By now most of you have heard at least some mentions of Google’s upcoming algorithm update.

Caffeine: Threat or Opportunity?

When algorithms change, rankings change. It’s as simple as that. But it’s not necessarily a bad thing: search engine optimization is a zero sum game…there are exactly ten results that will always show up in the top ten. So, one site’s loss is another site’s gain. What can you do to make sure you are on the beneficiary side of this update? First and foremost, you must understand the essential elements of Caffeine.

Caffeine Ingredients?

What is Caffeine? How will it affect search results? How does link building fit into the mix? What can you do to prepare for Caffeine? While we are not sitting in the Google kitchen, we have been shown a preview of what is cooking.

First and foremost, the name provides significant insight. Why Caffeine? The new update focuses on speed and sharper focus. Fewer search results served up faster. To do this, Google is completely rewriting their indexing system to crawl faster, index more efficiently, and serve up fewer results much more quickly. Content freshness will (finally) start to play the more important role it deserves; old outdated and stale content will be more readily expunged. Our explorations into Caffeine results have shown a reduction in the result set of anywhere from 30-70%!

The Role of Links

Links are still the key differentiator to move the needle forward once you have some initial traction in the search engine results. Unlike some past algorithmic update shakeups, Caffeine is not targeted to changing the criteria of links and other off-page factors. Rather, the on-page factors of a site are the variables in play.

Successful SEO is still very much the same in the post-Caffeine world. Only more so. In order for links to be most effective, they must be directed towards pages on sites which are quick to load, efficient in their coding, architected to facilitate a flatter crawl structure, and featuring a high percentage of unique target relevant content. To this last point, be assured that if your site has volumes of pages that contain repurposed content or largely redundant templated content, Caffeine will definitely not be your friend.

Effects on Social Media Marketing

SEO firm Submit-Site.com expects a huge surge in the use of Social Media Marketing strategies as an effectiveInternet Marketing platform. Based primarily on Google Caffeine ‘Real Time’ search results. Irbtrax also expects many Internet dependent businesses will be quickly turning their attention toward becoming Social Media Marketing savvy, creating a tremendous growth opportunity for Social Media experts to apply their trade.

Social Media SEO benefits within Google Caffeine include but are not limited to:

• Ability to make ‘Real Time’ announcements
• Funneling new visitors to a website or Blog
• Helping create backlinks using a different ‘channel’
• Wider Internet visibility and enhanced Branding techniques

Too Much Caffeine Got You Nervous?

Caffeine is fundamentally a big change for Google, and invariably you will see fluctuation (positive and negative) in your organic search rankings. This fluctuation will be driven by the extent to which your site is more or less compliant to the aforementioned factors vs. your competitor sites. Understanding why rankings for you and your competition change in the upcoming weeks is the key first step to ensure your reactions and responses are appropriate and effective.

Stay tuned for more posts on the impending Caffeine debacle.

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The latest version of  WordPress (WordPress.org) – version 2.9 – has just been rolled out to users. WordPress is used by hundreds of HU users. To find out more about WordPress please our WordPress Web Hosting page.

This release is called “Carmen” and includes a number of notable additions, including the beginnings of a WordPress image editing tool (cropping, scaling, and rotating), simpler video embeds, and batch plugin updating that should save you a bunch of time.

Writing on the official WordPress blog, founder Matt Mullenweg says that this release saw a total of “over 500 tickets, bugs, and enhancements” addressed. The release comes a little more than six months since the last major WordPress release, version 2.8.

With a major snowstorm expect to blanket the east coast this weekend, thank Automattic for giving you something you can do indoors  The release is available for download here. For an in-depth overview of what’s new, you may also want to check out WordPress guru Aaron Brazell’s 10 Things You Need to Know About WordPress 2.9.

While this update is not critical, it does add greater functionality to your WordPress driven website. Upgrading to WordPress 2.9 is optional to HU WP Users.

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Bing recently published a document about link building. Although it focuses on how Bing deals with inbound links, it can also help you to get better links for Google, Yahoo and other search engines. The most important points of Bing’s document can be found in this article.

The importance of link building

The Bing engineers know that link building is important and they describe link building as follows:

“Link building is a very important form of self-promotion on the Web. You contact webmasters of other, related websites and let them know your site exists. If the value that you have worked so hard to instill in your site is evident to them, they will assist their own customers by linking back to your site. That, my friend, is the essence of link building.”

In other words, reciprocal linking is fine. They also remind webmasters that link building is an ongoing process:

“Think of link building as your chance to build your reputation on the Web. As your website is likely one of your business’ most valuable assets, consider link building to be a primary business-building exercise. Just don’t make the mistake of believing it will result in instant gratification. Successful link building efforts require a long-term commitment, not an overnight or turnkey solution.You need to continually invest in link building efforts with creativity and time. Good things come to those who wait (and work smartly!).”

Things that you can do to get good links to your website

Here are the things that Bing recommends:

• You should develop your website as a brand and brand it consistently. People like to link to high quality websites.
• You should find relevant bloggers, industry websites and product reviewers and make them aware of your website.
• You can publish concise and informative press releases online.
• You can publish expert articles in article directories.
• You can participate in relevant conversations on blogs and forums and add a link to your website when applicable.
• You can use social networks to connect to industry influencers. Your profiles should contain links to your website.
• You can use email newsletters to notify people about new content on your website.
• You can launch a blog or a forum on your website.
• You can participate in relevant industry associations and their online forums.
• You should strive to become a trusted expert voice for your industry while promoting your website.

Warning: the following things will get your website in trouble

Just like Google and other major search engines, Bing doesn’t like to be cheated. If they detect unnatural linking patterns, your website might be penalized. The following things can trigger search engine filters:

• Your website get a lot of additional inbound links a very short time.
• Many links that point to your website are from unrelated websites or blog comments.
• Your web pages contain hidden links.
• You get links from links farms or automated link exchange systems.
• Paid links point to your website.
• Known spammers link to your website.
• Your website links to known spammers.

Here’s what Bing does when they find suspicious data that is related to your website:

“When probable manipulation is detected, a spam rank factor is applied to a site, depending upon the type and severity of the infraction. If the spam rating is high, a site can be penalized with a lowered rank. If the violations are egregious, a site can be temporarily or even permanently purged from the index.”

Getting inbound links requires some work. The Bing engineers are very clear about this fact: “Make no mistake: getting legitimate and highly valuable, inbound links is not a couch-potato task.”

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What do search engine marketers think about reciprocal links?

There are three main factions:

• Group 1: reciprocal links have no effect at all on the position of a website in the search results on Google.
• Group 2: reciprocal links work just like any other inbound links.
• Group 3: there’s a threshold value. For example, you shouldn’t have more than 33% reciprocal inbound links.

Which group is right and should you use reciprocal links with your website or not?

Is there a threshold value for reciprocal links?

Webmasters in group 3 think that a high number of reciprocal links is a red flag for search engines. The idea behind this is that links should not be trusted if (for example) 100% of a site’s inbound links are reciprocal.

However, this is not really a good indicator. If high quality websites do link to each other, they won’t harm their rankings in any way.

For some sites, it is normal to have a high reciprocity percentage

Link building expert Eric Ward recently did a test. He found out that there are websites for which it is perfectly normal that they have almost 100% reciprocal links.

The more specific the topic of a website is, the more likely it is that it will have a high reciprocity percentage. As an example, Eric Ward used the website of “The Southeastern Bat Diversity Network”, an organization with a goal to “conserve bats and their habitats in southeastern North America through collaborative research, education, and management.”

The top sites in that subject are all linked back and forth to all other websites that write about bats. This is not surprising and it shows that a high number of reciprocal links can also be a sign of high quality. It depends on the topic of the website.

If the websites were about different topics, then the reciprocal links would look suspicious.

Should you use reciprocal links for your website or not?

You don’t have to worry if a link is a reciprocal link or not. That does not matter. Reciprocal links are neither good nor bad. They are just links and it always depends on the individual link whether it is a good link or a bad link.

If a link comes from a website that is related to your website then it is a good link. If the other website is related to yours then you can link back and this won’t cause any problems. As long as you make sure that the links make sense to your website visitors then everything is okay.

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While it is relatively easy to optimize the content of a website, it is more difficult to get good inbound links. A relatively easy way to get inbound links is to submit websites to Internet directories.

But do these Internet directory links still have value when it comes to search engine rankings? Can you increase the position of your website in Google’s search results by submitting your site to Internet directories?

A case study

An internet marketer tested three pages that were orphaned within the normal navigation structure of the website. These three pages were created to provide valuable content to search engines.

The three pages were submitted to some high quality paid directories (Yahoo, BestOfTheWeb, Joe Ant) and free directories.

About 45 days after the paid directory links went live, the web pages had increased visibility on search engines. Visits and conversions also increased and the tracking of the marketer indicated that at least 50 percent of the results could be attributed to the directory links.

The final results that were attributed to the directory link building included:

• a lift of traffic to levels that other highly visible site pages receive within 90 days
• an increase in monthly conversions for the business line of 45 percent year-over-year

What does this mean for your website?

Getting links from Internet directories should be a fundamental part of any search engine optimization strategy. You should submit your website to all big Internet directories and to Internet directories that cover your niche.

Links from Internet directories are only one way to get links from other sites. If you want to outperform your competitors, you also need links from websites that are related to yours. Links from blogs will also help.

Don’t forget to optimize your website content before building links. The better your website content has been prepared for search engines, the better the links to your website will work.

If you need help with getting directory links and/or optimizing your website content check out the Search Engine Optimization Packages we offer. Our most popular SEO package is our Gold Promotion Plan, incorporates optimizing your website and submitting it to over 1,000 search engines and directories.

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This month is all about promoting and you can’t talk about promoting your business without including the internet. Is promoting online that much different than our traditional advertising? Yes and no. Let me explain — the web offers ways of telling your story, your advertising and promotions in multiple formats. You can easily record a video or audio explaining the promotion. That’s not difficult or expensive today and you don’t have to buy an expensive camera either. Actually almost any digital camera works. I compiled a list of the 7 Rules to Online Promotions. Many of these points will apply to offline advertising as well.

1. Know the Visitor’s Mindset:
The following are questions that customers ask themselves online. They ask similar questions offline, but they are not as pronounced. This is because online we are exposed to new businesses in seconds and make decisions much quicker than offline.

a. Why are they there?

b. What do they want?

c. Does it make sense?

d. Does it look easy?

e. Do you trust them?

2. Above the Fold:
This is just like in a newspaper. When you do any promotion you want to make sure the reader doesn’t have to scroll down the page because if they do, you will probably lose them.

3. The Offer:
Is your offer clear and understandable, short and simple to use?  We can’t confuse the customer because if you do, you have lost them. Here is an example: a Coupon for $5.00 without restrictions is understandable, where $5.00 on a $50 purchase and a list all of the restrictions can be confusing. The customer wants it their way and too many restrictions create the wrong image for your store.

4. The Blink Test:
Customers rarely read copy. Customers skim pages. Customers read headlines. Look at your offer as the customer looks at the offer with a “blink of an eye.” There is no time for week headlines and copy.

5. Going Naked:
This means there is no way off of a webpage. There are no links. The only way out is to use the back button on the reader’s computer. This eliminates all distractions. It’s as if you have reached a dead end and you have to make a decision

6. Graphics Matter:
Pictures, Icons, & even Charts work well but offline they are expensive. It is inexpensive online. We always knew that color was important and helps to sell and it is easy and inexpensive to use online.

7. Alignment with Your Brand:
It is critically important that your website represents the same look and image of your store. You can’t represent one thing in the store and another on your website. Yes, if you are just an online merchant, that’s one thing but for the rest of us who are multi channeled retailers, we must make the look and feel be the same.

This is just a small taste of this new world of promotion. Next week we are going to start my look at Social Marketing and what it means to you.

Keep your minds open and start to embrace the change, because it will benefit the smaller and independent business owner. We will start to demystifying Facebook and what it should mean to you. If there are any Successful Facebook users, please email me. I want the success stories to shares. Write to us online and let’s share your experiences.

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The following updates area available immediately, installable via the HU Toolbox located in your account’s cPanel:

• - Drupal 6.13
• - Joomla 1.5.12
• - LimeSurvey 1.85+
• - OpenX 2.8.1
• - osTicket 1.6 RC5
• - PHPlist 2.10.10
• - phpWCMS 1.4.2 r327
• - TikiWiki 3.1
• - Zen Cart 1.3.8a
• - Zikula 1.1.1
• - Coppermine Photo Gallery 1.4.25

Not sure about accessing your account’s cPanel?

**Click here for more info on what cPanel does for you**

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HostUtopia’s NEW Affiliate Program pays a recurring 10% Commission on all referrals for the life of the account. It’s easy to get started, easy to make referrals and even easier to make money.

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We also provide you with a variety of graphical banners to put on your site to promote your affiliate link.

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Unlike other blog hosts, WordPress gives you the ability to create a blog that is tailored to your own tastes and needs. Sure, the codes, tags, and terminology can seem a little intimidating at first, but WordPress for Dummies breaks it all down to show you just how intuitive, friendly, and extensible the software really is. This easy-to-follow guide shows you how to:

• Find great themes and plugins that will help you achieve JUST the kind of blog you want
• Use tags to work with WordPress templates
• Combat challenges with comments, trackback spam, and “splogs”
• Add special technologies to your blog, such as RSS feed, podcasting, vlogging, and photoblogging
• Find online support, tips, and resources for WordPress software
• Work with Pages and Posts, including managing multi-media and photo galleries
• Covers WordPress up to version 2.7.x

Whether you want to create a dynamite website, keep family and friends updated on your latest adventures, post pictures of your new puppy, or communicate your passion with millions of readers worldwide, WordPress for Dummies is your passport to creating the kind of site that will keep your visitors coming back for more!

Click here for more information on WordPress for Dummies

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