51 Web Page Elements That Yahoo Looks At For Ranking Web Sites

Do search engines care about the usability of your web pages? Does it make a difference whether your web pages are easy to navigate or not?

A recent patent application from Yahoo indicates that search engines might take a look at your web page design. The document includes a long list of factors that search engines can consider to determine the usability of a web page.

Why can usability be important to search engines?

The patent application contains a short paragraph that explains why search engines might consider the usability of web pages:

"It can be important to make web pages easy and pleasing to use, which can be particularly important for web pages it is desired to monetize.

If such web pages are not easy and pleasing to use, the money-making potential of those web pages can be jeopardized. One conventional indication of whether a web page is easy and pleasing to use is called 'clutter.'"

Web pages with good usability usually have a higher conversion rate than cluttered web pages. Web pages with good usability often have a higher quality than other web pages and search engines try to return high quality web pages in their search results.

Which factors can search engines analyze to determine the clutter of your pages?

Yahoo's patent applications provides a list of 51 web page elements that can be analyzed to determine the clutter of a web page:

Total number of links
Total number of words
Total number of images (non-ad images)
Image area above the fold (non-ad images)
Dimensions of page
Page area (total)
Page length
Total number of tables
Maximum table columns (per table)
Maximum table rows (per table)
Total rows
Total columns
Total cells
Average cell padding (per table)
Average cell spacing (per table)
Dimensions of fold
Fold area
Location of center of fold relative to center of page
Total number of font sizes used for links
Total number of font sizes used for headings
Total number of font sizes used for body text
Total number of font sizes
Presence of “tiny” text
Total number of colors (excluding ads)
Alignment of page elements
Average page luminosity
Fixed vs. relative page width
Page weight (proxy for load time)
Total number of ads
Total ad area
Area of individual ads
Area of largest ad above the fold
Largest ad area
Total area of ads above the fold
Page space allocated to ads
Total number of external ads above the fold
Total number of external ads below the fold
Total number of external ads
Total number of internal ads above the fold
Total number of internal ads below the fold
Total number of internal ads
Number of sponsored link ads above the fold
Number of sponsored link ads below the fold
Total number of sponsored link ads
Number of image ads above the fold
Number of image ads below the fold
Total number of image ads
Number of text ads above the fold
Number of text ads below the fold
Total number of text ads
Position of ads on page

According to the patent application, Yahoo might also consider the presence of animated and flashing ads and the average ad luminosity.

What does this mean to your web pages?

Good website usability can greatly improve the conversion rate of your website. If your website gets many visitors but only a few sales then it might be that your web pages are too cluttered and that you have to improve your website design.

Google has a similar patent application with the name "Detecting and rejecting annoying documents" so it seems that good website design becomes more and more important if you want to get high search engine rankings.

The HTML code of your web pages must make a good impression to search engines. If search engines find that your web pages don't have the right content then these pages cannot get high search engine rankings.

Google Uses New Method To Detect Duplicate Content

Google's new method to detect duplicate content

Google doesn't like duplicate content. The reason for that is that the top 10 search results should offer users a choice of different web pages.

Google's new patent application on near duplicate content describes a new method how Google tries to keep its users from finding redundant content in the result pages.

Content may be duplicated for a variety of reasons

There are many reasons why content is duplicated on more than one page, or why documents are very similar:

The content of a web page is available in different formats: web page, printable page, PDF, mobile phone page, etc.

The content of a web page is syndicated, for example news articles or blog posts.

The content management system (CMS) displays the same content in different locations. For example, an item might be listed in a "Size" category and in a "Color" category.

The website owner offers mirrors to make sure that a website does not slow down when many people want to access the same page at the same time.

Someone stole the contents of a web page to reproduce it on other websites.

To avoid showing the same content more than once in the search results, search engines try to detect these duplicate pages.

What's in the patent application?

The patent application describes how Google tries to detect duplicate or near duplicate content at different web addresses. It seems that Google might combine several existing methods for detecting new duplicate content to identify more duplicates on the Internet.

The new patent application shows that Google is serious about detecting duplicate content issues. This new patent application is only the latest step in Google's attempts to detect duplicate content. For example, previous steps can be found here (PDF) and here.

What does Google do when it detects duplicate content?

It's hard to tell what Google will do when they find duplicate pages. There are many instances where duplicated content is used for a legitimate purpose.

If Google only removes the duplicate pages from the search results for a certain query that might be okay. If Google penalized duplicate pages by removing them completely from the index, Google might risk not being relevant for very specific queries and it also might penalize the wrong pages.

It's likely that Google will pick the web page with the best reputation and the best inbound links for the search results if it finds more than one page with the same content.

What does this mean for your website?

If you want to get high rankings, it is easier to do so with unique content. Try to use as much original content as possible on your web pages.

If your website must use the same content as another website, make sure that your website has better inbound links than the other websites that carry the same content.

Yahoo New Algorithm Phrases Based Indexing And Your Current Rankings

How Yahoo's phrased based indexing affects your website rankings

Search engine spiders are becoming more intelligent. It was possible to fool search engines with a simply meta keywords tag some years ago, but search engines have now a deeper understanding of the contents of a web page.

Yahoo! recently published a patent applications that gives some insight on how Yahoo finds and evaluates keyword phrases on web pages.

What's the new patent all about?

The patent application explains how Yahoo! parses web pages to find related keyword phrases. Yahoo breaks down the content of web pages into several possible phrases and matches them with a content dictionary.

Yahoo! also seems to consider searches and query refinements to determine the topic of a search query. For example, Yahoo! might monitor a users queries and find out that the terms "woods", "club" and "green" appear during a given query session.

The patent application also contains a lot of information about how Yahoo! might work with the gathered information.

What is the essential point of the Yahoo patent application?

The patent application indicates that Yahoo! tries to understand concepts instead of single words. For example, someone looking for "tiger woods" isn't just searching for web pages that contain this word combination.

If a page contains the phrase "tiger woods" as well as some related keywords such as "golf", "green" and "clubs" then it is more likely a match for a search for "tiger woods" than a web page that has a story about a tiger in the woods that threatened a boy with the name Mowgli that doesn't contain the related keywords.

What does this mean for your website rankings?

When writing web pages, it can be helpful to use related keywords on a web page that has been optimized for a certain keyword. That will make it easier for search engines to understand the content of the keywords that you use on your web pages.

According to the patent application, it seems to help to use these related keywords close together on a page to make it easier for search engines to find the relation.

It will probably also help to optimize different pages of your web page for different but related search terms. That way, you can show search engines that your website is relevant to a special topic.

Need assistance with your organic rankings. Contact www.ontheavenues.com for SEO help

Google Postion 6 Penalty

Google backs out of the position 6 penalty

Some weeks ago, we informed you about Google's new position 6 penalty. At this time, it was unclear why Google assigned this penalty to some websites.

The theories were that Google considered usage data when calculating the rankings and that Google had a better understanding of word and phrase relationships.

Was this just a bug in Google's algorithm?

In a discussion about this problem, Google's Matt Cutts recently wrote the following:

"When Barry asked me about 'position 6' in late December, I said that I didn't know of anything that would cause that. But about a week or so after that, my attention was brought to something that could exhibit that behavior. We're in the process of changing the behavior; I think the change is live at some datacenters already and will be live at most data centers in the next few weeks."

This statement means two things:

It seems that Google made a mistake that sent many position 1 rankings to position 6.

Google has released a patch for this.
Indeed, many webmasters who experienced problems with the position 6 penalty reported that their rankings are now as good as before.

What was Google trying to do?

Even if Google says that the position 6 penalty was not intended, it is clear that Google tried to do something with the results.

What was it and will Google continue to do this without the unwanted position 6 effect?

The changes might have something to do with Google's increased integration of Universal Search in the results. In addition to the normal 10 web page results, Google now often returns results from Google Images, Google Maps, Google News or other Google services.

The way Google integrates Universal Search results into the normal search results changed during the last weeks. These changes also might have caused the temporary position 6 problem.

If your website has been affected by the position 6 penalty you can relax. Your web pages should have regained their high positions by now.

7 Ways Your Site Can Be Sabotaged

7 Ways Your Site Can Be Sabotaged

Google Bowling
Google and Yahoo! rank Web sites based in part on how many other sites link to that page. But they're wary of sites that create links simply for the purpose of artificially inflating their ranking, and search engines punish sites that appear to be cheating by pushing them deep in search results. Some saboteurs claim they can use that policy to "frame" competing Web sites, creating thousands of spam-links to a site in order to convince Google or Yahoo! to drop its ranking. The technique is sometimes called "Google bowling."

Tattling
Some sites buy links from more established sites to improve their Google ranking or hide links on their site intended to improve their placement in search results. Google frowns on such tactics and has asked for Web users to report these and other shady practices. One easy way to drop a competitor's ranking is to catch him in the act and report him to the authorities.

Google Insulation
Rather than directly attack a competitor, search marketers can simply create more content and float it to the top of Google results, pushing competing sites lower in search rankings. The technique is also sometimes used for online public relations: ReputationDefender, a Louisville, Ky.-based company, creates what its founder calls "Google insulation": flattering blog entries and other benign content that floats to the top of search results, hiding online criticism that affects the company's clients.

Copyright Takedown Notices
Search engines can legally link to sites that steal copyrighted content--unless they've been notified of the site's copyright infringement. If a copyright holder (or someone claiming to be a copyright holder) files a complaint, a search engine must remove the page from its index for 10 days while the copyright holder decides whether to sue for infringement. So by filing a copyright complaint against a competitor, a site can sometimes have it temporarily erased from search engine results--though a fraudulent takedown notice is often grounds for a lawsuit.

Copied Content
Search engines don't like duplicate content. If the same text appears on two different Web pages, one will be penalized in search results to avoid offering users a worthless entry. So sites that are older and more search-engine friendly than their competitors can sometimes rip off and republish a competitor's content, thereby hijacking its place in search results

Denial of Service
When moderate methods fail, there's always all-out cyberwarfare. One method is a "denial of service" attack, which floods a competitor's Web server with requests for information, overwhelming it with so many simultaneous queries that it crashes. Denial of service attacks are usually performed using a "botnet," a herd of thousands of computers unwittingly hijacked with hidden software. Unlike some of the subtler tactics in this list, denial of service attacks are very clearly illegal.

Click Fraud
Aside from general search results, Google and Yahoo! also drive traffic around the Web with pay-per-click ads. But competitors who want to sabotage their competitor's ad traffic can enlist clicking software to simulate thousands of potential customers clicking on online ads. Since some search advertising programs ask their clients to set an upper limit on their budget for a certain period of time, fraudulent clicks can easily empty an advertiser's coffers, causing their ad to disappear from search results and their traffic to plummet.

FTC OKs Google's $3 billion purchase of DoubleClick

FTC OKs Google's $3 billion purchase of DoubleClick

WASHINGTON - U.S. antitrust regulators approved Google Inc.'s $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick Inc. Thursday, removing a key obstacle to a formidable combination in the burgeoning online advertising sector.

The transaction still faces substantial antitrust scrutiny from European regulators and cannot be completed without their approval. The European Commission has set a deadline of April 2 to finish its review.

The Federal Trade Commission appeared to accept many of Google's arguments that its online ad sales business doesn't compete with DoubleClick's ad-serving tools, saying its analysis "showed that the companies are not direct competitors in any relevant antitrust market."

"The FTC's strong support sends a clear message: this acquisition poses no risk to competition and will benefit consumers," Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, said. "We hope that the European Commission will soon reach the same conclusion."

The deal, announced in April, will combine Google's leading position in online text ads with DoubleClick's ad-serving tools that help publishers place and track display ads.

Microsoft Corp., AT&T Inc. and other critics have argued the transaction would give Google a dominant share of the rapidly growing online advertising market. Google contends its business doesn't overlap with DoubleClick's and as a result a combination won't reduce competition.

Privacy advocates also strongly opposed the deal, saying the combined company will have access to a huge amount of data on individual Web-surfing habits. The FTC said it lacked the legal authority to block the deal on any grounds except on antitrust matters.

However, in an apparent nod to these concerns, the FTC on Thursday proposed a set of privacy guidelines for the online advertising industry, describing them as something that "clearly transcend" the Google-DoubleClick deal. It remains to be seen how such guidelines would be enforced.

Privacy advocates were not assuaged.

The FTC "sidestepped its responsibility today when it approved the merger of two companies whose new, extended data-collection reach will give it unprecedented access to track our every move throughout the digital landscape," Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, said. The CDD and the Electronic Privacy Information Center fought the deal on privacy grounds.

The five-member commission voted 4-1 in favor of the deal. Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour dissented "because I make alternate predictions about where this market is heading, and the transformative role the combined Google/DoubleClick will play if the proposed acquisition is consummated."

Online ad spending is projected to reach $21.4 billion this year, according to research group eMarketer, surpassing the $20.5 billion radio advertising market for the first time. EMarketer expects online ad spending to nearly double to $42 billion in 2011.

The size of the market and Google's bid for DoubleClick has spurred other purchases. Microsoft agreed to pay $6 billion for Seattle-based online advertising firm aQuantive Inc. earlier this year, and Yahoo Inc. bought Internet advertising exchange Right Media Inc. for $680 million in April. London-based advertising giant WPP Group PLC purchased online advertiser 24/7 Real Media for $649 million in May, while Time Warner's AOL bought Tacoda for an undisclosed amount in July.

Shares of Google added $5.88 to $683.25 in morning trading.

Google starts Wikipedia rival Knol

Google starts Wikipedia rival Knol

The web contains an enormous amount of information, and Google has helped to make that information more easily accessible by providing pretty good search facilities. But not everything is written nor is everything well organized to make it easily discoverable. There are millions of people who possess useful knowledge that they would love to share, and there are billions of people who can benefit from it. We believe that many do not share that knowledge today simply because it is not easy enough to do that. The challenge posed to us by Larry, Sergey and Eric was to find a way to help people share their knowledge. This is our main goal.

Earlier this week, we started inviting a selected group of people to try a new, free tool that we are calling "knol", which stands for a unit of knowledge. Our goal is to encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it. The tool is still in development and this is just the first phase of testing. For now, using it is by invitation only. But we wanted to share with everyone the basic premises and goals behind this project.

The key idea behind the knol project is to highlight authors. Books have authors' names right on the cover, news articles have bylines, scientific articles always have authors -- but somehow the web evolved without a strong standard to keep authors names highlighted. We believe that knowing who wrote what will significantly help users make better use of web content. At the heart, a knol is just a web page; we use the word "knol" as the name of the project and as an instance of an article interchangeably. It is well-organized, nicely presented, and has a distinct look and feel, but it is still just a web page. Google will provide easy-to-use tools for writing, editing, and so on, and it will provide free hosting of the content. Writers only need to write; we'll do the rest.

A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read. The goal is for knols to cover all topics, from scientific concepts, to medical information, from geographical and historical, to entertainment, from product information, to how-to-fix-it instructions. Google will not serve as an editor in any way, and will not bless any content. All editorial responsibilities and control will rest with the authors. We hope that knols will include the opinions and points of view of the authors who will put their reputation on the line. Anyone will be free to write. For many topics, there will likely be competing knols on the same subject. Competition of ideas is a good thing.

Knols will include strong community tools. People will be able to submit comments, questions, edits, additional content, and so on. Anyone will be able to rate a knol or write a review of it. Knols will also include references and links to additional information. At the discretion of the author, a knol may include ads. If an author chooses to include ads, Google will provide the author with substantial revenue share from the proceeds of those ads.

Once testing is completed, participation in knols will be completely open, and we cannot expect that all of them will be of high quality. Our job in Search Quality will be to rank the knols appropriately when they appear in Google search results. We are quite experienced with ranking web pages, and we feel confident that we will be up to the challenge. We are very excited by the potential to substantially increase the dissemination of knowledge.

We do not want to build a walled garden of content; we want to disseminate it as widely as possible. Google will not ask for any exclusivity on any of this content and will make that content available to any other search engine.

As always, a picture is worth a thousands words, so an example of a knol is below (double-click on the image to see the page in full). The main content is real, and we encourage you to read it (you may sleep better afterwards!), but most of the meta-data -- like reviews, ratings, and comments -- are not real, because, of course, this has not been in the public eye as yet. Again, this is a preliminary version.

Source: Google Blog Posted by Udi Manber, VP Engineering

SEO Secrets Revealed By Top Google Staff Video

SEO Secrets Revealed By Top Google Staff Video

From blogging to site content, links from other sites, sitemaps, Google webmaster tools, meta tags, Google base, indexing and more. This is a nice 10 minute video interview with Matt Cutts 'the Google guy'

Google Doesn't Like Cloaking

Google Doesn't Like Cloaking

In a recent blog post, Google's anti-spam engineer Matt Cutts wrote about cloaking. The blog post makes several things clear:

Google doesn't like cloaking.
It doesn't matter if a small or a big company uses cloaking.
Websites that use cloaking will be removed from Google's index.
Google will detect all cloaking attempts sooner or later.
What is cloaking?

Cloaking is a search engine optimization technique in which the web page content presented to search engine spiders is different from that presented to the normal web surfers.

This is done by delivering web page content based on the IP address or the User-Agent of the user requesting the page.

When a user is identified as a search engine spider, a script on the server delivers a different version of the web page. The purpose of cloaking is to deceive search engines.

All major search engines consider cloaking to be a violation of their guidelines. For that reason, websites that use cloaking will be banned from the search results.

Google's opinion on "undetectable" cloaking

In his recent blog post, Google's Matt Cutts commented on a Danish company that offered 'undetectable' cloaking to its customers.

Google tried to check if this claim was true and they quickly found a website that used the services of the company. It turned out that their cloaking wasn't undetectable at all:

"If someone is trying to manipulate Google by deceptive cloaking, it means that a webserver is returning different content to Googlebot than to users.

That’s a condition that can be checked for by algorithms or manually, and such cloaking is certainly not 'undetectable.'"

Don't risk your search engine rankings

You might get short term results with shady SEO techniques such as cloaking but it is very likely that your site will be banned from search engines if you use them. You'll put your web business at severe risk if you use black-hat SEO methods.

If you want to get lasting results, better use ethical search engine optimization techniques.

It's not a good idea to trick search engines. They will discover this sooner or later. If you want to know how to get high search engine rankings without offending search engines, take a look at OnTheAvenues.

A PR Release Can Get You Fast Exposure On Google and Yahoo

A PR Release Can Get You Fast Exposure On Google and Yahoo

Did you know that you can actually get exposure in Google and Yahoo newsfeeds within just 48 hours? Not only can you get your story published quickly but depending on how good your story is, you may actually get published by hundreds of other media outlets.

All of your SEO skills apply to working with news too!

Think about the impact of your link reputation here if it is linking back to you from hundreds of publications.

Will you be penalized for duplicate content?
Absolutely not, because news is 100% white hat. Search engines understand that news is meant to be syndicated across the Web.

Consider trying the services of http://www.prweb.com/

SEO Tip: Google Datacenters Search Engine Results

SEO Tip: Google Datacenters Search Engine Results

Google has 56 plus data centers. This means what I may see on by Google browser in Phonex AZ may be different from what you see for the same search on your browser. Below is a link that will show you what results are being served up through the different datacenters for the same search phrases

This tool shows your Google search engine results pages across 56 (or more) datacenters all at once.

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http://www.mcdar.net/dance/index.php

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OnTheAvenues has been providing Search Engine Optimization services since 1998. http://ontheavenues-diy-seo.blogspot.com/ Bonnie Burns SEO Consultant

Google and Duplicate Content

Google and Duplicate Content

From: Google Webmaster Central Blog

Deftly dealing with duplicate content

Also Must Read: Google and Dupicate Content Used By URLS

At the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in freezing Chicago, many of us Googlers were asked questions about duplicate content. We recognize that there are many nuances and a bit of confusion on the topic, so we'd like to help set the record straight.

What is duplicate content?
Duplicate content generally refers to substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar. Most of the time when we see this, it's unintentional or at least not malicious in origin: forums that generate both regular and stripped-down mobile-targeted pages, store items shown (and -- worse yet -- linked) via multiple distinct URLs, and so on. In some cases, content is duplicated across domains in an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings or garner more traffic via popular or long-tail queries.

What isn't duplicate content?
Though we do offer a handy translation utility, our algorithms won't view the same article written in English and Spanish as duplicate content. Similarly, you shouldn't worry about occasional snippets (quotes and otherwise) being flagged as duplicate content.

Why does Google care about duplicate content?
Our users typically want to see a diverse cross-section of unique content when they do searches. In contrast, they're understandably annoyed when they see substantially the same content within a set of search results. Also, webmasters become sad when we show a complex URL (example.com/contentredir?value=shorty-george〈=en) instead of the pretty URL they prefer (example.com/en/shorty-george.htm).

What does Google do about it?
During our crawling and when serving search results, we try hard to index and show pages with distinct information. This filtering means, for instance, that if your site has articles in "regular" and "printer" versions and neither set is blocked in robots.txt or via a noindex meta tag, we'll choose one version to list. In the rare cases in which we perceive that duplicate content may be shown with intent to manipulate our rankings and deceive our users, we'll also make appropriate adjustments in the indexing and ranking of the sites involved. However, we prefer to focus on filtering rather than ranking adjustments ... so in the vast majority of cases, the worst thing that'll befall webmasters is to see the "less desired" version of a page shown in our index.

How can Webmasters proactively address duplicate content issues?

Block appropriately: Rather than letting our algorithms determine the "best" version of a document, you may wish to help guide us to your preferred version. For instance, if you don't want us to index the printer versions of your site's articles, disallow those directories or make use of regular expressions in your robots.txt file.

Use 301s: If you have restructured your site, use 301 redirects ("RedirectPermanent") in your .htaccess file to smartly redirect users, the Googlebot, and other spiders.

Be consistent: Endeavor to keep your internal linking consistent; don't link to /page/ and /page and /page/index.htm.
Use TLDs: To help us serve the most appropriate version of a document, use top level domains whenever possible to handle country-specific content. We're more likely to know that .de indicates Germany-focused content, for instance, than /de or de.example.com.

Syndicate carefully: If you syndicate your content on other sites, make sure they include a link back to the original article on each syndicated article. Even with that, note that we'll always show the (unblocked) version we think is most appropriate for users in each given search, which may or may not be the version you'd prefer.

Use the preferred domain feature of webmaster tools: If other sites link to yours using both the www and non-www version of your URLs, you can let us know which way you prefer your site to be indexed.

Minimize boilerplate repetition: For instance, instead of including lengthy copyright text on the bottom of every page, include a very brief summary and then link to a page with more details.

Avoid publishing stubs: Users don't like seeing "empty" pages, so avoid placeholders where possible. This means not publishing (or at least blocking) pages with zero reviews, no real estate listings, etc., so users (and bots) aren't subjected to a zillion instances of "Below you'll find a superb list of all the great rental opportunities in [insert cityname]..." with no actual listings.

Understand your CMS: Make sure you're familiar with how content is displayed on your Web site, particularly if it includes a blog, a forum, or related system that often shows the same content in multiple formats.

Don't worry be happy: Don't fret too much about sites that scrape (misappropriate and republish) your content. Though annoying, it's highly unlikely that such sites can negatively impact your site's presence in Google. If you do spot a case that's particularly frustrating, you are welcome to file a DMCA request to claim ownership of the content and have us deal with the rogue site.

OnTheAvenues has been providing Search Engine Optimization services since 1998. http://ontheavenues-diy-seo.blogspot.com/ Bonnie Burns SEO Consultant

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Google Beta Testing Google Catalogs

Google Catalogs

Did you know Google is beta testing Google catalogs, where you can perform keyword searches and view (images) of pages from over 600 catalogs. http://catalogs.google.com/

I love catalogs...I actually never have to go to a store to shop thanks to catalogs and online ordering...no lines, no crowds, no hassels. Check out the below link as Google beta tests their online catalogs from major retailers. NOTE: This is not the same as Froogle

The catalogs are from many well-known retailers.
http://catalogs.google.com/

OnTheAvenues has been providing Search Engine Optimization services since 1998. http://ontheavenues-diy-seo.blogspot.com/ Bonnie Burns SEO Consultant

Google Voice Local Search

Google Voice Local Search

Google Voice Local Search is Google’s experimental service to make local-business search accessible over the phone.

Using this service, you can:
search for a local business by name or category.
You can say "Giovanni's Pizzeria" or just "pizza".
get connected to the business, free of charge.
get the details by SMS if you’re using a mobile phone.
Just say "text message".

Dial from any phone
1-800-GOOG-411
(1-800-466-4411)

And it's free. Google doesn’t charge you a thing for the call or for connecting you to the business. Regular phone charges may apply, based on your telephone service provider.

Note: Google Voice Local Search is still in its experimental stage. It may not be available at all times and may not work for all users. We’re fine-tuning the service to get better at recognizing your requests. It’s currently only available in English, in the US, for US business listings.

To find out more about getting GOOG-411 and other Google products on your mobile device, visit Google Mobile web site.

Just launched!

Picasa Web Albums New! View your photo albums on your mobile device.

YouTubeNew! Watch, upload, and share favorite videos — YouTube is available on your mobile device wherever you are.
Google offers the following services for mobile devices:

SearchSearch the web and find exactly what you're looking for no matter where you are.

MapsGet directions, satellite imagery and live traffic on draggable maps so that you can find local hangouts and businesses across town.

GmailDownload the new version of Gmail for mobile devices. The fastest way to access Gmail when you're on the go.

CalendarCheck your Google Calendar schedule from anywhere on your mobile device.

NewsStay informed of global and local events at all times by accessing top headlines and searching for articles.

SMSUse text messaging to get quick info from Google such as local listings, sports scores, weather conditions and much more.

BloggerSnap a picture, write a message and post to your blog all from your mobile device.

ReaderRead your favorite blogs and news feeds on your mobile device.
Discover some new services from Google Mobile Labs:

1-800-GOOG-411New! Use voice to find and connect with local businesses, for free.

Click here: Know more than your competitors with FREE Website Magazine

OnTheAvenues has been providing Search Engine Optimization services since 1998. http://ontheavenues-diy-seo.blogspot.com/ Bonnie Burns SEO Consultant

How to Get to the Top Of Search-Engine Results

How to Get to the Top Of Search-Engine Results

From The Wall Street Journal

A television commercial was once the biggest marketing coup for a small business. Today, getting your company listed in the first page of a search on Yahoo or Google can transform an also-ran into a front-runner.

For Baldwin/Welsh & Parker Insurance Agency in Wayland, Mass., the Web has become the firm's best source of sales leads, outside of direct referrals, because a high listing in search results attracts quality prospects.

"There's not a big downside if we're not listed high, but there's a big upside if we are," says the firm's principal, Dave D'Orlando.

Businesses can take some simple steps to improve the relevance of a Web site for search engines -- and traffic and hopefully business -- without spending lots of money on search-engine optimization.

Search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN send out spiders (also called bots or crawlers) to scour the Web and retrieve certain information from sites that is then analyzed using complex algorithms.

The spiders look for keywords that searchers tend to use, as well as how often they appear on a Web page. That is called word density, and generally you want 3% to 5% of the words (or phrases) on a page related to words people use for searching, recommends Dave Knight, manager and co-owner of dMedia LLC, a search-engine optimization and Web development agency in Park City, Utah.

If a page has 300 words, the keywords or phrases searchers would likely use should appear nine to 15 times on that page. For example, an auto-repair shop in Phoenix would add the keywords "auto," "cheap repairs," "24/7" and "Phoenix" to its home page to draw potential customers looking for low prices or late-night service.

Mr. D'Orlando focuses on selling home insurance in the town where his agency is located, so the phrase "Wayland, Massachusetts" appears in the title bar (the very top of Web browser), under the company's logo, and in the text of the firm's home page. The word "Wayland" also mentioned one more time.

"If you are looking for home insurance in Wayland, Massachusetts we would rank pretty high," says Mr. D'Orlando. The firm's site comes up second in Google's results for that search. However, those looking for home insurance who just type in "Massachusetts," will not likely find Mr. D'Orlando's site among the top results. That suits Mr. D'Orlando's strategy of specifically looking for home owners in the Wayland area.

The quantity of keywords counts as well.

"The most important thing is to make sure you have plenty of relevant content on your site," says Lynn Pilewski, owner of 1 Stop Sites, Taylors, S.C., a Web site and graphic design agency which created Mr. D'Orlando's Web site. "Be as in-depth in content as you can."

It's best to place the text in HTML code, which search-engine spiders can read, and not as Web graphics, which spiders can't read and won't boost the relevancy.

"The more pages the better, as long the content is relevant. Search engines love content," says Eric V. Melin, president of president of SpiderSplat Consulting, a search-engine marketing firm in Boston.

Also use metatags, which are hidden data written into a site's HTML that provide information about a page, such as its title and description. Spiders often rely on these metatags to index pages, notes Russell Klein, director of emerging technology research at Aberdeen Group, Boston.
A Web site's authority is determined by how many other sites link to it.

"The number one factor in most algorithms is how important or authoritative you appear to others," says Mr. Melin. "If you sell books online, you want to get as many people as possible to link to you."

The more prestigious the site linking to yours, the better. "If Amazon is linking to Joe's bookstore, Joe becomes more prominent," notes Mr. Melin. There is reflected glory when you are linked to from a well known site, and your site's importance to search engines goes up, he says.

How do you get other sites to link to yours? Respond to postings on popular blogs so they mention your Web page, recommends Aberdeen's Mr. Klein. Google, in particular, searches blogs for references to other sites, he says.

Contact Web masters of relevant sites and ask for a link-up. SpiderSplat's Mr. Melin says you should go to vendors, partners, clients, customers -- anyone you can think who has a site relevant to yours -- and arrange reciprocal links.

IFREC Real Estate Schools, Orlando, Fla. has reciprocal arrangements with about 50 real-estate brokers. Robin Shumate, vice president of business affairs, says the brokers' Web sites refer potential students to IFREC and, in return, IFREC refers students to the brokers so they know who is hiring. The school's site also is linked to from RealtyU, a national network of real-estate schools. Ms. Shumate says these links help boost IFREC to the top, or near the top, of search rankings.

She says hits on IFREC's Web site increased 37% in 2004, 39% in 2005 and are expected to increase 35% to 39% this year. While she can't quantify exactly how much of this is a result of search-engine optimization, she believes much of it is.

Another way to increase your credibility to search engines is to get mentioned in articles or have press releases related to your business distributed by news services.

"Any way that you can get as many possible Web sites in the world pointing to yours increases your chances of ranking highly," says Mr. Klein.

Higher rankings do not come immediately, no matter what you do. There may be weeks between visits by spiders to your Web site. Also, the algorithms used by the search engines are constantly changing, and that may call for some tweaking to a Web site. Experts say it may take as long as six to nine months to move near the top of a search.

Beware the search-engine consultant that promises to boost search rankings quickly. "If a company promises that you will be at a certain ranking within a certain amount of time, run from them. It's not possible," warns Ms. Pilewski. Of course, if you have a bizarre search term -- Part Number 2438, for example -- you may quickly move to the top. But, generally, it takes time and work to get to the first page of rankings.

Click here: Know more than your competitors with FREE Website Magazine

OnTheAvenues has been providing Search Engine Optimization services since 1998. http://ontheavenues-diy-seo.blogspot.com/ Bonnie Burns SEO Consultant

Google Provides Guidelines Tipa Help You Rank Higher

Google Provides Guidelines Tp Help You Rank Higher

Google just published some new and more detailed guidelines about how to rank high in their search results and not get penalized.

Google's new "Webmaster Guidelines" show you how to help Google find your site, index it and rank your site.

Google has new "Quality Guidelines," also which outline some of the illicit practices that may lead to a site being penalized or even banned completely.

Basically, Google is getting real good at detecting if anything is being done for the sole purpose of increasing search engine rankings instead of providing useful content for the user.

If you are doing something that you would not want to explain to your competitors, you are probably doing something against Google's rules and you probably won't get away with it much longer.

Take a look at the new information at the following web site. Keep in mind that some of this i nformation is a little technical, but most of it easy to understand.

Violate any of the rules or guidelines and you could be in for some big trouble.

Here is Google's website that gives their new rules and guidelines: Be sure to read them carefully.
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769

OnTheAvenues has been providing Search Engine Optimization services since 1998. http://ontheavenues-diy-seo.blogspot.com/ Bonnie Burns SEO Consultant

Free Google Business Solutions

Google Business Solutions - A MUST HAVE

Google provides many different programs that can help you with your web site development, marketing and more. be sure to take advantage of these many free programs.

Advertise on Google with AdWords
You can advertise your business on Google even if you don't have a lot to spend. Your ad appears on Google and connects you with customers when they're searching for your keywords. Learn more »

Earn revenue with AdSense
Earn more revenue from your website, while providing visitors with a more rewarding online experience. Google AdSense delivers ads that are precisely targeted to your site. Learn more »

Get listed on Google Maps
Millions of people search local listings each day; help them find you. You can even create coupons to reward customers and attract new ones. And it's free. Learn more »

Enhance your website

Checkout Accept online payments
Accept Google Checkout on your website to convert more customers and lower your transaction processing costs. Sell online and process transactions for free until the end of 2007.

Analytics Analyze website traffic
Use easy-to-understand visually enhanced reports to help you make profit-generating improvements to your website. - A MUST HAVE

Web Search and Site Search Add Google search to your site
New! Improve conversion rates by adding search to your site with Google's Custom Search Business Edition

Put your information on Google
By putting your business, product, and website information on Google, you'll make it easier for new customers to find you and your products.

Business information on Google Maps

All types of content on Google Base

Web pages with Google webmaster tools -A MUST

Videos with the Video upload program

Books with the Books partner program

OnTheAvenues has been providing Search Engine Optimization services since 1998. http://ontheavenues-diy-seo.blogspot.com/ Bonnie Burns SEO Consultant

Don't Buy AdWords, Focus On SEO

Don't Buy AdWords, Focus On SEO

Over the weekend, with the sensational headline "Search & Destroy," (article below) the New York Post wrote up the forthcoming results of an "audit" from UK-based Internet Search Metrics (also called Internet Search Management). The Post article says the audit, which is not yet released, argues that the spending on paid-search is often unjustified and that more resources should be devoted to optimization.

If the audit is simply calling for balance and arguing in favor of devoting more effort and money to optimization, that's a sober recommendation. If it concludes, rather, that paid-search advertising has little or no merit that would be a mistaken position.

On Monday eBay resumed its AdWords campaigns on a "much more limited basis." Indeed, the highly publicized temporary withdrawal of eBay's paid-search campaigns on Google may prompt other big spending advertisers to take a closer look at their dependence on AdWords.

Source: SearchEngineLand

SEARCH & DESTROY
AUDIT COULD SIPHON AD $$ FROM GOOGLE

By RICHARD WILNER and HOLLY M. SANDERS
June 24, 2007 -- Paid search ads, responsible for the barrels of cash that have fueled Google's meteoric growth, could be one of the worst-spent marketing dollars on the Internet, according to an eye-catching audit of search results to be released this week.

Most executives, with little regard to how well their companies fare in the more important natural search results - the top sites that come up after an Internet search - overspend on paid search because it is the one area of the search market they understand, said a director with London-based ISM (Internet Search Management), which will release the audits.

"Executives know the battleground for business success today is being fought on the search engine but they know very little about how well their companies are faring on natural search or if their paid search advertising dollars are well spent," said Phil Millo, an ISM director.

As a result, Millo said, companies are pouring money into paid search - with a good deal of the cash not improving their marketing muscle.

Just this month, in a spat, eBay angrily pulled all of its advertising money from Google - and saw little drop-off in traffic. The move and its results have opened a lot of eyes.

"It's gotten to the point that if they're spending $100 million a year on paid links, maybe it's time to start reassessing where it's going," said Mark Simon, of Did-it Search Marketing, a firm that helps companies with their search marketing plans.

Indeed, eBay spent some of the money they withdrew from Google with Yahoo! and other sites.

Steve Grossberg, the president of the Internet Marketers Association, which represents some of eBay's biggest sellers, said the day eBay launched a Web banner campaign on the homepage of Yahoo! was his biggest sales day of the month.

Whether other large Google advertisers - like Amazon.com, Bizrate.com and Target.com - will follow suit remains to be seen.

ISM's audits track the top 4.5 million search phrases on Google and Yahoo!, a total of 7.3 billion searches a month, to determine which companies across 50 business sectors pop up most frequently in the top three or four positions in natural search. Natural search results are based mostly on a site's traffic, relevance and how many other sites link to it.

The ISM audits, to be released in London, break down which of 50 business sectors are locked up - that is, have large chunks of natural search dominated by a handful of companies - and which are wide open.

The digital camera sector is pretty well locked up, the audit found, meaning it would be very hard to create a Web site or Internet marketing campaign that would successfully steal market share.

DPReview.com, a site with news and reviews of digital cameras, the ISM audit found, was the leader, turning up in the top three or four search results on Google and Yahoo! 73.7 percent of the time. It was purchased last month by Amazon.com, which was looking to sell more cameras.

"It's quite interesting that Amazon.com didn't look to mount an Internet marketing campaign and purchase search ads to gain market share but rather bought a company few people [had] heard of but which produced excellent natural search results," Millo noted.

Google's own research shows surfers look toward natural search over paid search by a ration of 4-to-1, Millo said.

ISM is working with Wal-Mart, Staples and Mercedes-Benz to sharpen their Internet marketing strategies.

OnTheAvenues has been providing Search Engine Optimization services since 1998.
http://ontheavenues-diy-seo.blogspot.com/
Bonnie Burns SEO Consultant

Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine

Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine

The New York Times has recently published an article about Amit Singhal. Amit Singhal is in charge of Google's ranking algorithm. The interview reveals some interesting facts about Google's ranking algorithm.

Google knows that its algorithm is not perfect

"Tweaking and quality control involve a balancing act. 'You make a change, and it affects some queries positively and others negatively,” [...] 'You can’t only launch things that are 100 percent positive.'"

"[...] Any of Google’s 10,000 employees can use its 'Buganizer' system to report a search problem, and about 100 times a day they do."

Why Google changes its algorithm

The article lists a concrete example why Google could change its algorithm:

"Recently, a search for 'French Revolution' returned too many sites about the recent French presidential election campaign — in which candidates opined on various policy revolutions — rather than the ouster of King Louis XVI.

A search-engine tweak gave more weight to pages with phrases like 'French Revolution' rather than pages that simply had both words."

If you want to get high rankings on Google, it's important to know whether you should use your keywords as a phrase or as separate words on your web pages.

This can be different for different keywords. Fortunately, there is a way to find out how you should use your keywords on your web pages (see below).

PageRank is just one of many factors

While PageRank was very important when Google was new, Google now uses many more factors to determine the rankings of web pages:

"PageRank is but one signal. Some signals are on Web pages — like words, links, images and so on. Some are drawn from the history of how pages have changed over time. Some signals are data patterns uncovered in the trillions of searches that Google has handled over the years."

There are many factors that influence the ranking of a web page on Google. If you want to get high Google rankings for your website, then you have to work on all of these factors.

How can you optimize your web pages for Google's algorithm?

Which factors are important for Google? Does your website have these factors?

You don't have access to Google's internal tools. How can you find out whether it is better to have the words "French revolution" as a phrase on your web pages or if you should use both words separately (see example above)? Which other factors are important for high Google rankings?

That's why we provide all ouyr clients with a web site analysis. OnTheAvenues demystifies Google's ranking algorithm by analyzing your web site for Google and tells you in plain English which factors lead to top Google rankings.

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Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine

Source: New York Times SAUL HANSELL
THESE days, Google seems to be doing everything, everywhere. It takes pictures of your house from outer space, copies rare Sanskrit