SES Chicago - December 7-11, 2009

March 10, 2009

Matt Cutts Revisits 100 Link Maximum Per Page Recommendation

Matt Cutts took to his blog to talk about just how many links you can include on one page. The rule of thumb for a long time has been no more than 100 links per page, and Cutts says that recommendation hasn't changed.

But he clarified that it's not a hard line. Just because a page has more than 100 links does not automatically qualify it as a spam page.

Still, the PageRank will be diluted among the links. Google also may not follow or index all the links if there are hundreds.

Basically, Cutts' advice boils down to what Google really wants from site content: Develop with the reader in mind.

Related Reading: Matt Cutts Clarifies Google's New Preference of Brands Matt Cutts: Slap the Nofollow on Those Paid Posts If You Want To Know When Google Updates Toolbar PR Follow Matt Cutts on Twitter

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

March 3, 2009

Matt Cutts: Slap the Nofollow on Those Paid Posts

Google spam czar Matt Cutts is weighing in on "sponsored conversations" which is a fancy pants way of saying "paid posts." This is where bloggers are paid by companies to publish a favorable post about them.

Matt Cutts says Google will punish bloggers who pass page rank to the links included in paid posts. However, it's ok to have the paid posts - just include the "nofollow" tag on the links. Make it clear that it's a sponsored posts by labeling it as such for the world to see.

Why the big fuss? Cutts makes his point with an example post about brain surgery. If a company pays a blogger to write a favorable post about their brain surgery tool in order to rank higher, that's a serious topic to be messing with the search results about.

Of course, the problem could still exist as the company could still rank higher with legitimate SEO means, though such efforts are tougher.

For now, the nofollow on paid posts is the word from Cutts.

Related Reading: If You Want To Know When Google Updates Toolbar PR Follow Matt Cutts on Twitter

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

October 7, 2008

SEW Experts: Google's Algorithm is Shifting

Google seems to be moving toward an algorithm based more on "site quality" and user behavior. Links are still key, but there are many other factors to consider. In today's enterprise search marketing column, "Google's Algorithm is Shifting," Aaron Shear asks if your site is ready to rank using the new factors?

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 1, 2008

SEW Experts: Look Out PageRank, There's a New Algorithm in Town

Microsoft recently published research on a new algorithm it calls BrowseRank, which is based on user behavior instead of linking patterns. Microsoft thinks this could be the answer to increased relevance in search results. But is it? In today's SEM Crossfire column, "Look Out PageRank, There's a New Algorithm in Town," Frank Watson and Kevin Newcomb share their thoughts on BrowseRank's potential, and potential pitfalls.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 25, 2008

Microsoft's BrowseRank Aims for Better Results than PageRank

While Google is busy rolling out a PageRank update, Microsoft is researching what they hope will be the next big thing in search: BrowseRank. The technology takes user browsing habits into account when determining relevant search results. We propose computing page importance by using a 'user browsing graph' created from user behavior data. In this graph, vertices represent pages and directed edges represent transitions between pages in the users' web browsing history. Furthermore, the lengths of staying time spent on the pages by users are also included. The user browsing graph is more reliable than the link graph for inferring page importance.

You can read the full paper by Microsoft Asia researchers here (pdf).

Earlier, we reported that Steve Ballmer says that search needs innovation. Will BrowseRank achieve that goal? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment.

via CNET

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Google PageRank Updates to Roll Out Soon

Google's head of web spam, Matt Cutts, has announced that updates to PageRank will be visible in the coming days. Cutts also said that some existing penalties will be expired with the update.

If you're new to search engine marketing and want to learn about PageRank, here's a whole slew of posts to get you in the know: Google PageRank: Simplified Google PageRank isn't the Same as Ranking in Google Should You Join the PageRank Hysteria? Thankful for PageRank Updates, Blended Search The Art of Sculpting, or There's Nothing Wrong with Knowing SEO Google Will Bank on VisualRank - PageRank for Images

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

June 3, 2008

The Art of Sculpting, or There's Nothing Wrong with Knowing SEO

There have been much discussion recently about using the “nofollow” attribute to sculpt a website's PageRank for ranking purposes, a practice commonly known as PR Sculpting. If you are not sure what I am talking about or you want a visual description to help you understand, then I recommended you take the time to read the bucket post (even though it ignores PR flowing back in the opposite direction, but that is a post for another day).

PR Sculpting has been the focus of much controversy in the SEO space; most SEO professionals are either against or do not think that there is any value in PR Sculpting. Some have come to the conclusion that PR sculpting is bad for a website. Their reasoning: only SEO people know about PR Sculpting, so if a page is sculpted, SEO pros must have worked on the site. According to Eric Lander from Search Engine Journal, if you PR Sculpt, “you might as well alert the engines that you not only aware of optimization, but you're willing to go out of your way to protect your site.”

Somehow, just knowing/doing SEO is enough to raise a red flag with Google. In other words, optimization is by its nature blackhat.

Of course, that's a patently ridiculous thing to say. Matt Cutts from Google even went out of his way at the Web 2.0 conference to state very clearly SEO is neither Spam nor bad. Matt even addressed the PR Sculpting issue in a linking Q&A: “In general, worry more about the high quality of your site. After you've taken care of it, then think about sculpting.” Cutts sees nothing wrong with PR Sculpting on its own, but does qualify his statement with the coda that “Google is against abusive manipulation.” As we'll see (and is often the case with SEO) the key word here is “abusive”.

The only post to date, backed by actual data, that I have seen that comes close to showing that PR Sculpting could hurt a site is from Branko Rihtman from 10s Search Marketing here in Jerusalem. His post is about Google penalties and how they may be keyword- and destination-specific. His client did some PR Sculpting and Branko concluded that the client was penalized due to "a combination of the implementation of nofollow and a significant difference between the on-page and off-page optimization.” Branko finds that the nofollow by itself wasn't what "caused the penalty in this case," rather "it was a combination of signals that caused the infamous red flag to be risen above the customer's site."

What Branko fails to mention in the post is how much PR Sculpting the client actually did. In the comments, when asked about the quantity of sculpting, he answered, “I would say that the percentage of followed pages was much smaller than the nofollowed ones.” That sounds like more than just some PR Sculpting; it sounds like abusive sculpting. (Branko also thought that the abruptness with which he did the nofollowing might have been abusive, although we've seen speed to be much less of an issue than quantity.) And as Matt Cutts emphasized, doing anything abusive in SEO will raise a red flag, whether with keyword stuffing, link stuffing or PR Sculpting.

So there is really no data to support the fact that properly-executed PR Sculpting will hurt a site. Google is already aware that SEOs exists, and—as Matt Cutts stated—has no problem with them as long as they are not “abusive” in their SEO practices. Cutts also said that after you work on the overall quality of your site, it makes sense to “think about sculpting.” It doesn't seem like a practice to which Google objects, as long you do it with the same care as other SEO tasks. In fact, we've seen some great results from PR Sculpting—but that will have to wait until the next blog post.

Kalman Labovitz, Senior Account Manager at RankAbove, co-wrote this post.

Posted by at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

SEW Experts: Google PageRank isn't the Same as Ranking in Google

Many webmasters are obsessed with the PageRank Google assigns their site. But why? They don't understand that there are at least 100 or more factors that make up the Google algorithm -- and most likely a lot more than that. In today's Organic Search Engine Optimization column, "Google PageRank isn't the Same as Ranking in Google," Mark Jackson explains that a higher PageRank number doesn't necessarily mean better rankings.

» Full story  

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 15, 2008

SEW Experts: Google PageRank: Simplified

Google's PageRank may be the single most divisive element in the search optimization game. In today's Outsourced column, "Google PageRank: Simplified," William Flaiz outlines the controversy surrounding Toolbar PageRank and its impact on SEO and link building strategies.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

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