How To Rank Number One On Google

Several developments over the last year or two suggest that the usefulness and applicability of the general search engines such as Google, or Bing, is decreasing.

First, there’s been a constant battle for the mega search engines to keep spam sites, or sites with otherwise zero value out of the search engine results. Judge for yourself how successful they’ve been. Often it depends on the search terms entered. Many people feel frustrated at how long it takes to find just the right thing, one is looking for.

This battle, no matter how successful, tends to result in unintentional damage to some sites and unintentional gains for other sites. For example, large megasites like Wikipedia, often come up as the first listing for whatever one searches about. Do you always want that? Probably not. Do you really want to be sent to sites that charge $99 to read a simple 10 page journal article? Probably not, but the large corporations tend to show up first for many searches.

The flip side is that many really excellent content sites don’t show up, thus causing the searcher to miss out on a lot of valuable, and usually free content.

Many people are getting frustrated at the difficulty in finding what they need quickly.

The second major factor has to do with Google, long at the pinnacle of the search engine heap, instituting personalized search, without, it seems, allowing opting out. Personalized search means that the results you see will be affected by what you have searched for before, and even, where you have visited before.

This means that two people using exactly the same keywords, will end up getting different results. Which isn’t a big problem. It might actually be good.

However, based on initial early comments and discussions, the results are actually much less useful than before. If, for example, you’ve spent a lot of time buying a game console for your child over the last year, visiting review sites, and doing many searches on the topic, you may be in trouble if you want to find something totally unrelated.

You will likely (at least at present, according to reports) end up seeing game console results even if you search for information on cars. Apparently the search engine is not quite able to figure out that you are NO LONGER interested in game consoles, and you are not looking for something else.

This is a problem, by the way, that continues to exist in online giant, Amazon’s, search system. It is stuck in the past.

The net result is search results that become less and less useful for almost everyone. The Hybrid Solution For Search

The hybrid solution for search is actually a step forwards by taking a step backwards. A hybrid search engine is a combination of two things:

* human selected web sites (similar to the old “directories concept”.

* a search engine system that searches only from among human selected websites.

Hybrids, because they require a fair amount of human resources to build, will only work better than general search engines when the topic is relatively narrow (a niche). The tighter the niche, the more the hybrid will out-perform the general search engine, all things being equal.

An Example:

Let us say you are looking for training related to leadership, and you use the search terms “leadership traits”, in Google. For this term, on this date, about 70,000 results come up. Many of the results go to sites that are “gaming” the system by having short text pieces pretending to be articles about leadership traits. Other material that comes up is straight regurgitation of material on other sites. Sometimes you’ll even find the same articles on a number of sites, legally or illegally reproduced.

There’s a lot of junk. The only way you can find out that a particular result is junk (for your purposes) is to click on it, take a look, and then, if it is junk, go back to the search results. This is, indeed tedious.

Now, compare with a hybrid search engine (in fact there is one related to leadership.)

If you use the same search string, you’ll get a lot fewer results, but the results are FOCUSED, because they are taken from sites that tend to specialize in leadership. In the particular engine, you can further reduce the clutter by clicking on one of the tabs to see, let’s say ONLY free articles, or ONLY free to reprint articles. You control it.

In Part 2 of this series, we’ll talk more about the benefits, how’s and why’s hybrid search systems will likely be a better choice than the one size fits all search engines.

Copyright Robert Bacal, 2009. Article may be reproduced provided the terms and conditions of EzineArticles are adhered to.

With the World Wide Web jostling to get into virtually every home on the face of this earth, business proprietors have already started exploiting the web for maximal exposure. In the quest to reach utmost number of prospective customers, business owners are keeping no stone unturned to get their trade detected online. In this context, Google Maps are also utilized to its maximum potential.

Splurging in Google Maps activity will surely bring your site much needed attention and other business profits. Google Maps is essentially a web mapping service application which is provided by Google Inc. for free and is known to influence numerous map based services. It can be thought of as a way of administering or supervising the whole planet’s data geographically. Registering in Google Maps require you to fill in all the required segments with keyword rich descriptions and other details pertaining to your business such as images, services, payment procedures, opening hours, etc.

It is imperative to make sure that your descriptions are not overloaded with keywords as it will give an appearance of spam to Google. Even though no business enjoys monotony in this cut throat competitive world; folks have to sweat it out if their industry is a highly competitive one. A worthy secret behind improvised rank on Google Maps is the testimonials and reviews that contented clients write for the listing. Also make sure that you list yourself with the local directories; this elevates the strength of your profile.

Prior to the popularity of Google Maps, people used to concentrate only on Search Engine optimization. But with the spotlight on Local business search brightening, the same people have realized the significance of optimized use of Google Maps. Google Maps utilize a technology wherein they capture the IP address of a customer who is searching for a local business and show it the nearest business locations. People who think that since their business is not an online one, Google Maps can not help them. Nevertheless, this is entirely a sham as folks now days exploit Google Maps to stumble upon businesses nearer to their location despite the consequences of the trade being an online or an offline one. The foremost step for business entities is to set up their own website and optimize it aptly. This assists in enlarging of their online presence and their businesses getting escalated exposure.

Google Maps permits web visitors to scrutinize various maps such as traffic, simple map, terrain map or satellite map. With Google maps, you can virtually search for anything on the face of this earth, find local hot spots, review businesses, find alluring properties in the market and you can also edit any location you see. People are turning to the World Wide Web for everything; ranging from finding baby sitters to 3D architects. This is the best feasible way to get instantaneous local leads which will see your business bloom. It is imperative to follow recommendations put forward by Google such as removing duplicate listings, etc.

As a well established wedding photographer covering Manchester and Liverpool, it is important to realize the importance of photography that can, if done properly, help to ensure that weddings are made that much more special. This is due to the fact that when the pictures are taken properly they will become constant reminders of that one most important day in a person’s life. It is important to capture the nuptials in a professional manner for which only the best photographer should be hired. A photographer who is professional and experienced can certainly be expected to do a good job. Always remember a photographer doesn’t just take photographs, he/she is responsible for meeting time scales and making sure the guests aren’t waiting around too long becoming bored… You DON’T want that on your wedding day!

In recent years I have noticed a spate of people in the Liverpool and Manchester areas of the UK offering their services for wedding photography. Much of this is down to the popularity of photography. Much down to the reduced cost of the equipment needed to photograph such an event. Unfortunately for such an important moment, many bride and grooms can be fooled into thinking that the day of their dreams is about to be captured be someone who is competent, but in reality is completely incompetent. It is therefore necessary that the wedding photographer be chosen carefully.

It is a good idea to try out each and every option regarding choosing the right photographer including trying out those whose reputations is very good. Going with this approach will often mean looking towards photographers with experience, those who have been photographing weddings for a long period of time. Those photographers will often know many of the local venues (In this case Liverpool and Manchester) and this knowledge will seriously help in relation to the smooth running of the day.

After short listing a handful of prospective wedding photographers you need to then check out their websites after which you need to pick the best among the best. Always remember, it is VERY easy to pay a web designer big bucks to design a fantastic website and make the work on display better than it actually is. A good way of working this out is to search on Google (In this case say ‘Wedding photography Liverpool’ or ‘Wedding photographers Manchester’) and those website which appear on the left of the screen (Not sponsored links) are generally those who have been around for a little longer as Google likes to rank ‘Older’ sites more preferably. Those sites will often be from photographers who seriously mean business in the industry and are well established (Anyone can pay a few pounds for a sponsored link, but it will cost a lot of money and a huge amount of time to rank high on Google!)

Finally, take into account the equipment that they have and after discussing costs be sure to enter into a written agreement so that everything is clear. Remember EVERYTHING should be negotiable. In Liverpool and Manchester the industry is incredibly competitive and virtually every photographer should be able to listen to budgets and try and meet your needs.

I’m only using Liverpool and Manchester as an example because this is where I trade. The same will apply throughout the UK, USA, Australia etc.

If you want to utilize SEO to increase your website rankings within the major search engines, I must state that Google Analytics is not something you should consider utilizing for SEO. Google Analytics is flawed even with its ease of usage and tools.

Firstly, Google Analytics utilizes “page tagging technology” and this particular program can only record information on browsers which execute JavaScript. These types of browsers will never execute JavaScript in your source code. Google Analytics is wonderful at tracking visitors but Google Analytics is flawed when it comes to reporting spider behavior.

If you want to make the most of your SEO techniques, you need to understand when a spider comes into the picture, what pages the spiders are asking for and when they will come back. This information is very much needed so you can launch new pages as well as set up great internal links while prioritizing your changes with your source code. You must keep in mind that tracking spiders are as important as tracking your visitors to your website.

Google Analytics is very much relied on by numerous SEOs. I would recommend utilizing log file analyzers as compared to Google Analysics. Log file analyzers oppose page tagging with technologies directly behind web analytics. Particular tools do indeed rely on log files which are using coded server logs to mine the information. The requests for files on your site are recorded with the IP address, referral sting and user agents. This is of course more work however; the data you will get back makes it worth the effort.

Log analysis allows you to build filters. Google Analysics does attempt to address this however; Google Analytics lacks the control which you have. You are not allowed to upload log files with Google Analytics as with other applications.

You will need to check reports as well as access them online. Google Analysics does not make this accessible and offers no way of archiving your data. Google has full control over your particular data period. If Google changes the style of reporting or the interface, you will then be stuck with whatever Google gives you. If you think about it, do you want Google to have control over your website as well as your visitors? Of course you don’t therefore, do not give Google that particular power which you should retain in the first place.

It sounds as if I’m on a rampage about Google, I’m here to state I am not however if you are looking to make the most with analytics, you should utilize multiple tools. Where I’m stating that Google contains many flaws, I will also state that Google Analytics is not overall a useless tool but if you want a tool which addresses the serious needs of your business marketing needs, Google Analytical is not for you.