Improving your existing backlinks

Give some love to your links

1. Correct links that point to your old domain names.
   For that reason, contact the webmasters who link to your old domain name and ask them to link to your new domain. This will increase the effect of the links on your website rankings.
2. Try to improve the link texts.
   when you're contacting other webmasters to tell them that they link to your old domain name or to a broken link on your website, you can also suggest new link texts for your links.
3. Correct links to broken pages on your website.
   Check your website statistics and redirect all links that go to a non-existing (404) page on your website to an existing page on your site so that the visitors aren't lost.
4. Check the links on your own website.
   Your website should have a clear and logical navigation that emphasizes the pages that you want to see in Google's search results.
5. Suggest other relevant websites.
   If the website that links to your website links to other websites that are related to your website topic, it's more likely that search engines will find your website relevant to that topic. Details about this co-citation effect can be found here.
   

Matt Cutts Guidelines Interview

Here are guidelines for SEO from the Search Engine Guru Matt Cutts:

1. The more relevant links you have, the more pages of your site will be indexed
   Matt Cutts said that the number of pages that Google indexes from your website is roughly proportional to the PageRank of your website. That means that more pages of your website will be indexed if your website has many inbound links.
   Google does not have an indexation cap, i.e. they will index all pages of your website if you have enough inbound links. Remember that the PageRank that Google uses in its ranking algorithm is not the PageRank that is displayed in Google's toolbar.
2. Slow servers can cause problems
   If Google can only crawl two pages at any given time due to a slow server, Google can set some sort of upper bound on how many pages they will fetch from that host server. This can be a problem for websites that are hosted on shared or slow servers.
3. Duplicate content can cause problems
   "Imagine we crawl three pages from a site, and then we discover that the two other pages were duplicates of the third page. We'll drop two out of the three pages and keep only one, and that?s why it looks like it has less good content."
   As mentioned above, Google will index your web pages based on the PageRank of your pages. If you have duplicate content, some pages of your website will be discarded and you'll waste ranking opportunities.
   "It's totally fine for a page to link to itself with rel=canonical, and it's also totally fine, at least with Google, to have rel=canonical on every page on your site."
   However, Google does not always obey the canonical tag:
   "The crawling and indexing team wants to reserve the ultimate right to determine if the site owner is accidentally shooting themselves in the foot and not listen to the rel=canonical tag."
4. Affiliate pages don't get high rankings
   If a website is an affiliate website that is very similar to other pages (only with a different logo, etc.) then this page won't get high rankings.
   If Google detects an affiliate link than this link won't pass any PageRank power.
5. Redirects work but they don't pass the whole PageRank
   If you change your domain name and redirect old pages with a 301 redirect from your old page to your new page then the link power will be passed to your new domain name but the overall power of the links will decrease. 301 redirects do not pass the full PageRank.
6. Low quality pages can cause problems
   "If there are a large number of pages that we consider low value, then we might not crawl quite as many pages from that site, but that is independent of rel=canonical."
   If you have a lot of web pages with thin content then Google might stop crawling your website. Matt Cutts also suggested that it might help to be wordy:
   "You really want to have most of your pages have actual products with lots of text on them."
7. PageRank sculpting and website navigation
   Google does not want you to sculpt your website for PageRank reasons. The best way to pass link power from one page to other pages is to have a good website navigation.
   "Site architecture, how you make links and structure appear on a page in a way to get the most people to the products that you want them to see, is really a better way to approach it then trying to do individual sculpting of PageRank on links."
   "You can distribute that PageRank very carefully between related products, and use related links straight to your product pages rather than into your navigation. I think there are ways to do that without necessarily going towards trying to sculpt PageRank."
8. You still shouldn't use JavaScript links for your website navigation
   "For a while, we were scanning within JavaScript, and we were looking for links. Google has gotten smarter about JavaScript and can execute some JavaScript.
   I wouldn't say that we execute all JavaScript, so there are some conditions in which we don?t execute JavaScript.
   We do have the ability to execute a large fraction of JavaScript when we need or want to. One thing to bear in mind if you are advertising via JavaScript is that you can use NoFollow on JavaScript links."
9. Google does not like paid links
   Matt Cutts said they Google doesn't want advertisements to affect search engine rankings.
   They might put out a call for people to report more about link spam in the coming months. Matt Cutts said that Google "does a lot of stuff" to try to detect ads and make sure that they don't unduly affect search engines.
   

Original Interview http://www.stonetemple.com/articles/interview-matt-cutts-012510.shtml

Attending SphinnCon 2010

Attended: SphinnCon Israel is the premier networking event designed for SEOs, SEMs, SMOs and affiliate marketers to exchange ideas, influence the industry and build their networks. Get a half day of sessions, keynotes, networking activities, and snacks.

Was very nice lectures:

SphinnCon Israel Agenda – March 7, 2010

Sunday – March 7, 2010
11:30am-12:00pm (30 min)	Welcome Address A welcome address by Barry Schwartz, SphinnCon Israel Chair, with an overview of the various sessions to come. Prof. Noah Dana-Picard, President of the Jerusalem College of Technology and Avi Kay, the Department Chair of Technology Management & Marketing of JCT, will also welcome the audience.
12:00pm-12:30pm (30 min)	Snacks & Refreshments Relax before the sessions begin with ample and scrumptious refreshments! You can use the time to network with experts in the search marketing space and just sit back and enjoy the food.
12:45pm-1:45pm (1 hr)	SEO Track SEO Fundamentals – This session gives those new to SEO a best practices overview of search engine optimization. Topics including keyword research, copywriting, search engine friendly design and common SEO issues will be covered in this panel. Moderator: Barry Schwartz, News Editor Search Engine Land & CEO RustyBrick Speakers: Eli Feldblum, CTO & Founder, RankAbove Gillian Muessig, President & Co-Founder, SEOMoz Menachem Rosenbaum, TENS-Technology Link Building Track Link Building Techniques – Acquiring links for a site is not always an easy task. This session explores various techniques to make link acquisitions easier, quicker, and fun. Learn from our panel of experts the latest tips on how to acquire those important links. In this session, learn how to reach out and get quality links, how to craft anchor text to build authority, and how commonplace mistakes can destroy your web credibility (and search engine rankings). Moderator: Dixon Jones, Managing Director of Receptional Ltd. Speakers: Ariel Ozick, WiredRhino Gab Goldenberg, SEO ROI Clinic Track SEO Site Clinic – Have an issue with your site, want an SEO expert to help you in person? Try this session for expert SEO review advice. Moderator: Vanessa Fox, Nine By Blue Speakers: Branko Rihtman, Whiteweb Gilad Sasson, Search Marketing Analyst at nekuda.co.il Olivier Amar, Whiteweb
1:45pm-2:00pm (15 min)	Break
2:00pm-3:00pm (1 hr)	Paid Search Track Paid Search Tips – Want traffic now? Paid search is one of the easiest and quickest ways to get immediate traffic from the search engines. Learn tips on how to make the most of this traffic in this session. This session covers the basics of how to purchase placement from the major search engines, including best practices for success with your ads. Moderator: Itay Paz, ItayPaz.net Speakers: Ophir Cohen, CEO Compucall Web Marketing Ariel Sumeruk, Head of Business intelligence & CTO, Clicks2Customers Dan Perach, Co-Founder, PPCPROZ Naomi Sela, Media Director, Compucall Web Marketing SEO Track Hebrew SEO – Optimizing your sites for Google.com in English is what every search conference is about. We are in Israel, learn how to optimize for Google.co.il in Hebrew or English. This session is presented in English. Moderator: Gilad Sasson, Search Marketing Analyst at nekuda.co.il Speakers: Oren Shatz, Chairman, SEO Israel Technologies Ltd. Uri Breitman, TBWA\DIGITAL Yuli Dasiatnikov, SEO, CompuCall Adir Regev, CEO, GO Internet Marketing Pavel Israelsky, blogger & SEO expert, AskPavel SEO Blog SEO & Search Track Online Reputation Management – Virtually all companies have to deal with upset customers. When those customers take their complaints online, you need to learn how to combat those in the search results. Learn tips on how to hide those bad search results and push up those positive results. Moderator: Vanessa Fox, Nine By Blue Speakers: Sam Michaelson, Five Blocks Gil Reich, Answers.com Shira Abel, Abel Communications Dan Gerstenfeld, Lecturer at JCT & CEO of Interteam
3:00pm-3:15pm (15 min)	Break
3:15pm-4:15pm (1 hr)	Social Track Social Media Experts – Twitter, Facebook, Digg is the craze. Social Media is an excellent way to get the word out about your company. Learn how to leverage social media for buzz creation and link building. Moderator: Barry Schwartz, News Editor Search Engine Land & CEO RustyBrick Speakers: Vanessa Fox, Nine By Blue Miriam Schwab, CEO, illuminea Debra Askanase, Owner, Community Organizer 2.0 Roi Carthy, Writer, TechCrunch Web Analytics Track SEM Web Analytics – Web analytics is the core to learning how to improve your SEM campaigns, be it PPC or SEO. Learning how to use web analytics to increase conversions can mean the difference between a profitable campaign & a costly campaign. Moderator: Ophir Cohen, CEO Compucall Web Marketing Speakers: Michal Neufeld, Account Strategist, Google Israel Daniel Waisberg, Head of Analytics, Easynet Adir Regev, CEO, GO Internet Marketing Clinic Track Link Building Clinic – Want advice on how to acquire links specifically for your web site and niche? Use this session to ask link building experts for advice on your specific challenges. Moderator: Branko Rihtman, Whiteweb Speakers: Eli Feldblum, CTO & Founder, RankAbove Gillian Muessig, President & Co-Founder, SEOMoz Olivier Amar, Whiteweb Dixon Jones, Managing Director of Receptional Ltd.
4:15pm-4:30pm (15 min)	Break
4:30pm-5:30pm (1 hr)	Mobile Track Mobile & Local Search – iPhones, Blackberries, Google Android, Palm Pre and other mobile devices have revolutionized search. Learn how to leverage local search to gain local traffic and leads for your business. Moderator: Olivier Amar, Whiteweb Speakers: Olivier Amar, Whiteweb THIS SESSION MAY BE CANCELLED Site Clinic Track PPC Site Clinic – Have your paid search campaigns running? Want tips on landing pages and ad copy? Have PPC experts give you advice in this session. Moderator: Gillian Muessig, President & Co-Founder, SEOMoz Speakers: Charlie Kalech, Director, J-Town Productions Dan Perach, Co-Founder, PPCPROZ Shlomi Aizenberg, Director of SEM, easynet Search Marketing Itay Paz, ItayPaz.net SEO Track Meet Google – Tomer Honen from the Google Search Quality Team will talk about the most common SEO topics Google runs into. Tomer will speak for about 45 minutes on topics from SEO, Webmaster Tools, Best Practices and other webmaster related topics relevant to Google. He will then leave time for question and answer from the audience. This is your chance to speak to a live Google representative about your issues. Tomer Joined Google in 2006 and works as a Search Quality Strategist to support the search quality efforts across the European languages, particularly Hebrew. Prior to joining Google, he worked as a malware researcher in Aladdin Knowledge Systems, based in Israel. Tomer has a bachelor’s degree in theater and English literature. Moderator: Barry Schwartz, News Editor Search Engine Land & CEO RustyBrick Speakers: Tomer Honen, Search Quality Strategist, Google
7 PM	SphinnCon Israel – Tel Aviv Party Join us in Tel Aviv for a networking party sponsored by TBD.