Does a users choice of browser, and more specifically how compatible a site is with multiple browsers, influence Google’s PageRank algorithm (how much PageRank a website is ‘awarded’)?

The simple is no.

PageRank is based on the number of links pointing to your site & how reputable those links are (how much ‘weight’ they carry in Google’s eyes.)

In other words, PageRank is based on how many links & the quality of those links towards your website. To quote Google’s Matt Cutts “it is completely independent of the content of your site”.

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t take cross-browser compatibility (ensuring your site works on multiple browsers) in to account … of course you should!

In fact I’d argue that ensuring your site is compatible in all common browsers (and all fairly new versions of those browsers) is much more important than explicitly worrying about PageRank (see my article on why PageRank doesn’t matter).

Tags: browser, google, pagerank, seo thunder

Few have heard of the company NTP yet their patented technology is used in the fundamental operation of some of the most common technologies.

NTP have launched a lawsuit against Google, Apple, Microsoft, LG, HTC & Motorola for infringing on eight of their patents relating to the delivery of email to mobile devices (over wireless communication systems).

NTP have come under widespread criticism for aggressively enforcing it’s patents even though they don’t practice them.

I understand to a point how people can think it unfair that one individual or company can own the right to a capability … but surely that’s what patents were designed for? Therefore if you had thought of it first, you’d own the patent and you’d be just a little bit annoyed if someone was using it without your permission / without paying the license fee??

Tags: apple, google, HTC, LG, Microsoft, mobile email, Motorola, news, ntp, seo thunder

This is probably the most simple explanation I’ve seen yet of how Google PPC bidding works & how increasing / improving certain factors within your ads to make them better for users will actually lower your overall PPC spend.

Essentially a higher quality, more targeted & more well written ad will attract a higher click through rate & therefore improve the ad rank quality score. The actual cost per click is determined by the quality score of the ad & the maximum cost per click … therefore a higher quality score means a lower cost per click and higher ad rankings. A win/win situation.

Tags: ad quality, google, google ppc, pay per click, ppc, quality score

Why Google PageRank Doesn’t Matter

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What is PageRank (PR)?

Google’s pagerank is a measure created by Google of a sites trustworthiness in the eyes of Google.

It is important to realise that PageRank applies to each individual page on a site & is not a sitewide value. One page can be PR 5 and another could have no PR.

Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important”.

That is why you’ll hear search engine professionals talking about how a single link from an authority (high PR) site can be worth more than lots of links for a low PR site.

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What? Two Versions?

Google has two versions of PageRank, a publically displayed metric and an internal value that they do not release to the public.

The public version is only updated once every 3 months or so (there’s even rumours that it only gets updated once a year).

Therefore the public toolbar PR is almost always out of date by up to 3 months.

That’s reason #1 why your PR doesn’t matter.

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Rankings & PageRank

It is well known in the search marketing industry that good (high) pagerank doesn’t equate to good (high) rankings. A PR 0 site can easily outrank a PR4 or PR5 site (and above).

Therefore concentrating on building PageRank in the hope that it will automatically convert into higher rankings for your keyphrases is a waste of time.

That’s reason #2 why PR doesn’t matter.

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Pagerank alone doesn’t pay the bills, it doesn’t generate enquiries, sales or conversions. A little green bar will never make your business or website a success, no matter how optimistic you are.

A great site with a PR0 doesn’t make it a bad site. It may be a new site, have had recent server problems (downtime) or the toolbar itself may be reporting bad data.

As has been said many times before, concentrate on building quality content that people will want to share with others & build your inbound links to get rankings that bring traffic, the PageRank will follow … but if it doesn’t … so what?!!?!

PS. You don’t just have to take my word for it, most SEO experts agree on this. Here, and here and even here.

Tags: google, google PR, pagerank

How do I disable Google Sitelinks (Additional Sublinks)

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If you’re wondering how to get sitelinks in the first place, read my Google sitelinks / sublinks article.

If you already have sitelinks for particular phrases I’d suggest you’re extremely lucky and are clearly an established site & a leader in your area (at least in Google’s eyes). I’d also suggest that sitelinks are a google thing as you are taking up more pages real estate than you’re competitors and that can only be a good thing.

However, should you wish you may opt out of the feature and indeed remove your sitelinks.

Removing Sitelinks – Additional Google Sublinks

1. Sign up for a Google Webmaster account.
2. Add & authenticate your website.
3. Under Site configuration, click Sitelinks. If we have sitelinks information for your site, we’ll display a list of sitelinks.
4. Click Block next to the sitelink you want to remove. Please let us know why you want to block the sitelink – it will help us improve the way we generate and display sitelinks.

It’s worth noting that once you’ve done this, it may take some time for your sitelinks to disappear.

Once you’ve blocked a sitelink, it won’t appear in the Google search results for 90 days. This period will be extended every time you visit the Sitelinks page on Webmaster Tools.

Tags: disable sitelinks, google, google sitelinks, search engine optimisation, seo

How to tell if you may be in the sandbox

1. The site is on a new domain and less than about 1 year old
2. The keywords you are trying to rank on are considered competitive.
3. Most of the pages of the site has been indexed by Google.
4. The site ranks well for its’ competitive keywords in Yahoo and MSN
5. The site ranks well for the non-competitive keywords on Google.
6. The Googlebot visits and crawls the site on a regular basis.
7. The site ranks well for an allinanchor:”your keywords” search.
8. The site has a decent number of unique IBL’s and an OK PR
9. The site does not have anything known to cause a ban or penalty.
10. The site has decent SEO
11. The site does not rank in the top 300-400 for it’s main keyword.

If your site does not have all 11 things I listed above, then you just rank poorly.

Taken from here.

Tags: google, google sandbox, sandbox checker