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Google Delivers Panda 2.3 Algorithm Update

Google has pushed out an update to the Panda filter.

“We’re continuing to iterate on our Panda algorithm as part of our commitment to returning high-quality sites to Google users,” a Google spokesperson said. “This most recent update is one of the roughly 500 changes we make to our ranking algorithms each year,” Google added.

Complaints across the web suggested that Google is doing rolling updates of Panda, as opposed to Panda updates being manually delivered.However, Panda updates are still being pushed put manually, Google says.

According to Google, “this update incorporates some new signals that help differentiate between higher- and lower-quality sites.” “As a result, some sites are ranking higher after this most recent update,” Google added.

Prior Google Panda Algorithm Updates:

  • Panda Update 1.0: Feb. 24, 2011
  • Panda Update 2.0: April 11, 2011 (7 weeks later)
  • Panda Update 2.1: May 10, 2011 (4 weeks later)
  • Panda Update 2.2: June 16, 2011 (5 weeks later)
  • Panda Update 2.3: July 23, 2011 (5 weeks later)

The 2.1 to 2.3 dates are approximate. Google may have rolled them out earlier or later than those exact days. The bigger issue is that you can see a trend developing. About every month, Google revises its Panda algorithm.

Every time the Google Panda algorithm is run, there’s a chance some rankings from the last update will improve, while other sites might see ranking drops. In between updates, changes people may make specifically in hopes of fixing a Google Panda problem won’t show any impact until the next update is run.

DoubleDome Web Technologies is an Atlanta web design company that provides a full range of Internet Marketing services including Atlanta Web Design, Atlanta Ecommerce Website Design, Mobile Web Design, Flash Design, Atlanta Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Atlanta Email Marketing Service, Website Support, and Web Hosting. DoubleDome is a single point-of-contact for all Internet marketing services for corporate websites, Ad Agency Outsourcing, Business web design and retail e-commerce across the country. For more information about DoubleDome, please visit their website: www.doubledome.com.

Bing and Yahoo! Search Hit 30% Search Engine Market Share

April 12th, 2011 No comments

Bing-powered search traffic past the 30% market share in March for the first time since Microsoft’s Bing began providing Yahoo! with organic search results in August 2010. According to the most recent Experian Hitwise details, Bing and Yahoo! both grew more than 5% in March and now hold 30.01% market share.

Google still has more than double the market share at 64.42%, but this is a reduction of 3% since February 2011.

DoubleDome Web Technologies is an Atlanta web design company that provides a full range of Internet Marketing services including Professional Web Design, E-commerce Web Design, Mobile Web Design, Flash Design, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Email Marketing Service, Website Support, and Web Hosting. DoubleDome is a single point-of-contact for all Internet marketing services for corporate websites, Ad Agency Outsourcing, Business web design and retail e-commerce across the country. For more information about DoubleDome, please visit their website: www.doubledome.com.

Is your website in danger? Which search engine optimization methods are safe to use?

Last week, J. C. Penney was penalized by Google because they used paid links to advertise their website. This week, Forbes.com has been penalized because they sell links. Is your website in danger? Which search engine optimization methods are safe to use?

Paid links and other forms of web spam

Google’s most recent activities focused on paid links spam. However, that’s not the only form of spam that will get you in trouble with Google. Earlier this year, Google announced that they are going to fight web spam stronger than before in 2011.

Google Search Engine Optimization

In addition to paid links, Google considers the following spam:

  • Made For Adsense Websites That Consist Of Scraped Content
  • Cloaking And False Redirects (Google Gets Other Pages Than Real Web Surfers)
  • Keyword Stuffing And Pages Loaded With Irrelevant Words
  • Hidden Text Or Hidden Links
  • Misspellings Of Well-Known Websites
  • Fully Automated, Unrelated And Centralized Link Farms
  • Other Methods That Try To Trick Search Engines

All of these methods have once thing in common: they worked well in the past and they enabled you to quickly get high rankings on Google. However, these methods also have in common that Google can discover them. Websites that use these methods will be penalized sooner or later.

Search engine optimization methods that are safe to use

Spammy search engine optimization methods will get your website in trouble. It doesn’t help to have a big name (J. C. Penney or Forbes) and it also does not help to display AdWords ads on your website. If you want to get lasting results, you have to use ethical search engine optimization methods that are beneficial to website owners, web surfers and search engines.

Google Search Engine Optimization

Ethical search engine optimization leads to a symbiotic relationship:

Search engines: They win as they are provided with pages that are easy to understand and that contain the quality information that their visitors search for.

Searchers: They win as they are getting what they ask for from the search engines. They search for “green widgets” and get a page about green widgets.

Website Owners: They win as they are getting quality visitors who are interested in what their website has to offer.

The following search engine optimization methods are safe to use and they lead to lasting results:

  • Optimization Of Existing Web Pages, HTML Code And Web Page Contents
  • Creating Good Content For Your Website
  • Organic Link Building To Get High Quality Backlinks

If you use these methods to optimize your web pages, your website will get lasting results. It takes longer to get high rankings with ethical search engine optimization methods but your website will be safe. If you plan to build a lasting business, you must use ethical search engine optimization methods.

DoubleDome Web Technologies is an Atlanta web design company that provides a full range of Internet Marketing services including Web Design, E-commerce Development, Mobile Web Design, Flash Design, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Email Marketing, Website Support, and Web Hosting. DoubleDome is a single point-of-contact for all Internet marketing services for corporate websites, Ad Agency Outsourcing, Business web design and retail e-commerce across the country. For more information about DoubleDome, please visit their website: www.doubledome.com.

Google Modifies Ranking Algorithm to Push Down Low-Quality Sites

February 28th, 2011 No comments

Search Engine OptimizationLate Thursday Google announced it made a major change to its ranking algorithm in an attempt to improve the rankings of high-quality websites in its search engine results. This change would also reduce the visibility of low quality websites.

While Google did not explicitly say this, the modifications appear to be focused in part at content farms like Answerbag and eHow. These websites generate articles based on popular search queries so they will be placed at the top of the rankings and attract clicks.

Google has been facing criticism from some users for allowing articles that aren’t useful to appear prominently in search results. That has now changed, according to the company.

“This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites — sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other Web sites or sites that are just not very useful,” Amit Singhal, a Google fellow, and Matt Cutts, who leads Google’s spam-fighting team, wrote in a company blog post. “At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites — sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.”

Google says it makes about 500 revisions a year to its algorithm, but most are so small that Google doesn’t announce them. This one is predicted to affect slightly less than 12 percent of search queries, Google said, so it is big enough to significantly change the ranking results seen.

Running Email Marketing Campaigns With A Local Perspective

February 11th, 2011 No comments

atlanta-email-marketingEmail marketing can actually be very effective. It depends, however, on your business having a relationship with the recipient of the email and on the recipient wanting to receive emails. Once you have this relationship established, you can easily tailor your email marketing campaign to fit a local area and to the preferences of your customers. You can also operate the campaign in a way that maximizes the chances that it will be noticed and that it won’t intrude on your customers or deluge them with communications.

If you’re running an email marketing campaign that only targets customers in Atlanta, Georgia, for instance, you’ll want to make sure that it references something local. This gives it the feel of being more personalized. You’ll also want to take into account the number of customers you’re sending it to. Within the space of one city, there probably aren’t that many customers so you don’t want to be sending out emails constantly and, thereby, annoying them. If you’re working the entire state of Georgia, by contrast, you could feasibly send the emails in groups, isolating one section of the state at a time, or you could send them out all at once, depending upon the number of people that would involve.

It’s sometimes easier to track the success of an email campaign if you divide it up a bit. Sending an email campaign to 100 people every week, for instance, may be more manageable them sending it to 10,000 at once. If you’re in a big market, such as Atlanta, you may want to separate your customers by area of the city and other criteria. This allows you to refine the message even further. Email marketing, when it’s done right, is usually not regarded poorly by those who receive it.

DoubleDome Web Technologies is an Atlanta web design company that provides a full range of Internet Marketing services including Web Design, E-commerce Development, Mobile Web Design, Flash Design, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Email Marketing, Website Support, and Web Hosting. DoubleDome is a single point-of-contact for all Internet marketing services for corporate websites, Ad Agency Outsourcing, Business web design and retail e-commerce across the country. For more information about DoubleDome, please visit their website: www.doubledome.com.