “Google PageTank” and removed their hidden text link which is against Google’s guidelines. Many speculated this was done to regain the big G’s favor since WidgetBucks doesn’t even rank for their own name. But in the PinoyMoneyTalk blog, Greg Harrison of WidgetBucks made an appearance and commented that it wasn’t the case at all and the new WidgetBucks update is to accommodate the changes brought about by the Akamai content delivery network.

As of now, some web sites have rebounded back to their normal PR rankings. Still, one has to wonder if such a thing will happen again in the future. Lesson learned from this whole ordeal? PageRank isn’t everything. Your PR dropped? Get on with life — the world goes on, so should you.

When people design web sites, we often most usually think about the aesthetics. As long as it looks good, frankly, I don’t care what goes on the left and right parts of the layout. However, if you plan to optimize your web site completely and would want it to be search engine friendly, there’s actually a web site configuration to follow. That configuration would be: header, menu(s), content, sidebar(s) and finally, footer. It doesn’t mean you always have to follow this positioning. This is used if and only if, you are taking pains to completely optimize your sites for search engines.

The reason for this isn’t exactly to rank higher in the SERPs. No, not at all. Here are a couple of reasons why the header, menu(s), content, sidebar(s) and footer configuration matters:

1. Spidering Issues

Despite the fact that spiders index your pages, they reach a limit when they get a part of the page and stop indexing. You want to make sure search engine bots get to index your content and your links.

2. Display Issues

Some browsers, like text-only readers, prefer this semantic markup of web pages. This type of display also seems to be the preference of PDAs and mobile phones.

3. Loading Issues

Using the above configuration, web pages tend to load easily. This is simply way to reach a wider audience — dial-up users for example. When loading is easy as 1-2-3, expect people to come back for seconds…and thirds too.

Now, although this gesture by itself might not help increase your ranking in the SERPs, its effects might. Faster loading time and having no display issues for example, could get people to link back to you which could then increase your rankings. Everything snowballs from little things you do.

I’ve seen quite a lot of disagreement on whether header tags actually help optimize web pages. I understand the skepticism, but testing it, I’ve found out that the text inside H1 header tags is displayed by the search engines. In the absence of the H1, the first line of text available to search engine spiders is displayed instead. The configuration of header tags is as follows:

<Hx> insert text here </Hx>

The value “x” pertains to the corresponding number of the header tag in the hierarchy. Commonly used header tags range from H1 to H3. Numbers beyond that, H4 to H6, could be used, though they are much less so. Each header tag in the hierarchy has its own uses. The H1 tag, for example, is used for the main web page description. Think of it as a web page’s headline — what the whole page is about. Ideally, a single web page should only have one topic, so one web page should only have one H1 header tag. H2 is mainly used for article titles and others of the same value while H3 should be used for important sections within an article.

The importance of header tags in search engine optimization lies in their corresponding numbers. The Header1 tag is deemed most important by spiders. The tag <H1> serves as the mark for search engine bots to identify an important line of text. Think of it as a marker or an underline which highlights what you want it to. The succeeding tags are of less importance though you can use them if you want to, just don’t overdo it. The significance of this finding is that it means you can place your most important keyword or key phrase inside the header1 tag for optimal results. Even if you’re skeptical about the use of title tags in SEO, I don’t see why you can’t give it a try. After all, at face value, H1 serves as the headline for a page, so it helps in page organization.

Some months ago, I wrote an article a month for a client and had them submitted to 1000 article directories and PR distribution sites. Was it effective? I think only my client would know exactly. However, as an observation, I noticed it took around 1-2 months a lot of times, for some of the directories to approve or reject the article. Never mind about the marketing aspect of article marketing — what about the SEO? Does blasting your article to 1000+ directories really help with the SEO? Let’s analyze the situation and perhaps we’ll get something off of this.

1. Duplicate Content Anyone?

I’m a lurker of a popular writer’s online hub. There were some discussions about RSS feeds and article directory submissions. A couple of them were strong champions of article directory submissions. I asked them if Google’s duplicated content penalty didn’t both them. Said writers didn’t even know what duplicated content means! Figures. When you submit one article to 1000+ article directories, that would mean your content appears on more than one web site and you can get penalized by Google for duplicated content. What does this penalization entail? You articles won’t rank for their keywords results directing to your article might get thrown into the Google supplementals.

2. Does Google Value Backlinks from Article Directories?

I would like to bring my post of selling backlinks to attention. If Google’s finding ways to eliminate the paid links into the computation for the Google PageRank algorithm, I don’t see why something similar won’t be in effect for article directories. Matt Cutts, in his post back in 2005, said that Google values natural and reciprocal links. Since links from article directories are synthetic, does Google value backlinks from article directories? Perhaps now Google does, but until when?

Still, not everything is about Google PageRank. Some people get into article marketing for the sole purpose of driving traffic to their site. The question in that case would be if article marketing does drive in the traffic. But that’s a post for an online marketing blog.

Selling links — it’s one of the most common ways to earn revenue from web sites. And I don’t see why not. You see, not all web site models could earn a decent supplemental (or full-time if you’re as lucky as Shoemoney) income from Google Adsense or something similar like YPN. There are those who earn more in the form of sponsor advertisements aka paid links. And these sponsors buy links for two things: 1) traffic and 2) PageRank. But what if Google says that by selling links, your own PageRank might plummet? Matt Cutts from Google blogged about it a long long time ago back in 2005.

According to Matt Cutts, Google’s algorithm is designed so that paid links are determined and hence, given a lower or nil value in the PageRank algorithm. I don’t exactly know how what Google’s algorithm is, but my guess would be either of the two:

1. The Text Surrounding the Links

If you’ve written the words “Sponsored” or “Paid” or anything related to the two to indicate a set of links, Google will, of course, know your links are paid.

2. Relevancy of the Links to the Web Site

If your web site is about say, flowers, and you have links to adult web sites all over, chances are, Google would mark the links in your web site as paid ads (which they most probably are).

Now, why do I think selling links still has its value despite reports that some of those who did lowered their own PageRanks (aside from the fact that Google does NOT catch every single one of those who do sell links)? For link sellers, of course, there’s the monetary incentive. With regards to buyers, they like the traffic. Say Google does indeed not count determined paid links for PageRank, the traffic a link might bring is well-worth it.

So, what do you if you want to make sure that you absolutely won’t be targeted by Google? Use the “nofollow” attribute in your links. But thing is, would sponsors buy links from you? You choose.

I’ve come across this same question in many web master forums I’m a member of. I will address the issue here for future reference. So, does changing one’s host affects one’s ranking in the SERPs? The answer depends on the situation. For example, are you really just moving to a new host and not changing anything with your domain? If all you intend to do is move your web site and nothing else, then the answer is “no” (do I hear rejoicing out there?). No, merely changing hosts does not affect your rankings. However, if moving is coupled with some other changes, then it just might.

Moving will affect your rankings if…

1. You change your domain.

I think this one’s a given. You lose your PageRank and your ranking in the SERPs if you change your domain name. One real-life observation I had, however, is that if your content remains intact and you update often (especially if your domain’s a blog), you’ll get your rankings back in due time (but not your PageRank).

2. You change your content.

If moving entails changing majority of the content you housed in your old host before, then expect a fall in the SERPs.

3. A long down-time.

If you did not plan your move properly and you experience a long down-time, you’ll also lose your rankings. You’ll gain it back in due time though but think if you can really afford the loss of traffic that results from this.

To avoid this, it’s best to upload a copy or backup of your web site to your new host first before doing anything else. After this, point the DNS servers of your domain to your new host. It takes about 24-48 hours before the DNS propagates across the internet. But after it has and you had successfully redirected traffic to your new web site, you can then finally close your old hosting plan. Just make sure you’ve downloaded all backups you need.

With regards to achieving visibility, on-site SEO is the prime factor. Tinker with the title tags, the headings, keyword density, layout of the pages, etcetera. PageRank, however, is a game of links and more links. Now, with regards to links, one might wonder if the age of the link has anything to do with its potency. Well, I believe so. Links for me are like wine — the older they are, the finer and the better. And I bet Google thinks so too.

So how does Google judge links based on time? First, they take into account the time the links are indexed. And then, they also take note when the links are edited and when the contents where the links are located are edited. But in essence, Google weighs older links a lot more than newer ones. I think it’s only fair, don’t you? In reality, web sites keeping links for a long time means they’re still in favor of the ones they link to (unless they’re paid links).

Why are newer links less valued? Well, it’s an effort by Google to curtail climbing in the SERPs by rapid buying of links. Just think of how fast new sites could climb up the ranks with just money on their side. The Google sandbox ensures that doesn’t happen at least for competitive keywords. For the PageRank algorithm, however, there’s no contest that older links are weighed more and new sites gaining inbound links at a tremendous speed could get flagged as a spam site.

Because of Google’s policy on the temporal aspect of inbound links there are unscrupulous web masters who take advantage of the situation. They’ve developed a technique called “Google popping” wherein which they put up links of their competitors in their web sites and then pull them right back down after the page got indexed.

For a long time now, I’ve tried building backlinks by commenting on popular blogs with high PageRank. I was taught it’s a good way to increase link count for Google. However, little did I know that all my efforts are in vain! There are blogs using the repugnant (at least for those trying to honestly build a backlink) “nofollow” attribute. The nofollow attribute was a joint effort between blog software developers and search engines. It was created to help discourage the frequency of spam comments. However, the downside is that the honest backlink builders also get affected.

The nofollow attribute’s markup appears like this:

<a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.domain.com/”>Insert Text Here</a>

So just how does the nofollow attribute affect banklink builders exactly? For the record, any link with the nofollow attribute is NOT counted by the search engines. Meaning, the backlinks which could have contributed to an increase in PageRank or an increase of the ranking in the SERPs are not taken into account at all.

Most blogging platforms, WordPress included, automatically include the nofollow attribute for the links dropped in the blog comments. There is a way, however, to work around this — using plug-ins. Because of the existence of nofollow, numerous plug-ins have already been created for the benefit of back-link builders. Here is a collection of “dofollow” plug-ins for your perusal. Choose one of test every one of them first before settling for a particular one.

You might ask why it’s important for you to worry about the nofollow attribute. If you are a blogger, making sure your blog is a “dofollow” blog could increase the interest and induce commenting. Sure you’ll get a lot of spams in the process, but that’s what Akismet and other anti-spam plug-ins are for. Curtailing the no-follow attribute helps in the long-run, you just have to have the patience and the time to sort through comment spam.

Not too many people know what the Google sandbox is, or at least not too many people who aren’t involved in any way with SEO. And among those who do know about it, not all believe in its existence. So what is the Google sandbox?

Basically, the Google sandbox is when your web site doesn’t rank in the SERPs for competitive keywords for quite a period of time even if your traffic and PR are both high. Experienced web masters assume (based on what they themselves have gone through) that it takes about nine months before you’re out of that sandbox.

Does this mean your site’s totally down in the dumps? No, not necessarily. You’d be surprised, you might actually rank well for other keywords but probably NOT for the keywords you’re targeting in case you’re in a competitive niche. Many have asked if anyone gets to avoid the sandbox effect. There are those who say you can’t but there are those who believe that you CAN. Although personally, I find the latter a bit hard to digest because I believe “aging” is something which can’t be faked from the eyes (not literally speaking, of course) of the Google algorithm. But of course, not everyone has the same experience and there will always be those who’ll successfully accomplish what you haven’t been able to.

With that said, how do you get out of the sandbox? To get out of the sandbox, you must, of course, do the very basics of SEO: develop a gamut of pages of original content, build backlinks from trusted web sites (high-ranking ones, .edu, etc.), and wait for your site to age, age, age. Web sites are like wine to Google; the older, the better. And you better wait your turn to rank in the SERPs. Don’t worry, if you played by the rules of the game, chances are, it won’t take too long for you to rank.