Web Search Results Required

Clients have approached me on a countless occasion requiring web search results over the actual web design/development. Web site owners rather keep their out dated content, old layout, old infrastructure, old coding and expect a Search Engine Optimization to place them number 1 on Google search index.

The problem with that assumption is that Google updates its search engine index algorithm monthly if not weekly (possibly daily). The algorithm is constantly evolving and including the latest technologies, trends and social data gathering. More importantly, Google’s main search prerogative is the actual content/information. In simple terms, if your content is 5 years old, and you spend your budget on Search Engine Optimization (SEO), it won’t be significant enough for Google to care.

CONTENT IS KEY

PRO TIP: Before attacking SEO, consider changing and or updating your websites content. Google likes updated content, coding, and technology.

Search Engine Indexing: Alexa takes out reviews

If you are a web designer-developer you have heard of Alexa. Alexa is in a way a premium version of Google Analytics. It also provides you with a detailed statistical data of your website.

One of the features that it had was “reviews”. You were able to review other websites that were ranked in the Alexa system. This is no secret but if you had an account with Alexa and had your domains added to your Alexa account and you ended up reviewing other websites your ranking would improve significantly. For example if I left a positive review for Bing.com and Google.com I would see my personal domains get bumped. Alexa will of course deny such a practice but it was evident that it would “help” to leave positive reviews for other domains.

The other issue is that there were services that provided for $ to leave positive reviews for your website. Of course again, that would improve your Alexa ranking even further versus if you left positive reviews yourself.

Alexa has finally decided to take “reviews” out of the equation. If you go on any website under the reviews section you will receive a message that the feature was retired.

There are of course other methods of manipulating Alexa’s rating system, I shall leave that for another article.