Market Opportunities Unlimited (MOU) Blog

Google Changes Search Algorithm, SEO Firms to be Affected!

WebProNews is reporting some very significant changes to Google's search algorithm, that should give small websites and blogs with great content, some breathing space.

 

(WebProNews is a publication focusing on search, social media and eBusiness.) 

 

All this was revealed in a Skype interview that WebProNews had with Matt Cutts, head of Google's Webspam team (their chief search engineer), during SXSW on March 16.

 

Apparently Google is to change its search algorithm so that websites and blogs with great content, but whose owners don't do a lot of SEO, will be higher-ranked.

 

(SEO is the process of structuring websites so that they can rank higher in search engine results).

 

Google has apparently now realized that some of its search users are getting frustrated at the constant prominence of ad-based or e-commerce sites that are so well-optimized, that they often rank in the top 3 of search results.

 

(Users have traditionally gotten used to the fact that top-ranking sites provide them with the most relevant information, based on the keywords they include in their search queries...

 

...So when users can't find the information they need from these top 3 sites and still can't find the information within the first page of Google search results, they'll switch to other search engines like Bing and Mamma, where the sites in the top 3 positions are more relevant.

 

Google makes slight changes to its search algorithm at least monthly, but major changes as per the one mentioned above, are done yearly, with the latest such change being called a Panda update in March 2011.

 

These changes aim to give greater prominence to sites that are more relevant to users' search queries).

 

Since search engines love content that changes often, that is chock -full of relevant search keywords and filled with backlinks from authority and highly-ranked sites, SEO firms strategically use this fact to "mold" sites, so that these sites rank higher.

 

Unfortunately for a lot of smaller websites and blogs with great content, but with no or small SEO budgets, if their owners are not adept at SEO, then they will never rank in the top 4 or 5 of search results, much less in the top 3, for queries based on their site content.

 

So previous to this major algorithm change, these smaller sites would have been at a slight disadvantage to larger, highly-optimized sites with deep SEO budgets, despite producing superior content.

 

How Will These Changes Affect SEO firms?

Well, most SEO firms make money from providing back-linking services, article-writing services and enacting keyword-optimizing strategies that involve changes to sites' HTML or CSS code.

 

Many charge large clients tens of thousands of US dollars, monthly, for these services.

 

Since Google will be penalizing sites it deems to be creating unusually large numbers of backlinks and which have an abnormal keyword density, many of these SEO firms that use black hat SEO techniques to optimize sites, versus enabling organic or natural backlinks (white hat techniques), will be in problems.

 

So even though there is some concern among members of the SEO community re this new Google algorithm change, those firms using white hat SEO techniques  should have very little to worry about...

 

...They have so many "white hat" SEO tools at their disposal, that the revenue shortfall from this  change, should be minimal. 

 

Gillian

Sources Include

1) Article, "Keyword Density", via Wikipedia.org, accessed March 21,2012

 

2) White Hat SEO Definition, Webopedia.com, accessed March 21,2012

 

3) Search Engines - Bing.com, Mamma.com, accessed March 21,2012

 

4) Black Hat SEO Definition, Webopedia.com, accessed March 21,2012

 

5) Article, "Search Engine Optimization", via Wikipedia.org, accessed March 18,2012

 

6) Article, "Google Is Working On Making SEO Matter Less" by Chris Crum, WebProNews.com, March 16,2012

 

7) Matt Cutts  [Head of Google's Webspam team (their chief search engineer)] website, accessed March 16,2012

 

8) Article, "Google Updates Search Engine: What This Means for Your Business", by Gillian Campbell, Market Opportunities Unlimited (MOU) Blog, March 18,2011

Delicious Has New Owners, But Will Things be Different?

On April 27, Yahoo.com, the previous owners of social bookmarking site, Delicious.com (Del.icio.us), announced that the site now has new owners:

 

They are Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, the founders of YouTube, who sold YouTube to Google for $1.65 billion in 2006.

 

Delicious will become part of Chad and Steve's company - Avos, a 5-year-old Internet startup based in San Mateo, California, that claims it will help people navigate the torrent of information cascading from Internet services.

 

Yahoo, in an email to Delicious users, introduced the two entrepreneurs, whilst requesting that users transfer their bookmarks from the old Delicious platform to a new Avos platform, in a just a few clicks.

 

While some of my colleagues have been expressing apprehension re the new ownership...I welcome it.

 

Why?

 

Unfortunately Delicious has become "another" social bookmarking site - in a sea of "me too" social bookmarking sites that offer the same or similar features.

 

Very few have really tried to differentiate themselves to serve us as clients...who not only want to use the social bookmarking site to socialize, receive and/or report on local and world news as it happens, but who want to use it for its main purpose - social bookmarking for quality backlinks!

 

Later this week, I will inform you of one social bookmarking site that's doing just that and a lot more to differentiate itself from its peers: 

 

This social bookmarking pioneer is Blog Engage.

 

I'll tell you what Blog Engage is doing differently and why I think they represent the new face of social bookmarking.

 

Please stay tuned for this! 

 

==========

 

So, back to our original story...will things be different for Delicious, under new ownership?

 

I surely hope so...

 

Chad and Steve breathed life in social networking by allowing ordinary people like you and me to share personal videos with the world, whilst creating a new space for independent filmmakers to get noticed and hence, funded.

 

Hopefully, their bravado, ingenuity and smart business sense can be engaged to help Delicious be what it used to be before its copycats emerged and took over its market share - truly delicious to users - with fresh, new ideas to help us improve our page rank!

 

Their failure to do this, will unfortunately result in Delicious becoming overwhelmed by too much similarity with its peers, thus ensuring its quick descent into social bookmarking oblivion!

 

Gillian

 

Sources Include

 

1) Article, "Youtube founders set for 'Delicious' next act", the Associated Press via TriValleyCentral.com, May 2,2011

 

2) Article, "Delicious finds a new owner in YouTube founders", by Brad McCarty, The NextWeb.com, April 27,2011

 

3) Article, "Delicious Has New Owners: YouTube Founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen", by Audrey Watters, The ReadWriteWeb.com, April 27,2011

 

SEO: Top "Do Follow" Social Bookmarking Sites by Page Rank

(The top, "do follow" Social Bookmarking sites are constantly changing. Her's our list, updated December 15,2011).

 

"Do Follow" websites ensure that when you create a backlink on these sites, your page rank is attributed via the backlink created.

 

[Your site's page rank affects its visibility in search engine results. So, highly-ranked sites/pages will appear in the top three (3) search engine results, when a user searches for sites, based on certain keywords].

 

The same principle follows for social bookmarking sites:

 

Ideally, the more bookmarks you place on highly-ranked social boomarking sites that allow "do follow" links, the higher your page rank should be.

 

Some bookmarking sites, however, only facilitate "do follow" links of popular posts/bookmarks only, while others, like Mister-Wong, facilitate "do follow" links for those users who have signed up as paid users/members of the site.

 

Here is the list of the top, "Do follow" Social Bookmarking sites, by Page Rank and conditions for qualifying for "do follow" backlinks.

 

NB: The below social bookmarking sites have a page rank of 4 and above and should help greatly with your search engine optimization efforts.

 

This list will be updated, regularly...so please check this page often.

 

If you know of any other sites, please include the site name and link, when you click the comment link that's below this post, and we'll add them, upon investigation...thanks! :)

 

 

Top "Do Follow" Social Networking Sites By Page Rank

Page Rank 8-9
Site Name	Comments	Free "Do Follow"?
Twitter	Must have High Page Rank and SERP to qualify	✓
Digg	Click here for Do Follow linking instructions on Digg	✓
Technorati	Must be mentioned in Technorati Favs to qualify for Do Follow	✓
Slashdot	Must be user with good karma (participation) to qualify; Spammers' links assigned "No Follow"	✓
Reddit		Paid
Page Rank 6-7
Site Name	Comments	Free "Do Follow"?
Sphinn (now Marketing Land)	Internet Marketing discussions only	✓
Folkd		✓
Kwoff	Australian based	✓
DesignBump	Web Design-related links only	✓
Posterous		✓
A1 Webmarks	New user registration temporarily suspended	✓
Page Rank 4-5
Site Name	Comments	Free "Do Follow"?
We Heart Gossip	Celebrity gossip only	✓
linkaGoGo		✓
BlogEngage	For bloggers only; Do follow with paid Blog Engage RSS Membership	Paid

 

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

 

Please ensure that you link back to this post,("<a href= "http://www.moublog.com/2011/04/seo-top-dofollow-social-bookmarking-sites-by-page-rank.html">SEO: Top "Do Follow" Social Bookmarking Sites by Page Rank</a>"), in sharing or in creating your derivative works of this table and/or post.

 

Thank you!

===========================================================

 

Related articles, courtesy of Zemanta:

• List of 750+ Dofollow Blogs
• Five Google Ranking Tips

Gillian Campbell, 

Editor, Owner - Market Opportunities Unlimited (MOU) Blog