It’s been replaced by “Original & Useful Content” rules.  Let me explain…

At Google’s  I/O Conference in May 2010, a panel of Googlers – past and present – conducted an SEO Site Review for a number of websites that were voluntarily submitted.

Of all the issues identified, the most glaring was content; more so, the lack of original, relevant and useful content.

Recycle and Reuse with Caution

A number of the websites that were reviewed relied on copying and pasting content from existing sites; setting up feeds from other sources and web scraping other sites for their content. The result?  Recycled, reused and duplicate content. D’oh!

For those wondering what’s wrong with this, read Google’s Design and Content Guidelines; or, as I like to call them, “Google’s Commandments,” especially #4, thou shalt “Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.”

Replication is not always the highest form of flattery

A while back, I did an online search for my company’s name.  I do this on occasion to see if anything good, bad or ugly has been written about us.  In “geek-speak,” this practice is known as “Online Reputation Management.”

Lo and behold, I found a wanna-be SEO Writer in Kelowna, B.C. (no names used to protect the not-so-innocent) who had plagiarized an earlier post of mine.  The writer in question was obviously new to plagiarism: she left my signature in the post, which is how she got caught.

Originality takes work

Creating original content for your web pages, blogs, articles etc., is hard work.  It’s even harder to create original content that people want to read and perhaps even link to. But therein lays the reward.  Because Google pays attention to sites that post useful, original content on a regular basis.  These sites get crawled more often – a good thing – and tend to attract links to your site, another positive signal that Google notices and rewards.

I urge you to set aside an hour to watch, listen, internalize and practice what these Googlers preach by visiting _ http://code.google.com/events/io/2010/sessions/seo-site-review-from-experts.html

For those strapped for time and originality, like my friend in Kelowna, read the following cheat sheet:
▪    Think about things that make people come back to your site i.e., user generated content, user reviews, useful and original content, etc.
▪    Don’t imbed text in images
▪    Distribute your content across multiple online platforms to increase visibility i.e. Twitter, Blogs etc.
▪    Find relevant keywords and trends through Google’s keyword tool and review your server logs to find the language that searchers use
▪    Put relevant content above the fold instead of making users scroll
▪    Craft unique meta descriptions and title tags and be consistent in your messaging
▪    Don’t spam your site and/or load the footer with redundant text for the purpose of SEO; rather, write for your audience
▪    When using Word Press, always update to the most recent version to avoid getting hacked
▪    Don’t focus strictly on those competitive and generic phrases i.e., divorce lawyer.  Consider the hundreds – or thousands – of alternative and more targeted phrases i.e., divorce lawyer for men in [City + Province] that people use everyday to search for your products and services

Are you ready for MayDay?
In May 2010, Google implemented an algorithmic change named – funnily enough – MayDay in an attempt to present higher quality sites in search engine results pages.  In a nutshell, useful and content-rich sites will flourish.  Are you ready for MayDay?

About Writing Web Words Inc:
Based in Toronto, Ontario, we are a full-service Web Content Development Company that helps small and mid-sized businesses optimize their online presence through original  SEO Copywriting, proven SEO Services and customized Business Blogs that attract, engage and convert target audiences.

Ya gotta love the Internet!

It’s nothing short of a Godsend for those who dream of working from home: Think stay-at-home parents, those with transportation challenges and the self-employed, such as yours truly. 

It can be a dream come true
Where else can you set up a virtual business and do business with anyone in your city, country or on the planet without ever having to leave the comfort of your own home?  It can be a dream come true. 

But what happens when . . .
But what happens when doing business requires you to be social – and I’m not talking Facebook or Twitter.  The social I’m referring to is about face-to-face communications; carrying on real-time conversations with real people in real life.  It may even mean visiting a prospect’s office to demonstrate and persuade why your product/service is best, or giving a presentation to upper management to close the sale.  Or – the horror! – giving a speech to an auditorium full of people.

Hire a communications coach
For those instances, it pays to hire a communications coach. Or at the very least, hear one speak about the art of communication.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ll be doing a presentation at the MagNet Conference in Toronto later this week and, if you’re attending MagNet, I want to rcommend one of my fellow presenters. 

Learn to communicate better
You can learn to communicate your message better - and “Say It With Power” at MagNet from one of Toronto’s best communications coaches, Thomas Moss.  He has a unique approach to helping people overcome their fear of public speaking.  You may want to check out his session.  And you can check out the entire MagNet program at http://www.magazinescanada.ca/magnet/index.php

About Writing Web Words Inc:
Based in Toronto, Ontario, we are a full-service Web Content Development Company that helps small and mid-sized businesses optimize their online presence via SEO Copywriting, proven SEO Services and customized Business Blogs that attract and engage target audiences.

Ray Litvak, President of Writing Web Words Inc., will be speaking on the art of SEO (Search Engine Optimized) Writing at MagNet 2010 – Canada’s Magazine Conference.

As print publications and revenues decline and as more readers and advertisers migrate online, SEO Writing will become an increasingly in-demand skill worth knowing for both journalists and professional writers.

Learn the basics of writing for the web and how to get your content crawled, indexed and ranked by search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Topics will include:
* Keyword research
* SEO Writing best practices
* Promoting yourself as an SEO Writer

View the full agenda for MagNet 2010 and be sure to register if you haven’t already.

About MagNet
MagNet is Canada’s national public policy, professional development and networking conference for magazine professionals.   Held in downtown Toronto, it is host to the magazine industry’s best and brightest.

Search Engine Strategies (SES) 2010 is hosting its annual SEO/SEM conference from June 9-11 at Toronto’s Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Whether you’re new to SEO or just want to brush up on your skills, the conference - now entering its 7th year - is ideal for Search Engine newbies, wannabe’s and those already practicing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Topics being covered include  SEO, PPC, keyword research, social media, local, mobile and link building, to name just a few.

Find out more by visiting http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/about.html

P.S. Those unable to attend can always call someone (ahem!) who knows something about this stuff.

About Writing Web Words Inc:
Based in Toronto, Ontario, we are a full-service Web Content Development Company that helps small and mid-sized businesses optimize their online potential via SEO Copywriting, proven SEO Services and customized Business Blogs that attract and engage target audiences.

In this post, we will be looking at Guideline #10 from ‘Google’s Design and Content Guidelines.’

Google Design and Content Guideline #10: “Review our image guidelines for best practices on publishing images.”

 Don’t embed text inside images

Search engines can’t read text inside of images!  If you want the bot to find your text, keep it in HTML.   

Tell us as much as you can about the image

-Use detailed, informative filenames that can give Google clues about the image.  

-Create great alt text. 

-Make sure that anchor text (the text other websites use to link to your page) is descriptive and informative.  “Pictures of our Family Christmas 2009” would be good anchor text for photos about that.
 

Provide good context for your image

Make sure that you use pictures that are relevant to the text around it.  If you’re talking about snowboarding, a picture of food is not a good idea.

Think about the best ways to protect your images

Google recommends allowing other people to use your images and requiring attribution, as limiting use of images reduces your audience and discoverability on search engines.  Try making your image available under a license such as Creative Commons or providing an HTML snippet with your image and credit.  You can also use a watermark or copyright.

If you don’t want your image to be found on a search engine, use a robots.txt file to block access to that image.

 Create a great user experience

 Follow these tips to create a great user experience with your images:

-         Host good-quality photos

-         Create a standalone landing page for each image

-         Put your photos high up on the page, where they can be immediately seen

-         Structure directories so that all similar photos are saved together

-         Specify the height and width of each image

This brings us to the end of our blog series on Google’s Design and Content Guidelines.  Hopefully you found it informative and have learned a few things about improving the SEO performance of your website.

 Stay tuned for our new series: “Tips to Blogging Bliss.”

Writing Web Words Inc:
Based in Toronto, Ontario, we are a full service Web Content Development Company that helps small and mid-sized businesses  maximize their online potential via SEO Copywriting, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Marketing services.

In this post, we will be looking at Guideline #9 from ‘Google’s Design and Content Guidelines.’  Guideline number 9 stresses the importance of limiting the number of links on a web page.

Google Design and Content Guideline #9: “Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number (fewer than 100).”  Why should you limit your links to less than 100 per web page?

Good question:  Fewer links make it easier for visitors and search engine bots to navigate your web page(s).

As a rule, visitors don’t like having to search through hundreds of links in order to find what they’re looking for.

The more links you have on a web page, the more confusing it is for the visitor to determine what is and what is not important.  Pages with multiple and randomly placed links often frustrate visitors and aesthetically may result in what some refer to as ‘link splatter.’

Organized web pages, and links, are easier for visitors and search engine bots to use.

Having too many links on a web page, especially outbound links, can also impact search results.  For instance, some webmasters take part in link exchanges and/or build partner pages for the express purpose of cross-linking, resulting in low quality links.  Abusing these practices violates Google’s webmaster guidelines and, as Google says, “Can negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results.”

When linking, think ‘quality’ and ‘relevance.’

For our final blog on the Google Design and Content Guidelines, we will be looking at Google’s image guidelines.  Stay tuned!

Writing Web Words Inc:
Based in Toronto, Ontario, we are a full service Web Writing and Content Development Company that helps small and mid-sized businesses maximize their online potential via Web Content Development, SEO Copywriting,  Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Marketing services.

In this segment on ‘Google’s Design and Content Guidelines,’ we will be chatting about dynamic pages and ensuring that they can be found by search engines.

Google Design and Content Guideline #8: “If you decide to use dynamic pages (i.e., the URL contains a “?” character), be aware that not every search engine spider crawls dynamic pages as well as static pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them few.”

First and foremost, if your website only has static pages, this guideline does not apply to you. 

Static pages are web pages that only display information found in a pre-formatted file, such as pages written in HTML.  If your web page relies on a database for some of its information, it is a dynamic page.  Dynamic pages are automatically created from PHP or another technology, and generally have a “?” in the URL.

Search engine bots are able to index dynamic web pages; but they take longer to find than static pages.  Although search engines are evolving to become friendlier towards dynamic pages, there are a few ways to ensure that the bots find your dynamic pages.

First, rewriting dynamic page URLs with large parameters into more user-friendly versions is a good idea.  Parameters are something like “OrderBy=avail” or “&PropType=”, are found in the page’s URL, and are designed to input the visitor’s request.  Simplifying web page URLs allows the bots to find them more easily.

Second, by limiting the parameters on your dynamic web page URLS to only 1 or 2 per URL, it will increase your chances that the search engine bots will find the web pages.

Third, it is possible to create static copies of your dynamic web pages.  This is a slightly more advanced technique, which involves “telling” the search engine that the static web page is a copy through the use of a robot.txt file.  A Google search on this topic will lead you to more information about how to do that.

Lastly, consider using mod_rewrite, which allows you to create rules for rewriting URLs on the fly, be they static or dynamic.  This means you can present simple, clean, easy to read  and SEO-friendly URLs that are easily read by search engines and visitors alike. 

Mod_rewrite is becoming more commonplace among the better Content Management Systems (CMS) out there and is the best solution for those that don’t have the time or tech-savvy to do it manually.

Writing Web Words Inc:
Based in Toronto, Ontario, we are a full service Web Writing and Content Development Company that helps small and mid-sized companies maximize their online potential via Search Engine Optimization (SEO), SEO Copywriting and Social Media Marketing.

This week, we will be continuing our discussion of ‘Google’s Design and Content Guidelines,’ looking at the importance of fixing broken links and correcting HTML errors.

Google Design and Content Guideline #7: “Check for broken links and correct HTML.”

Following our recurring theme of search engine optimization, broken links and incorrect HTML could have a negative impact on your website’s performance in search engines, the user experience, your image and your bottom line.

Consider Search Engines: Broken links within your site (internal links) prevent search engines from finding and indexing all of your web pages.  The inability of search engine bots to find your web pages and index them can negatively affect your website ranking.

Consider Users: If your website has broken links, links that do not lead anywhere, your visitor’s will not be able to find all of your web pages, oftentimes causing them to abandon your website in frustration.

Consider Image:  In addition to causing frustration, broken links will hurt the usefulness and professionalism of your website and business image.  They may even cause visitors to question your credibility.

Consider The Bottom Line: Broken links to landing, product and/or service pages can cost you time and money.  Imagine investing in a SEO or Pay-Per-Click campaign, all the while sending prospects to a non-existent page.  Or worse, your prospect has hand on wallet and is ready to make a purchase:  The only problem?  Your checkout link is broken.  Ouch!

Common Causes of Broken Links:
• You rename a page(s) and forget to change your internal links
• Another website links to an old or relocated page
• A search engine continues to rank a deleted page
• Someone has bookmarked a deleted or moved page
• Someone links to your page but misspells the link URL

You have little control over how external links (other websites/bookmarks) are managed and created.  But you do have control over your internal links.

Check Links Periodically:
Links can be checked either manually or by using software.  Manual checks involve clicking through all the links on your website and making sure that they load properly. 

You can also use software such as The W3C Link Checker and Xenu Link Sleuth to check links on larger websites.

Ensure HTML is Correct:
Although HTML can have errors, it may still appear to load normally in a browser.  Ensuring that your HTML is correct has a few benefits that make it worth the extra effort. 

For example, correct HTML allows search engine bots to find and index all your web pages.  HTML that is error-free also loads faster than incorrect HTML, leading to a better experience for your visitors.  Finally, correct HTML ensures that your website will load correctly on all browsers, now and in the future.

In order to check if your HTML is correct, you can use The W3C Markup Validation Service.

Happy Linking!

Writing Web Words Inc:
Based in Toronto, Ontario, we are a full service Web Writing and Content Development Company that helps small and mid-sized companies maximize their online potential via Search Engine Optimization (SEO), SEO Copywriting and Social Media Marketing.

In this blog post, we will be expanding further on our discussion of text descriptions and their role in search engine optimization.  This blog series in based on ‘Google’s Design and Content Guidelines,’ and we will be looking at Guideline #6.

Google Design and Content Guideline #6: “Make sure that your <title> elements and ALT attributes are descriptive and accurate.”

From our previous post on Google Design and Content Guideline #5, we know that ALT attributes are written to describe and provide a textual context for images.  They also help search engines find and identify images on a website.

Ensuring that all ALT attributes are descriptive and accurate will assist search bots in finding and correctly indexing your web pages.  ALT attributes are not needed for all images, but they are essential for important images, such as your company’s logo, products, etc.

<Title> elements do the same thing for web pages that ALT attributes do for images.  Using <title> properly in HTML provides an accurate description of your webpages.  What you write between <title>Insert Text Here</title> tags will appear in a web browser’s title bar, bookmark lists, and as a hyperlink to your website in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

As a result, it is important to pick a clear and focused title that accurately reflects the content of your web page(s).  Titles that are short and unfocused such as “Part One” are ineffective.  “Part One” provides no context or sense of what the web page is about.  However, most windows, menus, and bookmark lists only allow 60-80 characters, so your title cannot be too long.   “How to Play the Guitar” is an example of a good title, especially if your website teaches people how to play the guitar.

Stay tuned for next week’s blog posts, in which we will be discussing links and HTML.

Writing Web Words Inc:
Based in Toronto, Ontario, we are a full service Web Writing and Content Development Company that helps small and mid-sized companies maximize their online potential via Search Engine Optimization (SEO), SEO Copywriting, Social Media Marketing and other leading edge interactive marketing services.

This installment of our series on Google’s ‘Design and Content Guidelines’ focuses on the importance of using text with images, so that Google’s search engine bot can easily find and index your web pages.

Google Design and Content Guideline #5: “Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. The Google crawler doesn’t recognize text contained in images. If you must use images for textual content, consider using the “ALT” attribute to include a few words of descriptive text.”

The first part of guideline 5 is pretty straightforward – use text on your web pages as much as possible!  Although images are always more visually appealing for the visitor than text, search bots cannot process images, nor can they process text within images.  Using text ensures that your web pages will be found.

If you need to use an image on a web page in lieu of text, you can place an ALT attribute along with the image.  For a visitor, an ALT attribute will appear as a description of the image if it does not load.  For a search bot, it will provide a textual description of the image that allows it to be found by a search engine.

ALT attributes are written in HTML or XHTML and specify what should be on the web page if the image or item does not load.  When loading a web page with pictures, you will often see text descriptions appear briefly, before the images load.  These are the ALT attributes for those images.

Not all images on your website need ALT attributes, but the most important images should have them.  When writing an ALT attribute, keep the description clear and brief, loading it down with keywords is not necessary and can appear as spam to search engines.

In addition to helping search engines and visitors, ALT attributes also help to make content accessible to visually impaired visitors to your website.  

Now you know a little bit more about the importance of text and ALT attributes.  These tips are just another way to ensure that your web pages are found and understood.

Writing Web Words Inc:
Based in Toronto, Ontario, we are a full service Web Writing and Content Development Company that helps small and mid-sized companies maximize their online potential via Search Engine Optimization (SEO), SEO Copywriting, Social Media Marketing and other leading edge interactive marketing services.