There was a time when backlinking was the best technique for SEO. However, things have changed now and website administrators who do not oblige by the Webmaster Guidelines of Google can get their sites penalised or removed from search results. However, the guidelines also mention the permissible means that administrators can adopt for SEO.

Blogging – Blogging regularly is the simplest way to start backlinking campaign. It is effective and continuous process that does not go off the book irrespective of how mature the website has become. Besides, informative and concise blogs are much likely to be shared through social networks by the readers.

Content without Text – Text is integral to most online content. However, media like Instagram, YouTube, etc. have introduced new means of communicating with each other; i.e., through images, audios and videos. Webmasters can create infographics to reap the benefits of their popularity.

Education – Educating visitors online is in high demand. Instructive contents regarding doing something such as “how to do…?” There are many seekers of such articles and hence they are effective for SEO.

Resourceful Content – It is a long-term strategy but draws steady backlinking. Content can be called a resource only when it is more informative and more concise than those available on other websites. For instance, contents of Wikipedia have acquired the status of resource and are mostly at the top of Google Search result.

Wikipedia – Although all businesses are not allowed on it, those that are should have an entry into ‘the free encyclopaedia’.

While building websites, people make use of SEO for optimization purpose. Doing so, webmasters have to confront the problem with bad links. If links from illegitimate websites points towards any website, search ranking of that website reduces significantly. The bad part is, legitimate websites too get punished. Google unfortunately does not provide bad links instances while sending notices to various websites.

While adopting SEO strategies, reconsideration requests are sent out by webmasters asking for explanation regarding what causes the problem. But, the system has been developed in such a way that instead of explanation it can answer with “Processed”, “Yes” and “No”.

Matt Cutts, renowned Google engineer advices that webmasters can take help from the forum specially dedicated towards webmasters tools. Suggestions and advices are offered by experienced webmasters. Tools available there also provide illegitimate links examples, perfect for those concerned with website ranking and functionality.

The system is not fully equipped and lacks transparency as stated by Cutts. Spammers have increased by leaps and bounds which is actually a big reason behind the system being like this. However, he also stated Google has started working on the development of different tools that will assist towards handling illegitimate links. Removing links cannot be considered an easy task but if a webmaster wants to boost the ranking of his/her website then the methodology should be adopted.

Till the release of new tools by Google, webmasters must carry on with whatever is available to them currently and make legitimate ways of increasing search rankings.

Picture credit: sxc.hu

Matt Cutts, the chief of web-spam team at Google, has provided further insights into SEO. This time, he dealt with certain misconceptions after addressing the issue about rel=author. A user questioned whether Google evaluates how SEOs use rel=author and will it penalise the website where it is use without the existence of article.

The answer to the question was straight affirmative, which means penalty is very much a possibility. Google will monitor the execution of rel=author and implement modifications whenever it is found necessary. He described that it is an impactful step in the battle against spam. Blackhat SEO and other shady techniques of spam are bound to become tougher when the content will feature authors defined for them. It will help track noteworthy comments as well as eradicate all spam tactics. Continue reading →