Category Archives: Personal
Google Panda Algorithm : Easy Way to Understand Google’s Panda
By MELISSA FACH at Search Engine Journal
There are so many myths out there about Panda and what it means. This infographic from Single Grain makes it very easy for you to understand what Panda is, what can hurt your site, link building tips and offers suggestions on what to do if your website was affected.
About Melissa Fach
Melissa is the Managing Editor of Search Engine Journal & owner of SEO Aware, LLC. Her company specializes in the Psychology behind online sales and conversion. She is a self-proclaimed Star Wars and Internet geek and volunteers with big cats at BigCatHabitat.org.
Why Blogging Is Still Important in 2012? : 7 Strong Reasons
By NEIL PATEL at Search Engine Journal
Some people would like you to think blogging as we know it is over.
They share the eye-popping numbers for Tumblr’s growth, for example: 355 million unique visitors per month, and 400 million pageviews per day. And it’s true that Twitter and Facebook have lead many people away from blogging.
But publishing content on a blog is superior to these platforms in many ways, like putting a human face on your brand, differentiating you from your competition and educating prospects and clients.
But I want to expand on seven areas that will prove essential in 2012.
Alternatives to Google Analytics Website Analysis tool
By MAT BENNETT at Search Engine Journal
Since its launch in 2005 Google Analytics has become almost unassailable in the world of website analytics, with 57% of the world’s 10,000 most popular websites using the popular site statistics suite.
Prior to the arrival of Google Analytics, the choices were largely between the inferior data of ‘server stats’ packages, lightweight 3rd party services or paying several hundred dollars a month for an enterprise level solution. Google Analytics brought powerful, accurate analytics to the masses and as site owners we lapped it up.
Tools such as Google Analytics give us the data to make smarter decisions about our websites and our businesses. Whether we are looking to increase traffic, improve conversions, conceive content ideas or do any of a myriad of other tasks, our analytics suite will often be the starting point.
However Analytics != Google Analytics. There are alternatives out there, and what’s more some of them are rather good.
How Search Engines Work : Learn About Search Engines & Their working
By Mike Grehan at Search Engine Watch
It’s been 10 years since I wrote the second edition of a book about search engines called “Search Engine Marketing: The Essential Best Practice Guide”. It was a very big seller and, in fact, it carried on selling through to the beginning of 2010 when I took it offline.
I’ve decided to start this year by revisiting the chapter in the book about how search engines work. I’ve said many times over the years that, most books about SEO have a section called how search engines work. But rarely (if ever) do they describe the interdisciplinary approach to information retrieval (IR) covering mathematics, computer science, library science, information architecture, cognitive psychology, linguistics, and statistics – to name but a few.
Previously, I had written mainly about methods of manipulating rankings by keyword stuffing and other black hat type techniques of the time. But as I began to realize the importance of linkage data and even more so, link anchor text, I became more and more inquisitive as to what it was exactly that search engines used in their ranking technologies.
SEO Outsourcing: When to Listen to or Question Your SEO Provider
By Kristi Hines at Search Engine Watch
When you hear something that’s too good to be true, it probably is. This is especially true with some link building or SEO companies that will promise you the world, and leave you with a possible penalty. And when you hear something that might require some work, you might think your SEO is full of it.
For those of you looking to outsource your SEO efforts, here’s a quick list of times you should listen to or question your SEO consultant or online marketing agency.
LISTEN When They Say You Need More Link Worthy Content
It may sound like an upsell at first, but having quality content on your website is extremely important when it comes to link building. Unless you want to have someone pay for your links (that’s right, I just said paid link building), you will need something other than product or service sales pages on your site that is worthy of a link.
Quality content doesn’t have to be something as fancy as infographics or videos (although those are the best). It can be as simple as informative blog posts. Give other webmasters something interesting to link to, and you’ll start getting more quality links.