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+++