So What Does This Google Email Mean???

Before you break out into hives and descend into a pit of eCommerce related depression just take a step back and assess what you’ve been doing and what the message from Google is saying!  The particular message I’m going to touch on is the “unnatural links” email and you’ll see why below…

Anchor text RULES OK…NOT!

“Hey Google, look, I know it’s not kosher to hit up a load of crappy blogs with exact match anchor text but you know you love it really!  I mean, you wouldn’t reward me with page one rankings all round if you didnt!”

And then suddenly, like a bitter partner Google strikes…they turn their back on you for too heavily flirting with “the dark side” and therefore you will be punished!

Cut With The Cryptic Crap – What Does This Mean

So…you’ve operated outside Google guidelines one way or another.  Whether you actively built crappy links yourself or you hired a 3rd party to do it for you, either way – its NOT cool.  So what does one do to rectify said situation?

Step 1 of Google Email Attempted Recovery 

Aknowledge You’ve Done Wrong – Simples

Download your backlink portfolio from Google WebMaster tools and look at it.  It’s as simple as that.  Establish the following:

a)  Crappy sitewides

b) Obvious low quality crap

Step 2 – Attempt To Identify The Source

So you’ve stripped out the crap…what next.  DO NOT simply say, “hey Google, I found these crap links, don’t know where they come from, please dont count them and pretty please restore my rankings”  THIS WILL NOT WORK!

You need to be honest…even if you personally did not build the offending links you need to try and work out where they came from and attempt to remove them one way or another!

Step 3 – Reconsideration Request

You better only be reading this if you’ve genuinely attempted step 1 and 2!!!  DO NOT submit a half arsed reconsideration request if you have not genuinely attempted to sort the above!

Listen…you’re going to spend time, effort and most likely money on the above so as you’re doing it, take notes of what you’re doing!  Sumarise it all in a Google Excel Doc.  Once you’re confident that you’ve genuinly worked hard to sort this situation then submit your reconsiertion request.  But as the gurus from Google admit you need to give them a proper idea of exactly what you’ve been doing and why!

Listen Kickstarters, this is not a sure fire, 10000% guranteed way of reversing the evil that is a penalty however, you need to start somewhere and this method is as white hat as they come so why not give it a go!

Hope this was helpful and make sure you tune in for the next edition of Kickstart that will be all focussed on our friend the Penguin!

Ciao for now,

Kickstart

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Man it’s been a while!  Sorry about the delay but Kickstart has been drowning under a sea of Google updates and this is the first chance we’ve had at gasping at some SEO friendly air for a while!

So…how the devil is everyone?  Shattered post a severe beating from a member of the Google Zoo or have you survived the search engine apocalypse?

Kickstart HQ have been officially keeping it’s head low and taken the Google updates as an opportunity to take stock and reflect.  Although we havent been hit by anything, we’ve worked with and along side many people who have and man ALIVE Google can be  damn right CRUEL!

Email/Penguin/Panda/Big Foot – Seriously what the hell??

So you’re websites knackered??  You’ve lost rankings/traffic/all of the above?  Do you even know what bombshell Google has dropped on your once hugely lucrative eccommerce business?  No…??  Then stay tuned as in the next few blog posts Kickstart will be revealing a beginners guide to the hurtful and destructive world that is the “Big G Penalty”

Ciao for now,

Kickstart

aftermath of the February 2012 Google updates which have been muttered about across the SEO stratosphere, Kickstart’s conclusions are that the tweaks that have occurred have given offending sites a “warning”. Unlike the devastating effect that the Panda Update of April 2012 had across the whole internet which saw websites fall into the ranking abyss, a common theme that Kickstart has come across post the Feb 2012 updates are that rankings have just slipped slightly.

Google is finger wagging as opposed to putting websites into detention.

Kickstart has seen a number of websites dropping off the page 1 pedestal onto page 2, and page 2 onto page 3. Not horrific effects but almost like a warning sign from Google saying “sort your sh*t out Mr.Duplicate other wise we WILL get you!!” Obviously there are a number of tweaks that Google made across a number of algorithmic metrics and have, in true Google style, been incredibly vague about what these changes are HOWEVER, in summary, the powers that be at Kickstart HQ believe the following:

1) Sites that have been hit by the latest update have been “slapped on the wrist” as opposed to “kicked in the proverbial SEO nuts”

2) This tweak is a warning for something bigger on the horizon

Anyway, that’s it for now peeps.

Thanks for reading!

Kickstart

Obviously, first step is to decide what domain to buy, is it available, and if yes, crack on and buy it!!

So Kickstart, what do I do once I’ve got my domain name??

This next paragraph is designed to save all of you website newbies out there time and effort on discovering exactly what you need to do once you buy a domain.   I know from experience that it’s quite frankly  an online maze out there which, to people who know how, can take two minutes to negotiate however if, like you are like I was when I first started in websites a.k.a clueless, then it can take DAYS!

Hosting Is Key

If like me, you choose to run everything on WordPress because you want online presence but you don’t know the first thing about DreamWeaver, HTML etc etc then the first thing to do is find a hosting company that are WordPress friendly.  There are tonnes of hosting companies out there that offer this and the best place to find reviews on the best website hosting companies offering the cheapest hosting plans check out Business Web Hosting Plans.

It is always worth shopping around and speaking to people around you who have had dealings with hosting companies before you take the plunge.  After hunting around I finally opted for a company called Blue Host as they are user friendly, they are WordPress friendly and most importantly, their customer support team are super friendly!! They have been completely reliable and no matter how much of a hosting novice you are, the Blue Host team will do their upmost to make sure you’re queries are sorted quickly and professionally!

Anyway, that’s enough from Kickstart for today.

Good luck on your quest to find the best hosting company for you out there!

KickStart

This could be the case as it is almost exactly 3 months after the previous one so could this excitement be worthy of itself!?

What does page rank mean to 2012?

There are mutterings that page rank no longer means anything and some SEO extremists even went as far to suggest that page rank will be completely abolished in 2013 however, does this recent page rank tweak suggest otherwise?

Could Google reallllly go as far to completetly eradicate one of their founding metrics?

Well, lets wait and see shall we and if you think that this slight amendment in the world of page rank is the start of a bigger roll out of updates then let Kickstart know!

Ciao for now SEO’ers and good luck in the face of page rank updation

Kickstart

Hey all,

So…the big “G” is shaking things up for the international SEO side of things and the keyword of the moment (excuse the SEO pun) is mark up, mark up MARK UP!!

We saw the Panda released in 2011 which shook the duplicate content world somewhat and it looks like an international version could be set free in 2012. It looks as though anyone partaking in a bit of international SEO and who operates one website across a host of languages will now be tarnished with the duplicate brush.

“But Kickstart…” I hear you cry”…just get your geotargetting hat on, login to Google Webmaster Tools and get cracking” Yes Kickstartees, this used to be the case HOWEVER…no more. BOOOOOOOO

So Google is seperating the men from the boys and has created a a variety of new mark ups that will be used to inform Google that you are in fact duplicating odds and sods in various languages for a reason and not just for the fun!

It took around about 55 times of reading through Googles blog on this for Kickstart to understand what the chuff the big G was on about however, here goes…this is what we have interpreted these mark ups as:

If you have a domain with multiple sub domains in different languages you can now use a mark up that highlights to Google that the foreign content is the same as the .com but just in a different language, almost like a foreign canonical. You can also specify the region you want to target via your source code now as well.

For example…you’ve got the below versions of one site:

• http://www.example.com/ – contains the general homepage of a website, in Spanish
• http://es-es.example.com/ – is the version for users in Spain, in Spanish
• http://es-mx.example.com/ – is the version for users in Mexico, in Spanish
• http://en.example.com/ – is the generic English language version
You can use these specific mark ups to highlight to Google that es-es.example.com is the version for user in Spain, in Spanish etc etc.

PHEW…

For more clarity on this crazy mark up party visit the Google Blog and their support centre and see if you can decipher what this means for all you neeks out there!

Thanks and take care peeps,

Kickstart

This post will be a short and sweet one as we just wanted to say that WordPress can be nifty AND pretty all in one go.  We were chatting to some of our friends down at PRD Ceramics the other day and they have just launched their first ever website.  These guys are tilers by trade and computers aren’t their forté but they want to take their business to the next level and get themselves out there on the web.

Now this is where WordPress comes in…if you are a business who wants a website for any reason, whether you think you should have one, you want to generate more business or you simply just think websites are cool, WordPress is the way forward.  WordPress is a gateway to the web for beginners.

The user friendly interface allows any joe bloggs to logon, pick a theme and get cracking!  And the plugins, well don’t even get me started on the plugins!  Who even needs HTML when the plugins are there for you!  You want facebook on your site? You’ve got it!  You want an XML sitemap? You’ve got it!  You want to display super pretty pictures then you’ve damn well got it!! All through the power of the Plugin!

So there you have it people, it’s not profound, its not juicy SEO’ing gossip, it’s just a classic case of WordPress love and how WordPress can be the opportunity small business’s need to get them selves out there on the Google Map!

Ciao,

Kickstart

Good morning Kickstarters,

Please let Kickstart HQ apologise for the lack of communication with you guys recently.  The deal is we are being HOUNDED by pesky automated spammers and we have been trying to manage a way of getting these blighters to leave us the hell alone!

So we have done some research and lord knows how these “people” call themselves “gurus” but there are a number of people out there claiming that automated spamming is the way forward to get rankings.

The truth is this is RIDICULOUS.  Maybe in stoneage times when the Google bot was a mere “botling” this could have occured however this is black hat and quite frankly garbage!

Anyway, that’s enough of ranting from Kickstart but we are very interested in hearing other peoples woes of the spammers and also opinions on why you think people do it!

Kickstart are back on track now and promise not to abandon you so heartlessly again!

Ciao for now,

Kickstart

We’ve seen a PR retweek and have shot up to the dizzy heights of a Page Rank 1!

We know Page Rank isn’t everything but my word does getting our foot on the PR ladder feel good

Get in touch!

Kickstart would be interested to hear of anyone who has seen anything out of the ordinary with the page rank tweek so please do let us know!

Only a quick one today folks but just thought we’d let you confirm should you not be sure or think you were going a bit crazy!

Ciao for now Kickstarters!

x

So as you can tell, things have been quite quiet in the land of Kickstart. This is because we have been helping out a friend with their website! We touched on this in our last post about the Flipping Book Plugin (which we still love by the way ) but anywho, we’re all up and running on our friends website we thought we’d share some of the hints and tips we picked up along the way!

Kickstarts friend approaches Kickstart and says “hey, you know a bit about the internet and things and we want a website that looks professional, reads well and ranks for the term “builders in harrogate”.

So…Kickstart said “hey, no problem…we’ll see what we can do!” *Kickstart quivers on the inside as they have little idea of where to start*

However, Kickstart has risen to the challenge and three weeks ago embarked on the mammoth task of our first ever website creation (apart from our beautiful Kickstart obvi!)

One thing Kickstart has learnt from past SEO experience is the key is to have EVERYTHING in place before you even think about aesthetics of a site and PLAN PLAN PLAN! You MUST have a solid plan for your site in place, know what you want to say and what you want people to read! As obvious as that sounds you would be suprised at how many people Kickstart has come across who don’t do this!

Here are a few hints and tips from Kickstart on creating a successful website:

URL – Brand name or exact match…If you’re going for something local there’s no harm in picking exact match
Page Plan – Plan what pages you are going to have and where. Can you nest sub categories within main categories to make it look neater?
Navigation – You want your users to enjoy using your site so make sure it’s easy to use! Don’t scare them away by not laying things out logically
Pre – Write your content and OPTIMISE IT – Kickstart finds it so much easier to concentrate on one thing at once. Tuck yourself away with your laptop and a cold beer and get those creative juices flowing. Start with your homepage and then crack on with all your initial pages. Try and use the keywords you want to optimise towards around 3-5% of the time but dont sacrifice the readability of the content for the sake of optimisation
Pre Write Meta Data – Get your title tags and meta descriptions done EARLY. These are boring and labourious to write but man are they important! Remember they are front weighted so what ever you want to rank for put it at the front!
CALL TO ACTION!! – Again, this sounds SO obvious but make sure that you have a header created for your site that has a clear call to action. Users eyes are naturally drawn to the top right hand corner of your homepage so fill it with useful stuff! A phone number, a “special offers” advert if you’re ecommerce or anything that will convert a user into a consumer!!!
Link build to your holding pages – There’s nothing stopping you link building and creating that solid link portfolio even before you are ready to go live. This gives your website a great start in life and more chance of ranking for what you want it to!

Once you have all of this in place get on WordPress, pick a theme and play around! (Obviously WordPress is not the only avenue to go down but Kickstart likes it!) Once you have your content ready, all you have to do is drop it in! Faff around with Plugins, have a look at some of the ones we have recommended and get creative!

We only set our friends site up three weeks ago and we’re already ranking on page 2 for “builders in Harrogate”!!  High FIVE!

Kickstart are not claiming to be the guru of web design or SEO but what we want to say is, if we can do it…YOU can! Have a look at the site we created for our friends down at Black & White Property Solutions. We would love to hear your thoughts on it…go easy on us though as it is our first time

Anyway, that’s enough for today folks! We hope you find some of our info useful and if not, hey ho…dont use it!

Have a good one Kickstarters and keep checking in on us and our friends site as we will constantly be updating until we verge on perfection!!

Ciao for now,

Kickstart x