Can things get any better for all those who wanted to know more about SEO and more importantly, improving your blog or site in relation to Google? I doubt!

Google has come out with a Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide, which is a compact 22 page guide that lists many best practices that teams within Google and external webmasters alike can follow that could improve their sites’ crawlability and indexing.

Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide covers most of the common areas with illustrations that webmasters might consider optimizing such as improving title and description meta tags, URL structure, site navigation, content creation, anchor text etc. These areas I’m sure all SEOs would agree as important for any blog or site. Also, these pointers would apply to webmasters of all experience levels and sites of all sizes and types. Google also plans on updating the guide at regular intervals with new optimization suggestions and to keep the technical advice current. Could you ask for anything more?

If you are a Search Engine Optimizer and someone ever questions you on whether you follow the best practices, you can pass them a link of this SEO Starter Guide and tell them that everything is as per book!

Download the Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide from Google.

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PageRank dilution is when outbound links siphon off your Google PageRank which would normally be distributed to your internal pages, therefore reducing your site or blog’s overall PageRank. How much effect PageRank dilution has on your blog or site depends on the strength of your internal linking and how many outbound links you have.

So how do we counter PageRank leaks?

1. Increasing internal linking on your blog or website.
2. Eliminating redundant outbound links.

Internal linking is easy and is something you should get into the habit of doing regularly.

• Link to other relevant posts in the body of articles.
• Tag your posts.
• Link to recent/popular posts in your sidebar.
• Add related posts to single pages.

Removing redundant outbound links: Usually in blogs most people include a blogroll in their sidebar. The problem lies here is that this blogroll will be displayed on each and every single page on your blog which in turn drains out your PageRank out of your blog. Imagine those whose blogroll runs pages and pages! While outbound links contained within a post add some relevance to the post, sitewide blogrolls add no relevant value to the content on display. Therefore they are redundant and it is best to limit the damage that they can cause.

Dealing with blogroll:

• You can create a separate page to display your blogroll. This definitely works but a lot of bloggers prefer to keep their blogroll in the sidebar.
• Adding a nofollow attribute to links on blogroll. However, this is a very antisocial and selfish approach and really loses the meaning of having a blogroll. But then, if you have to do it, then you have to do it!
• Display your blogroll only on the homepage. Is this possible? Yes, it is and lets see how.

How to display your blogroll only on the homepage?

This can be done with a little a PHP code. This PHP code will instruct WordPress under what conditions our blogroll should be displayed.

Step 1: Add the following code at the beginning of your sidebar.php file.

<?php if (is_home()) { $check_home = '1'; } else { $check_home = '0'; } ?>

This simply checks if the current page is the homepage. This code is necessary because the ‘is_home()’ function in WordPress does not register the homepage correctly.

Step 2: Use the following code to display your blogroll only when a user is on the homepage.

<?php if ($check_home == '1') { ?>
Add your blogroll code here
<?php } ?>

This simple piece of PHP code can also be used to limit other sidebar items to the homepage as well, such as the Top Commentators list, some ads that you want displayed only on the homepage and so on.

Do keep in mind that you should not be completely eliminating outbound links as they are also one of the factors Google takes into consideration when determining PageRank. The key is to link to relevant and trustworthy sites.

More about PageRank

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SEOmoz have released Version Two of their Search Engine Ranking Factors guide. V2 is the result of the collective wisdom 37 leaders in the world of Organic Search Engine Optimization. The contributors rated each factor on a scale of 5.

Top 10 positive factors were:

1. Keyword Use in Title Tag
2. Global Link Popularity of Site
3. Anchor Text of Inbound Link
4. Link Popularity within the Site’s Internal Link Structure
5. Age of Site
6. Topical Relevance of Inbound Links to Site
7. Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community
8. Keyword Use in Body Text
9. Global Link Popularity of Linking Site
10. Topical Relationship of Linking Page

Top 5 negative factors were:

1. Server is Often Inaccessible to Bots
2. Content Very Similar or Duplicate of Existing Content in the Index
3. External Links to Low Quality/Spam Sites
4. Participation in Link Schemes or Actively Selling Links
5. Duplicate Title/Meta Tags on Many Pages

And the most controversial factors were:

1. Manual Authority/Weight Given to Site by Google
2. Relevance of Site’s Primary Subject Matter to Query
3. Participation in Link Schemes or Actively Selling Links
4. Duplicate Title/Meta Tags on Many Pages
5. Global Link Popularity of Linking Site
6. Quality of the Document Content (as measured algorithmically)
7. Domain Extension of Linking Site (edu, gov, com, ca, co.uk, etc)
8. Server is Often Inaccessible to Bots
9. External Links to Low Quality/Spam Sites
10. TLD Extension of Site (edu, gov, us, ca, com, etc)

The complete SEOmoz report can be read here and it is highly recommended. For those who also want to have a look at the Version 1 made in the year 2005, you can find it here.

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