Likely be a huge inconvenience to many loyal users, but it is for a good cause. But for those who cannot live without Wikipedia even for a day, here is how you can use it courtesy of a friendly search engine, Google.

Here’s how.
1. Do a normal search on google, for instance, Puerto Rico
2. On Google’s search result page, find the wikipedia link, click it.. you will get a black screen
3. Hit the back button to take you back to Google’s search results page, then copy the URL as you see on google, in this case.. “en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico”
4. Still on Google, on the space above, type cache: and then paste the copied URL, it would appear as cache:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico.. then hit enter
5. You will now see that Wikipedia page on Puerto Rico, courtesy of Google

If you thought this was cool, please tweet, share, send to others who can’t wait to for Wikipedia to get back online.

But is getting a blog indexed on Google really that hard? To be honest, it really isn’t. Google is a lot faster today than it was last year or two years back.

Last night I launched a new blog on a new domain that I also registered yesterday. It is a WordPress powered blog and all I did was set it up and add one post. I also made sure to strip away the default post (hello world) that comes with a new WordPress install, and removed the About page and the links it had on it. So what did I do to get it indexed on Google.. in just an hour?

Here are the steps I took.

• Installed WordPress
• Removed default post, about page and links
• Changed permalink structure from default to %postname%
• Added plugins; SEO for WordPress plugin by Yoast, TweetMeme Twitter, Facebook Share button, activated them
• Added proper title and description to the blog
• Published first post
• Added Google Analytics and set it up on Webmaster Tools
• Launched sitemap, a feature built in to the SEO for WordPress plugin, made sure to check ping all four search engines option
• Bookmarked the main page URL on Delicious, Reddit.. pinged the new pages that were created in the process
• Submitted the feed to Zimbio, and checked if the new post also got published on Zimbio
• Tweeted the URL using a relatively new Twitter account with 3 followers, but used 3 hashtags that related to the topic

After all that, and an hour later the site was already indexed on Google.

So it really is very easy to get a new blog indexed on Google. But here’s the added bonus which I had not anticipated to happen so soon, it now is ranked on the 9th page of Google for its exact phrase in the domain. The domain is actually a two word phrase for a specific service, and for security reasons and to ensure that my traffic data does not get skewed by people visiting it, I cannot reveal the domain name. It is ranking without any significant link building, and I am confident with a few more good links and some time, this blog will be on the first page of Google in a few weeks to a month. Of course I speak confidently because I have done this many times before.

Just follow the steps above and you fill find your blogs getting indexed quickly on Google, and you are going to be a step closer to ranking for your target keywords and more importantly increasing your chance of getting more people finding and reading your blog.

I have been asked about this a couple of times and if you have not read the stories; you can simply Google them, the answers are all there.

The JC Penney incident is a clear case of acquiring a massive amount of links on low value pages. There can be many interpretations of what love value pages are but in my own words, these are pages that have nothing to do with the pages they link to, and likely offer very little information and are of very little value and usefulness to human visitors, if at all human visitors do find those pages. The truth is, a lot don’t. They are merely meant for Google’s bots to crawl and find.

The Overtsock case is also another example of a site getting a good number of links but this time, a lot of them coming from a .edu site, which are said to be more valuable in worth. Not only that, Overstock was actively soliciting for those links by offering discounts to those who did link to them. In the former example with JC Penney, they were simply buying the links. Either way, both companies were clearly actively involved in acquiring links that would benefit their rankings on Google.

Google does not want its system manipulated as it strives to deliver to its users the most accurate and deserving results. Both cases are examples of active manipulation or involvement in the link building process for the purpose of improving rankings.

So if you are actively involved in spurring our link growth or managing it, should you be worried? I say, NO.We need to be actively proactive when it comes to getting links and how people link to us.. but staying within certain limits.

You want your products, services, offers, and content to be found and it will not get found if you do not manage the process of acquiring links. So to be on the safe side here are some tips.

1. Quality always over quantity. The best links are always those that are found on good quality pages, that offer value to readers, related to the content being linked to, that get visitors and best of all that have visitors that click through those links over to the pages that get linked to.
2. If you find sites that have linked to you and you believe they could use better phrases to use as anchor text, contact them, thank them, then ask if they would not mind changing the link to the proper text to use. Optionally you can offer something of value in return.
3. When buying links.. yes it is not bad to buy links or pay for ads.. this is a good way of getting traffic to your site. But you need to ensure that the links are “nofollow-ed” so that they do not pass over attribution to the page being linked to, thus affecting how Google would rank that page.

To do well on its search results page, don’t game Google.. just work with it!

Google’s goal is to quickly deliver what their uses are trying to find, by automatically filling up or completing the search phrase being typed, at the same time displaying other related keywords below.. while displaying organic search results and PPC results based on the auto-completed phrase that appears in the search box.

How Does Google Instant Work?

• search engine user starts typing a keyword in the Google search box
• search results and PPC results change as user completes typing a search phrase but the results being instantly displayed are for the phrase that Google auto-completes
• as a search engine user types a search phrase, Google guesses and auto completes what the user is typing and the organic results and PPC results change accordingly
• the way pages are being ranked remains the same, but this new feature will affect and change the way people search for information on Google

My Two Cents on Google Instant

Google Instant  is essentially a search engine browsing and research aid, it encourages exploring… and is helpful for search engine users who may not have something specific or not already know exactly what they are looking.

Is is also helpful for search engine users who have already decided what search phrase to use in finding the information they want, as it allows them to drill down further and make their search queries even more specific.

Google Instant’s Impact on Google Users and SEO

The Good

• search engine users easily find what they are looking for, and faster
• search engine users are able to define their searches better
• user intentions are clearer due to more defined searches
• search engine users can do a variety of more search queries and get a mix of different results in a shorter span of time
• a possible increase in targeted traffic for sites that rank well for specific keyword searches that exactly match intentions of a search engine user

The Bad

• predictive results while offering more possible search options to the user, can be a distraction:
• may divert the user from the original search phrase they were intending on using, to a Google predicted/auto-filled search phrase or search results that catches their attention, while in the middle of typing
• may divert user from topic they were searching for altogether, for instance a user interested in one topic may click another topic as it gets displayed in the search box when he types the first few letters of his query.. for instance a person interested in lawyer, starts typing the keyword lawyer, but gets diverted by lady gaga upon reaching “la”, or clicks off to law and order when having typed “law
• a possible increase in less targeted traffic because of incidental clicks (through auto completed results)
• a possible increase in less targeted traffic for sites ranked for broad keywords or phrases of 1 or 2 word phrases because of predictive results that may catch a user’s attention

Google Instant is a double edged sword;  disruptive and perceptive, ultimately dependent on the user and how he uses this feature.

The official statement goes, Google Instant is an update Google rolled out with to further develop its product for users. In the process Google also increases revenue as a result of higher ad impressions generated, as opposed to static search impressions.  Its effectiveness is dependent on the user and his intentions; capable of steering a user in the right direction to find exactly what he is looking for, or distracting an unsure researcher who proceeds with a different keyword / topic and takes a different browsing direction.

So basically we all know that to really make the most of your pay per click campaigns you need to be grouping keywords into relevant ad groups, testing ad copy, testing landing pages, making sure everything is relevant, and tracking everything that you do. We can easily find this information online.

Image Source:www.adviceinteractivegroup.com

So let me give you a few search marketing secrets that might sound a little crazy to some of you.

Starts Bids High
Yes, don’t be shy when it comes to setting the maximum cost per click you are willing to pay. The search marketing miser earns meagerly.

This is especially important when you are rolling out with a new campaign and keywords. You want to improve your quality score fast so that you could bring down bids and lower your cost per click (CPC) sooner, and it starts with getting a good click through rate (CTR).

Granting that your keyword or keywords are relevant to the ad, and your ad is well written, then the only way to ensure a good CTR is to get your ad the best visibility. By visibility, I mean making sure your ad is easily seen or noticed by the search engine user. Your ad position is decided by your Ad Rank, the ad with the highest Ad Rank will appear in the first position. Ad Rank is decided by Quality Score and your bid. So if you have a new keyword with no CTR history to it and likely having a low quality score, the best way to get your ad noticed is to bid high and try to get a good position for your ad.

A lot of people are afraid of bidding high, many don’t realize that it is likely they will not be paying exactly what they bid.

Google AdWords’ Discounter automatically reduces your CPC making you pay the lowest possible price for your ad position. So if you find yourself paying a little too high a CPC for your current ad position, try lowering your bid to bring down position by 1 spot and see if you are paying a significantly lower amount for more or less the same visibility. Your CPC is directly affected by the Ad Rank of the ad one spot below you, so you need to play around with your bids to find what max bid gives you the best position at the lowest price.

Start With a Small List of Keywords
By small, I am talking about the number of keywords you have in your ad group or in your overall campaign. While it is indeed sound practice to put together a huge keyword list, it would not be wise to start out with a big list especially if it is a new campaign since QS is affected by your account history, that in turn is a result of the CTR and performance of all keywords and ads in your account.

Rather than having a huge keyword list at the start, begin with a smaller group of very targeted keywords that would likely get good CTRs and then add more keyword groups later on.

One reason a keyword you are bidding on might be getting a very low CTR is the absence of negative keywords. This is especially important if the keyword or phrase you are using also gets searched for in combination with other keywords or modifiers that make it irrelevant to what you are advertising. In that case, your ad still gets triggered, but since the ad is not relevant to the search engine user it does not get attention nor get clicked.

Increase Your Daily Budget as You Increase Keywords
You can’t expect to get the same number of impressions if you keep adding more keywords to your campaigns but do not increase your daily budget. You simply have to increase your daily budget. Unless, you constantly prune your campaigns, and delete keywords that you find are not converting.

Ippn order to be able to identify the keywords that do not convert you would need to use the built in conversion tracking feature in Google AdWords which tells you which keywords brought in visitors that lead to a conversion. You can also use other ppc tracking software that will offer other valuable data, other than which keywords convert.

Some of these programs can tell you what time of day your conversions occur, which enable you to do time scheduling which can also greatly improve your CTR. The more advanced programs can even split test your landing pages and provide visitor engagement data, information that you can use to further develop your landing pages in an effort to improve conversions.

Learn more about the most popular pay per click conversion tracking software available today on http://www.ppc-conversion-tracking.com. You can also download more AdWords optimization strategies from that site, absolutely free.

That was a few days ago though.. the big question is, is it still number 1?

A study on Eye-Tracking Analysis of SE Users’ Behavior conducted in Cornell University reveals the following data, which means number 1 is still the best spot to be on Google’s organic rankings.

But there are no guarantees to getting to number 1 and there could be too much competition.

Well, that is why multiple number 1 rankings for very targeted long tail search phrases that are dialed in to a search engine user’s intentions are better than general keywords that have higher search volumes.

To read the full article visit

Apple’s new iPad hit stores just this morning and here in San Francisco, people in the hundreds have been lining up… some had been there all night, other had arrived early that morning.

I am guessing they will wait about a week or two, so the iPad launch will come to pass, and Verizon users who had gotten iPads or have an interest in them won’t be distracted and will give their undivided attention to the Nexus One Verizon version, when it is finally made available.

Image Source: http://news.cnet.com/2300-31324_3-10003023.html

Advertising on TV networks has always been a little complicated and expensive… it actually still is! It can be a long process that involves too many people… there are the people that put your ad together then there are the people who recommend the right places to air your TV ad and make those placements and book your TV spots.

Today, Google AdWords allows you to book your ads on TV networks all by yourself. Watch the video below to see how it works.

With Google personalized search, the search results (listings) you see on Google’s SERPs will show you websites that you have actually visited in the past and spent time on because Google has factored in your previous search behavior (your act of searching on Google, clicking a listing and spending time on certain websites, and how often you visit) into the way they rank pages on your search. Google does that automatically, even if you have not activated this feature, but you can actually get search results that does not take into consideration your previous search behavior by clicking the “view customizations link” on the SERP.

So if you are a website owner tracking your rankings or an SEO professional tracking rankings because it is a key metric to gauge results of your SEO activities, then your metrics are skewed or to a graver extent, inaccurate and misleading.

Google is watching what you click on in search results and learns that you like certain sites. For example, if you often search for specific keywords, and on the top 10 organic listings on the next page there is a web page ranked on the number 9 spot, if you click that site and visit that site regularly, or search for the same keywords later or search for related keywords and you end up visiting that same website, over time Google gives that site a boost in rankings, might end up being in the top 3 or even ranked number 1, because it starts to believe that you like that website. But the ranking boost it gets are only for your results you see on your browser, and not for all other searchers and users. In other words if the site is number 1 on the Google listings you see on your browser, it is not number 1 on other users’ browsers especially if those users have not had previous interaction with that website.

So if you are tracking your rankings, if done with the personalized search feature active, you will not get an accurate representation of what your rankings actually are in general for the city/country you are in.

There has also been a question of privacy, “is Google invading your privacy by watching what you are doing and taking note of your behavior on the websites you visit?”

More information about you is actually kept if you are logged into to your Google account while performing these searches, if logged out, there is only limited data that Google collects about you and your behavior, but still it is enough to change what you see on the results page. Below is a table that shows you what they gather if you are logged in or logged out.

So is personalized search bad?

In the aspect of tracking behavior I believe Google to be walking a thin line.. as the char above shows, it appears that by logging in to your Google account, Google takes this as a sign that you allow your behavior and identity to be monitored. But, has Google informed you about this?

Second thing is, as a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) consultant, the biggest concern is keyword rankings of clients might not be credible or accurate, however this can be easily remedied by simply doing the search again without search customizations. Moreover with a better understanding of how personalized search works, SEOs can make adjustments in order to even leverage on personalized search that is active by default, and use that to get that a ranking boost for their websites. I know I have, but if asked how… I am afraid I rather keep this strategy to myself and not make it easily and publicly available.

Reference and Image Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-now-personalizes-everyones-search-results-31195