For those who feel that age plays a role, their argument is that older websites are often more established and have gone through the trust building and credibility phase. As you may know, spam websites are often registered and dumped as soon as they become useless or get sandboxed by google.

SEO experts in favor of the age benefit argument generally tend to use Google’s patent “Information Retrieval Based on Historical Data”. The argument is as follows:

(1) … the date that a domain with which a document is registered may be used as an indication of the inception date of the document.

(2) Certain signals may be used to distinguish between illegitimate and legitimate domains. … Valuable (legitimate) domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway (illegitimate) domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain and, thus, the documents associated therewith.

While this might seem like it nailed the coffin, the truth is that site age is often overrated. Not that it doesn’t help influence website rankings, it’s just that it isn’t a major factor these days. What gets a website ranked properly is a combination of varying factors like the number of backlinks and one way links pointing to the website, its on-page and off-page optimization, its loading speed, size among others.

So, instead of worrying about how old your website is, you should spend more time focusing on building your website’s back links, increasing its traffic, growing its PR among others. When you do all of these, chances are that your website will even get to rank higher than an old or well established website that does not make as much effort. Just a closing advise, if the site is going to be your business site or a project with long term business opportunities, it’s better to register for a longer duration and it’d work as a “safe” tag.

Besides, with the new update in google algorithms, more emphasis is placed on real-time and recent content as against old ones.

It was just a small thought came. Coming soon with more topics.

Cheers!

Admitted my mistake after this serious hit and I will make sure to have at least a little update on blog often (once a week)

Will come back soon about more update.

One of Google team’s member at official Google blog says,

“Caffeine provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and it’s the largest collection of web content we’ve offered. Whether it’s a news story, a blog or a forum post, you can now find links to relevant content much sooner after it is published than was possible ever before.”

So, the statement openly favours regular updated blogs, social bookmarking sites, and active forums. Let’s go in details on who will have favour from Big daddy caffeine?

1- Regularly updated blogs- Google loved fresh content and frequent updates from always but Google caffeine will now help bloggers earn more with the special favor to the content as soon as they publish. This fresh content will not only be indexed in seconds to minutes but also will stay in Google’s fresh database for longer durations if you’re connected with social media sites.

How to get best out of this favor?

Bloggers can earn more and more with their blogposts if they get more and more comments to the posts. It means, the content is getting popularity and as the page is updated with a comment (few fresh content), it stays longer as well as higher in search engine rankings in the niche. Social bookmarking sites should be used more and more to get popularity, comments and favor to your recently published content making spider crawl your page again and again pushing it to higher rankings.

2- Social Bookmarking websites and portals – These social sites have already achieved huge popularity over last 3 years. From Digg, reddit to twitter and facebook, Google simply loved them for the real-time user interface and interactive features. But now they will be 10 times more popular because

a)  These are loaded with fresh content and news every minute

b)  These will have more users than before after caffeine launch and open love to actively updated places and sites.

3- Forums - These will be second most popular places after blogs and social sites. Because people are genuinely active in various forums with specific questions, discussions and topics, there will be more and more inclination to forums now. One can join forums’ active discussions or open new, sensible and relevant threads to get valuable links. Rest be assured that Google will indexes these posts, thus your links, before you imagine. This will lead to most forum owners to be concerned about quality and changing their policies and rules. Forums owners will get more business and popularity; people will get quickly indexed links and easier rankings.

What will happen to the static sites and ecommerce businesses?

There are millions of people who are running their profitable service or product based business websites on static platform. Will they lose the rankings? Well, many of them already lost it. Because these are not updated frequently, Google didn’t prefer them for relevant results. We can assume that keyword density and other factors could be taken as secondary criteria for rankings and freshness with absolute relevancy being the first and foremost now.

Solution to higher rankings for static sites

• Such business websites can have an integrated blog like http://www.ABC.com/blog . These blog updates can be set up on homepage of main website from sidebar to bottom anywhere using codes. Now, your website is actually getting updated frequently because it is directly connected to a regular updated blog with posts links on homepage.
• Another additional option can be minor changes/additions on website content on regular intervals. If it is a product based website, make sure you are adding good product descriptions.
• Adding widgets and social bookmarking buttons would help them get connected to frequently updated sites and social media.

Some well-thought assumptions about Caffeine, Users and SEO

1- With more user oriented approach, caffeine targets not only the user retention with fresher, faster and more relevant content but also the surging growth of Mobile searches. This would (has already infact) lead to factors like page load speed dominate the searches. In short, Google caffeine would prefer quick loading sites and pages. When Google says, the results are 50% faster, it means page load time has become extremely important now. There are no rules as such but 3-5 seconds time may be near to standard one.

The site owners and designers can work out quick page loads with server compression and fixing the CSS files as well as javascripts.

Interestingly, flash sites may face some disastrous effects of Google Caffeine with lesser favor in real time search as well as mobile browsing because most of the phones do not support flash except few Android phones.

2- Backlinks from frequently updated and niche related sites would count more to secure the place in caffeine’s most fresher and relevant results. That means, linking to social bookmarking sites, news sites, forums and niche industry blogs will help if you can manage to get links from them as they’ll have a greater attention from Google’s spiders. For SEO and marketing companies, features like diggs, prop up and down at propeller, like and dislike at facebook, reddits will contribute to Google favour for better and stable rankings. Now in real manner, page relevance, quality and people’s vote will dominate.

3- As Google is going to prefer picking up recently published and relevant content, on-site optimization and meta-tags will play equally important roles as off-site optimization. In other words, there will be 50:50 ratio when it comes to search engine rankings responsibility.

4- Now when Google says it will prefer fresher content, so can we assume the so called sandbox effect or new site boost effect is no more? Whether the site is old or brand new, it’d be favored by Google as long as it offers relevant, unique, and fresh content.

5- Because caffeine is real-time search based algo, it’d favor all new videos, news and media. Consequently, the pages with fresh content supported with media and video will be preferred? Well, I think YES. Go web 2.0 Go!

6- Most article directories and similar sites will gain trust from Google caffeine if they add social bookmarking buttons and other widgets that makes them either regularly updated portal or connect them with sites that are regularly updated. So more user interaction and link popularity.

7- For link builders, SEO companies and internet marketers, the value of link exchanges and paid links from static pages will be almost zero.  Fresh content based link building methods like contextual blogposts from genuine blogs, unique article marketing, optimized web 2.0 pages will work far better for link popularity and top rankings achievement.

8- With so many above written points, it’d be interesting to see the fear of penalties and filters seem to be lifted in Google caffeine.

9- Because spiders are going to index web faster and deeper, it’s better to re-structure the sitemaps and navigation to have deeper pages lesser clicks away and at good positions. It’s obvious that spiders are not going to waste time on complicated, clumsy sites and pages.

10- The pagerank will have a substantial impact. This has already been effect for a while recently. The new sites with fresh and original content will get a better pagerank without much or no link building. Even if the site has been favored by certain blog directories and social sites, that would be enough for Google caffeine to recommend the site for a decent pagerank.

This assumption will somehow affect paid links for SEO. Get text links on hot and preferably top positions of a page with good tag to have more, better and quicker chances of getting indexed.

Last but not the least, because Google will prefer fresher and frequently updated sites, rankings will not be stable anymore and old static sites that ruled the web for ages will be gone if they don’t upgrade. To achieve stable rankings in Caffeine era, you’d not only have to create and update pages with fresh content but also MAKE people link back to you. Google will prefer what people like and the grand Caffeine chapter begins with a grand business opportunity for content writers and companies; and with a demand of smarter approach from marketing companies.

So I’m testing whether meta tag in Google is still IN or Kicked out of rankings factors?

What did I do?

I’ve changed the title tag of one of my top rankings business websites (Yes, I took this risk). But, I’m not a fool. I’ve set the new title that would convert the visitors if not the search engines (in case meta tags still exists)

So, if my rankings drop in next one week, meta tags still work.

If rankings are intact, it is OUT.

If my sales go up, I’ll set up the titles tags for all my sites to those catchy, “out-of-the-box”, and converting titles.

Now must be thinking, what’s the title? What’s the site?

Answer – wait! Let Google index it and I should update the status here again.

Cheers!

Here are some updates that I have for my readers

1- Office Moved to a new place

Our office has moved to Sector 14 Gurgaon, a better and bigger place where our employees can breathe and work better. LOL.. The last place was good but congested for 80 people. I welcome my new staff of 20 more writers and 20 bloggers. We’re thinking of adding designers too this month.

2- Special SEO offers for March updated

We’ve introduced a different theme this month. Everything you’d find in 7. 7 days delivery, 7 articles, 7 lenses and all summed up in 7. The offers are great for people who want to avail cheap yet advanced link building packages for one time.

3- Am gonna shop for myself -

This evening will be dedicated completely to my personal shopping. Apparels, gifts for myself, shoes, handbag and all.

See you soon.

Cheers!

Pale… Yet makes me miss those colorful feelings

Empty… Yet fills me with your unsaid commitments

Speechless… Yet trying to speak your love

Rains without you are dry, pale, empty and speechless.

But recently, I noticed that now it takes no more than 3 days to get the lenses indexed in major search engines. Squidoo is getting back to its value and authority among webmasters and users. Of course, Google will not come to these pages and crawl by themselves. If you do the following, you can get full value of your lenses -

a) Get at least 600 words unique content on your lens and make sure it gives great value to the readers.

b) make good use of images with alt-tagging options.

c) Use anchor texts for backlinks and try to link some keyword with sites like wikipedia and other highend portals.

d) Submit to various squidoo lens directories so they get some backlinks.

e) Bookmark the lens to top bookmarking sites like digg, reddit, propeller etc.

f) Associate with popular squidoo groups and your lens there.

g) Share your lens with other squidoo members and on forums without spamming them. Be a quality contributor.

Thes steps will definitely help you get some strong backlinks out of your squidoo lens creation efforts.

Well, you probably did nothing wrong but the new algo might have regarded some link building methods as of high quality and some of poor quality. The speed of building links could have been another factor for drop in rankings.

As per our experiments for the last 2 months, these things would work -

1- Relax:

You need to relax first of all. No need to panic if the rankings are dropped all of a sudden and even if it was your only source of income.

Look at the recent methods you applied and try to remove all weak links if you can.

2- Forget mass social bookmarking

Now when you’re already hurt, you can not take risk anymore. Forget social bookmarking to 1000 sites would do any good. It’d rather harm and spam. Target top 20 – 25 bookmarking sites that have got real value. Digg, Reddit, Folkd, Propeller, Mixx, Sphinn, etc. are doing well. Don’t get excited with every new social bookmarking site added to your list. Relyonly upon old and reputed site for now.

3- Come out linkwheel myth

Those are truly spam links until and unless you have maintained these web 2.0 property pages for long. Just create these pages once and update them every week like a blog. Try to make some decent backlinks for them so that they bring some value to your site as well. It’s better to update and maintain your existing pages than creating new page with a spun content on every new site. Vox, livejournal, blogsline, ning, blogspot etc. are great to go.

4- Forum link building

Now, I’m not talking about spam postings and fake sig links. Create your own account at popular forums that allow do-follow sigs and contribute there. This would help you with slow link building and it WILL help you to recover your dropped rankings. Creating your own account may help if you have 1-2 sites but if you have more, you can purchase sig links from active and reputed members of these forums. Please note that these sig links will be helpful only if they are indexed.

5-  Unique Article Marketing – Target Only top 10

If your site is slapped and dropped, it’d be good if you go article marketing with only 2-3 articles per month. Try to get these articles written as good as possible. Submit them only to top 10 directories like ezinearticles, goarticles, Buzzle, ideamarketers etc. Try to rewrite the titles if possible. I will not recommend mass submission or multiple articles for now.

6- Beg, Borrow or Steal Method works always

But here you need to target only super quality stuff to beg, borrow or steal :p A friend in need is a friend indeed Try to get links from friendly sites, niche sites and high PR blogs. You can request them or pay if it is a nominal fee. 4-5 blogrolls a month would help you big time.

7- Clinging To Top portals like Hubpages, Suite101, PromotionWorld, InfoBarrel

If you get even one of your articles published every month on each of these big and happening portals every month, these would kickboost your dropped rankings. Google loves them and Google will spare those who get love from these portals. However, these sites demand and approve only superb quality content. So you’d need to hire a smartass writer.

Other than these steps, try to get some guest posts if possible on reputed blogs around (in your niche). And stay active on forums and search engine discussions. You’ll get lot of tips not to just to recover dropped rankings but to get #1.

See you again soon.

Cheers!

Are cheap search engine optimization companies actually offering value for their money? Are the rankings sustainable or are they just a flash in the pan?

Unfortunately, many people tend to opt for the quick and cheap option. By the time they get burned, their websites are already de-indexed and they often have to start all over again. It becomes increasingly worse if the domains have been around for a long time and a lot of time has been spent building the website.

Most search engine optimization companies offering a quick and cheap way to higher search engine rankings often do it the wrong or unethical way. If you doubt it, when next you find a company that offers that service, contact them and ask them what methods they would be using. You can be sure that they will be evasive and not forthcoming with the necessary information.

On the other hand, genuine and reputable search engine optimization companies will not hesitate to show you what they will be doing to help your website get higher search engine rankings. These white hat companies spend time doing it the right way. And while the results may not be as fast as the cheap, shady options, you can be sure that the website will rise through the ranks naturally. The search engine algorithms have been designed in such a way that websites that quickly rise through the ranks are viewed as suspicious and probably spammy.

The natural and safe methods often work well for webmasters that are willing to wait just a little longer. While this method might be a little pricey –hence the reason many individuals opt for the cheaper and faster method- the benefits in the long term far outweigh the little fee paid. White hat methods play by the rules of the search engines; thus they are safe and produce long lasting results as long they are maintained and updated once in a while.

Higher search engine rankings are possible using the right means and methods. The cheap ways may give you temporary results and this is ok if your target is temporary. But then, why spend time and money on the temporary when you can make the results permanent! Thus giving you the ability to consistently earn more money and build your lists from the website for a long time.

Therefore, it is advisable that you opt for the natural and safe methods of search engine optimization. The benefits will last for a long time and you will make way more than you invested.

This also applies to your internet marketing business. Knowing what is happening in the market can both save your business and prevent you from taking a dangerous leap into unknown or murky waters.

If your business is internet based, then you know that your livelihood –whether you like it or not- depends largely on the different search engines. If these are gone today, you are not likely to make a dime from that business anymore.

Since an important aspect of your business online is search engine optimization, being on the lookout for recent hot trends and updates will help you navigate the treacherous waters of change. Staying on top of seo trends include

* Attending Conferences and Events

Sometime ago, just before the google duplicate content “slaughter”, some marketers who had tons of duplicate content online took them down and in the process, were able to stay afloat during the purge. They were able to do this simply because they had insider information about the intention of google to clamp down on duplicate content.

People who had high search engine rankings were suddenly thrown off balance and websites fell from first page to the 2 millionth page. Most of those who were able to escape the cleansing did so because they attended events where rumours about duplicate content clamp down were strong.

* Keep Your Ears on the “Ground”

In the past, people were able to hear a war coming from as far as three days away. The reason they were able to do this was because they knew how to put their ears on the ground and listen intently to the varying sounds emanating from the earth.

This way, they were able to escape before enemies attacked them. You should do the same in business. Keep your ears to the ground. No matter how big you get, hang around industry forums and authority websites once a while and just listen to gist going around these places. It could be your saving grace.

Know More about predictability of GOOGLE Search Trends

* Pay Experts to Do It

Search engine optimization companies, services and professionals are often insiders in the game. They know where to get the right info, contact the right people and even know about any major “storm” way ahead of its occurrence.

You can easily pay services like this to once in a while look over your website and see if there is anything they can do. A steady appraisal –probably once every 6 months; more if it necessary and affordable- can help your website stay alive.

It is crucial that you stay afloat during any major search engine “storm”. Getting expert SEO opinions and the costs involved are puny compared to the benefits that can be obtained from consistently listening to their advice and following their recommendations.