When you run and operate a website, you should strive to keep it in order and under control. When doing so, clients and potential ones will check out your site and enjoy your content. Otherwise, if you have a lot of issues with your Web pages, you will cost yourself some business. Furthermore, Google takes this into consideration when looking at website rankings and where to place your site in the organic rankings. With this in mind, Google now looks at secure websites and gives them an extra boost. Here are a few reasons why Google values safe websites.

Legitimacy

Above all else, when determining SEO rankings, Google will want to discover and reward sites that are real. Now, this may sound funny, but in the past, plenty of site owners would make fake websites full of spam or targeted offers. This was not good for visitors as they would not enjoy any true value from the website. When discovering a spam or fake site, Google will knock it out of oblivion and the site owner will not see any traffic.

For this reason, it is obviously important that you show Google and the other search endings that you mean business. When seeing a secure site, Google will know that you have a real website with a legitimate product or service. In reality, a spammer or someone who wants to make a cheap AdSense site will not take much time to use SSL or other methods to secure a site. For this reason alone, if you want to do well in the organic rankings, you must set up your site with https ability. When doing so, you will go a long way in maintaining stable rankings.

Long-term

If you have SSL on your site, it is obvious to most people that you plan to stick around for the long-term. This is important to Google as they want to give their customers value. You must realize, when looking for something important, people will trust Google and will want to land on a website offering true value to its users. Otherwise, in the long run, Google will suffer as the leading search engine wants clients to find what they seek.

So, when you think about it, you will understand why Google would want to place an SSL site on the first pages for many keywords. In the long run, even if you do not have a login system or credit card payment setup, you should consider an SSL certificate as you will go a long way in showing Google and other search engines you are serious about your online ventures and value the long-term strategy you have laid out. Otherwise, your site will look like any other and you will struggle to get on the first page of Google.

Quality

As mentioned, Google has, and always will, value a quality Web page. Meaning, when looking at a page with a lot of great information and plenty of happy customers, you will likely encounter a website with https security.

Think about it for a minute. When you land on a great site such as your email provider, bank or even a local restaurant, it probably has an SSL certificate. Without this, many will leave the site as they will not want to leave it up to chance. As people use other devices and become more aware of the situation, they are likely to convert to this way of thinking. When this happens, not only will you get more traffic, but current clients are likely to stay on your site. For this reason, if you want to do well in the organic search rankings and see your site thrive, you must have an up-to-date SSL certificate. Simply put, if you are truly in it for the long-term, you need to invest a small amount of cash in getting your site secure for every user.

Luckily, with a bit of cash and a couple of hours of your time, you can do so with ease. Then, in the short and long run, you will see your site thrive as people from all over will enjoy a site of high quality with all the necessary safety precautions

Throw up fewer errors

One metric Google takes a look at is the errors on your page. When using old and outdated code, you are likely to cause browser errors to your visitors. While this may not seem like a big deal on your end, it can cause a visitor to grow frustrated. Other times, people with older or outdated computers will struggle to load your website. For this reason, you should take the time to buy and install an SSL certificate. With this ten-minute job, you will see your pages load without any errors. Furthermore, people will take notice and feel more secure about going to your website.

If you have any sort of errors, whether with your SSL certificate or code, you need to fix them quickly as your site will never recover in the rankings and you will have a hard time impressing customers. Remember, with one or two errors, you can see an otherwise perfect site suffer in the organic search rankings.

So, if you can fix it up and make sure it is secure, you will have an upper hand against your competition. This is true even if they have an older page with more content as small errors will kill their SEO strategy.

Visitors

Now when looking at your site, Google will take notice when you have a lot of people come and stay for a long time. On the other hand, when you have a high bounce rate, you will see your site suffer. A bounce rate is the rate in which a person comes to your site and leaves without clicking another link on your site. When a potential client lands on your site, they will want to see a secure page. When they do not, they are likely to leave your site never to return.

On the other hand, if you have a secure site and let customers know this, you will rise in the rankings as Google values a site where people stay for a long time. This is a smart reason for you to rush out and install an SSL certificate. While this is true, you must make sure to do it right as one error can cause you to waste your time and money. Without a doubt, once you test it and make sure it works well, you should advertise this fact and let clients know your site is fully secured.

If you run a website, you must think of the future. While it is easy to make one on the cheap, you must invest in a few things. For starters, you should build a great site that people enjoy. Not only that, you must offer relevant, interesting and unique content that will set your site ahead of the competition. Finally, you must install an SSL certificate as customers will take notice. Furthermore, with https, Google and the leading search engines will value your site and you will see it zoom to the top for many organic search terms.

If you are a small business owner or if you have an innovative product idea that is ready for the market, the most effective way of acquiring customers and drawing attention to what you have to offer is by utilizing the internet. Creating a website is one of the most effective ways of advertising your product, but opening a website alone does not guarantee foot traffic. There are different methods a business owner can use to increase website traffic, but the most successful way is by using Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO consists of various formulas and keywords that ensure a website appears on the top of someone’s search results.

In order to attract visitors to their websites, many business owners are turning to SEO service Companies to increase customers without having to go through the trouble of dealing with SEOs on their own. These companies not only offer website design options, but they also ensure your website appears higher in search engine results – thus attracting more foot traffic to your site. The following are ten things businesses look for in a SEO company in order to make their business more successful.

Fees

SEO companies charge various amounts of fees for their services, but some companies’ pricing is more competitive than others’ pricing. The amount of money a business owner is willing to pay for SEO services depends on his or her needs and what the company offers. For example, many small business owners look for SEO service providers who offer a nominal, one-time fee and who charge an affordable amount to maintain the SEO service as long as the website is up and running.

Small business owners typically prefer SEO providers who do not charge a monthly fee that exceeds thousands of dollars; SEO charges should be equivalent to the services provided. In other words, do not pay for services that are not applicable, and do not pay for a company who does not deliver.

Location

When beginning the search for the right SEO company for the company, business owners should search SEO providers with respect to their own geographic location. If the SEO company is local, business owners can speak with their provider in person rather than having to rely on internet or telephone communication.

Furthermore, SEO firms that are in close proximity with local business owners are more apt to handle small businesses and the type of SEO required to boost internet traffic for their respective sites. While business owners are not required to limit their SEO company to a local firm, many choose their SEO based on its location due to their product knowledge and community reputation.

Reputation

Even if your chosen SEO provider’s website does not appear in the top ten search results, it is not necessarily because the company is incompetent or insufficient. Savvy business owners know to check Ripoff Report or the Better Business Bureau to make sure the company they’ve chosen is not merely running a scam. Furthermore, business owners will research SEO companies’ reviews.

A thorough investigation into testimonials will help determine just how successful an SEO company is at bringing in internet traffic.

Increase in Ranking

One of the more obvious aspects business owners look for in an SEO company is their ability to increase their websites’ ranking in search engine results. Business owners will look to testimonials and reviews for these rankings, but they will also check with the firm itself as well as conduct their own research. Knowing what sites an SEO company is responsible for enables small business owners to perform their own searches and see whether or not those sites show up high on an internet search.

If those sites do not show up, or if the sites show up on Bing! But not Google, business owners must take these factors into consideration before choosing that SEO company to provide services for their websites.

Link Building

Business owners who are interested in SEO services are aware of the fact that links play a large role in the algorithm that determines which sites are displayed prominently and which sites are not when one conducts a search on an internet search engine.

Business owners are more likely to choose an SEO company that ensures link freshness, links with trustworthy sites, and anchor texts and keywords that trigger search engines. Before choosing an SEO provider, savvy business owners will be sure to inquire about the company’s link building services.

Retargeting

Another SEO service business owners are interested in is retargeting. Retargeting is a cookie-based technology that strategically places ads for your business on other sites visited by customers who have viewed your website. SEO companies who provide this service must ensure their retargeting services are ethical and effective, as spam is a consequence many business owners would prefer to avoid. This option is sought after most by established businesses.

PPC Management

PPC Management, or the management of Pay-Per-Click advertisements is an SEO service many new business owners are interested in. SEO services that provide PPC charge a small fee every time an advertisement is clicked on by a potential customer, and the fee ranges depending on the placement of the ad (whether on a linked website or a search engine). It is important to compare competitors’ prices, as this service is largely dependent upon what business owner is trying to accomplish.

Ongoing Services

Experienced business owners know that SEO companies who promise instant results without any ongoing maintenance sound too good to be true – because they are too good to be true. Business owners look for SEO providers that offer consultations and continued support as the business grows. If your SEO company does not provide more than a one-time service, it might be time to find a new provider.

Reputation Management

Many business owners are aware of the horror stories. One bad review leads to a dozen bad reviews, and if you have a spiteful competitor who is willing to cross ethical lines in order to tarnish your reputation, you will lose business.

Reputation management keeps the negativity in check and ensures your website and company will establish and then maintain raving reviews and a high ranking in comparison with other sites and in search engine results. SEO companies provide reputation management services that vary depending on the desires of the business owner, so be sure to ask about specific services provided.

Content Marketing

In order for any online business to be profitable, business owners must maintain excellent content marketing. Without content marketing, search engines will not pick up your website, and consumers will breeze past it as if it were not there at all. Content marketing encompasses aspects of online businesses such as leads, brand awareness, customer service, and customer retention.

Many business owners are too busy to run their business and take care of their online content marketing. Efficient content marketing is the foundation upon which most successful online businesses are built.

Today, most consumers make their purchases through an online format. For business owners who want to make the most of their companies, hiring an SEO company to increase internet traffic will increase sales and improve their companies’ reputation.

There are many Internet search engines available for people to use. However, it is the Google search engine that revolutionized the way that we search for things online. It is also the search engine that websites and businesses live and die with. Being among the top of the Google search ranking for a given subject or keyword can mean an extraordinary amount of unique visitors for a particular website. On the other hand, being buried on the 20th page of search results can result in the failing of a website or business. In the Internet age we are living in, Google is just that important.

Traditional SEO

Getting to the top of the search results and staying there takes a lot of work. Google wants to be certain that the websites it presents in its search results are legitimate and do not represent a problem to the public. They also try to steer away from websites that have business practices that Google believes to be shady. This leads us to the subject of spam.

We hear about spam every day we are online. Our email accounts even have special spam folders to capture and dispose of all the spam emails that we receive. Needless to say, spam remains a huge problem all over the Internet. Google is not taking the issue of spam lying down. In fact, they have made it a mission to punish websites who engage in spamming on a regular basis. Perhaps you run a website and you have received a Google Webmaster email that says your website has been issued a “manual spam penalty for having “pure spam.” Google considers pure spam sites to be the ones they believe have performed the spam infractions that are the most egregious.

Making Google’s S#!% List

So what exactly is pure spam and does Google give any clear definition as to what it considers to be spam? After all, there is no way you can try to fix the problem and comply with Google unless you know what exactly the problem is. If Google sends you a Webmaster email regarding a “manual action” being implied to your site, you need to carefully read the email. There are specific words that they use in their emails. It is important to know exactly what they mean so you can take steps to fix the problem that Google has with your site.

It is hard to recover from Google penalties of any kind, especially a severe penalty such as the removal of your homepage. If you run a website that has been engaged in spamming for a long period of time, and you are currently trying to change your practices and get Google to accept your site again, you have a difficult road ahead of you. You will certainly have more trouble than a site that is guilty of only a few spamming infractions. Sites that have a long history of spamming will not be able to get back into the search results for Google very easily.

Google has been forced to get tough with a lot of sites that continue to spam despite being penalized by Google in the past. In certain cases, the standard method of removing the site’s links has not been an effective enough deterrent to get a website to stop its spamming practices. Enough websites were not slowing their spamming that it made Google realize that it had to up the ante as far as penalizing these sites is concerned. Google has defined the targeted sites as “those sites that display a long-standing practice of delivering mass and deliberate spam.”

Recovery

These sites naturally want to know if there is a possibility of ever getting this huge penalty lifted. While it is possible, if a site has been spamming long enough and in a high enough volume, undoing that amount of spam could be a tough task. In many cases, certain sites have created such a horrible reputation for themselves, and have become so deeply entrenched into the world of spam that it is virtually impossible to get themselves back to respectability and to get Google to lift their penalty.

In some cases, a site has a reputation that is so tarnished and beyond repair that the best thing to do is to shut down the site and start again with a new website that does not have all of the spam baggage associated with it. While it is never a decision that any website owner should make lightly, this is occasionally the best move for all parties involved. It is just a matter of determining if the damage that has already been done can be corrected enough to the point where Google is willing to forgive you and lift the penalty.

Bad Neighbors

Even with Google laying down the law and severely penalizing websites that have been spammed for a long time, you can be sure that sites will continue to do it, knowing full well the risk they are taking. The reason for this is because these sites believe that spamming is what they need to do in order for their site to rank in the search results. Sites that peddle gambling, prescription drugs and payday loans have been at the focal point of spamming for many years. None of these industries shows any signs of curtailing their spamming activities.

Google has also recently confirmed a key piece of information that a large number of webmasters, especially those who spam on a regular basis, have suspected for a very long time. Google stated that a website known for spamming has the ability to contaminate various sites that contain the identical company information and address. Along with this, Google looks into other less known factors to figure out the validity of various sites that are known to be on the shady side. Google is on the lookout for multiple businesses that operate from the identical address. This does not necessarily mean that shady activities are going on, but Google considers it a red flag that causes them to investigate the site further. It could also be one of the reasons that Google eventually decides to penalize a specific site. Payday loan sites are directly in Google’s crosshairs because of their long history of spamming and unethical business practices.

Minimizing Risks

There are some important things that webmasters can do to minimize the penalties and headaches they may face as a result of being targeted by Google. For example, if a webmaster is having problems with spam warnings relating to a specific site, they should immediately separate any other sites they own that are related to the site that is having the problems. This should include such items as WHOIS information, contact information and any affiliate codes that happen to match. This will eliminate any possible “guilt by association” scenarios.

If you submit a request to Google to have your penalty reconsidered and you either get a negative reply or none at all, you should not give up. Consider hiring a professional who has experience with this sort of issue to help you determine what exactly the problem is. If you keep submitting your request to Google without fixing the problem, they may eventually start to ignore you. This is a situation you want to avoid at all costs.

Google Adwords, established in 2000, brought into being the idea that marketers could dissect the algorithm in order to serve up landing pages and online offers that placed highly in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). The race was on for people trying to elbow their way to the first page of the SERPs. At that point, it was all about advertising. Marketers were trying to make sure that their online copy was the one people viewed most often. It was the same game that advertisers played when they tried to get the most views in a television spot playing during the Super Bowl or bought a one-page ad in a big magazine. The idea in advertising is to get the most views by hogging attention in strategic ways in particular high-publicity media channels. However, two things changed SEO from being totally advertising to a more public relations role: Google updates and social networking.

Google Adwords and the Need for Updates

Google may be a free service for billions of people who search it, but it is a business never-the-less. Much of its revenue comes from its advertising program: Adwords. While savvy online marketers were busy gaming the system to get free advertising by stuffing keywords into content and spamming links designed to fool the Adwords system into serving their pages up first, Google was busy perfecting their business to keep activity from damaging their own business model. Updates like Panda, Hummingbird, and Penguin tanked more than one website’s advertising strategy. It made it clear to business owners that Google would no longer tolerate poor quality, attention-hogging, content by making it almost impossible to use their search engine simply to advertise a product offering. Instead, they would be forced to contribute content that created value for the Internet community, if they wanted Google to notice them at all. It was no longer about being attention hogs, it was about making genuine online connections and relaying information that was valuable to the community. The shift from advertising to public relations solidified with the introduction of SEO strategies that no longer could rely on mindless keywords and arbitrary links. Now, marketers had to provide truly interesting and unique content that provided some value to the community. However, the game had already started changing with the introduction of social networking in 2004.

Social Networking

Facebook emerged in 2004 and social networking began to influence how people shared information online. Sites like Twitter and LinkedIn created a way for people to share more information, but now the curators of that information were your peers, not a large organization that you could manipulate with algorithm-hunting SEO strategies. To get noticed on a social networking site, it meant that marketers had to adapt towards creating one-on-one relationships that built a social brand that created trust. Without it, your friends and followers would not bother sharing your information because they would not risk losing their own friends and followers for the offense of social spamming. If you weren’t into public relations before social networking took flight, all of a sudden it became a requirement, simply to compete with others getting all the online shares and likes.

Algorithm-Hunting SEO versus PR SEO

There are stark changes in how a modern-day Internet market approaches SEO these days. It starts at the simple keyword level and goes forward into how that information is shared online. Here are a few different ways, the two models differ.

• • Keywords – The Hummingbird Google update introduced the concept of semantic keyword searching versus coding keywords. In layman’s terms, Google is more interested in what a keyword search means, not what keywords were actually typed into the search engine. This way, they don’t pull up pet accessories when someone types in the query: ”Why am I in the dog house?” Instead, Google now understands that this is a query about relationships, not pets. Thus, the content of your online copy is far more important than the keywords. If you want to place highly for a topic such as relationships, you have to provide a lot of quality content on relationships. The keywords alone will no longer sway Google. What you need to do is community outreach and get into the mind of your reader to make sure your content provides actual value.

• • Publishing – It’s no longer reasonable to assume that publishing on your own website is enough to draw attention to your offers through Google searches. Business owners who want to generate buzz for their offerings have to be involved in social networking. Content marketing is an integral part of SEO, including posting status updates on places like Facebook and Twitter. You can still use hashtags and keywords, but some sites also deal more with images and videos than they do with textual content. You will need to include more than one type of content to keep people interested on a social level. Other content will be viewed in a smartphone and will need mobile-friendly content.

• • Creating Buzz – To create excitement for an offer, in the past, an Internet marketer might have looked to high-ranking pages and site to share that content. They might try to get a retweet from people who had thousands of followers as opposed to the one with just a few friends and followers. They might try to get that person to post a link back to their pages. This is getting harder to do without being penalized for spamming or inappropriate links. It also missed the opportunity to create buzz on a local level. That’s why more marketers are creating buzz in a more social manner, by networking on various sites, not just one social network and one website. Google+ may be the late-comer in the social networking venues, but it is the one tied into the SERPs more, thus it makes sense for marketers to have a presence there, too.

• • Geographic Marketing – One of the biggest benefits to SEO was the ability to enter a global market. However, some businesses soon realized it wasn’t necessary to market the world when they’re selling pizza in a particular neighborhood restaurant. In that situation, businesses had to create positive public relations in their chosen demographic first, to compete successfully in their area. This could be achieved by cultivating good online reviews, shares, and likes from people in their own area. This cements the idea that you have to connect to your chosen demographic to outsell your competitor, instead of focusing on just issuing copy or trying to chase the Google SERPs tail.

There are distinct differences in the way SEO is approached today to when it was initially developed. Marketers want to make sure that they continue to place highly in the SERPs by creating goodwill among their customers, readership, and sponsors. That is more a public relations role than a sales advertiser. It means being genuine, providing high quality copy, and integrating the strategy with good old-fashioned one-on-one connections to fuel interest and excitement for your online offers. Those businesses that take their public relations role seriously will end up naturally ranking higher and win out in the end.

Bounce Exchange and OuiBounce both provide your website with an option to accept user enrollment to receive newsletters. A newsletter still provides one of the most effective ways to contact your customers and connect with them at a time when it’s most convenient to them. While social media sites have greatly improved the level of communication between you and your subscribers, certain disadvantages do still exist. A newsletter goes directly to the subscribers inbox, and people tend to review items sent by email more carefully than a status update posted on a business page.

Bounce Exchange Overview

Bounce Exchange works by detecting when a customer leaves your page and providing them with an offer to sign up or receive a free offer instead. This can help you sell more products, keep the customer on your page longer and turn a visitor that would otherwise abandon your page into a returning customer. While the product works and can increase the amount of traffic to your site over the long term, the cost of the service is simply astronomical and not affordable for many small business owners. In contrast, OuiBounce provides an open source alternative that allows you to interact with and connect with your customers without the high price tag.

OuiBounce Overview

The open source OuiBounce software provides everything you need to keep visitors on your site and coming back for more. The software was designed with ease of use in mind and provides a simple, and easy to customize platform for your website. Since the software is Open Source, you don’t have to pay to use it and like Bounce Exchange it exhibits intelligent behavior that allows your website to detect when a user is about to leave your site. The library can help you improve conversion rates by seven to 15 percent, depending on the type of website you operate. You can use OuiBounce to provide real value to your customers and give them something free just for signing up and returning to your website.

Helping Users Find Information

New visitors to your website can’t always locate the information your visitor needs and often, the first reaction is to click the back button when this happens. Before the visitor leaves, you can greet them with a pop-up that allows them to sign up for one of your special offers or provide them with a book he can download to peruse while not on your website. People appreciate when you offer free materials and can visit your website and download materials to peruse in their spare time. By providing them with a PDF booklet, or getting them to sign up for a special offer or newsletter you increase the likelihood that he will return in the future.

Types of Offers

When setting up your first campaign, your options are virtually limitless. As with Bounce Exchange, OuiBounce makes it possible to offer a free eBook, invite the visitor to come back and participate in a webinar, give a link to contact a customer service representative or even give the user a sample course to take in their free time.

OuiBounce is Open Source

Useful and relevant content directed at your customers is the goal of OuiBounce and with a community of Open Source developers, you can remain certain that the software will continue to develop and grow. Additionally, since the software is Open Source, you can edit and change the code however you like. Bounce Exchange is proprietary software that can’t be modified, distributed, or sold. Even if you don’t want to use the software on your website, you can modify it to include additional features and offer it to your site visitors as a free or paid download. Bounce Exchange is very similar to OuiBounce and functions as the commercial version of the product. Provided you don’t need extensive individual help setting up and configuring the software, you can use OuiBounce free of charge without the need to pay the hefty annual fees that Bounce Exchange charges.

OuiBounce Usage and Options

In coordination with other site monitoring tools, you can also set OuiBounce to alert visitors to your website after a set amount of time. Use Google Analytics or another site analytics tool to determine the average time spent per page and prompt users with a dialog box before she leaves. You can set the sensitivity of the software, turn on aggressive mode or create a callback to keep your customer engaged and active on your website. Rather than using the pay per user or campaign scheme of Bounce Exchange, you can use the software for free and provide a value added feature to your website.

Sensitivity

The OuiBounce software library provides a few simple options that you need to understand to get the most out of the library. Sensitivity refers to how far away from the edge of the browser the mouse must be before a prompt displays. If you put the sensitivity too high, you will lose visitors because the pop-up ad may display too quickly before they get a chance to view the website. Set it too low and they might leave the website before they have a chance to view your offer. Bounce Exchange provides a similar feature that intelligently determines when someone is about to leave your website. However, the added cost and system resources used by the software make Bounce Exchange a costly alternative in both time and money.

Aggressive Mode

You can configure OuiBounce to use Aggressive Mode to prevent ads from getting in your visitors way. Aggressive mode shows your advertisement only once per customer. This prevents your visitor from having to dismiss the dialog box each time they move the mouse to a certain position in the screen or visit a new page. Once you set up Aggressive Mode, you can feel confident that the user experience remains high by preventing a negative experience with your website. Users that have to constantly battle advertisements and free offers are less likely to return to your website in the future. Unlike Bounce Exchange, you can set this option with a simple code edit.

Minimum Timers

Setting a timer before a pop-up displays is a simple and straightforward process that can potentially add great value to your website. At the point when most users leave your website, you can gently guide your visitors toward your product or service or encourage her to sign up for your newsletter to get additional information in the future. By providing a simple form to provide a name and email address, you can increase the conversion rate and decrease the likelihood that emails you send will get returned or sent to your trash.

Choosing the Right Software

Website owners have to carefully manage their time, expenses and resources. Using a full-featured version of a product such as Bounce Exchange may actually hurt the effectiveness of your website. Too many database connections and data flowing between the website server and the visitor can impede the overall user experience. OuiBounce gets around all of this by using a simple, streamlined and effective library that can add an interactive element to your website. Before spending money on an expensive option like Bounce Exchange, it makes sense to explore the Open Source OuiBounce option.

Thanks to the nearly universal prevalence of the Internet, it seems like everyone and their cousin has a blog, website, or other foothold in cyberspace. Some people use their websites and blogs for fun, others sell stuff, while a rare few actually use their blogs, websites, YouTube channels, and so on to actively influence the world around them. Whatever form or incarnation a person’s web presence might take or the motivation behind its maintenance, though, traffic is the one thing everyone has in common. Everyone needs it, everyone wants it, and in most cases, the majority of users can carve out their own little group of visitors and fans. Here’s the thing about traffic, though: Getting people to visit a website isn’t the hard part. Anyone with enough time and/or money can get some web traffic to their blog, YouTube channel, or what have you. No, the hard part is keeping the traffic once it’s there. The denizens of the Internet are a fickle, flighty lot, and anyone who wishes to attract and retain their allegiance must first gain their attention. Fail in that regard, and there’s only one outcome: The dreaded “bounce”.

Read on to learn what the bounce / bounce rate is, and more importantly, a simple little trick anyone can use to decrease this most unwelcome of analytical metrics.

Bounce Rates: What’s it All About, Anyway?

Before going any further, it’s imperative to understand what the phenomenon commonly known as “the bounce” actually is, as well as what a website’s bounce rate indicates. On the Internet or off of it, knowledge is power, and only those admins and site runners with a firm grasp of these metrics and their consequences can hope to better their situations.

Quite simply, “bounces” are single-serving visitors to a website. They show up, view a single page or piece of content, and then vanish, often forever and without a trace. If you take the total traffic to a website and you parse out this element, that’s your bounce rate. Put another way, if 100 people visit your site, and eighty of them look at more than one page / one thing while five of them bounce according to the above definition, then you, which is to say, your website, have a twenty percent bounce rate.

As you might imagine, the longer a person stays on a particular site, the more interested, engaged, and invested they are in that site. The inverse is also true; a higher bounce rate can mean your site is broken, confusing, or simply boring. Of course, traffic quality can also play a part in a site’s overall bounce rate, as can a variety of other factors. Whatever the reason or problem, the most important question isn’t how to cure the symptom, but how to cure the disease.

How does one lower an unacceptable bounce rate? Simple – withdraw your visitors’ ability to ever bounce in the first place!

Setting Blank Targets, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Share My Traffic

There are plenty of methods to reduce one’s overall bounce rate, and a wise site owner / admin will use as many of them as he or she can. Make sure your website’s design and interface are pleasing and user-friendly. Make sure you have interesting content. Keep your traffic targeted to the purpose/theme of your website, and if you market to them, do it at a whisper, not through a megaphone. All of those things take time and skill to implement, at least to some degree. One of the easiest bounce-reducers, however, is the setting of blank targets. All it takes is a snippet of HTML code (the techie language that makes the whole Internet run), and voilà – watch your bounce rate drop like a stone.

Here’s how it works:

Setting a blank target is simply an instruction to your computer, or more specifically, to your Internet browser, to open external links – that is, links which point to sites or web pages that aren’t your own – in new windows. This will show your visitors the content they’ve requested, but unlike those who don’t set blank targets, it will also keep your own site open. This greatly increases the likelihood that these users will come back and visit your site after they’re done with whatever the other content is. Not only that, but blank targets mean you’re sharing your traffic with other sites instead of simply handing it over without a fight.

The setting of blank external targets is especially useful in the blogging community, which tends to be tight-knit and familial. If you share your traffic by linking to someone else’s interesting, funny, or otherwise worthwhile content, the chances are good that the favor will be returned. Setting blank targets for your external links is, in other words, a win-win situation for everyone. Your users are happy because they get to see the content they enjoy, the individual site owner – that’s you, dear reader! – are happy because their site(s) remain(s) open and available for further viewing (leading to reductions in the overall bounce rate), and one’s fellow site-runners are happy because the traffic everyone wants and needs is being shared rather than hoarded. Put another way, external targeting is a tide which raises all boats, as the old saying goes.

Dude, Where’s My Code?

Here’s the only code anyone needs to set external blank targets. The part that actually opens the new window is in ALL CAPS, but this is for illustrative purposes, not out of necessity. At any rate, the code is below:

<a href=”#” target=”_blank”>Link</a>

This code will, as previously stated, open the linked URL / Web address in a new window while keeping one’s own site open for visitors to come back to later. On that note, it’s time to discuss what not to do with this code.

Blank Targets: How Not to Misfire

If there’s one thing you should never do with this sort of link structure, it is to use it on the internal pages of a website you actually own or run. Why? Because no one likes pop-ups. If a visitor to a certain site gets bombarded with a new window or tab each time they click a link, they will quickly grow angry and resentful. Such feelings will almost certainly cause them to leave soon thereafter. Improper use of external targeting isn’t just a recipe for a significant drop in traffic and the site’s overall reputation, though – it’s also a surefire way to shoot a site’s bounce rate through the roof.

Fortunately, the solution to this grim scenario is an easy one: Keep blank targets set to external links only!

Conclusion

The prudent management of website traffic is a crucial skill for anyone who hopes to make a lasting impression on the Internet. Happily, this guide is the ideal tool for anyone, be they novice or veteran, who wishes to sharply reduce their overall bounces / bounce rate, increase their visitors’ satisfaction levels, and generally enhance the quality of their web properties and the value of their web presence. Happy coding!

After some of the latest Google updates, webmasters are taking a closer look at their backlink profile. In some cases, a full link audit is performed, but some webmasters aren’t looking that deep into their link profile.

A new tool has been released by Google, and webmasters can use it to tell Google to ignore certain links that point to their website. These links could be the result of a negative SEO campaign, or they could be a bunch of links from low-quality websites. Unfortunately, the Disavow tool is surrounded by a lot of misinformation.

The Danger

Webmasters need to understand the dangers of using the disavow tool. Although it was created and offered to webmasters with good intentions, it has the potential to destroy a website’s search engine rankings.

Many webmasters have used the disavow tool while knowing very little about links and SEO, and as a result, they’ve caused their website to lose massive visibility in Google. If a webmaster doesn’t know what links are bad or good, then it’s best to avoid using the disavow tool.

However, when used with adequate knowledge of links and SEO, the disavow tool has the potential to remove algorithmic penalties and safeguard search engine rankings.

A Look At the Disavow Tool

Before even thinking about using the disavow tool, it’s crucial that webmasters understand what the tool is, and they must also understand how it works. Fortunately, it’s very easy to understand why the tool should be used. Put simply, it can be used to clean up a website’s link profile.

When filled out and submitted correctly, the tool can tell Google to ignore undesirable links. For example, webmasters can use the tool to tell Google to ignore links from shady websites. Since we all know that backlinks impact search engine rankings, it only makes sense to monitor your website’s link profile.

With all of the latest Google updates, it has become painfully clear just how much damage can be caused by too many low-quality backlinks. However, webmasters need to understand that the disavow tool is not a magic bullet, and it must be used with extreme caution. Google has said that the disavow tool should be used as a last resort.

Why Webmasters Should Use the Disavow Tool

There are several reasons why webmasters might want to use the tool. One of the major reasons to use the tool is for preventive maintenance.

Many of the recent Google updates have penalized websites that have inorganic links. Put simply, these are links that are not considered to be natural, and they’re usually low-quality links. For example, these links can consist of blog comment spam, blog network links, links from low-quality article directories, footer link spam and paid links.

There is no doubt that inorganic links can harm a website’s search engine rankings, which is why they need to be disavowed. The disavow tool can be used for preventive maintenance because it can be used to tell Google to ignore inorganic links. By using the tool, webmasters can prevent their website from getting hit with a manual or algorithmic penalty.

Recovering From Penalties

Another major reason why webmasters might need to use the disavow tool is to recover from a penalty. Over time, thousands of websites have been hit with an algorithmic or manual penalty, which has devastating effects of search engine rankings.

The disavow tool can be used to tell Google to ignore links that are causing a penalty. In most cases, the disavow tool is most effective when used to disavow links that are causing an algorithmic penalty.

Google has said that the disavow tool should only need to be used by a small percentage of webmasters, and they also said that the tool should only be used by experienced webmasters because the average website owner could use the disavow tool and unintentionally cause serious harm to their website’s rankings.

How Many Links Does Google Report

For quite some time, Google has given webmasters a way to see how many links they have. Unfortunately, this method for checking links is very unreliable. In the past, it had even less accuracy than it has now.

One of the best backlink reporting tools that webmasters have is webmaster tools, which is a Google product. There is no doubt that Google has been trying to make their reporting more accurate, and the link reporting has certainly gotten better.

However, it’s still very inaccurate, and it will leave most webmasters scratching their head. Currently, webmaster tools can show a portion of backlinks that are pointing to a particular website. It’s true that Google has improved their services, and currently, webmaster tools shows significantly more incoming links than it used to show.

The problem is that it just doesn’t show the full picture. Google has even said that they only show a portion of the backlinks that they’ve found, and to this day, this fact remains true. Even with the existing link reporting tools, it’s nearly impossible to find every single backlink.

Can Disavowing Unseen Links Hurt My Site?

The main problem with the disavow tool is that Google doesn’t report all of the backlinks they’ve found. Webmasters want to know if disavowing unseen links will hurt their website.

It’s crucial to understand that Google doesn’t show all of the backlinks they’ve found, but that doesn’t mean that the hidden links are not affecting a website’s search engine rankings.

Put simply, Google usually knows about far more links than they care to share with webmasters, so although webmasters might think they know of links that Google doesn’t know about, it’s a real possibility that disavowing these links could harm a website’s search engine rankings.

Back To the Basics

We’ve established that disavowing links that Google doesn’t show has the potential to harm your website’s rankings, but it’s important to go back to the basics.

Webmasters need to understand that the disavow tool should only be used to remove toxic links, so if you’re using the tool for the purpose that it was intended for, you shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not disavowing unseen links is going to affect your search engine rankings.

The primary purpose of the tool is to remove links that could be harming your website’s rankings, so it doesn’t really matter if Google is reporting the toxic links or not. At the end of the day, webmasters shouldn’t fear the disavow tool.

When used correctly, it can be an extremely useful tool, and many SEO agencies have used the tool successfully to get penalties lifted from client websites.

Unfortunately, a lot of webmasters have made the mistake of hiring an unknowledgeable SEO company, which resulted in a campaign filled with hundreds of toxic links. The disavow tool is perfect for removing toxic links. Inexperienced webmasters should not attempt to use the tool if they don’t know what they’re doing.

There are many case studies that show the disavow tools being used to lift an algorithmic penalty, which was caused by an abundance of toxic incoming links, so there is no doubt that the tool works, but webmasters need to make sure that they know what they’re doing, or they need to hire knowledgeable professionals.

The general opinion of guest blogging has dropped in recent years due to the distressing trend of spam guest blogs. Many blogs that publish guest posts regularly find themselves assailed by webmasters attempting to pay for dofollow backlinks, a practice which is strongly discouraged by the search engine king of SEO, Google. Accepting such a guest post can put your blog at risk of a penalty from on high. Thankfully, there are a few rules you can follow to protect yourself against these sorts of spammers.

First, a note: guest blogging is swiftly becoming a poor SEO strategy. For several years, it was a valid strategy to gain powerful dofollow backlinks from authority sites. Now, with the rise of spam in the guest blog world, Google is likely to remove most of the benefit that comes from these links, even so far as levying penalties against the worst offenders. However, this does not mean that guest blogging is a bad thing. It simply means that you need to be careful about the links in your guest blogs. Guest blogging is still a valuable tool for networking, exposure, branding and community formation. With that in mind, feel free to accept guest posts, just be cautious about their content.

Rule #1: Scrutinize the Author

When an author offers to write a guest post for your blog, the first thing you should do is search their name and look up two things. First, look into their own personal blog or blogs. What sort of content do they publish? If their content looks in any way low quality, you can bet that the content they provide for your blog will be of similar quality. If their content is high quality — that is, something you would want to see on your own blog — then you can open up consideration.

The second thing you want to check is if they have guest posted on other blogs. What is the quality of their other guest posts? It’s always possible that they try to outsource their writing, and the quality of that writing may vary. Guest posts may get the short end of the stick in these cases, so watch out.

Any author you accept to write on your blog must have a track record for high quality content, particularly content relevant to your industry and niche. You should also make sure they don’t use spammy tactics for linking. Your goal is to only publish content from authors who provide quality and depth in their writing.

Rule #2: Scrutinize the Links

You need to have a consistent link policy for guest posts. Some sites are known for stripping any and all links from the content they publish. Other sites will allow one or two links, and others will allow as many as the author can reasonably include without coming across as spam. The exact number of links should vary according to the quality and depth of the content provided; deep, well-researched content is likely to have more research citations, after all.

The basic policy should look something like this:

• • A minimum of two or three links. No maximum beyond the discretion of the writer
• • A maximum of two links to the author’s sites, including social media handles and personal blogs
• • As the publisher, you should reserve the right to remove any link that you deem suspicious or potentially detrimental, either to the content or to your site. Make use of this rule to remove any link that leads to a site that does not provide value to your readers. Use the same quality indicators you use for links in your own posts

Rule #3: Scrutinize the Content

What is the quality level of the content this guest author has provided? That’s the most important question you should ask once you’ve determined that you’ll accept anything at all from the author. No matter how good their reputation may be, you need to make sure each individual post is something you want on your blog. Ask yourself a few questions about the content on offer.

• • Is this content something I want to have published on my blog?
• • Is this content written about a subject that’s been done to death online already?
• • Does this content offer something new and thought-provoking to an ongoing discussion?
• • Is this content copied or spun from another source? (Use tools such as Copyscape to check)

You want unique, powerful content for your blog, even if the primary purpose of that piece is to provide a gateway back to the original author.

Rule #4: Own the Content

This rule is important for two reasons. The first reason is that you need to reserve the rights to any content published on your blog. Google penalizes copied content. Even posting content you own on two individual pages is enough to get that page penalized. If a guest author offers a piece of content without the guarantee that you own the content, they are free to post it on their site as well. Instantly, Google sees copied content and penalizes both sites.

Note that this doesn’t mean the content is attributed to you. Unless you paid for the content to be ghostwritten, the original author should still receive credit. Half of the point of guest blogging is to spread the name and brand of the original author, after all. You don’t need to take credit for their work; simple make sure they won’t repost the content elsewhere.

The second reason is to make sure that you’re the one in control of the content. This ties into another general guideline, which is to never give out author accounts on your blog. Even reputable blog authors may stoop to underhanded tactics when they are given control on a site, with the right incentives.

Sure, it’s a bit of a headache to go in and format a post to publish yourself. On the other hand, it guarantees that the author won’t come back in a few months down the line and add unwanted links to a piece, edit it in a way you don’t want, or delete it entirely. If an author is requesting an account on your blog, at best they don’t know what they’re doing. At worst, they’re trying to get an interior access so they can perform some kind of attack.

Rule #5: Encourage Community

Guest posts shouldn’t be content airdropped from a passing website. They should be thought-provoking, powerful pieces of content that foster a discussion and a community. This means they need to encourage community on your own site. It also means they need to encourage an interaction between your site and that of the author. Sending traffic back and forth for discussions is a great way to build a community.

Guest blogging is a powerful tool for building community, even if its power in SEO is fading. Google is not going to penalize your site for guest blogging, as long as you stay within the linkspam guidelines. Keep an eye on the content you publish, make sure it’s as useful as you can, and you’ll receive the full benefit of an interested audience.

Now, with SEO and the content game, many struggle to adapt since it seems Google changes their mind all the time. It does not help a site owner that people like Matt Cutts say one thing but mean another. This is a serious problem if you own and run a website or blog. For this reason, you should always do your own research on a variety of topics. In fact, recently, Matt Cutts proclaimed a little duplicate content will not hurt your site’s rankings. When saying duplicate content does not hurt a site, here is what Matt Cutts meant.

Product descriptions

Now, when writing a product description, it is hard to write on with 100 percent unique content. Think about it, if you are writing a 200 word Web page on a garden hose, you are going to struggle to keep things different. In fact, many site owners will copy and paste the description provided by the original manufacturer. This is an easy way to get your pages ready and still have a great product description. Of course, when searching on Google, the content will not rank too highly as it is not unique. For this reason, many site owners opt to change the original content as a way to remain different.

This is a great way for the writer to provide the reader with a completely different and relevant description about the product. On the other hand, if you own and run an e-commerce site with thousands of products, you are going to have a hard time writing new product descriptions. For this reason, many opt to keep this content the same as the manufacturer. When doing so, you will still enjoy decent SEO rankings; however, your site is unlikely to surpass more established blogs and e-commerce sites.

Quoting

As mentioned, when writing some pages, you will want to quote the original writer or manufacturer. Without doing this, you are unlikely to provide the reader with the best possible description of the idea, service or product. To quote, you should, of course, offer everything in detail, mentioned by the original writer. At the same time, you should offer a reference to the quote and a hyperlink. When doing so, you will not run afoul of any rules, written or unwritten. Sadly, many fear duplicate content and end up foregoing this option.

Instead, some site owners will leave out the quote or change its original meaning. When doing this, a site owner is likely to give the reader a less than stellar description. For this reason, instead of fearing the wrath of Google when quoting a source, you should include the hyperlink and attribute the writing to the original author. When doing so, you will not anger the original writer; at the same time, you will provide your reader with the most relevant and interesting information he or she seeks.

Similar keywords and phrases

Now, when running a search on Copyscape, it is easy to see the same results and find duplicate content. This is extremely hard to avoid as there are only so many phrases one can use when writing about a given subject. Think about it, when a writer makes a blog post about a subject, he or she is unlikely to write something unique. Instead, many end up using the same phrase others used in the past. In itself, this is not a huge deal as Google will, naturally, see a writer used his or her own words most of the time. At the same time, while a writer should not worry too much, he or she should make sure to create content in their own words.

Meaning, if a blogger sees a website and wants to write a similar article, he or she must avoid copying and pasting any part of the content. Instead, when writing about a similar subject and researching another site, the writer, at minimum, should write the words in his or her own way. When doing so, a site owner will avoid duplicate content with little effort. Either way, when a writer uses some related keywords and phrases sparingly, he or she should not worry too much as long as it is not part of a larger trend in their writing style.

Usability

In other cases, you will have duplicate content for usability reasons. Think about it, when you run a company with multiple offices throughout the United States, you will have plenty of websites listing the same content. This is okay most of the time as long as a writer provides value to the reader. Remember, when a company has offices all over, it is hard to avoid using the same phrase for plenty of sites. As long as a business does not go overboard with this, it should not suffer any problems. On the other hand, when spamming the Internet with thousands of Web pages that do not vary, one will have problems. For example, some directory sites will list services in every city of the United States. When doing it, at minimum, a company will devalue its own content and cause serious problems. However, if a site owner wants to offer valuable content and information for a few dozen cities, he or she should not fear the wrath of Google and its duplicate content checker.

Multiple sites

Some companies will have many sites. For example, it is often beneficial to have a site for each country, region or state. Of course, when doing this, some major websites will have plenty of duplicate content. This is okay, and Google will simply value the content from both websites. When understanding this, a writer will not have to make two unique versions, or more, of a site. Sadly, many do not understand this and they end up writing a completely different mobile site. When doing this, a site owner will waste valuable time and money. Instead, when realizing how things work, a blogger or writer will not work all the time simply changing his or her content around slightly. Remember, Google knows and understands many businesses will have multiple sites with the same, or very similar, content.

A site owner must understand the truth behind Matt Cutts ideas. Luckily, when a writer knows this, he or she can create a great reading experience without sacrificing quality. While it is wise to understand why duplicate content is bad in most cases, it is wiser to understand it is not always a big deal. No, often, a writer will have little choice to keep things the same. Of course, if a site owner has a hard time seeing his or her duplicate content rise to the top, they will face an uphill battle. Fortunately, an e-commerce site owner can do more to see his or her website rise in the ranks. Then, with an overall wise plan, one can see their site rise to the top of Google. Without a doubt, when understanding all of this and providing plenty of value to the reader, a site owner should not worry too much about falling in the search engine rankings. Simply put, while it is wise to understand what Matt Cutts said, it is also smart to think a little more about his views.

Google Adwords is a popular online advertising platform that places various ads on Google’s search engine as users search for specific keywords. The advertisements appear at either the top, bottom, or side of search results after the user makes a specific query. Several factors determine the placement of the ad. The relevance of the keywords and the amount paid per click are both determining factors in the rankings of paid keywords. Google is the world’s premier search engine with millions of users per day. Because of this, Google Adwords is the company’s primary source of income. In 2012, Google’s total advertising revenue totaled 42.5 billion dollars.

Google offers three payment platforms for potential advertisers: cost-per-click (CPC), site-targeted advertising, and cost-per-mille (CPM). Cost-per-click is the most commonly used platform, as Google only charges the advertiser between a few cents and a few dollars for each individual click the advertisement receives. The cost-per-mille platform charges advertiser for every thousand impressions the ad makes. The site-targeted advertising platform places targeted images, banners, and media ads on specific sites. Ranging from local, national, to international distribution, Google Adwords is unanimously the most popular search engine advertising campaign on the Internet.

SEO, as you well know, is the systematic process of increasing visibility and traffic of a certain website using organic or natural methods, which makes the primary goal of search engine optimization is to increase the page rank of a certain website. SEO techniques vary depending on the website and the search engine being optimized for. Each search engine uses a different algorithm for ranking, so it is important to do proper research before altering the content of your website for SEO purposes. Search engine optimization involves the alteration of content and HTML code to increase relevance for specific keywords. Additionally, increasing the total number of backlinks and inbound links is another popular search engine optimization technique.

That being said, web analysts often speculate on the effectiveness of search engine optimization vs paid advertising generated by Google Adwords. Purists are firm in believing that the two techniques are completely independent and do not compliment each other. However, a small minority believes that including a Google Adwords campaign increases organic traffic generated by search queries. Truthfully, the organic traffic of a particular web page is completely separate from the traffic generated from Google Adwords.

There is a reason Google is the most popular search engine in the world.

If Google awarded more organic traffic and increased page rank for paying customers, competitors like Yahoo, Bing, and Ask.com will gain considerable market share. Google does a good job at maintaining the integrity of its results by separating paid traffic from organic traffic. The executives at Google realize that seasoned users of search engines differentiate between paid advertising and organic search results. In fact, they often recognize the fact that the paid advertisements are not usually relevant to the keyword they are searching for because the advertiser paid a significant amount of money for the ad placement.

Why Adwords has no effect on organic traffic

A study conducted by Search Engine Journal proves that Google does not award organic traffic to paying customers. Using an app called Google Webmaster Tools, a comprehensive report was generated for pre-selected websites to prove where the majority of their traffic originated. The report concluded that websites with no Adwords campaigns generated traffic from organic clicks, or the total number of click-throughs on a website for a particular query. Organic traffic was also measured by organic click per query, which measured the total number of clicks divided by the total number of website appearances in search engine results pages. The report compared websites with Adwords campaigns to websites without paid advertising and concluded that an Adwords campaign has no effect on organic search results.

SEO vs AdWords

Website owners realize that visibility from search engines account for a significant amount of traffic. Web developers are often conflicted when devoted limited resources to either search engine optimization or paid traffic via Google Adwords. Effective SEO usually involves the use of a marketing firm. However, enlisting the help of a marketing firm is very expensive and not always 100% effective at increasing traffic.

For example, a reputable marketing firm may demand up to $2,000 per month for search engine optimization. By forgoing external marketing firms, web developers spend a significant amount of time on search engine optimization. While generating traffic is a priority, the time used for optimizing keywords and adding backlinks can be used on creating more relevant content and marketing on social media networks. The alternative to SEO is paying Google for traffic. The cost of Google Adwords varies on the specific keyword being paid for. Popular keywords will obviously cost a lot more than niche or longtail keywords. Before focusing on one specific traffic-generating technique, one must consider the products being sold at the particular website being promoted.

High-end products and services with significant markup such as jewelry, legal and financial services, cars, and home renovation may benefit from search engine optimization. Because the return on investment for expensive services and products are so high, minute increases in traffic due to search engine optimization is well worth the effort. For example, if a financial firm gets one click-through generated by SEO and charges $900 for their services, the company will still generate respectable revenue. The same cannot be said for low-end products like clothing and silverware. The volume of traffic needed to see the same return on investment is much greater and the time invested in search engine optimization may be considered wasteful. SEO techniques take a significant amount of time before the user sees an increase in traffic. In fact, many organic traffic campaigns take up to six months to see positive results.

An Adwords campaign takes a lot less time to see a return on investment. Increases in traffic can be seen in 24 hours. In addition to this, some keywords only cost a few cents per click, making it a financially viable option for small business owners. Optimally, both SEO and Google Adwords should be used simultaneously to generate results. While search engine optimization takes time to increase traffic, web developers can see an immediate return on their investment via Google Adwords. By the time the SEO campaign sees a return on investment, Google Adwords would have already increased visibility. The two techniques will eventually compliment each other and the web developer should see an exponential increase in website traffic.

Use WebMaster Tools for Traffic Analysis

Google offers a free program called Google Webmaster Tools to analyze the effectiveness of your website’s advertising campaign. Google Webmaster Tools allows users to see how much traffic is generated from each keyword. Using this tool, web developers can tweak their advertising campaign and stop spending money on keywords that don’t generate traffic. Conversely, undiscovered keywords can be optimized or paid for in order to increase traffic. The program is completely free to use and is a necessity for an effective website advertising campaign.

In conclusion, years of evidence and web page analysis have proven that a Google Adwords campaign has no effect on organic traffic. Google rightfully chooses to maintain the integrity of its search algorithm by not rewarding paying customers with higher page ranks. Because of this, paid advertising is completely separate and denoted by a yellow highlight banner. Small businesses benefit from the affordability of Google Adwords as opposed to hiring an external SEO marketing firm. Additionally, users will see faster results via Google Adwords as SEO takes time to materialize results. If your budget permits, it is recommended to use both of these traffic-generating techniques. While, Google Adwords benefits in the short term, the strength of effective search engine optimization cannot be underestimated. Websites ranked on the first page of Google obtain the status solely through SEO and often maintains the position on the first page for years. Because of this, SEO should not be ignored. The most profitable websites use both techniques: Adwords for short-term traffic and SEO for long term visibility.

So you’ve been handed a manual action penalty by Google, have you? What have you done, you naughty webmaster? The good news is that you know about it – you may not have even been made aware of the penalty before the 2013 rollout of the manual action viewer within Google Webmaster Tools, so you’re already ahead of a site that was penalized before the rollout. Now, what do you do with this information?

On Google’s Manual Actions page, you will find a brief description of the problem that resulted in your site’s penalization. It is of immense importance that you visit this page and discover the reason for your penalty, as each different type of penalty has its own method of resolution.

Here’s how to view Google’s Manual Action page:

• Click on ‘Search Traffic’ on the Webmaster Tools Dashboard

• Click on Manual Actions

• Note any actions that may be listed

According to Google, your next action is to ‘fix it’ and request a review – but what does ‘fixing it’ entail? That’s what this article is all about.

In general, if you’ve participated in any questionable endeavors to increase your website’s ranking via PageRank, cut it out. We’re not here to judge, but Google takes a certain stance on such actions, and many penalties are the result of such actions. Everyone makes mistakes, but cleaning up after them isn’t always easy.

Some actions impact your whole site, while others only involve a few specific links, and there are different ways of dealing with every sort of action that’s taken. Let’s take a look at each type of manual action penalty, and the methods you can employ to remove your site from Google’s penalty box while working to restore its previous glory (or, at least, it’s previous Google ranking).

Unnatural Links to Your Site – Impacts Links

In this case, your site has been noticed by Google as having a recurring role in a pattern of ‘unnatural, artificial, deceptive, or manipulative’ links that point to, you guessed it, your website. Sometimes this is not the fault of the website itself and, thus, there is no action you can take. Google realizes this and, as such, your site’s ranking is not affected by this particular action.

That said, if you do happen to know of any artificial links to your site, it is certainly in the best interest of your site to do whatever you can to have them taken down. If you don’t explicitly know of any artificial links to your site, search for them and, when you find them, do whatever you can do to have them taken down.

Whether you’ve been able to locate any ‘unnatural’ links removed from your site, look harder. Google has taken this manual action against your site for its own reasons, and it is in your best interest to take action. Google your site’s URL, and if you find any links that don’t seem quite right, do whatever you can to take them down.

The easy method of having these links removed is requesting that the linking site’s webmaster remove them entirely. Unfortunately, this is not always an option, and the question of whether or not you should endeavor to take more drastic routes (e.g. changing the URL of the destination to which the questionable URL linked) depends upon the specific site being linked, and the overall rank of your site. For example, if the link is nested deep within your website’s structure, changing the filename of one page might do the trick; however, if the link is directed towards your root page, and you still have a respectable PageRank, you may not wish to take such an ‘evasive’ approach.

Unnatural Links to Your Site

This is a more serious version of the ‘Unnatural Links to Your Site – Impacts Link’ action, so here are some additional steps you can take in this case.

• Download the list of links to your site from Google’s Webmaster Tools. You can do this via the following route – Links to Your Site > Who links the most > Download more sample links (or) Download more latest links.
• Familiarize yourself with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, and compare the links that you’ve downloaded to the Google’s guidelines.
• If any links do not meet Google’s guidelines, try to contact the webmaster of the site hosting questioning links to your own, and ask them to remove/prevent the pages hosting those links from PageRank (you might suggest the “rel=’nofollow’ attribute.
• Finally, use the ‘Disavow Links’ tool, within your array of Google’s Webmaster Tools, to ‘disavow’ links that you were not able to have removed.
• Request a reconsideration of your site from Google and wait (patiently) for a response within your Webmaster Tools account

Unnatural Links from Your Site

In this case, you will again wish to revisit Google’s Webmaster guidelines. Remember, knowledge is power! Next, look for links on your site that Google might think you’ve paid for, or that might have violated Google’s Webmaster Guidelines in any other way (excessive link exchanges, for example).

If you found any, either remove them entirely, or use the “rel=”nofollow” attribute to redirect them away from Google’s PageRank algorithms, and request a reconsideration from Google.

Hacked Site

Well, this is no good. No webmaster on Earth wants to wake up to find this action on their Webmaster Tools account. But what on Earth should you do, if you do?

This one goes beyond the scope of this article, unfortunately, but help is out there! As Google says, ‘Unfortunately, it’s likely your site was hacked.’ And they say that right here</a>.

Visit the site linked above (here’s that link again, because if your site has been compromised, we strongly encourage you to visit it: http://www.google.com/webmasters/hacked/). Take all of the necessary actions and precautions.

The short version of Google’s instructions involves taking your website down until the method of attack and the extent of the damage can be reviewed (use Webmaster Tools to help with this process), identify the specific vulnerability that allowed the attack to occur, patch the vulnerability and deal with any recognizable damage, then request a review from Google.

Thin Content with Little or No Added Value

There are a number of reasons this action could have been taken, but they all typically involve associations with low quality, shallow websites. Google has basically deemed your site to be of limited value and low quality, so we do hope that you didn’t spend too much time working on it.

Your first course of action, in this case, is to follow some recommended actions, such as:

• Review Google’s Webmaster Guidelines concerning…

• o Automatically generated content
  o Affiliated programs
  o Scraped content
  o Doorway pages

• Use a service such as CopyScape to identify any content within your site that duplicates content found on any (or any number of) other sites 3. Check your site for doorway pages (pages that have been created for the specific purpose of ‘spamming’ search engines, utilizing certain content to accrue clicks and relay them to a different page)

• Google’s official suggestion, at this juncture, is to ‘think about whether your site provides significant added value for your users.’ This suggestion suggests that Google is interpreting your site as nothing more than an advertisement for another site. If it is, consider other means of promotion. If it is not, find ways to prove it to Google (by, for example, adding unique and valuable content via content brokers such as Textbroker.com).

• Implement Google’s suggestions and request an official review.

Pure Spam

You will only see this, or any of the next few actions, if your website is doing ‘spammy’ type actions of which you’re likely aware. While we can offer our best advice in this matter, Google is rather adept at staying on top of this sort of thing.

If you see the ‘Pure Spam’ action attributed to your site, you’ll want to remove any aggressive spam techniques that may be currently in use on your website. These techniques include scraping content from other sites (thievery), cloaking (black ops), and generated gibberish (trying to fool PageRank). If you wish for your previous PageRank to ever return to normal, it is in your best interest to remove these features from your website.

User-Generated Spam

This one involves users and form sanitization, basically. If you’re flagged with user-generated spam, it’s time to look at any portion of your website in which users can generate content. Forums, profiles, and blog comments are all possible suspects.

Check these areas out. Look for posts, or even profiles, that seem to be advertisements, or even those that include out-of-context content and/or links. Anything that’s user-generated, and doesn’t look like it quite belongs on your site, should be firmly dealt with.

Once you’ve sterilized your user’s content (and hopefully sought methods of keeping it sterile for the immediate future), request a review from Google.

Cloaking and/or Sneaky Redirects

This is a dark area in which we hope that you are not purposely treading. When you are flagged with this action, it means that your site could be showing different pages to viewers than it is showing to Google, or even directing users to different site than those that are shown to Google.

We’re going to assume that you don’t know anything about this, so take the following actions:

• In your Webmaster Tools, use the ‘Fetch as Google’ tool to compare the content that is fetched by Google to the content that is seen by a human user (this would be you) whilst visiting your website.
• If the content differs in any way, immediately remove the portion of your website that is serving different sorts of content to Google than it is to regular viewers (again, you, using the ‘Fetch as Google’ tool).
• If the content differs in any way, immediately remove the portion of your website that is serving different sorts of content to Google than it is to regular viewers (again, you, using the ‘Fetch as Google’ tool).
• Once you’re absolutely, positively sure that your site follows Google’s webmaster guidelines, request a reconsideration from Google. /LIST

Hidden Text and/or Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing is largely considered to be an unethical search engine optimization (SEO) technique, and Google is among those companies who believe it to be unacceptable.

If Google has accused you of keyword stuffing, here’s what to do:

• Using Google’s Webmaster Tools, use the Fetch as Google tool to check your website for content that may be visible to Google’s webcrawler but not to the human user.
• Check the text.

• o Make sure that all of the text on your website is the color that you want it to be, and not the color of your site’s background.
  o Look out for any text that’s hidden in any way, or unavailable due to certain types of CSS styling.
  o Look for text that’s repetitive, or text that doesn’t include any observable, valuable content.

• Find any hidden text? Unhide it. Make it discoverable by both search engines, and human users. If your content is to blame, make sure that it offers a sequentially observable value to regular, human users of your website.
• Re-check your entire site for strings of repetitive text, and remove any redundant data.
• Once your site has been sanitized using the above guidelines, request a reconsideration of your site from Google.

As we wrote earlier, we’re not here to judge, we’re here to help. Google does its best to keep its search results from displaying spammy content that offers little value to users who are searching for meaningful content. The best advice that we can give? Use that to your advantage – the more value you add to your content, and the less tricks you use to draw viewers to your site, the more likely it is that your site will earn a good value within PageRank, and the less likely it is that you’ll be penalized with a manual action.