Central Perk

luni, 21 mai 2012

7 Achievable Steps For Great SEO After The Penguin Update

Posted: 20 May 2012 02:03 PM PDT

The Penguin update sent a strong message that not knowing SEO basics is going to be dangerous in the future. You have to have the basics down or you could be at risk. Penguin is a signal from Google that these updates are going to continue at a rapid pace and they don't care what color your hat is, it's all about relevance. You need to take a look at every seemingly viable "SEO strategy" with this lens. What you don't know can hurt you. It's not that what you are doing is wrong or bad, the reality is that the march towards relevance is coming faster than ever before. Google doesn't care what used to work, they are determined to provide relevance and that means big changes are the new normal.

eHow / Demand Media after the Panda update

All that said doing great SEO is an achievable goal, make sure you are taking these steps.

1. Understand your link profile

This is essential knowledge post Penguin. The biggest risk factors are a combination of lots of low quality links with targeted anchor text. There seems to be some evidence that there is a new 60% threshold for matching anchor text but don't forget about the future, I recommend at most 2 rankings focused anchor texts out of 10. The key metrics I look at for this are:

Anchor text distribution
The link type distribution (for example, article, comment, directory, etc.)
Domain Authority and Page Authority distributions

The goal here is to find out what is currently going on and where you should be going. Compare your site with the examples below.

Tools for this:

For anchor text Open Site Explorer gives you an immediate snapshot of what's going on while MajesticSEO and Excel can be better at digging into some of the really spammy links.

Distilled Anchor Text

Natural anchor text profile

Great Excel templates for DA/PA analysis

Natural Domain Authority profile

For link type analysis I use Link Detective but it seems to be down at the moment (please come back!).

Link Detective

UNNATURAL link type profile

2. Learn what makes a good link

Great links:

Come from respected brands, sites, people and organizations
Exist on pages that lots of other sites link to
Provide value to the user
Are within the content of the page
Aren't replicated many times over on the linking site

Those are lofty requirements but there is a lot of evidence that these high value links are really the main drivers of a domain's link authority. At the 1:00 mark Matt Cutts talks about how many links are actually ignored by Google:

That's not to say there isn't wiggle room but the direction of the future is quite clear, you have no control over how Google or Bing values your links and there's plenty of evidence that sometimes they get it wrong. The beauty of getting great links is that they aren't just helping you rank, they are VALUABLE assets for your business SEO value aside. At Distilled this was one of the primary ways we built our business, it's powerful stuff.

3. Map out your crawl path

This is a simple goal but it can be very difficult for larger sites. If it's really complex and hard to figure out then it's going to be hard for Google to crawl. There are few bigger wins in SEO than getting content that wasn't previously being indexed out there working for you.

Crawl Path

Sitemaps unfortunately can only help you so much in terms of getting things indexed. Furthermore, putting the pages that are the most important higher up in the crawl path lets you prioritize which pages get passed the most link authority.

4. Know about every page type and noindex the low value ones

I have never consulted on a website that didn't have duplicate or thin content somewhere. The real issue here is not that duplicate content always causes problems or a penalty but rather if you don't understand the structure of your website you don't know what *could* be wrong. Certainty is a powerful thing, knowing that you can confidently invest in your website is very important.

So how do you do it?

A great place to start is to use Google to break apart the different sections of your site:

Start with a site search in Google
Now add on to the search removing one folder or subdomain at a time
Compare this number you get to the amount of pages you expect in that section and dig deeper if the number seems high

Note: The number of indexed pages that Google features here can be extremely inaccurate; the core idea is to reveal areas for further investigation. As you go through these searches go deeper into the results with inflated numbers. Duplicate and thin content will often show up after the first 100 results.

5. Almost never change your URLs

It's extremely common to change URLs, reasons like new design, new content management systems, new software, new apps... But this does serious damage and even if you manage it perfectly the 301 redirects cut a small portion of the value of EVERY single link to the page. And no one handles it perfectly. One of my favorite pieces of software Balsamiq has several thousand links and 500+ linking root domains pointed at 404s and blank pages. Balsamiq is so awesome they rank their head terms anyway but until you are Balsamiq cool you might need those links.

Balsamiq links

If you are worried that you have really bad URLs that could be causing problems Dr. Pete has already done a comprehensive analysis of when you should consider changing them. And then you only do it once.

6. Setup SEO monitoring

This is an often overlooked step in the process. As we talked about before if your content isn't up and indexed any SEO work is going to go to waste. Will Critchlow has already done a great job outlining how to monitor your website:

Watch for traffic drops with Google Analytics custom alerts
Monitor your uptime with services like Pingdom
Monitor what pages you noindex with meta tags or robots.txt (you would be shocked how often this happens)

Some more tools to help you keep an eye out for problems:

Dave Sottimano's traffic and rankings drop diagnosis tool
Google Analytics Debugger
The various rank tracking tools
SEOmoz's Google Analytics hook formats landing pages sending traffic in an easy graph

7. Embrace inbound marketing

To me inbound marketing is just a logical progression from SEO, thinking about your organic traffic in a vacuum really just doesn't make sense. Dedicate yourself to improving your website for your users and they will reward you, Balsamiq which I mentioned earlier is a perfect example of this. I guarantee you they have done little to no SEO and yet they rank first for their most important keywords and have a Domain Authority of 81. How did they do it? Less features.

balsamiq process

So what does that really mean? Balsamiq had a rigorous dedication to what their customers really wanted. That's really good marketing, smart business and intelligent product design all in one. Remember the future is all about relevance to your users, if you aren't actively seeking this you will get left behind. There is no excuse anymore there are plenty of proven examples of making seemingly boring page types fascinating and engaging.

Want to learn more?

If you need more high impact changes to your SEO check out the topic list for SearchLove San Francisco, it's the first time Distilled is going to be doing a conference on the West Coast.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

Go Long!

Your Daily Snapshot for
Monday, May 21, 2012

Go Long!

Over the weekend, the President traveled to Camp David for the annual G8 Summit before heading to Chicago to host the NATO Summit, a gathering of leaders from the 28 member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

After the NATO working dinner, the President took a few minutes to throw around a football on Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears.

Check out a photo gallery of the President's trip.

President Barack Obama throws a football on the field at Soldier Field following the NATO working dinner in Chicago, Illinois, May 20, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Tonight in Joplin

Nearly a year ago, devastating tornadoes ravaged the Joplin, Missouri, area, and the resilience of the Joplin community in the face of tragedy has continued to inspire the country. Tonight, the President will travel to Joplin, to speak at the Joplin High School Commencement Ceremony.

Watch the address at 9:15 p.m. EDT on WhiteHouse.gov/Live.

Seth's Blog : You will be judged (or you will be ignored)

You will be judged (or you will be ignored)

Those are pretty much the only two choices.

Being judged is uncomfortable. Snap judgments, prejudices, misinformation... all of these, combined with not enough time (how could there be) to truly know you, means that you will inevitably be misjudged, underestimated (or overestimated) and unfairly rejected.

The alternative, of course, is much safer. To be ignored.

Up to you.

• Email to a friend •

duminică, 20 mai 2012

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Fear vs. Anger: Door-to-Door Fear-Mongering in Ireland on Merkozy Referendum; Expect Fear-Mongering in Greece as Well

Posted: 20 May 2012 10:07 AM PDT

Door-to-Door May Drive Irish Towards Yes Vote in Referendum on Merkozy Pact.

In a hard-fought battle to convince Irish voters to back Europe's unpopular fiscal discipline treaty, Ireland's deputy finance minister has the task of convincing the leafy Dublin suburb of Templeogue.

Going door-to-door, Brian Hayes faces scepticism and occasional abuse. One constituent calls him "a waste of space", another "just a yes man".

"If Greece goes down we are next in the firing line. I know people who are trying to put their money into US dollars. We just don't know what is going to happen here," says Mr O'Reilly.

"This referendum is all about fear on the one side and anger on the other," says David Farrell, professor of politics at University College Dublin. "Most people have no great deal of enthusiasm for it and will only vote reluctantly in this referendum."

"The sight of soup kitchens in Greece on TV screens is concentrating minds," says Mr Hayes, as he goes door-to-door hammering home his message.

The dominant theme of the campaign so far is a claim by the government that rejecting the treaty would bar Ireland from receiving funds from Europe's new bailout fund – the European Stability Mechanism. Without this insurance policy, Dublin says, Ireland will struggle to exit its EU and International Monetary Fund bailout programme on schedule at the end of 2013.

"The government is scaremongering rather than arguing the merits of the treaty. Most people are opposed to this treaty but are scared out of their wits," says Paul Murphy, a Socialist member of the European Parliament and prominent No campaigner.

Nothing bad can possibly happen if this treaty is rejected. Accepting more bailout funds from the IMF or ESM would be the absolute worst thing for Ireland.

Indeed, accepting funds from the Troika is one of the things that destroyed Greece, and it is pathetic that clueless, brainless, scare-mongering political shills for Brussels are now going door-to-door in an attempt to convince Irish voters the exact opposite.

Heading into the Greek June 17 national elections, expect to see door-to-door fear-mongering in Greece as well.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

First Time Ever - Majority of Unemployed Have Some College Education; Five Solutions to Education, Student-Loan Crisis

Posted: 19 May 2012 11:42 PM PDT

Those who think the answer to the unemployment problem is more education might be surprised to learn the Majority of Unemployed Attended College.

For the first time in history, the number of jobless workers age 25 and up who have attended some college now exceeds the ranks of those who settled for a high school diploma or less.

Out of 9 million unemployed in April, 4.7 million had gone to college or graduated and 4.3 million had not, seasonally adjusted Labor Department data show.

click on chart for sharper image

In 2011, 57% of those 25 and up had attended some college vs. 43% in 1992. Those without a high school diploma fell from 21% to 12% over that span.

But along with the increasing prevalence of college attendance has come a growing number of dropouts, who have left school burdened by student loan debt but without much to kick-start their careers.

Among everyone up to age 24 who has left college or earned a two-year degree — including those not actively searching — the full-time employment-to-population ratio has plummeted from 69% in 2000 to 62% in 2003 to 54%.

This has occurred even as student lending and enrollment at community colleges has soared, elevating the student loan crisis to the center of political debate and a rallying cry for the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Those who graduated with a four-year degree fared better employment-wise but many of those still struggle with student loans. Many other end up underemployed in retail sector jobs as opposed to the curriculum they studied.

Student loans are a trillion dollar problem, and growing every quarter. President Obama wants more student loans, but all that does is make many graduates debt slaves for the rest of their lives.

The cost of education is preposterous and the solutions are easy to describe.

Five Solutions

Kill federally funded student loan program entirely. Student loans do nothing but drive up the cost of education. Anyone can get a student loan because the loans are guaranteed and cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. The beneficiaries of this horrendous setup are teachers and administrators, not the kids receiving loans.
Kill state aid to colleges as well
Increase competition by accrediting more online universities, even foreign universities. This will drive down costs immensely.
Public unions are a huge part of the reason for driving up teacher salaries, so collective bargaining (collective coercion actually), must end.
High school counselors and parents must educate kids that there simply are no realistic chances for those graduating with degrees in political science, history, English, art, and literally dozens of other useless or nearly-useless majors.

The deflationary overhang of student debt is enormous. Those in debt will postpone buying homes, getting married, starting families, and spending money in general.

The only solution is to ensure kids to not get into massive debt in the first place. The way to achieve that is to drive down the cost of education.

Sadly the Obama administration (like many before it and many at the state level as well) has done nothing but throw money at the problem, rewarding unions and administrators while making debt slaves of kids as education costs spiral out of control.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Seth's Blog : A true story

A true story

Of course, that's impossible.

There's no such thing as a true story. As soon as you start telling a story, making it relevant and interesting to me, hooking it into my worldviews and generating emotions and memories, it ceases to be true, at least if we define true as the whole truth, every possible fact, non-localized and regardless of culture.

Since you're going to tell a story, you might as well get good at it, focus on it and tell it in a way that you're proud of.

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luni, 21 mai 2012

7 Achievable Steps For Great SEO After The Penguin Update

7 Achievable Steps For Great SEO After The Penguin Update

1. Understand your link profile

Tools for this:

2. Learn what makes a good link

3. Map out your crawl path

4. Know about every page type and noindex the low value ones

So how do you do it?

5. Almost never change your URLs

6. Setup SEO monitoring

7. Embrace inbound marketing

Want to learn more?

Go Long!

Seth's Blog : You will be judged (or you will be ignored)

You will be judged (or you will be ignored)

More Recent Articles

duminică, 20 mai 2012

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Seth's Blog : A true story

A true story

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luni, 21 mai 2012

1. Understand your link profile

Tools for this:

2. Learn what makes a good link

3. Map out your crawl path

4. Know about every page type and noindex the low value ones

So how do you do it?

5. Almost never change your URLs

6. Setup SEO monitoring

7. Embrace inbound marketing

Want to learn more?

More Recent Articles

duminică, 20 mai 2012

More Recent Articles

Pagini

Persoane interesate

Arhivă blog

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