Ask the SEO Guy Anything!

[abpanama]

ok, did a search of my pages on the server for any meta refresh tags and could not find any. Also checked htaccess for 302 redirects - nothing.
Anything else I can try?

[abpanama]

I did a search for meta refresh tags in the site and found nothing. I also looked for any 302 redirects and found nothing.
Anything else I can try?

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Originally Posted by debra

Hey Terry...

You got that graphic in a jpg to download?

I tried drawing it out but it turned out looking like some metamorphic goop! So much for the crayons.

Yep, it's available here: http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/6...ealgorithm.jpg

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Originally Posted by dandee0014

Hi Terry, quick question.

I just recently changed the link structure on my domain from http://www.site.com to http://site.com

Will all of the existing backlinks that point to my site via http://www.site.com now be rendered useless by Google?

And going forward, will I only get value out of backlinks that point to http://site.com ?

Thanks!

Do a wildcard 301 redirect to the new url. You'll lose between 1 and 10% of your incoming link strength, but shouldn't matter much.

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Originally Posted by F27

Yes I tried my domain but it's not, can you see it:

twitterscripts.net

Submit here: Bing URL Submission and also ensure that you've got a robots.txt file appropriately setup (I didn't see one), pinging the bot might help as well.

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Originally Posted by abpanama

ok, did a search of my pages on the server for any meta refresh tags and could not find any. Also checked htaccess for 302 redirects - nothing.
Anything else I can try?

Check all of your javascript includes as well. If that turns up nothing I guess submit here: Requesting reconsideration of your site - Webmasters/Site owners Help or you could try to reach out to matt cutts - Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO

[AllThingsArePossible]

Originally Posted by LookItsMeTerryG

Well for general advice then..

* Target trusted, authority sites: the closer you can get to bbc.co.uk, cnn.com, whitehouse.gov, etc... 1 link hop away is great, 2 is good, etc .

* Remove/Stop building spammy links

* If you've got mainly 1 type of links (say.. directories for instance) balance out a bit. A diverse link profile is an effective one.

what do you mean by spammy links? do you mean leaving do follow links in other spammy sites?

thanks for reply Terry

[firewife]

hi , u are cool
and i just want to know under what situation , the google cross index thing happen ?

[LookItsMeTerryG]

@AllThings - Yeah, that's part of it. Basically, there are 2 rules of thumb when it comes to highly effective link building:

1. Look as natural as possible. Think to yourself "What kind of links would a legitimately awesome site in my niche acquire?" The answer isn't 80% anchor text links with the same keyword etc... it's probably a lot of links with "click here" or "original site" or something leading back to your site. Bloggers and webmasters of high authority sites don't care about your anchor text when linking to good content.

2. Build a well rounded, diverse link profile. Spread out your links evenly among all of the different types: 1 part directories, 1 part articles, 1 part social networking, 1 part web 2.0, etc. If you have 90% links from the footers of spammy sites, this is easily detected and will be dealt with accordingly.

@firewife - Look for my answer a few posts above.

[abpanama]

Thanks for all your help.
One other strange this I found - in the google results for sites linking to the utilities site, other than abpanama there are several other sites that are also owned by me. However the sites are hosted on different server accounts, and when I check the log files nothing has been updated or accessed for months. When I check these sites they also don't show any outgoing links.
I will ask my programmer to check the java includes as I don;t know how to do that.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by LookItsMeTerryG

1. Look as natural as possible. Think to yourself "What kind of links would a legitimately awesome site in my niche acquire?" The answer isn't 80% anchor text links with the same keyword etc... i

I have a slight disagreement with this because, while it's right to vary anchor text for several reasons, it's something that makes people unduly Googlenoid.

Most people don't bother to get more than a few hundred incoming links. With that small number the anchor text variations don't seem to matter that much. The number is too small for Google to accurately analyze. Even very small numbers of outliers can skew the distribution. As one gets more links, Google has more data and can make a more accurate analysis.

So, if you don't have a lot of links, you're not ready to worry about this yet. Google isn't going to care that the 10 links pointing to your site have the same anchor text but if you have 10,000 total links with all of them having the same anchor text, they'll take notice.

Also, the keyword used to anchor link makes a difference. If you link on a non-commercial word, like your name, this doesn't seem to cause the Google algorithm to take any notice. But if you're linking on something like 'acai', 'viagra' or some other highly competitive or spammy keyword you'll get heavy scrutiny quickly.

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Originally Posted by abpanama

Thanks for all your help.
One other strange this I found - in the google results for sites linking to the utilities site, other than abpanama there are several other sites that are also owned by me. However the sites are hosted on different server accounts, and when I check the log files nothing has been updated or accessed for months. When I check these sites they also don't show any outgoing links.
I will ask my programmer to check the java includes as I don;t know how to do that.

Figure out what the sites share in common, could be something as simple as that popup you have that has been compromised.

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Originally Posted by bgmacaw

I have a slight disagreement with this because, while it's right to vary anchor text for several reasons, it's something that makes people unduly Googlenoid.

Most people don't bother to get more than a few hundred incoming links. With that small number the anchor text variations don't seem to matter that much. The number is too small for Google to accurately analyze. Even very small numbers of outliers can skew the distribution. As one gets more links, Google has more data and can make a more accurate analysis.

So, if you don't have a lot of links, you're not ready to worry about this yet. Google isn't going to care that the 10 links pointing to your site have the same anchor text but if you have 10,000 total links with all of them having the same anchor text, they'll take notice.

Also, the keyword used to anchor link makes a difference. If you link on a non-commercial word, like your name, this doesn't seem to cause the Google algorithm to take any notice. But if you're linking on something like 'acai', 'viagra' or some other highly competitive or spammy keyword you'll get heavy scrutiny quickly.

Yeah, exactly. I agree with this 100%. I should have clarified to include these points. It DOES seem that the amount of anchor text links you can have without being filtered is dependent on the niche more than anything.

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Originally Posted by anthonyronnie

Websites that use only flash- how are they the first rank?

Most likely it has to do with their backlink strategy. If you can give me a specific example I'll be able to provide more insight.

In my experience, while targeting a major 3 character keyword with over 188,000,000 results in Google, there is a well known international brand sitting around number 5, with their "domain.com/noflash.html" page. This seems to often be the deciding factor when the niche is REALLY competitive but the site has an otherwise strong backlink profile.

[debra]

Hey Terry...

I waited to ask..then I resisted...now I can't help it.

I get asked all the time a question, as I'm sure you do too. I answer and the response is usually "huh" because I have a hard time putting it in newbie laymen terms. I even tried explaining with example. No workie.

So...here it goes:

What is the difference between a search engine spider, crawler and bot? And...what are thier functions?

Remember...2nd grade level. I'm not sure if all of us would be smarter than a 5th grader. (sorry...couldn't resist that either)

[Shana_Adam]

Hi I had a question,

How many people on the internet actually use " " to search

most ordinary people would not even know to use the quotation marks. In that case how accurate are the search results. Does it represent the ordinary customer that one is targetting

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Originally Posted by debra

Hey Terry...

I waited to ask..then I resisted...now I can't help it.

I get asked all the time a question, as I'm sure you do too. I answer and the response is usually "huh" because I have a hard time putting it in newbie laymen terms. I even tried explaining with example. No workie.

So...here it goes:

What is the difference between a search engine spider, crawler and bot? And...what are thier functions?

Remember...2nd grade level. I'm not sure if all of us would be smarter than a 5th grader. (sorry...couldn't resist that either)

I've never actually been asked this question. For all intents and purposes they're synonymous.

Sidestep a bit and answer the question with some generalities on how SE's work. I can sit here and spin my wheels telling you about how the crawling and indexing of a site is determined by index design, data structure, how the challenges of natural language processing are handled by the individual spiders, etc, etc, etc.

To break it down to a 2nd grade level, imagine the spider as a person in a library, they go to a shelf, grab a book (a website) read the book, take notes for later reference and archive the information to relay to someone else when asked.

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Originally Posted by Shana_Adam

Hi I had a question,

How many people on the internet actually use " " to search

most ordinary people would not even know to use the quotation marks. In that case how accurate are the search results. Does it represent the ordinary customer that one is targetting

How many people use that? I have no idea. I suppose if one was particularly determined, they would look at the AOL data that was released a while back for a definitive answer.

As for accuracy of results and demo representation, I'd say if someone is using this, they're a much more sophisticated user, which in my experience is a harder sell (they're more apt to search for reviews, look at SSL information etc), but that doesn't necessarily mean they're not a good target for your sales efforts. It's all relative to your niche.

[Chadisa]

Hey LookItsMeTerryG,

Finding this thread is actually a God send because I am currently stuck with two of my clients and I can't for the life of me where I am going wrong.

Both clients weren't even ranked for their keywords before I began working with them. Their keywords are super competitive and very general. In both instances I got them to rank somewhere between 8 and 11 on Google in about a month or so. They are both established sites and have been around forever but never built links, etc.

My problem is no matter what I do I can't get them to move into the top 10. I know it's like playing king of the hill meaning the closer you get to the top of the hill the harder it becomes to reach it. I am building as many links as I think I can without going into spammer land. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Chadisa

Originally Posted by LookItsMeTerryG

Hey guys,

I've been a longtime lurker here browsing around (we're talking YEARS of this stuff) and I've decided to give something back. If you've got a SEO related question or need some advice, ask here and I'll answer!

About me:

I've been doing SEO professionally for clients for about 9 years now, have several of my own sites (read: more than 60) top 3 in Google and am a ridiculously intense data hound. All of my campaign efforts are recorded, analyzed and tweaked, thus: I'm not just rehashing information found elsewhere. The majority of my knowledge comes from the data produced by setting up several test sites in several niches.

Most importantly, I'm not selling anything here. Just offering some free advice from someone that's been around a while and has consistently produced top rankings.

Let's go!

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Originally Posted by Chadisa

Hey LookItsMeTerryG,

Finding this thread is actually a God send because I am currently stuck with two of my clients and I can't for the life of me where I am going wrong.

Both clients weren't even ranked for their keywords before I began working with them. Their keywords are super competitive and very general. In both instances I got them to rank somewhere between 8 and 11 on Google in about a month or so. They are both established sites and have been around forever but never built links, etc.

My problem is no matter what I do I can't get them to move into the top 10. I know it's like playing king of the hill meaning the closer you get to the top of the hill the harder it becomes to reach it. I am building as many links as I think I can without going into spammer land. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Chadisa

PM me their urls and keywords. Alternatively you can hit me up on MSN (get my SN through a PM). It likely has something to do with the kind of backlinks you've been building.

[Chadisa]

Just sent you a PM

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Originally Posted by Chadisa

Just sent you a PM

Responded.

[lonniewa2]

I have a website that today is ranking number five that get decent traffic in the #5 spot. The only problem is that every 1-2 weeks my website split position with the website in the #6 spot. When this happen my traffic dries up and so does traffic.

Have anyone else ever experience this if if so what did you do to finally take that spot for good. The website is endless.com that I am trying to overtake.

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Originally Posted by lonniewa2

I have a website that today is ranking number five that get decent traffic in the #5 spot. The only problem is that every 1-2 weeks my website split position with the website in the #6 spot. When this happen my traffic dries up and so does traffic.

Have anyone else ever experience this if if so what did you do to finally take that spot for good. The website is endless.com that I am trying to overtake.

That's a pretty strong site you're up against. However, here's a little trick that's helped me from time to time:

Identify the strongest page on your site, add a link to whatever page you're trying to rank pointing towards that page with your anchor text. (assuming this isn't going to be homepage -> homepage).

In any case, more and better links will solve this issue.

[Vijay M]

I use Seo4Firefox and was checking one of my keyword.

The site at 6th position started in 04 and its "Traffic Value" is listed as 78 and the site listed at 10 position has its "Traffic Value" at 30,000.

Does this "Traffic Value" reflect the traffic for the whole site or just for that keyword?

[lonniewa2]

Originally Posted by LookItsMeTerryG

Yeah, exactly. I agree with this 100%. I should have clarified to include these points. It DOES seem that the amount of anchor text links you can have without being filtered is dependent on the niche more than anything.

Can you guys give a ball park figure number when deciding if it is time to vary the anchor text? If I get 500 links with the same anchor text would that raise some eyebrows at Google?

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Originally Posted by Vijay M

I use Seo4Firefox and was checking one of my keyword.

The site at 6th position started in 04 and its "Traffic Value" is listed as 78 and the site listed at 10 position has its "Traffic Value" at 30,000.

Does this "Traffic Value" reflect the traffic for the whole site or just for that keyword?

I have no idea, that's a specific question for Aaron: SEO for Firefox Extension: Free SEO Toolbar Firefox Browser Plugin

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Originally Posted by lonniewa2

Can you guys give a ball park figure number when deciding if it is time to vary the anchor text? If I get 500 links with the same anchor text would that raise some eyebrows at Google?

It depends if you've got 0 other links or 2,000 other total backlinks. If 500 is a relatively small number compared to your whole, it shouldn't be an issue.

[lonniewa2]

Originally Posted by LookItsMeTerryG

It depends if you've got 0 other links or 2,000 other total backlinks. If 500 is a relatively small number compared to your whole, it shouldn't be an issue.

What I meant starting with zero links on a new website. I want to try and rank for my main keyword and your main keyword only. At what number would you start varying the anchor text?

[LookItsMeTerryG]

I'd just vary it as you go.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by lonniewa2

Can you guys give a ball park figure number when deciding if it is time to vary the anchor text? If I get 500 links with the same anchor text would that raise some eyebrows at Google?

It's too complex and variable to give an exact number. 500 links anchored on "Lonnie" that are distributed across blog comments, social sites and forums on many sites won't be a problem. 500 links anchored on "Viagra" from a small group of sites might give you trouble if things aren't squeaky clean.

Just use good judgment, use care with automated link building tools and don't be stupid and you're unlikely to have any problems.

[Michael Nguyen]

Is it ever worth analysing a keyword in quotes? So many people say look for keywords in quotes under 50k result pages blah blah. I believe that what matters is the strength of top 10 results.

Assuming I'm going along the right lines, how would you classify a strong site? Is it a PR of 4 or above with 3 figure backlinks ? Could you give an example?

With consistent backlink how many would you say is needed to go past the existing results and is it possible to give time frames.

Do you have ball park figures you could share suchs:

Scenario 1
First page competition
mainly PR 3 and below
Average backlinks according to Yahoo site explorer is ~ 400

Solution
~ 500 PR7 backlinks
Squidoo, hubpages, wordpress, blogger etc

Is it even possible to think like this and be close ? I've learnt
and have been mentored by a person thats specialises in Niche
marketing and he also says that some decisions are based on
gut instinct. Do you do this aswell?

Best regards
Michael

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Is it ever worth analysing a keyword in quotes? - Maybe, I don't really do this, but it could show you your "real" competition that are optimizing for this term.

How would you classify a strong site? - PR is a worthless metric for really seeing the strength of a site. I go to Y! Site explorer and MajesticSEO and view the kinds of backlinks the site has been acquiring. If they're mainly links anyone can get (blog comments, etc) then the site isn't so strong.. but if they're NYT editorials and such, the site is quite strong. An example would be Techcrunch.com

As far as ballpark figures, not really. Several things are needed in order to overtake a top listing, some of which are link velocity, link relevancy, position of your site within the overall niche, gross number of separate domains/ips linking to your site, etc. It isn't always just a numbers game.

[Michael Nguyen]

Thank you for the reply. I might just have to re evaluate my PR idea.

You make a good point about PR being a "worthless" metric because I had a pushchair niche website and within it's first month online, it had a PR of 3. If I didnt know better I would have thought that would be tough one to crack but all the backlinks I built to that site were from free websites. So thank you, I will take that into consideration!

Another question thanks.

What tools do you use to help you anaylse whether a keywords is worth pursuing apart from Y! and MajesticSEO. Do you use MNF ?

I use MNF and I find alot of rankable keywords for the clients but I feel the software might be targeting the "really" easy keywords and filtering out other keywords that might be as easy to rank.

Michael

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Well, I didn't mean all free sites were worthless, they still play their part in an overall link building strategy. So if what you're doing is working, don't stop!

I don't use MNF. I just use Majestic, Y! SiteExplorer and the Google Adwords external tool.

[Michael Nguyen]

Thanks. When you start building backlinks for a keyword, what is your time frame before you expect stable results?

As of now, my strategy is to create 4 - 5 backlinks a day and then bookmark each backlink. What do you feel is a safe number of backlinks to build per day?

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Originally Posted by michael_nguyen

Thanks. When you start building backlinks for a keyword, what is your time frame before you expect stable results?

As of now, my strategy is to create 4 - 5 backlinks a day and then bookmark each backlink. What do you feel is a safe number of backlinks to build per day?

All of this is relative to the niche. I'm pretty good about generally making it front page in 4-6 weeks, then top 3 6-8 weeks later for MOST of my terms. Though, some of the more competitive ones have taken 12-15 weeks.

As far as a safe amount per day, I don't think there's really a such thing.. just use your head and don't get spammy.

[Michael Nguyen]

Originally Posted by LookItsMeTerryG

All of this is relative to the niche. I'm pretty good about generally making it front page in 4-6 weeks, then top 3 6-8 weeks later for MOST of my terms. Though, some of the more competitive ones have taken 12-15 weeks.

Can you tell us your backlink strategy in terms of eg bookmarking , squidoo etc or is this gold?

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Well, I prefer to work smarter not harder... so I don't go for the shotgun blast approach.

I identify (and create) industry resources, authority sites and 99% of my efforts are built on building trust, not TONS AND TONS of links.

[Michael Nguyen]

I do niche marketing so my keywords for the clients might be 6 foot black table how would you go about things if your efforts were based on purely links? The use of normal web2.0 sites ?

[peter gibson]

Here's my foray into the breech.

Terry. I've used Angela's backlinks for a few months now (along with Pauls) and on one domain they had me temporarily on the first page of google. Before this I was at around position 24.

After doing nothing else more than the usual (writing articles, submitting to EZA only with the relevant keyword link, social bookmarking, e.t.c...) I have now been placed at position 46. This is not the normal "dance" seeing as I've been there now for some time, regardless of my other link building methods.

I guess my question is this, since a number of A and P's links being turned off or turned to nofollow (due to spam), is my site being thrown to the wolves somehow? Since some of the sites in these packets are reporting spam links, is this possibly affecting my SERP?

This site is about 2 years old and has never been below position 26, however since applying these links and continuing in my normal link building strategies, the site has dropped a lot.

[Chadisa]

Originally Posted by peter gibson

Here's my foray into the breech.

Terry. I've used Angela's backlinks for a few months now (along with Pauls) and on one domain they had me temporarily on the first page of google. Before this I was at around position 24.

After doing nothing else more than the usual (writing articles, submitting to EZA only with the relevant keyword link, social bookmarking, e.t.c...) I have now been placed at position 46. This is not the normal "dance" seeing as I've been there now for some time, regardless of my other link building methods.

I guess my question is this, since a number of A and P's links being turned off or turned to nofollow (due to spam), is my site being thrown to the wolves somehow? Since some of the sites in these packets are reporting spam links, is this possibly affecting my SERP?

This site is about 2 years old and has never been below position 26, however since applying these links and continuing in my normal link building strategies, the site has dropped a lot.

Yeah I am worried about that as well. Are we really hurting our sites by using Angela's and Paul's link strategy?

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Originally Posted by michael_nguyen

I do niche marketing so my keywords for the clients might be 6 foot black table how would you go about things if your efforts were based on purely links? The use of normal web2.0 sites ?

No, I'd look for manufacturers etc and try to get links from them. A good review or interview with a manufacturer will go a long way. A lot of times they'll put you in their press section, etc.

Although, I'm not sure that's such a good term to optimize for anyway. SEO is about ROI not bragging rights, IMHO

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Originally Posted by peter gibson

Here's my foray into the breech.

Terry. I've used Angela's backlinks for a few months now (along with Pauls) and on one domain they had me temporarily on the first page of google. Before this I was at around position 24.

After doing nothing else more than the usual (writing articles, submitting to EZA only with the relevant keyword link, social bookmarking, e.t.c...) I have now been placed at position 46. This is not the normal "dance" seeing as I've been there now for some time, regardless of my other link building methods.

I guess my question is this, since a number of A and P's links being turned off or turned to nofollow (due to spam), is my site being thrown to the wolves somehow? Since some of the sites in these packets are reporting spam links, is this possibly affecting my SERP?

This site is about 2 years old and has never been below position 26, however since applying these links and continuing in my normal link building strategies, the site has dropped a lot.

I think you already know the answer to this question I'm not going to comment on A & P's anymore since every time I say anything remotely negative I get tons of angry people essentially telling me to leave, etc.

If you're doing something that seems to be hurting your results, why not stop for a bit and see if you go back up?

[Michael Nguyen]

Originally Posted by LookItsMeTerryG

No, I'd look for manufacturers etc and try to get links from them. A good review or interview with a manufacturer will go a long way. A lot of times they'll put you in their press section, etc.

Although, I'm not sure that's such a good term to optimize for anyway. SEO is about ROI not bragging rights, IMHO

I made that term up but I have a veryyyyyy close term to that one of my clients have and as it's a buying keyword, I'm sure there will be ROI.

Thanks for your wisdom

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Originally Posted by michael_nguyen

I made that term up but I have a veryyyyyy close term to that one of my clients have and as it's a buying keyword, I'm sure there will be ROI.

Thanks for your wisdom

NP! Glad to hear you're providing your clients with actual value, something that the majority of our industry forgets about.

[Michael Nguyen]

Originally Posted by LookItsMeTerryG

NP! Glad to hear you're providing your clients with actual value, something that the majority of our industry forgets about.

Yeah and I bust my gut doing it! In the month of July I created altogether ~ 150 niche sites, all buying keywords. Many have made sales and I'd say about 75% are currently on page 1 of Google. I've ended the service and now it's time for me to dominate.

1 full month working for clients on demand is too stressful for me I even forget to eat

[Chuck Avants]

Thanks for your advice---it's a bit over my head but I see value in it.

I am trying to get going in the IM biz.
My technical skills are minimal at best.

What is a plan of action that would use minimal cash and provide an ongoing income of say $10 -$50 a week?

Thanks, Chuck

[sbbenchmarke]

Hi,
Haven't posted much on here yet...just kind of getting started in the whole IM game and trying to figure things out.

Anyway here's my question: I'm thinking about putting together a bunch of minisites based around products and monetizing them with adsense. However I'm trying to keep the costs down so I'm wondering if I use .info domain names which are about a dollar; will it affect my rankings? Assuming SEO is the same, will I likely see a difference from having .com domains which cost about ten times as much?

Thanks in advance.

[LookItsMeTerryG]

Originally Posted by sbbenchmarke

Hi,
Haven't posted much on here yet...just kind of getting started in the whole IM game and trying to figure things out.

Anyway here's my question: I'm thinking about putting together a bunch of minisites based around products and monetizing them with adsense. However I'm trying to keep the costs down so I'm wondering if I use .info domain names which are about a dollar; will it affect my rankings? Assuming SEO is the same, will I likely see a difference from having .com domains which cost about ten times as much?

Thanks in advance.

Well, they say that .info will rank as well as .com .. but I've seen several keyword match domains keyword.com or buykeyword.com rank on a standard wordpress site without any content... can't say I've ever seen this for a .info.

However, the only issue could possibly be a lower trust for a .info, in which case a careful, well thought out link campaign focused on trust building should offset whatever negative factors that are tied to the domain.