Weekly SEO news: 21 December 2010
Welcome to the latest issue of the Search Engine Facts newsletter.

Every few weeks, we get an email from a potential customer who tells us that he does not believe our ranking guarantee. That's understandable. We guarantee that your website will be found in the regular (unpaid) search results on Google for the keywords of your choice. How does this work and will it work for your website?

In the news: Google confirms the use of social signals in the algorithm, Google marks your website in the search results when it is hacked, the number of searches remains at a high level and more.

Table of contents:

We hope that you enjoy this newsletter and that it helps you to get more out of your website. Please pass this newsletter on to your friends.

Best regards,
Andre Voget, Johannes Selbach, Axandra CEO

1. A Google ranking guarantee? There really is no catch.

Every few weeks, we get an email from a potential customer who tells us that he does not believe our ranking guarantee. That's understandable. We guarantee that your website will be found in the regular (unpaid) search results on Google for the keywords of your choice. How does this work and will it work for your website?

Google

How can we guarantee top 10 rankings on Google and what's the catch?

Many people will tell you that it is not possible to guarantee top 10 rankings on Google. That is correct. No one can guarantee top 10 rankings except for Google's engineers.

However, IBP has a success rate of more than 98% and we will give you your money back if you belong to the very few people who don't get top 10 rankings on Google with IBP.

How does it work in detail?

1. You choose the keyword and the search engine

You tell IBP for which keyword you want to get a top 10 position and you choose the search engine on which you want to have a top 10 position. This can be Google.com, Google.co.uk, many other local Google variations as well as Bing, their local variations and many other search engines.

2. IBP analyzes your web page

IBP's Top 10 Optimizer will then analyze all the relevant ranking elements on your web page as well as the links to your website and calculate a ranking score based on that information. The higher the ranking score, the more likely it is that your website will be listed on Google's first result page.

3. IBP tells you in detail what you have to change

If your website does not have a 100% score, IBP will tell you in plain English what exactly you have to do to improve your web page and the links to your site. The advice will be tailored to your website, the chosen search engine and the chosen keyword and IBP will tell you in detail what you have to change and how you have to change it.

4. You make the changes on your web page

In the last step, you change your web page according to the suggestions of IBP's Top 10 Optimizer until there are no further suggestions (IBP's Top 10 Optimizer gives your site a 100% rating).

That's it. No catch, no strings attached. If you change your website according to IBP's Top 10 Optimizer then your website will be listed on Google's first result page in the regular results.

Not all ranking guarantees are equal

There are quite a few companies that offer top 10 guarantees. You should take a close look at their offerings. For example, some companies will charge you a monthly fee for the "optimization" of your website. They take half of that fee to advertise your website on Google AdWords, keep the rest and that's it.

Other companies will give you a top 10 ranking guarantee only for keywords that they choose. It's not difficult to get top 10 rankings for obscure keywords that nobody searches for. Unfortunately, these top 10 rankings won't help your business at all.

A top 10 ranking guarantee should be for the keywords of your choice and it should be for the regular, unpaid search results. That's the guarantee that you get with IBP.

You can order IBP here. A demo version is available on this page.

Back to table of contents - Visit Axandra.com

2. Search engine news and articles of the week

Google PlacesGoogle: New hacked site notifications in search results

"We're expanding the search results notifications to help people avoid sites that may have been compromised and altered by a third party, typically for spam. When a user visits a site, we want her to be confident the information on that site comes from the original publisher. [...]

We use a variety of automated tools to detect common signs of a hacked site as quickly as possible. When we detect something suspicious, we'll add the notification to our search results. We'll also do our best to contact the site's webmaster via their Webmaster. [...]

Once the problem has been fixed, the warning label will be automatically removed from our search results, usually in a matter of days. You can also request a review of your site to accelerate removal of the notice."



Search is still alive and well

"Bing and Yahoo!'s respective market shares continue to be nearly the same; although Yahoo! experienced a slightly greater query volume growth in November. Bing Powered engines as a whole grew 4.3% MOM in query volume, driving its total market share by 1ppt.

Bing had the highest growth in the number of unique visitors searching on its engine, with a MOM increase of 7.4%. Google experienced a minor query volume decline, -1.1%, for the second month in a row. However, it still garners nearly 2/3 of search activity across the top 5 engines."



Matt Cutts Google does use data from social sites in ranking

In a recent video, Google's Matt Cutts confirms that Google uses social signals in their algorithms.

These signals are mostly used in the real-time search index but they are studying how they may expand it more into other areas of search, including web search.

Matt Cutts warns that you should not just go out and get tons of follower because it won't help you rank well. What will help is getting followers that have good reputation.

Editor's note: the Top 10 Optimizer in IBP also checks the number of Tweets on Twitter and the number of mentions on Facebook.



Personalization, privacy & the creep index

"Advertisers face a dilemma today: how much [personalization] is too much. At what point will consumers feel invaded and violated? How do you make advertising more relevant without becoming creepy? [...]

Yesterday, the Obama administration called for a 'privacy bill of rights' for online consumers come with a department to enforce a 'code of conduct'. The report calls for easy to understand privacy policies, as opposed to a 'Do Not Track' function in web browsers initially proposed by the Federal Trade Commission."



Yahoo has hit rock bottom and is in "absolute disarray"

"What really riled Yahoo up was when I asked if they were really even a technology company any more. I think it's now clear to the world now that they aren't. They're just a nightmarish Dilbert-cartoon version of the old Yahoo, where employees fear for their jobs and stumble around the office trying to protect themselves, not build anything new and ambitious.

There is only one way a company recovers from this. They must have new leadership. And soon."



Search engine newslets

  • Delicious.com is not closing. Delicious founder "not sure" yet about recreating Delicious.
  • EU extends Google investigation to news and mapping.
  • Yahoo cartoon.

Back to table of contents - Visit Axandra.com

3. Give yourself a Christmas gift

The perfect Christmas gift for yourself

Give yourself a Christmas gift and get high rankings on Google and other search engines. With high rankings for the right keywords, you will get more website visitors, more customers and more sales.

Happy ChristmasIBP helps you to get high rankings for keywords that deliver paying customers to your website.

High rankings on all Google variations

You will get high rankings on Google, Bing and other search engines. IBP works with all local Google variations (Google.com, Google.co.uk, Google.com.au, Google.de, etc.).

Give yourself a Christmas gift. You're worth it! Order IBP here.

Back to table of contents - Visit Axandra.com

4. Previous articles

Back to table of contents - Visit Axandra.com