Axandra news archive: 23 January 2007

• Facts of the week
• Search engine news of the week
• Articles of the week
• Recommended resources - AxROI is now available in French
• Previous articles

Google's Matt Cutts is the premier source for all things related to Google and search engine optimization. He works for the quality group of Google, specializing in search engine optimization issues.

Matt Cutts has just revealed Google's latest ranking plans for 2007 in his blog.

How you might be affected by Google's plans for the next weeks:

• It is likely that you will see more variance in your Google rankings because Google's internal databases are going to be updated every 1-2 days instead of every 3-4 weeks.
  
  
• Google usually reveals PageRank updates quarterly to the public. A new PageRank update is underway. However, this does not mean that your Google rankings will change because the new PageRank values are already incorporated into their ranking algorithms.
  
  
• Google's supplemental results should be nothing to be afraid of. If your site shows up in the supplemental results, then don't worry. According to Matt Cutts, the PageRank of a web page determines if the page appears in the regular or supplemental results.
  
  
• The supplemental results continue to get fresher, "and website owners may see more traffic from their supplemental results pages."
  
  
• Google plans to change the "filetype:" operator so that it doesn't require an additional query word.
  
  
• Google discovered a small anomaly with .com domains that are hosted outside the US. A fix has been submitted so the rankings of the affected sites might change.
  
  
• There will be no "major infrastructure-related" ranking updates in the near future.

What you can do to get high rankings in the new Google

Matt Cutts makes it clear: "The approach I’d recommend in that case is to use solid white-hat SEO to get high-quality links (e.g. editorially given by other sites on the basis of merit)."

That's why our award-winning web promotion tools focus on white hat SEO methods. Using ethical search optimization methods requires some work but the results last much longer.

Search engines continually change the way they rank web sites. If you use shady tricks and techniques that exploit current flaws in search engine algorithms then you won't get lasting results.

You have to create web pages that are interesting to human web surfers. These are the web pages that search engines want to display in their results.

Don't use the wrong tools and risk getting banned by Google - use IBP and ARELIS. IBP and ARELIS are continually updated, they are always up-to-date and they help you to create web pages that are interesting to human web surfers and search engines.

"Google.de, is now forwarding to Marc Keilwerth’s Goneo.de [...] Others tell me Google.de has a new owner since January 22nd: Martin Rusteberg from Wiesbaden, Germany (with Mario Micklisch listed as technical contact). I took the following screenshot from Denic’s WHOIS lookup just now."

Google patent filing hints at digital billboard ad network

"[Google] has filed a patent application for technology that lets local stores tie their stock control computers to a Google-powered ad network, a strong hint that the company is planning to expand expansion beyond Web, print and radio advertising."

"All external links within the English language Wikipedia are now coded 'nofollow' -- this should help cut spamming immensely once word gets out in the SEO community."

Editor's note: This change can have a big effect on Google's search results because links from Wikipedia have been considered very important.

Search engine newslets

• Weather report: Yahoo! search index update.
• Google blacklist contained confidential information.
• Sponsored links added to Google search history.
• BBC in talks on Google link-up.
• Google Switch: Phone by Google and Samsung?
• Yahoo releases personal finance site.
• Inside AdSense launches in Italian.
• Google plans N.C. data center.
• Yahoo releases school search.
• Microsoft, Google agree to NGO conduct code.
• Radio guy to help Google with agency relationships.
• You can now run AdSense on the same page as other contextual ad programs.
• Google to run video ads from BMG and Warners.

"If your paid placement landing pages don't reinforce the search scent, you lose too many visitors to the 'Back' button. Moreover, because Google has incorporated landing page relevance into the Quality Score, you overpay for clicks."

The value of online traffic

"Compared with offline retailers, some online retailers get traffic for pennies on the dollar. Is it any wonder they treat traffic as something worthless? They simply don't value it. This is indicated by the horrifically low 2.4 percent average online conversion rate.

E-tailers are rummaging through hundreds of thousands of paid clicks for uniques, thinking nothing of lost opportunity, nor calculating their traffic's true value. The model's profitable, after all. For now."

Yahoo's improved ad service

"Yahoo's upgraded Sponsored Search service, code-named Panama, is the biggest improvement in years to the company's PPC advertising service. [...] Panama is faster and easier to use than AdWords in some areas, such as reporting, though I do have some minor concerns."

AxROI is now available in French (and English, German and Dutch)

AxROI (Axandra's Marketing ROI Optimizer) is an advanced ROI and conversion tracking solution that has many advantages over other ROI tracking services. It shows you which of your online ads and search engine rankings perform well and which ads are just a waste of time and money. AxROI is now available in French on our brand-new Axandra.fr web site.

Getting much traffic to your web site is not the most important thing!

Many webmasters focus on getting more traffic to their web sites. While getting visitors is very important, it is much more important to increase the conversion rate of your web site:

• Why getting traffic is not the most important thing
• AxROI main page
• Information about AxROI in French

• Will this famous Google SEO guru quit?
• Does Google read your CSS files?
• Official Google statement: How to deal with duplicate content problems
• Happy Holidays
• All you need to know about search engine optimization in 2006
• Google's Matt Cutts talks about search engine optimization traps
• Outperform your competitors with better keywords
• Find the very best keywords for promoting your web site
• View all past issues...