Your Search Engine Optimisation Expert – Sheldon Nesdale

In a previous post “Think you know the rank for your website in Google? No you don’t“, I explained how, every time you do a search using Google, Google learns a bit more about the search results that you  like (especially if you are logged in with a Google account), and next time, shows you more results like that rather than starting from a blank slate.

Earlier this month, Google announced that is going to begin to personalise your search results even when you are not logged in.

This means that if you often check the ranking of your website in Google, don’t be surprised if you see your website climbing up the rankings – but don’t be happy, because it is only climbing up the rankings from your point of view, everybody else will see your website at a much lower ranking!

So what can you do to check the ranking of your website in Google?

In my previous article I recommended RankTracker for getting an unbiased ranking for your website in a Google search.

I have recently come across an alternative: CuteRank

4 Advantages of using CuteRank to check the ranking of your website in Google

1. You can type in your url, the keywords and choose the Search Engines you want to check all on one page (RankTracker forces you through a “wizard” interface with several steps)
2. The free version lets you save the results for one website (RankTracker doesn’t let you do any saving)
3. When you install CuteRank, you aren’t asked to install other software at the same time (RankTracker is pretty pushy in that department)
4. CuteRank saves your search engines choices (RankTracker defaults to a American-centric  list)

2 Criticisms of CuteRank

1. The interface emphasises the history of your rank, rather than drawing attention to today’s ranking
2. Google.co.nz results are available but not “pages from New Zealand” (but probably coming)

Conclusion

I propose you install both and decide for yourself which style you like better. But the important thing is that either is better than checking the ranking of your website in Google yourself, because your search results are increasingly personalised for you so your view of reality is distorted.

What are Back Links?

A back link (or “inbound link”) is any hyperlink coming back to your website.

From the Google Search Engine’s point of view, each backlink scores a point for your website.  In effect it is saying “this website is worth a visit, go and check it out!”.  After-all, the internet is built on hyperlinks.

The more significant the website that is linking to you, the more those points are worth.  For example if you manage to get a hyperlink from the home page of NZHerald.co.nz or TradeMe.co.nz to your website, in effect it is saying “hey listen up, we don’t make this decision lightly, you must check this website out, these guys are awesome!”.

So you can see that a single backlink from a high profile website is worth hundreds of backlinks from websites that no-one has ever heard of.

If you are interested in Search Engine Optimisation (or possess the new technology called an “email account”) you have probably come across email messages from Indian based companies who offer to generate back links for you.  Don’t be tempted to take them up on their offer.  You will get thousands of back links of such poor quality that they mean nothing to Google at all.

Are some back links better than others?

Oh yes.  Here are the 2 biggest factors in determining the quality of a back link:

1. Does the backlink to your website come from a webpage with a high PageRank? (PageRank is the system that Google uses to score every webpage between 0 and 10)
2. Is the content of that webpage is related to what you do? (eg if you’re a doctor and your link is on a carpenters website you get very few points, but if its on a popular medical website you get lots!)

So, how do you get high quality back links?

Start with listing your website on every New Zealand web directory you can find. Start with www.Finda.co.nz.

Don’t bother with the ones that ask for payment.  Stick with the free ones.

Then start searching for blogs, forums and community discussion boards where issues and ideas that are related to your products and services are talked about, and add your thoughts to the conversation.  For example, here’s how to generate a backlink from a blog:

How to add a backlink to your website from a blog

1. Your Name. Put your most important keywords here.  Not your brand name. Eg I put “Sheldon (Search Engine Optimisation Expert)”.  Most people just put “Bob”, that’s a waste.
2. Your Website Address. Either put the url for your home page, or to another landing page like your blog
3. Your Comment. Write something useful here. “Great post! Interesting article!” reeks of SPAM, and risks being deleted.  Read the article carefully and think of a way you can contribute by adding your ideas or framing things in a different way, or asking the author a question.

If you have the discipline to do that 5 times a week, you will get the satisfaction of watching your website climb the Search Engine rankings.

Try it today, by adding your comment below.

Need more help to improve the SEO of your website?

1. Either buy the Search Engine Optimisation ebook which has more information about back-links and 14 more SEO techniques
2. Hire me to generate a detailed report specific to your website that tells you exactly what changes to make (and the order in which you should make them)
3. Generate more traffic to your website with Search Engine Advertising with Google Adwords

Seems pretty easy to check doesn’t it? Just type in the keywords you rank well for, and there is your website near the top of the results…

Actually that’s not your true ranking at all!

Check again using a friends computer and you’ll get a very different result.

This can be embarrassing. I did this many times at a friends houses before I figured out what was going on: “Hey, John check this out, my website is #1 for ‘xyz widgets’… hey wait a second, where the heck is it??” Stink!

Why does this happen?

Because over time Google learns about you, your search behaviour, and what results you like (through software such as browser plugins, cookies, and being signed in to your Google account).

So every time you do a Google search on your computer you are training the Google search algorithm.

Every time you click on a search result Google ticks a box to say “Yes! We gave that searcher the link they wanted!”. But everytime you return to the results using the “Back” button, Google ticks a box to say “No! That link wasn’t what they wanted, let’s try harder next time team!”.

That is one of the ways that Google incrementally improves their search results over time.

But you are just one person, and your behaviour has only a tiny impact on the world. But it has a huge impact to the search results you get from your computer!

So, you are pushing the link to your website higher up the search results because you are clicking on the link all the time (but most of the impact is confined to searches done on your computer).

How can you find out what your rank in Google really is?

There is 1 way to get a true indication of your rank in Google (actually there are many, but this is the easiest, cheapest, most accurate, non-biased way I have found).

And that is: RankTracker software.

The paid version is pretty expensive and doesn’t really add a lot of functionality.

The free version is fine (but not being able to save the reports can get a little annoying).

Download the RankTracker software and give it a try.

(And no, I don’t get paid for linking to them (yet), I just think it’s great software)