SEO Mentor

I know you have heard of the Google Sandbox and have probably even had an experience of having one of your sites in it. But some have been asking what it is and why it exists. Ann Smarty of SeoSmarty.com recently wrote an article about this subject of the Google Sandbox at SearchEngineJournal.com. Ann is one of my favorite bloggers when it comes to basic and simple SEO, when she writes something you know it is top notch. So what does Ann have to say about the Google Sandbox:

“Well, let’s first start with the theories behind the term “Google Sandbox”. It appears webmasters understand it as two a bit different phenomena:

1. “Google Sandbox” is supposed to mean a period of time before a newly launched website is properly indexed and ranked. They say, Google deliberately holds back indexing new sites before they “earn its trust”.
2. “Google Sandbox” can also mean a sudden drop of SERPs that happens about 3 months after a site was launched.”

Here are some other great articles about the subject:

Will Mass Directory Submission Get Your Website Into Google Sandbox?

There is an SEO theory which suggests that mass directory submission will get your website into Google sandbox. The basic idea is if your new website has too many links all of a sudden, usually due to mass submission in a short time, …

What is the Google Sandbox?

The Google Sandbox is an unconfirmed theory about how the top search engine indexes web sites which were recently created. If it truly exists, the Sandbox puts new web site operators at a disadvantage in Google search results. …

How to Avoid the Google Sandbox

There is still a lot of discussion going on wether the Google Sandbox exists or not. Some say it exists some say it doesn’t. Just pretend it does exist, how is it possible that some SEO’s don’t get hit by the sandbox filter? …

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So if you have been reading any news withing the Online Marketing, Social Network Marketing, or SEO industries then you have come across “Google Friend Connect“. Here is a little of what Google says Friend Connect is:

Google Friend Connect lets you grow traffic by easily adding social features to your website. With just a few snippets of code, you get more people engaging more deeply with your site.

Conrad Salvador of Directoryone.com says, “A preview release of Google Friend Connect was launched just last night, which placed you on a waiting list for the services. Friend Connect claims to offer something that the others do not, which is the ability to turn any website into a social network. Website owners will be able to generate traffic by enabling their site to provide social features for all its visitors.” He also references this YouTube video below explaining how it all works:

So here is what you need to do if you are at all interested in Google Friend Connect:

• Watch the video above
• Sign-up for the preview release
• Continue to learn more about how it can help you and WAIT

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So a very funny post by “The Tutor” of GoogleTutor.com really go me thinking about how addicting Search Engine Optimization can be and especially how addicting Google can be.

The post “63 signs you’re addicted to Google and the Church of Search” has signs that will either make you laugh or make you wish you never read them (reminding you that you are a loser). Here are some of my favorites:

• You have a Tivo wish list keyword search for “Google”
• You know what Matt Cutts dressed as for Halloween last year
• You know the last name of Matt, Eric, Sergey, Larry, Marissa, and Vanessa off the top of your head
• You think having Vanessa in that last item is stupid because everyone knows she left Google a while back
• You have more than 10 SEO/SEM blogs in your feed reader
• You’ve lost sleep over Toolbar PR
• You’ve said ‘just Google it‘ (grr…)
• You use Google as spell check
• You use Google to do math
• You know the full name of the person Matt Cutts spoke out to help in a court case
• You check the Google holiday logo, every holiday
• You use Google 411 instead of 411
• You know that there is more than one type of PageRank

Remember there are 63 signs at the original post. If you can answer any of these questions above, don’t worry you will be alright

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This SEO Podcast I talk about some of the following news items:

Google Joins Venture for Mobile WiMAX Next-Gen Wireless Internet Access

Yahoo and McAfee Offer a Safer Way to Search with SearchScan

 Yahoo Shares Tumble After Microsoft Pulls Bid

The SEO Tip for this podcast I talked about Loren Baker‘s post about Subdomains or Subfolders : Which are Better for SEO?!

“Subdomains or Subfolders? What’s better for a blog/forum/etc: a subdomain (eg. http://jobs.searchenginejournal.com/) or subfolder (eg. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/)?

Subdomains and subfolders both have their advantages, especially when setting up blogs.

For blogs, I prefer a subfolder (http://www.seomoz.org/blog/) because the link juice which is sent to that blog is going to be naturally distributed to that main domain, and other subfolders under the domain.”

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Here it is my third SEO Mentor Podcast and this one is packed full of the latest SEO News and Tips. Here are some of the things that I talk about:

SEO News:

• Google Stock Up 18% to $533
• Yahoo Earnings : Q1 Increases Beat Market Expectations of Revenues that reached $1.818 billion for the first quarter of 2008
• Google Enters Utility Business : Invests in Solar Power Plant Technology
• Google Rolls Out Mobile Image Ads
• Microsoft Acquires Farecast : Travel Search & Airline Fare Search Engine
• Google Applies Copyright-ID Technology to Fight Child Porn Online

I also talked about “The SEO Baby Contest” and my last Jason Gambert post and added some great SEO tips with the help from Richard Burckhardt from Searchenginejournal.com. Here are some of those tips I thought were crucial to your search engine optimization:

(more…)

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I recently had a question from Mike Florence about Universal Search and what it is. Blended Search or Universal Search, whichever you call it; both are changing the online world. Google was the main pioneer of Universal Search and of course all the Major Search Engines (of course I mean Yahoo & MSN) soon followed.

Here are a couple things changed in the search engines when Universal Search came to fruition:

Digital Content syndicated in search results such as -

• Video Content
• Images
• Press Releases
• Articles
• News
• Local Listings
• Books
• etc.

Let me show you a quick image example of what I am trying to explain in words:

As you can see from the screen shot above, images and video are part of the organic search results. I don’t see any better explanation of blended search than the above image.

So how is Universal Search effecting the SEO and Search Engine Marketing industry? Well think of it this way, at one point you were competing with 10 other results to be on the first page of Google. Now with universal search, if there is a news and video result within the search query your website now only has a 80% chance to be listed on the first page of the search engine.

So you might be asking, “What does this mean for me and my business?” Well no need to worry. IF!!! You are taking advantage of video, press releases, image optimization, news, etc. Sites such as the well know YouTube.com, PRWeb.com, and Flickr.com just to name a few will help you take advantage of Universal Search.

Now you also need to know about the latest Social Media, also called Social Marketing, Social Networking. Search engines are picking up content from Social Networking sites such as Hubpages.com, Zimbio.com, and Gather.com, and these are just a few examples. Stay tuned for more about Social Marketing in future posts and podcasts.

Hope this answers your question Mike!

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