Am I banned?

This is the first question most people ask when their traffic drops, and their web pages fall of the Search Engine Results Pages. Google had an unforgiving attitude in the past. They have recently fixed their rules, and made it possible for webmasters to resubmit their web sites for a new review.

Complete article on Banned By Google, Do not Fear

The foundation of any SEO/SEM campaign is keyword research. Quality of keyword search can make, or break, an SEO firm’s reputation. There are dozens of good keyword tools available. Most of these analyze keywords, harvest keywords from the competition, and offer a weighted value.

Google just released a new tool that offers a bar graph showing the amount of advertiser competition as it relates to AdWord PPC campaigns. The Google tool now offers a monthly ‘approximate search volume.’

Complete article on Google Improves Keyword Search Tool

If you’ve ever tried checking rankings in the search engines, and find yourself counting down the list to see what number position you’re website is in, you’ll understand why I went searching for another way. Since I use Google the most, I first found a script from the guys at Added Bytes that numbers the Google search results like this:

Complete article on Numbered Search Results and Other Custom Google Hacks

Google Lively is the new virtual world launched in Beta version. It’s like the Sims and a chat room rolled into one. You can choose an avatar (body), design your own room and chat in real-time with others. But, you’re not just limited to chat, you can also show feelings like anger, sadness, and joy, and interact with other Lively members with a hug, slap, choke, tickle, and even propose marriage!

So, while Google is new on the scene with Lively, virtual worlds have been around for a few years now. The most popular is Second Life . Second Life , a five-year veteran to the virtual world, has a huge following, infrastructure, economy, and exists like a parallel universe. While a basic account is free, you will have to pay a monthly membership fee to own land, build homes or company buildings.

Although Google Lively has only been available for a few days, criticism is already mounting against the search giant for a more dumbed-down version of Second Life. Here are some of the criticisms: Complete article on Is Google Lively Any Match for Second Life?

Google’s newest version of Google Trends is now live. The tool still have the ability to show ecommerce business owners how popular particular search terms are across geographic regions and languages. The latest update include numbers on a graph that is downloaded to an excel spreadsheet.

This is possibly one of the most powerful, free keyword analytical tools available. In the first graph you’ll notice that I’ve added several SEO/eMarketing keywords. When I start analyzing keywords, I start at the lowest common denominator and work my way up. You’ll notice in the following chart that SEM was once an unused term. IT has been growing dramatically in the last 12 months. The last half of 2007 saw an increased exposure of the word eMarketing. However, notice that Internet Marketing is fast falling from the ‘user’s’ eye.
Complete article on Using Google’s Web Trends for Keyword Research

Google finally admitted to the existence of the ‘-60 penalty.’ This is not news to anyone who saw Google destroy their link campaign efforts last September, or saw their search engine placement plummet January 12, 2008.

This penalty pushes a web page/web site down sixty places, to penalize what Google considers bad links. The problem is, Google changes the rules so often, even the SEO pros are left scrambling to figure out what Google wants.

The two most common reasons for being banned are duplicate content and using non-Google PPC programs.
Complete article on Surviving Google’s Penalties

Matt Cutts made a ten-minute keynote speech, at the Web 2.0 conference, called “What Google Knows About Spam.” The video is available on Matt’s blog. It is an eye opening look into SEO and how Google hits spam .

Matt Cutts has worked for Google for 8 years. He wrote hundreds of articles on search engine placement and the dangers of spam. Most of the news has become ghost whispers, always repeated, principally ignored. Google uses 100 different elements to rank a page. Most webmasters focus on linking and ignore the rest. Complete article on Google’s Matt Cutt Addresses Keyword Spam