Google’s recent algorithm update aimed at content farms has drawn a mixture of praise and criticism. Much of this has from those questioning how Demand Media’s eHow was actually helped by the update, despite often being associated with the phrase "content farm".
EzineArticles was one of the hardest-hit sites by the update. CEO Chris Knight wrote a blog post about how his site was affected, and what he is doing to try and get back up in the rankings.
"While we adamantly disagree with anyone who places the ‘Content Farm’ label on EzineArticles.com, we were not immune to this algorithm change," said Knight. "Traffic was down 11.5% on Thursday and over 35% on Friday. In our life-to-date, this is the single most significant reduction in market trust we’ve experienced from Google."
"Google has a lot of smart PhD types working on this problem that I believe is not over by a long-shot. Reason: If you do a query for popular terms that we formerly ranked very high with, instead of an EzineArticles result, you may find low-quality sites that deliver even lower value to the user than our own members’ content! This is frustrating for sure," he added.
To try and get back into Google’s good graces, EzineArticles is reducing the number of article submissions accepted by over 10% – articles that "are not unique enough". It will no longer accept article submissions through a WordPress Plugin. They’re reducing the number of ads per page. They’re raising the minimum article word count to 400. They’re "raising the bar" on keyword density limits. They’re removing articles considered "thin and spammy", and will put greater focus on rejection of advertorial articles. Submitted articles are required to be exclusive to the submitter (but won’t be required to be unique to Ezine Articles).
Adding NoFollow to all links was on the list of things to do, but Knight decided against it after complaints from submitters erupted in the comments on his post. Among the first to complain was copywriter Susan Greene, who said that many of the copywriters actually give priority to EzineArticles because of the lack of NoFollow.
When another commenter suggested that EzineArticles doesn’t exist to provide authority to submitters’ sites, but to provide beneficial information to the readers, Greene wrote, "Not sure what Pollyanna planet you’re from but let me assure you, EzineArticles does not exist ‘to provide information that is beneficial to the readers.’ EzineArticles is a business, not a government organization or charity. EzineArticles was created to make its owner(s) money. There’s nothing wrong with that, but don’t fool yourself into thinking they’re a bunch of do-gooders. By the same token, the majority of us who publish on EzineArticles don’t do so to benefit readers. We too are running businesses, and EzineArticles helps our own websites get traffic and ultimately sales."
That ought to help EzineArticles’ case. Google loves content that isn’t written to benefit readers (note sarcasm).
On removing NoFollow from the to-do list, Knight told commenters, "If you notice, it was near the bottom of our short-list which means it was only icing in the cake to further prove to Matt Cutts and Google that we’re not here to game Google nor let our Expert Authors do so via our platform."
I’m not sure that point is going to be very well proven if Cutts and co. read the conversation.
While he said he wouldn’t be acting on it for now, Knight did seem interested in another idea from a commenter: making NoFollow the default and making DoFollow something that could be earned through proof of quality.
Knight did point out that competing sites that have been including NoFollow were also hit by Google’s update.
Filed under Uncategorized by on Feb 28th, 2011. 
Recently, I received an email question wanting to know about keyword density, asking questions like how do I deal with it, is it still a factor, and how important is it. As with most things in SEO, the answer is … it depends…
Sherman, set the Wayback Machine to the Interwebz circa 2001 …
Page rank was the big magilla in the ranking algorithm. It didn’t matter how crappy your website was–with enough links from anywhere, you could get a page to rank. Trust and authority where unknown concepts in SEO. If you had a moderate to low competition KWD, you could rank without the word being on the page. If your KWD was moderate or harder you did need some on page SEO, and keyword density WAS a factor. At the peak of this zaniness I remember reading posts about the optimal keyword density being between 4.9% and 12.2%. The word had to be in the first sentence, had to be in italics once on the page, in bold once on the page, and in bold and italics once on the page. While not entirely true, there was a kernel of truth to be had somewhere in there.
Then in the fall of 2003 the shoe dropped. Google pushed out the Florida Update on a Saturday morning, and all hell broke loose. Trust and authority became leading indicators, and all those crazy keyword density formulas became the stuff talked about on the porch at the SEO old folks home. In short, the right anchor text from a trusted source could make a page rank even if the word wasn’t on the page. Copywriters who loved superfluous wordy adjectives reveled around the bonfire with high value link sellers. Of course things changed over the next few years, but people cling to old ideas, especially if they love them or if they make their lives easier or more enjoyable.
Back to the question: does keyword density matter … kinda. If you want to rank for the phrase [fuzzy blue widgets], you had better have the phrase [fuzzy blue widgets] on your page. In fact, it should probably be the keyword on your page with the highest density (excluding stop words).That said, you shouldn’t stuff the words [fuzzy blue widgets] on your page to the point where it becomes awkward to read. While I hesitate to give a number, if you have a keyword density that approaches or goes over 10% you should probably give it to a non SEO to make sure it reads like natural language. That’s not to say you should never do it but, if you do, have a damn good reason and make sure it passes the sniff test.
How do I check keyword density? I use the Scribe SEO plugin (see Scribe SEO Review). Scribe SEO is paid tool that does a few things, and one of them is checking keyword density right from the WordPress post panel. It’s incredibly easy to use. Before I publish a post, I run Scribe and check that the word/terms that I want to optimize for are the ones that have the highest density. I’ve been using it for several months now and am very happy with it. Here’s a screen shot of what it thinks of this post:
Keyword density via scribe seo
No discussion of keyword density would be complete without touching on LSI (latent semantic indexing). You can read about LSI in lots of places on the web but, simply put, it’s Google ability to understand synonyms–i.e., that [cars] and [automobiles] are the same thing. While Google says they aren’t using LSI and I agree, I do have to say that something similar to LSI is definitely at work. My proof? Do a keyword search for [mike gray]. The word [mike] never appears on my website, but Google ranks me for the term and highlights the word [michael], so they have some some idea the words are connected. However, in actual practice, I don’t see this all that often in the wild.
LSI or something else … [mike gray
So what are the takeaways from this post:
- While keyword density isn’t a primary factor, it isn’t something to be ignored
- Make sure you are emphasizing the keywords you want with a KWD density tool
- Scribe SEO provides keyword density inside the WordPress post screen
- If you have a high density, make sure you are doing it while still sounding natural
- Don’t depend on Google to use LSI or understand synonyms, even though they may be trying to
Originally published on Graywolf’s SEO Blog
Filed under Uncategorized by on Feb 24th, 2011.
The New York Times published an article near and dear to my heart over the weekend about JCPenny manipulating Google results as a result of paid links. Apparently it’s news to many people that this kind of activity is taking place. But to those of us who optimize Web sites using “white hat” tactics it is certainly no surprise as we investigate why our competitors out rank us. I thought I would share some of the other common techniques that cheating sites are effectively using to game the system. Hopefully this article will help Google and Bing develop better algorithmic solutions to these problems and hopefully it will educate consumers about what types of activities their SEO firms should avoid.
For today’s example, I will be looking at the Hot Tub industry where one of my clients has a significant interest and ranks well for many of the most sought after terms including “hot tub”, “hot tubs”, “spa” and “spas” as well as many other related permutations. And while my client enjoys significant rankings across these terms, based on their link equity, it is dishearting to have to explain to them why a site like http://www.choosehottubsdirect.com is competing with them for listings given their back link profile. Unlike JC Penny, ChooseHotTubsDirect is using a number of other link spam tactics to artificially inflate their Google rankings. Let’s take a look at some of the methods they’re using including blog comment spam, blog spam (splogs), and forum spam. They may also be doing paid links but I won’t be focusing on those in this article.
*Note that some of these links may have a nofollow tag on them and therefore do not count for SEO purposes. However, the amount of link spam pointing to this site shows a clear and consistent intent to manipulate search results.
Blog Comment Spam:
This was supposed to die with the advent of the nofollow tag, but obviously it isn’t instituted on all blog platforms. Here is an example of some of the URLs where you can find links purposely created to establish keyword focused links back to ChooseHotTubsDirect even though most of these sites are completely unrelated.
- http://www.startupnorth.ca/2010/09/30/xx-tech-founders/
- http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2008/09/05/jim-clark-in-a-hot-tub-in-italy-somewhere/
- http://community.adn.com/alaska/node/114236
- http://www.adamia.com/about/world-of-adamia/the-city-in-the-sky
- http://www.rvbuyersguide.com/Articles/post/Tips-for-towing-an-RV-safely.aspx
- http://www.chinaexpat.com/2009/03/05/dont-get-married-in-hui-an.html/
- http://magblog.audubon.org/node/339
- http://www.slashfilm.com/chevy-chase-joins-hot-tub-time-machine-considering-fletch-rebootsequel/
I have no problem with getting links by adding value to a conversation happening on a blog. But when the comment exists solely for the purpose of SEO, its spam.
Blog Spam (splog):
These are blogs designed only to create links for the purposes of SEO. There is no value to the end user and most of the time the content is garbage:
- http://homengardengoods.com/hottubs-spa-hot-tub.html (borderline content at best)
- http://www.british-columbia-listings.com/
- http://www.alouc.com/2010/08/
- http://iniciativaacceso.org/
- http://www.miramesanorth.com/
- http://www.j-leaguefans.com/experience-the-best-of-hot-tub.html
- http://www.condecon.net/daily-routine/
- http://eviant.co.cc/2010/03/a-guide-to-buying-hot-tubs
- http://kklocaladmin.org/2010/07
- http://netflixkddworkshop2008.info/2010/07
- http://www.groupe-loft.com/very-good-way/
- http://www.triton-shop.com/2010/04/17/buy-spa-hot-tubs-on-internet/
- http://www.e-redes.org/?p=78
- http://www.ptvr.net/2010/07/
- http://kiksmedia.com/hot-tubs/
- http://www.ytbconsultants.com/like-hot-water-bathing-in-hot-water-baths.html
- http://www.kukonlomamokit.net/
- http://www.directtohomeappliances.com/
- http://hmgf-ugm.org/?paged=2
- http://www.ezprotocols.com/massage/
There are plenty more of these in their backlink profile but after 20 I figured I had made my point. The majority of their backlinks seem to be of this type.
Again, guest writing blog articles that provide useful information to users is a good way to get links. Writing garbage and posting it on sites filled with garbage is not.
Forum Spam:
Similar to blog commenting spam but takes place in a forum:
- http://www.aeva.asn.au/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=892&PID=26104
- http://www.hostingsindia.com/topic153.html
- http://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/376275
- http://www.discussionsworld.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=23144
- http://www.webmasterforumsonline.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=16223
- http://forums.adobe.com/thread/594208
- http://intgovforum.org/cms/discussionspace?func=view&catid=5&id=30
- http://forums.zoho.com/topic/issue-with-zoho-mobile-on-nokia-e71
- http://forums.registeredrep.com/forums/clients/google-boys
- http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=564641
- http://forum.bodybuildingpro.com/member.php?u=10761
- http://www.honeymoonforums.com/showthread.php?t=6255
- http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=113473
- http://www.theopia.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2295&start=0
- http://www.webdesignchat.org/link-exchange/928-good-i-heard.html
- http://www.swordfishingcentral.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13828
- http://www.becomehealthynow.com/vblite/showthread.php?p=5252
- http://www.mma-fighter.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28969
- http://forums.joeuser.com/376275
Again, there is way more of this stuff in their profile but after 20 instances I think the point has been made.
Another interesting “black hat” tactic that I found is the use of clone sites which are essentially duplicate sites with different skins:
- http://chooseportablespas.com/
- http://chooseportablehottubs.com/
The funniest part about this whole thing is that one of the links that ChooseHotTubsDirect.com does have that is legitimate is their press release about the secret to their success. Apparently, it’s all thanks to their in-house, world class SEO Team:
- http://www.prweb.com/releases/choose-direct/seo/prweb3199884.htm
Hopefully as search technology advances these techniques will become less effective. It’s really frustrating to explain to clients why their competitors are ranking well in the engines using cheap and underhanded link spam techniques. Especially when you are recommending much more costly link development campaigns that center on providing useful content to users and then marketing that content through relevant channels. I don’t envy Matt Cutts and his team at Google as they have an extraordinarily difficult job to do in hunting all of this stuff down. Hopefully this will help.
Originally published at BusinessOL.com
Filed under Uncategorized by on Feb 17th, 2011.
I’ve been writing about how Social Media links are impacting Search Engine results lately. It’s really an area we have consciously tried to stay ahead on because we think that Social Media link sharing is going to have an even greater impact on search in the future.
See: "Twitter and Facebook Links Worthless for SEO? I Wouldn’t Be Too Sure About That" and "The Role of Social Influence on SEO Ranking Signals".
The gist of both posts being that Social Media shared links matter, but the Influence of the link author and the influence of the people that share the link have a great bearing on the actual ranking signals that could get a page a little extra "juice" in the search engine rankings. The second post about Social Influence gets into the details of how that might work.
But this post is about where the search engines are finding those those shared links, specifically the links shared on Twitter. Some people think that since search engines are somehow counting Twitter links that their actual Twitter profile page is the place where that magic synergy takes place.
With that kind of "logic", the PageRank of the actual Twitter profile page would also be a major contributing factor in determining the value of those links. Under that same "logic" one might think that influence factors like the number of Twitter followers, number of times listed on Twitter and the number of times Re-Tweeted could influence a Profile Page’s PageRank or that simply building up the PageRank of your profile page could increase the power of your shared links as ranking signals. All of these assumptions are NOT TRUE.
The reality is:
- Links on a Twitter Profile Page are still no-follow links and do not pass on PageRank
- There is no correlation between Twitter metrics like, Follower Counts, List Counts, Re-tweets and PageRank
- PageRank of a Twitter Profile page is really only a determining factor in getting that Twitter Profile found in search results for searches on profile names like @Jstatad.
- Shortened links on Twitter profiles are just anchor text links of nonsense code – try looking for even a portion on a shortened URL in search – because the no-follow attribute is keeping them from being indexed
- The real time nature of the links shared on Twitter is important – search engines don’t have time to go indexing a profile page for links – they need that shared link data as soon as it is shared and the indexing schedule of a Twitter profile page is likely infrequent at best
- The links are actually being indexed in the "Data Fire Hose" that Google is reportedly paying Twitter $ 15 Million for and MSN is reportedly paying Twitter $ 10 million dollars for
Why I’m Right
Well Danny Sullivan said for in the first story confirming that Search Engines were counting these links:
So, while Bing and Google do have a human signal they can assess from Twitter, supposedly they have no link signal that they can also count. But as it turns out, both of them get what’s called the "firehose" of data from Twitter. This is a constant stream of what people are tweeting.
In that firehose, links do not carry nofollow attributes — so there is some link credit that counts, in some cases.
Google’s Matt Cutts also specifically said that Page Rank on Twitter pages doesn’t matter (albeit this was said well before the Search Engines admitted they were using Tweets as a ranking signal) because those links tend to be No-Followed:
There are big disparities between Twitter metrics and PageRank – because they are mutually exclusive of each other
Stephen Colbert had the most Retweeted Tweet of 2010, has well over 2,000,000 Twitter followers, is on over 33,000 Twitter lists and has a PageRank of 0 on his profile page. Lady Gaga is the most followed person on Twitter and has a Page Rank on her profile page of 7, while USAgov has 7.9 Million fewer followers than Gaga and a Page Rank of 9 on it’s profile page.
Real Anchor Text is Coming Out of the Fire Hose
As we reported in November, Google expands shortened URLs in the Fire Hose for Real Time Search and uses the Title Tag of the Page shared as the anchor text. This gives the search engine some hopefully keyword rich anchor text to possibly use as a ranking factor as opposed to the gobbledy-gook of a shortened URL.
These are the same Tweet. Google Real Time Expands the Short URL to the Title Tag as illustrated below.
Twitter Profile Page Rank is Fun – But it Doesn’t Mean Anything
I actually had some fun comparing and contrasting celebrity Twitter Page Ranks, but all it really proved is that Twitter metrics aren’t really correlated to it and as usual the best correlation to PageRank is the link counts found on Google’s Link operator queries like Link:www.twitter.com/jstatad.
Originally published at Search-Mojo.com
Filed under Uncategorized by on Feb 11th, 2011.
Google mobile search and Google search are two different animals and understanding more about both has become a necessary evil. Currently, the results returned when doing a search on a mobile device can vary greatly from those done on a desktop (SEORoundtable)
The biggest difference being that Google figures if you’re on a mobile it’s likely your intent is more local focused – plus it’s easier to know exactly where the search is being conducted.
The other issue is that people turning to the mobile browser tend to search on that device a little differently, think more abbreviated, than they do on the desktop and that’s something we all need to understand a little better.
The Google Keyword Tool is a tool that every marketer must have in the toolbox as a quick way to understand some data on the kinds of things people are actually searching for – or at least the actual words and phrases they use most when looking for what you offer.
You access mobile data through the "Advanced options" link
The tool recently received a nice little update with the addition of mobile search data. Using this tool is the first step to understanding the keyword differences inherent in mobile search. The reason I think this is such an important topic is that at some point mobile search will be the dominant form of search – it’s already there for some industries. (BIA Kelsey Report)
It’s time to start thinking about blending some of your keyword strategies to make them more mobile centric – and of course getting serious about local optimization. (5 Ways to Make Your Website Scream Local)
Some observation’s from playing with the tool:
- If you sell something that is mobile related or found primarily via a phone you’ll get far better keyword ideas
- You can now have a much fuller picture of the search volume for phrases – mobile is doubling and tripling volume estimates
- This is a pretty significant piece in the local search optimization game
Here’s Google’s official help page for using the Keyword Tool.
Originally published at DuctTapeMarketing.com
Filed under Uncategorized by on Feb 8th, 2011.
