4 Steps to Diagnose and Fix Wrong Page Ranking

Originally posted on LinkedIn

Many times I noticed that a website homepage ranks on a particular search term, even though there is another page which is more relevant for that keyword. Before few years, brands and search marketing specialists were not concerned about this, because they were mostly interested to appear in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) but now the scenario has changed. Google is updating their search algorithm frequently and prioritizing the site quality scores like CTR, bounce rate and visitor duration on a page in the search algorithm. So now if an irrelevant page appears in SERPs then it can decrease the CTR and increase the bounce rate, which will lower the site’s quality score and this will impact the keyword position in SERPs. So I thought to create a post on this topic to provide my opinion about why this happens and how we can overcome this issue.

Why This Happens?

This happens only when Google considers that the homepage is much better than the inner page. In other words the keywords and the page theme do not match the users search query which is the main purpose of Google's search algorithm. There are 4 reasons behind this and these reasons are listed below:

1. It may be possible that the relevant page have indexing & crawling or content or link issues. Indexing & crawling means that the page has been blocked for robots. It may be possible that page content is not crawlable by Googlebot. May be all the content is served through JavaScript, or Ajax or by any technique not crawlable and parsable by Google.
2. It may be possible that the website page do not have sufficient content or less amount of unique content or the content on the page not providing enough value to Google to consider the page for SERP ranking.
3. It may be possible that the page do not have enough external and internal links pointing to that page to make it valuable for Google to rank in SERPs.
4. It may be possible that all the above 3 factors are perfect, but the ranking ability is weighed down by the homepage of the website. In other words the website’s homepage talks about the search topic that you would expect to find on the inner page, but that Google is seeing on the homepage and the homepage is also getting a lot of links for it.

How We Can Overcome This Issue? 

Well we cannot instruct Google to rank a particular page for particular search term, but yes we can make some changes to resolve the above mentioned issues and provide a signal to Google to rank the correct page. 

1. Make the inner page crawlable and parsable by Googlebot. Check robots.txt file and robots Meta tag on the page and fix if there is any issue.
2. Check for canonical tag implementation and correct of there is any issue.
3. Check the page content and make sure the copy is accessible to Google.
4. Strengthen the relevant page’s potential ranking signals by following ways:

• Content: Create enough and unique content that provides value to Google to consider the inner page more relevant for search query.
• Internal linking: Check the website pages that are linking to this targeted page and to the other pages within the website. Point the correct links from the correct pages to this targeted page.
• External linking: Check the external links to this targeted page and the other pages of the website. It may be the case that the external links have weighed down everything else. So in this case, you need to contact to the concerned webmasters and point the links to correct page.
• Improve Page Authority: Improve inner pages Page Authority by creating inbound links from the authority websites.

Following the above steps you can solve the issues and get your correct page rank in Google SERPs. Let me know you opinion through comments.

Yahoo Microsoft Search Alliance

Finally Yahoo and Bing search alliance started from today ie 3rd August 2011. Yahoo announced that they are now ready to transition Yahoo! Organic Search Results (non-paid listings found on the main body of the Yahoo!) to Microsoft. The organic search transition will begins on August 3rd 2011 for Yahoo! European properties in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.

Following are the screenshots of search result of Yahoo UK and Bing UK for the same keyword "Data Recovery Software":-




You can see that the results are same in both the search engines. Now if you want to get better ranking on Yahoo then only optimize your site for Bing and you will automatically get the same ranking on Yahoo. So just Review the Bing webmaster tools and optimise your website for the Bing crawler, to help ensure your site is prominently listed in both Yahoo! and Bing organic search results.

Also note that Yahoo! is NOT transitioning paid search results at this time, and you should continue managing your Yahoo! Search Marketing account as usual.

For more information please visits the Official site at http://ebm.yahoo-email.com/c/tag/hBONmsVB8WDXMB8cj4cEGWsiOIp/doc.html

Facebook Spam to Untag Yourself in YouTube Video

Today I received a wall post from one of my very close friend and the post was associated with a YouTube video with the message "wtf divakar you should untag yourself in this video". I opened the video but that was not playing and following message was written inside the video:-

Click You Address Bar
Press Ctrl + V
Press Enter

I very much surprised that what is this and also posted comment that this video is not playing.

Again after some time I received another wall post from some other friend with little bit change in massage "WTF!! divakar I can't believe you're in this vid". Again video was not opening and same above massage was showing.

After this I thought that there is something fishy behind this wall post and I guessed that it must be some kind of Spam. I started searching and found that my guess is correct. Many people was attacked this kind of spam which comes with different related messages. So please don't click on any of your wall post having video with any of the following type of massage:-

1. OMG name you should untag yourself in this vid
2. OMG name why are you in this vid
3. hey name you look so stupid in this vid
4. hey name why are you in this vid
5. hey name i can’t believe youre tagged this vid
6. ROTFL name what are you doing in this vid
7. Yo name why are you tagged in this vid
8. Yo name I can’t believe you are tagged in this vid
9. WTF name you should untag yourself in this vid
10. WTF name what are you doing in this vid
11. WTF name you look so stupid in this vid

The main aim of this spam wall post is to get the user click on the Video which actually does not load any video but infects the user as victim and now similar posts will be posted on the victim’s friends wall.

My main motive about this blog post is to aware the user about this spam and I would like to suggest peoples not to click on such type of spam wall post. Also please just report this video as spam and remove this spam from your news feed.

Google Search: now faster than the speed of type

Google becomes more smarter and faster by providing search results before typing of search query. Google have developed 15 new technologies and introduce Google Instant functionality to get the search results faster than speed of typing. You can find more details at following links:-
Google Search: now faster than the speed of type
Google Instant

On-Page SEO Tips for Better Search Engine Optimization

I have faces many challenges while optimization websites on different themes. So as per my experience in the SEO industry I am writing 21 SEO tips for better search engine optimization. These useful search engine optimization tips are:-

1. Website should have clear hierarchical link structure and every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.


2. Keep the links on a particular page to a reasonable number (less than 100).


3. Website should have a sitemap that point important parts of site. If sitemap have more than 100 links break it into separate pages.


4. Always make folder and file names meaningful.


5. Always use hyphens as word separator while making the internal URL of a website.


6. Website should not have canonical domain issue.


7. Try to keep internal linking consistent. For example, don't link to http://www.example.com/page/ and http://www.example.com/page and http://www.example.com/page/index.htm.


8. If site contains dynamic pages try to keep the parameters short and the number of them few.


9. Always use proper anchor text while linking the pages.


10. Avoid hidden text or hidden links on site.


11. Use a meaningful descriptive ALT tags on every images.


12. Website should have original quality and theme related contents. Use the targeted keywords in content and also check about Keyword density, proximity, prominence, stemming.


13. Check for broken links and correct them.


14. Don’t create pages having duplicate contents.


15. Use appropriate header tags on a page and try to take main targeted keyword in H1.


16. Always try to use External CSS.


17. Avoid using java script on a page try to define it in a separate file and call from there.


18. Verify the website in Google, Yahoo and Bing. Set preferred domain and if required set the geographical location.


19. Prepare the XML, txt sitemaps and submit in search engines.


20. All the pages of site should have unique Title and Meta Ttags including the targeted keyword of that page.


21. Frames are very, very bad for SEO. Avoid using them unless really necessary
    .

Caffeine Will Roll Out After Christmas Holidays

As many of us know that Google Caffeine's developers preview is retired and Google is working to live the Caffeine update on multiple data centers. As Matt Cutts has written a post about Caffeine implementation on multiple data centers and it indicates that Caffeine will be live on multiple data centers after Christmas holidays ie not before January. You can read the full post and the discussions on following address:
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/google-caffeine-update/

Google Caffeine is Ready to Live Soon

Today Google is again a big news in software industry (specially in search engine industry) as they have closed the developers review of their new generation search architecture known as Caffeine.

As all we know that from last several months a large of Google Engineers was working to develop the next generation architecture of Google’s web search. In the month of august Google has announced its caffeine update and made it public for the developers review.

Today afternoon Google retired its caffeine review and given an official statement as below:-

"Based on the success we've seen, we believe Caffeine is ready for a larger audience. Soon we will activate Caffeine more widely, beginning with one data center. This sandbox is no longer necessary and has been retired, but we appreciate the testing and positive input that webmasters and publishers have given."

So now it is clear that Google Caffeine is going to live with all the changes with it. If you monitored your site ranking in Caffeine (http://www2.sandbox.google.com/) you may except your caffeine result will appear soon in Google SERP’s. So don’t worry your site rankings may be changed for a while – that’s the signal of Caffeine is coming .

Twitter Hacked by Denial of Service Attack

According to the Associated Press, Twitter reported in its blog that the company is currently busy staving off a denial-of-service attack that was launched Thursday by an unknown group of hackers.

A denial-of-service (DoS) attack is a method where hackers commandeer computers and flood the targeted Web site with communication requests, forcing it shut down and reset. While a DoS attack is underway, the Web site either becomes unavailable to legitimate users or responds so slowly that the Web site times out and becomes unusable.

CNet reports that Twitter began suffering problems around 6 A.M PDT.

“We are determining the cause and will provide an update shortly,” the company posted at 6:43 A.M PDT on their blog.

Around 7:49 A.M, Twitter updated users on the microblog’s status, saying that they were “defending against a denial-of-service attack and will update status again shortly.”

AlertSite, a firm that monitors Web site performance, had only 40 percent availability at 8:00 A.M, but was still widely inaccessible to most users.

According to the Los Angeles Times, at 9:47 A.M PDT, Twitters updated their status with a notice that read, “As we recover, users will experience some longer load times and slowness. This includes timeouts to API clients. We’re working to get back to 100% as quickly as we can.”

Currently, the top trending topics on Twitter include “DoS” and “Denial-of-Service”.

Twitter is a famous social networking services available on the Internet and have millions of registered users, including Hollywood celebrities, famous business mans, politicians etc.

Another popular social networking site, Facebook, was also the victim of a similar attack this morning.

Earlier this week, the popular blog network Gawker Media was targeted by a DoS attack that was able to knock it off the Internet for a brief period of time..

According to PC Pro, the motive behind the attacks on Twitter, Facebook and Gawker are unknown.

“The question on my mind is - why would someone want to attack Twitter?” asks Graham Cluley, the senior technology consultant at Sophos, a company that specializes in network security, to PC Pro.

“I can’t imagine it’s a commercial competitor of theirs, but it could be someone with a financial motivation (blackmail?) or a teenager in a back bedroom with access to an awfully large botnet.”

Source :- http://www.collegenews.com/index.php?/article/twitter_and_facebook_hacked_by_denial_of_service_attack_08062009485352/

All Google Search Results are Virus Infected

Hey,

Today before few minutes I was searching on Google and seen that all the sites on SERP are infected by virus and the message "This site may harm your computer" was displayed.
Is this was an error in Google or some loop holes in Google algorithms. Your comments are required.

Official Google Blog: Google learns to crawl Flash

Official Google Blog: Google learns to crawl Flash

Google Updates July 2008

As every body knows that normaly Google update its Page Rank and Back link algoritm aroud every 3, 4 months.Google has been updated the Back link and Page Rank algorithm on 26th Jully 2008. I didn't found any change in the SERP's but I noticed that number of back links goes down for almost websites and PR is same.
Most of the new pages of my sites get good PR according the their home pages.
If you noticed any other changes in algorithm and SERP's please do share with me.

Requirement of Submission

Submission of the site is the process to suggest a site on a search engine. It's usually fill out a form telling the search engine spiders to visit and index the site suggested. Submitting your site significantly improves the chances that it will appear in users' search results.
Submission of the site is the process of getting your site to the attention of search engines and directories. And 'the next step after the search engine optimization and positioning.

Directory Submission:
Learn how your position in directories such as Yahoo!. Understanding the factors which directories to decide which areas in the list. Get to Yahoo explicit program to the list ASAP.

Where to Submit:
After optimization, it is time to submit your site. We recommend that you submit to all the major search engines, as approximately 90% of search engine-generated traffic from search sites 15-20 sites.You can also submit your site to specific countries or news for search engines targeted results.

How to Submit:
All the search engines and directories have standard forms for site submission. A link to a search engine's submission form can usually be found on its home page called "Add a site" or "Submit a URL" or "Add Link".
These forms usually require a websiteURL, your e-mail address, your name and the site that falls within the category. Every time you fill out a submission form, double-checking to make sure you specify the right to be spidered URL.

Submit Manually:
Most of the search engines and directories do not allow robot submissions.Directories require manual submission (you'll need to suggest a category and a description) and you can chose the perfect suitable category for your site.

Meta Description tag and its use in promotion of a website

The meta-tag description that describes the content of your site using search engines "Spider quite a summary completed several keywords. Meta tags are in a document source, invisible to the reader. Some search engines, however, are in a position to the Summary of meta tags in their algorithms. None engines penalize sites, the meta-tags correctly, it is always advisable. meta-tag description is particularly important because it is the day that some engines. Here l 'example of a meta-tag description:

meta Name="description" content="Your site's Abstract here"

A meta-tag, a description of the ranking for certain engines. Another reason for the meta-tag description is that some engines are used as a summary of the site on their pages. If so, the reader can actually see this day hidden. Make sure their content is attractive to reader.The meta-tag description should contain several keywords, in a logic of punishment. Put keywords at the beginning of your description and together to ensure the best investment.

ALT Tags and its Use:
Do you have a website. Their creator has done an outstanding job, and it looks great. You have a lot of pictures, including one with your company name, logo and slogan.

Well, your site may look like buses, it is not optimized for the highest with search engines. Since search engines do not index, it is not appropriate text on your site in this format - in this case, above the company name and slogan. To solve this problem, there are ALT tags, in particular descriptions of the images.
Always add ALT tags images to ensure that all search engines to index your site's content. ALT tags filled keywords can also be used to increase the frequency of keywords and you get better rankings.
Please note: The ALT tags also make your site accessible to the visually impaired to help the reader of the text. The reason is that the reader can not read images, but can recognize text in the ALT tags.
Avoiding spam
Search engines no objection to the use of ALT tags, packaging or keywords. Even to be safe, you should follow the generally accepted rule is not to repeat keywords more than 3-7 times.

The Importance of HTML Title Tag in SEO?

The Title tag of a page describes the contents of a particular web page in one sentence and it appears in search engines' results pages. It's also the first thing a search engine's crawler sees on a web page. Since the title will be seen by both readers and search engines, it's particularly very important.
The title is the most important part of a web page as far as in concern of search engines. The title tag is also supported by all search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN, and all search engines places a lot of importance on keywords that appear inside it.
The following are a few tips to make the title tag more appealing for both search engines as well as people.

Use Important keywords inside HTML title
Don't make your title with the name of your company. It is also very important to include your main targeted keywords inside title. Although you may include your company or brand name, but keywords should be your top priority.
So, instead of "Smith Brothers Incorporated," try "Accounting services from certified CPAs - Smith Brothers Inc."
Though it's beneficial to include targeted keywords, you shouldn't just make a list of all the keywords. But, try to include them in a sentence that information for your services/products. Always avoid to use common words that search engines are likely to ignore, such as “Internet,” “web,” “best,”, “and” etc.

The length of Ttile
Most of the search engines allow up to 100 characters with space, but the number of characters displays in search pages is different for different search engines. Mostly search engines displays 64-80 characters in SERP’s. So try to limit your title to about 80 characters. Don't use all CAPS in your title. Search engines hate it and it's difficult for users to read.
Keeping length in mind, review your keywords and try to come up with a title that entices the reader to learn more about your site. Don't overuse marketing language such as "We're the best." It will only clutter your HTML title with stop words without adding much relevance.

The Golden Rule
Create pages for your users, not for search engines. Always make a descriptive and convincing HTML title that appeals to your targeted audience. You can then make your page title search-engine-friendly by ensuring that your keywords appear inside your title.

The Importance of Keywords for Rankings

Most techniques to improve your search engine rankings have one thing in common -- keywords. Choosing appropriate keywords is extremely important. Think about it: Keywords are what lead search engine users to your site.

How to choose your keywords
choosing the right keywords is the first step to better search engine positioning. Analyze your business carefully and think of all the words that relate to your company or product.
Let's say you sell puppy food. What words would you search for when looking for the same product? Ask your colleagues and friends to think about the same question. This is perhaps the most important stage in your war for a spot in search engines' top 20.

As you think about keywords, consider the following:
Who needs your service?
Think about who will use your services, then target them with keywords. For example, people whose dogs are about to have puppies will need puppy food, so you can add phrases like "dog pregnancy" and "puppy health" to your list.

Include variations of your keywords
People will search for your site using all sorts of keywords. Making your site easy to find means including misspelled, capitalized and plural keywords. Always include the longer forms of keywords too. For example, use "domestication" as well as "domestic."

Avoid wrong keywords
Do not use "stop words" -- particles like "and" and "the" and common words like "Internet." Remember, the more specific your keywords are, the better the chance that people who find your site through search engines will actually benefit from its content.

What are the best places for keywords?
Click on any of the links below to read more about effective keyword placement in:
HTML Title
Text of the page
Meta description
Meta keywords
ALT tags
Comment tags
URL name

Alphabetical priority and its influence
Whether a file name starts with A or Z can have a surprising effect on a site's search engine rankings. Some small search engines still use alphabetical priority as a ranking factor. Directories such as Yahoo! and Open Directory Project list sites in alphabetical order. It's important to consider the effect of the alphabetical hierarchy as you choose keywords
Make sure your main page is full of keywords. It has a higher chance of being indexed than your other pages, and it will be the only page indexed by some engines.

Keyword Prominence
The best place to place keywords in the text is at the top of each page, preferably the main page. The closer your keywords are to the start of the page or the start of a sentence, the better. This concept is known as "keyword prominence." You'll frequently see it used to describe search engines' algorithms.

Keyword Density
This concept, also known as keyword weight, measures the relationship of keywords to keyword density is almost never this high? The recommended density is 3-7%. This means that your keyword should repeat 3-7 times for every 100 words.

Keyword Frequency
Keyword frequency is a measure of the number of times keywords occur within a page's text. It's tied to the concept of keyword density. Search engines want to see more than one repetition of a keyword in your text to make sure it's not an isolated case. The recommended repetition is 3-7 times.

Source:www.searchengines.com

How The Design of Site affects Search Engine Rankings

Your site's design plays a major in role in the user's decision to either stick around or continue surfing. Graphics, layout, load time, fonts and ease of navigation can all influence the user. To craft a site that retains visitors, make it fast, clean and pleasant.
You can find out more about your users with a web traffic monitoring service. Web hosting companies often offer these as part of their packages, and they're a must. Sign up for an outsourced service or purchase the software if it's not a part of your web hosting plan. It will be useful in marketing, advertising, search engine placement and design.
Spell well
Although search engines don't penalize for spelling or syntax errors, someone who finds a spelling mistake on your site may view it as unprofessional. Many people believe such mistakes indicate a lack of cultural authority and credibility. Run a spell check on every page before publishing.
Don't use "construction" areas
Any editor from a directory such as Yahoo! or ODP will tell you that a site using "This page is under construction" messages won't be listed. Visitors don't enjoy "construction" areas either. Don't submit to directories until you have your whole site up.
Do pretty pages matter?
It's important that your site look pleasing to visitors. If your site looks bad, many potentially loyal users won't go past your home page. Get together with your design department to determine the best layout, colors, fonts and graphics for your site.

How long will users stay?
If your visitors have to wait 30 seconds for your site to load, you can be sure you're losing half your audience. These days there are plenty of sites that load far more quickly, and users naturally prefer those. Reducing the amount of time it takes for your site's front page to display completely can help you hang onto users. This is called optimizing your site's load time.

Source: www.searchengines.com

The Importance of Web Promotions

In recent years many search sites have capitalized on the portal trend, positioning themselves as starting points for all of a user's online explorations. The main page at Netscape.com, for example, features customizable options such as stock quotes, horoscopes, news, shopping and more. This trend has leveled off a bit with the emergence of portals and specific destination sites. However, major portals will remain a popular gateway for many web surfers. Because the top 8 most-visited search sites combine portal features with a search engine or directory, a good listing on one of these sites provides terrific exposure.

Online advertising, such as banner campaigns, can be quite expensive. Search engine placement, on the other hand, can be a low-cost process. Although some search engines have "pay-per-click" programs, paid submissions and many companies optimize sites for paying clients, there's no reason why you can't significantly increase your site's traffic by simply understanding and applying optimization strategy. Any webmaster can learn more about search engine optimization tips and submission procedures.

High search engine rankings can be more effective publicity tools than paid ads. A top position on a major search engine such as Google can increase traffic far more than an expensive banner ad. Plus, the traffic you get will be more targeted -- it will consist of people who set out to find exactly what your site has to offer.

Source: http://www.searchengines.com/

Search Engine & its Working

Search engines help people find relevant information on the Internet. Major search engines maintain huge databases of web sites that users can search by typing in some text. A search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system, such as on the World Wide Web, inside a corporate or proprietary network, or in a personal computer. The search engine allows one to ask for content meeting specific criteria (typically those containing a given word or phrase) and retrieves a list of items that match those criteria. This list is often sorted with respect to some measure of relevance of the results. Search engines use regularly updated indexes to operate quickly and efficiently.
To compile their databases, search engines rely on computer programs called "robots" or, more specifically, "spiders." These programs "crawl" across the web by following links from site to site and indexing each site they visit. Each search engine uses its own set of criteria to decide what to include in its database. For example, some search engines index each page in a web site, while others index only the main page.
The vast majority of Internet users find new web sites by using a search engine. A position within the top 20 listings of a major search engine tremendously increases traffic to a web site.