Hidden links definition

Hidden links refer to links within the content of a web page that are deliberately hidden from the human user, designed only to be seen by the Search Engine spiders. This is often referred to as a black hat technique.

So why would you want to have links only visibile to a search engine spider? Ultimately the purpose of these links is to do deceive the search engine spider, and the link will take the spider to a page that has content created especially with SEO in mind, and often is unreleated to the content that the human user sees.

Methods of hidden links includes having links in very small font (unreadable to human users) or on small symbols such as full stops. A classic example was also to include white text on a white background etc.

Using hidden links will definitely lead to your site being penalised by the Search Engines as they are very wise to these techniques. In the worst case scenario you will get your site removed from the search engine index entirely.

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Guidelines for SEO content writing

There are lots of things to consider when writing content for your website. Arguably the most important aspect is successfully deploying your keywords.

Once you have completed your keyword research and analysis, you need to deploy your keywords into your site content. The main thing to remember is that this content is intended for a human user, not the search engine. This means that your end content should be readable, and definitely NOT written for a search engine robot. David Viney (a well known SEO expert) states:

The acid test is if it reads well for a human user. If it does and follows the three basic rules (prominence, proximity, and density) then the search engine spiders (robot browsers, also known as crawlers, or Googlebots on Google) will love you. If, alternatively, your keyword stuffing would make a user laugh (or cry), then you are running the very real risk of failure.

The three basic rules for deploying your keywords, as mentioned earlier, are:

  • keyword prominence
  • keyword proximity
  • keyword density

Keyword prominence, in the absence of HTML markup, refers to how words at the front of the analysed text is deemed more important than text further away from the front. Consider these two page title formats:

  1. Company name - Service
  2. Service - Company name

In terms of prominence, the first title puts the prominence on the company name. If this was the only factor involved the site would rank higher for the company name, and vice-versa for the second title. Additionally, keywords should be included within the following elements:

  • pages titles
  • heading tags
  • body content
  • ALT tags

Page titles and h1 tags have the greatest onpage ranking, as does the first paragraph of your body text. The ALT tags are arguably of much less value, however we would recommend using every opportunity to include your chosen keywords.

Keyword proximity refers to how close your keywords that make up your keyphrases are to each other. It is not always possible to have your keyphrases written out and still have good, readable content. However, where possible these keywords should be kept as close together as possible and preferably in the right order.

Keyword density is the remaining factor search engines use to determine keyword importance. The aim is to have a density of around 2-4% for each keyphrase - anymore than that and your site will start to look suspicious (appear as a SPAM site to a search engine robot) and you could be penalised for keyword stuffing. To check your keyword density there are many free tools available on the web such as this one:

Keyword density tool

Additionally, you should try and get 100% density in important elements such as your h1 titles. Consider these 2 titles:

  1. Huge selection of mobile phones
  2. Mobile phones

If the keyword is “mobile phones”, the first title has a density of 40% compared to the second which has a density of 100%.

SEO content writing is a specialised skill, and you often have to strike a balance between how far you optimise your content for search engines and how readable the content is. For static pages we would recommend using an SEO content writer or consultant, as this can make a big difference to your site traffic and conversions.

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Google dance definition

Google used to update their index quite regularly (in the past this would occur roughly once per month), and as a result, the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) rankings would fluctuate. This was often referred to as the ‘Google Dance’, and would go hand in hand with some panicky phone calls from clients to their SEO companies asking why their position had dropped several places.

Google has now changed to a ‘constantly updating index’ so there is no longer the ‘Google Dance’ occurance.

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Google malicious website checker goes haywire

Despite spending most of my working week sat in front of a computer, I have been spending much of my saturday on my laptop in my front room. While searching for some new fonts, I noticed that ALL the websites shown in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) had the warning “this site may be harmful for your computer”. One of the websites in the list was well known to me, so I knew that it was safe to continue. This took me to a warning page where I had to paste the link of the page into my address bar, as it wouldn’t let me continue any further.

Slightly perplexed as to why this site had been marked as potentially harmful, I checked Google for a few other keywords. Indeed all the websites that appeared in the SERPs (including my own and some well known sites such as the BBC website, the Met Office etc) all had the same warning. The only sites that weren’t marked included YouTube and other Google owned sites.

So it would appear Google’s algorithm for checking the trustworthiness of a website had temporarily gone down - possibly signalling an update or some downtime. It will be interesting to find out what changes were made and how many people were affected during the downtime.

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Virgin announces 50Mb broadband

virgin-50mb-broadband1

You may already have seen the advert on TV with Samuel Jackson, but Virgin Media have announced their new 50Mb broadband package! This is made possible by optical fibre cables, but also means that for now this service is going to be limited to just a few based on their area.

So what’s so good about 50Mb broadband? Most people can get up to 8Mb connection speeds, so will you notice a big difference? The answer in no uncertain terms is yes. Check out just a few of these statistics:

- Estimated time for downloading a music album in MP3 format is 11 seconds
- Estimated time for downloading a movie is 3 minutes
- Standard videos such as YouTube can be watched with no need to buffer the video
- HD quality video can be streamed online
- Demanding sites will run super fast
- Online gaming performance will be uncomprimised

The connection also allows multiple users to take part in demanding online activities at the same time within a home. This is something I would have very much appreciated in my student days, sharing a 512Kb connection with 3 friends!

The service starts at just £35 a month, although after using the postcode checker I have yet to find an area that supports the service. I have been offered a 20Mb service as an alternative which is fast, but a bit of a shame after they got me so excited about the 50Mb service. I think it’s a great offering, but it will be a while before we all get to enjoy streaming HD videos online.

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