Google Syndicating Twitter
I was randomly searching today for “Tiger Woods” today in Google and was surprised to find this:
It appears as if Google is now syndicating Twitter into its search results similar to how it does with Google Books / Shopping and News.
What’s interesting in this is that this is the first time Google is syndicating a non-Google source in its search results.
It is yet to be seen how this will impact search engine spam and Google results.
Piwik - Open Source Web Analytics, first look and review
For a long time, i’ve been itching to install and test Piwik - an open source alternative to Google Analytics, and finally got a chance to do so last week.
Some thoughts into why open source analytics
A major reason why I was leaning towards open source analytics was because, I couldn’t find any reason to trust my data as well as client data with Google, Omniture or any other third party for that matter.
Building your own analytics solution, could be a temporary fix but it could never be a real permanent and stable solution.
An open source web analytics program seemed like a great thing to implement and test.
The Analytics Industry
The Analytics industry is by far dominated by players like Google’s Free Analytics solution, Omniture, Webtrends and others.
Most of these tools are either paid or have other silver linings to them, nothing is completely tool and you could never be sure your very critical data is in safe hands.
Something like Piwik could completely change the dynamics of this industry, just like Joomla and Drupal did with the Content Management System industry.
What Piwik really means more than the fact that its free to use and your data’s secure, is that a lot of new features could be potentially added into this because open source products are known to have a great development base and additional feature developments.
A peek into Piwik
If you’re ultra curious, Piwik offers a free demo here, but you will never know how it performs until you actually test it on one of your own sites.
I went ahead and installed the software in our server, and the entire procedure was pretty painless, taking just under 30 minutes.
Once installed, Piwik gives you a code to insert on sites just above the </body> tag, almost like every other analytics program out there.
In terms of features, an interesting thing I could notice was that Piwik had a whole section dedicated to addons, something which you will not see in many other analytics programs.
Weird enough, this addon / plugin section reminded me of Wordpress’ plugin engine.
This to me, is the most interesting part of the system and could lead to a lot of people switching over.
Once the code was installed, I could see that Piwik was able to start gathering data within an hour, and was showing me stats from a site on which It was installed.
The solution has a very interesting dashboard, where you can add, re-arrange and drop widgets.
The overall traffic monitoring is stable, but not very colorful like Google Analytics or Omniture.
The solution was pretty fast and responsive, which I primarily attribute to its PHP Codebase powered by a MySQL database.
Piwik v/s Google Analytics
A major reason why I installed Piwik on a site is to primarily compare the data that Piwik would throw forward and what Google Analytics would throw forward.
Here’s what Piwik and Google Analytics report on overall traffic stats for the same site over a 24 hour window:
As you can see there are some discrepancies in the data on overall traffic, and this widens further when you check the refferal sources and search engine traffic keywords:
This goes on to prove that there could be something wrong with the data reporting of either of the tools.
There is no possibility of a code insertion error on any page, since the site runs on the Wordpress platform and both codes have been inserted next to each other in the footer.php document.
Some features I would like to see in Piwik
1. A better user interface
Even though Piwik has a decent interface, it has a lot of room for improvement in comparison to Google Analytics at least.
I don’t see this as a major issue, but it could be a problem especially in the long run when the solution is promoted further.
2. Better referral tracking
Even though Piwik has this feature, it still doesn’t cut it in terms of referral tracking, and there is some major work to be done in this aspect.
Search Engine Keyword traffic tracking doesn’t seem to be very sharp either, since it doesn’t seem to count visitors who stick on an entry page for <5 seconds.
3. Better Support Forums and Community
This could be partially blamed to the fact that there are not many users for this program yet, and its still early days.
But, as I see it, there isn’t strong community involvement in the Piwik program.
The best way out for the developers is to model the Piwik community along the same lines as that of the Wordpress community, with forum integration as well as plugin databases.
This could go killer if there was enough community involvement.
Ending Notes
Overall, Piwik’s a great option to keep your data secure, but if you’re really looking at advanced data manipulation, you’re better off using Google or Omniture.
Piwik is one cut better than Awstats and provides a single login interface where you can check stats along with a basic GUI.
But, this in my opinion is temporary, if Piwik is getting as much attention as it is right now.
With stronger developer initiative and user contribution, Piwik could easily outpace Google Analytics and other competition.
Three SEO Tips for your site
01 Choose one main keyword per page Search engines understand what a particular webpage is about by reviewing the frequency of words and phrases in its content. By choosing one main keyword or short phrase for each page on your website, you encourage the search engines to associate the page with that keyword. 02 Increase the Keyword Density for each page Search engines expect the keyword or phrase on each webpage to make up 6%-10% of its content. The frequency of the keyword or phrase is called Keyword Density. If your page has 100 words and your keyword appears six times, you have a Keyword Density of 6% Caution - if the Keyword Density is too high, search engines may consider the page to be spam and penalize your website in the search results. However, if your phrase does not appear enough, it will not be identified as the keyword for the page. 03 HTML tags emphasize your keywords The purpose of an <h1> HTML tag is not to tell web browsers to use a large, bold font - it is used to indicate that this is the most important text on your page. We browsers will just display it in a large font by default, because it is important. Search Engines decide which words and phrases are the most important on your page, based on the HTML tags that are used. The most important tags to include are the <title> which sets the title in the browser bar and should always include your keyword; <h1> (which should only appear once and should also always use your keyword) and <h2>, ideal to emphasize supporting words that ar similar to your keyword or phrase.
Using HTML tags for Search Engine Optimization
Effectively using h tags will not only improve your SEO efforts, but also the structure and accessibility of your web content. H tags are used to denote section titles in your content.
<h1> tags are normally used for the title of the content and then lower h tags (such as <h2> and <h3>) are used for sub-headers.
01 Use h1 to h6
HTML has six heading elements: <h1> through to <h6>. Use <h1> for your main page heading, then <h2> for sub-headings and so on, where necessary.
02 Prioritize your content
Search engines view the <h1> tag as the most important title of the page and then go down to <h2>, <h3> and so on. This means that you should always ensure your <h1> tag contains your most important keywords and that our <h2> tag contains your secondary keywords.
03 Match your h1 tag to your page title
It’s important to have your <h1> tag at the top of your page and to include the same important seach content as your title tag. This highlights to search engines what your page is about.
04 Don’t overuse h1 tags
If <h1> tags are so important, why not add lots of them? Don’t risk it: just use one <h1> tag with your most important content and then use as many <h2> and <h3> tags as you need alongside your content.
05 Put your visitors first
All good SEO comes from putting site visitors first. If you structure our headings to make it easy for users to read, you will automatically make it easy for search engines to spider and index as well. Remember: users first, SEO second
What is a Web Directory?
A “Web Directory is a directory on the internet that specializes in linking to other sites, and arranging these link according to the themes of the websites they link to.”
A Web Directory is also known as Link Directory, as its a hot spot for links. A really good example of a directory is the Open Directory Project. To Date, Web Directories form an important part of Link Building.
There are different types of Web Directories as well- Paid, Free, Reciprocal and Affiliate being the major niches.
Here are five reasons why Web Directories are important:
- It gives you a backlink.
- It makes your site more visible to the spiders.
- You submit your site to the directory unlike search engines for whom you have to wait.
- You can be assured that your Site comes under the right category and hence it helps to make your Website’s profile stronger.
- You also have the odds of your link being clicked by a random visitor, though this does not happend much with Web Directories.
What is a Reciprocal Link?
Reciprocal links in simple terms “are links arranged on the basis of an agreement between two sites to provide a link to the other site within their own site”.
This is mainly used for increasing link popularity and consequently web traffic. Its an arrangement that is made out of trust and also with the understanding that there is mutual benefit. Reciprocal Links is a major force in Search Algorithms.
So what are the advantages of having a Reciprocal Link?
- You get visitors of other sites, directed towards your site.
- Search Engines also counts the number and quality of the sites that link to your site, so it helps rankings.
- It creates the opportunity of friendship between the various active users across the web and hence more quality as well.
- It make things easier for users, as they can know where to find related information and also at the same time, whom their favorite site prefers to read or visit.
- A cheaper(most of the time free) and more effective tactic, when compared to other means of garnering link popularity.
What is an RSS Feed?
Really Simple Syndication or RSS is “a file format used for web syndication to inform people about regularly changing content in a site or blog”.
Its also known as Rich Site Summary.
The major advantage of RSS is that it helps people from not having to subscribe to a newsletter. The use of RSS is growing rapidly with more and more bloggers and site owners realizing the amount of traffic it can bring.
Here are some advantages of RSS feeds:
- It can help you keep things in order and also makes your content more organized.
- It can be a great resource to your readers, they can know what is happening in your site easily.
- It can help you get a lot of traffic, and better rankings as well.
- It will give you a wide selection of channels to distribute your content to.
- It’s a great new way to make money with ads, you can place ads in your RSS Feeds.
What is a Robots.txt file?
A Robots.txt is a “file that is added to your server, to prevent Search Engine Spiders from crawling to certain sections of your site, or your entire site”.
The Robots.txt file is easy to create, as its a simple notepad file. It’s a major tool used by illegal sites to survive on the Internet. But there are some valid advantages to it as well.
These are some reasons why people use Robots.txt file, or why you should use it:
- If you don’t want your unfinished site to already appear in public.
- It can help you escape from spammers, who try to collect email addresses.
- You have sensitive information that you do not wish to be shared. Porn Sites, come under this category.
- You can cut off specific pages from the Search Engine Listing, and that can be a useful advantage.
- It can act as an invitation for bots to crawl to your site as well.
What is Black Hat SEO?
Black Hat SEO, is “the use of unethical techniques to make search engine rankings go up”.
It’s still widespread in spite of all the backlash from Google. It breaks rules and regulations that exist in Search Engine Optimization and also runs the risk of getting the website being banned. There are groups of people who claim that if Black Hat SEO is illegal so is basic SEO.
Here are some methods of Black Hat SEO:
- Keyword Stuffing- This is stuffing your site with keywords in a non-logical manner.
- Use of Doorway Pages- Door Way pages are fake pages are that used for indexing purposes.
- Invisible Text- This is adding text that is the same color of the background.
- Spamdexing- This is the process by creating pages specifically for the search engine for obscure phrases.
- Link Cloaking- This process is basically hiding the actual content of the site and misleading users and search engines.
- The other processes include Buying Links, Data Mining and Page Rank Hijacking.
What is a Sitemap?
A Sitemap is “the representation of the navigation structure or the architecture of a website”.
The Sitemap lists the pages that the website contains in an organized fashion and the link to the Site Map can be usually seen in the bottom end of the page or sometimes at the top.
The Sitemap can be easily generated by various tools available on the net.
Here are some reason why you should have a Sitemap:
- It makes Search Engine Spiders find your pages easily, this is specially useful if your site is new.
- Visitors can look for specific things easily with the Sitemap.
- It is useful for sites that contain dynamic content.
- Helps really large sites that contain a lot of content pages which are not interlinked in the right way.
- A site map helps get pages that contain Flash or Ajax get indexed as well.