Webmasters Gift from Google: No Panda Updates Till Next Year

Readers, the following is a guest post from Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Land's

Yesterday, I made an assumption that Google would put all Panda updates on hold until after the holiday season.

Google tweeted yesterday afternoon that there would be “no major Panda updates until the new year.”

The last Panda update we had was labeled a “minor” update on November 18th and since then, it has been pretty quite on the Panda update side of things.

Google typically does not do major algorithm updates during the holiday season in order to not impact online retailers that much during their most critical business sales time of the year. This all stems from the historic Florida update that put many online retailers out of business right before the biggest holiday retail season.

Here is Google’s tweet:

Search weather report: no major Panda updates until the new year. Context: goo.gl/XqLuN

A Googler (@google) December 14, 2011

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National Flags Made Out Of Typical Food

Could you imagine that national flags can be so yummy? I have some cravings when I look at these flags. At the Sydney International Food the flags of participating countries were recreated using popular local foods from each nation. Here are some of the national flags, all made out of typical food for that country. Not only that it looks great, the taste is also amazing.

Indian National Flag

Australian National Flag

Brazilian National Flag

France National Flag

Greece National Flag

Italy National Flag

Japan National Flag

Korean National Flag

Lebanon National Flag

Spain National Flag

Switzerland National Flag

Vietnam National Flag

Image Source: www.lazypalace.com

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10 Effective Link Building Methods for New Websites

Here are the 10 10 Effective Link Building Methods for Webmasters to Optimize New Websites for Link Building:

1. Alter Your Anchor Text

Search Engines still heavily weigh SERP’s towards the anchor text of links to your page. Anchor text should always reflect the content. By altering your anchor text, you will keep your site highly relevant and highly ranked.

2. Deep Links

Incorporate your link building strategy throughout your site, not simply to one or two pages. An average link pattern shows links to various destinations of the site. However, there is no average deep link ratio. Most sites behave differentially. For example, blogs tend to have more deep links than the average household name website.

3. Indirect Linking
Link building success can also be supported by utilizing an indirect link strategy. Instead of solely pointing links to your page, it’s also helpful if you boost sites that link to you.

4. Create NoFollow as do follow links
The no-follow attribute of a link has been designed to tell search engines that a particular link should not give any credit to the linked site. Even though no-follow links don’t pass any juice, it is important to create a balanced backlink structure to your site.

5. Build Links on High, Medium and Low PR websites
Remember Best Practice Rule #1, alter anchor text? The same notion applies to link building on a range of PR sites. Authority links are great, but a mix of high and low PR sites is the way to go.

6. Smooth Out Your Link Growth
Effective link building should be a marathon, not a race. It is important to balance the amount of links you acquire daily.

7. Diversify Your Links and Link Mentions
Strategic link building isn’t an all or nothing proposition. So why would you put all your proverbial eggs in one basket? Create links and spread your link mentions across the online landscape.

8. Use Various Tactics
Devise a strategic link building plan that ensures your goals are in line with reality. Consider a top ranking with a long-tail keyword combination. It could be way more profitable than trying to shoot for the stars.

9. Engage in the Conversation
For good rankings, industry relevancy is the key to success. Make sure that you and your site are heard from. Listen and engage in the online conversation.

10. Run, Don’t Walk From SEO Spam-Havens
Today, link farms and tons of link directories are mostly deemed worthless. Don’t seek success in spam-havens or link-exchange networks. When you’re ready to incorporate link building into your Organic Search initiative, you need to consult with experts who understand link building best practices.

Source: Link Building Blog

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Customize Your Twitter Backgrounds to Boost Traffic

There are a great deal of Twitter users adopting a policy of consistent branding and positioning carried across from other Webspaces, e.g. Websites, eStorefronts, etc., by employing customized Twitter backgrounds. This would seem to be defined as best practice, as many marketers advise keeping the process of branding both homogenous and persistent transversely through availed channels.

Customized backgrounds lend an air of professionalism to one’s Twitter account. Also, followers tend to be encouraged when they see a touch of personalization and branding. By following these few easy-to-understand steps, you too can be the proud owner of an upscale, bleeding-edge Twitter site!

Several factors must be considered when creating a custom background (the following suggestions and instructions are based on the use of Adobe Photoshop and presume familiarity; if needed, the reader is referred to the Adobe Photoshop tutorials site.

Size

There are two sides of the background which can be customized; right and left (note: the entire background will be one image). By keeping the graphic content of the right side width at 210 pixels (2.917 inches), and the left at 217 pixels (3.014 inches), all branding elements should fit within these two distances from the edges; height should be kept at 809 pixels (11.236 inches). The entire customized Twitter background graphic should be 1439 pixels (19.986 inches) width by 809 pixels (11.236 inches) height. As this is a Web document, resolution should be 72 pixels/inch. The resultant branding message will then be visible in both the “new” Twitter interface as well as the current version. While the space above the feed could conceivably be utilized in the overall creation of the graphic, this could prove problematic. Nevertheless, adventurous designers may wish to toy with this concept.

Background color

The option available that can be used to match the customized background color. It can be found in the Twitter navbar (located at the top of the site) by accessing Settings > Design > Change design colors. When the Change design colors option is accessed, and background, text, links, etc., are chosen, a color selector is provided for the user. In the selector is a dialog box wherein a hexadecimal value can be entered. This value is easily determined in Photoshop, and by matching the values no difference will be detected between the customized background and that supplied via the Twitter interface, as inequalities in coverage may occur.

Sidebar color

By matching the sidebar color to that of the background color (process described above), the information provided by Twitter in the sidebar section, e.g. name, number of tweets, following, followers, et al., will appear to float freely (note: by using a white background color [hex value = #ffffff], the feed itself will float; selecting both background and sidebar colors as white will eliminate page bordering altogether – this is how the Grannelle Twitter site has been fashioned [when employing this method, the sidebar border {appears as a delineation between the feed and the sidebar} can be eliminated by changing the color value to white also, if desired]).

Text and Graphics

All data such as hypertext, phone numbers, etc., are part of the total graphic. They cannot be accessed, copied, or pasted. However, by providing matching information accessible from the sidebar, such as that supplied for the Bio and Web headings (found in the uppermost portion of the sidebar), constancy can be achieved. Repetition of use of the profile picture is also helpful for uniformity. Twitter text and link colors can be selected from the Change design colors preferences to accent those in the customized background, though care should be taken to use contrasting hues. Bear in mind that users experiencing color vision deficiency (color blindness) may encounter difficulty in distinguishing certain color selections.

Total File Size and Format
The total size of the file must be smaller than 800k. GIF, JPEG (JPG), and PNG file formats are acceptable.

While the customized Twitter background graphic can be tiled (repeated across the page), it is not suggested for this method.

Using Photoshop, simply create a document with the aforementioned measurements, building content for the left and right sides of the graphic and choosing background color. Include text information, pictures, and other desired images and illustrations. Adopting a consistently matching background color, create a new document, again with previously described dimensions. Copy and paste the left and right (merged) images onto the appropriate sides of the image. Save the final product. The finished background can be uploaded in the Design section, Change background image, following the same procedure as formerly instructed.

By playing with and trying out these ideas, users can have a polished and professional Twitter site!





Website: http://www.sitepronews.com
Author: Gregory Stringer is a student of eCommerce, Social Media, and eMedia marketing. His blog, Grannelle’s Social Media, is a collection of articles dedicated to the scholarly study of Social Media and eNetworking. He is also founder, CEO, and CMO for Grannelle, an eCommerce outsourcing firm.

Follow me on Twitter

http://www.twitter.com/anandwebinfo

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Use Google Adwords to Grow Your Online Business

Pay Per Click Advertising – Using Google AdWords


Marketing your online business is vital and by using both paid-for and free methods you get an effective mix of coverage, in this article I’m going over setting up a Google AdWords account and what every beginner needs to know to get started ….


The basic idea behind all advertising is to put your message in front of as many people as possible at the lowest cost, but even better is if you can combine that with getting to highly targeted people who you know will be interested in your product.


The best option for making this happen is to use pay per click advertising. Pay per click ads do more than just generate traffic to your site; it’s your shop window to targeted consumers who have a need to satisfy, a problem to resolve and therefore, if you can deliver a solution there’s every likelihood you’ll sell to them and make a profit.


The most popular medium for pay per click advertising is Google AdWords. Google being the gorilla of search engines ensures your ads receive possibly the widest exposure on the web.


How It Works


The way it works is that Google places your ads strategically on sites that are related to your product or niche or you can choose to appear on the search results pages. In other words, sites where your potential customers will be and search results for what your customers are searching for answers to and information about.


Google AdWords is a very popular system bearing in mind Google’s premier position in the search engine hierarchy..When someone is looking for information online, they naturally go to Google. It makes sense that if you want to advertise to the largest number of people, you should use the world’s most popular website.

How Much It Costs


The price you pay for your ads depends on your choice of keywords and how competitive they are – it naturally follows the more popular & competitive the price of the keyword will therefore be determined by that competition; in other words, if lots of other people are using it, it’s going to be more expensive.

Effective Keyword Research is Vital


So again your keyword research is absolutely key, you need to drill down to closely associated (to your main keyword/niche) keywords that are less competitive and therefore more affordable. When you decide on relevant keywords that you want to target, you simply bid on them and Google gives you a price. Sounds tricky but its really not, its very simple I know for Sam & I we thought blimey we’ll never understand all that but believe me the tutorials are great and its simple.


How To Get Set Up On Google AdWords


The system is very easy to use. It has a clear and friendly interface. It takes about 5 minutes to create an account. Once you’ve set up an account, write an ad using your selected keywords. Enter your bid and set the maximum you’re willing to pay for it. You can also decide whether the ad will be used only on Google’s search results page, or whether you’d like it to appear on other sites that use the Google AdWords system. These are sites that allow Google to place ads on them. Google places ads according to keywords used so that only relevant ads appear on sites.


You can also choose how you want the ads positioned on the site. You can pay more to have them placed higher, since people are more likely to see high posted high on a webpage. Once all of this is done, you wait for Google to approve your ads.

Here’s the Really Cool Bit – Controlling Your Cost


Here’s the best method you can use, set a daily budget that you are prepared to spend -and word of advice here initially set it very low – test it, get comfortable with the way the campaign is working, see what the results are like,and try a couple of ad variations – this way you don’t loose your shirt by spending too much money in one go- this is the real beauty of Google adwords – its targeted traffic within a budget. You can instantly pause or stop your Google AdWords campaign by simply clicking on a button in your account.


If the whole process confuses you, there is no need to worry. On Google’s AdWords site area there are a number of easy to understand tutorials as I’ve mentioned before, that walk you through the process and give you some tips on how to get the most out of your advertising campaign.


Pay per click advertising with Google AdWords is probably the Internet’s easiest and most effective form of advertising. In fact, it’s probably the easiest and most targeted system of advertising online or off. Not only does it get you great results, it’s also extremely flexible and easy to use. So there you have it, it’s an absolute must to have in your marketing arsenal, so go there today and get your account set up.


Source: By Toby Russell in Google
http://www.startinternetmarketingonline.com

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10 Ways to Get More Fans on Facebook

Have you created a Fan Page, but now you’re wondering – “How Do I Get People to ‘Like’ my Page?” If so, you’re not alone. Many people struggle with getting Fans. Here are 10 ways to get more Fans.


1. Create A Customized Welcome Page – Creating a Customized Welcome Page is an excellent way to increase your number of fans. Statistics show that it will help you turn 72% of your visitors into fans.


To create a custom page, you can use the Facebook application, Static HTML iframe tabs.
If you’re not familiar with HTML code, then you can go to Pagemodo.com. Pagemodo is free, and they have ready-made templates that you can use. So, all you have to do is just pick a template.


There’s also a website, Woobox.com, where you can add sweepstakes, coupons, and more to your Fan page.


2. Email your current customer list & invite them to your new Fan page – You can send a nice email out to your current list letting them know about your new page, and you could say something like – I would be honored if you would click ‘like’ to become a fan of my new page (and make sure to include a link to your page).

3. Post Links on your Social Media Profiles like Twitter, LinkedIn, & Your Personal Profile on Facebook – For example, in your Bio on your Facebook Personal Profile, you could include something like: Come hang out with me on my Fan page at: facebook.com/______________. In your Twitter or LinkedIn Bio, you could type: Connect with me on FB at: facebook.com/____________.


4. Use Facebook as Your Page - When you login to Facebook, you can click the down arrow in the upper right-hand corner next to “Home”, then click “Use Facebook as Page”. When you click on this, you will now be interacting with people as your Page (NOT as you personally). So, a strategy that will help you get more fans is to click “Use Facebook as Page” and then comment on other Fan Pages as Your Page.


5. Use Facebook Ads – You can always purchase ads on Facebook to drive traffic to your Fan page. If you use this strategy, make sure to target your ads appropriately and start out small. Start out by only spending a few dollars a day and testing out different ads, so you can determine which ads work best for you (before you spend a lot of money).


6. Add the Facebook “Like” Box to your Website – When you add this to your website, then people can click “like” and become a fan of your Page (directly from your website). When people come to your website and they see that you have a large following on your Fan page, that also helps build up your credibility.


7. Ask Friends to Share your Page – All Fan pages have a “Share” link on the left-hand side of the page. You can always ask your friends to come to your page & click on the “Share” link. This way, your friends can share your page with their followers.


8. Add Your Fan Page Link to your Email Signature – If you do this, then every time you send an email to someone, they’ll see your Fan Page link in your signature. So, they can easily click on the link to go to your Fan Page.


9. Invite Friends – On the right-hand side of every Fan page, there’s an “Invite Friends” link. Simply click on that link in order to invite your friends to become a Fan of your Page.


10. Create an Event Launching your Page – You can create an Event called something like: “Launch of the _______ Page”. When creating the Event, in the More Info section, you could type 1 sentence about your Fan page and then type: I would be honored if you could click ‘like’ to become a fan of my new page at: facebook.com/____________” (Always include a link to your page. If you don’t include the link, then people may not know where to go to access the page).


When you’re Selecting the Guests to invite to your Event, you’ll see a link to “Add a Personal Message”. I recommend clicking on that link & typing the same thing again: I would be honored if you could click ‘like’ to become a fan of my new page at: facebook.com/____________


If you have your Fan page Link in 2 places, there’s a better chance that your friends will click on it in order to become a fan.


Source: Article by Joy Bing Fleming
Website: http://www.sitepronews.com

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Google's Panda Ranking Algorithm Changes SEO Forever

Every day, I run into people affected by the Panda update. "Affected" always means negatively affected, because when your rankings go up, it means that Google is finally recognizing the quality of your site. When your rankings go down, blame it on Panda. Now, none of this is to say that Google's Panda algorithm update, and its ongoing tweaking that has followed, is not a big deal. In fact, this might be the biggest search ranking algorithm change since Google inaugurated link analysis in the late '90s. Because the search ranking algorithm isn't really an algorithm any more, because people don't set the rules. Google has embraced machine learning, and SEO will never be the same.

Machine learning is a computer technique that uses pattern recognition to cluster together similar things. What Google is doing with machine learning is clustering good search results and separating them from bad search results. How do they do that? They have people working as search quality raters to decide which search results contain quality information and which doesn't.

Those ratings become the training data for machine learning. Then the machine learning techniques go to work, identifying which Web pages and which entire Web sites have qualities similar to the ones that the quality raters have judged the best--and also noting which sites seem to match low-quality sites. Then, in addition to all of the factors that Google has always looked at in its ranking algorithm, there's a new factor--this machine learning factor based on the search quality raters.

So what does this mean for SEO? Plenty. If you've been trying to reverse engineer the algorithm, you can stop now. If you've been playing tricks with content farms or paid links or any other spammy technique. stand down. Those techniques are probably not going to work very well for much longer. I say that not because the new algorithm is perfect. It's not. I've seen plenty of quality sites that have been unfairly downgraded. I am saying it because Google is committed to this approach and will keep at it until they get what they want. They've declared war on spam and finally have a computer technique that can add in a human judgment that is very hard to spam.

So, if your idea of SEO is gaming the ranking algorithm, then SEO is over. If your idea of SEO is providing the best content for searchers to find, then your time has come. I've always counseled companies to optimize for people more than for search engines. Never has that advice been more important than now.

Post By:  Mike Moran

Mike is an expert in search marketing, search technology, publishing, Web personalization, and Web metrics, who regularly makes speaking appearances. 

Mike also writes the Biznology newsletter and blog, is the co-author of the best-selling Search Engine Marketing, Inc., and writes the search marketing column for Revenue Magazine.

 Anand Web Info | Latest SEO Tricks

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