Sunday, February 9, 2014

Using The Disavow Tool

Link Building phenomenon shot sky high when in the initial stages of search engine proliferation on the Internet began. Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin & Larry Page created the algorithmic wonder that is Google. The information retrieval system simply fetches what you are seeking online or on the Internet. 

Since the phenomenal growth of search engine usage there is a constant effort to improve the information retrieval system. This has resulted in lot of updates, additions and changes in the evolutionary algorithms that are used for indexing and ranking by Google.  This very evolutionary impact has unnerved lot of webmasters or seo experts who are actually the people behind with an important role to play in the future of search practices on the Internet. The frequent updates have baffled many webmasters and have critically challenged their optimization skills time and time again. With every change the search engines force compliance to their guidelines some of which are penny pricking.    

The evolution of search engine began from Brin's data mining which eventually lead to Google. The earlier algorithm relied heavily on keywords on page as well as external links pointing to the site. Both factors created a revolution and are still relevant albeit diluted. The search engine look for greater signals now whence indexing and ranking websites and blogs as response to the user query or the search term.  The complexity of the metrics of this highly evolved system in recent times has made it difficult for many webmasters to overcome.   

The heavily relied upon link building campaigns have now become more difficult with links being classified by search engines as bad, weak, good and strong. A greater understanding of the web has been called to picture. The search engines since inception have created an industry around them with link building being the most popular. It takes little to realize that things will not always remain the same hence the industry has to follow the changing dynamics.  Webmasters with shallow knowledge base will go down the history lane. 

Inadvertently search engine optimization will always rely on external link building untill unless the search engines systems take over the ranking game totally and make organic search sterile.  The smart operators realize very well the role web masters play in popularity of their search engines. Those who do not will linger behind for every and keep their search offerings to themselves however good.      

Unlike earlier times link evaluation has become more critical and a bad link creation can pull your site down on the SERP on primary term. This means developing skills to evaluate the link building exercise as well as to evaluate the platform.  The number game has some importance left still but an equatable platform has been created for those who cannot indulge in massive link building campaigns like the big firms.

It is not only the link wheel or the keyword profile that counts the source counts as well. Association with relevant, unique content and editorial scrutiny is a must for a link to gain juice - as referred in seo parley.  

Sensible quality link building is the need of the hour. This does not mean all papers should have scholarly  impact. People are searching the Net for basic information relevant on day to day basis to quench their information need. A scholarly paper has less importance for average searcher who is more on the Net for curiosity sake "Net Gossip" as I call it.

Hence large link building campaigns have resulted in trash which after the release of Panda and Penguin have become internecine. The bad link profile earlier innocuous has now become short of auto immunity disease. Therefore it has become necessary to get rid of as many bad links as possible. In order to assist the webmasters Google has introduced the Disvow Tool.    

Using the Disavow tool webmasters or website owners can remove unwanted back links that are pulling their site down on SERPs.  For this purpose the links that have to be removed have to be uploaded is a text file to the disavow tool online. Removing bad links will also mean removal of oft repeated anchor texts which invite Google penalty as well.

As Matt Cutts the Google spokesperson says the removal has to be cautiously done after efforts to remove them manually has failed.  Judging a link will be the next part of the story...bye for now...     

Search Engine Optimization a shifting paradigm

Many of the sites with aggressive promotion or link building have taken a heavy toll on the serps. This has happened after the roll out of Panda Filter and Penguin algorithmic changes.  You may be surprised by the delay of my entries since the last one was on May 2012.

Well some of my sites experienced negative changes  while a couple with duplicate contents unknown to me suffered very badly. It is obvious that sites that have been hit have been aggressively promoted other than my own activities. 

The Aftermath

Clients 

Rule One: Of seo has emerged for client. Get one who does not have any idea of seo... but service them sincerely. 

Rule Two: Interfering clients and those with half backed knowledge of seo do not last long. They keeping moving from one aggressive link builder to another till the domain is exhausted and put out by the search engines for ever.     

Link Building

Rule Three: Rely very less on paid links. Go for topically relevant paid links only if strong referral generation is achieved.

Rule Four: Relevancy cannot be sacrificed. Search Engines are being influenced by many other mark ups and feeders. Hence be careful what you put on Google places, plus, classifieds etc.  

Rule Five: Try to get natural back links with unique informative content on board. This applies to internal or resource pages as well.

Rule Six: Get back links from sources with acclaimed editorial scrutiny. This means writing expert contents and staying away from quickfire postings on blogs, forums and resorting to minimal submissions elsewhere. 

Rule Seven: Number of back links count but those with approval ratings as mentioned above. Thresholds have to be kept in mind.Example one good article = ten bad articles.

Rule Eight: Keep searching for good emerging platforms. 

Rule Nine: Involve Social Media. 

Rule Ten:A good back link platform has a good page rank, relevant to the topic of your website, has less ads properly placed. Less number of links per page, all relevant links in the category. Submissions/publications go through editorial scrutiny. Certainly not made for unwarranted revenue generations. Use your experience to make out more about a good platform and inform me kindly. 

Rule eleven: Aim at long tailed/ secondary search terms for reaching the primary goal.  

On Page Optimization 


Rule Twelve: Begins with unique site contents. Sites with blemish in contents never reach anywhere on serps.

Rule Thirteen: Accurate content creation is a must for a successful websites. The Content Creation is important for achieving results on targeted terms.  

Rule Fourteen: User Friendly Architecture. All important information should be easily found from anywhere on site.  

Rule Fifteen: Use robot text file properly or add directions in meta for search engine to follow and index the page or avoid it.  

Rule Sixteen: Page Download Speed: Does the site load happily for you ..well that is the landmark.

Rule Seventeen: For Speed:  Reduce Http: requests, define images, optimize images, use server side includes,  keep the page length optimum.In all these matters consult an experienced web designer.

Rule Eighteen: Unique Title/Meta Desc for every page this is a must.

Rule Nineteen: Try Meta Data on home page that describes the ownership/service etc.

Rule Twenty: Optimize alt text.

Rule Twenty One: Place your internal links right. More useful on top.

Rule Twenty Two: Place ads according to SE guidelines. .

Rule Twenty Three: Properly Format text and make them easily readable.

Rule Twenty Four: Minimize Text Descriptive, do not use H1 tags for promotional purpose it should describe the page as well. Avoid bold, underline and tags etc. 

Rule Twenty Five: Keep keyword density 3 to 4 percent. Use keywords in contents natural or else avoid them.Write to describe the offerings and not for search engines. You contents should make the targeting of chosen search terms possible. 

Rule Twenty Six: Work up on LSI.

Rule Twenty Seven: Resort to Internal Linking if required.

There is more to come in time to come...keep on hanging