On May 5, 2012, the different social media sites burned because of the extensive discussion regarding the latest page rank update conducted by Google, of course a lot of website owners were very happy because of the fact that their page ranking increased and some even jumped two page ranks up. Some were felt the opposite because of the simple fact that their rankings went down. This roller coaster emotions by SEO companies and SEO consultants is because of the changes in the page ranking of their target website.

What is Page Rank?

In order to understand why many SEO companies and SEO consultants are worrying about their websites page ranking we have to understand what page ranking is. Page Rank basically is patented by Google, it is a ranking set in order to indicate the authority of the website. The ranking will start from a low zero to a high of page rank 10. The increase in page rank can be attributed with the link building SEO strategy where link page rank is passed on if it originated from a website with a high page rank. This is because of the fact that links from one website to another is considered as a “vote” to the recipient website which means that the more websites with high page rank linking the higher the page rank of the recipient website.

Page Rank and Panda or Penguin

Many would wonder if Penguin and Panda interplays with the Page rank. One of Panda and Penguins main focus is to track poor and spinned content making it reduce the ranking of the website in SERP. The main question therefore is does content now play a role in determining the page rank?

The Answer

Content nowadays play a significant role in determining the page rank of the website, this is because Google utilises the flesch-kincaid method where it tracks word spelling and sentence grammar and checks whether they are correct. Of course content is only one of the determining factors as links are still key players in determining the page rank of a website.

Conclusion

This just proves what we have always been saying on this blog time and again. In order for you to gain ranking either in the search engine results page or in the page ranking you have to incorporate quality not only in your link building efforts but most of all in your content development.

Google announced through their blog that they will be rolling out a new algorithm update which will impact three percent of the total website population. This latest in the Google algorithm update is focused on targeting those websites that are benefitting from webspam, which means that search engine optimisation campaigns should also adapt to this change.

What are Considered as Web Spam?

According to Google web spam practices are those that are implemented in order to manipulate the search engine rankings. It does not really promote useful content for the users instead the contents are generated for the search engine crawlers. With Google’s advocacy or goal of giving search engine users the most relevant results based on the keywords entered, there is definitely no place for those who spam the search engine results page.

Is This the First Time for Google to Combat Web Spam?

The answer of course is no, Google have always wanted to deliver quality search engine results to search engine users thus Google have already started updating their algorithm to return quality results to the users ever since its inception. What Google has incorporated in their algorithm update is a more comprehensive way of tracking web spam, it is an augmentation or improvement to their current anti-web spam algorithm.

Google has identified the main types of web spam that this algorithm will be targeting and these are:

1. Duplicate Content – as an improvement to their Panda Algorithm, duplicate contents especially those that were spinned will now be easily detected by Google. Poorly written contents will now be dislodged from rankings.

2. Unusual link Patterns – according to Google the unusual link patterns refers to the use of keywords as links in a totally unrelated content. An example is the use of the word “financial” as a link within a content that talks about health, where the keyword is totally unrelated and used out of context within the sentence, paragraph or the entire content for that matter.

3. Link Schemes – this is not the first time that Google will be punishing link schemes their previous update was intended to do just that, however, as web spammers becomes creative in link scheming Google sees the need to update their algorithm once more.

4. Keyword Stuffing – again this will not be the first time that Google will be tracking down websites using keyword stuffing, this is an improvement to such algorithm where it will be able to detect websites that surreptitiously incorporated keywords even out of context.

The Importance of Content Writing and Content Writers

We believe that the main reason why some SEO companies and SEO consultants are resorting to spinning content as well as to duplicating content is because of the sheer fact that content development takes time, effort, education and the ability to write using the correct grammar and spelling. With the coming Google algorithm update the role of content writers, blog writers and article writers have become even more important. Delivering quality and relevant content is what Google would like to see in websites and not thinly written contents that are just copied and spinned.

Conclusion

Algorithm updates from Google is not new to every SEO Company and SEO consultant, steps should be taken into improve their target websites in order to ensure the survival of the website in its ranking in the search engine results page. What is being emphasised therefore is that your website should be a considered as a high quality site by having high quality content and high quality links.

Today Google has announced their newest algorithm update. It is a known fact that search engine algorithms like that of Google’s is very dynamic that it is regularly updated. Regular updates could be from simple to complex in the case of Google a complex update may be like the time when Google introduced the panda algorithm where there were drastic changes on how it ranks websites in its search engine results page which affected a lot of websites.

Why is there a need for algorithm update?

Search engines are on the continuous quest to developing a search engine that can return relevant and accurate results and one that would indeed increase user experience. The search engine giant is one of such company that is focused on developing accurate search engine results. This is why there algorithm must be continuously updated whenever a better set of instructions were to be developed. Another reason for a search engine algorithm update is because of the fact that some SEO companies or SEO consultants may have found some work around in the existing algorithm that may cause the manipulation of the search engine results, when the search engine catches up with the manipulation being done then it is time to update the algorithm.

What is the latest Google Algorithm Update?

Dubbed as the Panda refresh 3.4 by some SEO service providers, the announcement came March 24, 2012 and it was announced in the most unusual of platforms. The announcement on Google’s algorithm update was done via Twitter, with only 140 characters or less Google was able to announce their most recent update on their search engine algorithm. According to “A Googler”, the twitter handle name of Google or its agents, the new algorithm currently affected around 1.6% of the total number of websites via the internet. With only 140 characters, Google was not able to expound on the scope of the algorithm change or update. Thus, what remains to be seen still would be the particular changes done in Google’s algorithm.

What Now?

SEO companies and SEO consultants should know by now that there are a lot of things currently happening at Google, with their recent announcement on a major algorithm change regarding semantic search SEO service providers indeed should start creating SEO campaigns that would keep their rankings if not increase their rankings in Google’s search engine results page, or to take steps in developing other online marketing campaigns apart from SEO which could increase traffic flow to their target websites such as social media management among others.

Aside from Google one of the major players in the field of search engine is Microsoft’s Bing. Microsoft started to compete with Google when they launched their supposed new search engine named Bing. To add to their competitiveness Microsoft entered into a deal with Yahoo, the second largest search engine in terms of usage, and this gave Microsoft Bing an increase in terms of search engine users. For SEO companies and SEO consultants this increase in the number of users in Bing is a point of interest because of the fact that it means that Bing has captured a considerable percentage of the internet market and thus making it the secondary target search engine in terms of search engine optimisation. Of course we all know that search engine algorithm is unique to every company and while Google started to give updates on any algorithm changes through their list known as the “search quality highlights”, Bing has not done the same until today.

Bing has launched the counterpart of Google’s search quality highlights dubbed as the search quality insights, this is Bing’s way of informing their users and SEO consultants and SEO companies in particular regarding their algorithm changes and how it affects the ranking of websites in their search engine results page. Although it would seem like Bing has just copied Google’s way of information dissemination regarding their algorithm updates, Microsoft have enumerated several differences. For one, Google’s search quality highlights are written in a list format briefly explaining the different algorithm changes while for Bing the algorithm changes would be disseminated via their official blog post, this means that there might be an extensive explanation of every algorithm change.

Another difference from Google’s search quality highlights to that of Bings search quality insights is that the former’s purpose is to inform SEO companies and SEO consultants as well as the users as part of their goal of transparency, for Bing however their search quality insights is seen as promotional in nature apart from giving information to their users, promotional in the sense that the blog will be used to inform readers on why their search engine is better thus enticing readers to use Bing instead of other search engines, what we could also look forward to this blog is if there would be advises regarding Bing PPC.

Whatever the purposes or their reasons maybe one thing is for sure, Google and Bing’s algorithm changes are done with the same goal and that is to improve user experience as well as make their search results accurate.

Google has recently announced the release of their new product, the Google play. This is believed to be Google’s response into the growing popularity and need for multimedia, education and entertainment applications. It could be remembered that Apple’s Apps Store gained popularity along with the release of its different products such as the iPhone, iTouch and the iPad. The app store from Apple is a virtual store where Apple users can download different applications where some of which are for educational, multimedia and entertainment purposes. On top of that Apple also has the iTunes where users can purchase or download for free the music they want to listen to.

This popularity and growing clamour for music downloads, e-book, multimedia and entertainment application downloads has increased exponentially along with the popularity of smartphones and other mobile devices. This is the reason why a lot of companies have been going into the music and application download bandwagon. The latest is Google’s very own download store dubbed as Google play. According to Google, Google Play will allow users to download music, ebooks and they will also be able to rent movies. Google play is the combination of Google Books, Google Music and its Android Market.

This move of Google bolsters their support to their Android market, ever since Google entered the mobile market and competed with Apple, the former have already made initial moves in order for them to compete. Along with this is the acquisition of a mobile advertising company which is said to increase Google’s advertising presence in the mobile platform. Aside from that Google also entered the mobile market by providing Android powered smartphones where the Android market, an application market similar to Apps Store, started.

With Google play, the search engine giant hopes to drive more sales to their company as compared to the Apps Store of Apple, this is evident by the fact that just last year Android smartphones sales rose above Apples iPhone. This new product from Google may also give interest in the field of search engine optimisation or online marketing.

The internet is a vast source of information and revenue, it is because of this fact that a lot of people are investing in the internet. Some would invest by creating their own website and promoting their business online. Some would even hire the services of SEO companies or SEO consultants in order to increase their search engine ranking to capture their targeted audiences. The search engine plays a very important role not only in returning relevant websites based on the keywords used but also in increasing exposure, traffic and potential revenue for websites that ranks high in the search engine results page. It is because of these benefits however that there are some unscrupulous people who are abusing the search engines by optimising websites that are irrelevant and worst the sites are actually redirecting users to websites that are laced with Trojans and viruses. For some of these unscrupulous people the redirection is being done in order to gain access to accounts of their unsuspecting victims.

How Does Search Engine Poisoning Work?

1. The culprit will create a website that has the ability to infuse viruses or Trojans to the computer system of the site visitor. Most of the virus or Trojans may be spam in nature or worst they are actual malwares.

2. The culprit will utilise black hat techniques in order for the site to be ranked high in the search engine results page until it is discovered by the search engine as irrelevant.

3. The culprits will increase the links to the site by way of using link farms, link farms basically are just websites that creates links to a website without proper relevance or review.

4. They create links through blog comments where they automate such comment process and it may even create irrelevant comments, these types of comments are easily identified due to the fact that the comments are irrelevant and sometimes it could not be easily understood.

Although search engines have already installed security algorithm in order to curb search engine poisoning, unscrupulous people are being creative in the process of search engine poisoning, the best advice would be to scrutinise the search results page before clicking on the link and if you would like to promote your site online make sure that you only hire the services of those who utilise white hat SEO strategies.

This coming March 1, 2012, Google is going to roll out its new privacy terms and conditions or its privacy policy. The Google privacy policy in a nutshell is the consolidation of all data gathered across all Google products under one account. This means that if you have several accounts in different Google products, say Gmail and Youtube and even the social media Google plus, the data gathered from you in those two products will be combined into one, data such as profile data and even IP addresses may be gathered by Google. According to Google this change in the policy is to increase quality user experience and for Google to display relevant targeted Google ads rather than the irrelevant unrelated advertisements. For some this move by Google may be a good thing for some it may be dangerous, some users claim that the privacy of a user may be compromised by this new privacy policy from Google. For those who think that Google may alienate their privacy the following are some simple steps for you to take in order to protect such privacy.

1. Browse in private – every web browser has their own private browsing option, for some browsers it is the incognito mode. With private browsing your browser will not retain any data pertaining to searches, browsed websites, it would even remove the browser history in order to protect your privacy.

2. Deactivate your Google Web Data History – the Google web data history stores your searches and the websites that you have visited, this is different from your web browser history as the data is stored online. You can choose to deactivate this in order for Google not to gather cookies from your browser and that your searches may not be stored online. To disable the Web Data History login to your Google account and go to your Account Settings from there you could empty or choose to deactivate such feature.

3. Clear Your Browser History – of course we know that browsers can store data as to the different sites that you have visited including site cookies, passwords and usernames. To prevent “accidental” display of these data online you have to clear your browser history regularly. Make sure that you do this on a regular basis if you do not want your privacy to be exposed.

These steps would help you in making sure that your privacy is protected, in an extreme case of course you can choose to close your account with Google or not register with them at all, however, for users of Google they could attest to the fact that up to this point their privacy have been protected and we still believe that Google will not compromise the privacy of their bread and butter, the only time when users are compromised is when accounts are hacked by unscrupulous people. Whatever the privacy changes may be one thing is clear no company would like to injure or compromise the safety and security of its clients and in this case it would be Google’s millions of users.

If you haven’t noticed yet, there is a pop-up window in every Google search or there is a page that will appear whenever you login to your Gmail account, and what is that notice? It’s Google saying that they have a new privacy policy. This new Google Privacy Policy simply states that there are around 60 policies that were removed and the original policy was condensed to include data collection and its utilisation for all of the Google services being offered by the search engine giant. Unlike other previous Google policies this new privacy policy is something which you cannot opt-out of, this is a mandatory change in your Google account which will commence on March 1, 2012.

The Lawmaker’s Contention

This change in Google’s privacy policy is not left uncontested, after the announcement of Google’s change in privacy policy, lawmakers especially those in the European Union have raised several questions and is now currently calling on the search engine giant to stop the implementation of its privacy policy pending EU’s full review of such policy. The review of Google’s privacy policy is for the European Union to determine if the new Google Privacy Policy is consistent with the European Union’s law on data protection.

Initial Problems Seen

Although the new privacy policy according to Google is a change that would enable them to deliver their services better, the European Union already saw problems that may make the Google Privacy Policy inconsistent with the data protection law of EU. One of which is the fact that since identity of the person searching via Google may be collected would this not invade the privacy of such person especially if such person would be searching about medical information such as diseases, is it fine to track such user? In a previous Google case it was revealed that even if you delete your data it will still remain in storage for about or more than sixty days. The question is how much protection or security would be given to these deleted data while in storage and waiting for final deletion?

Of course Google may mean well in their privacy policy change however it would be prudent to have on the part of the Government and Google as well to determine if such policies affecting their constituents and users respectively should be consistent with the laws of the land or the country to which it is being implemented in order to avoid any future legal problems something that some social media platforms are currently battling.

Last January 24, 2012 Google has announced that they have changed their policy across several of their services. You might have been bothered by the latest pop-up notice in Google’s search results page, don’t be bothered as this is just Google’s way of informing you on their policy changes which will be effective on March 1, 2012. Unlike for previous policy changes you as the user cannot opt-out of these changes in Google, that means its going to happen and everybody will be affected.

What are the Policy Changes?

According to Google they will be removing around sixty existing policies and they will be replaced by policies which, according to the search engine giant, will be a lot shorter and easier to browse over or read. This means goodbye reading a page long terms of condition or policies wherein after reading three paragraphs you might already be in slumber land. The shorter version of the Google policies may help everyone in understanding the different changes and the scope and limitations of each of Google’s services.

Specific Policy Changes

The updated privacy policy basically focuses on how your user details are being safeguarded and being utilized by Google. For instance Google explains in their privacy policy how they gather information for you, it is basically stated that information is gathered in two ways these are gathering your user information based on what you as the user register with Google. The other way of gathering information is by using your data information from using the different Google services. For the second type of gathering information there are several types of data that are being gathered like your Log information, information about user location, Cookies and other anonymous identifiers, the user device information and other relevant information.

With Whom Information is shared?

One of the fears of most of Google users or internet users in general is on the manner on how their personal information or data gathered by Google be safeguarded and utilised. Google has made it clear with their policy that there are several ways on how your personal information is shared. First, your personal information as gathered by Google may only be shared with the users’ consent. Second, your personal information may be shared with domain administrators or those providing you service and support through Google services like that of the Google apps.  Third, your information may be utilised for external processing via Google’s affiliates who will process your information for the intended purpose of Google. Finally, your information may be utilised or shared by Google to third party companies for any legal reasons thereof.

Conclusion

Making the Google policies concise and easy to understand makes it very accessible to the millions of people who are using Google or any of its services in one way or another. This move by Google helped a lot of people especially those who are not fond of reading long Privacy Policies and Terms of Service. As to the extent of its benefits or its detrimental effects, it would still remain to be seen pending its full implementation on the first day of March.

The infamous file sharing website has been taken down. Try visiting Megaupload.com, the site is no longer up. The FBI made four arrests along with the closure of the file sharing website. Many internet users are shocked by this news as SOPA’s protest was only yesterday in which a huge number of highly trafficked sites closed down in hope of taking down SOPA.

Interestingly enough, the taking down of Megaupload and arrests have caught the attention of international hacktivist group Anonymous. Anon released a message to the public via YouTube to declare the beginning of some sort of cyber-war between the citizens of the United States of America and the Government. Anonymous also urged viewers to share the video via various social media platforms. In retaliation to the FBI’s actions, Anonymous attacked many government sites which resulted in them being offline for some time.

There is a huge amount of protest going on against SOPA and also PIPA as many internet users believe this will censor the internet. Most agree that online piracy needs to be combatted, but this is not an effective method to fix the issue.

This act by the FBI shows that even without SOPA’s approval, they can take any site down and arrest whoever they want, according to Anon anyway. Whether SOPA is passed will be decided in four days, we can only wait and see what will happen to the internet.

If the bill passes it will hugely affect the web in ways that cannot be fathomed. Search engines will be forced to alter their results, which will result in biased results, directly affecting the process and general industry of SEO and PPC.

If SOPA is not approved, it is likely that the US government will find another bill that the citizens of America will be happy about and to deal with online piracy once and for all.