Google Instant And Its Effect On SEO

admin    Google Optimization     Effect, Google, Instant

Google Instant And Its Effect On SEO

All hail the arrival of Google Instant!

What is Google Instant?

Google Instant is an additional or enhanced search feature which shows search suggestions as you type.

Before now, to get search results, you had to press “enter” at the end of your search query,.

With this enhanced search feature, you are literally guided by these suggestions as you type and you do not have to press the return key, as search results appear as you type and changes accordingly as you proceed until you reach your final search destination, when the search results remain permanent.

One of the reasons behind and benefits of this enhanced search feature as touted by Google, is an expected reduction in search time. A study of time spent during the search process had in fact confirmed this thinking.

A further confirmation is that the time spent in reading is much shorter than in typing such that search users can glance much faster at the search suggestions and utilize them at greater speed than they would, had they had to type search terms to the end.

Since many users of this enhanced search feature will have to pause to consider the suggestions presented to them as they type, i strongly think this might in fact slow down the search process, quite contrary to Google’s thinking.

Does this have an impact on search engine optimization?

Unlike the belief of many analysts, Google does not believe Google Instant is going to affect SEO.

Many analysts believe that while single keyword terms optimization is likely to get a boost, they see it as a death note to long-tail keywords.

To these analysts, it also symbolizes a support to certain established brands whose brand names are now expected to be suggested by Google Instant as soon as certain single or few letters are typed into the search box.

Many other analysts however believe that it is the manner of carrying out search engine optimization that will alter. To these other analysts, there now has to be a concentration in terms of optimization on the long-tail keywords within search suggestions revealed by Google Instant as these are going to get a boost while many other unrevealed(by Google Instant suggestions) may gradually go into extinction.

Google Instant is still optional and you have the choice to switch off this feature by either going to the preferences page to effect this or by clicking a link on the right of the search box.

The buzz about Google Instant is all about the blogosphere.

Welcome Google Instant!

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How Twitter Can Have A Postive Effect On Your Business

admin    Twitter     business, Effect, Postive, Twitter

How Twitter Can Have A Postive Effect On Your Business

Twitter has seemingly come out of nowhere and taken the internet by storm, everyone and their dog is using it to post short updates about their lives, whether they’re out shopping or have just discovered they are out of milk, great. But how can Twitter be used more effectively for marketing purposes within a business environment?

Twitter can be an excellent tool in the same way Facebook lets you create fan pages and groups to engage with your customers. By setting up a Twitter account and promoting it via your standard advertising channels (newsletters, etc) you can quickly gain a modest/large gang of followers who are all keen to hear of your latest updates, offers, etc that may not yet otherwise be available. Many businesses use Twitter for giveaways very successfully to attract more followers and gain exposure to people they may otherwise never have accessed.

You can also use Twitter to give your followers exclusive deals that are only available on Twitter, thus creating an exclusive club – something people want to be part of and interact with. It also gives a more personal feel to your business, by regularly Tweeting your followers these people get to learn what your business is really like and as a result you may pick up a new audience of customers.

You can also use the Search function within twitter to see if people are searching for things within your industry and then engage with them directly, again just another simple way to use Twitter to help grow your business.

The Google Sandbox Effect – How to Make the Most of it

admin    Google     Effect, Google, Most, Sandbox

The sandbox defined

There are two things that need mention before delving far into the concept of Google sandbox. One, that there is no consensus among internet experts about its existence, and two that the sandbox effect is seen to affect only Google search while other search engines such as MSN or yahoo remain unaffected by it. Now coming to the actual definition of a sandbox, it is a virtual space where your website lies on hold or probation for some time before it is ranked well in the search engine results pages. This can be further illustrated by the fact that though new websites find a good ranking and better visibility in Google’s SERPs for the first couple of weeks after being indexed by Google, their ranking starts touching abysmal lows after this initiation period, despite original and optimized content, and even though the website has many genuine inbound links to it. So here, the sandbox acts as a typical filter which lists your website, but does not rank it well for the first few months. Almost all new websites which are indexed on Google are sandboxed. But curiously enough this does not happen because of a snag on the part of the creator of the website. It has been observed by SEO experts that more the number of competitive keywords used, the probability that the website will be sandboxed for a longer period is more. There is a misconception about the sandboxed site not being indexed by Google. In fact, it is indexed but is not well ranked for keyword phrases in Google.

That only new websites are subjected to be sandboxed is only half truth in the opinion of some internet experts. Well established sites that start getting numerous links from other websites all at once are also likely to be sandboxed. The reason is that Google discovered that spammers divide a single site into fragments so as to facilitate the exchange of links between them. Spammers also resort to creating new websites designed with the sole intention of providing valuable links to the main site. The sandbox helps curb the formation of new websites just to provide links to other websites. It forces the designer to include better content to be well ranked in Google. 

The need for a sandbox

Obviously website owners do not feel the need to have a sandbox at all because it restrains the traffic flow to their website, which a good Google ranking can fetch. But, Google felt that a website filter such as the sandbox was necessary to keep search engine spammers at bay. The creation of the sandbox can be attributed to search engine spammers who cracked Google’s ranking algorithm and started abusing it to their own advantage. The spammers built websites which did not live up to the Google standards, but still got top listing from Google because of the generously interspersed keywords within the content, inbound links and proper use of anchor text. Though eventually, these sites would be banned by Google, this was a milch-cow for the spammers even if they were on the top ranking of Google for a short span. The visiting traffic to their websites more than compensated the cost of building it in the first place. Even after the website was banned, the spammers could go about doing the same thing with a new website all over again. Google was particularly targeted by search engine spammers because of its alacrity in indexing new websites with a view to offer fresh stuff to their customers. As a solution to this problem, Google started running spam filters through which all new websites needed to pass during the hold period. Though Google never admits that the sandbox exists, webmasters confirm that new websites are sandboxed for the initial months. If Google found a website live up to its expectations through the sandboxed phase, it removed the website from its sandbox and placed it with the others in their SERPs.

Getting out of the sandbox

The only way to get out of the sandbox is to patiently wait through the probation period. Meanwhile focus on improving the website to your advantage. Try building traffic other than the search engine traffic, by including unique, ground-breaking content and increasing the number of affiliations that can provide inbound links to your website. If you wait for your website to get a good ranking after leaving the sandbox and then improve the site, it will not find itself well ranked in the very first place. So utilize the probation time to your advantage, because there is no way you can directly avoid it. And though it does not seem to be a good concept at the first glance, you will eventually realize the fact that the authenticity of the search engine will get a fillip because of the sandbox and, in turn, help your website once you get it well ranked with the search engine.

Recognizing whether a website is in the sandbox

Determining whether or not your website is in the sandbox is a process of elimination. You need to eliminate the possibility of your website being banned by Google. If your site is not banned, but your ranking with Google is still low, you need to eliminate the possibility of being sandboxed because of the high usage of competitive keywords. Lessen the rate at which competitive keywords appear in your website and try to use more non competitive keywords. If your ranking with Google is still low, you have, in all likelihood, been sandboxed. Other way to find if your website has been sandboxed is to see if you are well ranked with other search engines. If you are, and still not well ranked with Google, then you may have been sandboxed.

Harish Shetty, an expert on Internet marketing best practices and search engine optimization, advices on the methods to utilize the sandbox effect to the best of your advantage and ways of getting out of it as early as possible. In his mission against search engine spammers, he is all praise for Google to have introduced a way to beat them at their own game.

How The Google Sandbox Can Effect New Websites Page Rankings

admin    Google     Effect, Google, Page, Rankings, Sandbox, Websites

Google, one of the Internet’s most commonly used search engine, has a little known feature that can affect where your website is ranked among its pages. The Google Sandbox is supposedly acting as a ‘probation officer’ for new websites, keeping spam websites from growing too quickly before getting banned and then being resurrected.

It is believed that the probation period for the websites is somewhere between ninety and one hundred twenty days. Unfortunately, the biggest problem with the Google sandbox is that website keywords don’t always show up in Google searches and causes the site to less than optimal traffic and links regardless of the quality of the content.

The Google sandbox was initiated in an effort to weed out spamming websites and to keep them from adding their own bought links. It was to also keep them from getting ranked too high on the pages, thereby cluttering up the search engine. Sites that had too many links pointing back to it has been labeled as suspicious by Google, and summarily banned.

Some sites even used nefarious tactics to rise to the top of the search results, thereby violating Google’s Terms of Services, and being banned. The problem that occurred was that within a short period of time, these sites would reappear and the entire process of rising to the top and being banned started all over again. Hence the need for a ‘probation officer’.

Back in March of 2004, website owners began to notice that websites launched after this date didn’t rank very high in the ratings even though they used optimization techniques and had strong incoming links.

It has been speculated that the Google sandbox doesn’t really exist, but the company has all but come out and admitted that they are using this filter. Websites that were launched prior to the implementation of the filter have probably never been reviewed the by the filter.

Sites with competitive keywords and phrases are at the most risk for spending some time under the sandbox scrutiny. If an owner does a keyword search for their site and doesn’t see it in the most important searches, then their site is probably in the sandbox. If the owner does not see their site when they secondary keyword searches, and it has no page rank whatsoever, their site may be suffering a penalty imposed on them by Google.

While joining Google programs – such as AdWords or Adsense – will help drive traffic to the websites while they are in the sandbox, it will not help the site get free of the filter any sooner or keep from being scrutinized in the first place. There is no way to get free of the Google sandbox until the probation period is over. Website owners, however, are not entirely helpless during this time.

While their site is in the sandbox, they can add new incoming links to the site, fix up and continue optimizing the content, and even launching the site unfinished. By doing that, their site will no longer be under scrutiny by the time it is completely live. Owners may find that their page rankings are still weaker then expected, but this will change as they continue to tweak their content and allow other users to search for and find their page.

While the Google sandbox may seem to be a hindrance, it is, in reality, a positive tool. By putting websites on probation in an effort to stem the tide of spamming sites and eliminating them when found, the sandbox is actually giving legitimate live sites a chance to flourish instead of being buried by fakes.