Google’s mission statement is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

But I can hear many of you crying out that Google is giving poor quality search results.  What can you do if Google is ranking irrelevant or spammy or broken websites?  You can give Google feedback to get the site removed from the Google search results.

When Google delivers inappropriate results, it not only drives the searcher crazy, but it can make businesses frantic, too.  Business success can be make or break, depending on whether they’re getting customers from the Google search results.

I did a search for the phrase “marketing agency” and to honest I did not get the companies I expected to rank in the top 10, and I wasn’t very impressed by the top companies being offered by Google.

Not only were they not the quality of companies that expected to see, one of the top 10 companies listed in Google had a non-existant website.

If you were to visit the site, this is what you would see:

So, I know companies are going to be asking me how can a web page that is dead rank in the top ten results for such a competitive phrase?

The secret sauce for this site ranking well, of course, is inbound links.  This site has lots of high quality inbound links with the keyphrase “marketing agency” in the links.  And links, of course are trump, overruling even lack of any content as this example rather irrationally demonstrates.

But, what can we do to let Google know it is delivering garbage results? More specifically, how can we get this site removed from the results?

Scroll to the bottom of the Google search page, and you will be invited to give feedback:

And you should go right ahead and give Google feedback to get the site removed from the Google search results.

There are a range of options for reporting inappropriate site: spam sites, irrelevant sites, dead sites:

I’ve reported this result as taking me to a dead or broken link, and I’ll add a comment to let you know if, and when, this page tumbles from the results!

Recommended Reading:

What’s Wrong With My Website:  3 typical problems websites encounter

How important are Domain Names and Title Tags for Google rankings

Hallam archive of inbound linking articles

It has been over a month since the official release of Google’s new web indexing system – Caffeine – but it seems that not everyone has fully understood what it is that Google Caffeine actually does and how it affects their businesses and websites.

So what does Google Caffeine do?

Essentially it is a new way of indexing the information on the web to provide more current results, with Caffeine the web user has access to new information much sooner after it was published – which is great news for people who run a blog on their site or use news stories within their website. If you take a look at this graphic that Google themselves provided you can see that the old indexing system consisted of several layers:

The main layer within the old index would update roughly every two weeks – but to update another layer meant that the entire Internet had to be looked at again before new content would be available.  With the new Caffeine indexing system google can look at smaller parts of the web – which leads to faster indexing and content being available to the user at a much faster rate.

“As we find new pages, or new information on existing pages, we can add these straight to the index. That means you can find fresher information than ever before—no matter when or where it was published.” Official Google Blog

So Caffeine provides fresh content, quickly and has been designed to move with the Internet as it blossoms and grows with more emphasis on video, images, news and real-time content.

How will Caffeine affect my site?

This is where the confusion started to come in – Caffeine was released around the the time of the Mayday Update and people seem have got a little confused between the two. Whilst the Mayday update was change to the algorithm, Caffeine was only a change to the indexing system. Caffeine in itself should not adversely affect your rankings but there are a few points to take into consideration:

• With faster indexing any SEO changes you make to your site should be discovered quicker by Google
• Caffeine’s use of real time web means you will be able to utilise social media in your Internet Marketing campaigns (particularly Twitter and Facebook)
• Quality content will now be more important than ever
  
• The speed of your site now matters – make sure your hosting company aren’t doing you a disservice

Hopefully we have answered some of the question surrounding the confusion of what Google caffeine is and how it will affect your site.

Some useful SEO tools:

Web Page Analyser – a free tool for web site speed testing

Page size Extractor – a tool for checking the overall size of a webpage, including content and images.

+++Wayne Barker+++

Would you like a business grant that you can use towards a private training/coaching session with me to develop your Internet marketing skills?

Small business owners/managers are eligible for a grant of up to £1000 towards the cost of business training and development designed to develop their strategic skills to drive their company forward.

Take advantage of this grant funding from Business Link whilst it’s available, and as always the case, when the money is gone, the money is gone!

I’m able to develop a training programme designed for your specific needs, meaning we can skip over the bits you know already, and focus on what you really need to know to make your business more competitive on the Internet:

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) campaigns
• Social Media Marketing campaigns:  Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Blogging
• Web design reviews
• Google AdWords pay per click (PPC) advertising
• Google Analytics and web metrics
• Improving Conversions
• E Commerce
• Email marketing
• International Web Marketing

One grant is available per organisation of up to a maximum of £1,000.  The first £500 is 100% grant funded, with an additional £500 available for you to match at 50%, for a total grant value of £1000.

Both business, public sector and charitable organisations with between 5 to 249 employees are eligible to apply. Organisations who accessed previous Leadership and Management funding initiatives from the LSC are not eligible. Funding is made available for the development of a senior manager or key decision maker.

Our training and consultancy services are a approved by Business Link in both the East Midlands and West Midland, and our training courses rated amongst the top three in the country.

Contact us to discuss your training requirements and learn more about how you can apply for a grant.

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For all you American ex-pats here in the UK, I wish you a very happy 4th of July!

Google has developed a 4th of July animation that is only available to visits with an American IP address, but I’ve done a screencast and here is my little Independence Day gift to you:

PS – with apologies to all my fellow Brits who are still smarting from losing the war….

And as a 4th of July postscript:

This blog post hit the first page of Google within 14 minutes of posting, on a “trending” phrase:

An amazing Google Infographic: all of this is done in less than a second, 300 million times per day…

Click on the image to get the larger version:

With credit to PPC Blog for the great infographic!

If you think there is nothing worse than sitting inside at work when the sun is blazing  then you are sorely mistaken. Google knows there is something worse than this – being sat at work when the sun is blazing and the world cup is on! If you haven’t noticed yet there is a little football competition going on and Google has provided us with some great stuff to keep us in the spirit.

At the start of the week you may have noticed a little link on Google that allowed you to access all their world cup goodies. It is no longer there but if you follow this link you will find all you need to get you through the day.

Google World Cup

Without going overboard Google has pinpointed the requirements of your average football fan who is stuck at work.

When you follow Google’s world cup link you are initially greeted by this page:

What better way to enter into the spirit of things than to show your support for your team than by covering your minimalist iGoogle page with a symphony of red and white. My iGoogle Home Page now looks like this:

So far so good, Google has helped us show our support for the team from our PC or laptop. Next on the agenda will be the need to know the scores of every World Cup match as it is being played live. All we need to do now is tap in the phrase ‘world cup’ into Google for up to date scores from any of the matches that are playing currently. It will also show us the matches that are due to played this evening so we can plan whether to watch them at the pub or at home.

We are now able to support England from our desk and get up to the minute scores with the click of a refresh or reload button on our browser. For those of you who need a little more information you can see the standings table in the ‘Football Widget‘ that you can attach to your iGoogle page:

You can find out about and explore the stadiums that are being used in the South Africa World Cup right on Google Maps from a link on the Google Word Cup page:

As always it is important to save the best to last. What if you are at a meeting – let us say it is on Friday afternoon, just before the next England match – and you are in a unfamiliar city. You are not going to know which way to head for the local pub that is showing the match. You could of course ask someone like we would have done before the Internet came along and revolutionised the way we do things, but that is so old fashioned. If you follow the link on Google that says ‘find a great place to watch the match’ it will take you over to Google Maps, click on one of the footballs on the map and it will give you the details of the closest venue showing the match!

There you go, a quick guide to the Google’s World Cup. Enjoy the sunshine and enjoy the football.

+++Wayne Barker+++

We all know that Google visibility is crucial to online success; however an eagerness to appear in the first page of the Google results can sometimes lead you into trouble.

If you experience a sudden drop in rankings for your main keywords there are two likely reasons:

• There has been a change to Google’s algorithm and you have been one of the unfortunate losers.
• You have received a penalty from Google for breaking (or bending) their guidelines.

If you feel your drop in rankings may be the result of some infringement of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines it is important to correct them immediately. I am sure you are aware that Google will never make it that simple for you and many of the reasons they penalise sites is only known to those locked within the walls of Google headquarters. There are, however, some sure-fire ways to get yourself penalised (or banned) by Google:

• Linking into ‘bad neighbourhoods’. A ‘bad neighbourhood’ can include spammy sites, link farms or just generally sites that have no value to the Internet user as a whole. A good rule of thumb is: “if you are in doubt then it is probably best left alone”. If you want to check for sure then do a search for the Home Page in Google and if it doesn’t appear in the first page of the results it suggests that Google doesn’t trust it that much. Check out the Bad Neighborhood tool for help.

• Keyword stuffing. Always write with the user in mind first and the spider second. Stay away from repeating the same keywords over and over again.

• Excessive reciprocal link building. Some reciprocal link building can be considered natural – especially if you share the same topic in a niche. However stay away from unnatural amounts of ‘off topic ‘ reciprocal link building – always make sure your reciprocal links are from trusted ‘on topic’ sites and make your reciprocal links a small part of your overall link building campaign.

• Buying links. It is thought that that buying links can harm your rankings (like most things with Google though it has only been hinted at rather than confirmed!). It is always better to be safe than sorry so try and avoid buying and selling links and you are less likely to be penalised for it.

• Hidden text on your site. An old trick and very likely to get you banned – don’t make the text the same colour as your background, you will get found out sooner or later! The same applies to hidden links on your site.

• Check your site is considered safe. Here is how we check our site is safe:

Go to Google and type in http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=shcl.co.uk (obviously replacing the shcl.co.uk with your site). This we show you this screen which will give you Google’s details on the ‘Safe Browsing’ details of your site:

Other ways to reduce the risk of getting banned or penalised by Google by Google include:

• Make sure the anchor text of any links pointing to your site is varied as possible
• Do not link to any currently banned sites
• Avoid excessive cross linking with any other sites you own
• Avoid over optimisation
• Avoid excessive use of directories
• Make sure your link building increases at a natural rate (about 10% of the total number of inbound links you already have)

The final tip for avoiding Google penalties is:

• Use your common sense!

If you think that your actions could be construed as slightly dubious then stay away. Make your link building look natural and design and optimise your site with the user in mind and remember it can take time to rise up the rankings – patience is a virtue!

Here are some tools and links to help you with diagnosing and solving Google penalty issues:

Bad Neighborhood – Bad neighbourhood checking tool

Google Webmaster Guidelines

MajesticSEO – Backlink checker and neighbourhood checker

Google’s Malware help

Google’s reconsideration of your site page

+++Wayne Barker+++

If  you missed The Internet Conference 2010 then you missed one amazing day.  Our expert speakers shared a huge amount of knowledge, and feedback from the delegates says it was a great opportunity to network and connect with other businesses using the Internet.  We will be organising another event next year, even bigger and even better, so watch this space!

In the meantime, our speakers have kindly agreed to share their slides with you:

What’s New With Google

Susan Hallam:  Hallam Communications Ltd

Getting it Wrong:  Change and Measurement on the Internet

Charles Arthur: The Guardian

Essentials of Search Engine Optimisation

Ian Lockwood:  Ian Lockwood Digital Consultancy

Improving the Ecommerce User Experience

So many factors affect your rankings in the search results, and Google’s Chameleon is another ingredient in the rich soup that can push your website off the top page of the search engine results.

Chameleon is the Google internal codename for what we call “Bossy Google knows best.” It is different to just a simple spell checker.  Chameleon will insert a section into the search results  triggered by what Google has identified as a more appropriate or helpful phrase than what you originally typed in.

If we search for the keyword tenders – a reasonable seach for a business that is starting to investigate potential public sector tender work – we encounter a problem. It appears that Chameleon thinks it is a possibility that we were actually searching for eastenders:

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This isn’t new to Google;  the Chameleon effect was been reported in May 2009 by Matt Cutts, and the Eastenders glitch reported since the  same time.

Aside from the spelling, the relationship between Tenders and Eastenders needs more than a leap of imagination to make the connection.

Chameleon can have a serious effect on your rankings in the search results.  By introducing an additional three search results your own company listing can get knocked off the first page, or for high ranking sites your page could get pushed down “below the fold” so users would have to scroll down to see it.

More importantly, if you were originally ranking number four for the phrase ‘tenders’ you will now have dropped to number seven. Essentially you are now below the fold and this could have a negative impact on your business.

The Chameleon effect crops up in unexpected places.

Try searching for a Crane, and Google proposes Crane Valves. An utterly irrelevant proposal, whether it be for birds or building equipment.

The phrase bulldozer triggers the Chameleon suggestion for bulldozer game

Your Chameleon Action Plan

1.  Research your own keyphrases to see where Chameleon has an effect.

2. Decide whether to optimise for the Chameleon suggested phrases.

3. Likewise, decide whether you need to optimise for spelling mistakes and variations.

+++

Wayne Barker

Google has added a new feature to it’s search functionality that makes it easier for non-English speaking users to type in queries when faced with a foreign language keyboard.

Local versions of Google now offer a “virtual keyboard” lets users type directly into the Google search box using their own local language script.

I don’t know if you have ever travelled abroad and tried to use a non-English keyboard, but I often found myself cutting and pasting search phrases into the search box when faced with a mysterious keyboard.  Even the simplest of tasks are a nightmare: how many of you can reliably find the @ sign on a French keyboard?

Can you imagine the difficulties faced by an Arabic or Hindi or Polish visitor when faced with an English keyboard?

Polish speakers using a UK keyboard will need to use a series of control characters to display their specially accented  character sets. The new virtual keyboard means they can enter these diactritics by using the click of a mouse.

A new small keyboard icon now displays to the right of search box the local version of Google for 35 different languages, including Polish:

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This triggers a virtual keyboard displaying the special character sets:

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And of course for Arabic speakers:

Keyboards are available in Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Basque, Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Finnish, Galician, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Macedonian, Malayalam, Mongolian, Persian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Tatar, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Uzbek.

Read more about the Google Virtual Keyboard on the Official Google Blog.