Monthly Archives: April 2012

Google’s Webspam Update Causes Complete Havoc

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Google’s Webspam Update Causes Complete Havoc



Penguin





Has Google Search Become One Big Mess?


Just when the Hockey Playoffs are heating up, Google goes and
makes some drastic changes to its search rankings. Is there no
common decency left anymore!

And the fallout from these recent Google changes is just as
messy as some of the latest playoff games. If you don’t follow
ice hockey, you won’t get the reference, but believe me… it’s
pretty messy.

Like thousands, if not millions, of site owners I am scrambling
to adjust to the latest Google minefield. Since I have been
actively link building for over 10 years, these recent changes
within Google have really affected traffic on a few of my sites.

Thankfully, since last year I have been looking at other
ways to market online (other than SEO and high rankings
in Google) mainly through Press Releases, exact keyword
domains and changing my article marketing to just make sales
rather than to build links or for SEO purposes.

However…

This week Google rolled out one of its most disruptive
Algorithm changes yet, one that far outranks anything
the whole series of Panda Updates ever did to Google’s
listings. If your site wasn’t affected by these changes,
consider yourself very lucky for now, countless webmasters
have seen their sites disappear from Google’s SERPS altogether.

According to Danny Sullivan of Searchengineland, this
new update is called Penguin. It was released or rolled out on
April 24 of this week.

The online forums are full of horror stories from some
very legitimate high-quality sites which have seen the
negative effects of the recent changes. Google and Matt Cutts
are saying these recent changes have to do with “webspam”
and those sites which “overly” uses SEO to rank high
in Google.

More or less, if you have been actively building backlinks
to your site, this latest update could do serious damage
to your site. Google wants to reward sites that don’t
“aggressively” build links or practice SEO.

In a perfect world, maybe those changes would work, but
in an online environment where many businesses, big and small,
have been optimizing and aggressively building backlinks
for 10 years or more, these changes spell disaster.



Again, as with any changes Google make to determine what
sites get ranked, there is widespread uproar that Google is
simply now showing more junk results in their listings. The
outcry this time seems to be louder than in recent memory.

So has Google’s organic search results become one big mess?
Has consistency gone the way of the DoDo bird? Has Google
really thrown the baby out with the bathwater this time?

No matter how loud the outcry from affected webmasters
and site owners, the real question here has to be answered by
Google’s mainstream users. Will they accept these new
listings/rankings OR will they look for another search
engine to use?


Don’t hold your breath.


Actually, Google’s share of the lucrative search market is going
up and not down. It now controls over 65% in the U.S. and much
more in other countries. Unless those numbers go down, Google
can pretty much do what it wants, regardless of the outcry
from battle weary webmasters.

The only losers in all this are the search users and unless
they change their habits, SEO may indeed be on the way out,
along with relevant results. Especially if Google is now
penalizing webmasters who are practicing SEO and off-site link
building, the future looks very bleak for SEO.



Although some experts are saying you shouldn’t do
this – but you feel your site has been unfairly
affected by the Penguin/Webspam/Titanic Update you
can submit your argument/feedback to Google.

Related Posts:

Fixing Google’s Penguin Penalty

Will Google’s Titanic/Webspam/Penguin Update Sink Millions Of Sites?


Kind Regards,
Titus Hoskins

www.bizwaremagic.com

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Google vs Bing – Who Wins The Little Miss Search Award?



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Google Zipper





The Photogenic Award Goes To…

While Bing may be losing the search war, at least when
it comes to “user numbers”, but can the case be made
that Bing will win the Little Miss Photogenic Award.
However, don’t rule Google out when it comes to putting
on a good show for its visitors, this little Backrub
has made some great interactive moves in the past few
years.

Today’s Zipper image almost takes the crown, but the
Pac-Man game from a little while back was much more
entertaining.

Is it just me, or has Google increased the number of
these “special logos” they feature on their home search
page? Could this be in response to all the images Bing
is displaying? Isn’t all this foolishness, sounding more
and more, like a little Miss Search contest? My dimples
are prettier than your dimples…


Google UnZipped





But this is serious business, serious as in Billions,
since gaining the patronage of loyal users who log in
each day does mean money in the bank for these search
engine companies. Hands down, Google seems to be winning
that war with over 65% share of the lucrative US search
market, but according to Alexa, Google has been knocked
down from its #1 spot numerous times last year by Facebook.

The premier social network repeated this feat several
times again this year and this must be worrisome for
Google, which has long been the top site on the web.
But even more troublesome is the fact that Facebook
users spend much more time on-site or logged in, than
do Google users. And did someone say Facebook was
developing its own search engine?

All serious stuff indeed, but back to our Little Miss
contest, who wins the photogenic award for having the
best visual presentations? Bing? Google?




Google UnZipped


Months back, I became so annoyed at Google’s whole
Privacy Changes and its cruel Panda Updates, I switched
my computer’s homepage from Google to Bing. I have been
enjoying immensely the eye-popping images which are
presented each day. It does make me want to keep using
Bing and seeing all those pictures.

However, I do find Google’s presentations much more
creative or should we say inventive. Besides, in a former
life, I have been an artist and art teacher, so liking
things that show the creative and whimsical side of life
is probably in my DNA. While the search engine marketer
in me is totally ticked at Google’s recent move to favor
corporate brands in organic search, I must admit some of
Google’s doodles are true masterpieces. They keep me
grinning all day long.

So who wins?

Who cares… just keep those images coming so I can get
my daily fix.




Titus Hoskins

www.bizwaremagic.com

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Does Google Believe Your Links Are Natural?

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Does Google Believe Your Links Are Natural?


If you’re like me and monitor hundreds of major keywords
in Google on a daily basis, the last few weeks have been
really interesting. There seems to be a major shake-up
in the works, mainly regarding your site’s backlinks
and if they appear natural or not.

Google, now more than ever, seems to be judging the
quality of your links. Do your links follow set norms
or standards? Do they appear natural? Or do they
appear manipulated?

Thousands of webmasters have received Google’s answer
in the form of a message in Google’s Webmasters Tools
– your site’s links appear unnatural.

These webmasters have been told by Google to:

“Specifically, look for possibly artificial or unnatural
links pointing to your site that could be intended to
manipulate PageRank. Examples of unnatural linking could
include buying links to pass PageRank or participating
in link schemes.”

In fact, Google has de-indexed some popular blog networks,
where webmasters could purchase links to manipulate their
rankings in Google. This is a warning sign for other
webmasters to make sure your links are natural and not
manipulated in any way.

Of course, if you have been practicing SEO, you probably
have been actively building backlinks to your site and
web pages for ages. Now is a good time to re-examine your
link building practices and see if they do meet Google’s
standards.

This is a very serious business, if your links appear unnatural,
you will lose your rankings in Google. It can even make your
site unprofitable.

Anyway, as usual, I have written another article on this
topic and I list 5 or 6 things you can do to make your
links appear more natural in the eyes of Google.

You can find the article here:


Google & Your Links

But I would like to leave you with another helpful tip.
One easy way to monitor your current links and keywords
in Google is simply to create Google Alerts for your
site’s major keywords and your site’s URL. Then whenever
Google indexes a link containing these keywords or your URL
– Google sends you an email. Great way to track your links
and also a great way to track your competition.


Google Alerts



Helping People Succeed Online Since 2002!

Kind Regards,
Titus Hoskins

www.bizwaremagic.com

Did you find the above information helpful? If so, why not
help spread the word – recommend this content by using
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