Many of the SEO consultants are used to seeing a site fluctuates in its ranking by a point or two. Nevertheless, it is very different for clients to go through when a site drop happens. Hence, SEO’s are constantly reminded to find ways to resolve it quickly and easily.

Here are four simple ways to undertake when starting a well-optimized site and can help you in case a drop occurs with your site.

Establish quality links

One of the best things to do is to keep building quality links. This takes time and effort but it will pay off in the long run. If you don’t know where to start, read up on articles and blogs that talk about building links effectively. You can also find comments from some famous SEO experts on how they handle a site drop and learn a thing or two from them.

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Relax for a few days

Do not rush to edit all the information on your site. Do not add new links and programs if your site is still disorganized. By over reacting would not win back your sites rankings. Moreover, adding a solid and well-optimized content could somehow do more harm than good if you add it to your site at this time. Give yourself time to research and formulate better, long term solutions.

Relaxing does not mean taking a day off from your site, it simply means having a solid plan first before making any changes. There are many steps in link building, familiarize yourself with all the steps before you start work.

Study the sites that have out-ranked you

Observe the sites that usually outrank you the most. By doing so, it would help you figure out your shortcoming or mistakes and may give you an idea on how to enhance your site and surpass the others by adding more programs and details. You may want to explore some tactics that you might have missed and led to you site’s poor ranking.

In searching for the onsite optimization, you only need a brief look at its keyword densities, H1 and title tags, internal linking structure, number of indexed pages and the amount of content on the page. Comparing the newly ranking sites with your site and with other sites that have held their positions and dropped, you’ll get a feel for whether there are trends. If you find common traits among the sites that have moved up, then you may be on to something.

Doing a backlink analysis every month is a good practice. You can monitor your previous rating as well as those of other sites. You can compare them and make an analysis. Try to figure out what are the factors that out-rank you. It usually depends on the competition level on how you would create solutions to enhancE your site. You can use Yahoo’s link domain to visit the sites and try to see the links that they are using. You can also download an SEO link analysis for further analysis. In using a back link check, you can see the check links that automatically displays the page rank and anchor text.

Doing this would give you an idea on how to create stronger links as compared to other sites. Once you are done collecting all the common traits, you can then formulate a plan to execute on your site.

Take action

After you got all the data, you need to figure out and decide what those information mean. For example, if there is a situation where the new ranking sites have very low word counts and thousand of footer links. Do you really have to follow those leads or do otherwise? The basic questions you need to ask yourself in these situations are: do the link and its content work for some factors? Would it provide better or worst results for the site? Can visitors be satisfied if the content on the site is less? Does paid footer assist Google to send out quality results all over the internet? For these questions, the answer would literally be “NO”.

What you can do now is to formulate a working strategy. You should avoid bad or questionable common trends among the top and improving sites as the algorithm will correct itself eventually. Instead, build additional links, and search and rank new phrases on other pages to help stabilize the traffic when individual phrases decline.

This research is time consuming to be properly performed but since you needed something to do while your rankings are down. It might as well be productive.

This original article is presented to you by LetsTalkSeo.com © 2009

With various kinds of barriers, it is always difficult for newcomers to delve into a web market. Termed as sandboxes, barriers plague a lot of newcomers specifically in the field of search engines by prohibiting their sites to get up and join the Top Positions Club. Fresh sites tend to stay at the bottom of the list until it gets mature enough. There is no direct confirmation or information yet regarding this issue but the staff of Google hasn’t denied it either, even implying its existence. Furthermore, search engine optimization (SEO) specialists have witnessed and testified themselves of having noticed well optimized, but, new sites never rank high on Google, while catching up painlessly and rapidly on other search engines like MSN and Yahoo! The average lockup period of such sites for Google varies from one case to another, but on average, it generally lasts for about six to eight months.

Sandbox and Aging Delay

Such treatment may seem unfair in the public eyes, but there is a fair amount of reasoning why Google and other search engines resort to such kind of measures. Blackhat practices like creation of duplicate content, keyword stuffing and bulk buying of links have, for some time now, allow new sites to get on top of searches in just a considerably small amount of time. With those kinds of unethical practices, Google chose to penalize the newcomers which, in some cases, have been used by companies to support their older sites by generating tons of backlinks in just over a night. This kind of modus, when successful, depreciates search engine results significantly, prompting Google to take precautionary actions to ensure that such acts would not be tolerated. The sandbox, in effect, works like a probationary period for new sites, a safeguard against farming fake sites, lengthening their usually short-term payoff with the hopes of decreasing its usage.

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Sandbox and aging delay shares the same meaning and implication and used interchangeably by SEO experts. Aging delay literally means that sites are being delayed until they become mature enough, until they come of age, age that is not defined and differs from each site to another – even for sites launched in the same day and indexed within the same week. Sandbox is something beyond any site owner’s control, something unavoidable for newcomers. But just like anything inside the web today, just like any problem you encounter, there are always workarounds, or perhaps solutions, that eradicate or somehow minimize the damage that such counter measures put up by Google and other search engines result.

Minimizing Sandbox Damages

The Google sandbox seems impossible to control. Fortunately, there are steps owners can take to make its effects less disparaging for their newly built sites. As mostly the case of most computer-related issues today, users are presented with a number of viable workarounds that are often subdivided into ethical and unethical, or legal and illegal options.  Unethical or illegal approaches may give you additional penalties if not a complete ban from Google. Thus, such tricks will not be discussed in this article.

Before delving into a more detailed discussion on the tips and techniques of minimizing sandbox damage, it must be clarified and understood that sandbox is unavoidable and unstoppable. The best thing one can do is learn to get used to it and wait patiently for the jailing to expire. Attempting to fool Google (e.g. using sandbox tools to bypass the filter, writing exaggerated letters to the management) will surely do no one any good, and may even worsen the situation.

While waiting and stuck in the spells of sandbox, here are some of the countless initiatives you can do:

• Gather content and good links actively.

Good links coupled with relevant and fresh contents are proven to take you to the top over time. Always keep in mind that when getting links, it is important that they need to be from reliable sources link CNN, Fortune 500 sites, DMOZ and other reputable places. One necessary thing not to forget is that .edu, .gov and .mil domains are usually exempted from the sandbox filter, and as such, they could really be of great help. Getting myriad links a month will kill your site. Build links slowly and constantly.

• Formulate plans and work maps ahead of time.

Contrary to the usual practice of launching sites when they’re already complete, launch a couple or more pages anytime you have them. This will trigger the clock and time will be running along with your site’s development.

• Buy old and expired domains.

The sandbox effect is concentrated generally for new sites on new domains. Buying old or expired domains and launching your site there will consequently give you less problems.

• Host your newly-built site on a subdomain of a well-established host.

However, free hosts usually are not good picks in terms of SEO ranking. Unless the domain itself is blacklisted, the sandbox effect does not severely affect its new subdomains. You can also have a separate subdomain from your main site, and just link its contents to the main one. Redirecting from the subdomained site to the new one is also advisable although in some perspectives, it can be viewed as a way of fooling Google.

• Keywords do not have to be popular.

Being sandboxed does not necessarily mean that your site is not being indexed by Google at all. While waiting to get to the top with the most popular keywords, you will learn in time that even unpopular keywords with sufficient optimization are enough to keep you up to date and on pace with other sites.

• Increase traffic by relying more on non-Google ways.

Always keep in mind that Google is just one of the continuously growing numbers of search engines these days. So it is a good thing to include on your SEO efforts to include some other search engines readily available out there. Go for the ones with relatively short or don’t have sandbox effect at all.

Think positive and do not be over impatient. Just remember that the older the wine or the cheese, the better they are; and so do your domain and website.

This original article is presented to you by LetsTalkSeo.com © 2009

Buy-in for an in-house SEO effort offered by several stakeholders to many large organizations must be successful. This guide deals with how to get the focus of all on the common goal of optimizing organic search efforts of the Organization. There are three layers which play pivotal role.

The top layer: Executives



This is executive group. Their role involves decision making for resource requests and help in elevating organizations forward. These are the people who buy into the organic search effort. Their work requires advance thinking and strategic visionary approach.  It would be much beneficial if we could make the top layer buy into the long-term value which is offered by the organic search. These folks might think that we would play only chess and nothing else.

The middle layer: Management
The team of Operational management for a particular site or company falls under this layer. Their work is to get jobs finished in time with the available resources. They help in shaping the vision of executives. They are not end workers, but still they manage and guide teams and explain who will push and who will pull the lever. These people would be making their moves on chess board.

The lower layer: Everyone else
These are people who actually push and pull the levers respectively which make things happen. They produce contents every day, ensure servers are configured properly and files are loaded correctly by the Ops team. This layer makes the vision comes true. These are the ones who act as the pieces on the chessboard which are then played.

Tackling these layers efficiently

Top layer
We can make executives understand how SEO affects their strategic vision by educating them the benefits. They must be provided with well-collected information, informed about total costs involved, results of the project and consequences on head count. The pivotal thing is you must be in a position to tackle all questions fired at you. They may lose their interest if you do not answer question promptly and clearly. It is a must to keep your presentation brief and elegant since executives are busy people. So the presentation must comprise of only necessary details.

Middle layer
This layer can be tackled by disclosing information held in reserve from the top layer. People in this layer make decision in resource allocation. So provide them with ROI numbers which assist them in ranking projects. You must provide them with the right decisions in a candid manner and if the executives convey their message to this layer, then it will also help.

Lower layer
Response from this layer is generally positive and refusal to do work is met rarely. They should be made to understand how their actions impact end products, thereby improving the organic search efforts. This will not only give them a good understanding of the entire project but also helps in shaping the actual results.

Overcoming objections
How do you manage when one layer is pushing back (for example, middle layer) and resources are limited but your work is also pressed for time to succeed?

The solution is to show off your strengths. Here, top layer has bought into SEO and bottom layer is ready to do the work. By bridging communication gap between all layers, you can achieve your results. You should ensure all items on your work list are crossed off step by step (like allocating more resources to middle layer and providing specific training to lower layer).

By addressing staffing level issues and resolving bottleneck situations quickly and efficiently, positive results can be achieved in no time.

This original article is presented to you by LetsTalkSeo.com © 2009

Twitter is a free social-networking and micro-blogging service that enables users to send and read each other’s updates.  It is an instant messaging service that is made available to the public. Twitter also allows you or anyone to post updates as often as you need with a maximum of 140 characters for each post.



Below are a list of Twitter benefits which can be further explored:

1. Twitter lets those within this globe to get into the network of contacts to get information on what is going on in each others’ lives, from the mundane to the dramatic.
2. Twitter messages, travelling over multiple networks and devices, have touched the lives of families needing help during natural disasters, have led strangers becoming friends, and also enables politicians reaching out to their constituents.
3. From a security standpoint, Macs are inherently more secure than other systems, so Twitter can worry less about safeguarding source code and other intellectual properties.
4. Twitter is a minimalist communication medium that is very powerful, even on its own. Even the presidents or CEOs of any company are able to have a better connection on a personal level with their employees and customers.
5. Twitter helps to promote good (and bad) word of mouth for certain products or brand of a company by attracting more new customers and keeping the current customers coming back again.   This will directly attract more sales and revenues, and will also increase  web sales and web traffic significantly.
6. Twitter can also bring in constructive suggestions from users to help promote new products indirectly. You can use this channel to collect instant feedback about the new products & services. Ideas and necessary corrective actions on complaints need to be defined necessarily. By using Twitter, the company can monitor these complaints and propose necessary compensations before these complaints become a wild fire.
7. It also act as an avenue to bring oneself in front of high profile people.
8. The social network features of Twitter provide a potential channel to build viral marketing campaigns. The essential point is to integrate Twitter in the viral marketing campaign.  If you are doing an online campaign, you may create a link through to Twitter that includes a certain message.
9. Increase in brand awareness especially for new products or new branding to attract new niche in the market and effectively targeting a specific demographic for new sales or new features designed for existing products.
10. Twitter could also be used to find potential employees, especially for a media or technology related industry, Twitter provides an additional proactive recruitment channel and could help you find your next employee.
11. Twitter could be used in an academic setting to foster interaction on a given topic. Twitter can be a viable platform for metacognition, getting users to be brief and precise.
12. In addition, Twitter can also provide a simple way for attendees at a conference to share thoughts about particular sessions and activities with others at the event and those unable to attend.

Here are some tools to help you investigate your tweet and make an informed decision about whether to keep following them as the choices available are too huge and broad:

Twitter Grader – Twitter Grader assigns every users a rating from 1-100. From here, you can investigate how engaged the people you’re following are and that can help you decide if you want to keep following them.

Twin-fluence is a scientific approach to measure the influence of Twitter users. This is just another set of metrics you can use to help you figure out who you want to follow.

Tweet-cloud – One of the most important factors when deciding whether you want to follow a Twitter user, is the sort of content they tweet about.

Twitter Karma – Twitter Karma lets one sort through all your followers and see who’s not following you in return, who you have a mutual follow/follow-back relationship with, and who is following you that you’re not following back.

Friend or Follow – Friend or Follow does essentially the same thing as Twitter Karma, helping you figure out who your friends, follows, and fans are on Twitter.

Qwitter – Qwitter will send update emails whenever someone stops following you. It will even let you know what you tweeted that caused them to stop following you, which could be useful for future references.

This original article is presented to you by LetsTalkSeo.com © 2009