With all the talk recently about load speed becoming a consideration in Google’s ranking of websites, it’s kind of interesting to see the Exceptional Performance team at Yahoo! come out this week with Boomerang, a cool app that will report back to you on users’ perception of how long it takes your site to load on their browsers. “Boomerang is a piece of Javascript that you add to your web pages, where it measures the...
Articles in SEO
Improve Your Page Speed — Not Just For SEO
When Google recently announced that faster page loading speed has an impact on a site’s search engine position, people began taking a closer look at how quickly their pages are rendered in the eyes of Google. There is even a tool, provided by Google, that tells you how fast your pages load and what files could be compressed in order to reduce overall loading times. Currently, Google Webmaster Tools also has a feature in its...
Link Building Workshop 2: From "Link Builder" to "Link Strategist"
In our first link building workshop, I proposed a shift for link building from an “anchor text” and SERP manipulation mentality towards link prospect engagement and content creation/promotion. Not only does this method (also outlined in our new link building book) improve your trust and authority with search engines, but it weaves you into the culture, conversation and commerce of your market. By building these mutually beneficial relationships you create a more defensible linking position...
May 2010 Search Engine Rankings Show Movement In Search Queries
Each month comScore puts together search engine ranking information, analyzing the US marketplace using their qSearch methodology and database. It’s a good indicator of not only the intricate dance that the major search engines continue to do overall, but also provides info on the number of search queries plus the number of search queries for 20 or so of the top properties themselves. Although the overall percent rankings don’t usually change that much from month...
We're Finally Fully Caffeinated By Google
Yesterday’s announcement by Google that the Caffeine update is finally complete didn’t make much of a dent in the news of the world, but it’s actually pretty darn impressive when you look at the stats supplied by Google on the implications. It was almost a year ago that the Caffeine update was first announced as a new way of indexing the flood of information that continues to be posted to the web each and every...
Are You Sitting On An SEO Gold Mine?
Want to improve your bottom line without spending any extra money on SEO? In the same way that TV commercials promise that you may have a fortune in old jewelry hidden in a drawer, you may have valuable untapped optimization resources in your own office. In the process of working with our customers, we often find that they have untapped resources right under their noses which can enhance a website’s user experience and increase link...
How To Create A News Sitemap For Higher Google Rankings
One of the mainstays of higher search engine rankings is a constant influx of fresh, new content on your website. A prolific news section is one way to achieve this and can lead to extra exposure through inclusion in RSS feeds and online news outlets such as Google News. More than half of us now forgo our morning newspaper and log on for the day’s events, so securing regular placements in Google News or similar...
Faceted Search Part II: Are Facets Really That Magical?
As a preview to his upcoming article in the Summer issue of Search Marketing Standard Magazine, Jaimie Sirovich continues his discussion on faceted search … In an earlier blog post, “Facets As A Navigational & SEO Powerhouse” we discussed some of the background and benefits of faceted navigation. In fact, after reading that post, one might just conclude facets are all fairies and pixie dust. If Tinkerbell herself summarized the five most important benefits, they’d...
Internal Linking: Recouping Your Site’s Hidden SEO Value
Search engine optimization (SEO) has become mainstream enough that most Internet marketers understand the primary tenets of a successful SEO initiative: address technical concerns blocking efficient and accurate spidering of the site, provide relevant and unique content, and improve inbound links to each important page on the site. A recent review of a number of websites, however, reveals that the proper handling of internal linking is still lacking in many game plans. Links to a...
Optimize Your Site’s Google Maps Listing to Put It on the Right Track
Next to search itself, Google Maps is easily Google’s most successful product. In fact, Google is poised to dominate the world of online mapping the same way it dominates search. According to the web stats service Hitwise, Google Maps now holds 22% of the local search market and should overtake the market leader, MapQuest, by the end of 2009. Most of this growth comes from the inclusion of Google Maps results within Google’s Universal Search...
