301 redirects and rel=canonical attribute

When should you use 301 redirects on your website? When is the rel=canonical attribute the better solution? This week's article helps you to find the right solution for your situation.



What is a 301 redirect?





A 301 redirect is a server-side redirect that shows search engines that your page has moved to a new URL. 301 redirects pass nearly all of the link power of the old URL to the new URL. In general, 301 redirects are the best way to direct Google and other search engines to the correct page.
When should you use 301 redirects?

301 redirects are the best solution if you're moving your website to a new domain or if you're changing the URL structure of your web pages. Search engines and users won't see the old URLs of your website then.

You should also use 301 redirects to make sure that search engines index only the www. (or the non-www.) version of your website. For example, this link goes to SEOprofiler.com without the www. The server automatically changes it to www.SEOprofiler.com to make sure that search engines index only one variation of the page.

What is the rel=canonical attribute?

The rel='canonical' attribute is an HTML element that enables webmasters to prevent duplicate content issues by specifying the "canonical", or "preferred", version of a web page.

For example, the same web page could be available in a web version and a print version. By using the rel='canonical' attribute in the print version, you show search engines that the web version is the version that should be found in the search results.

A link tag with the rel=canonical attribute looks like this:

<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.yoursite.com/" />

The tag must be inserted in the head section of a web page.

When should you use the rel=canonical attribute?

The canonical attribute is useful if your website creates dynamic URLs with every visit. For example, your URLs might contain tracking variables or visitor information:

www.example.com/page.htm?visitor=12345&ad=big&print=yes

The canonical attribute shows search engines that the pages with the different variables are the same and that they shouldn't count as duplicate content.

The canonical tag is only a suggestion. Google sees rel=canonical as a hint, but not as an absolute directive like a 301 redirect. Use the website audit tool in SEOprofiler to find out if there are any 301 or canonical issues with your website.

The audit tool checks the pages of your website and it shows all errors that can cause problems with search engines.

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Easy SEO Solutions

Most businesses want quick and easy solutions to their problems. They want high rankings on Google and they want them now.

That's why there are so many companies that offer seemingly quick and easy ways to get listed on Google's first result page. What do they cost? Can your business afford them?



Four quick and easy ways to get your website on Google
There are many different tools and services that promise a fast track to Google's search results. Here are the most popular offerings:

Buy links from high PR pages?
Some companies sell links from high PR pages. Links from these pages used to give your web page rankings a boost in Google's search results. Some of these links still work.

The problem with these links is that Google doesn't like them at all. Since Google's Penguin updates, paid links can get your website into major trouble and your website might lose all of its rankings.

Join a backlink network?
Some companies offer private link networks. If you join these networks, your website will get hundreds of backlinks with very little work.

Just like paid links, these network links used to have a positive effect. Unfortunately, these links are against Google's TOS and Google will downrank your web pages if they find out that you participate in a link network. Several link networks have been penalized by Google during the last few months.

Quickly get backlinks from social media sites, forums and blogs?
There are several software tools that automatically create backlinks from social media sites, forums and blog comments. To get these backlinks, the tools create fake accounts on several web pages and then they create thin content with a backlink to your site.

Until recently, you could give your website a major ranking boost with this method. Google's anti spam updates have stopped this. If you use these tools, you invite Google to penalize your site. All tools that use fake social media accounts are spamming tools.

Quickly fill your website with content?
Everybody knows that web pages need content to get high search engine rankings. The easiest way to get content rich web pages is to reproduce content from other websites on your website.

There are several scripts that will scrape other web pages and remix the content. If you use this on your own web pages, you will soon find out that Google's Panda update doesn't like it.

How much do these services cost?
The companies that offer the services above charge $100-$1000/month. When you consider that all of the solutions are nearly fully automatic, this seems to be a relatively good price.

The problem with the methods mentioned above is that they all will get your website banned from Google's search result pages sooner or later. Google thinks that these methods are spam and they are right.

You can get short term results with these methods but it is only a matter of time until your website will be penalized. That's the real price of these quick and easy SEO solutions.

Checklist: when to avoid the methods above
If your answer to one of the following three questions is 'yes' then you should avoid the methods above at all costs:

Does your company have employees or investors?
Is your website the primary source of your income?
Would losing most of your visitors be a disaster for your income?
If you want to get high rankings on Google without risking your website, use safe search engine optimization methods. Safe SEO methods are search engine optimization methods that play by the rules. If you optimize your web pages with these methods, you will get high rankings that last.



SEOprofiler is a so-called white-hat SEO tool that only uses safe SEO methods. If you haven't done it yet, try SEOprofiler now:

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Link to Google Ranking

Many people are not aware that links to other websites can have a positive influence on the rankings of their web pages on Google.

The reason for that is that Google uses 'long clicks' to determine the quality of a search result. Understanding this ranking factor will help you to improve the position of your pages on Google's search result pages.



What are long clicks?

If a user clicks on a result and remains on the found website for a longer time, it's a long click. A short click occurs if a user clicks on a result and quickly returns to the search results page to click on another page.

Long clicks are an indicator for good search results. Short clicks indicate that the user was not satisfied with the found web page.

How to get long clicks

If you make sure that your website visitors do not return to the search results, your web page will count as a good page in Google's search results. You can make sure that your website visitors don't go back to Google by doing the following:

1. Offer your website visitors exactly what they want

The more targeted the keywords that you use for your search engine optimization campaign, the more likely it is that visitors that find your website through a keyword search will find what they are looking for on your website.

If you offer the solution to the query of the website visitor, the visitor won't go back to Google. The keyword tools in SEOprofiler help you to find the best keywords for your website. To make sure that your web pages have a high conversion rate, read this.

2. Link to related websites

By linking to other websites, you can create more long clicks for your website. If your website visitors don't find what they are looking for on your website, they can click the links to other websites that offer further information about a particular topic.

Linking to other websites is not a sign of bad web page content. Links to other websites also won't drive visitors away. Sooner or later, users will leave your website anyway. They can go back to Google, or they can click one of your links to other sites.

Of course, you shouldn't link to random websites. Link to other websites that help to satisfy the user's query. Doing this will help you to get more long clicks and your website will earn more backlinks. Both will have a positive impact on the Google rankings of your website.

Optimize your web pages for Google

The search engine optimization tools in SEOprofiler help you to optimize your web pages so that they get high rankings on Google. You get all the tools that you need to get high rankings, more customers, and more sales.

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Top 5 SEO mistakes

In an online video, Google's Matt Cutts revealed the most common SEO mistakes that webmasters make.


Mistake 1: having a website that is not crawlable

According to Matt Cutts, the biggest SEO mistake is having a website that is not crawlable by search engines.



If your website is not crawlable, search engines cannot index your pages and your web pages won't be listed on Google. That's why we created the website audit tool in SEOprofiler. The audit tool in SEOprofiler automatically checks your web pages once per week. Then you get a report that shows all the issues that should be corrected. By correcting these issues, you make sure that search engines can index all of your pages correctly.

Mistake 2: including the wrong words on your web pages
Using the wrong words on your web pages is the second biggest mistake. For example, he says that you should write "How high is Mount Everest" instead of "Mt. Everest Height" on your pages because that is how people search on Google.

The keyword research tools in SEOprofiler help you to find the best keywords for your website. SEOprofiler offers at least 26% more keywords than other services. The keyword suggestion tool in SEOprofiler is available for 25 different countries and regions.

Mistake 3: focusing on the wrong things
Some webmasters focus on link building before they have compelling content on their web pages. Although backlinks are the most important factor in Google's algorithm, it is more important that your website has good content. Without good content, your website won't get high rankings.

The tools in SEOprofiler help you to improve the content of your web pages. You also get tools that help you to improve the backlinks of your website.

Mistake 4: forgetting to think about titles and descriptions
The title and the description of a web page have a big influence on the performance of the page on search engines. Compelling web page titles and descriptions lead to more clicks and more visitors.

The Top 10 Optimizer in SEOprofiler helps you to optimize the titles and descriptions of your web pages (as well as many other elements that influence the position of your web pages on search engines). Make sure that your web pages contain all the elements that are needed to get high rankings on Google.

Mistake 5: not learning about how Google works and what SEO is about
If you don't know what you're doing, you won't be successful. To make sure that you can get your website as quickly as possible on Google's first result page, we have created a comprehensive SEO tutorial.

The tutorial explains everything from keyword research over web page optimization and link building to conversion optimization.

Getting high rankings on Google isn't rocket science. If you do the right things and if you play by the rules, your website will get high rankings for keywords that deliver targeted visitors. If you haven't done it yet, test SEOprofiler now. SEOprofiler offers all the tools that you need to get high rankings on Google and other search engines:

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Google web page optimization

Do you sometimes get search results that are unexpected and hard to explain? The reason for that might be that Google displays fake search results to fool spammers. This has a major influence on how you should optimize your web pages.


Elements that Google considers spam

Last year, Google has been granted a patent that describes things that Google might do when they discover web pages that try to spam Google with manipulated page content.

Google mentions the following spam methods in the patent: keyword stuffing, invisible text, tiny text, page redirects, META tags stuffing, and link-based manipulation.

Google's unexpected reaction to spam

The patent indicates that Google takes a close look at websites that are changed often:

"Systems and methods consistent with the principles of the invention may provide a rank transition function (e.g., time-based) to identify rank-modifying spammers.

The rank transition function provides confusing indications of the impact on rank in response to rank-modifying spamming activities. The systems and methods may also observe spammers' reactions to rank changes caused by the rank transition function to identify documents that are actively being manipulated.

This assists in the identification of rank-modifying spammers."

In other words: if a web page reacts too quickly to changes in the search results, it's more likely that the page uses spam techniques.

Here's a concrete example

A person optimized a web page and adds the targeted keyword in all the right places. Normally, the rankings should go up. If there's a suspicion that the web page might be spamming, the page might be downranked by Google.

If the newly added keywords are removed after the drop in rankings, it's an indicator that the webmaster tried to manipulate. If the newly added keywords remain on the page, Google sees that the changes on the page are for real. In that case, the page will gets its old (and better) rankings back.

What does this mean for your website?

Optimizing your website for search engines is okay if you create helpful content. Google is not against search engine optimization. They just don't like spamming.

When you optimize your web pages for new keywords that are related to your website, don't be afraid if the rankings of your pages temporarily drop. This is normal Google behavior and your pages will get higher rankings after a short time (usually between one and four weeks).

Google doesn't like spam. If you want to get results that last, you must use search engine optimization tools that play by the rules. You get these tools with SEOprofiler:

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How to optimize web pages

Andre Weyher, a former member of Google's web spam team, has given an interview in which he reveals several things that can be useful if you want to improve your search engine optimization campaign.


1. Relevance is the new PageRank

We've said it before in our newsletter: do not focus on the PageRank of a web page. The PageRank that is displayed in Google's toolbar is not the PageRank that Google actually uses in the algorithm. In addition, Google now uses other factors to determine the value of a backlink.

Andre Weyher confirmed this in the interview: "Getting a link from a high PR page used to always be valuable, today it's more the relevance of the site's theme in regards to yours, relevance is the new PR."

A link from a web page that is related to your website is more important than a link from an unrelated high PR web page. Finding these related pages is the difficult part.

The 'Get backlinks by keyword' tool in SEOprofiler helps you to find web pages that are related to your keywords. The pages that are found by this tool contain the targeted keyword in the web page title, in the domain name and/or in links on the page. In addition, the pages found by the tool are willing to link to other sites.

If you need relevant backlinks that are compatible with Google's new and strict requirement, the tools in SEOprofiler can help you to find them.
2. Link building has become relationship management
Andre Weyher says that you shouldn't use automated tools for link building:
"Off site link building has dramatically changed since the recent updates. Anything that you can do automatically or at scale puts your website at risk. So keep the following in mind; link building has changed from an almost purely technical process into something that resembles a relationship management campaign. Building a network with owners of sites that are related to yours for example."
The link manager tool in SEOprofiler helps you to manage your link relationships as efficiently as possible. It manages the contact information of your partners, it keeps track of your messages, it checks if the other web page still links to your site, etc.
Relationship management can be a tedious task. It's easy with the link manager in SEOprofiler.
3. On-page optimization is still important
It's very important that your web pages must be optimized. Backlinks won't do your website any good if your pages aren't good enough:
"On page tactics are often overlooked, while in reality they should be a key element in your SEO strategy."
The Top 10 Optimizer tool in SEOprofiler helps you to optimize your web pages for your keywords. It tells you how to adjust your pages so that they get the best possible rankings on Google and other search engines.
The Top 10 Optimizer will also warn you if your pages are over-optimized. By following the recommendations of the Top 10 Optimizer in SEOprofiler, your will make sure that your web pages are fully compatible with Google's requirements.
If you haven't done it yet get your SEOprofiler account now. You can get full access to all SEOprofiler tools for just $1 (this offer is available once per customer):

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Samuru Search Engine

A new search engine tries to challenge Google. It doesn't rely on backlinks and it actually delivers good results. Could this be a real alternative to Google? How can you make sure that your website will be found in this search engine?

What's the name of the new search engine?

The name of the new search engine is Samuru.com. It was developed by Stremor, the company of Brandon Wirtz. Brandon Wirtz previously tested many different ways to game Google for fun and profit. As he worked on the 'dark side' of SEO, he knows which methods spammers use to manipulate the results.
What is special about this new search engine?
In contrast to other search engines, Samuru does not rely on backlinks to specify the relevance of a web page. The technology behind Samuru is called 'Liquid Helium':

"It converts written content into mathematical values and algorithms for predictable analysis, extraction, and manipulation.

Liquid Helium factors information about sentence and paragraph structure, word usage, parts of speech, grammar, writing style, punctuation, and inherent bias through a vast collection of proprietary rules, filters, and custom language libraries. [...]

The ability to extract sentiment, bias, reading level, technical level, formality, urgency, and whether or not content is editorial in nature are just a few of the language scores that can be returned."

Samuru is still work in progress. In an online discussion, the founder of Samuru said: "When you are building a technology, you have to isolate and test. We use indicators that are harder to game than inbound links like traffic. But it is a balancing act. We have just shy of 100 score factors we can tweak, and getting them right takes a bit of time.


How to game Samuru.com

Samuru can find out if the text on a web page makes sense or not. To 'game' Samuru, you have to write useful and helpful text. This is something that will help your website rankings as well as visitors who find your website on the Internet.
Samuru has an interesting concept and we wouldn't be surprised if Google added similar methods to their algorithm. If you want to make sure that search engines can index all of your web pages correctly, use the website audit tool in SEOprofiler.
For only $1, you will get a detailed analysis of your web pages as well as instructions on how to change your pages so that all pages can be indexed correctly:

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Co-occurrence and co-citation Rank Effect

Co-citation and co-occurrence are important factors that influence the position of your web pages in Google's search results. The environment in which the links to your website can be found have a big impact on the value of the links.
1. Co-occurrence: the words on the linking pages influence your rankings
Even if the link to your website does not include your targeted keyword, your web page can get a ranking boost for that keyword. The link just has to come from a page that is related to the keyword.

For example, if a web page has an article about shoes, boots, sneakers and sandals, then your website will get a ranking boost for these keywords if that page links to your site.

For example, the following link has a positive influence on the ranked pages for the term "shoes" although it is not included in the link text:



How to find websites that contain the right keywords:

The backlinks by keyword tool in SEOprofiler helps you to find websites that contain your keywords in the title and in other page elements. Links from these web pages will increase the position of your own web pages for these keywords.

2. Co-citation: the other links on the linking pages influence your rankings

Suppose your website is about selling shoes. If your site is linked by other websites that link to your website and other websites that are about frogs and toads then Google might think that your website is related to frogs and toads.

It's important that the other links on the web page that links to you are related to your site. If you're listed in the "shoes" category of an Internet directory then all web sites in the same category are usually also about shoes.

If web sites 1, 2, 3 and 4 all link to the web sites A, B, C and D. Although A, B, C and D don't link to each other, Google thinks that A, B, C and D are related to each other because the same web sites link to them:



Even though they don’t directly link to each other, websites A, B, C and D are related. The more web sites they are linked from, the stronger the relationship.

How to find websites that put your website in the right context:

The hub finder tool in SEOprofiler helps you to find websites that will put your own site in the right context. It finds websites that link to other websites that are related to your keywords and it helps you to get links from these websites.

The whole point of co-citation is to associate keywords and topics with the links on a page. Even if the link to your website uses 'click here', Google will be able to find out what the link is about if it comes from the right page.

The link building tools in SEOprofiler help you to get backlinks from the right kind of web pages. SEOprofiler is a white-hat search engine optimization tool that plays by the rules. If you use SEOprofiler to improve your rankings, you can be sure that you will only use safe SEO methods that lead to lasting results:

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How to get rankings back

how to get your rankings back - Top way of ranking recovery.

Has your website been penalized by Google? No need to panic. Take control of your website success and get your rankings back by following the tips below.
Most people go through the following five phases when their website has been penalized by Google:

Denial: "Google hasn't penalized my website. This is just a temporary error in Google's algorithm. My website rankings will be back next week."
Anger: "It's not fair. Google has no right to downrank my website. They are a monopolist. If I had the money, I'd sue them. I'm not the only one who used the spam tools. All of my competitors have used these tools, too. If my website gets penalized, they should be penalized, too."
Bargaining: "If I hadn't used this particular spamming tool, all of this wouldn't have happened. If only I had done this or that then my website wouldn't have been penalized."
Depression: "It doesn't make sense to optimize my web pages. Google will penalize them anyway. SEO is crap. It doesn't work. It's all just a big rip-off."
Acceptance: "It seems that I have to do some real work if I want to get high rankings. Business on the Internet is still business and it should be treated as such. There are no shortcuts."

How to get your rankings back

The first thing that you must understand is that search engine optimization (SEO) is not the same as spamming. Unfortunately, a lot of spamming tools are sold as SEO tools. That's why many people think that SEO equals spamming search engines.

Real search engine optimization has nothing to do with cheating search engines. Good search engine optimization leads to a symbiotic relationship that is beneficial to search engines, businesses and searchers.

If done correctly, Google actually likes SEO and optimized websites.


Do the right things

If you want to get the best possible results for your business, you must do the right things. Do not try to cheat Google and do no concentrate solely on paid search advertising. Google AdWords can be great but it's also very expensive.

A good search engine optimization strategy will help you to get high rankings that deliver targeted visitors to your website. The time and effort associated with SEO are a wise investment.

The SEOprofiler manual helps you to do the right things in the right order. It helps you to optimize your website step-by-step.

If you haven't done it yet, get your SEOprofiler account now. You can get full access to all SEOprofiler tools for just $1 (this offer is available once per customer):

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Google's Penguin update about Spam

A new study shows that Google's tolerance of spammy backlinks is decreasing:

"The Portent analysis found strong evidence that Google is steadily lowering the bar for what it considers spam link profiles. [...] We found that the majority of websites — 36 out of 50 — have “clean” profiles with less than 10 percent of their links coming from questionable sources. [...]

We discovered Google has been applying a stricter standard over time. In the initial Penguin update, the only sites we saw penalized had link profiles comprised of more than 80 percent manipulative links.

Within two months, Google lowered the bar to 65 percent. Then in October 2012, the net got much wider. Google began automatically and manually penalizing sites with 50 percent manipulative links."

Google has become much stricter when it comes to spammy backlinks. If you want to get high rankings on Google, you should make sure that your website doesn't contain spammy backlinks.

The following backlink types can be considered spam:
Too many keyword-rich links in press releases: If the linked keyword doesn't make sense in the press release, it's better to avoid that link.
Low quality article directories: Links from websites that contain thousands of low-quality articles about every possible subject provide no value.
Low quality blogs: automatically created blogs with a lot of articles about a wide range of topics usually trigger Google's spam filters.
Link lists with hundreds of unrelated pages: Link lists aren't bad as long as they are related to the topic of a website. If a link page lists to every Tom, Dick and Harry, you should stay away from that page.
Random forum links: If you're not participating in an online discussion, you should not add your link to that forum.
Tools that you should avoid at all costs:

Many newbie webmasters still fall for tools that promise thousands of backlinks within a few days. Any link building tool that uses words such as "dominator," "super," "amazing," "secret" or any other superlative in its name or headline is usually a spamming tool. Avoid these tools if you want to get lasting results.

Shortcuts often lead to dead ends:

People who use these spamming tools often said things like "this tool got my website to number one within two weeks." Six months later the same person had to say "my website rankings plummeted." Shortcut SEO methods lead to short-lived results:

The right tactics and methods lead to lasting results:

If you use safe SEO methods that play by the rules, you don't have to worry about Google's algorithm updates. It takes longer to get high rankings with safe SEO methods, but the results are worth the time and effort:

SEOprofiler is a complete SEO software suite that helps you to get high rankings on Google and other search engines. It uses only safe SEO methods that play by the rules.
If you want to improve the position of your web pages, try SEOprofiler now. You can get the full version for just $1 (this offer is available once per customer):

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New Google link building

For many webmasters, link building has been a numbers game. The more links a website has, the better. Whole industries were built around this idea. You can buy links in bulk and there are several tools that automatically created hundreds of backlinks through low quality links from forums or blog comments.
Since Google's recent updates, even the most ignorant webmaster should have understood that this is not the way link building works. Google hates these artificial backlinks and you can even get your website in trouble if you use tools and services that automatically create backlinks to your site.



It's the quality of the backlinks that matters, not the quantity. When you try to get new backlinks to your website, consider the following:

Get backlinks that show your influence

When Google introduced a ranking algorithm that was based on the number of backlinks that point to a website, the main idea was that a website with many backlinks must be an influential website.

Most of the artificial backlinks do not indicate influence at all. If you focus on the backlinks that show Google that your website is important, then you don't have to worry about future Google updates. Google's algorithm wants to find important links that point to your website.

Google likes the following links:

Links from websites that have a related topic. If your website is an online travel agency, links from travel blogs will have a very positive influence on your rankings.
Links from single web pages that are related to your topic. For example, a newspaper website usually isn't related to your site. If they publish an article about a topic that is related to your website, a link from that page would be great.
Links that show the importance of your website. If your website is linked with a "Further information about that topic can be found here" link then search engines will see that your website is an authority for that topic.
Links from high authority websites. If Wikipedia or the NY Times link to your website, it's clear that your website must be important.
Get backlinks that show that your website is real
These four link types above are the best links that your website can get. That does not mean that other links don't count. There are several other link types that will also have a positive influence on your search engine rankings:

Links from business associations. These links show search engines that your website belongs to a particular category.
Links from related articles. If you publish guest posts on other web logs, it's okay to link to your site. As long as the content of the page is related to your website, this will have a positive influence. Do not bulk submit the same article to many sites. Be selective.
Links from business directories. Some websites such as the Yellow Pages simply must list your website if you want to show search engines that you're serious about your business.
Links from business partners. It's perfectly fine if your business partners link to your site.
Any link that delivers targeted visitors to your website.
All links that deliver visitors to your website are good links. When you build backlinks, ask yourself: "Can I get visitors through this link?" If the answer is yes, the link is a good link. It's as simple as that.

How the tools in SEOprofiler help you to get these links

SEOprofiler offers many powerful tools that help you to get the links mentioned above. The hub finder tool helps you to find websites that link to several of your competitors, the link opportunity finder helps you to find websites that accept your guest posts, the backlinks by keyword tool helps you to find websites that will link to your website with a particular keyword, etc.

In addition, SEOprofiler offers a sophisticated link manager that helps you to manage your link building campaign. The link manager keeps track of your link requests, it checks if the other websites still link to your site, it automatically finds contact information, and much more.

Google's new approach to link building actually isn't a new approach. It's what we have been recommending in this blog for years. If you want to get high rankings that last, you have to use search engine optimization methods that are beneficial to searchers, search engines and your business.

Start getting great backlinks
The link building tools in SEOprofiler help you to get high quality backlinks that lead to high rankings that last. You can use all link building tools in SEOprofiler for just $1 (this offer is available once per customer):



Create a free trial account now or test the full version for only $1.

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Google Start showing Spam Websites

On a new web page, Google shows live examples of web pages that have been removed from Google's index.
According to Google, "these pages are examples of 'pure spam.' They appear to use aggressive spam techniques such as automatically generated gibberish, cloaking and scraping content from other websites."

Obvious and not so obvious web spam

 

Some of the pages that Google shows on the website are obvious low quality pages:



Other pages look like regular websites. These websites usually use hidden text, cloaking or other spam techniques that are not visible to website visitors:



Do not spam Google

Google is serious about removing spam from their search result pages. For that reason, you should avoid spam methods to promote your website.

Spamming is not the same as search engine optimization
Unfortunately, many spamming tools are labeled as 'seo tools'. If you find a tool or service that promises you to 'dominate Google' or 'thousands of automatic backlinks' then it's extremely likely that you have found a spamming tool. Although these tools work for some time, Google will penalize your website sooner or later if you use them.

Optimizing your website for search engines is not the same as spamming search engines. Real search engine optimization is beneficial to your website, search engines and searchers.

Save time and money

You will save a lot of time and money by avoiding offers that seem to be too good to be true. It’s very likely that you will pay a lot more if you opt for the ‘quick and easy’ and ‘fully automated’ solution that will lead to a penalty and lost revenue.

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Top Way for Penguin Link Building

 It has been a while since the Penguin update was released by Google and there is still a lot of conversation about how to properly promote your website to stay within Google’s good graces.  Today we’ve put together an overview of 3 top link building strategies for post Penguin success.
While this piece is not meant to be an all encompassing link building how to guide, it should give you some direction on your link building campaign.  The biggest piece of advice we can give is that you need to have a link building campaign.  Links are still very very important for ranking well in Google – you just need to go about it in the right manner.



Internal Page Linking

When people build links, it is natural for them to concentrate on building links to their main page.  The home page is the landing page, that is typically where your main keyword phrases are located, and that is the easiest way to build links.  The problem is that it is not the best strategy to build all your links to your home page.

Linking to your internal pages not only gives you a more diverse looking link profile (that is a good thing), but it allows you to target long tail keywords and very low competition phrases.  These long tail keywords and low competition phrases are going to add up over time, each one bringing in some traffic.  In addition, the link juice is going to flow through to the other pages of your site, so even if you are not building links to your home page, your home page is still going to see the benefit of these links.



Social Media Links

Social media is big.  Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and other sites such as Delicious, Stumbleupon and Pinterest – all these sites are social sites.  Google is taking more and more social signals into account in their rankings, and if you don’t have social signals, your site is going to suffer.  Not only is social media linking important now, but it is only going to become more important as social media continues to become ingrained in our daily life.

You should have a Facebook page for your site, and you should interact and post to that page regularly.  You should have a Twitter account for your site.  Pinterest is a good site that you can use very creatively.  Linkedin is a great site for businesses, and you can create group pages there too.  Of course we must also mention Google +, Google’s social site.  Create a presence on these sites and participate with others in your niche.  If you have good content, not only will you be building your own links, but others will begin to share your content.  That is where the real power of social media links can start to kick in.



Diverse Linking

You have to have a diverse link profile.  Social bookmarking, forum posting, articles, guest blogging, social media links, links from sites like Squidoo and Hubpages, links from related sites, even directory links and Wiki links.  Create a diverse link profile and grow it in a diverse manner rather than focusing on only one type of link.  In addition, continue your link building so you have a steady stream of activity to your site.

Not only do you need a diverse linking footprint with regards to where your links are coming from, but you also need a diverse linking footprint with regards to the keywords you are using for your anchor text.  This is incredibly important, and we have written a blog post that goes hand in hand with this post – Anchor Text Distribution for Better Rankings.  Combining proper anchor text distribution with a good mix of link sources can be a powerful combination, and is what Google seems to be looking for these days.

Good luck

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Google's disavow links tool

An online discussion on Webmasterworld.com shows the statement of Uli Lutz, who works for Google's search quality team in Germany.



A webmaster asked Uli if it was possible to accidentally hurt a friend or a good resource by including it in a disavow link report. The main statements of Uli Lutz are:

You don't have to worry about damaging other people with the disavow links.
Hurting other websites with the disavow links tool is not possible.
If you want to disavow many links from the same website, there's a site-wide disavow option.

Should you use Google's disavow links tool?

You should only use Google's disavow links tool if Google sent you a notification that your website was penalized for unnatural links. Even then, it's very likely that Google's Penguin update already disavowed all inorganic links that point to your site.

If your rankings dropped after the Penguin update, that's because the unnatural links don't count anymore. The Penguin update probably added an internal rel=nofollow to all unnatural links that point to your site.

The following will happen if you report links to your website with Google's disavow links tool:

Any links that you report with the disavow links tool will count as rel=nofollow links in your link profile, i.e. Google won't consider them at all.
As you cannot know which links Google considers spam, you might acidentally remove good links that point to your website. That can have a negative effect on your website rankings.
After using the disavow links tool, you have to ask Google for a reconsideration request. That means that you are self-reporting your website for spam.
Google will take a closer look at your website to find spam.
If you did not spam Google, there's no need to use the disavow links tool. Using the tool is a confirmation that you spammed Google in the past and that you know it.

What you can do to recover from the Penguin update

Since Google's Penguin update, automatically created low-quality links don't work anymore. Google discounted these links and there's no need to invest time in sending Googel a confirmation that they discounted the right links. Better invest your time in the following:

Try to get natural backlinks from other websites that have a higher quality than the previous backlinks.
Vary the anchor texts that are used in the links to your site. Of course, the links that point to your site still should contain words that relate to your topic. Do not use exact match anchor texts.
That's all there is to it. It's all very easy: Google doesn't want to be tricked. If you tried to cheat Google in the past with shady backlinks and shady search engine optimization methods, then it will take some time until your website recovers.

If you used white-hat SEO methods to promote your website then there's nothing to worry about. Don't fall for shady SEO services that offer quick and fully automatic solutions. If you want to get results that last, use SEO tools that play by the rules.

Google's disavow links tool Official Video

from - OneClickSeo

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