SEO Sandwitch Blog

With so many smaller and bigger changes happening in Google's core ranking algorithm, webmasters are really confused as to which tactics will work right now? Google very recently had the Panda and Penguin algorithm updates that changed the way webmasters promoted their site. Here are the top 3 seo tactics which you can implement right now to get the maximum benefit.

Top 3 SEO Tactics for Instant Benefit
Google Authorship
The first and foremost thing you must implement on your site is Google authorship. Any web content can increase it's chances of ranking high on the search engines if it is associated with a reputable author. Hence, the first step you must take is to implement Google authorship and the second step should be to increase your author rank. More help regarding these can be found below:-

Rel="author" - An Important Ranking Signal for Google?

Content Rewriting
Analyze the content present on your site and make plans for rewriting it. Content must compliment the…

Google has went a step ahead in involving users in rating and reviewing a website by offering both free and paid website satisfaction surveys. This was announced in Google blog on June 27th 2013.

Google Consumer Surveys
Consumer surveys are a way of involving the users in reviewing a website and gathering proper feedback from them in order to improve the overall user satisfaction. Webmasters are provided with the free data of consumer feedback which they can use in improving their website.

How Many Results Can You Track?
You can track around 500 results per month.

How to Start Tracking?
Here is a four step process to start the consumer satisfaction tracking.

1- Get the code snippet by visiting - http://www.google.com/insights/consumersurveys/websat?site=p4xg44vj2ec3u
2- Paste the code snippet on your site just before the closing </head> tag.
3- Click on the received email for confirmation.
4- Start tracking the responses.


Google Custom Surveys
Apart from the free survey, there also…

URL redirection means that a single web page content is made available under different url's. Having a complete knowledge of URL redirection is necessary for webmasters and search engine optimizers. This post will provide an idea about the type of URL redirections available and their uses.


HTTP Redirects
301 (Used for SEO Purpose)

301 redirect is a permanent redirect and is used when any URL gets changed and moved to a separate location. For example www.example.com is moved to www.example2.com then 301 redirect will help the users to visit www.example2.com even if they open www.example.com.

301 redirects helps in proper passing of the link juice without seriously affecting the search engine positioning of the website.

302 (Used for SEO Purpose)

302 redirect is a temporary redirect when a web page gets available at a different location for some time but the permanent location remains the same. This type of redirect does not passes link juice and trust to the new but temporary url.

303

…

Matt Cutts recently announced on Twitter that Google has dropped the tilde operator due to less usage. Google always goes with the user trends and drops most of the features that are less used by the users. The tilde operator became the latest victim of less usage.

Here is the tweet shared by Matt Cutts -


@Go_Marcus@DatGuyGabe librarians too. But the feature didn't get much usage at all, yet took up indexing space we could use for more pages.
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) June 27, 2013 For those, who don't know what this tilde ~ operator did, here is a short explanation-

The tilde ~ operator when used with keywords on Google returned synonyms of the searched word. This helped web marketers and search engine optimizers to find out synonyms and increase the keyword base.

Also See:-

List of Google Search Operators
Seo Search Operators
Google Search Tips and Tricks Getting Listed on Search Engines How do Search Engines Work Seo Secrets

Many times it happens that the webmasters completely ignore the seo issues as suggested by a competent search engine optimizer. These issues may affect a site badly resulting in partial or complete loss of traffic if not taken seriously.

Are You Taking these SEO Issues Seriously?

Robots.txt Issues
Sometimes a secret folder may get crawled by search engine bots and information that needed to be refrained from general public gets cached and displayed in the search results. It may also happen that a high traffic yielding folder may accidently get disallowed due to incorrect directions specified in the robots.txt. Hence, robots.txt is an important file and its issues needs to be resolved with immediate basis.


Less User Friendly Links
Many of the older websites are still using a spammy way of displaying links on their website. These links have been put in order to gain the attention of the search engines and not the user. All these links (mostly with similar anchor text and in areas not nece…

You may have set up your Google Adwords campaign and have started receiving the most awaited traffic but alas! where are the conversions? Getting successful conversions from your ads running in Google requires you to implement some tips and tricks. Before we move on to discuss the secrets of getting a good conversion rate, let us discuss what are conversions?

What is a Conversion?
A conversion happens when someone performs a specific task that is valuable to your business after clicking on your ad. This can be sale of a product, registration of an event, subscribing a newsletter etc. These successful events can be tracked in Google Analytics and is termed as "Conversions".

Types of Conversions
Conversion can be of two types :-

1 per Click - This type of conversion happens when a single conversion takes place with an ad within a span of 30 days. Only one conversion per person is counted even if a single person makes multiple conversions after clicking on an ad. Unique conversio…

Google has recently shared a blog post answering all queries related to backlinks and reconsideration requests. This will clear most of the unanswered queries of the webmasters affected by the Penguin updates who were waiting for an official response. Here is a summary of what was answered along with further guidance on how to proceed?



1- When Should You File a Reconsideration Request?
A reconsideration request should be filed only after you have received a manual penalty notification in the Webmasters tools. You can file a reconsideration request from the Google Webmasters console. You must file a request only after you clean up your site or backlink profile which were going against Google Webmasters guidelines.

The request should not be filed in case of an algorithmic update.

Here is more help - How to write a reconsideration request?



2- How to Check the Quality of Backlinks Pointing to Your Site?
You may check all the backlinks pointing to your website using the Google Webmaster too…

Being active on social media networks is required for a brand to gain exposure and feedback from their potential and existing customers. Knowing the best time to post on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google Plus and Pinterest can give your shared story a real boost in visibility with an increased travel time and overall life. It is interesting to note that every shared story on social media sites has its own life and travel capacity. If a story receives maximium shares on several profile then it will having a greater travel capacity and enhanced visibility. On the other hand, if the story receives maximum comments then it will have a greater life as people stay in touch with the story and make it more visible.

Best and Worst Times to Post on Social Networks
Facebook
Best -     1PM to 4PM
Worst -   8PM to 8AM

Twitter
Best -     1PM to 3PM
Worst -   8PM to 9AM

LinkedIn
Best -     7AM to 9AM or 5PM to 6PM
Worst -   10PM to 6PM


Google Plus
Best -     9AM to 11AM
Worst -…

It's not about links anymore. Google has recently updated their help document on how they rank websites and replaced the words "increasing the number of high quality sites that link to their pages" to "creating high quality sites that users will want to use and share". This indirectly indicates the declining importance of links and increasing importance of social shares especially Google Plus Ones. This news was published on seroundtable.

Now, the game is gradually moving towards Plus Ones. We have already witnessed a lot of sites getting good ranking on Google simply because many people have recommended it using Google Plus. This is indeed a great ranking signal for Google in order to judge the quality and popularity of a webpage. Instead of depending upon algorithms for determining popularity on the basis of backlinks, Google is slowly moving towards a community based approach where it will weigh sites according to the number of social sharing and recommenda…

Not a considerable time has passed since the launch of the Facebook. None of the individual could have imagined that this networking website which was opened with the intention to provide a common platform for the friends and peer to interact and stay in touch can turn into a business networking zone. Apart from business, Facebook can even help the WordPress blogs owned by the individuals in gaining popularity. There is no dearth of the Facebook Plugins which can aid in integrating the blog with the Facebook page. To make the readers aware of the glory of such plugins, I have compiled a list of some of the most stunning Facebook Plugins for WordPress that one should not miss!! Have a look:

Best Facebook Plugins for WordPress
Facebook Connect:
Many of the bloggers consider the task of bringing the Facebook on the blog a tedious task. But with the advent of the Facebook Connect plugin, one can easily bring the Facebook to the blog. With FB Connect, one can integrate the blog with Faceboo…

Local Seo has become a major success factor for local businesses. With Google becoming a major source of traffic for local business leads, local seo is slowly and gradually becoming an unavoidable marketing strategy for local business owners. Here are some guidelines that would help business website owners and search engine optimizers to do local seo more efficiently.

Local SEO Essentials
The factors mentioned below plays a major role in getting your website ranked well on the Google local search results.


Presence of Keywords in Local Business Listing Title

The local business listing title must have the targeted keyword. But, make sure, you must not over do it or otherwise there are several penalties waiting for you. Just the presence of keyword is necessary not repeated mentions. A specific example is given below:-

Here, a search for "Electricians in Dothan al" returns the following local results. Note the presence of keywords - "Dothan" "Al" and "El…

Facebook recently announced in their blog the support of hashtags. This was an important feature that was missing from Facebook but thanks, now the user can use the hashtag functionality in the similar manner as they use on Twitter, Pinterest, Stumbleupon, Google Plus etc.

Hashtags are really useful to help people share and discover great content on Facebook easily. You can search using hashtags on the search bar and discover niche conversations. Here is what Facebook says -

"Starting today, hashtags will be clickable on Facebook. Similar to other services like Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, or Pinterest, hashtags on Facebook allow you to add context to a post or indicate that it is part of a larger discussion. "



Also See:-

Internship in Google or Facebook Graph Search Optimization Facebook Graph Search
Facebook Voice Messages
Facebook Introduces Dedicated Pages for Couples
Create Free Facebook Cover Photos
Make Facebook a Part of Your Search
Facebook Voice Messages
50 Seo Tips
How to Tra…

As far as online content development jargons go, search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) play a huge role in internet marketing tactics. As an introduction to the uninitiated, a search engine uses algorithmic calculations to decide the ranking of a certain website or webpage on the search list. It is an unpaid or organic process which can be affected by using both SEO and PPC.

Considering how search engines work, the actual search terms or keywords are typed into a search engine preferred by a target audience. SEO affects the visibility of a website by editing the contents of a website. It can be used to change the HTML and associated coding of a webpage to increase its relevance to specific keywords entered by a user in the search engine. It also works by inserting backlinks, or inbound links, to the website in other web pages.

PPC, on the other hand, is when a client pays a certain amount of money to a search engine to increase the visibility of a website. Advertisers…

New Google update targeted to wipe out spam in niches like payday loans has started. This update would be spread over months rather than days, so you cannot expect to see all the updated changes soon. The real change would get reflected in 1-2 months. So, stay tuned for that.

We just started a new ranking update today for some spammy queries. See 2:30-3:10 of this video: goo.gl/ufCiH#smx
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) June 11, 2013
Here are some updates that happened recently -

Penguin 2.0 Update
Next Generation Penguin Update
Panda Update Rolling and Will Continue to Roll
Google Panda Update 24

Here are some discussions and coverage related to this update -
Google Goes After ‘Payday Loans’ And Other Spam With New Algorithm UpdateA New Google Update Targeting Money Keywords New Google Update or is it all Screwed? Google Targets Spammy Queries, Bad Mobile Sites with New Ranking Updates Google Payday Loan Algorithm

Custom variable in Google Analytics allows you to define and track custom user interactions other than those already provided. Custom variables allows you to track the user activity in your site as per your own needs.

How to Set Up a Custom Variable?
You will need the following code in setting up your own custom variable -

_setCustomVar(index, name, value, opt_scope)

Custom variable accepts four parameters given below:-

Required Parameters

Index - This is the slot for the custom variable and contains a  numeric value ranging from 1-5

Name - The name of the variable is defined here.

Value - The value of the variable is defined here. 

Optional Parameter

Opt_Scope - Page level, session level or visitor level interactions can be defined here.


Example of Setting Up an Ecommerce Custom Variable
Suppose, I am the owner of an ecommerce website and I want to track the number of visitors who are interested in viewing the "Electronics" section of my website. I will set up a custom variable to tr…

Author Rank can be said as the new Page Rank for Google as the search engine giant has started to put a lot of emphasis on authorship. With the motto of moving from "strings to things", Google has started to rate web pages based on the author profile and author rank, hence having a solid author rank would help your web pages to rank higher up on the search results.


What is Author Rank and How is it Calculated?
Author Rank a.k.a Agent Rank is a metric that is assigned to every author based on the contributions, social popularity, industry popularity, social circles, number of plus ones the content receives, the quality of the content, the number of quality backlinks or mentions the content receives etc. This metric is huge and takes into account many individual factors. The time has come for Google to analyze and rate web pages based on the author rank of the contributor and in future too, growth in this area is certain.


(Information obtained from Agent rank Patent by Google)
W…

Matt Cutts has revealed in a video that rel="author" is an important ranking signal for Google right now and also for future. Google Authorship is a great way to stop web spamming and identify genuine authors who actually wrote the content. The individual pieces of content gets ranked based on the author rank and the page rank/domainauthority of the website where content gets shared. Hence, implementing rel="author" gives you dual benefit for ranking your content both on your website and some other website where you are an author.

Here are some of the important points discussed in the video -

1- Revealing your identity helps Google to stop anonymous spam and makes web a more cleaner place.
2- Individual reputation of the authors (a.ka. author rank) helps Google to identify the authority, importance and genuineness of the shared content.
3- Web Spam is greatly reduced as people are less likely to spam using their individual author identities.
4- It becomes difficul…

Looking for an internship opportunity in Google or Facebook? Well, the path is tough and a few smarter ones are able to make it. The infographic shown below provides an excellent choice to decide whether you must choose search engine giant Google or social media giant Facebook for an internship!


Google vs. Facebook Internships infographic

Resources to Start Now - 
Start a Test for Facebook Internship
Google Students YouTube Link

Meet The Students



How I Got An Internship @ Facebook from Ilan Dee
Other Useful Links

Google Hiring Process
Careers at Facebook

Also See:- 

Google Offices in India
Indians Working in Google
Google Search Tips
Google Knowledge Graph
Best Seo Interview Questions
Useful Seo Tips

Yahoo search engine has got a design that matches the theme of Yahoo home page. This new and modern design has been introduced in the web search US. This new design puts the search results up and centre. Yahoo has also improved it's speed and this design is much faster than the previous one. This was announced in the yahoo blog.



I was really impressed by the page speed. The search results are displayed higher up and the various menus have been put above the query box.


Also See:-

Yahoo New Homepage
Getting Listed on Search Engines
List of Search Engines other than Google
SEO Tutorial
Google Knowledge Graph
List of Search Engines other than Google
Bing Social Sidebar
Optimizing for Bing