Tag Archives: SEO
Kicked Out from Google and Importance of Analytics
I just started WisdomTalks.com 2 months before, used wordpress as blogging platform. Installed some nice plugins that help in SEO, and started blogging. Within few days, i started getting traffic from different sources, major part of which was coming on Google.
I was regularly checking reports and on some keywords, WisdomTalks was on Top. That’s great. Everything was moving fine. I was adding posts every week and giving some attention to link building. Traffic was Avg 20-30 per day and i was estimating that it will be hundred in next 2 months.
I added a new post Jewish Vs Muslims – A Comparison of Knowledge and Population and next day it was on top of search in Google for keyword “Jewish Vs Muslims”.
Here are the stats of 11th Jan 2009.
Clearly showing almost 32% traffic is coming from Search Engines (Only Google), 37% are referring sites like digg.com or Yahoo Buzz and 32% are the returning visitors or people who have bookmarked my site. these Stats were almost same for last 10 days without any big change.
Now see what happened with 12th Jan Stats:
Where my search engine traffic gone? I checked Google for Keywords that were performing well, and found they are no more performing for me. I checked Total Index Pages and fr my utmost surprise, None of the Posts from WisdomTalks.com was indexed any more. What happened in one night? I went to Google Web Master Forum and tried to find answer. There is a Reconsideration Request Form which was telling following guidelines.
Tell us more about what happened: what actions might have led to any penalties, and what corrective actions have been taken. If you used a search engine optimization (SEO) company, please note that. Describing the SEO firm and their actions is a helpful indication of good faith that may assist in evaluation of reconsideration requests. If you recently acquired this domain and think it may have violated the guidelines before you owned it, let us know that below. In general, sites that directly profit from traffic (e.g. search engine optimizers, affiliate programs, etc.) may need to provide more evidence of good faith before a site will be reconsidered.
So i started thinking what i did yesterday which lead to this kickout from google?
- I have not outsourced my SEO work to any firm that can use Black Hat SEO
- In last two days, i have not done any special SEO work. Only think i did was updation of Google Site Map. Ofcourse that can not be the reason of this action from Google.
- I have newly registered this domain, so no chance that it is being used for some illegal act earlier.
- I am not using this site for profit.
Then what happened? This last point let me remember that a day before in installed Google Adsense and Chitika after reading a Blog (I don’t remember exactly which one), in which Blogger was telling how he earned 5 figured income online using Chitika and other advertisement methods. Greedy me. I quickly registered with Chitika and installed their script in my blog.
Now if this was the reason? I had no clues, so i removed Chitika code from me posts to see the results. And very next day, results were totally changed.
These are the stats of 14th Jan. Search Engine Traffic increased again. So it means Google respond my effort positively.
Conclusion:
- Never use unauthorized scripts. (I don’t know Chitika has some conflicts with google)
- Must check your Web Statistics regularly. And if you find any irregularity, must respond to that quickly.
- Google is fast to respond changes in your site, specially if your site is marked with their crawler to visit daily.
- Must follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines and don’t use any SEO technique which is considered as illegal by Google.
- Only hire reputed SEO firms. As armatures can badly hurt your long term ranking. There are some methods which make you higher on Google for some time, like Keyword stuffing, Cloaking, Doorway pages, etc, but in the log term badly hurt your rank and even can kick you out from Google Index.
Website Development – Six Reasons to avoid Flash
Recently one of my reader commented on my Post Web Standards and described how some Company in his 
knowledge suffered due to fully Flash Website.
Flash is a great interactive tool and really has changed Web Contents but in my view, it is not a good choice for most commercial web sites. Its great to use Flash as part of website, but in no way a prudent choice for full website. Flash being a proprietary technology breaks most web standards and conventions.
Here are six reasons, why we should avoid to use Flash.
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Problems:
Although recently Google has announced that with collaboration of Adobe, now they are able to read through Flash contents but still Information embedded in Flash is often invisible to many other large search engines like MSN.
Search engines scan information on a web site, process and retrieving the best match for each user query. Robots (Small Software, used by Search Engines to scan a website) usually cannot process text embedded in Flash and graphic files. Sites designed completely in Flash often offer very little textual information completely ignoring different type of SEO Basics and fully contravene with most of rules given in Google Web Master Guide.
Tip: From SEO point of view, don’t use fancy flash buttons and navigation bars. Search engines track and love text links.
2. Statistics; An Important feature of Today’s Web; is missing
Web Statistics helps to evaluate website success and provide important information about visitor’s behavior, that help professional Web Developers, Designers and Marketer to come with more better and user oriented web solutions.
Some of important questions, web statistics answers are: Visitors came from, the pages visited and from where visitors left a site. Web Statistics are able to track when a Flash object, typically a swf file, is viewed. They are not able to track navigation within a Flash object – so if a site is composed of one Flash object which contains multiple site sections, the web analytic system will see a swf download, but will have no idea which parts of the site a visitor viewed nor where the visitor left the site.
3. Flash breaks web usability standards
Flash Breaks some of most important Web Usability Standards. Few examples are:
- Browser Back Button do not work.
- You cannot copy-paste important information like contact information.
- Important Accessibility Features of browsers like Zoom In, Zoom our and Font Size change are not available.
- You can’t book mark some page form site for future review. (As Flash Site has only one page as per Browser Eye)
4. Lack of consistent cross platform support
One of the keystones of the web is that a website should work in any browser on any computer – it is openness and standardization which has made the Internet universal. Flash breaks the basic tenets of website design. While most Internet users have Flash installed – they don’t necessarily have the right version installed. Indeed version 8 wasn’t even released for the Linux platform, locking those users out of sites developed for Flash 8 and 9 (Flash 9 for Linux has finally been released, months after the Windows version).
5. Some users disable Flash to avoid flash based advertising.
Savvier web users have learned to disable Flash in web pages to avoid animated advertising and / or to improve page-loading times on dial-up connections.
6. Website updates continually require Flash skills
Although now Flash based photo galleries and some other content management features are available but either that higly expensive or have limited features. Usually for sites developed in flash need high level flash skills for updation.
Seven Effective Website Copy Writing Tips
Copy writing is most important part for any website success. Compelling Contents make your visitors stay at your site longer, other sites and blogs to link you and search engines to rank you high. Here are some tips that can help to write compelling website contents.
1. Keywords
Run your imagination and think, what people will search on Google or Yahoo to reach you? Make a list of such Keywords before starting writing for your website. Be Innovative with usage of words and phrases, and even if you are not much, don’t worry. There are some great resources available to help you.
- Keyword Research Tools
There are many paid and Free Keyword Research Tools available. They usually have database of “What People Search Online”. In this type of tools you simply enter one Keyword or phrase, and it shows you best 10 or best 100 most searched related keywords.
- Keywords Finder Tools
Use these tools to find what Keywords your Competitors site has. Simply enter your competitor website, and it will tell you which are the most searched keywords it has.
OK so now you have a list of related Keywords. This List will help you in two ways. One help you in writing (If you have lack of words like me), and second get best results on Search Engines.
SeoBook.com has prepared an excellent list of Free Keyword Tools.
Remember, Keyword Suggestion tools only provide suggestions. Finally you have to choose best related Keywords and phrases to your Website.
2. No Duplicates
Don’t use Duplicate Sentences and specially paragraphs. Google hate duplicate contents and can penalize you with Negative Ranking. Even if you have to describe same thing twice, try to use sentences with different formation. Use Microsoft word or some other dictionary to find synonymous words.
3. Be Descriptive
No Information No Sales. Yes, if you want to sell, educate your customer. And definitely, to educate customer be descriptive. And of-course you will remember my first suggestion of using good keywords and phrases. So you hunt two dears with one arrow. You get more sales and better rank in search engines. Search Engines love contents.
4. Don’t forget Objectives of your site
Your Sentences and words selection should help you to meet your site objectives. If you are selling online or want an action from visitor, use action words and phrases like “Do Now” or “Act Now”. Arrange your contents in a way that compel visitors to take action. Tell user why should he buy or fill a form. Show the value. Visitors should know exactly, from where they can get desired information.
5. Target Audience
This is about accessibility of your site. If your audience is highly educated people, you can use complex sentence formation. Small and easier sentences are always better, as more and more people able to understand easily what you want to tell.
6. Be Natural, Be correct
Write as humans write. Don’t stuff your page with Keywords only. Let the reader feel that site contents are for them not for someone coming from space. Write correct sentences and check spellings twice. Remember we are writing these contents for visitors. Just getting traffic is one part of success. Getting returning visitors and meeting the objectives of site is the actual success.
7. Give Attention to Different Parts of Site
Give special Attention to Title, Page Opening, Headings, Links to other pages and Action Phrases. Use your main Keywords while maintaining readability.
