SEO Starter Guide from Google

Google is getting into the SEO consulting business. Well, not quite. But, Google is now formally offering an “SEO Starter Guide” with practical advice for webmasters about improving search engine visibility and increasing traffic to a web site.

It is a 22-page PDF announced today on the Webmaster Central blog. This is the same guide Google uses internally for its own sites (YouTube, etc.).
The guide is well written and geared toward webmasters and business owners who need a basic training in SEO. Topics covered include:
• Page Titles
• Description Meta Tag
• URL Structure
• Site Navigation
• Creating Quality Content
• Anchor Text
• Heading Tags (H1s, H2s, etc.)
• Image Optimization
• Robots.txt
• Rel=”nofollow”
• Website Promotion
• Webmaster Tools
• Analytics
• More Resources

How to use the rel=”nofollow” attribute on individual links. Many in the SEO industry have thought this attribute is a red flag, something that tells Google that a professional SEO has been tweaking the page, and not something that an average webmaster would even know about. That’s clearly not the case anymore; rel=”nofollow” is more mainstream now thanks to a full page of explanation in this SEO guide.

Google AdWords Quality Score Changes

The Google 'Inside AdWords' blog has announced changes to how they calculate quality score and rank ads. The changes will remove the bias of ad.

Quality Score Update: Google have confirmed that click-through rate (CTR) remains the most significant component of the quality score, because it directly indicates which ads are the most relevant to their users, but they have now removed the influence of ad position on this calculation.

This is because ads higher on the page are more visible and usually get more clicks over those in lower positions for this reason alone, not necessarily because it's a more relevant ad. In an effort to show the most relevant ads, Google will adjust its calculations to remove the influence "position has on the CTR.

Ads Above Search Results: Google have also tweaked for formula to determine which ads are displayed in the yellow section above search results. Previously, ads displayed in this area had to meet a certain quality threshold, and if the first listing didn't have a high enough AdRank (quality score x CPC), no ads were displayed in this section.

Now, Google are allowing ads in position 2 and 3 to leapfrog over position 1 and appear in the yellow section if they have a high enough quality score.

The changes appear to be placing less importance on how much your bidding, but rather what your quality score is.

For those of you who are unsure, quality score is Google's version of PageRank for AdWords. It takes into account a range of factors to rate the quality of each keyword in your ad group/s.

These enhancements will be released shortly by Google, so keep an eye on your ad position, spend and performance over the next few weeks!

Included link: Inside AdWords

A New Search Engine For Small Business Owners Offers information by location.

Small Business Administration has developed a new search engine for small business owners.
Users can search for information from state and local government Web sites, as well as federal Web sites, from a single search box. If a business owner types in a specific location, such as the name of a city and state the results returned will be for that geographic location. The new service improves general search services by providing results specific to doing business in a particular area.
"These new search offerings make it easier for businesses to learn about doing business in specific localities," said Nancy Sternberg, program manager of the Business Gateway Initiative.
"Try it yourself: Go to www.business.gov and find the box in the upper right that says 'Try Our New Search Engine' and click 'Read More About Search.' On the next page, type in 'business license,' type the name of your city, and see the results," said Sternberg.
Doing a brief test the search engine returned solid results. It will save time for small business owners while providing useful information.

From Internet marketing

Google's Latest Update Causes Websites Lose PageRank Overnight

Google PageRank update has resulted in some popular blogs and news websites suddenly losing their PageRank. The PageRank penalization looks to be a reaction to websites that use link-building strategies that conflict with Google's webmaster guidelines.

Google does not approve of the use of paid links to raise rank, but until the latest release, has yet to punish any websites that use them. Some of the websites that experienced a drop were the Washington Post and Forbes.com who both had a PageRank of 7.5, now both are on 5.

Not all of the websites that experienced a drop were using paid links. Some of the blogs that lost PageRank are a part of blog networks, which have plenty of internal links between sites. This is a legitimate linking technique, but can in the automated eyes of Google look like an inappropriate linking strategy. Google's stance on link building communities is somewhat ambiguous,

"Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank"

It should be noted that there are a variety of different linking techniques, most of which are accepted by Google. The update looks to be Google vigorously enforcing its webmaster guidelines, which previously the misuse of, only resulted in sporadic punishment for a few websites.

The enforcement of the webmaster guidelines is happening, without any distinction being made between a website that blatantly manipulates the search algorithms, and those that use some paid links and appropriate link building strategies to deliver traffic.

In the case of some blogs losing PageRank, Google looks to have punished those who have used appropriate link building techniques. Controversy still reigns over the use of paid links, the latest response from Google is bound create even more.

From Internet Marketing and Online annonsering