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Every few months, you will see posts by many people declaring that Google has it in for their website. Often, you see threats about how the webmaster plans to sue Google for hurting their business’ profits. On and on it goes… Every webmaster who was dropped from Google’s top search result pages wants to believe that Google singled out their website and their business for punishment and extinction.

How The Google Search Results Is Related To Gerrymandering

According to Wikipedia.com, “Gerrymandering is a form of redistricting in which electoral district or constituency boundaries are manipulated for an electoral advantage.”

Most states in the US redraw their electoral districts at least every decade. In 36 of the states, the state legislature is responsible for drawing the new districts — in principle to account for shifts in population — and the governor is required to approve those changes.

With nearly every redistricting, the party who is out-of-power generally screams foul. The argument is always that the political party in power adjusted the lines to improve their ability to win elections and control the electoral power structure.

The entire process of redistricting is a good analogy for the Google algorithm changes. The people in power (Google) redraw the lines, and the party out-of-power (the webmasters who dropped in ranking) cry foul, threatening lawsuits and other actions.

Something Right And Something Wrong

Of course, the same webmasters screaming about having dropped in Google’s search results did not have a problem when Google allowed them to climb in the search results previously.

People only moan about things when they are on the way down. When they were on the way up, they danced on the coffins of their competitors without a care in the world.

The truly funny thing about it is that when people were on their way up in the Google search results, they told all of their friends that “they” did something right. When they are on their way down, “Google” did something wrong.

Shaky Foundations For Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

PROBLEM: If the website dropped out of Google’s top 1000 results, then I am willing to bet that in nearly every situation of this type, the webmaster had done something wrong in the last few years, and Google has just now caught on to this infraction.

For example, in years past, link farms were utilized by webmasters and accepted by Google. Then Google began to consider link farms to be “bad neighborhoods.”

Link farms are the kind of thing that can be easily recognized by human and search engine alike. So, the link farms were tagged as “bad neighborhoods” and their values were discounted to zero, and the websites linked from link farms got a minus points for their participation in the link farms.

It was a bad practice that the webmaster had participated, and Google finally got around to penalizing the websites whose rankings were supported by these shaky foundations.

SOLUTION: If you try to put yourself into the shoes of the experts at Google, and you wanted to improve the Google search results, what would YOU do? Before you answer this question, remember that you work for Google and not for yourself. What would you do? What would you do different?

“White hat” and “black hat” SEO methods are an analogy of Search Engine Optimization techniques that refers back to the old cowboy classics, where the “good guy” always wore a “white hat” and the ‘bad guy” always wore a “black hat”.

While you are working for Google, take a look at the SEO technique you are thinking about using for your own website. Chances are that if you deem a SEO technique to be “gray hat” (something in between ethical SEO and unethical SEO), then chances are that someday that technique will be deemed “black hat” by the Google engineers. And if the SEO technique is “black hat,” it will likely be targeted for discount by Google at some time in the future.

If you delve into “gray hat” or “black hat” SEO, you may be able to rocket to the top of the Google search results quickly, but you will not be able to hold that position for long. Google will eventually get wise to your gimmick.

If you can “white hat” your website to the top of the search results, your future ranking will likely hold its ground for many years to come.

Your Competition Out-Played You

PROBLEM: If a website dropped a few positions in the Google search results, I am willing to bet that in nearly every situation, one of the website’s major competitors out-performed them in the search results.

There are certain things that you can do correctly, to elevate your own listings in the search engine results. Because you have the capability to do these things, your competitors also have the capability to do these things.

Well guess what? Your competitor did what you should have done. They set up marketing systems to ensure that they could climb in the search results, and they climbed enough to pass you by.

SOLUTION: Do those things that you know you should be doing. And more importantly, do them consistently. Your competitor wants your placement in the search results, and they are going to do what it takes for them to get there.

So, it is imperative for you to keep moving forward in the process of building your ranking in the search engines. When you stand still, resting in the comfort zone of where you reside today, then you are bound to be overtaken by someone who wants to be where you are, a little bit more than you do.

Stir That Pot

PROBLEM: If a website dropped a few pages in the search results, the cause for the drop may have been caused by a combination of the two above-mentioned problems: shaky SEO foundations, and hungry competitors.

SOLUTION: Keep your eye on the big picture. You know what you have done to strengthen your website in the past. Keep learning and keep growing.

If you find that something you had done in the past may affect your website negatively in the future, implement “white hat” SEO techniques to strengthen your position, and make plans to eliminate your reliance on “black hat” SEO systems before Google does it for you.

Don’t Make The Mess And You Won’t Have To Clean It Up

Some may think my approach to housecleaning is an indication of laziness. I consider it to be an indication of good time management. I prefer to reserve my time for things that are more enjoyable.

My theory towards housework — and I try to teach this to my kids often — is that if you don’t want to clean up the mess, don’t make the mess in the first place. If the house is not messy, you don’t have to clean it. So, don’t make the house messy.

I utilize the same approach to my websites. If I do it “white hat” and above-reproach the first time, then I won’t have to go in and fix my rankings everytime Google changes their algorithms.

Stop Standing Still

Do remember that for most every search term you compete to rank for, there are probably another one million web pages competing to rank for the same keyword phrase. Getting to the top of the search engine results is a process, not a destination. You must keep competing to maintain your spot at the top of the search results.

If you want to get to the top of the search results, you will have to take positive steps to get there. And, if you want to maintain your top position in the search engines, you need to keep doing the things that put you in that top spot in the first place.

About The Author

Bill Platt is President of Platt Services, Inc. and owner of Links And Traffic. He has been involved in article marketing and link building since 1999. If you are looking to have someone build anchor text links to your website, using targeted and interesting content as the foundation, then Bill’s team can help you: http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com - If you would prefer to talk to Bill by phone, he can be reached at 405-780-7745 between 9am-6pm CST, Monday thru Friday. http://www.PlattServicesInc.com

Improved search engine rank is difficult enough to obtain without you having to trawl through all that has been written about Google Page Rank in order to find the truth. There are many misconceptions about Page Rank, and Part 2 of this article dispels the most common of them, the first being that Yahoo and MSN have their own version.

In fact this is not so. Yahoo had a beta version of a ‘Web Rank’ visible for a while, ranking complete websites, but it is now offline. MSN has no equivalent as far I can ascertain. The term ‘PageRank’ is a trade mark of Google, which is why I refer to it as Page Rank and not PageRank. A small difference, but a significant one.

If you are one of those that believe that the more links you can get to your website the better, then you are wrong. When Google started the Page Rank frenzy by putting that little green bar on their toolbar, they didn’t realize the consequences of what they were doing. People fought to get as many links to their website as possible, irrespective of the nature of the websites to which they were linking.

That is misconception Number 2. You do not link to websites, you link to web pages, or should I say, you get links back from web pages, not websites. It is, after all, the link back that counts isn’t it? The link away from your site doesn’t count. Wrong! Misconception Number 3. The link to your web page counts no more than the link away from your web page. In fact, it could count less. You could lose out in the reciprocal linking stakes if your web page is worth more than the other person’s.

Let’s dispel that misconception right now. When you receive a link from a web page (not web site) you get a proportion of the Google Page Rank of that web page that depends on the total number of links leaving that page. When you provide a link to another web page, you give away a proportion of your Page Rank that depends on the number of other links leaving your web page.

The Page Rank of the website you get a link from is irrelevant, since that is generally the rank of the Home Page. You will likely find that all these great links you think you have from PR 7 or 8 websites are from a links page that has a PR of ZERO! So you get zilch for the deal. If you are providing them with a link from a page on your site even of PR 1, then you lose! Most people fail to understand that.

No incoming link can have a negative effect on your PR. It can have a zero effect, but not negative. However, if you have an incoming link with zero effect, and an outgoing reciprocal link with a positive effect to the target page, then you will effectively lose PR through the deal. Every web page starts with a PR of 1, and so has that single PR to share amongst other pages to which it is linked. The more incoming links it has, the higher PR it can have to share out.

If your page has a PR of 4 and has three links leaving it, each gets twice the number of PR votes than if 6 links leave it. Your page with a PR of 4 has to get a similar number of PR votes incoming as it gives away to retain its PR. In simple terms, if your PR 4 page is getting links from a PR 8 page with 20 links leaving it, you lose out big time! It’s simple maths.

No page ever gives away all of its PR. There is a factor in Google’s calculation that reduces this to below 100% of the total PR of any page. However, that is roughly how it works. You don’t get a proportion of the whole website ranking; you only get part of the ranking of the page on which your link is placed. Since most ‘Links Pages’ tend to be full of other outgoing links, then you won’t get much, and will likely get zero.

That is why automated reciprocal linking software is often a waste of time. If you want to make the best of linking arrangements, then agree with the other webmaster that you will provide each other with a link from equally ranked pages. That way both of you will gain, and neither loses. Some software allows you to make these arrangements.

Another misconception is that only links from external web pages count. In fact, links between your own web pages can be arranged to provide one page with most of the page rank available. Every page has a start PR of 1, so the more pages you have on your site then the more PR you have to play with and distribute to pages on your website of your choice.

Search engine rank can be improved by intelligent use of links, both external and internal, but Google Page Rank does not have the profound effect on your search engine listing that many have led you to believe. Good onsite SEO usually wins so keep that in mind when designing your website.

Copyright © 2005 Tinu AbayomiPaulAccording to Google, Google’s Blog Search is “Google search technology focused on blogs”. It includes search engine results specific to blogs not just in the Blogger.com community, but across the blogosphere at large. You can access it at http://www.blogsearch.google.com/

What the Big Deal Is

A lot of people have probably heard about this extra version of search Google has added and are greeting it with a big yawn, particularly since it’s still in Beta. So what is the big deal, anyway?

The big deal is that the top search engine in the world, which was already paying particular attention to blogs in regular search results, seems to make a subtle statement with the introduction of blog-specific searches.

Blogs are important enough to warrant their own special level of search, and not just as an advanced search option, but in their own search engine.

If search engines are paying attention to blogging that closely, you should be too — if you want better search engine results.

Current fans of blogs will be able to search the freshest results so that they can see what is being discussed right now - information that is often as fresh as the news, and draws upon sources that the media-at-large either doesn’t have ready access to, or interest in.

So to those with even the most obscure interests or hobbies, a blog search powered by a top search engine gives ready access to fresh information on any subject that someone can blog about.

And if a blog doesn’t yet exist on these narrow themes? You can be the one to start the discussion.

Why It Matters to Your Business

Speaking of the media, this is likely to become one of the many tools that a journalist in the know would use in order to research a story, or to find out more information about a company, directly from the people who use its products or services.

Technorati, is at present, arguably a better tool, but it’s just not as well known as the Google brand. If you’re a power searcher, you already know what Technorati is. But the key thing to understand is that most consumers - even B2B consumers - aren’t as deeply involved in the internet.

But even those folks know what Google is.

There’s an even more obvious advantage to this specialized search.

Google Blog search has the unprecedented potential to bring the mainstream surfer into blogging, even more than Yahoo’s RSS Headlines pioneered the start of making RSS mainstream about a year ago. Why?

While many of your clients will fall instantly in love with RSS, it’s more fair to them to present its possibilities in a format that’s easier for them to digest. It’s not as hard to explain a blog - and if you can’t you can simply tell them it’s a more frequently updated part of your existing site.

When Google’s Blog Search is brought more to the front in coming months, if your site gets into position to be visible when more of the internet population becomes blog-happy, then the traffic potential for your site may prove to be enormous.

The proper use of one RSS feed in one of my content management systems doubled my traffic, with most of the new users coming from Yahoo, this time last year. Another feed increased my daily traffic another 75%, and brought me additional return traffic as well.

At the time the margin between Yahoo and Google was wider than it is today — so the potential increase from being in Google boggles the mind.

How to Get Listed

According to the Blog Search Help Page:

“If your blog publishes a site feed in any format and automatically pings an updating service (such as Weblogs.com), we should be able to find and list it. Also, we will soon be providing a form that you can use to manually add your blog to our index, in case we haven’t picked it up automatically. Stay tuned for more information on this.”

This means that if you’re already blogging - and responsibly pinging, you’re probably already listed.

If you haven’t been blogging, you’re in luck. This special brand of Google search is still in Beta, so if you get moving now, you still have enough time to start getting into position. And since the search currently seems to be focused on freshness and relevance, if you keep up the blogging once you start, and you keep your theme narrow, you could still dominate your niche.

Do It Today

The mantra for blogging before was that, proper blogging is a sure fire way to increase traffic, as well as build stronger ties to your end users or clients, not to mention that it is the simplest of the many implementations of RSS.

Now, with all three major search engines paying more attention to both RSS and Blogging, you can get spidered more frequently, get more of your pages indexed more deeply, and be included in more searches.

You have absolutely no time to waste - if you’re not blogging already, you need to get started quickly. Many webmasters are hesitating because they haven’t been able to find a blog system that fits well with their site, or find the most popular tools too sophisticated for their needs.

There are literally dozens of free resources to help you decide between the standard systems that were originally built for the personal blogger, and the more robust solutions that are aimed at the medium-sized or corporate company - but that’s another article.

Whatever you chose, the important thing is to get started blogging today. You’ll be missing out on targeted traffic from the most dominant search engine, from the most sophisticated surfers today, and sooner than you know it, the mainstream web.

Tinu Abayomi-Paul is the co-owner of Leveraged Promotion, which provides many solutions for companies who prefer to out-source their online promotion needs. At http://blog.leveragedpromotion.com you can find out more about how RSS, Blogs and Podcasting can increase your online visibility.