Overdoing url removals

If you have a lot of urls that you don’t want in Google anymore, you can make the pages return a 404 and wait for Googlebot to recrawl/reindex the pages. This is often the best way. You can also block out an entire directory or a whole site in robots.txt and then use our url removal tool to remove the entire directory from Google’s search results.

What I would not recommend is sending tons (as in, thousands or even tens of thousands) of individual url removal requests to the url removal tool. And I would definitely not recommend making lots (as in, dozens or even more) of Webmaster Central accounts just to remove your own urls. If we see that happening to a point that we consider excessive or abusive, we reserve the right to look at those requests and responding by e.g. broadening, cancelling, or narrowing the requests.

So if you’re sending huge numbers of requests to our url removal tool, it might be a good idea to take a step back and ask whether you should be removing at the directory level instead.

Source: Overdoing url removals

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5 Common Web Design Mistakes

There are a few common web design mistakes that you should try to avoid. Here are a few points that will help you understand what you should try not to do.

1. Try to avoid PDF files for online reading: Users don’t like it when they come across a PDF file while browsing. It diverts the flow as they navigate through the website. The PDF format can be a great choice for digital and print media but not so good for online media. The print options can be tricky to a few. Not all browsers support viewing a PDF file online. Scrolling and navigating within the file is another daunting task.
2. Use a different color for visited links: Most internet users are in a hurry when it comes to finding something they want. The navigation links play a key role in this area. Users browse through different pages simultaneously. It is very irritating to look into the same page again and again. This is primarily because there is nothing to alert them that the particular page has already been visited. Therefore, it is very important that you change the color of the visited links. This reduces the bounce rate to a great extent and also gives the viewers a pleasant browsing experience.
3. Make font sizes adjustable: The user’s ability to resize the font size is another thing to consider. Many websites these days are designed using smaller fonts. For the website viewers who are above the age of 40, things become uncomfortable. It is always advisable to make the design in such a way the users are able to customize the font sizes for better readability.
4. Don’t overdo it with the advertisements: User’s lose interest and learn to ignore unnecessary banners or ads on the page. All they want is a solution to their problems and the information they require. It is not just the advertisements that they ignore but anything that looks like an ad can be ignored as well. Therefore it is advisable not to include a lot of irrelevant ads on the page unless it is very important or goes along with the content. Excessive blinking, animation texts and images, and pop-ups are also things that should be avoided.
5. Provide feedback forms: It is very important to design feedback forms or contact forms inside the website and above everything, respond properly. A website terribly fails if proper feedback is not given or if the visitor’s queries are not addressed at the right time.

Source: http://bit.ly/fp5Gbb

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3 ways to tap into The Power of Social Media

Over 75% of consumers use social media in some form, so if you're not using it you may be missing out on a big opportunity. Getting involved doesn't have to be complicated. Here are three things you can do to get in the game.

Start a blog: Blogs are easy to create and easy to maintain - with tools like wordpress or blogspot, you don't even need to consult a webmaster. The key is to create high-quality content that is relevant to your target audience. Keep it consistent and keep it real. Other than that, just have fun with it! Some suggestions for blog posts include:

• Industry-specific tips and insights
• Special offers or give-aways
• Analysis of recent news items
• Product tutorials
• Humorous anecdotes
• Interviews with employees, customers or partners

Start a Facebook page: Facebook is one of the most popular sites in the world (along with Google). To get started, simply create a Facebook page where you can post updates, link to your blog articles, and receive feedback from your customers. As you post relevant content and interact with customers on your Facebook page, your fan base and your revenue will grow.

Post videos on YouTube: If a picture is worth a 1,000 words, a video must be worth 1,000 pictures (and 1,000,000 words)! Plus videos get priority in search engine results and allow you to show a little personality. Start with a company overview or a product demonstration and build your video library from there.

If you implement these social media elements in your marketing, you'll be pleasantly surprised by the raving fans waiting for you.

Source: http://bit.ly/f9nawM

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Google Takes on Content Farms: What Does it Mean for SEO?

The Google attack on content farms is a prime example of why sites need to take a diversified SEO approach. Sites that were relying on links solely from content marketing efforts suddenly found that a lot of links are now attached to sites that Google views as spam. Link credit (aka link juice) can have a substantial impact on a site’s trust factor. If a site’s inbound links are now associated with content farms, they lose part of their trust factor.

Content marketing got a lot of attention as a critical component of SEO. And once something is considered an important factor, that’s when the spammers and black hat SEO types swoop in and try to game the system. Since content marketing has taken a hit with the “Farmer Update”, websites should take some time away from content marketing and focus on other components of their link building plan. That is not to say that you should give up on producing a company blog or developing quality content. It just means that major content sites that were adversely affected by the update will have some sorting out to do before they can begin to publish new content. Hopefully the sites that were wrongly labeled as content farms will re-earn their spots in the search results.

Other sites were affected by the update because, while they may have had decent content, they may have had too many Adsense Ads or ads in general that are cluttering the page. The number of ads feeds into the overall user-experience, and a lot of ads comes across as spammy. Too many ads can kill the quality and usability of the content. However, Google hasn’t laid down a clear line of what constitutes “too many” ads. This has many site owners frustrated, as the feel like they’ve been unfairly penalized for trying to monetize their site.

Source: http://bit.ly/g1vDNI

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Fastest Way To Generate Traffic

To get the largest amount of traffic, keep the largest percentage of the traffic you do get, and to establish a stable long term traffic flow a number of different things need to be combined

• Quality Domain Name
• Quality SEO Rich Website Design
• Quality Dynamic Content
• Local Marketing (Newspapers, Business Cards, Friends, Networking, etc)
• Quality Forum Memberships and Participating
• Quality Do-follow and No-Follow Blog Commenting (Especially on Related Topics)
• Social Networking on the Web (Twitter, FaceBook, and the like)
• Ethical Marketing and Business Practices Only!

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