All Entries Tagged With: "google"

Why Google Killed The Knol Page

Image via CrunchBase

The official announcement from Google about discontinuing Google Knol Pages says this;

An important update about knol

Knol will be moving to Annotum on May 1, 2012

Knol will be discontinued as a service, but we’ve worked with Solvitor and Crowd Favorite to create Annotum, an open-source platform based upon WordPress that allows you to continue authoring and publishing scholarly articles. You can migrate your knols to WordPress and continue your work with Annotum.

After May 1, you will no longer be able to create, view, enter or edit knols, but you will be able to export your knols to WordPress.com and download them to file through October 1st, 2012.

Google has also chosen to make the Knol pages that are already there inaccessible, so the current content on the Knol pages will be removed. They could have chosen to leave current Knols up and just disallow the creation of new Knol Pages.  The following is from the Google Webmaster Blog about how to remove content.

Image by seo_gun via Flickr

When you remove a page from your site, think about whether that content is moving somewhere else, or whether you no longer plan to have that type of content on your site. If you’re moving that content to a new URL, you should 301 redirect the old URL to the new URL—that way when users come to the old URL looking for that content, they’ll be automatically redirected to something relevant to what they were looking for.

If you’re getting rid of that content entirely and don’t have anything on your site that would fill the same user need, then the old URL should return a 404 or 410. Currently Google treats 410s (Gone) the same as 404s (Not found), so it’s immaterial to us whether you return one or the other.

Google says up in that first paragraph, “You can migrate your knols to WordPress and continue your work with Annotum. After May 1, you will no longer be able to create, view, enter or edit knols, but you will be able to export your knols to WordPress.com and download them to file through October 1st, 2012.”

Will Google follow their own advice and 301 all of the current Knol Pages to the new location at Annotum as they advise people to do when they remove content or will Google just let those links all die out? They don’t answer that question in their announcement. They do talk about it in their FAQ though.

Can I redirect my knol’s URLs so people can find the content?

Yes. Knols exported to WordPress.com will automatically be redirected. To manually set redirects, visit knol.google.com and click on My knols. On the Knols tab, each published knol will have a link to “Set a redirect URL”. Click that link and enter your new target URL. Click Save to set the redirect.

Note that users who try to visit the knol’s original URL will see a page informing them that the page’s author would like to send them to a new page and be given the choice of whether to continue. Any co-author or co-owner of a knol has permission to set or remove a redirect URL for that knol until May 1, 2012, when they will be locked.

Why is WordPress.com the default destination for Knol content?

The team at Automattic, which runs WordPress.com, has worked hard to enable Annotum and make its review and publishing functionality available by imported knols. The peer review workflow can be enabled for any Annotum site by following a few simple steps outlined in this knowledge base article.

COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY: You may use Knol to create articles for your business or to promote your lawful products or services that are not otherwise prohibited by our Content Policy or Terms of Service

From the wordpress.com terms of service; “Be responsible in what you publish. In particular, make sure that none of the prohibited items listed below appear on your site or get linked to from your site”

Below it adds, “Unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites”

Project Objectives

1. Develop a simple, robust, easy-to-use authoring system to create and edit scholarly articles
2. Deliver an editorial review and publishing system that can be used to submit, review, and publish scholarly articles

So, neither wordpress.com nor Annotum is set up for anyone that publishes commercial content, or for anyone who wants to build links to their website for SEO purposes, whereas that was allowed in Google Knol Pages. With Knols, the links were no follow, but you still had a chance of generating interest and getting people to click through and the Knol Pages were ranking well when written with SEO in mind.

My advice is, if you have any Google Knol Pages that are commercial in nature, then move them someplace other than wordpress.com or Annotum. You could take them a post them to blogger.com in a blog or multiple blogs with optimized subdomains. The terms of service there will allow them to be published. If they are spam, then there’s nowhere you can move them nor should there be,

I think it’s irresponsible for Google to handle it in this way. Had their terms of service for Knol Pages stated that commercial content was not welcome and that they were looking for “scholarly articles”, then the export to Annotum and wordpress.com would have made sense.

So basically, Google has done it again, created something, then changed their mind about it and discontinued it. Orkut, Buzz, Google Sites, and now Knol Pages. They certainly don’t mind wasting our time and effort we give using the products they create. They reward us with “Oops! We changed our mind.”

This seals the deal with Google+ fopr me as well. For me, Google is a search engine, nothing more. Any new products they create will be ignored. I just don’t have the time to waste on Google creations that will just eventually be discontinued.

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Twitter Stops Feeding The Google Monster

Google feeling rejected like a jilted lover? There was a time when every company wanted to hook up with Google on whatever project they could. Google seemed invincible, a juggernaut.

But, with Facebook challenging Google for being the website with the most traffic, there seems to be a chink in Google’s armor and they are no longer everyone’s darling.

Google still has more hits, but FaceBook owns people’s time. People spend hours on FaceBook while only a few seconds on Google as they do a search.

Everyone in the Internet Marketing and SEO world seemed to be always looking for what might be the “Google Killer” and several up and comers had that title given to them prematurely only to find out they were not the Google Killer everyone thought they were.

Image via CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

 Most also thought that a new search engine would be that Google Killer. But, maybe not. Maybe it’s faceBook. Maybe it’s Twitter, maybe it’s something else entirely. Or maybe Google is still invincible.

What are your predictions and thoughts?

Keyword Rich Domains Have Been Slated For a Rough Google Ride

Image via CrunchBase

In light of recent Google algorithm updates, website managers are running around trying to figure out how they can recover the major losses of website traffic and high-volume of Google rankings that have literally disappeared overnight.

In January of 2011, Google made a minor update to its algorithm that was intended to reduce the presence of scraper websites in the Google SERPs.

Then the big ball fell on February 24th, 2011, when Google rolled out the Panda-Farmer Update. That was when some of the largest sites on the Internet practically vanished from Google’s SERPs in one mighty swoop.

EzineArticles took a 90% hit in the value of its Google rankings.

ArticlesBase took a 94% hit against its Google rankings.

AllBusiness.com had 88% of its Google rankings drop by at least 30 places as well.

The article marketing world is in panic. With the delisting of so many article directories in Google, what in the world are we going to do now?

LOL

The reality is that many article directories have increased their traffic from Google since the Panda-Farmer Algorithm Update, including this one (Article Content Provider), Articles 4 Reprint and others, some by as much as 100%.

But wait, the sky was supposed to have fallen for article marketing, with the Panda-Farmer Update.

What is up with that?

Ah, so there is an anomaly in the data…

What is up with that?

The reality of the situation is that I currently have theories that could potentially explain how this algorithm change was actually implemented, but we are less than a month out from the actual update.

See, that is the thing when you are trying to deduce what happened in an algorithm change.

You have to look for the similarities and the anomalies, and you must understand them in context with each other, before you can make an honest assessment of what changed, why it changed, and how to take advantage of the new realities in search engine marketing.

I have been building my data set of similarities and anomalies to make a realistic assessment of the findings. But, I would still need to test out the theories to put it on the line.

In my original assessment, a few days after the algorithm update, I posted an initial theory here. I still believe that there is some truth in that post, but this initial analysis is only a part of the equation.

The bigger picture needs some more research.

Nevertheless, the Panda-Farmer update was just a teaser for the evolution of the Google algorithm.

The next big thing on the horizon will be the devaluing of Keyword Rich Domains, as described here.

Sites like Buy Here, Pay Here in Tampa at: http://www.buyherepayhereintampa.com may feel the pinch in the Keyword Rich Domain Algorithm Update.

Unless…

Unless the sites like that do some serious link building.

Why would that help, you ask?

Well right now, keyword rich domain names are the holy grail of SEO. Google has been giving sites of that nature an extra bump in its algorithms, but that is about to change.

According to recent announcements from Google and Matt Cutts, the announcement of an upcoming algorithm change is usually fairly quick.

The January announcement was followed by action one week after its announcement.

The Panda-Farmer update was rolled out one month after its “pending” announcement.

So I am anticipating a hit on Keyword Rich Domain Names any day now.

Previously, keyword domain names were given an extra boost by Google. But that boost will soon be eliminated.

As a result, Keyword Rich Domain Names are going to have to compete with other sites in the niche on equal footing.

And how do ordinary websites compete in Google?

Link Building — number of links and value of links.

So the time has come…

If you have a Keyword Rich Domain Name, it is time to quit relying on your domain name by itself to drive your rankings in Google. It is time to compete for rankings in Google, the same as everyone else does.

The writing is on the wall.

You know what to do.

Will you do it?

LOL

Bill Platt is the author of the 28-page article writing guide, “How To Write Articles Fast In 20 Minutes or Less Without Sacrificing Quality“. Get your copy here: http://thephantomwriters.com/article-writing-guide/

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Is It Really Possible To Achieve Number One In Google?

Image via Wikipedia

Is it really possible to achieve a #1 Ranking in Google?

Yes… If you hold your tongue just right…

I have to laugh as I say that, because I once worked with a short order cook who needed to stick his tongue out and squirrel it to the side to flip pancakes… His hand would only go in the direction dictated by his tongue…

Everybody wants to achieve a top ranking in Google… That has become the Holy Grail of Internet Marketing…

It is achievable, but it is not always necessary to achieve the treasured Google number one spot to make your placement in Google profitable for your business… Although it may not be necessary to reach Google number one, it sure does make you feel good when you get there…

Realistically, there are many variables that could make or break your business, regardless of whether you are #1 in Google or not…

Landing Pages

First things first… Any ranking in Google is perfectly useless to you if your Landing Page fails to convert visitors to buyers…

It is beneficial sometimes to get the top ranking in Google first, then to work on your sales copy conversion rates… But you can test your copy with traffic gained from any source online… In fact, traffic from sources other than Google tends to require far less money to get…

Between Google Adwords and Search Engine Optimization for Google, landing that top listing in Google can get to be pretty expensive…

Always, always, always test and track your results…

No one is going to get everyone to buy what they sell, but one should always keep an eye to conversion ratios to figure out if one can do better.

It is actually easier to triple your sales than to double your traffic…

Think about that…

If you can improve your sales copy to close 6% of your visitors, instead of 2% of your visitors, that is often as easy as tweaking your sales copy on your sales pages.

Doubling your traffic on the other hand is harder to do… You either need to spend more money on advertising, or spend more money to improve your SEO… Either way, doubling your traffic generally takes more time and/or money than most people are willing to give it…

It is an unknown fact that many people make really handsome livings online, and they never bother to try to please the Google gods… They could care less about Google and the other search engines, because they make a load of money without them, drawing their traffic from other more reliable sources…

Optimized Page Descriptions

Think about this for a moment, and you will know that I am right…

When there is a list of ads that you are looking at in Google’s paid listings to the right in the Google Adwords section, you read each title and the description to find the one that best suits your needs… Am I right?

So learn from your own behavior online…

To get more clicks, one only needs to present a better Title and Description than the next person…

It is a fact that the company paying 20 cents a click could legitimately get more clicks from Google Adwords than the company that is paying $1.50 a click.

This applies to Google Adwords, and it applies to the free listings area to the left – the organic search results…

So long as you are visible within the same viewing area as the #1 listing in Google, you can steal clicks from your competitors by presenting a better Title, with a more pertinent Description of your web page…

Once you recognize this as fact, it is no longer essential for you to gain the top spot in Google’s search results…

It is only necessary to have your search result where people can see it, then your better copy will draw the clicks away from the competition…

Let the company with the number one listing in Google keep spending its money to retain the top result in Google, while you siphon off the traffic and sales for that search term, by presenting a better offer than the rest…

Presenting A Better Offer In Google

With Google Adwords, you are in total control of the advertising that your prospective customers will see for your website…

In the organic search results, it is a bit more complicated, but you can retain a certain amount of control as to how your website is presented to Google’s users…

If you rank for a keyword or phrase that does not appear on your actual web page, then Google will present your users with your Meta Description as the given Description for your web page, up to about 150 characters…

You can strengthen your ranking for specific phrases by building those phrases into the anchor text of links pointing to your page…

For the words you target in your linking campaigns that do not appear on your web page, you must make sure that your Page Title and Meta Description attract the click from the person looking to find you…

However, if the searched phrase does appear in your web page, then Google will present its users the searched phrases in context of the words around them…

The best way to handle this is to present a variety and range of search keywords, used in the context of a sentence that is designed to attract a click…

For example, if someone were to type into Google: #1 ranking in Google, then the first sentence of this article may be used to describe this article to Google’s users. So it is possible that Google would present my description as: “Is it really possible to achieve a #1 Ranking in Google? Yes… If you hold your tongue just right… I have to laugh as I say that, because I once …”

It takes a little bit longer to create a web page when you do it this way, but if you have a good idea about all of the different search phrases that you might want to rank for in Google, then you could use that foreknowledge to structure how Google — and the other search engines, Yahoo and Bing — will present your website to their search users…

In the fourth paragraph of this article, I have included target keywords, “top ranking in Google”. Google may show my web page in its listings as this page, with this Title, and a description similar to, “Everybody wants to achieve a top ranking in Google… That has become the Holy Grail of Internet Marketing…”

By presenting a better offer than everyone else, it is entirely possible to attract more clicks than those people who rank well in Google near you… Even if they rank higher than you do…

There Can Be Only One…

I love including pop-culture phrases in my articles… In case you did not know, “There can be only one…” is from the Highlander…

There can be only one in the #1 spot in Google… And there can only be ten on page one of Google…

Some niches and some keywords are extremely competitive… In those tightly competitive niches and keywords, it could literally take years to break into the top ten listings in Google…

It’s funny in a way… Most people have tunnel vision when it comes to Google marketing…

They see one or three keywords that COULD BE useful to their business, but they fail to see the other 150 words… In one of my niches, the top three keyword phrases have 1.5 million monthly searches, and those are the three keywords that everyone tries to rank for in Google… But if you look at words #4 to #24, those words together also reach 1.5 million searches a month…

To my benefit, my competitors are fighting over the top three keyword phrases in my market… They are willing to pay up to $5 a click in Google Adwords… But the 20 keywords that I target only bid out at around 5 cents a click in Google Adwords, and more to my benefit, my competitors ignore those keywords for SEO…

I revel in their ignorance…

I profit handsomely in their ignorance and unwillingness to expand their horizons…

If you are one of my competitors, please forget that you read this article…

I rank well — in the top five search results — for each of the 20 keywords that I chase… I let my competitors drive themselves into bankruptcy trying to control the top three search keywords…

I still work at trying to rank for those top three, but I am not going to drive myself into the hole trying to accomplish that goal…

I throw some resources at those top 3 keywords occasionally, and I am making progress up the ladder, but I am not going to worry if I am not on page one for those terms… I know that once I get to page one for those top search terms, I know the competition will be fierce and I may not be able to hold page one forever… I won’t be able to hold on forever, so long as my competitors are willing to throw more money at it than I am… But, not holding #1 in Google for those top three search words will never break me, because when I do get page one for them, it will be sales revenue and profits on top of my operating revenue…

I suspect though that once I achieve page one with that top traffic search term that I will be holding the spot for a long time, because I have a ton of resources in place over the last two years to support a ranking on the #1, most-competitive keyword phrase in my industry. I am on page four right now, but I was on page seven last year…

I am pushing for a ranking there, but that is not my bread-and-butter search phrase… My bread-and-butter is those 20 other keyword phrases that everyone else ignores…

Can You Really Achieve #1 in Google?

Absolutely, you can…

I own dozens of #1 rankings in Google, and I own hundreds of page one results in Google in a variety of profitable niches…

It really is not as hard as people think it is to achieve number one in Google…

It is only hard to achieve  number 1 in Google, when you are competing with hundreds of other sites for the keyword phrase… Competing with people willing and able to outspend you…

Even if your search phrase has millions of results, there are literally only a few companies honestly competing with YOU, in most industries and niches…

Everyone else is just pretending to compete with you…

It is in this realization where achieving top rankings in Google is made much easier…

I rank #1 in Google for keywords where Google returns +40 million search results…

I rock with my Search Engine Optimization strategies… When I put my mind to ranking for a special keyword, I pull out all of the stops to get ranked well in Google for that keyword phrase… I focus on setting up my SEO strategies for my targeted keywords, then I move myself to where I want to be… #1 in Google, or at least page one in Google…

But I don’t try to rank for just one keyword phrase, but many similar keyword phrases for the same web page…

I just pulled one of my money-making keywords, and my site is #6 out of 63 million search results… And to my pleasure, Google is presenting my site description exactly the way I want them to do… In this particular niche, I have about 40 competitors, so it is a really competitive niche, but that is okay… I am holding my own just fine…

Most of my number ones in Google are “phrases that pay”, yet most of my competitors don’t even know that I try to rank those words… I was one of the first services in that niche, so all of my competitors looked at my site, for business intelligence, when they were designing their sites…

My most profitable #1 listing in Google has 45 million search results in Google… Yet, I have held firm at #1 in Google for years…

The Best SEO Strategies Work In Nearly All Niches

To be honest with you, I have utilized my SEO strategies on dozens of websites — for me and MY clients…

There is only one niche that I was never able to conquer, and the reason why is simple… In the financial industry, corporations are willing to spend millions on Internet Marketing and SEO service providers…

When I took SEO jobs in the financial industry, I was usually working with small firms that did not have a budget in the millions… We were simply outgunned and outspent in that industry…

Number One In Google

Achieving a #1 ranking in Google is pretty straight forward, when you utilize the SEO strategy of aiming first for the low-hanging fruit, and then working up to the fruit high in the tree…

My target keyword lists usually run in the range of about 100 keywords… 77 of them are so easy that a caveman could do it… 20 of them are low-hanging fruit that requires a bit of work, but is possible for anyone committed to the cause… and the final three will take some time to accomplish, because the rest of the world believes that those are the only three worth trying to rank for in Google…

My name is Bill Platt…

As the owner of  The Phantom Writers Article Distribution Service, I take my article marketing very seriously… If you would like to learn more about article marketing and how to utilize it to achieve Google page one and Google #1 results, download my free article marketing ebook titled, “Article Marketing: Beyond The Basics”.

If you are interested in SEO Services, visit the the SEO Services Provider website to learn more… Tell us about having read this article, if you contact us by phone or email…

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Is Google Penalizing Article Marketers?

Every now and then I get a question about Google’s policy of discounting links from article directories. Is Google penalizing article marketers?

The question stems from a fundamental misunderstanding about article marketing. Article marketing is not about getting links from search engines article directories. It never has been about that. Rather, article marketing is about building links from other websites, building your authority and credibility as an expert in your niche, and driving traffic to your website. If you do it correctly, that’s what will happen. You don’t really need that link from the article directory.

What you want to happen is for your articles in the article directories to get picked up by publishers in your niche. If you write good articles that deserve to be published, those articles will be published by other bloggers and webmasters. When publishers use your articles, you’ll get your coveted links from that, but you’ll also get the traffic from those publishers’ websites. In addition to those search marketing benefits, you’ll be building your reputation as an authoritative source within your niche. That’s what article marketing is about. Don’t get shortsighted about links from article directories.