As the major search engines compete to dominate the web, users are looking at ways to improve their search experience. Recently a blogger caught one of Google’s impressive new features being tested. Google is known to test some of its new features amongst a random subset of users. One such user doing a web search noticed his results page was appearing as he typed and would change as additional letters were added or subtracted.

I imagine this will only work with high-speed, low-latency Internet connections as there is a lot of back and forth from the web page to the server going on in the AJAX.

From the looks of the video however, it seems pretty effective (even faster than my Mac desktop Spotlight search!) and could see a broader rollout in the coming weeks/months. Microsoft’s Bing would need to play catchup on a feature like this.

Now that you’ve done the work to get your site ranked in Google it’s time to take a look at where Google is sending your customers once they find you. Do they provide a link to your site? Is it accurate? Does it take them to the most effective page on your site? These are very important questions that you need to be sure you have the answers to and continue to check in on.

First of all, go to Google and do a search for your business name.

Take a look at the results. Under your business profile there should be at least one sitelink, that is one or more links to various pages within your Web site. If there isn’t at least one link then your site navigation can’t be parsed by Google. This is a sign that you need to alter your site navigation and provide Google with a better sitemap. The more simple and well formatted your site, the more likely Google is to include a sitelink with your business results. The more sitelinks the higher the likelihood a user clicks into your site directly to the page of their choice.

It may be time to dust off your site and be sure you’ve got the basics down. Here’s a great article showing you exactly how to structure your site to be as search engine friendly as possible. A Professional SEO’s Cheat Sheet for Building a Search Engine Friendly Web site for 2010.

Modifying your sitelinks

If Google did provide a sitelink with your business results make sure that it takes your customers to the page that YOU choose. If it doesn’t, then you need to make sure that your main page is clear to Google. Again, simple navigation and good backlinks should clear things up and get your desired sitelinks showing up in Google.

You can block any irrelevant link that falls into the reasons below:

While  most of the factors have decreased in relevance, the concept of domain trust is having a greater importance than ever. What do we mean by domain trust and how can you get search engines, especially Google to Trust your domain?

The terms “domain trust” and “domain authority” are bandied about a lot by search engine optimization services today. Domain trust is an expression that’s commonly used these days in SEO circles. Widely recognised as being of significant importance few people are able to offer a clear definition of domain trust and how it can influence search placements.

Here’s an explanation of domain trust, what it means and what you can do to build it. But let’s first have a look at the meaning of the term “trust” ..

The search engines work tirelessly in the pursuit of relevance. The name of their game is to match queries with the most suitable returns. The better they are at it, giving people simple stress free online search experiences that deliver the goods, then the more people will use them. In other words, the more value search adds to users’ lives the more value they add to their market price.

Google runs hundreds of tests against websites and checks numerous signals in order to establish relevance. One of the most important qualities that a web site can exhibit is domain trust.

The more domain trust you have the better you rank.

Domain Trust – Who links to you?

To a large extent domain trust is down to proximity. Google loves high quality websites. Well designed, well structured web sites bursting with great content and blessed with large numbers of satisfied visitors – these are Google’s trusted domains.

The closer you live to trusted domains, in other words the more direct links your site has from trusted domains, the more trust you gain.

Sites one link removed from the trusted domain network will generate 0.01% web spam. Two or more clicks from the trusted domain network and you are moving in circles that deal in unacceptable levels of spam – levels of 1.2% or more.

Domain Trust – Who you link to

It also matters who you link to. If you link to low trust sites, expect this to damage your domain trust. You’re in bad company. Link to trusted sites to boost your own domain trust.

Reciprocal links directories? Don’t do it. Why would any credible website link to a site that spams? It wouldn’t. Google is wise to this.

Domain Trust – Registration information

Google has been official registrar since 2003. Why? So that it can look under the web bonnet and access important web registration information. Being able to identify the owners of websites  means Google can spot themes. If you own 100 sites and Google spots that 75 of them are spam sites then expect this to be reflected in search placements  through

Domain Trust – User Data Signals

Google collects huge amounts of information about what users do on the web – through Analytics, through the tool bar, free wi-fi and through third party relationships. Signals reveal how naturally a domain is behaving. If the data signals are unusual the domain might well be penalised. Normal behaviour indicates a trust.

Follow Google guidelines, prioritise quality design and quality content and allow domain trust to grow naturally.

• Domain Age – it takes time to build trust and the past history of a domain may effect domain trust.
• Link Profile – essentially looking at the range of sites that you link to comparing the good links compared to the bad links.
• Domain Trust of other sites in a PageRank type relationship.
• Social networking (not yet but maybe in the future)
• On page information such as stop words?
• Links from a white-list of sites which is periodically checked by hand for quality? A list of manually checked sites that are unlikely to become untrustworthy overnight, Wikipedia (this rules out being correct as a factor), BBC, CNN, etc.
• Contact information on a page.
• Rate of link growth, natural growth – number of links grows as  a function of time and the number of pages in a site. More content should mean more link growth.  Is there a natural rate of growth for links depending on site size?
• Duplicate Content – a site that steals content from another site would be more likely to be dodgy.
• Bounce Rate – noisy but could be a secondary factor. It has certainly been touted as a possible ranking factor for a long time. A good site would satisfy the needs of its users but this could still be acheived in one page-view.
• Link distribution – how are the links distributed on the  site. Are there any deep links or is the entire link structure concentrating on the home page?
• Long-tail rankings – sites that appear for many long tail search are more likely to have good content than simple web sites.

Keyword research as part of the SEO process is no longer just having a quick look at keywords and keyword volumes, and then optimising for the highest volume terms. This ignores many factors – increasingly keyword research for SEO requires a wider view of the competitive search landscape, your customer behaviour and the search usability of your site.

If you have paid for keyword research recently, and received simply a list of keywords with numbers, I hope you know what to do with them!

Keyword research forms not only the foundation of an SEO campaign, but also supports meaningful measurement, and continues throughout to support and refine delivery, as an iterative process, throughout the lifetime of the project.

So, what is the point of keyword research?

It is to understand your market
• Do people search for your products? Is there a market already?
• Who is in the market, what are they doing, and how successful are they?

It is to understand your customer’s behaviour
• How do your customers search for your products?
• When do your customers search for your products?
• What language do they use?

It is to understand your customer’s expectations
• What do they expect to find when they arrive on your site?

With this knowledge, you are able to evaluate how well you are performing against your target keywords, and your level of search penetration. You will also be able to estimate the size of the opportunity.
A quick search will show you where you rank for your target keywords, and where your pages are returned in the results, the actual landing page that searchers will arrive at on clicking through. Is it the most appropriate page? Analytics, usability keyword tools like Omniture, live usability studies and good old common sense should inform this. If you’re convinced that the best page for the job ranks for the search phrase, if a conversion action is required, proceed directly to the Conversion Optimisation process.

At this stage, you have completed the core of your keyword research and you can begin to create an action plan, based around:
• On page optimisation of your pages that rank for the appropriate phrases
• Site architecture, internal linking and content optimisation where your site ranks, but not for the most appropriate, converting page.
• As above for keyword phrases that you don’t rank for at all. Content creation strategy where there is no existing content to support optimisation.

Rinse and repeat, taking into consideration web analytics and site search data.

Top 21 SEO DOs:

1. Make changes that benefit users. Focus on the user and all else (including rankings) will follow.
2. Create and maintain sensible and consistent navigation paths.
3. Be continually aware that each and every page on your site is a potential customer entry point. Think laterally.
4. Label each and every page clearly; describing its content in words your users would most likely employ.
5. Pay attention to detail. Google takes hundreds of factors into account when ranking web pages, and so should you.
6. Continually create content that your users will find beneficial.
7. Inform the search engines of new pages added to your site by submitting sitemaps and providing spider paths.
8. Use text to qualify or augment non-textual content such as images or videos.
9. Continually educate colleagues and collaborate with them in regard to SEO techniques.
10. Continually use data to analyze the impact of SEO techniques.
11. Streamline your code to make it as lightweight and elegant as possible.
12. Ensure there’s one page that is a champion for each of your most important keywords.
13. Pursue direct links from relevant sites aggressively.
14. Insist on site map diagrams and wireframes when developing or reworking templates, sections or sites.
15. Utilize hierarchal structures whenever possible, from individual pages to folder nesting to site navigation.
16. Use CSS liberally and JavaScript sparingly.
17. Be patient. Good rankings take time; quickly-won rankings almost always evaporate.
18. Be transparent with your results: there are no bad rankings, only opportunities for improvement.
19. Remember that everyone associated with your business is a potential link partner, including your customers, your affiliates and your advertising partners.
20. Take the time to read blogs, participate and forums and stay on top of developments in the SEO world. Search engines are dynamic.
21. Research,Research and Research.

Top 21 SEO DON’Ts:

1. Don’t make changes for improved search rankings that negatively impact a user’s experience. The user comes first.
2. Don’t duplicate content, knowingly or through technical carelessness.
3. Don’t use parameters that become part of a page’s permanent URL structure.
4. Don’t create a page that is not linked to an appropriate parent page.
5. Don’t knowingly let a page 404 (file not found). Redirect dead pages to new pages relevant to that old page.
6. Don’t use Flash when HTML can achieve the same user experience.
7. Don’t make your users search for categories: provide a click path.
8. Don’t give away your link love without good reason (i.e., a benefit).
9. Don’t put pages in competition with one another for your most important keywords.
10. Don’t use gray- or black-hat techniques that could put your search engine rankings at risk.
11. Don’t deploy SEO improvements en masse. When possible, roll out changes incrementally.
12. Don’t rely on top-down navigation to direct users to content. Think laterally.
13. Don’t put content in pop-ups.
14. Don’t use splash pages.
15. Don’t use coding techniques that are less than optimal for SEO just because they’re easy.
16. Don’t trust vendors about SEO issues. Their intention is to sell a product, not to improve your search engine rankings. As often as not, vendor SEO “solutions” cause SEO problems.
17. Don’t panic when your rankings take a hit. Rankings fluctuate, and if your rankings don’t bounce back quickly, a considered strategy will work better than a band aid.
18. Don’t take the search engines’ advice at face value.
19. Don’t rely on anecdotal or even expert advice in making keyword selection choices. Use data.
20. Don’t put off until tomorrow what should have been done yesterday. It takes long enough to rise in the search engine rankings, so any delay is amplified.
21. Don’t say “I do SEO”.

Reference : SEOSKEPTICS.com

SEO Duplicate Content: There is a myth among SEO professionals called Google penalty for duplicate content. Many SEO professionals say that Google penalizes sites that have duplicate content. This information does not follow! There is duplicate content within a site, duplicate content on the network, such as news, for example, and copying content, ie, theft of content.
Duplicate content within the site:
Most of the time you provide the same content on different URLs, as is the case of an e-commerce, for example, that uses session IDs.

For example:

• http://www.example.com
• https://www.example.com
• http://www.example.com/index.htm
• https://www.example.com/index.htm
• http://example.com
• https://example.com
• http://example.com/index.htm
• https://example.com/index.htm
• https://example.com/index.htm

To resolve this problem you can choose the URL of your own, that you really want to appear in the search and do a 301 redirect to other URLs so that all just point to the URL you have chosen. If you can not do this redirection use the rel = “canonical” for the search engines to better understand your site and its distinct URLs.
The goal is to make the search engines know that these pages have the same contents and index only one version to display them in the search results.
Can also occur in some cases, you have two pages with the same content and one of them being a version just for printing. In this case you should put a meta noindex tag in the print version. If you do not tell Google which page to be indexed will choose one of the two and he may choose exactly the print version.

Duplicate content on the network:
You can, for example, republish the post in your blog, provided you cite the source and the author has a link to the original post. This is perfectly correct, and Google will not punish you for it.
Google knows when your content is duplicated as in the examples above and will not be any punishment in such cases.
Duplicate content (theft of content):

You develop a site and someone unscrupulous uncreative copy your HTML, your pictures, finally, the entire contents of your site and will publish the contents stolen. If you discover, report it to Google and prove that this content is yours, he will be punished. But in this case since it is not duplicate content, but theft of content.
Obviously we are not talking about manipulation of the classification results using techniques of Black Hat SEO. In this case not only duplicate content, stolen and otherwise attempt to manipulate the search engines, especially Google, your site will be banned from the index!

The duplicate content problem has finally been resolved with Google’s new canonical element. Web developers can indicate their preferred page URL using a new
tag in the HTML .
For example:

<link rel=”canonical” href=http://www.example.com/ />

inside the <head> section of the duplicate content URLs:

Note:

• The canonical URL must be on the same domain, although sub-domains such as www.mysite.com and products.mysite.com are permitted.
• Relative path names are handled and Google will resolve URLs to any path set by the page’s link.
• The preferred URL does not need to contain an exact replica of the original page content. Google will permit slight differences, such as the order of a list of products. However, it is certainly advisable to avoid that situation where possible.
• Google will follow canonical chains, but recommend that a single valid URL is specified for the best results.

SEO Doorway … Door (meaning anything providing a means of access (or escape);) way (meaning way) if we add the two words that have Doorway (meaning entry or portal) Or the entrance (the space in a wall) through which you enter or leave a room or building; the space that a door can close; “he stuck his head in the doorway”

Using this technique, considered Black Hat SEO many people try to manipulate the search engines by creating ports of entry or Doorways, each optimized for one keyword, but without content. The goal of Doorways is to position itself in the search engines and when the user accesses one of them is directed to another page. Another form of Doorway is a page full of links, called the Farm and Ranch Links of links, each link leading to the User to a different content than it looks. This is negative for the User who is frustrated when accessing this page and the browser with anger that showed this result to him, and for the browser, in Google’s case for example, that every day becomes more demanding with the content always thinking in retain its User. When Google finds this tactic not only Doorways are penalized and the sites that link to them.

Example Doorway to Link Farms:
Imagine a (site X) with 300 pages and each one linked to the (site Y). We will then have 300 external links to the (Y site) will result in a good relevance in terms of PageRank and therefore a comfortable position in search engines. The (site Y) which also has 300 internal links do the same thing and that every new page created new links are becoming a Farm Links. These techniques are already well known by search engines, especially BING & Google, therefore, should be avoided.
Another method widely used among bloggers, especially, is the exchange of links.
Be very careful with the exchange of links to not fall into the same trap of links farms.
Please exchange links with sites that have content relevant to the content of this site is related to its use and only the index page for that or a unique page for exchanging links. Use the techniques of building links (link building) on social networks, a member of directories, social bookmarking and so on.

Do not use hidden text. Example
• Use of text on a white on white background
• Including text behind an image
• Using CSS to hide text
• Setting the font size to 0 (zero)

Do not hidden links.

Example
The hidden links are those that can be crawled by Googlebot, but are unreadable to humans because:

• The link consists of hidden text (for example, with the source text and the background the same color)
• The CSS has been used to create hyperlinks the size of a pixel
• The link uses a small character to keep it hidden – for example, a hyphen in the middle of a paragraph”

(…) If we feel that your site has text and hidden links purposefully deceptive, it can be removed from Google’s index and will not appear in the pages of search results. In assessing the existence of hidden text and links in your site search items that are not visible to visitors of the page. texts are present exclusively or links to search engines and not for visitors ?”(…)
See more at: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66353 
 

Any SEO technique used for manipulation of results is considered Black Hat SEO and consequently the site that uses it will be excluded from the Google index.

Learn more about the SEO techniques which should be applied.