Google algorithm is not cast in concrete. Some of you might have had an anxiety attack in April and May. You might have lost a lot of traffic on some of your websites. Panic-stricken, you may have thought that Google had blacklisted your website… Then you met Google MayDay!

What is Google MayDay?

Google MayDay is the name given to the new important modification of Google algorithm. This modification is not a change in the crawling or indexing system; its aim is to better rank websites with relevant content and penalize abusive practice. The modification is said to concern long tail queries. It affects voluminous websites with lots of pages, having few incoming links. These pages have low traffic and may not have unique content, contrary to e-commerce websites.

According to several webmasters, they have felt the effects of this new algorithm as from April, a few days after Google Dance (Read Article: What is Google Dance ?). Between 10% and 15% of traffic has been lost since then.

What are long tail queries?

They are specific queries using several words. They attract few visitors, but once combined, these queries generate the major part of your traffic.

How to optimize a website after this modification?

Choose a few long tail expressions and run a competitor analysis to know who is positioned first. Check why Google gives more relevance to a competitor’s page rather than yours, check your links and anchor texts aiming these websites. Having the keywords of your query on your website is not enough. Instead, you must have relevant content matching the query. As a consequence, use synonyms, write on similar topics, and change the structure of your keywords. Try not to repeat yourself and be relevant.

Here is a video in English explaining Google MayDay:

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What is Google Dance about?

Google Dance is the name given to GoogleBot dance. Let’s explain it. Google Dance is the name given to the period on which robots are crawling websites.

GoogleBot browses on the Web, looking for incoming links to recalculate the PageRank. Remember that PageRank bases on the principle of democracy on the Web. Each incoming link to your website equals 1 vote. We can thus say that Google Dance is the polling day. In order to better understand this calculation, I suggest you to read an article entitled “Explanations on PageRank algorithm” written by my colleague Marielle Chapuis.

What are the impacts of Google Dance and PageRank in 2010

In 2010, PageRank is more a selling tool than a SEO tool. It is just a calculation among 200 other Google algorithms. Thus, it is no longer a useful tool to SEO but it tends to become a selling point and it reinforces credibility. I suggest you to read my article: “PageRank is useless” in order to better understand changes in the indexing algorithm in search engines.

With a high PageRank, reinforcing Link Building or placing an ad on your website will be easier as people look for links that can optimize they web positioning. And a website with a PageRank of  8/10 says a lot on its seriousness compared to a website with a PageRank of 1/10. So, as I told you, PageRank brings credibility to Internet users but doesn’t have much impact on search engines.

How often Google Dance occurs?

Google Dance occurs 3 to 4 times a year. Given the rapid growth of the Web, it occurs every 3 months. Google crawls the web on the first week and results on SEO can be seen from the second or third week of the month. During the last Google Dance in April 2010, Google introduced a few changes in its algorithm. These changes led to serious repercussions on websites’ traffic. We deal with this topic in: “Google MayDay – fatal traffic loss”.

We currently are experiencing Google Dance. It has started on the first week of July 2010 and soon, you might see a change in the PageRank for some of your web pages.

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As you may have seen on an EGOMEDIA tweet, Google is to compete with Apple’s iTunes. Rumours have been confirmed: Google Music is said to have opened negotiations with record labels. Google Music should be available on Google’s android phones via the Simplify Media application.

As you may know, the number 1 search engine doesn’t want to content itself with music industry. It foresees the launch of Google Music simultaneously with Google TV, for next fall. Now it will be possible to listen and record TV shows and web shows through Google TV, using Google’s android OS 2.1 and its Chrome browser. You will be able to plug your TV via Wifi or an Ethernet connexion. Electric current goes through the Ethernet cable thanks to Ethernet technology. Imagine a future in which we would no longer need to call an electrician for adding receptacles in some rooms. We could plug in our TV wherever we want unless we have an Ethernet cable. This is the same for VOIP phones. To implement Google TV, the firm Mountain View has called for Sony, Logitech and Intel.

Here is a video in English introducing Google TV:

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What is better than a catchy title to grab your attention? According to a survey published on Journaldunet.com with Matt Cutts, in charge of SEO for at Google, people pay too much importance to their Pagerank and seem to forget the other 200 algorithms.

Over the past few years, more and more people have specialized in web positioning, but they tend to forget that the Internet is a real race! What worked yesterday might not be valid tomorrow. Be careful of those who only swear by the importance of your Pagerank. Today, several factors affect your positioning such as your keywords, the tags you use, the use of CSS style sheets, the fastness of your pages, their conformity with W3C, the freshness of the text and last but not least the geolocation.

EGOMEDIA team is here to help you! We design, write and position your website from start to finish. In the Web world, you can’t make a mistake. By the time you have learnt information on SEO techniques, you have lost thousands of dollars in sales.

Loading of pages in Google algorithm

Newly taken into account in Google’s calculation for positioning, the loading of pages has become a key factor. Both visitors and search engines don’t want to wait for hours to load a page. They want it to be fast. This change has affected about 1% of requests, which represents 1 million websites.

Geolocation

Displaying the right content to the right person has become essential to search engines. There is an increasing number of websites and screening has become necessary. Many applications on the iPhone use geolocation. Indeed, when you walk in the street, you want to know that the shop or restaurant you are looking for is close to where you are. Actually, it is the same for the Internet. You don’t want to find a shop in China prior to a shop in Canada. Moreover, people have got used to typing several keywords when searching, like “construction Montreal” or “Festival Montreal 2010”. Consequently, it is important to target niche markets. Not only it will be easier for you to position yourself on the web but also costs per click (CPC) will be less expensive than a unique bilingual keyword such as “construction” or “festival”.

The freshness of the text, news on demand

When the rumour started about Michael Jackson’s death, people who typed “Michael Jackson” on Google were not looking for information on his discography but the wanted to check if the rumour was right. That’s why Google watch reliable news websites and social media like Twitter. By optimizing your website through applications like “Share This”, people will be able to relay your articles and they will quote you on social media websites. Isn’t it a good viral campaign? And don’t forget to use the “hashtags” on Twitter, like: #michaeljackson, #mj, #kingofpop.

The end of the keyword meta tag

Do we have to believe everything Google says? I don’t think so. Maybe this tag was abandoned by Google but what do other search engines think? Don’t forget, we may do it well for everyone while we are at it.

Keyword positioning

The repetition of keywords as well as the use of relevant titles in pages are important factors to consider for a good positioning. If your keywords are not redundant enough, Google will say that your website is irrelevant and too vague. On the contrary, if your keywords are too redundant, Google will consider that you are repeating yourself. An average of 2% to 6% is a good ratio for keyword density.

Pages connate to keywords

Pages with similar results can be found with the use of Google Squared technology. This means that Internet users will be able to find your website after a connate search. For example, if you type “Barack Obama”, results on other presidents might appear.

Sitemap

It has now become possible to link images and videos to each url in sitemaps in order to optimize results.

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