We understand that placing ads above-the-fold is quite common for many websites; these ads often perform well and help publishers monetize online content. This algorithmic change does not affect sites who place ads above-the-fold to a normal degree, but affects sites that go much further to load the top of the page with ads to an excessive degree or that make it hard to find the actual original content on the page. This new algorithmic improvement tends to impact sites where there is only a small amount of visible content above-the-fold or relevant content is persistently pushed down by large blocks of ads.

Of course, Google is quite hypocritical with this approach. The company literally makes a ton of money by shoving ads down our throats. Now, don’t get me wrong. There are folks who do not contribute anything special to the Internet and slap ads all over their pages just to make a buck or two. But some legitimate webmasters will be ruined by this latest policy by Google (let’s not forget that the company does not exactly like affiliate ads either).

With this latest move, Google continues its war against small publishers. No one argues that all publishers need to have a real business plan. But to penalize sites heavily this way while Google’s search results are filled with ads is quite alarming. Now here is the kicker. Even if you update your layout and move your ads somewhere where nobody will click on, Google won’t re-instate your rankings. It will take the search engine time to go through your pages to reflect layout changes.

Google is not small publishers’ best friend. These latest algorithm changes prove just that. But they are not something to cry about. No matter how Google penalizes your website, you always have a way to comeback by getting more active on social networking sites and adding more quality content to your site. Hoping to get free traffic from Google forever does not equate to a real business plan (which should include a real SEO strategy) anyway. At the end of the day, Google is a public company that does what is right for its shareholders. Content publishers should do the same.

Google+ is a growing community. It may not have as many members as Facebook and Twitter yet. But the community is expected to reach new heights in the next couple of years. Considering that it is being run by Google, you’d be out of your mind not to invest some time building your presence in this community.

Google+ can be a game changer for your SEO efforts. It could not only help your pages get indexed faster, it may also drive a lot of traffic to your website. Here are 5 ways you can use Google+ to boost your SEO efforts:

• Make your profile SEO friendly: this should go without saying. The basics of SEO apply here. You should make sure your profile has the keywords important to you at the top and everywhere else. You need to be a bit creative here. Don’t forget to add your site links to the links section on your profile.
• Become an authority: this could be a game changer for your website. If you can build trust for yourself by sharing valuable content on Google+, you will have an easier time getting your content the attention it deserves. Becoming an authority does take a lot effort though.
• Link to your website: sharing other people’s stories and commenting on them is a must if you want to be successful on Google+. You should also promote your own work on your profile from time to time. Just don’t overdo it.
• Build solid relationships: let’s face it. Who you know does matter when you are trying to make your SEO campaign as successful as possible. If you manage to build solid relationships with heavy-hitters on Google+, you may get some link love or mention from them.
• Add social buttons and badges to your website: this is a must-do step. Google provides Google+ members with a number of buttons and badges. You should directly link your pages to your site too. Don’t forget to use rel=”author” property to give people more information about your content.

Google+ has not reached its full potential yet. The time to get involved on it is now.

Many webmasters constantly worry about losing their search engine rankings. That is a huge issue to be concerned about if you make the majority of your revenue from monetizing your search traffic. Too many webmasters try to take shortcuts when it comes to developing their portals. By having great content on your website all the time, you will have an easier time staying relevant in the SERPs. Here are 6 ways to develop killer content for your website:

• Do your research: articles that are not well researched won’t get your website too much attention. Your goal as a webmaster should be to build credibility for your business with your work. So don’t cut corners when it comes to doing research.
• Use social media to your advantage: going back to the previous point, social sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ are all great for doing trend analysis and research. You should not only use to promote your posts but also improve their quality.
• Keep it simple: if you want your articles to get more attention, you should try to keeps things simple for your readers. Don’t make things super complicated for your visitors.
• Pay attention to layout: you may have the best content on your website. But if you do not take time to improve its layout and make it look professional, you may not get too many people to spread your content for you.
• Add videos, photos, …: research has shown that posts that include photos, videos, and audio content get more attention on the Internet. Writing great articles is certainly a good skill. But you should mix things up on your site.
• Be a leader: this goes without saying. Being just a follower in the web publishing business won’t get you too far. Don’t be afraid to push the envelop and try new things on your website.
• Keep things fresh: if Google’s “freshness” algorithm has not made you to write more frequently for your site, I don’t know what will. Having fresh, killer content on your website is the best way to make your site Google-algorithm proof.

Creating great content for your website is not as easy as some make it to be. But the more time you invest on creating great content, the better chance you have of avoiding ranking drops on Google or other search engines.

Many webmasters have been wondering about the limits of what Google quality raters can do. Can they possibly cause a site to lose its rankings? Some have speculated that if multiple quality raters raise a red flag on a URL, it would lose its ranking. Matt Cutts has taken time to debunk that:

PotPieGirl goes on to speculate: “However, I do believe that if a certain percentage of raters mark one url as spam or non-relevant, that it does throw up some type of flag in the system that can cause something to happen to that url. Now I naturally do not KNOW this, but I get that sneaky feeling.”

That feeling is unfounded. Even if multiple search quality raters mark something as spam or non-relevant, that doesn’t affect a site’s rankings or throw up a flag in the url that would affect that url.

So you may be wondering what it takes for a site to lose its rankings?

But the search quality raters are strictly “read-only”–they don’t directly affect our rankings in any way. If you think about it, you definitely wouldn’t want to spamfight on the same queries that you’re using to evaluate your quality: you’d get skewed quality metrics as a result.

Make no mistake about it. Google does take action on spam sites manually and algorithmically. But getting red flagged by one rater or two does not “directly” affect rankings. The lessons learned from the feedback provided by raters could definitely cost some their rankings though.

This cheat sheet does not cover everything but shows you enough to make you dangerous with Google Search.

[via Mashable]

Make sure you choose the right category for your page. Don’t forget to include information about your company and its products in your page description. The basics of SEO apply here. Using bold text and keywords in your profile is a must. You should also take time to promote your pages. Google provides buttons and badges to help page admins out.

As always you should track your traffic and have a real content strategy to get the most out of your Google+ page. Putting a page together right away, putting great content on it, and promoting it are good initial steps to take.

Of course, making occasional grammatical and spelling errors does not necessary make your work less valuable. I highly doubt it will ever be a direct ranking factor. After all, there are always going to be false positives. We all make grammar and spelling errors from time to time. Just because a site does not have these errors does not mean it has more value to offer to searchers. I prefer Google ranks pages based on +1 and other social signals rather than using shallow factors such as spelling.

What do you think? Should Google use grammar and spelling to rank sites?

Looking ahead, as we continue to publish articles for eHow and our other sites, we want to be sure we are building on what already exists, not replicating it. This is not to say we will stop assigning standard titles in How to and Topic View format for eHow.com. But it does mean that we will have fewer eHow.com assignments for the foreseeable future.

The traffic coming from some of these sites has dropped dramatically in the past few months. Ezine Articles used to send us a ton of traffic. Not so much after Google Panda updates. There are so many webmasters who have shared their success secrets when it comes to getting their rankings back in the post-Panda world. Almost all of these folks have managed to do so by removing junk content, optimizing the link structure of their website, and investing time in adding more quality content to their sites.

Google is going to make it harder for spammers or junk content professionals to make a living. It won’t stop them completely. But if you intend to make a real business out of your content publishing efforts, you should focus on improving the quality and not the quantity of articles on your site.

Installing Facebook Comments is not that difficult. You can grab the appropriate code from Facebook. You have the option to change color scheme, width, and the number of posts shown on your site. The only downside to using Facebook comments is the fact that you won’t get as much SEO benefits as you do from comments hosted on your own site. A plugin is available for this service too.

Should you install Facebook comments on your website? Considering that millions of people are using that social network, it may be worth a try. It could improve the quality of your traffic and get more people from Facebook involved on your website. It should not hurt to try for a bit.

Has Google decided to throw smaller publishers under the bus, since it is easier and perhaps safer to rank larger news sites republishing the mom & pop content? When a small site works hard to break a news story, only to have it republished by a well known news site, Google used to promise it could figure out which was the original. “trust us” to “sort it out”, they said. That seems to have changed.

This is something I very much agree with. Since the implementation of Google Panda changes, small publishers have a very difficult time competing with the big boys. We are not a small publisher by any means but even our company has had to fight hard and spend more than we ever to have any chance of staying competitive.  Let’s not forget that people are now gaming Facebook, Twitter, and G+ to get their content ranked higher than legitimate websites.

Will Google change its approach in the future? That is not very likely the way this has been going. Google has way too much power and has become even stronger with its recent acquisitions. With Google getting in the deal business, it will be interesting to see how deal companies cope. At this point, the best way to deal with Google is by putting your eggs in multiple baskets. The days of “write it and they will come” seem to be over.