Free search engine ranking facts newsletter

Our free search engine ranking facts newsletter offers valuable information about search engine optimization. Each issue contains one main article and links to all important search engine news items of the week.

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Recent search engine news

  • How to GEO target Google

    15 July 2008 - Do you want to get customers from outside the United States? Is your business located in Europe or another part of the world? There are a few things to consider if your website is aimed at people outside the United States.

  • Step-by-step guide: How to get high quality links

    08 July 2008 - Link building is one of the most important search engine optimization steps. Without good inbound links, your website cannot get high rankings. These four easy steps will help you to link your website with some of the best sites on the Internet.

  • Top 4 reasons why your Google rankings have dropped

    01 July 2008 - Most webmasters face this problem sooner or later. The rankings of your website on Google have dropped and you don't know why this happened. Read this article to find out why this could happen to your website.

  • Does your CTR influence your Google rankings?

    24 June 2008 - Google uses the click through rate to rank the paid search results. The more clicks an ad gets, the higher it will be ranked in the search results. Does Google also use this method for the regular search results?

  • Does your website have no or the wrong Sitelinks in Google?

    10 June 2008 - More and more websites get Sitelinks in Google's search results. What are they, how can they help your website and how can you influence which links Google will use for your Sitelinks? What can you do if Google displays the wrong links?

  • All you need to know about duplicate content

    27 May 2008 - Although there is no such thing as a general duplicate content penalty it is difficult to get high rankings for a web page which contents can also be found on other web pages. What do search engines do with duplicate content and how can you avoid problems with duplicate content? All you need to know can be found in this article.

  • How to explain to your boss why website optimization is important

    20 May 2008 - People not involved in website optimization often have difficulty to understand search engine optimization and the different methods that are involved. If you have to explain the basic SEO concepts to your boss, the following list will help you.

  • Google's -60 penalty and how to avoid it

    13 May 2008 - During the last weeks, people in online forums observed some strange Google result changes. Rumor has it that there is a new -60 penalty. Which websites are penalized? How can you avoid getting penalized?

  • How much is a Google top ranking worth?

    06 May 2008 - High rankings on Google can make the difference between an extremely successful online business and a total failure. The position of your website in Google's search results can make or break your business. But how much exactly is a top ranking on Google worth? What can a top ranking on Google do for your business?

  • Can your website usability influence your search engine rankings?

    29 April 2008 - Do search engines care about the usability of your web pages? Does it make a difference whether your web pages are easy to navigate or not? A recent patent application from Yahoo indicates that search engines might take a look at your web page design.

  • A major Google algorithm update might be on the way

    08 April 2008 - Webmasters in a discussion forum have noticed changes in Google's search results. Do we have to expect a larger ranking algorithm update? How will this influence the ranking of your web pages in Google's search results?

  • Is your website text too complicated for your website visitors?

    01 April 2008 - Are you sure that your website visitors understand the text on your web pages? If your web pages are difficult to understand, you might not earn as much as you could with your website. There is a simple test that enables you to check the readability of your web pages.

  • Does your website look like spam to search engines?

    25 March 2008 - Is your website nowhere to be seen in Google? It might be that Google doesn't like your website because it looks like spam. Check this list to find out whether your website might look like spam or not.

  • Are your AdWords results getting worse?

    18 March 2008 - If you find that your per click prices are going through the roof while your conversions are going down you should check your AdWords strategy. These tips will help you to save a weak campaign.

  • How to get Google Sitelinks for your website

    11 March 2008 - Many webmasters wonder how they can make Google display additional Sitelinks for their websites. What exactly are Sitelinks, how can you get them and are they worth the effort?

  • Google's new method to detect duplicate content

    04 March 2008 - Google's new patent application on near duplicate content describes a new method how Google tries to keep its users from finding redundant content in the result pages. How does this affect your web pages?

  • Get top 10 rankings on Google with IBP 10

    19 February 2008 - We released the brand new version of our popular SEO software tool IBP. The new version IBP 10 has everything that you need to get top 10 rankings on Google, Yahoo and other search engines.

  • Google backs out of the position 6 penalty

    05 February 2008 - Three weeks ago, we informed you about Google's new position 6 penalty. At this time, it was unclear why Google assigned this penalty to some websites. It seems that Google doesn't use this penalty anymore. Why did this happen?

  • New technologies detect black-hat SEO methods

    29 January 2008 - Search engine optimization methods are divided in two categories: black hat SEO and white hat SEO. Recent developments indicate that websites that use black-hat methods will be in trouble soon.

  • Mosaic cloaking: a new form of search engine spam?

    22 January 2008 - Webmasters involved in rather shady search engine optimization methods invented a new form of cloaking. That new method has been called mosaic cloaking and it is an attempt to make cloaking less detectable.

  • Google's new position 6 penalty

    15 January 2008 - A discussion in an online webmaster forum indicates that Google might have invented a new ranking penalty for websites that rank well for popular search terms. Is your website affected by this penalty?

  • All important articles of 2007

    01 January 2008 - We published many articles in 2007 that will help you to get more out of your website. The categorized articles in this issue help you to increase the rankings on your website on Google and other major search engines.

  • Axandra's Christmas SEO crossword puzzle

    25 December 2007 - Instead of our regular weekly articles, news and facts, we decided to publish a Christmas crossword puzzle about search engine optimization this week. Have fun! :-)

  • How Google creates the description of your website for the result page

    18 December 2007 - Having high rankings on search engines is a great thing. However, it's also important that your web pages are displayed with an attractive description in the search results. If the description is not appealing to web surfers then they might not click the link.

  • Google warns against cloaking: we can detect it

    04 December 2007 - In a recent blog post, Google's anti-spam engineer Matt Cutts wrote about cloaking. The blog post makes several things clear. You put your website at risk if you use cloaking.

  • Are you paying too much for your AdWords ads? Change it now!

    20 November 2007 - Pay per click marketing can be a good addition to organic search engine optimization. However, if you do it wrong, pay per click will cost you a fortune without bringing results. If you do it right, AdWords ads will help you to make more money.

  • Reciprocal links are alive and kicking

    30 October 2007 - A while back there was quite a bit of scare mongering going around the SEO industry about how reciprocal links were dead. No, reciprocal links are not dead and now I have the proof.

  • Are you unintentionally spamming search engines?

    16 October 2007 - Are you sure that your website is free of hidden text? There are many ways to create hidden text unintentionally. Google might penalize your website for something you did not intend to do.

  • How to overcome Google's filter for new websites

    09 October 2007 - It's easier to get high rankings on Google with older websites than it is with new websites. Why is this so and what can you do to get high rankings on Google if you have a brand new website?

  • The perfect incoming link for high search engine rankings

    25 September 2007 - It's important that you get the right kind of links if you want to get high rankings on Google. If you have 20 good incoming links then you'll get better rankings than with 100 bad incoming links. So what makes a good incoming link? There are several points that can make a link better than other links.

  • 4 tips to increase your sales by creating a trustworthy website

    18 September 2007 - Even if you have high search engine rankings, people still might not buy from you. The reason for that is that your website might not be trustworthy. Of course, you need a professional web design to create trust. However, there are a few other things that are necessary to convince your website visitors that they should do business with you.

  • Top 3 tips to get indexed on Google within 48 hours

    11 September 2007 - If you have a new website then it takes some time until Google visits your web pages. Even if you submit your website to Google via their regular submission form, it usually takes weeks until Google visits your site. There are some things you can do so that Google indexes your web page within 48 hours and not within weeks.

  • The effect of unnatural linking patterns on your search engine rankings

    04 September 2007 - Inbound links are one of the most important factors that Google uses to calculate the position of a website in the search results. Some years ago, it was enough to get a lot of inbound links to top Google's search results. Nowadays, it's not that easy. Google has started to detect unnatural linking patterns.

  • How to fake PageRank and how to find websites with faked PR

    28 August 2007 - Although most professional search engine optimizers agree that the green PageRank display has little to do with the actual performance of a website in Google and other search engines, many webmasters still focus on websites with a high PageRank when it comes to link building and website promotion. The PageRank a website can be faked easily.

  • Search engine market shares in Europe

    21 August 2007 - If you target international markets then it's important to know which search engines are used by European web surfers. Google has a large market share in the US. Astonishingly, Google's market share seems to be even bigger in Europe. Here are the numbers from Germany, France and the UK.

  • The importance of page 1 listings and how to get them

    14 August 2007 - High search engine rankings are important if you want to get more customers and more sales. Is it important to be listed on the first result page or is it enough to be listed in the top 30 results?

  • How Google might filter annoying pages

    07 August 2007 - Google recently filed a patent application with the title "Detecting and rejecting annoying documents". Should you check your web pages?

  • Google's Matt Cutts: do not stuff your keywords

    31 July 2007 - Keyword stuffing is one of the oldest spamming techniques on the Internet. Many webmasters still use that technique although most search engines can detect it nowadays. Last week, Google's anti-spam engineer Matt Cutts made fun of a website that used keyword stuffing.

  • A new SEO trick for high Google rankings

    17 July 2007 - Some webmaster use a new search engine optimization practice to get high rankings on Google. They hotlink images from other web servers to get on Google's first results page. Will this method also work for your site?

  • What is better: PPC or SEO?

    03 July 2007 - Many webmasters are unsure whether they should advertise their website with SEO (search engine optimization) or PPC (pay per click advertising). Actually, most commercial websites work best if you use both SEO and PPC. The exact mix depends on your goals.

  • The risk of over-optimization

    26 June 2007 - Many webmasters overlook an important part of search engine optimization: if you over optimize your web pages, chances are that your website rankings might drop because your site has been designed for search engines and not for websurfers. Read this article to learn how to avoid over-optimization.

  • Insider information about Google's ranking algorithm

    19 June 2007 - The New York Times has recently published an article about Amit Singhal. Amit Singhal is in charge of Google's ranking algorithm. The interview reveals some interesting facts about Google's ranking algorithm.

  • How to clear bad press from search engine results

    05 June 2007 - No matter how good your company is, some people will always write something negative about your site, even if you tried your best to help them. What can you do if web pages with negative comments appear on the first result page for your company name?

  • Do no-follow links count for search engine rankings?

    29 May 2007 - Actually, the rel=nofollow attribute should prevent search engines from following special links. Some webmasters might have found out that nofollow links will help your search engine rankings though.

  • New study: which web page elements lead to high Google rankings?

    22 May 2007 - The German company Sistrix analyzed the web page elements of top ranked pages in Google to find out which elements lead to high Google rankings. They analyzed 10,000 random keywords, and for every keyword, they analyzed the top 100 Google search results.

  • Are search engine spammers exploiting your web pages?

    15 May 2007 - A recent thread in a webmaster forum indicated that some search engine spammers might exploit the new XML sitemaps files. Has your sitemaps file been abused by spammers? Can using a sitemaps file harm your rankings?

  • Two new Google ranking patents

    08 May 2007 - Google filed two new ranking patents in April: Document Scoring Based on Traffic Associated with a Document and Document Scoring Based on Query Analysis. What do these new patents reveal about Google's ranking algorithm? How can they help you?

  • What Google thinks about hidden and paid links

    24 April 2007 - Some webmasters use hidden or paid links to increase the link popularity of their websites. Google's anti-spam engineer Matt Cutts recently commented on these links. Can you get in trouble?

  • Search engine submission with the new Sitemap protocol

    17 April 2007 - Ask.com has joined the team so that now all four major search engines support the Sitemap protocol. In addition, the search engines now can automatically detect your Sitemaps file. What does this mean for your web site?

  • How to deal with Google's latest ranking algorithm changes

    10 April 2007 - There is a new change in Google's ranking algorithm. It looks as if more pages are added to Google's supplemental results and that Google might re-rank the results based on new quality criteria. How can your web site benefit from the new algorithm?

  • What Google could do if they were evil

    03 April 2007 - You probably know Google's informal company motto "Don't be evil". Google is a very successful company that knows a lot about its advertisers and users. In addition, Google has a market share that would allow them do certain things. Read this article to learn what Google could do if they were evil.

  • All about Google's new PPA advertising product

    27 March 2007 - Until now, Google has primarily sold pay-per-click (PPC) ads, so-called AdWords ads: advertisers pay when someone on Google or a Google partner site clicks on the ad. Google is testing a new advertising system that allows businesses to advertise on a cost per action basis.

  • How to work around Google's spam filters - Part 5

    20 March 2007 - Duplicate content, false use of the robots.txt file and Google bowling can be the reason if your web site rankings on Google dropped. This article will help you to find a solution.

  • How to use the new NOYDIR tag on your web pages

    06 March 2007 - Yahoo announced support for a new meta tag called "NOYDIR". The new tag will complement the "NOODP" meta tag that is already supported by all major search engines. Read this article to learn how to use the new tag on your web pages.

  • How to work around Google's spam filters - Part 3

    27 February 2007 - If you use the wrong search engine optimization techniques then Google won't list your web site. Read this article to learn how to avoid getting caught be Google's spam filters.

  • 15 Google spam filters and how to avoid them - Part 2

    20 February 2007 - If your web site gets caught by one of Google's spam filters, it will be very difficult to get high Google rankings. Did you check your web site against these three link filters? Read on to learn more.

  • 15 Google spam filters and how to avoid them - Part 1

    13 February 2007 - If your web site gets caught by one of Google's spam filters, it will be very difficult to get high Google rankings. In this article series, we'll take a look a the 15 most common Google spam filters and we'll tell you how you can get around them.

  • The top 5 factors for successful web sites in 2007

    06 February 2007 - If you want to have a successful web site and if you want to get high rankings on search engines then your web site must have the right factors. Here are the top 5 factors for successful web sites in 2007.

  • The end of Google bombs?

    30 January 2007 - Google bombs have become a problem for Google. The official Google webmaster blog recently had a statement about Google bombs and how Google deals with them. How does this new algorithm affect your Google rankings?

  • Google's plans for the next weeks

    23 January 2007 - Matt Cutts has just revealed Google's latest ranking plans for 2007. Read this article to learn how your web site will be affected by these plans.

  • Will this famous Google SEO guru quit?

    16 January 2007 - Matt Cutts is the poster boy of Google and the search engine optimization (SEO) community. Thousands of webmasters follow every single word on this blog. Rumor has it that he is going to leave Google.

  • Does Google read your CSS files?

    09 January 2007 - Many webmasters reported that Google's spider started to index their external CSS files. What are CSS files, why does Google index them and how can this affect your rankings on Google and other search engines?

  • Official Google statement: How to deal with duplicate content problems

    02 January 2007 - Duplicate content is a problem that worries many webmasters. Rumor has it that duplicate content can hurt your Google rankings and that web pages that copy your web site content can harm your rankings. Read this article to learn what Google has to say about duplicate content.

  • Happy Holidays!

    26 December 2006 - May you enjoy family, frends and lots of laughter now and throughout the New Year!

  • Outperform your competitors with better keywords

    05 December 2006 - If you optimize your pages for keywords that your potential customers use a lot, but your competitors haven't thought of, you win. Click here to learn how to find these keywords.

  • Google's new way to deal with dynamically created pages

    07 November 2006 - Dynamically created web pages often cause problems with search engines. If your web pages are dynamically created, it's likely that many search engines have difficulty to index them. Google has a new way to deal with these pages.

  • Google's -30 penalty

    31 October 2006 - Webmasters in online forums have discovered a new Google filter that Google uses to downrank web sites in its result pages. Has this filter been applied to your web site? How can you avoid that Google applies that filter to your site?

  • Google's SandBox and TrustRank filters and your web site

    24 October 2006 - Google's Sandbox and Google's TrustRank are often discussed in webmaster forums. How do these factors influence your web site rankings on Google and what can you do to get out of the sandbox or to get a high TrustRank?

  • The right click distance can improve your search engine rankings

    17 October 2006 - Click distance is another factor that shows how important it is that search engines can find and parse your web pages quickly and easily. Read this article to learn more about click distance and its influence on your search engine rankings.

  • How to get out of Google's supplemental results

    26 September 2006 - Google uses two indexes for its search results. The normal index and the supplemental results index. This article explains how to find out how many of your pages are listed in Google's supplemental results.

  • Google's new Sitelinks and your web site

    19 September 2006 - Google recently started to include a set of links below some results to pages within the site. These new additional links are called Sitelinks. Read this article to learn how these links might affect your web site.

  • How to get links from an authority site

    12 September 2006 - Webmasters are always looking for ways to get inbound links from authority web sites. For improving search engine rankings, an incoming link from an authority site is worth more than an incoming link from an average site.

  • What Google's SEO videos tell you

    05 September 2006 - Google's Matt Cutts has released a number of videos in which he talks about the way Google works. What can you learn from these videos?

  • This is more important than getting more traffic

    29 August 2006 - Many webmasters focus on getting more traffic to their web sites. While getting visitors is very important, there is one thing that is more important than getting as many visitors as possible. Read on to learn what it is.

  • Leaked AOL data: the importance of top search engine rankings

    22 August 2006 - Earlier this month, AOL released sensitive search data detailing 20 million searches preformed by 658,000 subscribers.While the AOL data obviously raises privacy concerns, it can contain useful information for search engine marketers.

  • How to use the NOODP tag to influence your search engine listings

    08 August 2006 - Google and MSN will often use the text that the ODP uses to describe your web site in their own search results. Unfortunately, the descriptions in the Open Directory Project are often outdated and they don't reflect the current status of a web site.

  • How to submit your web site to all Internet directories

    18 July 2006 - Internet directories have become very popular because they are an easy way to get inbound links to your web site. There's an easy way to submit your web site quickly to as many Internet directories as possible.

  • The effect of outgoing links on your web site

    11 July 2006 - While most webmasters are aware that incoming links are important to the success of a web site, many site owners don't know that outgoing links also have an impact on their web sites. Learn how outgoing links influence search engines and web site visitors.

  • How to get high Google rankings with Flash sites

    04 July 2006 - Flash movies are a great way to add multimedia elements to a web site. Unfortunately, Flash cannot be indexed by most search engines. For that reason, it is very difficult to get high search engine rankings for Flash sites. This article explains how to get top rankings on Google with Flash sites.

  • How to analyze the linking structure of your competitors

    27 June 2006 - A web page with 50 inbound links can have better rankings than a web page with 500 inbound links. If other pages rank higher than your web pages, then you have to analyze the linking structure of these pages.

  • The final goal of search engine optimization

    13 June 2006 - Most businesses have realized that search engine optimization (SEO) is important if you want to succeed on the Internet. If you miss the mark, search engine optimization can cost a lot of time and money without getting results. If you do it right, SEO will improve your business.

  • Google uses a new spider to index web pages

    06 June 2006 - Google is using a new bot for their AdWords advertising system that automatically spiders and analyzes the content of advertising landing pages. What does this mean to your organic search engine rankings? What does this mean to your PPC ads and your organic search engine rankings?

  • What Google knows about your domain name

    30 May 2006 - There's a lot of speculation about the information that Google has about domain names. What does Google know about your domain name and what do they not know?

  • Google official: PageRank is not a big deal

    23 May 2006 - Many webmasters are still obsessed with the green PageRank bar in Google's toolbar. Matt Cutts is a Google engineer who knows exactly how the Google ranking algorithm works. He confirmed that PageRank is not the only important factor for Google.

  • The effect of co-citation on your rankings

    16 May 2006 - The effect of co-citation is often overlooked by search engine optimizers. The other web sites to which your link partners link can influence your search engine rankings. Read on to learn more about this important topic.

  • PageRank, TrustRank and your web site

    09 May 2006 - Yahoo has file a new patent with the name "Link based spam detection". It's another attempt from Yahoo to improve the relevancy of their search results by detecting links from link farms and other shady link sources. Read on to find out how this affects your web site.

  • Does Google think that your web site is spam?

    02 May 2006 - Google has extended the penalty notification experiment that was started last year. Google's Webspam team now works with the Google Sitemaps team to alert some (but not all) site owners of penalties for their site.

  • Googlebot and Mediabot - Can you get in trouble?

    25 April 2006 - Google's Matt Cutts revealed interesting information about Mediabot and how it could influence your Google rankings. If you do it wrong, your web site can get it trouble on Google.

  • Do hackers hijack your search engine listings?

    18 April 2006 - Are your search engine rankings still yours? Other people might hijack your search engine rankings and they might steal your web site visitors. The worst thing is that you might not even notice it. This article explains how you can protect your web site.

  • Google, your web site and CSS spam

    21 March 2006 - Hiding content and links in CSS code that is not visible to human web surfers has become popular among webmasters who want to trick search engines. Should use use this for your web site?

  • Google's Big Daddy update- Is your site supplemental?

    14 March 2006 - Google's latest update Big Daddy continues to cause problems for some webmasters. Many webmasters have reported that all of their web pages except for their index page have been moved to Google's supplemental index. What can you do to solve this problem?

  • What search engines plan for the future

    07 March 2006 - At the recent Wharton Technology Conference in Philadelphia representatives from Google, Yahoo and MSN Search discussed the future of search technologies. The big search engine companies have different ideas on how search engines will change over the next few years.

  • What can you do if your web site rankings have dropped?

    28 February 2006 - Some webmasters face the problem that their good web site rankings have been dropped or that their web pages have not been listed at all. If your web site rankings have been dropped, you can do the following to get your web site back to the result list.

  • Google hypertext matching analysis and search engine optimization

    21 February 2006 - There are many rumors about the best way to get listed on Google. Every now and then, a new secret trick pop ups that promises that your web site will get top Google rankings quickly and easily. What can Google's hypertext matching analysis help you to get better rankings?

  • Find the keywords that convert to sales

    14 February 2006 - Having high rankings on search engines is pointless if these rankings don't convert to sales. It's better to have high rankings for 10 keywords that convert to sales than high rankings for 100 keywords that only bring you visitors. For that reason, it is important to find the keywords that work best for your business. By focusing on these keywords, you can greatly increase your revenue.

  • Bigdaddy: Big changes on Google to come

    31 January 2006 - Google has announced a major update that will affect the ranking of web pages in Google's index. In contrast to the usual algorithm updates, this update will be much bigger because it changes the way Google works behind the scenes.

  • Can online press releases really increase your search engine rankings?

    24 January 2006 - Online press releases have become a popular because some webmasters think that they can increase the search engine rankings of their web sites with them. Do online press releases really help your search engine rankings? How can you benefit from these services?

  • Official Google statement: How does Google collect and rank results?

    10 January 2006 - Google recently released an official explanation of how they rank results their newsletter for Librarians. In this document, Google engineer Matt Cutts explains how Google decides what result goes at the top of the list. Here are the most important facts from the document.

  • Beware the reciprocal link short sellers

    03 January 2006 - Within the SEO realm, there are a number of high-profile "reciprocal link short sellers". Many of the most vocal have been doing it for several years, using their "expert" status and industry influence to disparage the practice of reciprocal linking, calling it ineffective, immoral, and worse.

  • U.S. online shoppers spent $25 billion in one week

    27 December 2005 - Holiday shoppers in the United States had spent $25 billion online during one week ending 16 December and electronics and clothing items were their favourites. This represents a 25 per cent increase over the same period in 2004.

  • One year of search engine optimization

    20 December 2005 - We published a number of articles that help you to get your web site to the top of Google's search results in 2005. Our 2005 archive is full of tips and tricks that help you to get better search engine rankings.

  • How to react to Google's latest AdWords changes

    13 December 2005 - Google has incorporated a new factor to its Quality Score. If you're advertising on Google AdWords, this new factor might influence the position of your ads and the minimum price you have to pay for your bids. What do you have to do to make the best out of the situation?

  • Why Google is not happy with its results

    06 December 2005 - Google's founders are not satisfied with the quality of Google's search results. This article explains why this is so and what you can do to survive future ranking algorithm updates on Google.

  • Is cloaking the holy grail of SEO?

    29 November 2005 - Cloaking obviously works. Should you use it for your website and what should you do to get high rankings on Google, Yahoo and other important search engines?

  • New features in Google Sitemaps

    22 November 2005 - Last week, Google added new features to its Sitemaps service. After verifying that you are really the webmaster of a site, you can access some statistics about the information Google has about your site. This kind of information can help you to spot possible reasons when Google doesn't index your site.

  • Google Analytics - is it worth its real price?

    15 November 2005 - Yesterday, Google released a new web tracking service with the name Google Analytics. Google claims that the service is free. Is Google Analytics worth its real price?

  • Are you ready for local search?

    01 November 2005 - Google's upcoming service Google Base (see news below) shows a clear trend: search engines try to make their search results and ads as targeted as possible. What can you do to benefit from this trend?

  • How to succeed with search engine optimization

    18 October 2005 - Much has happened to search engine optimization in the last years. It has become much more difficult to get high rankings for a website. However, it's still possible to get your website at the top of the list if you do the right things.

  • The Google - Sun deal and its impact on search

    11 October 2005 - Last week, Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt and Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy announced a distribution partnership.Google also filed a new patent. What does this mean for search?

  • The importance of being first

    04 October 2005 - A recently conducted study examined the links users followed on the search engine results page. What does this mean to you and how can you benefit from it?

  • A new bad trick for high Google rankings

    27 September 2005 - Some webmasters have discovered a new trick to get inbound links from authority websites. At the moment, it seems to be possible to improve your Google rankings with that trick.

  • Google's Matt Cutts talks about buying links

    20 September 2005 - Being one of the main software engineers on Google, Matt Cutts knows best about Google indexing and quality control issues. Find out what he thinks about buying links.

  • Search engine insiders talk about links

    23 August 2005 - On a recent search engine conference, Tim Mayer from Yahoo, Matt Cutts from Google and Kaushal Kurapti from Ask Jeeves revealed information on how these three search engines analyze links to determine the ranking of web pages in a public discussion.

  • Keywords and search engine optimization

    09 August 2005 - Although many articles have been written about finding the best keywords for SEO, many webmasters still target the wrong keywords. Choosing the right keywords is a crucial step in every search engine optimization campaign.

  • Can too many links hurt your website?

    26 July 2005 - Many webmasters are unsure if too many links can hurt their website rankings. Others think that links to a brand-new site might be a spam indicator. How many links are good for a website? Should you wait before getting links to your site?

  • Why has your website been dropped from Google?

    19 July 2005 - Has your website been dropped from Google and you don't know why? There are a number of factors that can get your website banned on Google. In this article, we'll tell you why your website can be banned from Google and what you can do to get listed on Google.

  • Google's Sitemaps service and your website

    14 June 2005 - Last week, Google released its new Google Sitemaps service. Despite the name, Google Sitemaps is not a tool that creates sitemaps for your website. Google Sitemaps is another way to submit your web pages to Google. How can your website benefit from this service?

  • Google's PageRank - Should it be discontinued?

    07 June 2005 - As you might have noticed, Google wasn't displaying the PageRank information from 27 May to 30 May. The PageRank bar in the Google toolbar was grayed out for every web page. Many webmasters speculated that Google might have discontinued the PageRank information. Is the green PageRank bar really that important?

  • What Google knows about you

    31 May 2005 - Much has been said about Google collecting personal information from web surfers. What exactly does Google know about you if you use their services? In this article, we present a list of things that Google knows about you.

  • What the Google patent means for SEO

    17 May 2005 - We summarize the most important parts of the patent specification in this issue so that you have a quick overview about how Google might rank your website according to this patent.

  • How does Google track user behavior?

    10 May 2005 - Last week, we informed you that Google tracks user behavior to determine the ranking of websites. Find out how Google tracks user behavior in this article.

  • Google ranking secrents revealed - Part 4

    03 May 2005 - Google has recently filed a patent that details many points that Google uses to rank web pages. This article series discusses Google ranking secrets that have been revealed in that report. This time: how search results and user data can affect your rankings.

  • Google ranking secrents revealed - Part 3

    19 April 2005 - Google has recently filed a patent that details many points that Google uses to rank web pages. This article series discusses Google ranking secrets that have been revealed in that report. This time: how links to your website and their changes can affect your rankings.

  • Google ranking secrents revealed - Part 2

    12 April 2005 - Google has recently filed a patent that details many points that Google uses to rank web pages. This article series discusses Google ranking secrets that have been revealed in that report. This time: how your domain name can affect your rankings.

  • Google ranking secrents revealed

    05 April 2005 - Google has recently filed a patent that details many points that Google uses to rank web pages. This article series discusses Google ranking secrets that have been revealed in that report.

  • All about Google's latest algorithm change

    29 March 2005 - Some webmasters have observed significant ranking changes in Google's search engine result pages. It seems that Google has tweaked its algorithm again or that it is still fine-tuning the way it ranks web pages for its next algorithm update.

  • Cloaking: Does your web host change your web pages?

    15 March 2005 - When you choose a web hosting company, you don't expect that they are going to change your web pages. You also don't expect that they change your web pages for their own benefit. Unfortunately, that's exactly what some web hosts seem to do.

  • How to succeed with pay per click ads

    01 March 2005 - You can lose a lot of money with pay per click ads if you don't do it right. This article explains how to succeed with pay per click ads.

  • How to get out of Google's sandbox

    22 February 2005 - If your website has good rankings on Yahoo, MSN and other search engines but not on Google, it's likely that your website has been put into Google's sandbox. What can you do to get out of it?

  • Do reciprocal links still work?

    08 February 2005 - Rumor has it that reciprocal links are not as effective as one way links. Some people in online discussion forums claim that one way links from a website to another site work far better than reciprocal links. Is this true and what do you have to do about this?

  • How to add thumbshots to your link pages

    01 February 2005 - Thumbshots are thumbnail screenshots of web pages that allow you to visualize websites before web surfers click on the link. If you use thumbshots on your link pages, web surfers know what they get before they click on a link.

  • Is your website dependend on Google?

    25 January 2005 - Yahoo and MSN have made significant gains against Google. They can send a considerable amount of targeted visitors to your website. This article helps you to benefit from this search engines trend.

  • How to avoid click fraud

    18 January 2005 - Click fraud is becoming a major problem for online advertisers. If you advertise your website on pay per click search engines such as Overture or Google AdWords, chances are that you pay way too much for your clicks.

  • 7 Google interviews

    11 January 2005 - Interviews with the people behind the scenes give great insight in how things work. The following interviews reveal interesting things about how Google works.

  • Google Sponsored Links search

    28 December 2004 - Google has just released a special search form for its AdWords ads. The search form allows you to quickly find out the position of an AdWords ad.

  • All about Google Suggest

    14 December 2004 - Google Labs have just released the beta version of a new Google tool: Google Suggest. This article explains all you need to know about Google Suggest.

  • Google PageRank controversy

    07 December 2004 - Last week, two statements about Google PageRank started a new discussion about this topic. Is Google PageRank just for entertainment purposes or is it for real?

  • How to get your website into Yahoo!

    30 November 2004 - All you need to know to get your website into Yahoo's search engine results. Learn how Yahoo's spider works and why it is important to be listed in Yahoo.

  • All you need to know about the new MSN Search

    16 November 2004 - Some days ago, Microsoft launched a beta version of their long awaited new search engine. The new MSN Search doesn't rely on Inktomi technology anymore. It's a new search engine that has been built from ground up. What is special about the new search engine?

  • Should you buy text links?

    09 November 2004 - Many text link broker websites have appeared on the Internet. These websites allow you to rent links from other websites on a monthly basis. Is this something you should consider for your website? What can you expect from these text links?

  • How to fake Google PageRank numbers

    02 November 2004 - Recently, a new technique of faking the PageRank number of a website has become popular. For example, a rather dubious adult website managed to get a PageRank of 10.

  • All about Google Desktop Search

    19 October 2004 - Google Desktop Search is a program that runs on your Windows computer. It allows you to search your hard disk for files.

  • Google's new ranking algorithm

    12 October 2004 - Rumor has it that Google tries to fight artificial link manipulation with its latest update. What can you do to get better rankings on Google?

  • Google's new web page spider

    05 October 2004 - Many webmasters have noticed that there are now two different Google spiders that index their web pages. At least one of them is performing a complete site scan.

  • Is Amazon's A9 search engine really that good?

    22 September 2004 - Last week, Amazon officially launched its search engine A9.com. A9 is the first search engine with strong personalization features. It looks as if A9 has the potential to become a major search engine.

  • Use Internet directories to get more visitors

    14 September 2004 - Internet directories are often overlooked by webmasters because many of them deliver only little traffic. However, link directories offer many benefits to webmasters that are interested in getting more visitors.

  • Compare your website to your competitors

    07 September 2004 - How does your website compare to your competitors? Does your website has more incoming links? How much traffic do your competitors get? The new version 3.0 of the freeware tool Link Popularity Check helps you to get the answers quickly and easily.

  • Google's link command and better ways to do it

    31 August 2004 - You probably know Google's link command. It's a special search query that allows you to find websites that link to another website. There's a better way to find all pages that point to your website on Google.

  • Block-level link analysis

    24 August 2004 - Block-level link analysis is Microsoft attempt to deal with the faults in PageRank and HITS (Hyperlink Induced Topic Search). What does this mean to your website?

  • Reasons to delete a link exchange request

    17 August 2004 - Webmasters often delete link exchange requests. Do the following things to make sure that webmasters reply to your link exchange email message..

  • Why website visitors don't convert into sales - part 4

    10 August 2004 - When people have finally decided to purchase your product, you must make sure that your order page doesn't drive them away. If your order page isn't easy to use, all other website promotion efforts will be in vain.

  • Why website visitors don't convert into sales - part 1

    20 July 2004 - Even if you have hundreds of visitors per day, web surfers still might not purchase something on your website. Why do visitors sometimes don't convert into sales? We'll show you several reasons that can prevent surfers from buying on your website.

  • Is Open Source the future of search?

    13 July 2004 - Open source search engines try to compete with the big players in the search engine market. Who are these open source search engines and what can they do for you?

  • The link popularity software for your website success

    06 July 2004 - ARELIS is a top rated software program that helps you to build a powerful business network quickly and easily. You'll benefit from highly targeted free traffic to your website, new business contacts, a higher link popularity, higher search engine rankings and more sales.

  • Googlebot came to call

    03 July 2004 - How to automatically get an email message from your website when Google visits your pages.

  • Keep visitors on your website with custom 404 not found pages

    22 June 2004 - You've probably seen many "404 not found" pages when surfing the web. A "404 not found" page is the page that comes up when someone tries to access a web page that doesn't exist. Learn how to keep customer on your website with custom 404 not found pages.

  • Don't invest too early in the wow factor

    15 June 2004 - It's important that your website has a professional design and it's also important that your website looks great so that your customers have trust and confidence in your company. However, before adding bells and whistles to your website, make sure that it serves the basics.

  • The perennial search engine submission myth

    01 June 2004 - You've probably seen them on the web and you've probably received many spam email messages from them: services that promise you to submit your website to thousands of search engines and that tell you that your website will get high search engine rankings if you just submit your website often enough. Does this really work?

  • Is link popularity really that important?

    25 May 2004 - With the domination of Google and Yahoo on the search engine market, words like "link popularity", "link prominence" and "link reputation" have become buzzwords in the search engine marketing industry. Many webmasters try to get as many links to their website as possible and some companies even offer "1000 links to your website within minutes". But is link popularity really so important as many people want us to believe?

  • The myth of the 50,000 search engines

    18 May 2004 - There are submission services (and spam email messages) that promise to submit your website to 50,000 search engines. Some website promotion tools also claim that they can submit your website to thousands of search engines. Be very careful when you see such an offer.

  • How do search engines see your website?

    11 May 2004 - Are you sure that search engines understand your website? Search engines see your web pages with different eyes than web surfers. A web page that looks great to the human eye can be totally meaningless to search engines.

  • Who works with whom in the UK search engines market?

    27 April 2004 - It's essential to know which search engines and directories work together. If you want to plan an effective search engine optimization strategy, you must know which search engines cooperate and who gets the search results from whom.

  • How many link partners are there? How many are enough for a link campaign?

    20 April 2004 - Exchanging links with other sites is a promising way to increase your Google PageRank and to draw visitors to your site. Good incoming links have a positive effect on your search engine rankings and they also bring targeted visitors to your website. But how many potential link partners are there, and what is a realistic goal for your linking campaigns? How many link partners should you have?

  • How to increase your sales with the right web page titles

    13 April 2004 - The title of a web page is one of the most important elements. Good web page titles can remarkably increase the effectiveness of your website. If you use the right titles, your website can get more targeted visitors.

  • Insider tips for your Yahoo rankings

    06 April 2004 - During the last few weeks, a Yahoo employee gave many tips that may help you to improve the ranking of your website on the new Yahoo search engine.

  • How to report spam to Google, Yahoo and others

    30 March 2004 - A real nuisance for search engines are webmasters that try to deceive them to obtain high rankings (called "spamming"). What can you do if you discover other websites getting better search engine rankings than you because they use one of these spam techniques?

  • The most important search sites for your website success

    09 March 2004 - Many webmasters face the problem that they don't know for which search engine they should optimize their websites. Of course, Google is the most important search engine for most webmasters. But which other search engines are also important for your website success? This article provides the answers.

  • Why Jim didn't make profit with his Internet business, part 2

    02 March 2004 - Two weeks ago we told you about Jim who didn't make profit with his Internet business because he used the wrong keywords. We gave you a list of popular keyword search engines that help you to find the right keywords for your website. This time we'd like to inform you about more unknown ways to find the right keywords for your site.

  • The new Yahoo search engine and your website

    23 February 2004 - What does the new Yahoo search engine mean to your website? Yahoo's search engine spider is capturing the full text of web pages, up to a 500,000 characters limit. The new Yahoo search also supports many file types, including HTML, PDF, and Microsoft Office documents. Find out how to optimize your website for high rankings on the new Yahoo.

  • Why Jim didn't make profit with his Internet business

    16 February 2004 - You might lose lots of customers because your website is not targeting the right keywords. Read this article to find out how to find the right keywords for your website that will bring more customers to your site.

  • The new anti-spam law and linking campaigns

    09 February 2004 - A new anti-spam federal law has been adopted by the United States. The CAN-SPAM ACT of 2003 has taken effect on Jan 1. The CAN-SPAM ACT provides definitions and appropriate penalties for misleading commercial email communications. Some webmasters fear that it might not be legal anymore to contact potential link partners by email. This article explains what you have to do to be compliant.

  • How to maximize your linking success

    02 February 2004 - Things you can do to improve the effectiveness of your linking campaign. How to get high link popularity for your website.

  • New software program for your link exchange success

    26 January 2004 - This new software program can help you to quickly achieve high link popularity for your website. A serious website promotion tool with an ethical approach to website promotion can help you to get lasting results.

  • The most innovative search engines in 2003

    12 January 2004 - Which search engines have been the most innovative search engines in 2003. Read this article to find out who'll be leading the search engine market.

  • Who works with whom in the search engines market?

    05 January 2004 - Search engines and directories interrelate with other search engines, for instance, they share their database contents to cover more web pages. In addition, the search engines partner with pay per click search engines to supplement their revenue. It's essential to know which search engines and directories work together. If you want to plan an effective search engine optimization strategy, you must know which search engines cooperate and who gets results from whom.

  • The importance of links on your website

    29 December 2003 - Some webmasters are unsure whether they should add link pages to their website, and some don't know which factors are important to determine if they should link to a certain site or not. Here are some tips about why your website should have a link directory and what makes a site worth linking to.

  • The top 5 myths about link popularity building tools

    15 December 2003 - Some experienced webmasters gave link popularity building tools a bad reputation in the past. They argued that these tools would artificially inflate the link popularity score of websites in order to deceive search engines. This may have been true for the first generation of these tools but then a new tool entered the market, promising to be the first serious reciprocal links management tool.

  • How to rank well with Flash movies

    07 December 2003 - Flash movies are a popular way to make websites more compelling. They are useful if you want to impress your website visitors or if you offer web design services. Unfortunately, if you use Flash movies, or if you even design your complete website based on the Flash technology, your odds of getting listed in the search engines are greatly reduced. Read this article to find out how to rank well with Flash movies.

  • Is your HTML code valid for search engines?

    30 November 2003 - If the HTML code of your website is not valid for search engines, it's very difficult to obtain high search engine rankings. Read this article to find out whether the code of your website is search engine ready.

  • Use sitemaps to improve your search engine ranking

    23 November 2003 - Which page on your website is the most important page? The product page? The contact page? Or the order page? Whatever it is, the sitemap page is among the most important pages on your website.

  • Complete overview of major search engine toolbars

    09 November 2003 - Many search engines now offer web browser toolbars so that you can instantly use their search engines whenever you have your browser window open. The search engine toolbars search the World Wide Web but they also offer additional useful features, for example there are pop-up window blockers, dictionary and stock quote lookup tools, translation features and much more. This article gives a complete overview of major search engine toolbars.

  • How to choose the right keywords for your site

    02 November 2003 - Many businesses recognize that search engines can bring volumes of highly targeted prospects to their website, typically at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing. Unfortunately, these same companies often overlook the most important part of their search engine marketing campaigns, which is keyphrase selection and evaluation.

  • Nutch - an open source Google rival?

    26 October 2003 - Nutch aims to provide a transparent alternative to commercial web search engines on an open source basis. Its idea is that only open source search results can be fully trusted to be without bias.

  • Does advertising in PPC search engines really work?

    19 October 2003 - Maybe you've considered using pay per click (PPC) search engines to promote your website on the Internet. PPC search engines are search engines that allow you to bid for a special position on their result pages. You pay a certain amount for every click your listing receives. But will this really work for your website?

  • How to make your website more effective

    12 October 2003 - A high search engine ranking is not enough. Many webmasters have the problem that their visitors don't buy something on their site even if the way the visitors reached the site indicates that they're interested in the products. This article explains how to turn visitors into customers.

  • The importance of robots.txt

    05 October 2003 - lthough the robots.txt file is a very important file if you want to have a good ranking on search engines, many Web sites don't offer this file. If your Web site doesn't have a robots.txt file yet, read on to learn how to create one. If you already have a robots.txt file, read our tips to make sure that it doesn't contain errors.

  • Ten ways to link popularity

    29 September 2003 - Link popularity has become an important factor in the ranking algorithms of most search engines. If many quality Web sites link to your site, you'll have a good position in the search engines. There are a number of ways to improve the link popularity of your Web site. Here's our top 10 list on how to improve your link popularity.

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