Topic Category: Google
The articles in this category are those we believe contain essential information about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Whether you are a seasoned search marketing professional or a SEO novice, you'll find the following articles to be a valuable resource.
March 13, 2008
Does Google Think Your Site Was Hacked?
By Scott Goodyear
Has your site recently taken a nose dive in the rankings? Do you find that your site is no where to be found even if you use your domain name as the search term? Whether you have a Google WebMaster Tools account or not, you may now find a note from the WebMaster team waiting for you, after you've created an account and verify your site.
December 27, 2007
Bootstrap SEO: How To Ride A Wave Of Popularity.
By Scott Goodyear
As an internet marketer, it is often easier to look at some one else's site and see opportunity than it is to see opportunities on your own site. In this post I want to give an example of what I would call "bootstrap" SEO. Essentially bootstrap SEO occurs when you see some one else's success, think up ideas on how they might continue to build on their success, but you may instead find a way to build this content for your own site.
September 06, 2007
"Are Paid Links Evil?" from SES San Jose, what you missed...
By Scott Goodyear
I'm back from attending the Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference in San Jose and I'm putting together a few posts about my experience. In the meantime, I'll relate part of my experience from the "Are Paid Links Evil?" session. It was a lively session that was more food for thought than actionable tips...
May 17, 2007
Apple.com telling Google "we don't want to rank"?
By Scott Goodyear
As I mentioned a while back, Google states that they are getting more aggressive in how they treat links. High rankings based entirely on links (i.e. the term does not appear on the page) are often called "Googlebombs". For several years Apple.com has enjoyed a first page ranking for the terms MP3 Player, MP3 Players, and often top 10-20 rankings for related terms like MP3 device, digital music player, and others. Today they no longer rank in the top 100 for keywords that they should dominate like MP3 players and simply MP3. In the past, they were supported by benign Googlebombs.
December 20, 2006
International SEO, A Check List for Improving the Rankings of International Web Sites.
By Scott Goodyear
www.webposition.com
Need to improve a site's rankings in an international search engine? Have you already tried traditional optimization of content and link strategies? What else can an SEO do? Surprisingly, there are a few more steps to be considered in order to improve an international web site which can also prove helpful when pursuing improved international search engine rankings.
July 12, 2006
The Fundamentals of Search Engine Optimization
by Richard Drawhorn
The fundamental concepts behind Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are understood by most search engine marketers, but those new to the subject should find this article to be very useful. Informative articles on various aspects of SEO have been published here on MarketPosition.com over the years, and in this post I will summarize these concepts and provide links to relevant articles.
April 15, 2005
What is organic search and how can it help your company?
The first time I heard the term "organic search" I immediately thought of organic food at the grocery store. So, is this organic search healthier for me? Will it reduce my chances of getting cancer? Not only can the search engines bring most of the world's knowledge to my desktop, but now they can prevent deadly diseases too! Imagine my disappointment when I learned organic search was simply the next new buzzword for the concept of pure, or crawler-based search. As some of our readers may find it challenging to keep up with all of the latest lingo, I thought I'd take a moment to at least explain the concept of organic search.
February 15, 2005
Measuring Web Site Statistics as Part of Your SEO Strategy
By Mark Nelson
Measuring the behavior of visitors and spiders should be an integral part of your optimization efforts. In recent articles we have focused on the important areas of the SEO process including:
January 15, 2005
Outsourcing a SEO program
By Bob Garcia, Director WebPosition by WebTrends
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an ongoing effort. The variables that influence search visibility and rankings are constantly changing: Search engines update their rules. Competitors constantly optimize their pages to improve their rankings. New players enter.
November 15, 2004
Link Popularity Considerations
by Mark Nelson
Link popularity is the term used to indicate how many other web pages link to your web page and is calculated by counting the number of links coming into a particular page. This includes pages linking from within your site as well as from pages on other sites. Most search engines measure the link popularity of an individual web page as opposed to your entire web site. Often times you hear people talk about the link popularity of a site and this tends to lead to confusion about what it is and how it is actually measured.
October 15, 2004
Top 5 Tips for Successful Search Engine Marketing
If you are new to the Search category, you're probably familiar with the term "Search Engine Optimization" (SEO) and have seen or heard the term "Search Engine Marketing" (SEM), but are not exactly sure what Search Engine Marketing really means. More than likely, you've heard the two terms used interchangeably and may think that they mean the same thing. Though they are similar, there is a dramatic difference between the two practices. Knowing and understanding the difference between these two terms, and more importantly, knowing how to take advantage of the differences is the key to overall success in marketing via search engines.
August 15, 2004
Top 5 Tips for Choosing the Best Keywords
You've probably heard of people claiming significant traffic to their site after achieving a top ranking on Google or Yahoo. But sometimes you hear from someone else who also achieved a similar top ranking but they were disappointed when no one arrived at their site. How can two people achieve a top ranking and have such markedly different outcomes? Simple. The person in the first example selected a keyword or phrase that many people are searching on, and the second did not.
February 15, 2004
Why You Should Validate Your HTML
by Christine Churchill
If you're a regular reader of the MarketPosition newsletter, then you already know about the potential pitfalls of using frames, Flash, and dynamically generated pages on your site. Search engine spiders struggle with these technologies, so using them heavily can limit your success in the search engines.
February 15, 2002
Thou Shalt Not Spam! The 12 Commandments of Search Engine Marketing
If you're caught "sinning" against a search engine, you run the risk of incurring one of several degrees of punishment:
- The page is red-flagged for closer inspection by a human reviewer.
- The page's ranking is quietly reduced
- The offending page is dropped from the engine
- The entire site is banned from the engine
