Google introduces new features in searcology coference:

As people get more sophisticated at search they are coming to us to solve more complex problems. To stay on top of this, we have spent a lot of time looking at how we can better understand the wide range of information that’s on the web and quickly connect people to just the nuggets they need at that moment. We want to help our users find more useful information, and do more useful things with it.

Our first announcement today is a new set of features that we call Search Options, which are a collection of tools that let you slice and dice your results and generate different views to find what you need faster and easier. Search Options helps solve a problem that can be vexing: what query should I ask?

Let’s say you are looking for forum discussions about a specific product, but are most interested in ones that have taken place more recently. That’s not an easy query to formulate, but with Search Options you can search for the product’s name, apply the option to filter out anything but forum sites, and then apply an option to only see results from the past week. Just last week, at our Shareholders’ Meeting, I had a woman ask me why she couldn’t organize her results by time, with the most recent information appearing first. “Come back Tuesday,” I wanted to say!

The Search Options panel also gives you the ability to view your results in new ways. One view gives you more information about each result, including images as well as text, while others let you explore and iterate your search in different ways. We think of the Search Options panel as a tool belt that gives you new ways to interact with Google Search, and we plan to fill it with more innovative and useful features in the future.

Another challenging problem we have worked on is better understanding the information you get back from a search. When you see your results from a Google search, how do you decide which one has the best information for you? Or, how can we help you make the best decision about where to click?

We call the set of information we return with each result a “snippet,” and today we are announcing that some of our snippets are going to get richer. These “rich snippets” extract and show more useful information from web pages than the preview text that you are used to seeing.

CNN a PR 10 now:

After a long stay in Pagerank 9, CNN has finally got a full Pagerank 10 from Google. We have the most updated list of Pagerank 10 sites available in internet now http://www.searchenginegenie.com/pagerank-10-sites.htm . CNN was PR 10 before a year now they retained their PR 10. Though pagerank is just a number it’s a ultimate symbol of quality in Google’s point of view. There is just a handful list of sites with Pagerank 10 and CNN is one among them. Also Adobe flash player page and acrobat page got pagerank 10 which is again good news.

Pagerank obsession had been in existence for more than 8 years. From the day Google came into existence pagerank fever grabbed many search engine lovers and followers.

Link Building rap – funny

I found this when I was going through youtube for some SEO related videos. I thought this one was funny but not so informative. Its worth watching just for the sake of fun:

Here is the lyrics / transcript for that video:

Chuck raps about link building.

You create a new site and its content heavy,
With the right amount of pictures you believe it’s ready,
So you launch it trying to put money in the bank,
But when you search and try to find yourself, you can’t,
So you thank until your mind goes blank,
Got titles and headers but no page rank,
Sooner or later it will show if I wait,
In the meantime make sure my code validate,
And it do,
Hmm, now what I’m supposed to do,
Add meta information and alt tags too,
Still don’t get listing,
Something must be missing,
Brad and Chuck recommended doing link building,
So you start hunting down sites like a predator,
Doing back links on all your competitors,
Whoever linking to them need to link to me,
Is it free, do we swap, or do I pay a fee,
Well take it from us, before you take that step,
Some things about the site that you might want to check,
Did they use a link farm or some dirty tactics,
Could have a bad effect on your site that’s drastic,
Could’ve link baited, look at what they created,
Compare it to yours, is it even related,
Take the time, go inspect and see,
Take advantage of paid directories,
If you follow all the steps with a little bit of patience,
Get links from relevant sites that are favorites,
Update your content on the regular basis,
I’m confident you’ll make it to first page placement

Does meta descriptions still helping in Google?

Meta descriptions were never ignored by any search engines. It’s the meta keywords tag that got booted for over spamming. Meta description tag is still very important for major search engines especially Google. Google had long stated that they don’t use meta description for ranking purpose but are using it only for snippet purposes. But this snippet is what your users see so its important to make sure it has the right combination of keywords as well as marketing strength. Most people prefer to use their phone numbers directly on title or meta description tag this is an effective way but you might loose the chance of adding some important phrases if you are adding too much marketing words so make sure you also include good keywords you are targeting. Google will try to relate the keywords on your page with meta description tag to valuate the effectiveness and accuracy before it shows up in search engines. So better have good keywords on the description tag.

Google does take lot of effort and show in your webmaster tools whether you have duplicate descriptions if Google is taking so much care I am sure it considers meta description tag important. For one client who came to us recently his site never had any meta descriptions written Google was able to figure out something from his page but it looked really bad. Google took the menu of his site as the description and it looked spammy so better write good descriptions so Google will use it.

Remember Google’s algorithm and search is very complicated and they need to return results from billions of pages within a fraction of a second. So when they get a query first they try to find relevancy from meta description and then they go to the actual page. Better the meta description faster the results will be. Also Meta description helps in increasing click through rates if they are written well. To conclude write what is best for your users search engines will endorse that for sure.

Social media marketing better than search engine marketing

Social media marketing is very interesting and fun. Your product gets lot of attention in it. Now-a-days the use of social media marketing is increasing. But the question is “Is social media marketing better than search engine marketing.”

No, social media marketing is not better than search engine marketing. And here are some reasons for the above answer.

Search engine marketing helps you to grab attention from unlimited targeted audience but social media marketing restrict the attention to the limited audience because if you join one social media website then you will be able to reach people only on that social media site. Social media marketing go far but search engine marketing goes further.

With the help of search engine marketing the success will make you feel that you have achieved something more your success with social media marketing make you feel that you have something but still there many thing to do and achieve.

In fact the use of social media marketing is not wrong decision but it should be used for better reason like it should be used to achieve the search engine marketing strategies in order to get targeted audience. It should not be your primary preference.

Do you think blogging is a good business?

A company blog is most useful social media for their business. And most of the businesses believe in this. There is reason to above mention point.

Blogging allow you to communicate directly to the customers. By writing a blog for your company you are guaranteed to increase your revenues. Blogging helps you to describe deeply about your product and services which attract customer attention and tend the customer to make the purchase.

Blogging helps the customer to trust on you and your product and services. Blogging alone is not enough to gain a lead through your blog. Search engines optimizing your blog post for specific keywords phrases helps you to stand a much better chance of gaining lead through your blog. Search engine helps you to get better ranking so that you can attract the kind of customer you want. Blogging is therefore one of the best and effective marketing tool on the planet.

Using Keywords to Achieve Search Engine Optimization

What are Keywords?

A keyword is a word that forms all or part of a search engine query—the word or phrase that Internet user’s type in a search box when they are seeking information in a search engine.
Keyword phrases must be carefully selected and placed strategically throughout your web pages to draw users to your content. Search engines don’t pay a lot of attention to these fields, although sometimes they are used in site descriptions.

General Best Practices

• Search engines prefer pages with at least 250 characters.
• Use the keywords a user will use to find your website or web pages, not the keywords you want your content to be found on. Use words on your page that resonate with your target audience and are descriptive of your site. For example, consider using the search term “car sales” rather than “vehicle auctions.” Get inside the mind of the user.
• Map keywords and phrases to their implicit intent.

How are the keywords related to how the visitor is trying to solve their problem?
How do the keywords and phrases relate to what stage visitors are in their seeking process?
What would the visitor consider a success based upon the keyword?
Use these keywords to plan internal hyperlinks that provide the most relevant and persuasive content.

• On your home page, select phrases that describe the general theme of the site, but don’t try to cover everything on your home page.
• For your site’s internal pages, identify the most important subject of that page and pick words that are specific to that subject.

How to Determine the Best Keywords

Look at Your Log Files-: Log files can be a good way to determine what your audience is searching for and what keywords you should use to draw users to your content.
Log files:

• Capture the “exact phrase” that searchers entered.
• Give insight into the number of words searchers are using.
• Provide a rich source of keyword data.

Remember, log files only show the keywords that have brought users to our site. They don’t show you the unsuccessful keywords that didn’t bring users to your site.

Target Variations of Your Keywords-:
Be sure you target your content to address the following:

• Variant spellings
• Slang, acronyms, and abbreviations
• Plurals
• Synonyms

Evaluate Your Keywords. Keywords may have multiple meanings. “Accessibility” might mean “handicapped access” or “website monitoring.” “Chips” may refer to the snack food or computer part.
Pay attention to keywords used alone or combined with another word. For example, “passport” by itself is likely a search for information; “passport” searched with a location is likely a search for services. Keep this in mind when choosing keywords for a page.

Use Keyword Tracking Tools: use keyword tracking tool to keep a check on it. Some of the keyword tracking tools are-

• Keyword Suggestion Tool
• Word tracker
• Google Adwords
• Snap

Is deep linking better than home page linking?

Yes, deep linking is better than home page linking because everyone knows that you have home page and they can find it easily. But deep link is more effective than home page link building.

Here are some reasons why deep linking is better than home page link building:

• You can target the specific keyword.

• It is easier to push up your internal pages than a whole site.

• Links in multiple pages looks more natural than all links in home page. It makes the page crowded and unattractive.

• Visitors can easily remember your home page URL but it is much difficult for them remember your page permalinks for your internal pages.

• It is the only all internal pages that cover all relevant topics that the visitor may need it.

When you start with link building, try to figure out the best anchor text for your internal pages and list out some then vary all the anchor text. Choose the most appropriate anchor text and do as much as deep linking you can with the help of various sources. Deep linking provides you with better result than only home page link building.

So, while link building only go for deep link building as it is more productive and effective.

Some good reason to choose SEO as career

As the sites began to grow and make money, it became more reasonable to hire a dedicated SEO specialist than to have the webmaster do it. The demand for good and expertise SEO is on rise. There are many people who have made successful SEO career in this business.

Choosing SEO as a career is worth as compensation for SEO is equal to or even higher than that of developers, designers and marketers. This type of profession can be practiced while working for company or as a solo practitioner. As a solo practitioner you can earn even more money. If you are confident and more familiar with SEO then you can even start your own company.

But when you decide to start up a company then you need to be good at both designing and SEO because when the client hire some one to make their site, they expect their site to be SEO friendly. By providing such service you will be the most valuable professional.

Someone who comes from designing, developing or web administration, SEO might look very non-technical and boring which makes you feel that you are downgrading yourself. Being designer or developer as profession and selecting SEO as a career will upgrade your skill package. This will help you better than before. So never hesitate choose SEO as a career if you are designer by profession.

I hope by now you would have understood that SEO is always a great career for every one.

Will unpopular keywords help SEO

With so much content on the internet, it becomes so difficult for us to differentiate each one and get attention towards one content. In order to get attention one way is through using less popular keywords.

Most of the companies today are using same type of keywords for their search engine optimization. This increases competition among them and even ranking become difficult. The best way to attract more viewers to your site is to use less popular or non-commercial keywords.

Use of less popular keywords will not be the short term money maker but there would be less competition which would help you to be placed better in search engine. As you rank for related keywords that build a traffic stream that has the potential to convert or to link at your website.

As such use of less popular keywords will help you to boost traffic to your site and will also build the overall authority of a site. And by posting some good useful content will also help in getting your less popular keyword more popular.

Therefore, with the help of less popular keywords, “slowly but steadily you can win the race.”