Google June Update

Search engines are continuously improving (or attempting to improve) their results and so algorithm changes can occur daily, especially with Google. But every now and again a large change occurs that sends shockwaves through the SEO community, when their normally reliable websites start plunging from first page down to nowhere and supposedly unranked sites get a big push forward..

This has just occurred with Google through the month of June with the UK webmasters complaining the most. This is just a temporary (although worrying thing) as Google appears to recalculate every page within its index before you start to see results readjusting, it is then the job of a good SEO Company to establish what the changes are to readjust existing sites or change strategy for new ones.

The word on the street with a few hints from Matt Cutts blog, is that the nofollow tag is not treat the same anymore. It once was just ignored by Google and therefore page rank was sculpted to the important pages of the site. Matt Cutts now admits that an initial change was done some time ago, where not all page rank went to where you wanted it by point, he is not hinting that page rank can no longer be sculpted, if you use the tag, you just stop PR being transferred to the recipient website, but you will not gain any benefit from it. So the advice was, just let Google decide what a good site is and whether, the page rank should be exchanged or not.

That takes us on to some more words on the street, that Google is treating non relevant links with even less value than before. We have always known that relevant links hold more value, but the word is non relevant links have even less juice now. This may explain some high page rank sites dropping in rankings, as the link juice may be coming form un relevant sites. This may also explain, my improved rankings after it has all finished, because 95% of all my links are relevant and I will be taking all this into consideration with all the future search engine marketing planned with clients..

Of course nothing here can be verified, but I am treating this information as good to go.

The htaccess file and SEO

The .htacess file is a simple txt base file that tells a browser or a search engine what to do when displaying or redirecting certain web pages. There are many more technical IT based individuals out there who can tell you the full benefits of the .htaccess file and may suggest my wording or explain nation is not technically right, but to be honest all I am interested in explaining is why in certain cases an .htacess file can be a major a huge difference to your SEO results.

It mainly relates around duplicate content of which Google does not particularly like and often can’t deal with very well. In better words it is possible you have more than one version of the same content on your website without you knowing how or why.

Here is an example. Have you ever typed in your URL without the www and found it still shows your homepage? Well the problem is, Google sees this as a different URL to the page with the WWW included. It may be the same physical copy on your local drive, but to Google this is 2 versions of the same thing.

The way around this is to create a simple .htaccess file in your route directory that redirects the non www version to the version with www. (you can do this the opposite way should you choose). Another version of your homepage could be shown as a index.html, php or asp file. Again this may be the same physical page as the URL without the files extension, but to Google this is another copy of duplicate content.

So by going through your site and identifying any pages that can be seen as duplicate content to Google should all be redirected to one master version? The other good news is that all the page rank is also diverted to the master version, as it is possible to have different page rank vales on every different URL version of that page.

The .htaccess file can only be used on Linux servers and not those that are Windows based, (that use asp or similar) to redirect pages in these, you need to go into the server to do so. I prefer Linux for this very reason, it give me more flexibility to deal with issue that Google do not handle very well from a SEO point of view, of course from a programmers point of view it could be a different story.

How Long To Rank

When speaking to clients the inevitable question always asked of how long will it be before their chosen search term is ranked on Google. Actually sometimes some power does seem to give the impression that they can influence the speed of a certain search engine ranking position. An honest ethical SEO Company can find itself loosing business, purely because it refuses to be bullied into quick fixes or promising guaranteed rankings.

My explanation to my clients is based around what I call the natural timeline for gaining positions on Google based on the unique factors of each site. We pretty much know that the age of a site has a factor in rankings , so any new site will take longer than one just registered. We also know the competition is different for each search term, so yes it is possible to rank high for certain search terms very quickly, but it is unlikely to be a search term that is competitive.

This is where experience in SEO becomes fundamental to the success of the site. Too many times I have seen so called professionals send too many links too quickly to a new site, only for it to disappear into what is commonly know as the Google Sandbox. Of course the Google Sandbox is highly contended and many suggest it is nothing more than a filter that is automatically applied if Google finds anything that suggests someone is trying to influence the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages).

As the URL ages (more accurate than saying site) a trust factor is applied and basically the more Google trusts the site, the more you can get away with in terms of link building. The safest way is to add a few links a day, small and often. I hate footer links that go through the whole of the site. This just tells Google you have paid or have exchanged links for this to occur.

Even genuine marketing banners should have the no follow tag applied so no page rank is passed over; otherwise you run the risk of the site being highlight as a site that has bought links.

So each site has its own timeline based on age, the current trust rank (this is a term seo professionals use not an official Google term) and finally how much competition that search term has in that sector.
If you are doing it yourself, then take you time, if you are a SEO Company or professional, always stick by your guns when discussing timelines with your clients and do not be scared to lose business if their requirements do not match reality.

The Begining Of A Search Journey

As we know search engine optimization is a form of marketing and can be very rewarding if done correctly for certain types of business. More and more businesses are becoming aware of how important internet marketing can be for them, however very few realise the amount of work and professional understanding is required to deliver search results for hard to get search terms.

It is true that by following some simple rules, you ca get limited success for easy location related search terms, but as you start working on a marketing strategy that gets you to the top of Google, for a term that will reap the rewards and return on investment, the playing field changes, the strategy changes and those simple rules somehow no longer deliver results.

This where one SEO company can deliver considerable different results to another. Thinking that by doing more of the same thing will get more prominent websites to the top of Google is no longer the case, you need to add other elements that ensures that the search engine in question, knows you are adding processes to help the consumer who visits the website, rather than trying to manipulate the SERPS.

Adding a few back-links a day to a website will get results for easy terms, but to think that by adding thousands of links to a site will get better results is just not true, as various filters are then applied to your site, perhaps preventing it ranking at all.

There is a mastery involved in getting high traffic relevant search terms and only the SEO companies or individuals who spend the time, understanding what the search engine companies are trying to achieve will get the desired results.

So search marketing mastery is not about learning the basics. It is about exploring beyond this to another level, sometimes speculating sometimes hitting the nail on the head. Most of this will be personal opinion and will differ to others, but that is OK, lets have different opinions and get to the bottom of what makes a professional SEO company get results and the £50 a month guys don’t’.

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