ProBlogger: URL Be Sorry! Google Cuts Back on Top-ranking Exact-match Domains

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URL Be Sorry! Google Cuts Back on Top-ranking Exact-match Domains Posted: 22 Dec 2012 06:09 AM PST This guest post is by Rob Henry of K2L Marketing. Regular Google users will know that one of the easiest ways to get a good ranking in its search results is for your web address to exactly match the search query. Get it spot-on and, until recently, you’ve been almost assured of a position close to the top, and often in the number-one slot on page one of the SERPs. But Google’s continuing mission to put right what once went wrong in their algorithms is now targeting what Matt Cutts calls “low-quality ‘exact-match’ domains”. This adds to the work done by the Panda update, which filtered out poor-quality web pages, and Penguin, which tackled spammy pages. According to a Cutts’ tweet on September 28th, 0.6% of English-US queries will be noticeably affected. This might not sound like many searches in the grand scheme of things. However, the latest comScore figures show that Google sites were responsible for 11.3 billion individual search queries in the US alone in August 2012, meaning that 0.6% of queries amounts to almost 68 million searches per month. What they said Cutts’ full announcement of this update on Twitter read as follows: “Minor weather report: small upcoming Google algo change will reduce low-quality ‘exact-match’ domains in search results… New exact-match domain (EMD) algo affects 0.6% of English-US queries to a noticeable degree. Unrelated to Panda/Penguin.” The immediate response was positive, with one Twitter user simply replying with “Yippeeee!,” and another joking “I suspect that won’t be a ‘minor’ weather report to the vast majority of affiliate marketers.” Moving on from EMDs So just what does this mean for online marketing and SEO? Well, it goes considerably further than simply meaning that EMDs won’t be so prevalent in the search results, because it opens up that top spot to other websites that are able to compete using the remaining “acceptable” methods of SEO not yet targeted for penalisation by Google. There are as many webmasters out there who are frustrated by always ranking second to an EMD as there are site owners who will be negatively affected by this change. So it’s the perfect opportunity for us to re-optimize any of our pages that could use a bit of attention. Poor quality content is already a no-no, as are paid links or those created by spamming blog comments and discussion forums. Now EMDs are out too. So renew your focus on legitimate PPC platforms and the remaining on-page SEO opportunities. Where to focus for better position Good-quality content will always be favoured by Google, and they’ve never stopped saying that well-placed on-page keywords are a good thing, as long as they don’t damage the overall quality and grammar of the page they’re placed on. Look to your best-performing pages for inspiration, and you can’t go wrong: you’re likely to find a strong structure with keywords and phrases repeated a couple of times in appropriate places on the page, possibly helped further by your choice of anchor text for hyperlinks on the page, text used in image captions, and so on. With these Google-approved locations for keywords, you can make sure your pages are viewed in the best possible light by the search robots, even if they’re hosted on an EMD. Hopefully, you’ll be able to snag yourself that top spot in the search results once the dust settles. This blog was written by Rob Henry, marketing specialist at K2L. K2L Marketing is a full service marketing agency offering a unique approach to your marketing needs. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger URL Be Sorry! Google Cuts Back on Top-ranking Exact-match Domains

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ProBlogger: Looking to 2013: A Commitment to Blogging Smarter … With a Little Help

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Looking to 2013: A Commitment to Blogging Smarter … With a Little Help Posted: 21 Dec 2012 06:07 AM PST Feeling a little run down? At this time of year, many of us are. It’s been a big 12 months, and I think most bloggers are looking forward to some down time over the coming weeks. If you’re like me, you might be thinking of using this time not just to recharge the batteries, but to give a little thought to the year ahead, and how you want to handle it. Perhaps you’ll make some blogging resolutions for the new year, in addition to those resolutions you might be making in other areas of your life. Blogging resolution: work smarter … with a little help If there’s one resolution I could encourage any blogger to make for 2013, it’s to work smarter. There’s always more to do on a blog—the work never ends!—and as many readers mentioned on our recent post about social media mistakes, time is a critical issue. Working longer hours can’t be the solution. For me, one of the keys to working smarter has been delegation. I’ve got help with blogging, which has given me more time to focus on the things that really need my attention. Looking back, I’m sorry I didn’t delegate more earlier in my blogging career. You don’t have to be on a five- or six-figure income to make the most of someone else’s expertise, and give your blog a boost. Nor does it have to be a long-term arrangement. Over the last few months, we’ve published a few guides to outsourcing different functions on your site. If you haven’t seen them already, have a look. They might just give you some food for thought over the holiday period. Working with WordPress contractors How to choose the right WordPress contractor for your blog, by John Bonello. If you’re on WordPress, and your blog’s not performing at the level you’d like, it might be time to call in the pros. A good WordPress expert will be able to implement new designs, apply plugins and patches, take care of your backups, and more. For those who aren’t technical, getting a WordPress contractor to do piecemeal work—or look after your blog on a continuing basis—could be a good way to go. This post is also worth reading if you have a blog on another platform, as it’ll help you assess any blog platform developer you’re considering working with. Working with other techies How to work with technical contractors, by Neil Matthews. Whatever your blog needs, it seems there’s a developer for every occasion! In this post, you’ll learn what’s needed to find a good developer to implement all kinds of changes on your blog, including things like: adding forums, communities, gamification, social integration, and so on customised backend features that give your blog a competitive advantage or point of difference online store and shopping cart integration specialized tracking or research migration of blogs, mailing lists, etc. security and privacy-related work to protect your blog’s and your customers’ details. Most of us need help with these kinds of tasks—especially if we’re going to apply them to to our blogs with some degree of depth and reliability. A pro developer may well be the answer. Working with designers How to work with designers to design your blog, by Rob Cubbon. Plenty of blogs use off-the-shelf themes, but those that stand out usually entail some kind of customization, or perhaps have their own unique design. Of course, you don’t need to be undertaking a complete redesign of your blog to be able to use the expertise of a quality designer. They can also help you with: campaign- or launch-related communications designing the visuals for products, like the cover of an ebook, or an eye-catching branded intro for your video series designing newsletters, ads and other communications like infographics that you’re hoping will go viral illustrating your posts, and more. …and the rest Over the last year, we’ve published a few other posts in this area, which I’ve listed here: How to outsource your blog, or part of it: a general guide to outsourcing by Georgina Fiverr outsourcing tips for bloggers: a realistic guide to shoestring outsourcing by Rhys Wynne How to hire writers for your blog: my recent post on my own experience outsourcing writing tasks. Making it pay Outsourcing aspects of your blogging—even as one-off projects—can be expensive. While the resources above should help you avoid being ripped off, many bloggers will be asking how they can justify the expense in the first place? I think the answer to that question is to adopt the mindset that the work you outsource will need to pay for itself somehow. That might mean you set a conversion goal for the new online store you’re having developed. Or it might mean that you spend the time you’re not having to dedicate to redesigning your site on creating and launching a new product, or boosting conversions through your email subscriber list. Whatever you outsource, plan to recoup the costs through the time that’s freed up. Make either the work itself, or the extra time you have, pay for the outsourcing fees. Put a monetary goal on your work, and a timeframe by which you want to have recouped the cost. This is a great way to make sure you’re not just throwing money at your blog—instead, you’ll be investing it, and you’ll be able to track your return on that investment over time. How does that sound for a new year’s blogging resolution? And what others do you have in mind? Let us know in the comments. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Looking to 2013: A Commitment to Blogging Smarter … With a Little Help

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