SEO Sandwitch Blog

Advertorial link spamming is the most recent link spam where a webmaster or a news reporter/editor accepts money in return to add a do follow link to a particular website from an article or newsworthy content. This do not happen in the majority of sites but in some cases it is becoming an issue for Google.

Webmasters have resorted to all sorts of link building techniques in order to increase the Google rankings of their respective websites. Some have opted for complete white hat link building strategies that are accepted by Google while others have gone too far in building links using black hat methods such as paid links that are completely banned by Google.

Take your hands out of the pocket and stop advertorial link spamming as Matt Cutts has recently shared a video sharing his thoughts on advertorial link spamming and how Google is planning to take strict actions against sites which allow links that flow page rank from within the content of their websites after accepting money from…

These days LinkedIn has become the second name for the business. The reason is the presence of myriad possibilities which one gains through it. The possibilities include networking with the current as well as former employees and colleagues, establishing as well as interacting with the business contacts etc. LinkedIn is crucial in establishing a strong presence online and reaping in the benefits of opportunities, by higher search engine ratings. Peruse this article to avail the information on the ways in which LinkedIn can be used for the advantage. Have a look:


Use Anchor Text
To gain higher organic visibility, the links must be adorned with anchor text which is rich in keywords. This will give a boost to the ranking of the posts. The keyword may include the theme of the website, the name of the website or its professional handle. This keyword wrapped back links will be eventually picked by Google and thus the SEO rankings will be improved at some time.
Make Connections Within LinkedIn
T…

Google Penguin 2.0 update was all about links. Websites that were having a spammy link profiles including low quality links and similar anchor text links were penalized by this update. Here is a great infographic explaining the basics on how to get your site ready for Penguin 2.0.

What to Avoid?
Link Schemes
Keyword Stuffing
Over Optimization
Unnatural Links
Duplicate Content

What to Focus on?
Quality Content
Valuable and User Friendly Content
Social Media Signals
Google Authorship
Author Rank
Infographics
Image Optimization
Local Listings
Content Marketing
Follow Webmaster Guidelines


Google Penguin 2.0 Update - How can we get safe from this? infographic by chris.louis.
Also See:-
Penguin 2.0 Recovery Guide
Penguin 2.0 Affects 2.3% English Queries
5 Important Link Building Factors in 2013
Seo Secrets
How to rank in Google
Google Disavow Links Tool
Google's Take on Site Wide Backlinks
Battle of Ranking Continues
Seo Tips Plagiarism
Duplicate Content and SEO Seo Copywriting Basics Solving Duplicate…

Google launched the Penguin update 2.0 on May 22nd, 2013. Many webmasters who have followed a spammy link building strategy building links from low quality article directories, free blog hosting sites, low quality directories have been penalized by this update. Other factors which Penguin considered includes- similar anchor text backlinks, less brand related anchor text and less authority backlinks. If your website has been penalized by Google in this recent Penguin 2.0, then here is a quick guide to Google Penguin 2.0 recovery.
How to Recover Your Website from Penguin 2.0 Penalty Reason of Penalty- Low Quality Link Profile
Link profile can be of two types- high quality vs lowquality. Sites having a low quality link profile have been penalized by this update.
Steps to Recovery - Analyze your link profile using tools like ahrefs, seomoz, link detox etc. Prepare a list of low quality backlinks (PR 0, low DA, less user friendly spammy links) and then send an email to the webmasters requestin…

Google rolled out the new generation comprehensive Penguin 2.0 (version 4) update on May 22nd, 2013 affecting 2.3 English US queries. This was announced by Google Web Spam engineer, Matt Cutts in his blog.

Here are some previous posts related to Penguin update on Seosandwitch -

Are you ready for the next generation Penguin 2.0?
Google Webspam Team is Working on Penguin 2.0

Brief Outlines of Penguin 2.0
Sites selling links are affected negatively.Sites lacking natural backlinks are affected.Too many results from the same domain have reduced.Sites receiving strong social links like Google Plus Ones are promoted.Sites having high quality authority backlinks are promoted.Local keywords have had a lesser impact.Sites having too many same anchor text backlinks are affected.Sites lacking original and authoritative content are affected.Sites having a solid and high quality link profile are promoted.

Penguin 2.0 Still Showing Spam Results?
If you are still finding spam in Google search results eve…

Google has moved to a more human based ranking approach rather than being a machine based system. This human based approach of ranking web pages although depends upon machines but uses sophisticated algorithms that are geared towards measuring the popularity and relevance of a web page based on factors that are more or less related to a way as to how humans would judge them. Among the top priority Google ranking factors for 2014, the major ones are star ratings, user reviews, plus ones, citation flow (that involves highly cited referrals from already cited sources), social signals, overall domain authority, authorship, bounce rate, click-through rate, referral traffic data, high brand related references and searches, the recency of the document, the speed of the document, naturality of backlinks, frequency of generated backlinks (those having a natural flow), evaluation of user profile who shares the citations (done in order to devalue dummy profiles or spammy social profiles) and st…

With the increasing platforms available for social blogging, people can't resist the temptation for owning and maintaining their own personal blog. But, unknowingly most of the bloggers make the most common seo mistakes that ruins their effort of ranking well on the search engines. Every web log owner must understand the seo process and implement the seo algorithm in the blogs in the righteous of the manner. With the cut throat competition emerging in the blogging arena, a single seo mistake is capable of bringing doom for the blogger. Thus it becomes essential to keep a tab on the changes taking place in the online world and act accordingly. Here are some of the common mistakes made by the bloggers which brings home trouble for them. Have a look:


Are You Making These Seo Mistakes While Blogging?
Buying Paid Links
The purchase of the links may boost up the blog's popularity for a short period of time, but they make the blog prone to the bigger threat of being flagged by Google. M…

Penguin 2.0 is coming! Webmasters who have used spammy link building strategies or used link building software should get beware and clean up their link profiles as soon as possible. A cleaner and natural link profile would help to keep your site in good terms with Google.

Penguin 2.0- Discussions Have Started to Happen!
Here are a few quick updates on what discussions are going around in the web marketing community -

Penguin 2.0 - How Guest Blogging will be affected?
Google Penguin to go War with SENuke Style Link Building
What to Expect from Google's Next Search Update?
Google Penguin Update Gets Ready to Bite Webmaster Noses
Google Webspam Team is Working on Penguin 2.0
Penguin 2.0 will Penalize Spammers and Reward Subject Matter Experts
The Google Perspective on Links
Seomoz Discussion on Penguin 2.0
Seochat Discussion

Lots of discussion!! With Google directly saying that it will be a comprehensive update, let's see what impacts it has on the search results. But, here are a few pre…

Penguin 2.0 or Penguin 4.0 whichever way you call the webspam update Google is preparing for, but it is surely going to shuffle the search results in the same manner as the first Penguin update did. The first Google Penguin Update was launched on Apr 24th, 2012 and affected around 3% of the search queries. Keep in mind, 3% although seems a less percentage but compared to the large volume of queries Google receives per day, this percentage is enough to experience a major shuffle on the search engine ranking positions of the websites.

Now, here is the video by Matt Cutts, head of Google's web spam team where he discusses about the possibility of a new Penguin update version Penguin 2.0 to be launched within a few months.


The main points discussed in this video are shared below-

How Should You Plan Your Website?
Your site should be created keeping in mind your users. Try to make a site that users love and want to share, tell friends, bookmark, visit often and all of the things that m…

Webmasters are busy looking for ways to build organic traffic to their website. But, in order to gain traffic from search engines like Google, it is necessary to understand the basic factors Google counts while ranking a webpage. Google divides its core ranking algorithm into two parts- content relevancy and popularity. Content relevancy depends on how well your site is related to the search keyword while popularity depends solely on link building. This post will explore the 5 most important link building factors for ranking higher in Google-

1- Quality of Backlinks - The quality of the website linking back to your site matters the most. If you are receiving a backlink from high quality and trusted websites then your chances of gaining authority is higher.

2- Relevancy of Backlinks - It is important to get thematic and relevant links to your site. If your site is related to music then get links from sites that talks about music, songs, albums, films etc.

3- Naturality - Links gained …

Google Knowledge Graph was launched on May 16th 2012 and is considered as one of the major discoveries that was made to enhance the existing model of Google search engine enabling it to find the relationship between searched entities and provide the user with the best possible results without having them to navigate to a different website in order to find the answers. It has been referred to as the "Future of Search" by Google. It enables us to find information about people, places and things. Google is not the first to research in this regard, similar model has been applied before by computational search engine Wolfram Alpha. But, certainly Google's attempt to categorize people, places and things together is more enhanced and valuable. As such, it becomes important for all of us to have a deeper and better understanding of what the Knowledge Graph holds for us in future?

The future search engine must have the capability to understand the user's intent when searches …

Search Engine Optimization is a field that stands on innovation and most of the companies today are demanding  innovative Seo's who can do something different than what the rest of the players are doing. So, what exactly is  innovative Seo?
The Innovative Search Engine Optimizer 

You need to change yourself if you want to remain in the competition. Change and adapt yourself the way Google is changing. Remain updated about the latest happenings going around Google and plan your strategies accordingly. Time has gone when only 1-2 tasks were associated with the search engine optimizer's role. The new Seo must be skilled in many tasks as he has to play several roles together.
Plan a Customized Seo Strategy for Every Project
Every project is different in itself and each of the project has its own set of competitors so planning the same  old strategy for each and every website sounds boring and predictable. So be aware and do something different. It is important not to follow the same…

Two of the most important factors of Google's algorithm are content relevancy and backlinks. These two factors are the most basic and every other factor revolves around these two. Now, the question arises as to which factor is most important- Content or Backlinks?

Content Vs Backlinks The intelligent search engine optimizers and web marketers would say- both are important and we cannot rely on just one but where do these factors stand today?
I have analyzed several websites and undoubtedly backlinks seems to be winning the race. Now, if someone puts up a question before me as which is more important- content or backlinks? I will say backlinks are the most important factor working for Google until now.
I have seen many websites having lots of quality content but lack of backlinks pushed them out of the Google search results. This is sad for the webmasters but not to worry as this is how Google's algorithm works. 
Google puts a lot of emphasis on backlinks and sites that are having m…