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Just some of Google’s 200 Search Engine Ranking Factors!

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Mr Google, Matt Cutts, mentioned at PubCon recently that there are over 200 variables in the Google algorithm & although no-one but Google knows what they are exactly, we can have a reasonably good guess at many of them. In fact, WebmasterWorld have set themselves a challenge to list them all!

Here is what has been included so far:

Domain

  • Age of domain
  • History of domain
  • Keywords in domain name
  • IP address of domain
  • Location of IP address / Server

Architecture

  • HTML structure
  • Use of Headers tags
  • URL path
  • Use of external CSS / JavaScript files

Content

  • Keyword density of page
  • Keywords in Title Tag
  • Keywords in Meta Description (Not Meta Keywords)
  • Keywords in header tags (H1, H2 etc)
  • Keywords in body text
  • Freshness of content

Per Inbound Link

  • Quality of website inbound linking
  • Quality of web page inbound linking
  • Age of website
  • Age of web page
  • Relevancy of page’s content
  • Location of link (Footer, Navigation, Body text)
  • Anchor text of link
  • Title attribute of link
  • ALT tag of images linking
  • Country specific top level domain
  • Authority of top level domain (.edu, .gov)
  • Location of server
  • Authority links (CNN, BBC, etc)

Cluster of Links

  • Uniqueness of class C IP address

Internal Cross Linking

  • Number of internal links to page
  • Location of link on page
  • Anchor text of FIRST text link

Penalties

  • Over optimisation
  • Purchasing links
  • Selling links
  • Comment spamming
  • Cloaking
  • Hidden text
  • Duplicate content
  • Keyword stuffing
  • Manual penalties

Miscellaneous

  • JavaScript links
  • No follow links

Pending

  • Performance / Load of a website
  • Speed of Javascript

Not included, but often focussed upon

  • XML Sitemap (Aids the crawler but doesn’t help rankings)
  • PageRank (General indicator of page’s performance)

Will the speed of your site affect your Google ranking?

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Google have given webmasters a strong indication that the speed of a website may become an organic ranking factor in 2010!

Here’s what Google’s Matt Cutts has to say on the issue:

“Historically we haven’t used it in our search rankings, but a lot of people within Google think that the web should be fast, it should be a good experience and so it’s fair to say if you’re a fast site, maybe you should get a little bit of a bonus, or if you have an awfully slow site, maybe users don’t want that as much.”

Google already considers page load times as part of the AdWords quality score, so it’s a logical step for this to be included in organic listings too.

While it’s unlikely to have a huge impact on rankings (there are over 200 other factors) it would be worth preparing for its introduction ahead of time and get your site loading as fast as possible. Here are a couple of tools which can help you get started:

  • Google’s Page Speed Tool – This is a Firefox plugin from Google that enables you to see which areas of your site need improvement.
  • WebPageTest.org – Another speed tool which provides optimization recommendations and other interesting stats.

Conflicting messages from Google re Page Rank

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I still hear a number of people talking about page rank, page rank, page rank, when discussing whether their website is doing well, or trying to assess the results of their search engine optimisation efforts. However, page rank became less relevant when Google removed PageRank values from their webmaster centre!

Here’s the statement Google made when they did it:

We’ve been telling people for a long time that they shouldn’t focus on PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it’s the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true. We removed it because we felt it was silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show them the data, implying that they should look at it.

However, if this is Google’s position, then why bother updating their toolbar PageRank values? Doing so is only going to create a stir in the webmaster community & cause confusion as to it’s relevance. Surely it would’ve been much better to remove it from both webmaster tools and the Google toolbar at the same time.

It’s also important to remember that the toolbar Page Rank values can be a couple of month’s old, so they’re out of date even after the update & therefore not really relevant to your current ranking position. The recent PageRank update has left many webmasters confused with most reporting major decreases in their website’s ranking in the search results. But if Google’s statement is to be believed, should you really be concerned about it?

If you have a search engine friendly site, the most important issue for your Google search engine rankings are quality inbound links!

Use one of our link building or Google Ranking Boost packages to get guaranteed links for your site

Internet addresses set for change

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The internet regulator has approved plans to allow non-Latin-script web addresses, in a move that is set to transform the online world.

The board of ICANN voted at its annual meeting in Seoul to allow domain names in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts.

More than half of the 1.6 billion people who use the internet speak languages with non-Latin scripts.

It is being described as the biggest change to the way the internet works since it was created 40 years ago.

The first Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) could be in use next year.

Plans for IDNs were first approved at a meeting in June 2008, but testing of the system has been going on for two years.

Technical upheaval

The move paves the way for the internet’s Domain Name System (DNS) to be changed so it can recognise and translate non-Latin characters.

The DNS acts like a phone book, turning easily understood domain names into strings of computer-readable numbers, known as Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) said the “fantastically complicated technical feature” allowing IDNs would represent the “biggest change” to the coding that underlies the internet since it was invented four decades ago.

BBC technology correspondent Mark Gregory says in the early days of the internet, language posed no problem, as most web-surfers spoke English and those that did not usually wrote in languages based on the Latin alphabet.

But this is no longer true, adds our correspondent.

Icann said it would accept the first applications for IDNs by 16 November, with the first up and running by “mid-2010”.

It is likely the majority of early non-Latin net addresses to be approved will be in Chinese and Arabic script, followed by Russian.

Some countries, such as China and Thailand, have already introduced workarounds that allow computer users to enter web addresses in their own language.

However, these were not internationally approved and do not work on all computers.

Autonomy

Our correspondent says the point of the Icann vote was to create a universal internet address code that will work in any language and every place so all the world’s computers can connect with each other.

“Of the 1.6 billion internet users today worldwide, more than half use languages that have scripts that are not Latin-based,” said Icann president and CEO Rod Beckstrom earlier this week.

“So this change is very much necessary for not only half the world’s internet users today but more than half, probably, of the future users as the internet continues to spread.”

Icann, set up by the US government, was founded in 1998 to oversee the development of the net.

Last month, after years of criticism, the US government eased its control over the non-profit body.

It signed a new agreement that gave Icann autonomy for the first time. The agreement came into effect on 1 October and puts it under the scrutiny of the global “internet community”.

This article was published on the BBC website

Professionally Search Engine Optimised WordPress Theme Templates

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I recently built the Cheap Event Tickets website & went through loads of free & paid for themes, which I could use on the site, but all of them had formatting problems and just didn’t look professional enough.

I then came across StudioPress ® Premium WordPress Themes which are professionally designed premium WordPress themes and look absolutely superb, but are also optimised for search engines by Joost de Valk, an SEO Specialist whom I’ve mentioned previously on my blog. He has also released 20+ WordPress plugins with close to 1 million downloads in total & lots of nice WordPress tutorials on his blog yoast.com.

The fact that the StudioPress themes are already Search Engine optimised, means half the job is done for you! With installation of the recommended plugins, provided your content is up to scratch, the site will work really well, as well as looking fantastic.

I’m so pleased with how Cheap Event Tickets has turned out & how easy the theme is to use, that I’m going to upgrade to the Pro Plus All-Theme Package, which allows me to use ALL of the themes, on as many sites as I want and also gives me access to any future themes that are released! I’m planning to use the themes to redesign Love Your Pets, to possibly re-develop the My Travel Extras blog & to finally get Web Travel Offers off the ground!! However, I could also use these themes to build sites for clients, so they’re real value for money too!

Some of the benefits of using the StudioPress ® Premium WordPress Themes are:

Search Engine Optimized

Google loves WordPress and most blogs do well in the search engines, but our Themes have been fully SEO’d by one of the leading SEO specialists, Joost de Valk. Our Themes will help your blog rank higher in the search engines and by following our Tutorials and recommendations you can achieve even greater search engine placement results.

Widget-Ready

If you are looking for ease-of-use, WordPress widgets are the way to go. Without having to know how to code, you can simply drag-n-drop to create the look you desire for your blog.

Theme Options Page

Our WordPress themes use a theme options page that allows you to easily customize the way your blog looks. Simply select from drop-down choices what categories you want to display or the number of posts to show and even what size you want your thumbnail images. You can also simply toggle between using a custom image or dynamic text for your header logo area.

Auto-sized Thumbnail Management

There are thousands of blogs and if you want yours to stand out, you must draw attention to your blog and articles. Nothing creates interest better than using images to draw attention where you want it, but image management can be a hassle. Not so in our Themes as we have integrated the use of the TimThumb PHP script that dynamically resizes your images.

Ready for Advertising

Most of our themes are ready for advertising. All you need to do is insert your advertising code, like Google Adsense, Azoogle Ads, Clicksor, or any others, into the advertising widgets and start collecting your advertising revenue.

Comment Functionality

One method of holding your website visitor’s attention is through discussion of your articles. WordPress achieves this through the use of Comments and our themes use the latest features of WordPress including threaded comments and Gravatar integration.

Developed for Localization

A new feature for StudioPress themes is that they are being developed for localization. This means that you can now translate these themes into your own native language! Currently the Agent, Church, Education, Lifestyle and Streamline themes have this feature, but we will be updating all themes to include this as quickly as we can.

PSD Files Included

Another way to attract visitors to your blog is through the use of great-looking graphics, which the StudioPress themes have. Many members have a design-look in mind and to make it easier to change the graphics we provide the Photoshop Document (PSD) files of the graphic files we use.

Lifetime Support

Need help fixing a problem or making a minor modification to your theme? Let’s face it; technology doesn’t always work as smoothly as we all want. So, if you need help, our support is world-class and our team consists of over 20 moderators from all over the world, who provide solutions and help to our 12,000+ members, many of which help other members.

WordPress & Theme Tutorials

Whether you are looking to get up to speed with your WordPress knowledge or ready to get your brand new StudioPress theme working, our tutorials will teach you what you need to know.

Approved Designers

Maybe you are a busy businessperson or don’t want to spend the time creating your website blog. We provide a list of talented, freelance WordPress designers/customizers that you can hire to provide you with the look you want. Many of the blogs in our Showcase were created by these creative people.

FreshWebz Web Design Colchester

We are a web design company specialising in working with small to medium-sized businesses. We offer high quality website design, as well as a range of other online web services, for any individual, sole trader, small business, SME or UK company. Our services are geared to both new and established business owners requiring a professional, affordable website design solution with local on-going Colchester based support. Contact us for an informal chat, to see how we can improve your business' web presence!

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E : enquiries @ freshwebz.co.uk

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We are a Colchester Web Design company, specialising in creating Affordable Websites for Sole Traders, Start-Ups and Established Small Businesses in Colchester and surrounding areas. We provide Affordable Web Design, Mobile Friendly / Responsive Websites, CMS Websites and eCommerce Websites that are affordable, professional and easy to use. Visit our Web Services page to find out more about what we can offer your business.

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