A blog post on the official Google Webmaster Central blog confirms the newest factor added to the (over 200 factor) Google Ranking algorithm. Read on for what you should be doing.

Back in December, I posted page load speed as the most probable addition to the Google ranking algorithm. I detailed a few things you should be doing to prepare. To recap:

• Head to Webmaster Central and see how your site stacks up. The report is called “Site Performance” and can be found in the “Labs” section
• Follow recommendations from Google. Some common fixes include enabling gzip compression, minimizing DNS lookups, and combining JavaScript and CSS files
• Download YSlow for Firefox and put your site through the test
• Start saving for a faster host and content management system!

In addition, Google’s Webmaster Central blog post recommends a few other tools you might find useful.

Slow Site? Don’t Panic!

If after running some of these tools you find that your site is under-performing, don’t panic! According to Matt Cutts:

“Quality should still be the first and foremost concern [for site owners],” Cutts says. “This change affects outliers; we estimate that fewer than 1% of queries will be impacted. If you’re the best resource, you’ll probably still come up.”

In fact, page speed has been a factor for a few weeks now, so if you haven’t noticed a traffic decrease for your site, then you may not be affected.

Remember, however, that conversion is affected by page load speed! So if you’ve been considering re-platforming, switching servers, or anything else to increase your site’s performance, maybe this is the time to take that step.

In completely unrelated news: The Groove Commerce website is pretty speedy isn’t it?! Want a free quote?

1. Setup a Google Webmaster Account & Submit a Sitemap

This should be a standard whenever launching a new website. Go to Google Webmaster Tools and sign up for a free account. Make sure you have a sitemap in the proper format and submit it. This is the quickest and easiest way to let Google know about your site and to get them to crawl it. I’ve had sites indexed within 48 hours using this method.

2. Publish an Article on EzineArticles.com

EzineArticles.com is the king of article websites. It’s been around the longest and is the biggest, baddest article directory on the web. Google will index articles on this website within minutes, sometimes quicker. Include a link back to your website in your author signature, and the search engines will be able to find it.

3. Get a Link from a Friend’s Website

Everybody knows somebody with a website. Whether it’s your friends design portfolio, or some old random blog, a link will definitely help you get indexed. As long as this site has been indexed by the search engines, they will find your link and index your site shortly thereafter.

4. Add Your Site to a Paid Directory

One of the top paid directories is Yahoo! Directory. It’s been around forever and all the search engines know and trust it. The only problem is it costs $300/year. If you’re on a budget, I suggest JoeAnt.com. They’re also a well-known directory that will get your site indexed quickly and only cost $39.99 for a lifetime inclusion.

5. Submit a Free Press Release to PRLog.org

There are paid press release sites that may give you better linking in the long run, but there’s no reason you can’t start with the best freebie out there – PR Log. The search engines love this site and crawl it constantly. It’s the same principle as article marketing with EzineArticles. Submit a press release about the launch of your hot new eCommerce site, that page will get indexed by the search engines and they’ll be able to find the link back to your site.

Share your favorite methods for quickly indexing new websites in the comment form below!

Well, it really shouldn’t change anything. Most webmasters, including myself, usually spend no more than 2 minutes writing up a meta keywords tag, including some popular misspellings, brand names, and any relevant keywords not found within the page body. If you spend any more time on the meta keywords, you might want to dial that back. I wouldn’t necessarily stop bothering with them altogether as Google states it is possible, however unlikely, that they will be factored into rankings in the future. Not to mention the fact that Google isn’t the only search engine out there, and there has been no comment from the other guys.

But then there’s the issue of the meta description! I’m a fan of the meta description because it tends to not get the love it deserves, and with this announcement it may get worse. Webmasters and SEO folks mustn’t forget that your meta description is like ad copy for organic search! So stop stuffing your descriptions with unnatural sentences to boost keyword density, and try and entice anyone that may come across your site in the SERPs with a well crafted meta description. Take a look at my post from a few months back for tips on optimizing your title tag and meta descriptions.

Read on for a link to the sandbox version, and some early thoughts on how it might affect your rankings.

On Monday afternoon, the Google Webmaster Blog announced the debut of “Caffeine”, describing it as the “next-generation architecture for Google’s web search.”

What Has Changed?

Google is publicly saying all the changes are under the hood, in an effort to speed up crawling and indexing. Some power searchers are saying there is more weight placed on fresh results, no doubt a response to the real-time search of Twitter, and I might have to agree. As far as I know, it does mark the first time Google has used a code name that actually sort of describes the update (see: “Vince”, “Florida”, “Big Daddy”, “Fritz”).

Now is probably a good time for an update too, with Yahoo and Microsoft making deals, Twitter’s real-time search getting plenty of press, and Google dropping 4 percentage points in overall market share since January (its lowest total since July of 2007).

So What’s the Strategy?

“Caffeine” will be fully implemented soon enough, so how should it change your SEO strategy?

At Groove Commerce, one of the simplest SEO recommendations we make is to keep your website fresh with new content. That may be done by adding new products, writing blog posts, or updating stale content. In short, don’t let your site expire! When “Caffeine” goes full-time, the effect of keeping your site updated may be even more noticeable.

Take a look here to see how your rankings are affected. If your rankings are up, Hoorah! If they’re down, well, you could always anonymously submit feedback every day.

• Headspace2 – One of my favorite SEO plugins that I use for every Wordpress site I work on! The most powerful features include the ability to easily edit your page titles and meta tags.
• DD Sitemap Generator – My go-to plugin for easily creating a highly organized, search-friendly html sitemap.
• Google (XML) Sitemap Generator – Another easy-to-use and highly effective sitemap generator that I use to create my XML sitemaps which are submitted to all the major SE’s.
• Breadcrumb NavXT – Breadcrumbs are not only great for your users but extremely helpful for the search engines. They build internal links and provide an easy structure for the search engine spiders to follow when indexing your site.
• Similar Posts – Use this simple plugin to display related posts across your site. This will also help with internal linking and will get more readers to read more of your posts. Win-win.
• SEO Title Tag – Similar to HeadSpace2, but without a lot of the different options. Use this plugin if you’re just looking for an easy way to edit your title tags.
• Sociable – Let your readers add your posts to any number of social media sites, helping you build backlinks and generate more interest in your site.
• Simple Tags – Manage your WP tags, get suggestions on related tags and have the option to enable auto tagging based on your content.
• All In One SEO Pack – One of the most popular, most comprehensive SEO plugins for Wordpress. Handle your page titles, descriptions, keywords, content and more with this highly effective and easy to use plugin.
• SEO Smart Links – Great plugin to save you time with internally linking your different pages. Looks for words and phrases related to your page/post titles and links them up with each other.
• Google Positioner – Monitor your SEO efforts with the Google Positioner; tracking where your keywords rank in the SERP’s.
• SEO Friendly Images – Optimize your images for the SERP’s with one click.

Further Reading: Lists of More SEO Plugins for Wordpress

• Graywolf’s SEO Plugins for Wordpress Part II
• 9 SEO Plugins Every Wordpress Blog Should Have
• Best SEO Wordpress Plugins for High Search Engine Rankings

Photo by Lee Odden

One of the main topics of discussion was that ‘T’ word, better known as Twitter. It was pretty amazing to see #Pubcon as one of the top Twitter trends all week until SXSW started.

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=pubcon

People you should be following on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/ravenjon
http://twitter.com/chrisbrogan
http://twitter.com/joannalord
http://twitter.com/josephmorin
http://twitter.com/waynesutton
http://twitter.com/leeodden
http://twitter.com/ShariMcConahay

More recap here:

http://www.toprankblog.com/2009/03/pubcon-south09-photos/
http://outspokenmedia.com/blog/

See everyone at Pubcon Vegas, November 10th -13th 2009!

The big question? What effect does this have on natural search results? Read on for more.

The short answer is nothing. But that may change.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Google Vice President of search products and user experience Marissa Mayer stated that currently the service does not have an affect on the natural search results, but may in the not-so-distant future.

An example that is used is if “thousands of users” kick a site off the SERPs, Google may factor that into the algorithm. Not a bad idea, if implemented correctly. I’ve always found it pretty frustrating when somehow a parked page finds itself above any of our clients’ sites for any search term (I don’t care if “xylitol gum” is in the URL, xylitolgum.com should not rank ahead of anything). If Search Wiki helps gets rid of these useless sites, then I’m all for it.

Marissa Mayer also stated that within the coming months users will have the option of turning Search Wiki off. This is sure to please some of the SEO folks out there that were ready to break down the Googleplex doors because they simply cannnot stand the idea of Search Wiki.

A caveat: I write this post out of frustration. I’m struggling to understand why Google does what it does with its rankings. As an online marketing specialist here at Groove, I spend a ton of time reading about SEO best practices straight from Google, and from other trusted sources. So when I see Groove Commerce go from the 5th overall rank on a highly targeted term, to completely unranked, back to number 5, and completely unranked again over the last week, I have to wonder what it is that we’re doing wrong.

Groove Commerce is a lead generation and eCommerce website design, development, and marketing firm. When we launch a site, we’d like to have our name credited in the footer. Most everyone does this, and usually in a similar format. For us, we like to say “eCommerce Website Design by Groove Commerce”, with a link on eCommerce Website Design leading to our services page of the same name, and a link from Groove Commerce to our homepage. We chose eCommerce website design as our anchor text because its a good snippet defining our services, and a high traffic phrase. From time to time we alter the phrase a bit, to diversify our backlink anchor text. Additionally, we’re a relatively new-ish company, so there aren’t hundreds of sites out there linking back to us with the same anchor text (considered not a good idea).

Over the last few months our rankings on the phrase have improved. As stated earlier, we’ve been as high as number 5, and trending upward. But something we’re doing is making Google unhappy. As of this posting, we simply don’t rank for the phrase. Not on the first page, not on the 100th page, nowhere.

Complete removal from the SERPs is often a sign that Google has caught on to your black hat techniques. The problem is that we do not engage in black hat techniques. We don’t even engage in gray hat! We run a responsible link building campaign; gaining relevant back links with varying anchor text through various sources at a moderate pace. You won’t find links to Groove on completely unrelated sites, disreputable sites, or meaningless directories. So why the Google “slap”?

I’ll never get an answer. In fact, come tomorrow, we’ll probably be back in the SERPs for our preferred term, and maybe we’ll stay there. Maybe we won’t. The point is that the SERPs are a volatile place. Google’s ever changing algorithm, different data centers, personalized results, geo-targeted results, and so many other factors can cause your site to appear and disappear. Guaranteed rankings are a risky business to be in for this reason. Someone guaranteeing you first page rankings may just be able to get you that ranking with the latest method of tricking Google into thinking your site is important. However, the quicker they get you there, the quicker you’ll fall off.

EDIT: Wouldn’t you know it? We’re back on the first page.

The Meetup starts around 6:30 with pizza and beer/soda. Hope to see you all there.

Click here for more info and to RSVP:
http://www.meetup.com/webdevelopment/calendar/8938327/

Most importantly this week is a blog post from the Google Webmaster blog. When Google speaks, everyone listens. This post describes a huge change in SEO philosophy for Google. Before October 2006, Google could not even spider dynamic URL’s. When they announced that they could back in 2006, they still recommended rewriting URLs. Now, Google states they prefer that webmasters not rewrite URLs…

Thus, the ensuing commentary:

• Search Engine Land provides a great recap.
• Rand Fishkin of SeoMOZ breaks down the pros and cons.
• Smackdown lays the smackdown on Google. He’s not a fan.
• George Murphy, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at the Baltimore SEO Meetup earlier this week, weighs in with his opinion on rewriting vs dynamic URLs.

Speaking of the Baltimore SEO Meetup, Jon Payne has a recap of the event, and some discussion about future events. If you’re from the Baltmore area, be sure to check it out!