Most of us have a few favorite websites we visit on a regular basis. For me, it’s the content that is updated regularly, like forums, blogs, RSS feeds, and even news aggregates, that keeps me coming back for more. Because there is always something fresh and interesting to read or do, I tend to visit these websites on a daily or weekly basis, reading articles, participating in discussions, voting in polls, and even playing browser-based multi-player games.
No matter how much time, effort and money you invest into SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques, other factors also come into play when Google and other search engines calculate your page ranking.
If you are wondering if blogging is for you and your business, if you are unsure of the costs and benefits of starting a blog, then keep reading!
Most importantly (and Nik, our General Manager and SEO expert is going to hate me for this), I have to say that it is the relevance of the content of your website that leads to more traffic and visitiors. Creating a blog, and keeping it current and active, accomplishes these tasks and much more for your business.
First stop, let’s learn in a nutshell how search engines work. (more…)
I was never a big user of RSS feeds. I either found them updated too frequently, too little, or simply uninteresting. Then I found this website:
Referred by a Slashdot Thread I found myself pouring over archives, and wanting more. On the advice of this same thread, I checked out Lifehacker, the Reuters Science and Technology feeds, and Consumerist.
So, how does RSS relate to search engine optimization? From the Google Patent Application # 20050071741:
Documents for which there is an increase in the rate of change might be scored higher than those documents for which there is a steady rate of change, even if that rate of change is relatively high. The amount of change may also be a factor in this scoring. For example, documents for which there is an increase in the rate of change when that amount of change is greater than some threshold might be scored higher than those documents for which there is a steady rate of change or an amount of change is less than the threshold.
Not only does this tell us that what we all assumed to be true (even optimized content needs to be kept fresh and updated, but it also points us to RSS as an easy way to saturate our site with our target keywords.
Just one bit of advice for anyone looking to add an RSS feed to their site, DON’T USE JAVASCRIPT. The content won’t be indexed.
For anyone looking for a good RSS reader, I recommend the Sage add-on for Firefox.
Did you watch this past season of The Biggest Loser? Did you notice the dramatic increase in product placement throughout the course of the show? Yes? So did all of the friendly neighbourhood SEO techs working for the advertisers, and you can bet they took advantage of it.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the term used for making your website easily noticed by search engines, which of course gets your website placed higher in the listing of websites when a term is “googled” or “yahooed”. Getting on the first page of search results is the main goal; getting in the first three listings is the ultimate dream.
(more…)
It occurred to me earlier today, as I used the word obstreperous in an e-mail, that I use a particular function of Google a lot more than I think I should.
define: anyword
Its one of Google’s “Advanced Operators,” and one that I find helpful more than once in a while. You can find the complete listing of the advanced operators here.
Try it! I think you’ll find yourself no longer attached to using the synonyms function in Outlook.