The five biggest myths about Google
On the internet, few companies receive more attention than Google. And for good reason: Google touches so many individuals and businesses. From search to its 'side projects', just about everything Google does creates interest.
Google's prominence, not surprisingly, has led to the creation of many myths. Here are my top five.
Is Google really capable of detecting paid links and webspam?
Paid links are something I've written about lately as the possibility of Twitter data being incorporated into the Google and Bing search indexes has raised the spectre of a much more complicated situation vis-à-vis paid links.
In the case of Google, the rules are clear: paid links are bad. If you get caught buying or selling them, you could find yourself in a world of hurt. But just how good is Google at detecting paid links? If the example I'm about to give is any indication, it's not good at all.
Will paid tweets become the new paid links?
Now that Google and Bing have access to Twitter's firehose, the
speculation about over how Twitter data could eventually be used
as a search engine ranking factor has begun.
Since there's not a whole lot of text (and context) in 140 character tweets, it seems likely that if Google and Bing want to use Twitter as some sort of ranking factor, they'll look to the links that are spread on Twitter and who is spreading them.
Four steps to profiting from a decent domain name
If you're an entrepreneur, or budding entrepreneur, making money online can sometimes seem like a real challenge. In my opinion, that's often because entrepreneurs focus on the wrong thing. They want to create a 'startup' and become the next Facebook or Twitter.
That's a tall order and, for most of us, a recipe for disappointment. But if you're willing to start out small and work hard, profit on the internet isn't so elusive.
If '25% of bloggers' post paid content, who can you trust?
I received an email the other day, which caused me some significant concern. It was a request, which came out of the blue, asking me to consider to be paid for featuring certain content on my personal blog.
For me, this is a very unwanted and somewhat scandalous approach and I sincerely hope other bloggers feel the same way. If you think about it, it is a very seedy means to encourage independent people who take the time to blog about subjects they care about, to succumb to the incentive of money.
Buying or selling SEO links? Look at the trouble you’re causing
How many times have you sat through an SEO
presentation and heard 'it’s all about links, and one link from the BBC
is worth more than 1,000 low level directories.'
Google relies on media links to calculate PageRank, a gauge of website authority. These links bring order to search results, which is why everyone uses Google, which is why they make so much money. Brands therefore need media links to achieve SEO success in Google, which is fair enough.
But what do media owners get for providing the authority map behind Google’s meteoric rise? Plummeting advertising revenues as Google hoovers up the lot. This seems a bit of a kick in the teeth, but what can they do about it?
Q&A: Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOmoz
Every two years, SEO consultancy and publisher SEOmoz publishes a Search Engine Ranking Factors report that details which ranking factors some of the world's top SEOs think are hot and not. The latest Search Engine Ranking Factors report was published in August.
I spoke with Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOmoz, about the 2009 Ranking Factors report, the dilemma of paid links and how social media is changing SEO.
Are paid friends the new paid links?
Paid links have been and still are a popular SEO technique and it's not hard to understand why: they promise instant gratification to those who can't wait for results. Unfortunately, paid links are not in favor with search engines for obvious reasons and those who employ them today do so at significant risk.
As the importance of social media becomes more apparent to businesses both large and small, it's no surprise that the desire for instant gratification is rearing its ugly head in the form of 'paid friends'.
Google changes the game on PageRank sculpting, starts following JavaScript links
At the SMX Advanced conference in Seattle this week, Google's Matt Cutts revealed that Google has implemented two changes that may have an impact on your SEO efforts.
The first one has to do with the way Google deals with PageRank sculpting and the second has to do with Google's following of JavaScript links.
Has Gocompare been given another Google penalty?
It looks like insurance aggregator Gocompare.com may once again have been hit with a Google penalty, as it is currently not ranking on the search engine's organic results for its own brand name.
A search on Google UK for 'Gocompare' returns only third party sites on the first page, and you have to go all the way down to page six of the search engine to find the official site.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
