Humming Bird Update - Impact on Local SEO

What is the impact of Humming Bird update on Local SEO?

With Humming bird update and many other past changes in Google search algorithms, every SEO expert if forced to make changes in their approach for SEO Strtegy Planning. 

So what exactly is Humming Bird update?

As per Danny Sullivan: "Google said that Hummingbird is paying more attention to each word in a query, ensuring that the whole query — the whole sentence or conversation or meaning — is taken into account, rather than particular words."

Humming Bird Update

So overall idea behind Google's Humming Bird update is to make search more better by matching spoken words with their database  and display the most accurate results to the users. 

Just to understand it in more detail we can take an example, if i have to do a cab booking i would have typed a query "Hire a Cab location name" and that would have given me some cab provider websites link (May be not close to my location" but with Humming Bird update if some one speaks entire sentence then Google will match word by word query and display more optimized results.

So how should we re-think about our Local SEO strategy?

Plan for some Question Answer section on your site:

Question Answer section or well known by FAQ section on website is the best place to get target long tail keywords and also to get idea from users that what exactly they are looking for?

FAQ is one section where users can ask long tail queries which is exactly like what they have spoken if they have to do it on mobile. Those long tail sentences are the best ways to capture exact words or statement what user can think for.

Update Fresh & Quality Data on a Regular Basis:

You should be regular on updating fresh and quality data on your website or blog. There might be a case that you don't have any thing to update regularly on your website, in that case should try modify your web content. You can divide your web content in different paragraphs and for each paragraph there should be a

heading. 

All the heading should include some local location name ( if possible) and should be tried and written keeping in mind that how a user might look for the content or page.

For some more information on Local SEO and Organic Result integration, refer to Nyagoslav Zhekov post on Local SEO.

Conclusion: Fresh and Quality content was always the king and it will remain the king in Digital World. You want to be on top of search results, be best with your content.

 

Does Higher Number of Indexed Pages Guarantees for Higher Ranking?

Matt Cutts Says Higher Number of Indexed Paged Does Not Mean for Higher Ranking

Many SEO webmaster had this common saying that if you have higher number of indexed pages in search engines, it will help in getting higher search engine rankings. But as per the Matt Cutt's latest video this does not seems to be the truth. 

As per Matt Cutt, this is not at all necessary that more indexing is equivalent to more ranking but this is also true that if you have more number of pages on website, your chances of being ranked for different search terms increases as you will be targeting different keywords on different pages. 

More pages to website also means that there will be more number of internal and external links for the website, which will help in increasing Page Rank for individual pages and also will help in increasing credibility for domain. 

Higher PR for webpages, more number of links pointing to inner pages of the site increase crawl-ability of search engine crawlers, which ensures that all of your webpages will be stored in search engine database for more keywords.

So a good PR website with good credibility get's higher preference for search rankings but just by adding pages to website doesn't ensures for higher search engine rankings.

To improve search rankings for your website you need to plan for a good SEO strategy and follow On-Page optimization SEO process along with quality link building techniques which helps in improving page rank for the web pages and also helps in improving Domain Authority. 

Top 8 steps for SEO campaign strategy planning

SEO Campaign Strategy Planning

Most frequent question asked by webmasters or SEO guys is "How to start with SEO strategy for a new campaign or website?"

Here we will be talking about some of the basic and important steps to consider while planning for SEO strategy.

Before starting SEO for any website there are few queries which should be answered:

1. What is the targeted Geography for the website?
2. What is the targeted audience segment for website?
3. What kind of services or products website is offering?
4. What is the main USP for the website?
5. Who are the competitors?
6. Is there any other Online Marketing being done for the website?
7. Are there any specific product or services for which webmaster want to rank first?
8. Are there any specific targeted keywords which should be focused first?
9. Is there any historical data present which can be shared?
10. How audience is currently reaching to website?

All of the above questions are for existing websites and some are for new websites launched.

SEO strategy planning points :

Planning for SEO strategy differs from industry to industry, but few are some basic points which remains common for every industry :

 1. Understand and read the website:

First thing before starting SEO for any website, all the webmasters should sit and give enough time to understand the website. This helps webmasters to know about the website

• Product or Services Offered 
• Targeted Audience
• Targeted Geography
• USP of Website
• Issues with Website
• Limitations with Website

Along with above points a detailed discussion with web owner can help in understanding what exactly he/she is looking as a outcome of the website.

 2. Identify the competitors:

After reading the website in depth, webmasters should look for the actual competitors present online. Now there can be a query "How to identify a competitor?" . 

There can be direct competitors for a website, which a web owner is aware about and want to compete with. If competitor's are not known to website then we can pick up some of our product name or services and see who all are ranking high for those terms. 

Competitor Analysis

Again there is one point to remember that, some informative websites like wikipedia or .gov, .edu, .coc kind of websites can rank high on search results as they are given high preference by search engines. We will have to be very careful while finalizing on competitors as given websites are not our direct competitor from business point of view.

After finalizing on competitors, we should analyze how they are promoting them selves online. Points to do in competitors analysis

• Domain Authority of Competitor's
• Page Authority of Competitor URL ranking
• Back link analysis for the URL's
• Keywords targeted for URL Ranking
• Anchor texts used for link building

 

3. Identify the keywords to target

Once done with competitor analysis now it's time for identifying keywords to target for website. Keywords are the most important factor for any website and for any SEO campaign to be successful. 

Identifying right set of keywords to target for website requires a deep analysis and market analysis. To do the keyword analysis we need to do:

Keywords Identification

• Do competitor analysis and come up with a keyword list what what they are targeting 
• Do market analysis using Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner to come up with different search volume keywords
• Do brain storming with in the team and with other people that what sort of keywords they will type to look for specific type of products or services
• Check for historical data (if available) and look for the keywords which have driven traffic to the site 

After coming up with a set of keywords, not it's time to filter keywords and come up with a more optimized list. 

Once keywords are finalized, we should pick one by one URL's of the website and should map relevant keywords to relevant pages. It should be taken care that only 3 to 4 keywords can be targeted on each page ( as all search engines have a limit to display characters in title tag). All the keywords should be arranged from high search volume to low search volume in a title as all the search engines start reading title from start and gives priority to initial words.

 4. Plan content for your website

Now it's a time for planning website content. Website content plays a major role for any website to get higher search visibility.

There are some basic tips to write quality content :

Ask Questions to Yourself

• Who is your targeted audience?
• What expected from that web page?
• What is the USP of the page?
• What should be targeted keywords for the page?

Write Text

• For readers not as an article or news
• Plain English should be used
• Concise



Web Content Creation

• Easy to understand

Use language

• Simple, familiar words
• Short sentences
• Short paragraphs
• Use the active voice ( direct message, not like a third party message)
• Use positive language
• Structure content for your intended reader

Space around text

• Use of headlines
• Short sentences
• Short paragraphs
• Bullet points

Information

Search engines and users look for information. Include your main message and keywords at top of your content

• Initial paragraph should contain main message and important keywords to target
• Break your content in paragraphs and sentences

Understandable Content

• Relevant, consistent and meaningful headings with a logical hierarchy
• Content should be well organized and easily to navigate
• Use easy-to-read text styles
• Put key ideas at the top of the page and at the start of each paragraph

5. Identify, Correct and Plan for SEO On-Page Optimization

On-Page Optimization

After completing above tasks, now let's move on to On-Page SEO optimization. First thing before starting the on-page SEO, webmasters should analyzed the complete website from technical point of view, architectural point of view, and on-page point of view.

Webmasters should always see that if any on-page activity is already done or not, whether current On-Page
tags are fine or not, how much modification is required ( as per finalized keywords and web content).

Webmasters should go page by page for on-page SEO for any website as it doesn't give any chance to miss on important factors of SEO for individual pages.

On-page is an important factor for website as search engines stores websites based on that and also users click on search results based on on-page tags visible there.

6. Plan for your Link Building Techniques

Once you are done with your on-page activity for all the pages present on the site, you should move on and work on your link building techniques.

To start with link building techniques planning, you should know :

Off-Page Activity

• Where your competitor's are present?
• Where users can find your website? 
• How would you like to reach to your users?
• Where exactly is your targeted audience present?

Based on above points we can finalize on what back link techniques will exactly work for us. 

But there is one point to be considered that Social Media channels should be part of your link building techniques as they are the most appropriate place to find targeted audience and increase traffic.

Social media channels are given preference by search engines as those are the places where user can write some content. All the search engines give preferences to user generated content, reviews and ratings which actually tells about the popularity of website. 

Webmaster should focus on Facebook Marketing, Twitter, Linkidin, Pinterest etc.

Only thing while planning for back link techniques is that places which are finalized for link building should be relevant, should be active place ( regular updates happening), should have some good page rank (try for min PR 4)

7. Create or Analyze Google Accounts Setup

Although this is one of the initial activity to perform, but can be done before actually implementing all the strategies for the campaign.

Webmasters should create Google Webmaster, Google Analytics and Bing Webmaster account to track performance of the website. Webmaster account can be created by verifying account through a file upload method or some html tags adding method. Analytic account can be set up by adding analytic code on each and every page of website.

Webmasters should create proper sitemap.xml and robots.txt file and update it on root folder of the website. 

Given tools are helpful from performance tracking and planning future strategy.

8. Monitoring, Reporting and Changing strategy

Once done with every aspect of strategy, planning and implementation now it's time to monitor the strategy impact on website.

Previously webmasters used to track keywords ranking and traffic coming through those keywords but since Google has stopped sharing keywords data now it's more important to focus on landing pages driving traffic to the site. 

You can check which pages are driving traffic to your site and see what all keywords are mapped against those keywords. By checking ranking for those keywords we can estimate which keyword might have brought traffic to your site. 

Continuous monitoring and analyzing of account gives a sense how your strategy is performing for the campaign. If you are not getting results are expected then should think about changing strategy or if strategy is giving you expected results, keep on looking for industry trends so that you can bring required changes in your strategy.

SEO Off-Page : Link Building Tips and Techniques

SEO Off-Page Optimization : Tips and Techniques to get quality back links

Friends after having a detailed explanation about overall SEO  and On-Page Optimization tips  and techniques, here we are going to talk about Off-Page SEO and it's techniques.

What is Off Page SEO or Link Building?

Different webmasters have different prospective about Off-Page SEO techniques. Off-Page SEO optimization also know as link building is a technique used to promote your website on different channels present online. 

This techniques is used to build authority and popularity of your website and also to get back links from different high authority websites.

SEO off-page is all about how many quality and relevant back links you can have for your website. Based on quality and relevancy search engines defines priority for your website and provides you position on search engines result pages.

Why to Do Link Building?

This is one very important question which almost every webmaster will have in their mind. Off-page activity or link building is required because search engine robots or crawlers cannot come to know automatically that there is a new page or website present online which they have to store in their database.

To inform search engines we need to place or submit our links on such websites where crawlers are already crawling.

Types of Link Building

There are three ways of link building :

1. Three Way Link Building (No More Recommended)
2. Two Way Link Building (No More Recommended)
3. One Way Link Building

Three Way Link Building 

Historically when search engines started giving preference to number of links pointing back to any website and considering it one of the important factor for ranking, webmasters used to take illegal ways to get backlinks.

Three way links were where webmasters used to link there network websites with each other. This way getting a back link was very easy without any actual effort required. Google specifically looks for natural links, so Google started neglecting such kind of back links.

Google strictly says no to three way linking as this way webmasters who are having a good network online will gain more and their bad quality website will get ranking.

Two Way Backlinks

Two way back links are those where one website links to another and gets a link back from other website as well. 

Webmasters used to do this by having a link page on the site and asking other websites to link them and giving a link back from their link page. 

Google again don't promote such activity as webmaster misuses this process and exchange links with other websites without any actual effort putting in.

One Way Backlink

One way back linking is the preferred method by all the search engines. This is the way where webmasters have to put effort to get back links from other website. This may be through content syndication, liking or sharing.

Before Penguin and Panda updates there were many methods of getting back links for a website but after these updates getting a back link for websites has become very difficult.

Methods to get quality back links for website

1. Directory Submission 
2. Article Writing
3. Blog Writing
4. Blog Commenting
5. Forum Commenting
6. Question Answer Sites
7. Classifieds
8. .gov, .edu, .coc websites back links 

All the above methods are considered to be traditional methods of getting back links. These methods are still important from link building point of view.

1. Social Bookmarking
2. Link Wheel
3. Web 2.0 Properties Creation
4. Video Optimization
5. Guest Blogging
6. Info-graphics
7. Social Media Sharing
8. Asset Optimization ( Press Release, PDF's, Documents, Presentations, White Papers) 

Above are some of the new ways to create back links for your site.

Most important factor while doing link building activity for any site is to remember about relevancy and quality. 

How to measure quality of back link

There are few measurement criteria to check quality back link

• High Page Rank ( PR should be at least 4 or above)
• High Domain Authority
• High Page Authority
• Relevant
• Domain should not be a parked domain ( no activity from a long time)
• No Spamming

Is Paid Back Linking a Good Exercise?

There are different views about paid back linking. As per Google paid linking is absolutely fine till the time link provider is not giving a DO Follow Back Link . If a paid link is NO Follow Back Link  it is absolutely fine to have them.

But it should also be kept in mind that paid links should be minimum and more focus should remain around natural back links.

On - Page SEO (Search Engine Optimization) : All you would like to know about

On-Page SEO (Search Engine Optimization) : Tips & Best Practices

We had a detailed explanation about SEO and different parameter of SEO in last post "All you want to know about SEO". Today we will be talking about On - Page SEO.

There are different standard factors of On-Page SEO :

1. Web Content
2. URL Structure 
3. Title Tag
4. Meta Description
5. Meta Keywords ( Not Important from Google point of view, but some search engines still give preference to meta keywords)
6. Alt Tags (Image Tags)
7. Heading Tags
8. Title Attribute
9. Sitemap.html
10. Sitemap.xml
11. Robots.txt

Here we will be discussing each and every point in a detailed manner.

Content Writing

Web Content

As we all know that "Content is King" in digital world. We all need to be very particular about how we write our web copy content. 

Writing content for web is completely different from article writing, blog writing or any other style of content writing. 

Writing for Web:

Writing for web is different then writing for any other properties like news paper, magazine etc. Web Content always should be responsive, interactive, informative and detailed descriptive for the product or service offered by your website. 

Web content should be always written keeping users in mind and should include keywords which a user can generally search for. 

Identically web content should not be more then  250 words and should written in different paragraphs ( each paragraph having a different heading). Also it should be taken care that uses of keywords should be limited ( 3% to 4%). 

"Google and other search engines always look for fresh and quality content, so it should be kept in mind that there should not be any copied content on your webpages."

URL Structure:

URL structure is another important factor for search engine ranking. Most of the search engines prefer URL's which contain targeted keyword in the URL structure.

There are basically two kind of URL's 

- Dynamic URL

- Static URL

Dynamic URL's are the one which are system generated. These URL's will be mainly seen for E-Commerce portals where products are listed in database and whenever a query is generated for specific product, it's product ID is added to URL with special characters like ?,&,#,= .

"Previously Google was not considering dynamic URL's SEO friendly as it was not able to read and understand special characters but now Google has started ranking dynamic URL's as well."

As per Search Engine Land Google say, in bold, “avoid reformatting a dynamic URL to make it look static.” But Google also admitted that “static URLs might have a slight advantage in terms of clickthrough rates.” However, Google said “dynamic URLs should be favored over hiding parameters to make them look static.” 

Statatic URL's are the one which contains proper folder structure and page name and creates a user friendly URL. Static URL's are considered to be more SEO friendly as they are easy to understand for users and search engine crawlers both.

Dynamic URL's can always be converted to static URL using 301 redirection. 

Title Tag

Title Tag is basically used to define what individual pages are talking about. Title tag is one of the critical factor for every web page as Google and other search engines provides top level priority to it. 

Title tag should contain at max four keywords separated by , or | . Top priority keyword should be placed at first place while writing title.

Ideal limit for a title tag should be 65 to 70 characters, as Google display limit of title in search results is around that. But it should also be kept in mind that a message should be completely conveyed through it and should have some call to action, which can motivate users to click on particular URL.

Title tag should be unique for each page.

Meta Description 

Meta description is a short description about the page. It should contain product specification, or service details present on this and should have a call to action which can provoke user to check the page. 

Ideally a message which you want to convey to your audience should be written with in the limit of 150 characters as Google can not display more characters then that in search results. Your audience will be able to see only 150 characters and they will take their action based on that.

Unique meta description should be written for individual pages, which creates a differentiation between them.

Only thing to note is that there should not be a unnecessary repetition of keywords. 

Meta Keywords

Meta keywords are no more useful for higher search engine ranking on Google. It is absolutely fine we we don't include them on our page. But since there are other search engines who considers meta keywords as one of the ranking factor, you should always include them. 

Ideal length of meta keywords is also 150 characters where different variations of targeted keywords can be included.

Alt Tags

Alt tags or image tags are used to define an image for search engines. For every image present on your webpage there should be an Alt tag as it tells search engine what that image is talking about. 

It should be kept in mind that images should be named properly before using it on webpage, should not leave image names as image1.jpeg, image2.jpeg etc. Naming images helps search engines to identify images. 

Also it should be taken care that images used should be in .jpeg or .jpg format as they are lighter in weight.

Heading Tags

Heading tags are basically used to tell search engines about the important topics on a particular web page. There are six different heading tags starting from H1 till H6. H1 is provided to highest and most important heading of the page.

It should be taken care that heading tags include your keyword and it should not be way too long.

Title Attribute

Title attributes are assigned with hyperlinks present on website. Hyperlinks informs search engines what that hyperlink is about.

You can check title attribute by moving mouse over hyperlink (if present).

Sitemap.html

Sitemap.html is a file which contains all the links present on website (hyperlink format) arranged as per the folder structure. 

This is an another page present on website where user can check for all the available pages on the site and navigate around.

Sitemap.html is also helpful from search engines point of view as it one of the good way for internal linking, which is considered to be good from SEO point of view.

Sitemap.xml

Sitemap.xml file is created for search engine crawlers. This file is uploaded on root folder of website ( on server where website is hosted) and then verified through Google Webmaster. 

Sitemap.xml file is not directly visible to users. It contains all the URL's of website which works like a single destination for search engine crawlers to crawl all the pages present on the site. Crawlers don't have to navigate through the site to find the links present there.

You can also define frequency of crawling over here.

Robots.txt

Robots.txt file is created to inform search engine crawlers that which pages on website they are allowed to crawl and which they are not. 

This file is a .txt file uploaded at the root level or web folder. 

Overall we have covered most of the important On-Page SEO factors. Will keep posting about online marketing in future.

Penguin 2.1 Update - Another Spam Filtering Update by Google

Google Penguin Update 2.1 

Google's head of search spam Matt Cutt announced a latest release of Penguin update 2.1 on 4th of Oct 2013. It is said to be believe that this second generation update is going to effect almost 1% of search queries. 

Still there are lot's of talks happening around this latest update, but nothing has been officially announced that what are the actual changes and how they are going to effect the search queries.

Penguin 2.0 version was released on 22nd of May 2013 which effected almost 2.3% of English queries. After the launch of penguin 2.0 Matt Cutt said that it was fourth launch related to penguin but Google claimed it to be penguin 2.0 release as it was a algorithm change not just a data refresh.

First Google penguin algorithm was launched in April 2012 which was focused on reducing the spamming activity on internet. Later Google release two different versions of algorithm in May and October of 2012.

As per webpronews.com Google's comment on initial launch of algorithm was "The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines. We’ve always targeted webspam in our rankings, and this algorithm represents another improvement in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content. While we can’t divulge specific signals because we don’t want to give people a way to game our search results and worsen the experience for users, our advice for webmasters is to focus on creating high quality sites that create a good user experience and employ white hat SEO methods instead of engaging in aggressive webspam tactics."

All you want to know about SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Search Engine Optimization : Tips & Tehniques

SEO always has been a misery for all the webmaster, as it  is complicated to define the right techniques for right way of doing SEO. Every Single SEO experts have their own way of defining SEO techniques.

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization (Organic and Natural results ) is an online marketing technique to get higher search engine visibility in different search engines. 

Search Engine Optimization

Why an Industry requires SEO for their online business?

Their are many statistics, figures and articles available online who defines the importance of SEO for any online business. This is an important aspect of marketing to reach out the targeted audience present online who are looking for your business services and products.

Important facts why SEO for my website :

• Almost 85% to 90% users click on organic results 
• Conversion rate for a user is more through higher search engine visibility in organic results
• Users trust organic results more than paid results
• SEO results stays for longer terms in comparison to paid results
• Credibility is always higher for organic results 

Why SEO

After knowing the importance of SEO, it is required to understand how to do SEO in correct manner.

Types of SEO :

SEO is broadly divided in two main category 

• On-Page SEO
• Off-Page SEO       
  

But here we will understand SEO in four different ways

• Technical SEO
• Architectural SEO
• On-Page SEO
• Off-Page SEO

 Technical SEO : 

There are many technical factors which are considered to be very important from SEO point of view. A webmaster should always take care of :

1. Website/Webpage load time 
2. Redirection 
3. HTML and CSS errors
4. Coding Issues 
5. Error Page

1. Website/Webpage load time : Website or webpage load time plays important role in SEO. Search engines do consider how quickly webpages load for users on different internet speeds.

Check your webpage speed

2. Redirection : There are two different redirection 301 redirection and 302 redirection. 301 redirection is permanent redirection which is used when a page has to be moved permanently to another page. 302 redirection is temporary redirection used to move one page to another in temporary way.

Proper redirection are very important as this way websites does not loose their targeted audience.

3. HTML & CSS Errors: Search engines do look for a bug free and error free coded website. Check your website errors @ W3C Validation 

4. Coding Issues: There should be no error in code. Errors can be like broken links, missing links or too much use of scripts, external functions calling or any other sort of other coding errors.

5. Error Page (404): Webmaster should always create a 404 error page for their website, so that if users look for a non existing page they should visit that page. This way webmasters can ensure of not losing their targeted audience.

Architectural SEO:

There are few below points for architectural SEO:

1. Web folder structure & naming

2. Proper navigation 

3. Use of breadcrumb

 1. Web folder structure and naming : Webmasters should ensure that they should have a properly named folder structure and all the pages should be stored under respective web folders. i.e there should be a proper hierarchy defined for webpages which helps users and search engines in understanding of website.

 2. Proper Navigation : There should be a proper navigational structure present on website, which should be easy to understand and helps users to navigate through the site. There should not any issue where users are not able to find a way to reach a particular page on the site.

3. Use of Breadcrumb: Search engines have started giving preference to breadcrumbs. Breadcrumb is a kind of navigation panel for users and search engines, which shows the users journey on the website.

On-Page SEO: 

On-Page SEO consists of many important factors 

1. Domain Name
2. URL Structure & Naming
3. Meta Tags - Title, Description & Keywords
4. Web Content
5. Image Tags
6. Heading Tags
7. Title Attribute
8. Sitemap.html & sitemap.xml file
9. robots.txt file

1. Domain Name : While thinking of a website development, first think which should come in mind for webmaster is the right selection of domain name. if domain name includes targeted business or industry main keyword, it is always said to be good from SEO point of view.

2. URL Structure and Naming : URL naming part we have already covered by doing a proper web folder structure.

Previously search engines were not able to read special characters like @, & ? + = in a dynamic URL, due to which redirection were required to change a dynamic URL into a static URL.

 For example in above image we can see that a dynamic URL got ranking in search results.

3. Mata tags : Titla, Description are very much important for each page, as it clearly defines what each page is talking about. We need to define them effectively so that a proper message can be transferred to users and search engine crawlers  that what they will get when they come to particular page.

Meta keywords used to play an important role in search engine rankings, but Google has stopped giving priority to that. If a webmaster is targeting Google, then he does not have to worry about meta keywords. But it is not harmful to use meta keywords as there are other search engines as well, who do consider keywords as part of their ranking algorithm.

4. Web Content: Content is king online. 

Every search engine looks for fresh, quality and user engaging content. So if you have a very good and quality content written on your website keeping user engagement and interest in mind, you should not be much worry about getting higher search engine visibility.

5. Image Tags : Image tags or Alt tags are attributes assigned with each image present on a webpage. Webmasters should always name all the images properly present on their website and they should try and keep image small in size so that webpage does not become to heavy.

6. Heading Tags: There are six different heading tags present from H1, H2, H3 to H6.

7. Title Attribute : These attributes are basically assigned with links present on webpages. Title attribute helps search engines to know what that link is going to talk about.

8. Sitemap.html and Sitemap.xml file : Both the sitemap are made to make search engines and users journey easy on website.

Sitemap.html file is one stop for users where they can see all the web URL's present on that site. This file also helps from internal link point of view and search engines can easily navigate through the site.

Sitemap.xml file is especially created for search engine crawlers. With this file crawlers come to know about all the links present on website and also the frequency at which they have to revisit the page.

9. Robots.txt : Robots.txt file is created for search engine crawlers to define what all pages they are allowed to crawl or not.

Off-Page SEO: 

With Google algorithm updates like Penguin and Panda, off page activities or link building activities have become very complicated.

Main idea for link building is now to focus on quality and relevancy not on quantity. 

Also user generated content or to be particular social media participation has started playing a big role in search engine rankings.

Best Off-Page techniques :

1. Social networking platforms sharing 
2. Content distribution or syndication on high quality Article Sites, Blogs
3. Social Bookmarking
4. Forum Participation
5. Asset Optimization - Document Sharing, PDF Sharing, PPT Sharing, Press Release, Videos etc
6. Guest Blogging
7. Classifieds
8. Directory Submission - Now a days not much priority is given to these sites

Off-page or link building activities differs as per the industries as it completely depends where exactly your audience is present.

US Government shut down Impact on Online Industry

Government Shut Down Impact on Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

A shut down of US Government as impacted many US .gov sites where we can easily see a message being populated “Due to the lapse in federal government funding, this website is not available. We sincerely regret this inconvenience.”

What exactly does US Government shutdown mean?

As per Wikipedia "On October 1, 2013, the United States federal government entered a shutdown suspending discretionary services deemed "non-excepted" by the Anti-deficiency Act. Because of the government's failure to enact regular appropriations or a continuing resolution for the 2014 fiscal year, appropriations have lapsed and about 800,000 federal employees were indefinitely furloughed without pay, while another 1.3 million "excepted" employees were required to report to work indefinitely without pay until a budget is passed."

US government has experience similar situation in year 1995-96.

But as we all know that this situation is not a permanent one and one day all issues will be resolved. Once US government is on track all the .gov sites will again start providing useful and informative information to audience looking for that.

Again for .gov websites there is one issue that once those sites are back it will take time to get crawled and indexed by search engines like Bing and Google.

For such sites, there can be two different solutions :

1) Place a 404 Page : .gov sites should place a 404 error page having a message stating "Page you are looking for is not available" 

2) 302 Redirection : .gov sites can place 302 temporary redirection as well, which will redirect users to home page or error message page.

By implementing above two methods webmasters can ensure that previous URL's will remain the same and they will not lose their audience. 

Get more information on Search Engine Land .

Google Confirms Webmaster Bug

Google confirms webmaster tool bug and ensures that it will be resolved in coming weeks

As per Search Engine Land, Google has confirmed that they had a bug in their webmaster reporting tool. Due to which webmasters were not able to see any search query data from 25th Sep onward.

Google has said that search query data from webmaster are delayed as of now and it can be expected to return to normal results in coming days.

We were not able to see any search query data from 25th sep onward, but now data is available for 26th Sep as well but not for after dates.

Google webmaster tool has experienced many bugs in past, but now since Google has stopped passing keywords data through search engines, it has become very much important to get information through webmaster tool.

Waiting for Google to completely resolve this Bug.

Google Webmaster Blocks Search Queries (Keywords) Data

Another update or Google step towards not sharing Keywords data with Webmasters

Google has come up with yet another move, to not provide keywords information for users by blocking search queries information through webmaster tool.

In October 2011, Google changed the way it harvests data from search to protect users’ privacy.

If a user is logged into a Google product (such as Gmail, Google Plus, Youtube, etc) while searching, their search is conducted over SSL (Secure Socket Layer). As such, the referral data relating to that search is hidden.                                                                                               

SSL process of displaying keywords (Keywords Unavailable or Not Provided ) hit hard on online marketing agencies who completely depends on keywords data and analysis.

Initially SSL searches were limited to personalized searches, but recently Google updated it's search method and changed it's search result process to SSL searches. So now all the searches happening on Google are secured searches, and as a digital marketing agency you won't be able to see which keyword drove traffic to your website.

Google's new move of stopping keywords data from webmaster account has given another shock to digital market.

As per many blogs, forums and conversation happening on Twitter it is confirmed that webmasters around the world are not able to see any keyword data from 25th Sep.

As per Search Engine Land Founding Editor Danny Sullivan it may be a bug as well as similar incidents have happened in past. Search engine land tried to reach Google for the detailed information on same, but did not receive any response.

So friends let's wait and watch what new change Google brings in.