Tag Archives: search engine optimization

The Hazards of Changing Domains and URLS

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 domain name and URL
You can cite plenty of reasons why you want to change the domain name of your website. It could be that the domain name contains a more generic keyword, and you hope to make it more personal by using the business name. It is also possible you want to institute a total makeover, and you begin by doing something into your URLs. Another plausible reason is you simply do not appreciate the domain anymore.

Changing URLs and domains is actually easier said than done. In fact, it carries several issues that you need to seriously consider before you try to do something about them.

The Downsides
Search engines, most especially Google, prefer aged domains. The fact that they have been around for years only means that the owner is a serious online businessman, is real, and has proven himself relevant to the keywords he has chosen. Old domain names also signify that the website is helpful and / or is applicable to several Internet users.

Old domains find it much easier to penetrate search engines, especially if there are new URLs created. They also tend to appear at the first, second, and third SERPs (search engine result page).

When you change your domain, there is a huge possibility you will no longer enjoy this privilege. Search engines are very blunt. If your domain is new, your website will be treated as a beginner entrant to the World Wide Web. It will take some time to have newer pages indexed. Most of the time, you may not even find your business URL in the top five page-search results.

If you are trying to increase your global reach, you know that this is going to be bad for you.

Another potential problem will be the links. Considering your old domain has been around for years, there could be multitudes of inbound links, which, unfortunately, you cannot carry over to your new URL. This can have a profound effect to your search engine rankings as links going to your website are significant to getting a good page rank.

Creating redirects is also not easy. You may have to rely on the expertise of people who are into HTML coding and PHP programming. The most common remedial steps when applying redirects include the following:

  • First, you need to send special instructions to the search engines, which are called 301. This means when someone clicks on your old URL, he or she will be redirected to the new one.
  • Second, you have to manually inform your visitors to delete the old URLs in their bookmarks and use the newer ones.

These processes can be such a hassle. If the redirects are not done right, this can result to search engine and user issues. The latter may find themselves opening a page that reads “Content Not Found.” They may be forced to look for the information they need elsewhere, such as to your competitors. Dead links can also pull down the value of your webpages in search engines. Unless you can correct these inactive links, it will be difficult for you to gain a better page rank for your new domain.

If branding is your main reason of why you are changing your domain, you are better off with creating a blog and have it included among your webpages.

Google’s Top 5 Benefits for Business Owners

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The mega search engine Google is used not only by Internet searchers but also by business owners. In fact, it serves millions of advertisers and enterprises all over the world every day. The secret: it is business friendly. Here are the top five benefits of Google for business owners:

  1. Ease of Use of Applications
    Virtually all business owners do not have to build anything from scratch. The applications do not require additional use of hardware or creation of another program. However, developers can modify the codes through the developer tools and resources available at http://code.google.com/intl/en/.

    The website also promotes “one account for all applications.” Upon signing, the business owner can immediately take advantage of all the tools and resources developed by Google employees themselves. Users of Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange can switch to Google Applications in very simple steps.

  2. Desktop on the Go
    Google encourages everyone to be as mobile as possible. Thus, it is easier to build network connections, stay in contact with employees even when on the road, and promote telecommuting that reduces business overhead costs.

    The website has applications that are very similar to those found in desktops. An example is Google Docs, which works like Microsoft Word. Other applications include Google Spreadsheet and Google Calendar.

    Plenty of tools can also be accessible through the mobile phone. Gmail, its e-mail client, can be synced in with Blackberry’s Enterprise Server and accessed through any type of Internet-capable mobile phones.

  3. Collaboration
    Google promotes collaboration among employees, business owners, and partners. Business owners can set up and share scheduled meetings and appointments, as well as documents and spreadsheets, via Google Calendar, Docs, and Spreadsheet respectively. Google Groups permit everyone to communicate more openly and upload public files such as documents and images.

    One can purchase a business account for $50 per year and make use of 10GB site storage. All chosen employees can have 500MB. There is also a shared storage for more private videos in Google Video. Google Talk allows video conferencing.

  4. Marketing
    Google provides several money-making opportunities for business owners. Google AdSense allows them to monetize their blogs while Google Adwords permits one to bring the business to the search results pages, while the keyword suggestion tool helps business owners find the best keywords to use.

    Google Analytics, one of the best search engine optimization (SEO) tools so far, is free to use and can be added into any website. This can provide valuable marketing information such as number of unique visitors, pages visited, and keywords used for searching. Business ads can be customized based on the desired geographical location. It also encourages local listing.

    The search engine has Google Finance that allows any stockholder to monitor the market on a real-time basis. It has applications such as Portfolios, Stock Screener, and Google Domestic Trends.

  5. Uptime
    Virtually all applications of Google are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The website also has plenty of contact details, from e-mail addresses to phone numbers, for anyone who needs additional technical and customer support.

What Is a Backlink?

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Most ordinary Internet users have encountered a link. That blue thing that they see on blogs, Web sites, Facebook accounts, even on YouTube. Just about every page of the Web has it. And when these links point to your Web site, they are called your site’s backlinks.

Backlinks, or inbound links, are incoming links to a certain Web site or page that does not originate on that particular site. Put simply, it is a link from another site that points back to your own site. If you have a Web site, pray hard that you get a lot of backlinks, as they are the only way people will get to visit your site without you telling them personally that your site exists.

An even more important thing to consider when talking about backlinks is search engine optimization or SEO. Backlinks are one way to get a higher ranking on most search engines, provided that they occur naturally. Search engine spiders are now capable of counting the number of sites pointing to your own. And most search engines consider these backlinks in ranking your site according to a particular keyword.

If you are interested to see just how many Web sites or pages have backlinks pointing to your site, you can go to Google Search at Google.com and input link:www.yoursite.com. In just seconds, the search results would list the different Web sites or pages that do link to your site, and in the upper right hand portion of the screen, you’d see the total number of sites and pages that have backlinks to your site.

How Can Backlinks Improve PageRank?

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Backlinks quite simply are inbound links from other sites that point directly to your Web site or page. And while backlinks are that simple to define, they carry an important role to improving your Web site’s or page’s PageRank.

The page rank is a numerical indicator or gauge of the importance or popularity of a particular Web page or Web site on the Internet. This means that the more popular the page or the site is, the higher the PageRank is.

Although the algorithms used by search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN are top secret, it is generally accepted that PageRank is one of the more important considerations in these engines’ ranking schemes. Conversely, the more popular your page gets and the higher PageRank you have, the higher you rank on search results.

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How Are Backlinks Used in SEO?

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Search engines do not publish the algorithms they use, so there is no sure way of determining how exactly they rank pages. It is, however, common knowledge that backlinks play a vital role in ranking high in your targeted search results.

Backlinks or inbound links are incoming links from other Web sites that point to your Web site. More than telling other people that your site exists, backlinks have been proven valuable in the area of search engine optimization as they are known indicators of your site’s popularity, which is a determining factor of your site’s PageRank. The PageRank, in turn, is one of the more important considerations that search engine algorithms take into consideration when ranking your site.

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