Why Does My Site Not Rank Well in Google?

Is your company website buried in the back of Google?

There are many reasons for a website to not perform well in Google search results. Some of those reasons could be from a web designer's lack of knowledge as to what Google will penalize or what Google will like.

Other reasons can be from associating your url with certain "bad neighborhoods" in Google or engaging in deceptive practices. Search engine optimization is a skill divided into on-page modifications and off-page promotion. A common mistake even talented web designers make is to write for the wrong audience. Ultimately a website will have to perform well to a human audience, but if the code underlying the webpage is not written for Googlebot in mind, very few people will ever get a chance to view it.

Webpage creation in 2 stages.

Crafting a functional webpage that's pleasing to the eye and incorporates Shakespearean isn't likely to turn a profit if Google's algorithm doesn't award your work of art with decent positioning in search results pages. I'm of the opinion that webpages should be crafted to get the page to perform in Google search results first then after it's located where the most eyeballs can see it, reworked so it performs to a human audience.

Most common mistake is too many keywords.

What are keywords?

Wikipedia says Keyword may refer to an Index term, a term used as a keyword to retrieve documents in an information system such as a catalog or a search engine

How many keywords is too many for your meta tags?

They answer is... it depends.

Consensus in the SEO community is that the more pages, the larger your site is, the more keywords and keyword phrases you can safely use without tripping Googlebot's algorithm and identifying your site as a possible spam website.

Too many keywords can be just as harmful as too few. Less is more when it comes to the META tag. So how do you choose which keywords to keep? How many keywords should you include?

From TechKnows:
Ideally, your keywords tag should have ten or fifteen words, twenty at the very most. You may repeat your three most important keywords once, if you like, but repeat them more than that and the search engine is likely to ignore them, or, worse, not list your page at all.

From wikipedia:

Keyword stuffing is considered to be an unethical search engine optimization (SEO) technique. Keyword stuffing occurs when a web page is loaded with keywords in the meta tags or in content. The repetition of words in meta tags may explain why many search engines no longer use these tags.

Keyword stuffing had been used in the past to obtain maximum search engine ranking and visibility for particular phrases. ..Google no longer gives good rankings to pages employing this technique.

Jill from Highrankings.com offers this "Figure about 3 or so phrases per page. But be careful of just creating junk pages so you can add more keywords.

Matt Cutts the head of spam control at Google has a prime example of too many keywords on his blog here:

Moral of this story?

If you want to utilize all of the great (relevant) keywords you dreamed up, make an additional webpage within your site to maximize the benefit, help prevent alerting Googlebot's spam meter, and ensure your site's content is diversified among the keywords you want to target.

Maryland Search Engine Expert David Bruce Jr

Local Google Advertising-
Google that phrase, then Call 240 315-1515 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

Google Canonical Tag Doesn't Work

Google Supplied Code Doesn't Work With Google Supplied Blogger

Google tells us to use a certain code, they even provide us with that code syntax.
They specifically say "use this and you'll be alright", Matt Cutts went on WebProNews and told us "do this".

Well I did "do that", just as Google described, I tried it on Google's own blog platform: Blogger.com

umm, one Google hand apparently doesn't know what the other Google hand is doing?

I added this line of code:

(link rel="”canonical”" href="”http://www.northcarolinainternetadvertising.blogspot.com”")

to the head tags of http://northcarolinainternetadvertising.blogspot.com

(I had to use parenthesis instead of brackets to get the code to show up in this post, if you're trying this substitute brackets <> in place of what I have up here (code) )

and got the following error message when it failed to save within blogger control panel:

From Maryland Search Engine Optimization

More WebProNews Videos

Umm... Little Help Here?

This isn't the first time Google provided code didn't work "out of the box", and Yahoo does the same thing with Yahoo Site Explorer

The "fix" is to add a forward slash and a space to the end of the line of code. If you are familiar with PHP programing (I'm not) you'd know that.

Google's provided meta tag string that we're told to insert into our bloggers head tag (look at my screen shot and you'll see said verification string above the offending canonical code) and that code is provided BY Google for use on another Google product

... and it doesn't work out of the box

the fix is to edit the ass end of the line of code, put your cursor just before the end tag (>)

add a space

then add a forward slash (/)

that looks like this:

doesn't work

so we end up with

NOT (you gotta have that SPACE before the / or you wont be able to save it and you'll just be frustrated and muttering curses to the Google engineer!!

enjoy and kick your competitors ass in the search ranking war!!!!

Maryland Search Engine Expert David Bruce Jr.

Local Google Advertising-
Google that phrase, then Call 240 315-1515 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

Twitter For Business Explained

Twitter: How to Get Started Guide for Business People

Don't understand what all the Twitter fuss is about or why you might want to use this social networking tool? You're not alone, but you may be missing out on useful information and professional connections. Check out our quick and easy guide on how and why to get started with Twitter.

I wanted to write an article detailing the benefits and pitfalls for small business owners wanting to explore twitter, many are curious as to how this micro blogging platform could help their business advertising efforts.

Most business owners know they *should be on twitter* but don't have the foggiest idea how or why

... I found this article on CIO while doing my research and felt I could not write a better one so I'm republishing this here. I wish I'd written it, but I couldn't do better if I tried so here goes:

By C.G. Lynch

Tue, February 03, 2009 — CIO — Twitter remains a very nascent social network, so if you don't know how it works or what it does (or you haven't even heard of it), don't feel bad. In fact, you're still in the majority. But we're here to help you reap the benefits of Twitter with this quick get-started guide.

Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang), a senior Forrester analyst who researches social media and who pens a blog on Web Strategy, says that while Twitter doesn't release exact numbers, he estimates that three to six million people use Twitter, compared to 150 million for Facebook.

Here is an (appropriately) short explanation of Twitter: Twitter is a free service that allows users to publish short messages of 140 characters or less. These messages are read by "followers" — people who make a conscious decision to subscribe to your messages and have them delivered to their own Twitter home pages.

Each message you post is known as a "Tweet." In the social media and social networking industry, Twitter facilitates a process known as microblogging or microsharing. Every user is identified by putting an "@" sign in front of their name (for instance: @cglynch).

Joining Twitter has value for many people, but it can also be a waste of time if you don't understand how the medium works and how best to utilize it. We take a look at suggestions from social networking gurus to help you determine if adding Twitter to your daily tech diet is in your best interest.

Do You Belong on Twitter?

The Wild West view of social networks proposes that you should just try them out and see whether or not you like them. But in a world where most people already belong to existing social networks (such as Facebook or LinkedIn), on top of using long-established technology like e-mail and text messaging, allocating time for another outlet should be considered carefully.

"Think about why do you want to do it," Owyang says. "Do you want to join because there's buzz about it [in the media] or because President Obama is on it? Especially now, you need to spend your resources and your time well."

Twitter should be place where you want to share common interests and ask insightful questions, and, ideally, read the interesting answers you get back, says Laura Fitton (@pistachio), who runs Pistachio Consulting, which advices people and companies on how best to utilize Twitter.

Though some people use Twitter to keep people in their personal life updated, Twitter has developed a business following. People in a particular industry (say engineering, software development, or public relations) often use Twitter to keep up with news, opinion and happenings in their field, for example. Once you get going with Twitter, this information will come to you. More on that in a minute.

What You Can Gain and Share With Twitter

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If many Twitter evangelists looking to broaden the service's demographic had it their way, they might want to change the site's official branding a bit. When you go to Twitter to sign up, it says, "Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"

"The best way to make the most use of it is not just answer what are you doing now," says Owyang. "Instead, answer: 'What's important to me?' That changes the conversation and makes value. It takes away some of the minutia and shows you want to talk about something that's more useful and interesting."

In other words, the "I'm running to the store" messages might not be as compelling amidst the noise of Twitter messages as "I just read a book on [insert some topic that's interest to you]." If you have room in the 140 characters, state an opinion or analysis of it.

It's about "what has my attention right now?" Fitton says. "The point of Twitter is what do we have in common or having some kind of shared experience."

Maryland Search Engine Expert David Bruce

Local Google Advertising-
Google that phrase, then Call 301 363-8206 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

Twitter No Show and You Advertise?

Set Up Your Company's Twitter Profile

This is the first in a serise of posts on How To Use Twitter For Business. I'm collecting a huge database of relevant articles on how social media has made conventional advertising almost obsolete.

The US Post Office says it's volume is down by roughly a third... it seems there is lot less print/ junk mail being sent, I'm of the opinion that as advertisers, we are spending less on print ads because they just aren't working; if print worked meaning put money in your cash register, you'd be doing it MORE not less

The first step for your company's Twitter profile will be selecting a user name. As is the case when you search for available Web URLs, your company name may already be taken by another user, either as a hoax account or because the person blogs about or follows the company closely.

Experts say Twitter has a good track record of giving back your trademarked name if someone has taken it, so contact Twitter if someone has taken your company name already.

If you found this post useful subscribe via RSS feed and via Email to ensure you get the latest posts.

In general, the more personal a company's Twitter account appears, the better. Traditional mediums such as corporate websites, advertisements and promotions typically lack the sort of human feeling that Twitter users crave, says Stowe Boyd (@stoweboyd), a social media analyst who writes the /message blog.

"It's not a forum to throw up press releases," he says. "They should be real people who are real representatives of companies. To remain personal, you need to be able identify the individual or individuals doing it."

While Eliason's Comcastcares Twitter page has a company logo, it also features his picture and a very humanizing trove of information, including ways to contact him directly, his personal and family blog, and other Comcast employees who operate on Twitter.

Frank Eliason (above) runs the @comcastcares Twitter page. Analysts (and Eliason himself) credit his willingness to give the page a personal touch as helping make it a successful place to interact with customers.

If you have a page with multiple people who share the responsibility of updating it, you should devise a way to make it clear who is "on the desk." Jetblue lists this information in the bio section of its Twitter profile. Other companies' reps put initials or some form of identification at the end of a tweet.

All Twitter profiles have a field for a URL. While it might be tempting to insert your company's homepage, this might not be a good use of the space, Fitton says. Instead, you should link to a custom page on your website that explains why you're on Twitter and what you hope to accomplish by being there.

Dell provides one of the clearest examples of this method. Most of its Twitter pages link back to dell.com/twitter, where the nature and purpose of its various Twitter pages are displayed. Dell lists some of its pages as clearly promotional in nature, while others dedicate themselves to community building and discussion around Dell products.

On your company's traditional home page, you might consider creating a widget that lists your latest tweets, to send traffic from your company site to your Twitter page.

"People say businesses need to be conversational on Twitter," Fitton says. "But my overall rule is you have to provide value."

read the rest...

Maryland Search Engine Expert David Bruce

Local Google Advertising-
Google that phrase, then Call 301 363-8206 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

If your company isn't blogging you do not exist

Get your company a blog or 2 NOW

Advertisings effctiveness is being called into question these days, the recession is forcing businesses of all types reevaluate the return on investment or ROI for each dollar they spend.

Is this gonna do me any good?

That question is in the back of the mind of virtually every small business owner when it comes time to renew their expensive Yellowpages ad or the bill is due again for the newspaper advertising that isn't doing them any good.

Real Time Tracking

Most advertisiers just "stick it out there" without any method of tracking which ad garnered this response and which ad garnered that response.

If you found this post useful subscribe via RSS feed and via Email to ensure you get the latest posts.

If you think your industry got hit hard... consider the plight of the real estate industry.

Maryland real estate agents typically spend thousands of dollars per month in conventional advertising

Consider this your wake up call!

Last Sept I went to a Internet conference in LA and listened to a great Internet coach, Tracy Repchuck. I heard loud and clear what she was saying - if you're not blogging you may as well hang up your shingle. From the pit in my stomach I knew she was right. I just got stuck in excuses since 2006 (no time, what's the big fuss, it's a fad, blah blah blah). I'm sure you've got them down pat like I did, right?

Now is the time for you to stop this ridiculousness. Like, right now!

I got serious about figuring out what Active Rain was all about in January of 2009 (and it makes me queasy thinking about all the time I wasted on excuses for 2 years) and all the missed opportunities)

I didn't have a clue as to what I was doing. Seriously Clueless. So I made 'the' call to Brad Andersohn and he talked to me for a very long time. (Hint -make 'your' call today) I understood the concepts of what he was saying - I just didn't know how to make it happen, smoothly. He gave me excellent advice - just get started, jump in and make mistakes.

Who cares if you suck at first? (he didn't tell me that - that came from me) And trust me, I sucked for sure. When I look back at my first 30 or 40+ posts I have to chuckle cause they're so lame! The good news - I can go back and clean them up when I've got time (see there's that time excuse again!) Am I the queen of the time excuse or what? (note to self - stop allowing time to control you).

"Social networking is empowering the consumer, but the majority of agencies aren't getting it," said the report, which acknowledged that the advertising industry continued to be sceptical about using social networks to advertise. from the UK Telegraph

Maryland Search Engine Expert David Bruce

Local Google Advertising-
Google that phrase, then Call 301 363-8206 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

Website Advertising or Marketing

Conventional Advertising Simply Does Not Work.

What is your ROI, Return On Investment with print ads, yellow pages, magazine or newspaper advertising?

What does it cost you versus what extra work it generates?

Article Directories with High Page Rank
For getting a new site off the ground in the serps there is nothing as effective as article directories. This is not true with every niche if the niche already has a zillion articles published but if your niche is not represented in the article directories you just cant beat the boost given to your site from article directories.

If you’re competitors are not using article marketing and you are… it’s a slam dunk. If they are then it behooves you to match them.

I write for Googlebot and “pretty it up” just in case a human “accidentally” “stumbles upon” my article.

Computer generated articles:
below is an example of an article NOT written for human consumption, it’s purpose is solely to get Google to see the keywords associated with the author of the site’s target url.

I found it because a substantial portion of this “article” was “scraped” from my site!!
I was checking on MY backlinks and discovered this.. I just had to post it as an example of horrible writting (from a human journalism point of view) but perfect example of writing exclusively for the algorithim:

Website Design Cost Frederick

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Search engine optimization is probably the best single tactic for building brand awareness and sales and is the reason we hired a staff of SEO gurus,

Maryland Search Engine Expert David Bruce

Local Google Advertising-
Google that phrase, then Call 301 363-8206 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

Maryland Internet Marketing

Maryland Internet Marketing Consultant David Bruce

Local Google Advertising-
Google that phrase, then Call 301 363-8206 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

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How Many Google Penalties Are There?

During the course of optimizing websites for the search engines and striving to attain the numero uno spot for competitive keywords, many webmasters run into various kinds of penalties from the search engines that affect the organic rank of their websites.
How Many Kinds of Search Engine Penalties Exist?

A member of the WebProWorld forums reported that there are 3 major kinds of penalties:

1. -30 penalty
2. -950 penalty
3. Index Exclusion

However, there has been a lot of debate on whether the drop of a website’s rank by 30 or 950 spots in Google is really a penalty for adopting shady SEO methods or is it just because some of the major ranking elements that were holding the ranks of a website high just got devalued in the Google algorithm update tossing the ranks badly.

It is reported that a -30 penalty affects the whole domain whereas the -950 penalty only affects some specific URLs for some specific keywords only.

Tedster, a member of the WebmasterWorld forums stated in his post about the -30 penalty as:However, there has been a lot of debate on whether the drop of a website’s rank by 30 or 950 spots in Google is really a penalty for adopting shady SEO methods or is it just because some of the major ranking elements that were holding the ranks of a website high just got devalued in the Google algorithm update tossing the ranks badly.

It is reported that a -30 penalty affects the whole domain whereas the -950 penalty only affects some specific URLs for some specific keywords only.

Tedster, a member of the WebmasterWorld forums stated in his post about the -30 penalty as:

“When this penalty situation was first noticed, it worked in a very odd way. Every search that would normally bring up a url from that domain now showed that url on the top of page 4, position #31 precisely — and this was even true for a search on the domain name itself.”

Positioned at #31 for even a search with the domain name? Now, that sounds like a penalty. However, Tedster goes on to say:

“The penalty has mutated a bit since then — the domain name search, for example, is apparently not always penalized today. Also, the depressed position is not consistently at #31, but every search is still pushed down by about 3 or more pages.”

Now this makes it harder to determine whether the drop in a website’s rank is due to a penalty or for any other reason.

Regarding the -950 penalty, Tedster says that:

“Think of this as an “end-of-results” phenomenon, rather than any specific number of the penalty. What we see is a URL that was previously top ranked for a certain search now showing up on one of the last pages of the SERPs. Most of the time this only affects specific searches — on other searches that same URL can still be first page. The low ranking sometimes comes and goes with various new data pushes from Google. It’s a very odd thing to be #1 and then #896 and then #1 again!”

For both these kind of penalties, SEOs and webmasters associate shady optimization practices to be the key reasons for it. Some say, this is because of keyword stuffing, some say this penalty occurs due to “too many occurrences of semantically related phrases”, while some others say that these penalties are because of faulty and apparently shady link building practices, commonly known as BLOOP (BackLink Over Optimization Penalty)Regarding the -950 penalty, Tedster says that:

“Think of this as an “end-of-results” phenomenon, rather than any specific number of the penalty. What we see is a URL that was previously top ranked for a certain search now showing up on one of the last pages of the SERPs. Most of the time this only affects specific searches — on other searches that same URL can still be first page. The low ranking sometimes comes and goes with various new data pushes from Google. It’s a very odd thing to be #1 and then #896 and then #1 again!”

For both these kind of penalties, SEOs and webmasters associate shady optimization practices to be the key reasons for it. Some say, this is because of keyword stuffing, some say this penalty occurs due to “too many occurrences of semantically related phrases”, while some others say that these penalties are because of faulty and apparently shady link building practices, commonly known as BLOOP (BackLink Over Optimization Penalty)

So what is this BLOOP?

there is a school of thought that getting too many links within a short span of time and with similar anchors can raise red flags with Google since it may look to Google that those links have been acquired unnaturally by means of automated scripts or link building software.

A member of the Webmaster World forums reported in this thread that:

“A new site that gets like 20 links per day, then all of a sudden gets 2000 in one day, well then there’s tom foolery going on there and the penalty gets slapped. Once that penalty is slapped, over time it will go away.

Try to avoid any anomalies. Slowly ramp up your linking strategy.”

This sounds like a plausible explanation for such penalties since Google has always stood against websites that are engaged in practices for manipulating search results.

Another kind of penalty that is known to exist is the Index Exclusion penalty or a complete ban, this is a kind of penalty, which when imposed on a site simply throws the site out of the Google index. Index exclusion penalty usually occur with websites that severely violate the quality guidelines of Google and adopt black hat methods such as cloaking and doorway pages.

How do you avoid being penalized?

read the rest of this article...

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