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The Ultimate Guide to Multilingual and Multiregional SEO

May 7, 2013 at 11:37am ET by John E Lincoln

When you begin to get into multilingual and multiregional SEO, you know that you have taken a step forward as an SEO expert. Why? Well, because you are probably dealing with a large, complex site that demands the expertise of someone who knows what they are talking about. If you are dealing in multilingual or multinational SEO, then you are managing a complex website strategy that serves multiple locations and languages -- not just one. Lucky for you, most everything you need to know about multilingual and multiregional SEO is listed in this post. So, even if you are a first-timer, you now [...]

The Hitchhiker’s Guide To Internal Linking Strategy

May 7, 2013 at 9:24am ET by Erin Everhart

It’s not the first thing you think of when you hear "link building." It’s definitely not the sexiest aspect of link building. But, I'd argue it’s among the most important components of a solid link building strategy. That’s right, folks: today we’re going to chat about internal linking. Cue the communal groan. It's okay! I'm not going to talk about anchor text. Instead, we'll dive into how to set up a logical internal linking strategy, as well as some of the more technical aspects to keep in mind when it comes to your internal linking. Why An Internal Linking Strategy Impor [...]

Study: Many Searchers Choose Google Over Bing Even When Google’s Name Is On Bing’s Results

Apr 15, 2013 at 1:24pm ET by Amy Gesenhues

In a recent study by SurveyMonkey examining SEO assumptions, respondents were given two search result pages, one with a page header labeled "Google" and the other with a page header labeled "Bing," and asked which page of results they preferred. Even when the page header labels were swapped, more users preferred the Google search results. Of 641 survey respondents, 379 participants received a survey asking which of two search result pages they preferred. One page of results for the term "file taxes" included true Google results and the other page included true Bing results. The Google page [...]

Bing Offers Recommendations for SEO-Friendly AJAX: Suggests HTML5 pushState

Mar 25, 2013 at 10:12pm ET by Vanessa Fox

Bing has announced support for HTML5 pushState as a way to implement AJAX on a site in a way that enables Bing to crawl and index the URLs and content. As Google has supported this implementation since early 2012, site owners finally have an AJAX option that can be crawled and indexed by both major search engines in the United States. (The ease of implementing is another story altogether.) Bing tells me that while they still support the #! version of crawlable AJAX originally launched by Google, they're finding it's not implemented correctly much of the time, and they strongly recommend pus [...]

Your Top 5 Questions About The New gTLD Domain Extensions, Answered

Feb 12, 2013 at 9:01am ET by Kathy Nielsen

Do you know what new gTLDs are? That’s the question I posed to a room filled with marketers and SEO experts at a recent SMX event. Only three of around 40 people in the room raised their hands. Although the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has been talking about new gTLDs for years, it’s clear that there are a number of Internet-savvy professionals that still have questions about what they are, and how they will affect them. With the potential to change search and marketing as we know it, understanding new gTLDs will be vital in 2013 and beyond. What Are [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Enterprise SEO | SEO: Domain Names & URLs

Verisign Blames Google For Drop In Domain Registration & Renewal Rates

Oct 26, 2012 at 3:09pm ET by Matt McGee

The number of new domains being registered, and existing domains being renewed, is slowing down and Verisign -- the company that operates the .com and .net domain registries -- says Google is a main reason why. On the company's Q3 earnings call yesterday, Verisign shared the following data related to domain registrations and renewals: total .com and .net domain registrations grew only one percent in Q3, below the company's previous guidance to investors registrations of .net domains were down one percent from a year ago the domain renewal rate was 72.3 percent in Q3, down from 72.9 p [...]

Google Wants Love & Amazon Seeking Joy In New Top Level Domain Names

Jun 13, 2012 at 3:51pm ET by Chris Sherman

Today ICANN, the organization responsible for administering "top level" domain names on the internet (e.g. dot-com, dot-org, etc) pulled aside the curtain and gave the world a glimpse of proposed new "dot-anything" names, including both the desired domain names and the organization wanting them them. It's an interesting, and often bizarre collection of names and words. Google was among the most active bidders, submitting more than 100 applications for new "generic top level domains" (gTLDs, as ICANN refers to them). Not surprisingly, many bids were for Google's own trademarked terms, inclu [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | SEO: Domain Names & URLs

Google & Bing (Still) Handle Underscores & Dashes Differently

Aug 17, 2011 at 2:16pm ET by Matt McGee

It's one of the longest-running SEO questions around, and still something many of us get asked by clients, readers, conference attendees and so forth: Should we use dashes or underscores in our URLs? Google re-opened the discussion recently with a new YouTube video that highlights how Google currently handles dashes and underscores, and also reminds us that Google and Bing differ on this bit of SEO minutiae. Many of you will recall this was a pretty hot topic a few years ago when Google originally announced that both dashes and underscores both served as separators, and then backtrac [...]

What The New ICANN Domain Names Mean For Google Rankings & SEO: Nothing

Jun 20, 2011 at 12:50pm ET by Danny Sullivan

ICANN - the organization in charge of internet domain names - has approved plans that may create hundreds or thousands of new "top level domain names." I've seen some reports already that this will help with search engine optimization. It won't. It'll just enrich some new TLD owners at the expense of brands who will now spend even more to fight cybersquatting. The New Domain Names Are Coming ICANN is the Internet Corporation For Assigned Names And Numbers, and it oversees the world's domain name system. In its wisdom, it decided yesterday that the 22 generic top level domain (gTLD) names w [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | SEO: Domain Names & URLs | Top News

Twitter Expanding URL Shortener To Long URLs In Tweets

Jun 8, 2010 at 7:07pm ET by Barry Schwartz

The Twitter Blog announced they are now testing expanding their Twitter based URL shortening service, t.co on URLs that are long. The main difference here is that they will show a portion of the real URL, but pass it through t.co for security reasons. Twitter explained: When this is rolled out more broadly to users this summer, all links shared on Twitter.com or third-party apps will be wrapped with a t.co URL. A really long link such as http://www.amazon.com/Delivering-Happiness-Profits-Passion-Purpose/dp/0446563048 might be wrapped as http://t.co/DRo0trj for display on SMS, but it could [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | SEO: Domain Names & URLs | Twitter

Canonical Tag 2.0: Google To Add Cross Domain Support

Oct 5, 2009 at 1:10pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Many site owners have wanted the recently introduced canonical tag to work across domains. Now their wishes will come true. Google announced cross-domain support will come by the end of the year. The news came out during the Duplicate Content: The Search Engines Edition session at SMX East conference today. Google made the announcement in response to site owners again voicing that they wanted such a solution. The existing canonical tag is only supported by Google, at the moment. Yahoo and Bing both said they're studying support but think its likely they'll add support by the end of the y [...]

Google Says Domain Registrations Don’t Affect SEO, Or Do They?

Sep 9, 2009 at 2:01pm ET by Matt McGee

Over at Search Engine Roundtable today, Barry Schwartz writes about the latest comments from Google about domain registration and its impact on SEO/search rankings. In this case, it's Google employee John Mueller suggesting in a Google Webmaster Help forum thread that Google doesn't look at the length of a domain registration: A bunch of TLDs do not publish expiration dates -- how could we compare domains with expiration dates to domains without that information? It seems that would be pretty hard, and likely not worth the trouble. Even when we do have that data, what would it tell us when co [...]

A Case Study In Changing URL Structure

Jun 5, 2009 at 12:41pm ET by Bruce Keener

In one of the SMX videos available in the member's area of Search Engine Land, several panelists noted that a shorter URL is more likely to be clicked in the SERPs than a longer one. That is, if you have a URL like http://www.yourdomain.com/2009/03/19/article-title/ it is less likely to get clicked than the following one, which is the same but without the dates: http://www.yourdomain.com/article-title/ As I researched this, I noticed that Search Engine Land does not use dates in its URLs, nor does Google spam expert Matt Cutts, nor does Aaron Wall. Since I have been usi [...]

URL Shorteners: Which Shortening Service Should You Use?

Apr 4, 2009 at 12:20am ET by Danny Sullivan

URL shortening services are experiencing a renaissance in the age of Twitter. When every character counts, these services reduce long URLs to tiny forms. But which is the best to use, when so many are offered and new ones seem to appear each day? Below, issues to consider and a breakdown of popular services, including recommendations and services to avoid (the new DiggBar being one of these). The URL Shortener Mega Chart NOTE (March 2011): I'm hoping to update this article in the near future. Much of the basics are still valid. But you should also see Google URL Shortener Opened To T [...]

Google’s Matt Cutts On Keywords In The URL

Mar 18, 2009 at 9:34am ET by Barry Schwartz

Google's Matt Cutts posted a recent video answering a question about the position of the keywords in the URL. The question asked, does the order of the words in the URL make an impact on one's ranking at Google? Matt Cutts said one should not obsess about the order of the words but he said keywords in the URL "does help a little bit." I asked Matt if this means we should go back to our existing sites and change URLs without keywords to have keywords in them. Matt told me, "If you've got an existing solution that works for you, it's not really worth going back to change your urls. It may [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | SEO: Domain Names & URLs

How Many 301s Are Too Many?

Mar 17, 2009 at 12:18am ET by Matt McGee

Google's Matt Cutts talks about multiple domains and 301 redirects in one of the recent videos uploaded to the Google Webmaster Central YouTube channel. The question essentially asks if Google views the redirecting of many domains toward one domain as a sign of suspicious activity. Matt's answer is that there are many companies -- Google included -- that own a lot of domains and have valid reasons to point them at the main domain. The additional domains might be typos or misspellings, or extra domains that are related to a company's brand. But he also says that 301s can be abused as a s [...]

Act Like A Cybersquatter To Capture Your Long-Tail Brand Traffic!

Mar 12, 2009 at 10:00am ET by Chris Silver Smith

If your company has a major brand, domainers who exploit cybersquatting have likely already targeted your business. Their practices are often looked down upon, but if their dark powers weren't effective, they wouldn't make money. Still, you can learn the same black magic and turn it into good and profit for your company. In this down economy, don't ignore the shady domainers—instead, strike back by reducing what they're costing you and increasing your profits! Read on and I'll explain how. I don't want to stray too far off into a tangent, but terminology has been rapidly shifting about, [...]

Two Little Things That Make A Big Difference

Nov 21, 2008 at 11:52am ET by Lance Loveday

A lot of the focus in the search marketing world—both paid and organic—is on the technical and quantitative side. And that’s understandable, given the technical background of many of the practitioners and the perception that those elements are relatively easy to control. But many search marketers do themselves and their clients a disservice by not taking a more balanced view, arming themselves with the tools that a solid understanding of the search user experience (SUE) can provide. With all the talk about how to achieve high rankings, the right growth curve to target for inbound li [...]

Google & Microsoft Share Advice For Webmasters, SEOs

Oct 16, 2008 at 3:07pm ET by Matt McGee

The ever-helpful teams writing for Google's Webmaster Central blog and Microsoft Live Search's Webmaster Center blog have published a variety of videos and presentations this week in the name of helping webmasters and search engine optimizers. On the Live Search blog, Nathan Buggia recaps his SMX East presentation on Webmaster Guidelines, shares the slides from his talk, and expands on topics such as paid links, cloaking, and website penalties. He shares some detail on how Live Search handles paid links: Essentially we look at each link individually to understand the degree to which the si [...]

Making Sense Of Google’s New Dynamic URL Recommendations

Oct 2, 2008 at 3:53pm ET by Stephan Spencer

Google's recent blog post recommending that webmasters avoid rewriting dynamic URLs caused a minor furor in the search marketing industry. Reactions ranged from nervous fears that sites with rewritten URLs should suddenly reverse out their extensive work, all the way to amazement and even anger that Google should recommend a halt to something that many consider a best practice. As the president of a company which provides URL rewriting as one of a suite of natural search optimizations we do for many dynamic sites (via our GravityStream solution), I believe I have a unique perspective on [...]

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