Archive for the 'Google' Category

Google Base: What’s Its Role in SEO?

Friday, April 27th, 2007 by Christine

Many people have never heard of Google Base – and if they have, aren’t really sure what it does.  This tool, found by logging into your Google profile and clicking on “Base”, allows you to upload all of your content directly into a Google information database. 

Google Base gives you full control over your content with its WYSIWYG editor.  Unlike many other places where you can distribute content, Google Base allows for unlimited use of anchor text, images, formatting, and even offers stats. 

Still, the impact of Google Base is elusive… I’m experimenting with it by posting some articles and press releases on it – mostly for the anchor text, but also to see if Base drives any traffic.  There have been a few hits on the content, but nothing to get excited about. 

I think where Base will really shine is for home shopping or car shopping or types of shopping where products have lots of attributes.  For example, you could use Google to find all 4 bedroom houses with a pool and a 3 car garage in San Diego – rather than going just to one site’s MLS listing.  Same with cars – search for all 2004 blue BMW 325i’s within 100 miles of your house instead of going to one site and viewing their listings. 

This is a hunch – anyone else have any personal experiences or theories about the direction of Base?  Leave a comment and share!

Secrets to Getting 1st Page Rankings with Localized Search

Wednesday, April 18th, 2007 by Christine

If your business is one that serves the local community rather than the entire US or world, you may wonder if a lot of the money spent on search engine optimization will be wasted.  Not at all!  There are lots of ways to optimize for local search. 

This is mainly accomplished by adding city, state, or neighborhood names to your keywords, for example “Atlanta search engine optimization.”  Another small thing you can do is to add your full address to the footer of your website template so that it appears on every page of your website. 

Adding your listing to Google Maps through the Google Local Business Center is another way to obtain high rankings in local markets.  If you’ve ever done a search and seen a map image with listings to the right of it on the top of the search results, then you’ve seen the impact that Google Maps can have. 

Google has also teamed up with coupon giant ‘ValPak’ to offer localized coupons for those listed in Google Maps. By adding setting up coupons with Google for your customers, your listing to the right of the Google Map will have a link labeled “coupons” below it. 

Localizing search terms can increase your 1st page visibility

Even if you do serve more than the local market, lots of people may be searching for with local keywords attached.  For very competitive industries and terms, this can greatly increase your number of first page listings.

We are an Atlanta search engine optimization company and although we work with businesses throughout the US and around the world, we also optimize for local search which and hold first page rankings for the terms Atlanta search engine optimization and Atlanta SEO. 

So give it a try - localize!

Google Takes Serious Steps in the Fight Against Badware By Helping Webmasters Identify Problem URL’s

Friday, March 9th, 2007 by Kev

You may have noticed that Google has been issuing a warning if you try to load websites that have been determined to distribute badware according to the standards laid out by StopBadware.org. However, there have been cases when Google flagged some websites as containing badware, even though they were not engaged in any badware distribution whatsoever. To solve this issue, Google took serious steps in the fight against badware and to help website operators identify problems on their websites.

The solution: Google introduced badware alerts in Google webmaster tools. Soon alerts will be followed by email notifications. Google is planning on sending email notifications if the website has been flagged for malicious content to the site owner’s preferred email. You can also check on the Diagnostic Summary tab to find out if your site has been determined to distribute badware.

What to do if you happen to be erroneously marked for malware content

If your site is flagged for malware content when you feel it shouldn’t be, write an appeal to StopBadWare.org. They’ll review your website and if it checks out, the flag will be removed from your website.

Lessons in Taking Over the World from Google

Monday, March 5th, 2007 by Kev

What happened to the good old days when people wrote code in notepad and typed URL’s in the address bar?  Thanks to Google’s simple-to-use tools, they have managed to complete alter the habits of today’s web users and define their perception of the internet itself.

Instead of using the address bar in their browsers, many people now type in the domain name or a specific keyword in Google to get to the website they want. This saves plenty of time by not having to type the painful “HTTP://” before and .COM/.ORG/.GOV (you name it) at the end.  Even though users know particular names of websites they want to get to, they will use Google instead. If they get the spelling wrong Google will offer to repeat a query with a corrected spelling mistake.

In browsers like Firefox, the address bar serves as Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” search, but still many find it handier to go directly to Google and use it solely as their address bar. For instance, let’s say that I have an email account on Yahoo and I want to check my email.  Now I can just type “Yahoo mail” in my Google homepage, and Google gives me mail.yahoo.com for a reference. Wonderful!

No wonder people who don’t have any background in IT perceive Google as The Internet itself! For some, the internet is the IE or Mozilla browser icons on their desktops.  What Google does for millions of people is to simplify the technology so that it is on par with the average user’s level of experience. Simplicity pays—and the evidence is apparent in every new gadget that Google releases from Gmail to Google notebook. By anticipating the average user’s needs, Google makes it really hard for its competitors to jump in and win their market space.   

What can we learn from this?  Speaking the language of your customers is essential if you ever want to become widely accepted and wildly successful.

Google could have easily made elitist products just for computer and internet geeks.  But instead, Google fills in the gaps in general populace’s perceptions about the web and information technology in general.

Set the standard for experience in your industry

Users perceive Google’s experience as the way that the technology is meant to be instead of identifying Google as a bunch of IT people working for a company called Google. Millions of people do not think they’re using the Google search engine — they think they are using the internet.  Seriously, is there an internet outside of Google?  And if so, what would anyone do with it?  Google has managed to embed itself into the very concept of the internet itself.

Create a win-win-win situation for everyone involved

Google isn’t only great for information searchers; it has been insanely profitable for businesses as well.  It has been driving the search industry for years now by providing a niche for many businesses worldwide to profit from the web. The only people that really don’t like Google are those that can’t seem to get into the top ranking spots.  And that leads us to my last observation.

Give people something to talk about

Those that have a business online and aren’t in the top ranking spots are talking about it to people over lunch, they’re blogging about it, they’re posting questions on message boards.  SEO’s love to spend large amounts of money to congregate at conventions with other SEO’s and talk about search engine algorithms, statistical measurements, and other geeky (and incredibly interesting) topics.  Every time Google buys up a new company, news is buzzing—and the more they pay, the more coverage they receive (remember You Tube?!).  Point blank, people are talking about Google for all kinds of reasons.   Like this  very post for example!

Google’s Webmaster Tools Upgrade

Friday, February 23rd, 2007 by Kev

Google listens to numerous webmaster requests and adds a link tool on Google webmaster’s console for querying both internal and external links. After verifying website ownership this new feature will allow webmasters to check what sites are linking to their domains and what sites they’re linking to. It’s a handy feature complementing Google’s search operator [link:]. The link: operator, however, was not able to deliver comprehensive and classifiable data. With the link tool webmasters will now be able to filter and download customizable link stats. The quantity of links to download is unlimited.

In order to check links to your website, you will have to choose a verified site in your webmaster tools account (sign up if you don‘t have one) and click on the new links tab at the top.

Once you get there, you’ll see: external links and internal links options. If you pick external links, you’ll see a table with two columns. The first column lists pages linking to your site and on second column shows a number of links from each page. It’s nice and easy.

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