SEO FAQ 6

What are "Supplemental Results" in Google?

http://www.google.com/webmasters/faq.html

3. Why is my site labeled "Supplemental"?

Supplemental sites are part of Google's auxiliary index. We're able to place fewer restraints on sites that we crawl for this supplemental index than we do on sites that are crawled for our main index. For example, the number of parameters in a URL might exclude a site from being crawled for inclusion in our main index; however, it could still be crawled and added to our supplemental index.

The index in which a site is included is completely automated; there's no way for you to select or change the index in which your site appears. Please be assured that the index in which a site is included does not affect its PageRank.

How can we attract GoogleBot?

First of all, the GoogleBot must find your page through links from other pages that are already indexed by Google.

Then to get GoogleBot to visit again and again you should add fresh content frequently - for example by using a blog

What is the Future of SEO?

The future of SEO is undoubtedly one where:

• one-way text links from relevant pages continue to be the most valuable links
• reciprocal linking continue to decline
• the 'shotgun' approach to link buying declines
• mass email link requests decline
• free directory submission declines
• niche directory submission increases
• article PR (article submission) increases
• article submission sites (e.g. EzineArticles, GoArticles, and ArticleBlast play a much bigger
  and more important role in helping online publishers locate quality articles (due to the increasing article volume)
• user popularity is just as important as link popularity, which means:
• the quality of article PR improves in order to increase site traffic, credibility, and loyalty
• the quality of website content improves in order to convert traffic and encourage repeat visits

Clearly, the choices for SEOs will be pretty much limited to paying for links at niche sites and/or engaging in article PR. Being
an SEO copywriter, I may be a little biased, but for me, article PR is the hands-down winner in this comparison:

• It satisfies Google's criteria for relevance and importance. Linking site owners include your article and link because, in
  doing so, their site becomes more useful to visitors, and their business gains credibility and authority.
• It generates hundreds of free links quickly enough to make it worth your while, but not so quickly as to raise red flags at
  Google (in the form of link dampening).
• Links are permanent and you don't have to pay to keep them there.
• You get a lot of qualified referred traffic who already trust you and your expertise. This satisfies Google's visitor
  popularity criteria, while at the same time bringing you a lot of extra customers

What is Google Analytics?

Trust level: Proven and confirmed

Google Analytics is a free web-stats solution which not only reports all the regular site stats, but also integrates directly with Google AdWords giving webmasters an insight into the ROI of their pay-per-click ads. According to Google, "Google Analytics tells you everything you want to know about how your visitors found you and how they interact with your site."

Why is this such a landmark move? Because for the first time ever, Google will have access to your real web stats. And these stats will be far more accurate than those provided by Alexa. Furthermore, Google's privacy statement says: "We may also use personal information for auditing, research and analysis to operate and improve Google technologies and services.". Now let's put two and two together:

1. Google is 'giving' every webmaster in the world free access to quality web-stats.
2. Millions of webmasters will accept this 'gift', if only because it integrates directly with their Google AdWords campaigns.
3. Google will then have full access to the actual web stats of millions of commercial websites.
4. Google will have the right to use these stats to develop new technologies.
5. What's the next logical step? Google will use these statistics to help determine its rankings

What is the difference of IP delivery and cloaking?

IP delivery: delivering results to users based on IP address. Cloaking: showing different pages to users than to search engines.

IP delivery includes things like "users from Britain get sent to the co.uk, users from France get sent to the .fr". This is fine-even Google does this.

It's when you do something *special* or out-of-the-ordinary for Googlebot that you start to get in trouble, because that's cloaking. In the example above, cloaking would be "if a user is from Googlelandia, they get sent to our Google-only optimized text pages."

So IP delivery is fine, but don't do anything special for Googlebot. Just treat it like a typical user visiting the site.

Why does Google hate my site?

My site is showing up for my major keyword phrases in Yahoo and MSN but I'm nowhere to be found in Google. Why does Google hate me? (Or alternatively, my site was doing well on Google but its rankings have suddenly plummeted. Am I penalized?)

If you're going to be in the SEO biz, or even if you're just trying to get your own personal business site more exposure in the search engines, you need to realize that rankings (and the traffic they may bring) are not static. You may get comfortable seeing your site rank highly for your most coveted keyword phrases, but don't ever assume it will remain there forever.

Sites do not get penalized or banned unless something has been done which deceives the search engines. Deception generally comes in the form of hiding stuff or trying to artificially inflate link popularity. If you're not playing games with the engines, then you don't ever have to worry about penalties. If your site is suddenly gone, it's most likely because of a major algorithm shift. The search engines are constantly tweaking their algorithms, and new sites are always being created, so ranking fluctuations are part of the normal course of business.

Because of this, it is crucial to optimize your site for lots and lots of related phrases. This will ensure that when some phrases go AWOL, the others will perform well for you. I can't stress enough how important this strategy is to your SEO campaign, as well as your piece of mind. Never be married to any 1 or 2 specific phrases. Yes, it's cool to rank highly for the most coveted ones, but if they're that important to you, then you should purchase PPC ads that are triggered by them.

The best advice I can give you is to change your mindset from "rankings" to "targeted traffic and conversions." I know I sound like a broken record with this, and it may even seem like a convenient excuse; however, if you don't want to make yourself crazy, it's best to ignore rankings, and instead work hard at making your site better and better. While your various keyword phrases are on an emotional roller coaster at Google, you won't even notice a blip in your traffic or sales if you've got all your bases covered. It may be cliché, but it really does work and it does pay off in the long run.