A Good Time is Blog Time

SEO as most people know is a constantly changing target and the reason why is because the search engines are constantly trying to stay ahead of the SEO gamers that seek to position their’s or their client’s web pages in prime positions in the search engine results pages. Google, Bing, Yahoo etc. on the other hand seek to present what they consider to be the best and highest quality matches to the enquiry that has been entered into the search box.

You may ask why do the two objectives clash? And the simple answer is that people with the best sites that provide the best information, solutions to problems, services and or products, in other words content, may not necessarily know very much about SEO at all. The consequence of this is that they can be left at the starting blocks when it comes to being found and listed high up on search engine results pages. Don’t get me wrong, great content is always the starting point for getting a decent page rank and, for natural evolution of a site to a position of authority with the search engines, there is always a need for top quality unique information. The problem for the search engines is how do they determine that is the case with the tools they have available.

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Has anyone else been checking their PR on their websites blogs and articles. I had a pretty good coo when I went from PR0 across the board to PR4 for the home page on my European Travel Website with many of the other pages getting awarded PR3  or below. All done without smoke and mirrors and no black hat techniques. Fingers crossed that the pages will retain their new found status. I checked some of my keyword targets and I am getting page one of Google for many of the terms I identified when the site was set up. Can’t be bad then can it, I guess time will tell.

So I think it is fair to say that the latest algorithm changes and PR criteria must be suiting the way I do business. This blog crept up another PR number to 3, which considering how competitive the subject is, should be considered no mean feat. Especially as I actually do operate as a one man band and I write my own unique articles i.e. no automated spinning software allowed or at least not deliberately. I do accept guest articles but try and make sure they are good quality, properly written and provide useful information. One or two substandard ones have crept in on occasion on some of my blogs, but they don’t stay long once spotted.

So what is the secret to getting a pat on the back from Google? Well if the results I have seen are anything to go by there isn’t really a secret, because Google have been telling us and I have been telling you about it in my Search Engine Results Experiment. Hopefully you have been following that dialogue and taking on board what I have been saying, it certainly is starting to look like that is the way to go. In summary then, it is as originally stated : Read the rest of this entry »

I have been reporting on a little experiment being done to establish exactly how you can promote a URL page to get a position on the first page of Google search engine results page. This is post the Panda update and involves ‘white hat’ techniques only. No skulduggery, article spinning software or trying to pull the wool over Google’s eyes.

As you can see the URL for www.writeaway.co.uk is positioned well up on the first page of the Google search results. This time, with an ongoing campaign supporting it, there is no reason to believe that it will not stay in position. In fact the most likely reason for it being displaced would be if there was a competitor attempting to remove it by doing more of the same thing than this campaign is doing.

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So how many times have you seen this, you make an initial attack on a keyword phrase, build some links using in context linking techniques, submit to a couple of social book marking sites and hey presto there you are on page 1 of the Google search engine results page. So that’s it, job done and what was all the fuss about?

If only it was that easy, because what happens next is that you check again a few days later and you are nowhere to be seen. Some gurus tell you getting on page 1 of Google is easy and you can do it in hours using the right techniques. And yes they are right, but that is not what it is about, it is about getting prime position on the search engine results pages and then staying there, indefinitely.

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Today is the day we start a search engine results experiment.

The intention is that we take this website describing how to publish a book select a number of suitable keyword phrases and attempt to take the site onto page 1 of Google’s search engine results page (SERP). The strategy is all about how you develop a website to gain traffic using free traffic sources only. There will be no paid ads, although these have been previously used for this site, and no black hat techniques. This is going to be an exercise in using white hat techniques that the search engines will love.

So what is the intention, basically the strategy is going to rely on the fundamental techniques required for getting traffic that will stay loyal to both the author and the website whilst satisfying the criteria outlined by the search engines for what makes a site attractive and rank highly. Read the rest of this entry »