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What To Do When Google Messes Up The Title Of Your Site

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BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News

What To Do When Google Messes Up The Title Of Your Site

In the past, I have always found it helpful to read about
other people’s problems with Google and how they solved them.
Maybe this won’t happen to you but in case it does, reading
about my experiences and mistakes might help you avoid them.

Yesterday morning, while nervously waiting for Google Caffeine
to drip into place, I got a rude awakening of just how abrupt some
of Google’s constant changes can bring to an online marketer.

Imagine this scenario: You have a site in Google’s index for over
four years which is ranked on the first page for some very competitive
keywords. Suddenly, one morning you check your rankings and they
have gone up a few notches but…

Google has changed the “Title” of your site in their index.

Google is no longer pulling the title from your “Title Tag” – the
name and words you want in the title and which has been in the Google
index for over 4 years. Instead Google has spidered your site’s main
page and pulled a generic title from your content.

Ouch!

Why does this matter? What’s the big deal you’re asking?

It’s a big deal mainly because I start my marketing funnel right
in the Google Serps, this is my first contact with potential
clients. You must pull in the right visitors to your site, visitors
who are of the right mind-set to buy a product or service.

Over the years, I have learned getting top rankings in Google for
lucrative keywords is only the first step in your marketing process.
Next, you have to have the right title and description in Google in
order to bring or attract the right visitors to your site.

I will explain further…

The site in question is a comparison shopping type site, where for
years the title said something like: Comparison of Product A Features/Prices

Then Google changes the Title to: What is Product A?

My site goes from being a comparison shopping site to an educational
site in the minds of those reading Google Serps. Bad news… very
bad news.

With this new title my site is not only attracting the wrong kind of
visitor, but it goes from competing with small like-minded comparison sites
to competing with big sites like Wikipedia.

That’s probably a bit of an exaggeration but not really. It totally
messes up my marketing funnels for that site. Actually it cuts the
marketing down to just about nil since your conversion rates will
go down if you’re not attracting buyers.

Now, while it is very easy to blame Google for this change, I have
long learned - 9 times out of 10 - it is probably the webmaster or
marketer’s own doings which has caused the problem.

I have also learned when anything goes wrong, you have to first do,
a very detailed analysis of any changes you have made to any of your pages.
And I did make some changes to my index page for this site in question…

I added a link to an education site which is probably a big no-no in
Google’s mind. If you have a shopping comparison site… you should
not be pointing to an .edu site. This probably confused the robot in
some matter or triggered the nature of my site in the eyes of Google.

While checking this matter out further, I discovered that Google doesn’t have
to use your “Title Tag” at all. It can list your site anyway it sees
fit. Or rather it doesn’t have to accept your title if it believes
the page doesn’t relate to your title. It can comb the page and
decide a new Title for it… usually words appearing somewhere on
your page. Big Brother knows best and you have to play by his rules.

Here’s an interesting page from Google on this:

Google on Titles

I knew from the beginning that my title for that page was over the 65-70
characters allowed in Google, but Google would always list it and put
in the “…” at the end. Yahoo allows up to 120 characters and
that’s the reason I had the longer title in the first place.

Now, in the past with other web sites, changing the title of your
page in Google’s Index is no big deal. Usually after a few days, once
Google has spidered your page again, the new title appears in that
all important index. I am chalking up the lost sales as a bad
mistake on my part.

I have made changes to the site in question and I wait anxiously
for Google to change the title back to the comparison shopping
angle which is truly what this site is all about. It does have
an educational element to it but that’s because I want any customers
to be fully informed about the products in question.

For me as an online marketer that first impression in Google’s Index
is crucial to my whole marketing process. And if you’re into selling
anything online or if you just want to attract the right targeted
visitors to your site – having the proper title and description are
essential to the success of your site.

You MUST give a lot of time and consideration to your title tag
and description. It is extremely important for attracting the right
type of visitor to your site. Get this wrong and even a #1 spot
in Google can be useless!

Here’s a handy little tool and site which will help you create your
titles and descriptions for search engines, mainly Google.

Title Optimizer

Use this tool to create your titles…

Then learn from my mistake and make sure your content and links
on your page is truly relevant to your title. Repeat your title
on the page in the “H1″ headline is a good starting point, just keep
all content on topic so that Google’s robots and Algorithm doesn’t get
confused and mislabel your site.

Helping You Succeed Online Since 2002!

Kind Regards,
Titus

http://www.bizwaremagic.com

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Spiders, Breadcrumbs & Google – Why All Three Are Important To Your Site

admin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:56:43 +0000

BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News

Spiders, Breadcrumbs & Google – Why All Three Are Important To Your Site’s Success

Do you see what I see!

It could just be me, but one of the least talked about aspects of Internet
marketing has to do with the pesky little spider. Actually these are the
countless spiders/robots that spider the web continuously and report back
all content and links to the search engines.

It is surprising that this lowly spider is not better known or understood
by webmasters since they play a major role in the success of your website
- at least where the search engines are concerned. How these spiders see
your site and what they report back is crucial to getting your pages and
content listed in the search engines.

What you see is not what you get.

One common mistake many webmasters make (especially those just beginning)
is that they take if for granted all the information and content on your site
can be seen by the spiders/search engines. You can have a spectacular looking
site with all the bells and whistles – full of images, java scripts, flash
banners, widgets… a visitor to your site will come away amazed at the content
and information.

But a spider comes along and spiders the same spectacular page and finds
nothing – no content whatsoever – nothing. That spider then reports this
back to the search engine and your page or content is not indexed since
nothing of importance was found.

This can mean disaster, even for the most spectacularly designed pages.
No content, no listing.

Of course, the whole issue or problem is the simple fact that spiders can’t
read images, banners, java scripts, widgets… and so on. What they see
when they visit your webpage MAY be entirely different from what you or
your visitors see. If they can’t see or read your content it doesn’t exist
for the search engines.

For this reason, it is always a good practice to run your pages through
software programs which tell you exactly what the spider sees. Get your
pages read or displayed through the eyes of these spiders.

One good site is Search Engine Spider Imitator

Just type in your page URL and you will see what the spider sees. If any
of your main information or keyword phrases are missing – make sure you
place them as “text” on your page, not text in an image or banner.

One common mistake, which I see all the time, a site has it’s main keyword
phrase in the domain name but then creates an eye-catching logo with the
site’s name displaying the keyword phrase – but the spider cannot read this
logo and that much needed keyword SEO is lost. Especially if this logo is
displayed on every page of your site, which in most cases, it will be.

It is much better to have this domain name/keyword displayed as text on all
your pages. In this manner, the search engines know exactly what your pages
are about; having it read as “site logo” just doesn’t cut it.

However, many webmasters are smart enough to put your keyword phrase in
the “alt” tags connected with this logo or image – which the spider and
the search engines can read. For SEO reason it is good to place your targeted
keyword in the “alt” tag, but like everything, don’t over do it or you will
be accused of keyword spamming.

Another whole issue is the matter of site/link hierarchy. Explained simply,
your domain index is level one, links flowing off this main homepage are
usually considered level two, links flowing off these level two pages are
considered level 3 and so on… most web experts suggest you keep all your
content within these three levels. Why? Mainly because it is easier for the
spider to index them. If you go down too deep, some spiders may not spider/index
your deeply linked pages.

Another reason, you want your site and pages to be easily accessed by your
visitor. A simple page structure or layout is best suited for this purpose.
Make sure all your content can be easily found, especially by spiders.

So in conclusion, make sure spiders can read all your content, use the link here
and check your pages. If you are unpleasantly surprised or disappointed by
what these spiders are seeing, then simply fix the problem by making your
important content placed in “text” on your pages. Keep feeding those spiders,
and they won’t come back and bite you in the… well, you get picture.

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Get Your Breadcrumbs in Google for More Links in Results

This is the title of a really good informative piece on Google and Breadcrumbs
in WebProNews by Chris Crum, no pun intended. Basically, breadcrumbs are same
as the linking structure or levels we talked about above – “the hierarchical display
commonly used in site navigation. For example: Home Page>Product Page>Product A Page.”

Google is starting to list these breadcrumbs/links in its results which means
more of your site’s links will be displayed on that first page. Instead of one
link, you can have three or more links on that first page in Google. If you’re
into search engine marketing like I am, you will know this is a major, major deal.
Getting more links in Google for your site simply means more targeted traffic
and more targeted traffic means more sales and opt-ins.

According to Matt Cutts it’s very early days for “Breadcrumbs” but it is
something you should consider when designing your site as Google will probably
be using some form of them in the future.

Click this link if you want to find out more about this topic:

Get Your Breadcrumbs in Google for More Links in Results

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The Only 3 Steps You Need To Make Tons Of Sales Online In 2010

This is a free PDF article by Marlon Sanders who is one
of my favorite Internet Marketers. Mainly because he produces
“no non-sense” “point & click” marketing products which
are easy to use and apply. He cuts out all the “bull” and
gives you what you need to market online.

I have always recommended Sanders and his products to
anyone who’s interested in finding out “how” all this
online marketing works. Heck, he was marketing on the web
before there even was a “web” as we know it today.

Anyway, if you’re interested in finding out more, simply
download this free article:

Marlon Sanders 3 Steps

Helping You Succeed Online Since 2002!
Titus

http://www.bizwaremagic.com

Increase Site Quality & Rankings With This Broken Link Checker

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:56:39 +0000

BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News

Increase Site Quality & Rankings With Free Xenu Link Sleuth

Will Page Quality Replace PageRank or Other Ranking Factors?

Many SEO experts and professional webmasters believe “Site Quality”
will play an even greater role in how Google ranks web pages. One
of the reasons for this belief is all the “noise” coming from Google
about Site Speed, Broken Links, Proper Coding and so on.

Actually, you don’t need to be an SEO expert to figure out that
the quality of your site and web pages are extremely important to
how well they are ranked. Search engines like Google, are only offering
up a product like any other company – in this case their product is
their SERPs or listings/links given to a search query.

These listings or links have to go to quality pages which the surfer
will use and find beneficial. If Google sends a searcher to a page
that has broken links – either internal and/or external – more than likely
that visitor will come away with a poor experience. This reflects badly
on everyone including the search engines.

Lately, Google has been making a lot of changes to its search engine,
especially with Google Caffeine which is a major overhaul of its whole
ranking system. Of course, when it comes to how Google actually ranks
pages it is very difficult to figure out the exact rules, but Page Quality
is definitely in there.

This can be measured in so many ways – Time spent on site, bounce rate,
proper coding, meta tags, content quality, keyword density… and of course
- broken links.

Broken links on any web page will lower the visitor’s experience and
produce frustration. It will bring down the quality of your web page.

Simple Solution —– Fix All Broken Links

Now if you have a small site (10-50 pages) this is very easy to do
and fix. Yesterday, using the Xenu tool mentioned here, I fixed some
broken links on 3 or 4 of my smaller sites.

However, if you have a site with 1000’s of pages this is not so
easily done. That’s where handy software can make your job easier
and save you a lot of time. If you have a large or older time it
will take more time to fix all the links.

Xenu Link Sleuth is a Free Powerful software application which you
can download and then check all your sites for broken links.
This is the best “broken-link-checker” I have found. It’s really
easy to use and it gives you a full report of your broken links.

You can download it here:

Xenu Link Sleuth

Here’s another screenshot of how the Xenu works:

It even gives you a report of all your broken links which you
can then fix or delete. I found this very handy and very easy
to do once you’re given all the data.

So if you want to increase the quality of your site or web pages,
use this Xenu Link Sleuth to fix all your broken links. Never no,
it may just also increase your search engine rankings.

Kind Regards,
Titus

http://www.bizwaremagic.com