Singapore Web Hosting Blog

just noticed an interesting thing, google sometimes gives multiple listings to the 1st ranking web site.

for example, one of my other web sites, About Video Editing, is ranking pretty well in Google. if you google “video editing hardware”, you may see this result:

what interests me is, the additional listings are with short, neat, extreamely accurate title, linking to most important inner pages of the site.

the title or description is not retreived from title or description tag of that linked page, for example, the listings of “hardware guide” and “software reviews“, more like retrieved from anchor text on home page.

it’s not all retrieved from anchor text on home page either, for example, the listing to “top 10 digital video capture cards“, again, it’s different from title tags of the page also.

then how does google choose which pages to list, and what descriptions to use? i’ve to say, both selections are accurate and smart, almost looks like it’s done by human editors. but i guess that’s my imagination only as google always prefer automation. it’s impossible for them to mannually edit results, there are way too many.

the bottom line is, google bot/algo understands the meaning of web pages to certain degree, otherwise the additional listings are hard to believe.

so again, do not try to fool them.

now listen, you will read the best, most powerful, most valuable SEO tip you can ever find anywhere in the world. it has been working for millions of web sites for years. and it will continue working forever, as long as web sites and search engines are still with us.

come closer, closer, it’s priceless.

do NOT try to fool search engines. do NOT even think of it.

take it seriously. it’s truly the best SEO technique you can have.

the reason that i have to share this point with my visitors right now is that, it might be too late when you realised how important it is.

for years, i’ve been following the “never fool search engines” rule, and will do the same in future. it’s not because i’m a good guy, although i really am :-). it’s because fooling search engines will get you into trouble, sooner or later.

there’re tons of web sites using blackhat SEO techniques or dirty tricks, many of them have been doing well in rankings. and that’s exactly why many new web marketers would want to try these blackhat tricks. hidden text, cloaking, doorway pages, keyword stuffing, etc.

but, do NOT do these blackhat SEO tricks just because some web sites escape from the radar. you will be better off using whitehat techniques, or no special SEO techniques at all.

search engines are tightening up their algos to identify and kick out spammy web sites. from what i can see in last few updates of both Goolgle and Yahoo in the past year, one thing in common of sites dropped in ranking, or completely booted out, is many of them use techniques in doubts.

some webmasters may not realize they’re using techniques that search engines do not like, some may not agree with me that the techniques they use can be a problem.

for example, looks like Google started booting out many directory web sites from 28 July. some are scrapping sites with no real content, some are good, human edited directories. think about it, what’s wrong with building a human reviewed and edited industry directory? nothing, if you do not consider search engines.

if you do want traffic from Google, you have to be very careful while building directories: manually built static pages or script generated page? what sites to be listed? require a linking back? paid listing or free for everyone? any other contents besides the listings? use ODP feeds? use re-direct script to count outgoing traffic? etc.

count all these factors, and most probably more factors, if your directory looks spammy to Google, your gone.

conclusion: keep away from any blackhat SEO techniques, keep away from even SEO techniques in grey area, whenever in doubt, do not use it.

best way is, do not think of SEO at all.

google PR, or PageRank, updated a few hours ago.

for those who’s wondering what is PR, it stands for PageRank. it’s the way that google measures how popular or important a web site is. it’s determined by how many other web sites linking to the site in question and how important the incoming link is.

note, PageRank is not the rank of a page, the name came from founder of Google.

all my sites increased one notch in this PR update. got 3 PR6. sweet.

unfortunately PR gain does not translate to higher search engine ranking directly. of course, PR has always been one of the most important factors to rank web pages, however the weight given to PR seems dropped a lot recently.

the original logic was, the more sites linking to you, your site must be more important and useful, otherwise, why those sites link to you? the problem is, if you have a large network of web sites, PR can be increased easily by linking to your own sites, it does not mean you have a useful informational web site at all. and if you have a PR8 web site, you can get a few PR7 without any effort, just link to the new site from PR8 page, but it does not mean you have a relevant web site.

PR worked perfectly as most important element in Google’s algorithm for a few years. now with more and more spamers trying to fool Google, they have put in much more things to consider. therefore Google PR is becoming less and less important.

having said that, it’s great to see longer green bar in Google toolbar, it indicates hardworks i’ve done.