Google Everflux – Dancing Days Are Here Again
Everyone is talking about the new buzzword of the year “The Google Everflux”. What is it? Google used to roll out updates to their index slowly, over a week or so, which would cause many webmasters heartburn. This phenomenon was coined “The Google Dance” by the SEO pundits out there. The index was in flux, updating the SERP’s seemingly at random.
That is now replaced by what seams to be DAILY UPDATES! Google’s index is changing constantly now, causing many of us to need daily reporting on search engine placement. It’s almost as if Google got some steroids from BALCO and injected Googlebot with them.
How To Take Advantage Of Google Everflux
With Googlebot speeding around the Internet and indexing faster than ever, what is a webmaster to do? The answer is in Web 2.0 applications that provide your site with fresh and unique content on a daily basis. Of course having the systems in place are only the first step. You have to write all that content, and that can be quite a challenge to site owners that don’t have writing skills.
If you don’t have a blog attached to your website… GET ONE NOW.
If you have a small website, say under 25 pages, that is static, convert it to a WordPress system. If you don’t know how to do this yourself, give Get Found Now a call at 813-907-7688.
Google Page Rank Updates Toolbar
Filed under: Google Updates, Search Engine Optimization
Last month Google updated Page Rank on sites throughout the Internet. On Matt Cutt’s blog he stated that Google is updating the Toolbar Page Rank. The question is how does the update reflect search engine rankings and is the update valid with all types of Page Rank, or is it just as related to the Google Toolbar?
There are a few tools that webmasters can use to track their Page Rank other than the Google Toolbar. I personally prefer the FireFox extension: SEO For FireFox Extension by SEO Book. Not only does it have important info like PR and Google cache date, but also everything from compete.com rankings to Yahoo backlinks. There are also services out there that will tell you what your Page Rank is and even allow you to put an icon on your site showing off your page rank. The problem with them is that they also get their information from the same source which is the toolbar.
Even if you set up an API or a PHP script that pulls info from Google’s servers it is still calling the results from the toolbar so we have no way of knowing if the Page Rank was only updated for the toolbar or has Google updated the Page Rank where it really matters – in their index? Is this something that you really need to care about? To answer these questions we first need to look at Page Rank, what it is and how it works.
Page Rank Explained
Page Rank is a Google proprietary and patented algorythm that is based upon a pages inbound link count. It not only counts links, but gives those links credit based upon the Page Rank of the linking page, how many other links are on the page and the overall authority of the domain. Now I am sure I am going to get a bunch of negative comments from experts that will say, the domain doesn’t factor in Page Rank. Well anybody that thinks that is an idiot. The domain, length of time at the existing IP, amount of time the domain has been purchased and other factors absolutely factor into Page Rank on both sides of the equation. Both the destination page and the link originating page factor into the overall rank of the page. How this relates to a pages rankings in the index is another matter altogether.
Page Rank itself is used as a guideline by many webmasters as link value for link exchanges, popularity of a page in the search engines and importance of certain keywords to the overall domain. By using the backlinks feature of the Page Rank in the Google Toolbar you can see the links coming into a page of any site. This is a huge value when doing a competitive analysis.
Page Rank Updates On Internal Pages or Posts
The updates on internal pages as opposed to the overall domain are a lot more frequent these days. I did notice that several of my newer systems did get Page Rank, but none of my existing sites (older than 3 moths) had updates on the domain, just on internal pages. All WordPress systems have Page Rank on articles up to July which is pretty damn good. I think I prefer them updating internal pages often more than the domain since all my WordPress systems have a continuous flow of content.
As long as you keep the content flowing, you will get higher Page Rank eventually. I have noted that there are plenty of sites out there that have placement, but no Page Rank. I also noted that there were quite a few sites that lost Page Rank. In fact about half of all the sites bidding on Pay Per Post no longer have Page Rank. My research is limited to technology blogs, but they were pretty much across the board stripped of their Page Rank!
Page Rank Updates At The Domain Level
Did domains get updated as well as internal pages? They used to, but I am seeing more internal updates than domain level updates. There are some sites within my network that are less than 2 months old that have scored Page Rank. In fact if you look at SEO By You, you will be surprised to see that this site which is just an empty WordPress site has a 2 PR! Yep not one lick of content except for the Hello World crap that comes with the system. What does that tell us?
Page Rank Does Not Matter!
Google Updates Page Rank and Webmaster Center 1-29-08
The new year has started out with both Yahoo and Google making some significant changes to their indexes. 2007 ended with the normal year-end Google Dance and the SERP’s shuffling that we have all come to look forward to every holiday season. 2008 is starting out with some positives at least.
Google Page Rank Update January 2008
Last Thursday (1-24-08) saw a minor change in Page Rank for many sites. While domain level Page Rank remained the same on the 70 or so sites that I monitor daily, many of the internal Page Rank on pages changed, or was added. I have noticed that pages and especially blog posts that were created up to November 17th now have Page Rank.
I have a feeling that this is a new plan for Google, that they are going to be quicker about assigning Page Rank to internal pages than they have been in the past. In the Google Webmaster Center under Statistics > Crawl Stats you can see what your average Page Rank is, as well as Page Rank that has yet to be assigned:
The Page Rank not yet assigned was pretty much blank for all the sites that I noticed had gotten Page Rank updates on their pages. This is a good sign that Google is getting quicker with the PR updates. Usually the interior pages are updated along with the domains every 4 months or so. If they are doing them separately now, that will be good for Webmasters who rely on Page Rank to set the price for advertising on their sites.
Google Webmaster Center Gives You Control Over Site Links
When you do a search for a company or website, Google will put up what it feels are the most relevant in-site links. They have no given us a smattering of control over these Sitelinks.
In the Webmaster Center you can now block URL’s that you might not want to appear in the SERP’s. Under the Links tab there is now an option for Sitelinks:
Google explains Sitelinks as:
Sitelinks are additional links Google sometimes generates from site contents in order to help users navigate your site. Google generates these sitelinks periodically from your site’s contents.
Because we generate sitelinks dynamically, this list can change from time to time.
This is good news for sites that have pages they don’t want to appear in the SERP’s for a company search. I don’t know how comfortable I feel about having Google “block” anything, but you never know. The fact that they are working with us to give us more control over our sites and how they appear in Google, is a good sign.
Google Webmaster Center Adds Content Analysis and Sitemap Details
Google has added some great new features to their Webmaster Center. If you don’t use Google’s Webmaster Center and you care about your search engine placement, then you are missing the boat. For a detailed look at Google’s Webmaster Center read my post “Google Webmaster Center Updates ” from September 07.
Google actually is now pointing out things about your site that it doesn’t like. You can probably assume that these would be the same things that Yahoo and ASK don’t like about your site as well. I think it is mighty nice of Google to take the time to actually help us improve our rankings rather then taking away marketing tools like text ads!
Google Webmaster Center Content Analysis Tool
The new tool can be found in the Diagnostics part of the Webmaster Center. The graphic below will show you the main parts of their Webmaster Center:
The Content analysis shows you three things that you need to know about your site:
- Meta Title – how is your title tag? Is it too long, too short, make sense? These questions and many more are answered for you by Google.
- Non-Index-able Content – this is pretty cool as it will point out to you the stuff on your site that Google can’t spider. Things like flash or script-laden pages, also images that have no “alt” tags. This is important now that everyone is using video. Google also has a new Video Sitemap that you can use to properly index your video content.
- Meta Tag Issues – this tool focuses on the meta description which is very important for you to be able to control the description that appears for your pages within Google’s SERP’s.
The graphic below shows an example of what the Title tag and Meta Descriptions look like:
By using these tools you won’t automatically jump to the top of the ranks, but they will help you get your site tuned up and as good as it can be in the eyes of Googlebot. The graphic below gives you a look at the non-index-able content section.
I highly recommend to all webmasters that they take advantage of these and all the powerful tools that Google is giving you.
Google Webmaster Center Sitemap Details
I surely hope that all of you avail yourselves of XML sitemaps. XML is probably the most significant programming language to a webmaster that wants search engine placement. Both XML sitemaps and XML-RPC are a gateway to higher rankings, especially within Google. Read my post Search Engine Optimization and Social Network Marketing for more info on these tools.
Google’s Webmaster Center was initially built for site owners and optimizers to submit XML Sitemaps. It is great that they are continuing to add more and more tools to help us out, and the new Sitemap Details is a nice add-on. Below is a snap-shot of the Sitemap Details section:
While it is true that the URL’s submitted in your Sitemap don’t necessarily reflect all the URL’s that are in Google’s index, it is better than doing a site: search.
Google also added a couple of new languages for those of you that don’t like English. I got the graphics from Google’s Webmaster Central Blog.
Google Webmaster Center Updates
If you are using the Google Webmaster Center then you have seen some changes recently to both the interface and the features. A lot of industry people were expecting a Google update to Page Rank a couple of weeks ago. I believe they are waiting to update PR until they have finished rolling out the latest Webmaster Center upgrades as well as their latest Universal Search updates.
If you follow the Web 2.0 and Search Engine Optimization philosophy than this should get you excited. Both Universal Search and the addition of RSS subscriber tracking to the Webmaster Center are steps in the right direction for Google and could truly benefit Social Network Marketing SEO.
How Google’s Webmaster Center Updates Can Help Your Site’s Placement
Before we get started, if you are unsure of what we are talking about below are some earlier posts that explain why all this is important.
- The Changing Face Of Google – Universal Search is explained in this article.
- Search Engine Optimization and Social Network Marketing - SEO and Web 2.0 Optimized social network marketing is covered in this post.
- RSS Real Simple Syndication Explained - RSS syndication is explained here.
- RSS Syndication Services FeedBurner – this post explained how FeedBurner works. It was written prior to Google’s purchase of FeedBurner which is talked about in my Web 2.0 Podcast. Also of note is the updated post about FeedBurner RSS to Email service.
If you are not using Google’s Webmaster Center you aren’t getting the most out of your site. If you are than you have an edge over your competitors and have a ton of useful information about how GoogleBot spiders your site. Tomorrow I will be posting a video tutorial that will be a visual guide on how to get going with Google’s Webmaster Center.
Changes To Google’s Webmaster Center
The first thing you will notice is the look of the center is different. The dashboard is basically the same giving you a quick glance at vital stats about your site including errors or any crawl issues your site might have. The first major change is the new navigation element at the left. Below is a shot of the new nav:
As you can see there is now a blue box with your main page choices. The page that you are on is highlighted a deep blue. As you navigate around the different main sections, each one has subcategories on the left in the nav, as well as links and short descriptions in the body of the page.
The choices are Diagnostics which give you the option of looking at the crawl stats for either a normal web crawl or a mobile web crawl. If your site isn’t set up for viewing over a mobile phone then all you need be concerned with is the web crawl.
The next section Statistics has some of the most important info within the Webmaster Center. The next figure shows the options you will see when on the Statistics main page.
The best part of the statistics is the Page Rank meter which is under Crawl Stats:
The most important part of this is the Page Rank Yet To be Assigned. The longer your bar, the better. Right before this blog obtained its PR, the Page Rank Yet To be Assigned was about half way. Once the Page Rank update came a few months back, my blog had gotten a 3 PR up to all the pages and posts up to 1 week prior to the update. I was happy to see the blog got the same PR that my site was awarded. Even though this domain is 6 years old, the site is less than a year old and is doing pretty good considering.The moral of this is, the higher your Page Rank Yet To Be Assigned your site is, the better you are going to do in the next update.The next upgrade is very cool. They added a link to your subscriber stats. This shows how many RSS subscribers you have through Google. Now before you get too excited, they have a few issues that will need to be resolved. Right now they are pulling the feed location out of the auto discovery RSS header if you haven’t added an RSS feed as a sitemap. OK so what is the big deal? If you are like me you are using FeedBurner to manage your feeds. Even with feed control plugins such as Feed Locations or FeedBurner’s Feed Smith, the self discovery will show the default www.blog/feed location that is default in WordPress as opposed to the feedburner.com feed that users will actually subscribe to.
Another problem is you can’t add a feed that isn’t in your domain to the sitemap section of the Webmaster Center. This means you can’t add the FeedBurner URL. I have asked them to make an exception for FeedBurner and I believe their response will be favorable since they no own FeedBurner. There is a big difference between the 16 Google subscribers and the 150 FeedBurner subscribers I actually have. And this isn’t showing the hundreds of RSS to Email subscribers that I have through FeedBlitz. On the bright side, FeedBurner is now giving me credit for those FeedBlitz RSS to Email subscribers in my control panel, but that has yet to show up in my overall subscribers number in their analytics.
The next section is also very important. Links can give you a very clear picture of how many inbound links Google is giving your site credit for.
It will show you all the pages on your site that has inbound links and give you a number of how many inbounds each page has. You can click on the link and it will show you what sites are linking to you, at least in the eyes of GoogleBot. Below is a shot of that feature in action:
A great upgrade would be to eliminate internal links from your own site. Google will count links from your own site if you use Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) linking structure like I do. That means that your internal links are not relative i.e.
(a href=”/contactus.html” mce_href=”/contactus.html” )Contact Us(/a) this is a relative link
(a href=”http: //w w w.website.com/contactus.html”)Contact Us(/a) this is a FQDN link.
Other than SEO, FQDN linking can protect your site from being stolen in its entirety by scrapers. If you have all relative links someone can rip your whole site and put it up on their domain in 5 seconds!
By using Google’s link tool, you can see if your reciprocal link partners have kept your link on their site. It is also a great way to see if your purchased links are showing up. If you are unsure about the different types of inbound links there are, read my post on Linking Strategies: How To Get Inbound Links. I know there are a lot of people who are against paid links, but if the site and content are relevant, then it is just another form of advertising. I am totally opposed to paid linking that puts links on sites that have nothing to do with the content on either site.
Along with external or inbound links, Google also shows you your internal linking structure. This is useful to see how often certain areas of your site is crawled. They give you the date the link was last spidered which can indicate how important certain pages of your site are to Google. With more emphasis being put on Universal Search having fresh content is more important than ever. If you haven’t added a blog or other types of news type content management to your site, now is the time. If you are unsure how to get going with Web 2.0 and Social Network Marketing visit our Managed Content Syndication Services page and find out how we can get the ball rolling and take your Internet Presence to another level!
The next section of the Webmaster Center is for Sitemaps. These are XML sitemaps that tell Google about your site. If you don’t have an XML sitemap you better get one quick! WordPress has a plugin that will create one, but if you have a non-blog website I recommend that you use Sitemap Writer Pro, go ahead and use my discount code and save some $$$, enter this code when you buy it: MS130807EN and save 30%. It’s a great tool and it is the only sitemap writer program that can crawl a dynamic site with over 10,000 URL’s and NOT crash.
The final section of the new Google Webmaster Center is Tools. I could write a whole post just about how to use the tools section, but I am going to focus only on what is different. The best change is more information about your site’s robots.txt file. The link above is geared towards WordPress robots.txt, but also talks about regular robots files and links to my other posts about it. This tool is good to see the exact time that Google crawls your site. This can give you a heads up when last minute changes are needed. The first thing a spider does is scan your server site header then look at the robots.txt. It is so important to have duplicate content and private areas of your site disallowed. Any server action that can put a spider into a loop, like a cgi-bin application for a shopping cart, will force the search engine spider to leave your site!
Some other new goodies in the Tools section are the enhanced images section and remove URL’s. I don’t have a lot of info on the enhanced images section, but will be delving into it as I build and optimize my wife’s new Art site. She is starting a company called Original Oils Only which is about collecting art. It will need a lot of images that we are going to want spidered and indexed so I will keep you all updated on how the enhanced images can benefit your search engine placement.
The remove URL’s is a huge new feature. Yahoo’s Site Explorer released a similar tool months ago which is very good for getting URL’s out of the index that have either been eliminated, redirected or are leftovers from an older site. By using the web crawl diagnostics to see what problems the spiders have when crawling your site, you can now do something about it and request that they are removed. Obviously this can be very dangerous, so read everything carefully and pay attention to what you are doing. Last month I noticed that Google had made changes to its verification process, tightening up security on your site’s verification process. It would be very bad if a hacker or one of your competitors was able to remove URL’s off of your site.
The other features within tools have been around since the beginning and will be covered in my Google Webmaster Center video tutorial I will be releasing soon. As always leave a comment or question below and I will get back to you as soon as humanly possible!