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 has done it again. It is not done with slapping sites with Panda. It will now go after sites that have too many ads above the fold. Let’s face it. We are all tired of spam-looking websites with too many ads before you get to see any decent content. Google plans to change that:

we’ve heard complaints from users that if they click on a result and it’s difficult to find the actual content, they aren’t happy with the experience. Rather than scrolling down the page past a slew of ads, users want to see content right away. So sites that don’t have much content “above-the-fold” can be affected by this change. If you click on a website and the part of the website you see first either doesn’t have a lot of visible content above-the-fold or dedicates a large fraction of the site’s initial screen real estate to ads, that’s not a very good user experience. Such sites may not rank as highly going forward.

But wait. Don’t above the fold ads perform well? Wouldn’t this be a killer for publishers who rely on ads to stay afloat. Google claims it won’t be going after sites with a normal number of ads in that area.

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

Google encourages webmasters to use tools such as Browser Size to figure out whether they could be in trouble. You should also circle today’s date and check your Analytics results to see whether there has been a major drop in your rankings. Making changes to your site layout won’t make an immediate difference. But Google takes note of it as its crawlers go through your content again.

Google is not going to stop making changes to its algorithm. It is expected to introduce 500+ improvements to its system. This is just one of those. So brace yourselves.

The tool is pretty simple to use. It tracks your Facebook likes, shares, and comments. It also totals the number of tweets and +1′s have received. Shared Count also covers LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Google Buzz stats. Of course, this is not exactly a fancy tool with a ton of eye candy options. But it does save you time tracking your total shares.

People should stop worrying about whether Google+ will surpass Facebook in the long run. There are better ways to spend your time. Focusing on getting the most out of Google+ is a much better idea. Here are just 5 reasons why Google+ matters:

• affects rankings: getting shared or +1′d on Google+ may not push your rankings all the way to #1. At the same time, every little positive signal will have an effect. Besides, publishers can learn a lot from the feedback the community gives their content.
• helps you find ideas: content has always been king and remains so. It is true that you have to promote your content to get the most out of your great work. But you first have to write new killer content on a regular basis. The discussions on Google+ can give you some ideas.
• builds your community: in order for your content portal to succeed, you need more than great content. Creating a solid community around your work is a good approach. Google+ is one of services you can use to achieve that.
• connects you with power hitters: Google+ makes it so easy to keep up with the top dogs in your industry. Just circle them to keep up with their updates. You can learn a lot from watching the top dogs in your market.
• offers intangibles: so what are the intangibles? Your stories could always go viral on Google+. You may find new, loyal visitors for your site from your Google+ efforts. Best of all, you can use Google+ to get your new content portal a faster start. The sky’s the limit.

Google+, like it or not, matters. The sooner you dedicate some time to it, the better off you will be.

We all want to know about the latest SEO tactics people are using to get an edge over others (white hat stuff of course). There is only so much you can learn from books and blogs. Studying what successful sites are doing is the best way to pick up useful nuggets you can use in your own business. Flippa is a site marketplace that could give you ideas. Everyday, many new sites are listed in this market for sale. By studying some of the things the top sites in that market have, you can see what your own site is missing. Here are 5 things we can all learn by studying Flippa:

• link building: those of you who have studied Flippa have probably been surprised to see how some lousy domains or sites are getting ranked high for major terms on Google. By analyzing their link building campaigns, it is not that hard to figure out what they are doing right.
• market tips: want to start a new website to dedicate your SEO efforts to? Maybe you want to see what others are doing in your market to stay relevant? Flippa sites can show you all that.
• content tips: wonder what you have been doing wrong all along on your site? Not all sites on Flippa are worth studying. But if you look hard enough, you can find some gems that could teach you a thing or two about content marketing.
• site structure: setting up your website the right way is necessary if you want to maximize your site’s SEO opportunities. Without the right internal structure, you will have a hard time sustaining high search engine rankings. Exploring Flippa will teach you a lot on how to approach this right.
• metrics: I don’t know about you but I don’t plan to maintain all 200 my sites forever (maybe keep a handful of them). If you want to sell your website down the road, you should pay attention to the metrics people will look at to determine how valuable your website is. Flippa is one of the best places for this information.

Flippa is not just for buying and selling websites. It is a goldmine for information on how to optimize sites for search engines and make them more attractive to sellers. You won’t have to pay a penny to do your research.

Google offers two cool tools for those of you interested in promoting your G+ profile. The tool pictured above provides you with the button that links to your G+ profile. As you can see in the code, rel=”me” and rel=”author” properties are already implemented in this code. You have multiple image sizes to choose from.

Want to shorten your Google+ profile? Gplus.to is just the tool for that. Just provide it with your nick name and Google+ ID to create your vanity URL to display on Twitter and other social networks. If you are already hooked on Google+, the above tools can only simplify your life on this network.

Search Engine Land has put together an amazing chart that shows some of the factors you may want to pay attention to to customer your website for the search engines. It does not tell us things we don’t know. For instance, we all know thin affiliate sites are going to get smashed by Google. It is very clear that black hat tactics have their own risks and are not something reputable businesses want to follow. Still, this is a nice chart to have to keep reminding yourself what’s important for your SEO efforts.

It is still astounding to me that Google does not ban the Adsense accounts of those who steal other people’s content. If someone is found to be stealing someone else’s content, there needs to be major repercussions. At this point, publishers have the option to report such content to Google and have them removed from the search engines. But there needs to be a 2-strike rule where content thieves are not able to make money from other people’s work.

Affiliate networks should have the same approach. Companies make a big deal out of music piracy. So why is it that stealing other people’s content seems fine? Don’t get me wrong. I am all for free content and sharing things with others for free. But stealing content without giving links back and then monetizing the work through Adsense is unacceptable.

Will Google ever adopt a much harsher approach against content thieves? Should the company compensate the original publishers once content thieves are caught making money from their content using Adsense? This is all a slippery slope. Don’t count on that happening anytime soon.

Some folks have used widgets with hidden links in the past to inflate their search engine rankings. The trouble is, Google will find your hidden links and discount them. As JohnMu put it to a webmaster:

In particular, if you’re aware that you were providing hidden links like that to webmasters to embed on their sites, then I think you should work as hard as possible to contact all affected webmasters and to work with them to have those links removed. I realize this is not an easy task, but it was you who provided them with content that goes against our Webmaster Guidelines, potentially causing issues on their sites as well, so I think it would only be fair to help them to resolve an issue like that.

Link Juice Keeper is a simple to use WordPress plugin that 301 redirects non-existent pages to your home page. This plugin makes sure that all non-existent and broken URLs are redirected to your home page. Of course, this solution is not always the ideal situation. You also want to use custom redirects if you are changing your permalinks or making changes to specific URLs on your website.

Before using Link Juice Keeper, you want to make sure it is compatible with other plugins you may have on your site. It does work as promised though.