Google

Google’s view on unnatural link patterns

Published: July 24th, 2009

We have been involved with an interesting case recently with a retail site that hasn’t been ranking too well. Having conducted an investigation we concluded that the probable reason was because Google had been penalising the site for what looked to be an unnatural linking pattern.

This was because all of the links to the site’s pages contained the same word – an unnatural feature in Google’s eyes, according to our sources. However the site didn’t really have an unnatural link pattern at all – the nature of the site meant that it was hard to link to the site without mentioning that one word; especially since the domain name featured that word. So for example (i’m not going to use the actual website we worked on as I’m not sure I have permission) you have the domain www.multi-coloured-bottles.com and the site focuses on blue bottles, black bottles, green bottles, red bottles etc. How do you link to that site without mentioning the word bottles? Even just providing a standard link (without anchor text) still contains the word.

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Page file size and SEO

Published: July 22nd, 2009

A commonly ignored factor for search engine optimisation is page file size. However, those that do pay attention to it seem to be living in the past – though possibly for good reason.

Some web designers/masters/administrators show complete disregard for any thought about page file size – the result being bloated monstrosities that freeze your browser until you delete your cookies. Their consideration for such details was cast aside when the majority of their target audience started using broadband internet – making download times minute even for goliath 500k + pages.

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When not to link

Published: July 17th, 2009

I want you to imagine the following example of a website, which I come across far too often:

The site has a homepage focused on a handful of terms. This then links to other pages that each concentrate on one of these key terms. All text with mentions of key phrases on the homepage are therefore linked to these other pages. The homepage is used as the landing page for a link building campaign, yet doesn’t perform that well.  Website owner isn’t happy.

It is a classic mistake – one I like to call a case of ‘confused landing page strategy aggravated by misappropriation of internal links’. (‘Geek!’)

I’ll explain.

Firstly, you should never have more than one page concentrating on a key phrase/term. This causes conflict and dilution of focus. Big no-no.

Secondly, Google does not read links in the same way as it reads normal text. Google assigns anchor text to the page that the anchor text links to. The page that contains the anchor text does not gain the benefit of the mention of the phrase. Therefore the page that is linked to is seen as being relevant to the phrase whereas that page that contains the link is not.

So in the case of the example mentioned, the homepage is the focus of a load of links yet effectively has no mentions of any key phrases on the page – as all mentions are linked to other pages. Result? Google says SPAM.

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Choosing your key terms with ROI in mind

Published: July 15th, 2009

SEO has to be give you a good ROI. And by ROI, I mean return on investment in the form of MONEY, not visits. Therefore choosing your search terms has to be tailored towards optimising your bottom line.

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How to get into Google’s ‘Inner Ring of Trust’

Published: July 13th, 2009

On Friday I wrote a post about how on-site changes can have larger effects on rankings for some sites than others. I outlined why I believe this is the case – one way links from quality sites lead Google to trust the content on your site.

Therefore there seems to be a form of ‘ring of trust’ in Google’s eyes. Once you get into that ring of trust then you can rely less on outside sources.

So how do you become a member of the ‘ring of trust’?

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