The following AOL sites reached all-time high page view numbers in October:

- AOL Webmail (.com and AIM Mail)
- AOL Tech Network
- Latino
- Lemondrop
- Television
- TheBoot
- TMZ

On top of that, when it comes to unique visitors, 12 AOL properties rank in the top three in their categories for unique visitors:

- #1 Men: Asylum
- #1 African American: BlackVoices
- #1 Maps: MapQuest
- #1 Music: Music
- #1 Style: StyleList
- #1 Television: Television
- #2 Horoscopes: Horoscopes
- #2 Latino: Latino
- #2 Business- News/Research: Money & Finance
- #2 Celebrity: TMZ
- #3 Health: Health
- #3 Movies: Moviefone

Perhaps AOL doesn’t get enough credit as it deserves sometimes, considering that it is still managing to top Google in some categories (like Maps).

“AOL has completely rebuilt each of our vertical websites as well as launched over 30 new sites over the past 24 months, and we’re seeing the results in the unprecedented growth of our audience and engagement,” said Bill Wilson, Executive Vice President, AOL Programming. “We’re making our sites more relevant to today’s online users and advertisers, both by opening them up to third-party applications content and by creating sites that target people’s passion points. As the first big portal to allow access to third-party social networks, e-mail, RSS feeds and more, we are leaning into the fragmentation of the Web and reaching and growing key audiences by creating original content and engaging online experiences.”

Only one question during that session received conflicting answers from Googlers and wasn’t reconciled: Does the age of a website/domain affect its ranking?

Ohye answered this way: a site’s reputation can be a indicator to search engines, but of course, it’s not everything. Having a site for a long period of time can establish credibility with users, and as a search engine we also want to reflect this type of credibility. Of course, newer domains can also gain users and credibility. It seems like running a good site is a bit like running a reputable business. So yes, if your domain has been credible for years it can help. If you buy an old domain and put all your content on it in hopes of getting instant rankings, that’s not the best idea.

But, when the question was rephrased from another webmaster, Cutts answered: In the majority of cases, it actually doesn’t matter–we want to return the best information, not just the oldest information. Especially if you’re a mom/pop site, we try to find ways to rank your site even if your site is newer or doesn’t have many links. I think it is fair for Google to use that as a signal in some circumstances, and I try never to rule a signal out completely, but I wouldn’t obsess about it.

Official translation: Sometimes, when we say it does.

GOOGLE STRAIGHT TALK

Do 301 redirects carry over PageRank?

Where appropriate, ranking signals will be transferred across 301 redirects (if the same page has moved from one URL to another). This may take some time, so you should probably leave the redirect in place as long as you have control over the URL.

How many 301 redirects are acceptable?

It’s ok to chain a few together. The HTTP 1.0 standard allows for a maximum of 5 redirects for a URL, so keep it minimal.

Why do pages translated into different languages each have different rankings in their respective engines?

Google looks at content on a URL-by-URL basis, so even if you have translated top content from one language to another, Google might not treat it the same way as they would treat the original content. It’s also possible that the translated content is not as relevant as other original content in that language. Generally speaking, making sure that your content is as unique and compelling as possible for the users in that target market is the best thing to do.

Do backlinks from bad sites negatively affect my PageRank?

Those links might be positively affecting your PageRank (PageRank does not go down from “bad” links like those from adult sites). In general, you don’t have to worry about bad links like that which point to your site that aren’t under your control.

How often does your search algorithm change?

We change the algorithms all the time – last year we had over 450 changes.

Could sharing an IP address with a bad site get my site penalized?

The situations where it would matter are when the server is overloaded (can’t respond to your visitors) and when it’s incorrectly configured (not returning your site to your visitors). But otherwise that is no longer a concern.

Does Google have a problem with rank-checking software?

Rank-checking software is against Google’s Terms of Service and could result in blocking your IP address, and it doesn’t really help, especially when it comes to personalized or geotargeted results.

CIRCUITOUS ROUTES AND TRANSLATIONS
Question: Is there PageRank boost from .edu or .gov links?

Google’s Answer: You don’t get any PageRank boost from having an .edu link or .gov link automatically. If you get an .edu link and no one is linking to that .edu page, you’re not going to get any PageRank at all because that .edu page doesn’t have any PageRank.

Translation: If the .edu or .gov page is linked to, then yes, because that webpage now has some authority, just like with any (non-.gov or .edu) page.

Question: Does a page load time play a crucial role in Google Page Ranking? If yes how important is it?

Google’s Answer: I think the more important issue here is user experience. If your site loads fast, your users will be happy; if it loads slow, users will be less happy. Make your users happy, right?

Translation: Yes, and as important as 200 other factors.

Question: Aaron D’Souza of the Search Quality team was reported as stating that publishing the same content on two separate geotargeted paths under your domain will not trigger the dupe content filters. Is this correct?

Google’s Answer: In general, in a case like that, we’d try to pick the best page based on various factors, including geotargeting and language choices. If that page is one which is also available for other geotargeting/language choices, we will generally try to pick the version that our algorithms feel makes the most sense.

Translation: Yes, we think.

Question: I have reported sites that clearly have paid links (e.g. the backlink page says “Advertising” above the link), but Google does not seem to take action. Why would that be the case? These are .orgs who are clearly selling their .org juice.

Google’s Answer: While paid links and spam reports are being taken very seriously by Google, the results may not be seen immediately for users or even not at all. This does not mean no action is being taken on the offending sites. Also, the TLD of the sites should not be a factor being taken into account. For this reason reporting both, web spam and PageRank passing link selling makes sense and contributes in an important way to the quality of Google’s index.

Translation, partly based on .gov/.edu response: Google treats all top level domains the same, so a .org would have no more juice than a .com or .info. Further, clearly marked paid links (ones on pages labeled “Advertising”) are not necessarily violations of Google’s guidelines. If the links you reported were found to be nofollow links, then no action would be necessary. But keep trying to sabotage the competition. Business is war.

Question: Is it true that the fewer the links FROM your website, the more influence they have on the sites receiving those links?

Google’s Answer: PageRank is split up over the links from a page, but I would recommend not concentrating on this (as you won’t be able to “measure” and act upon it anyway) and instead making your site as usable as possible for your visitors.

Translation: Yes, the more you link the more the link juice passed on is diluted, but don’t go trying to figure out the formula in order to game the system. We’ll figure you out. We’re Google.

Question: Does getting a lot of comments in a blog help in being well indexed/ranked by Google?

Google’s answer: Having a lot of enthusiastic users commenting on your posts and doing so generating content on your site, certainly does not harm your rankings Furthermore, a large fan base gives the webmaster a bit of independence from search engine traffic, which is the reason why generating original and compelling content in order to nurture a group of committed users is something I would highly recommend to any blogger

Translation: Yes.

Question: Recently, you removed this suggestion: “Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!” from your guidelines. Is there any chance that you will be discounting these kinds of links for ranking value in future?

Google’s Answer: There’s always the chance that we’ll discount directory links in the future. What we were seeing was quite a few novice people would see the “directory” recommendation and go out and just try to submit to a ton of directories, even if some of the directories were lower-quality or even fly-by-night directories that weren’t great for users. Right now we haven’t changed how we’re weighting directory links–we’ve only removed the directory suggestion from the webmaster guidelines.

Translation: Possibly.

Question: Until recentley (the last six months or so) a high ranking was achievable by submitting articles to article directories (providing they were 40%-60% unique),  it no longer seems to be the case.  Have links from article sites been de-valued at all?

Google’s Answer: In my experience, not every article directory site is high-quality. Sometimes you see a ton of articles copied all over the place, and it’s hard to even find original content on the site. The user experience for a lot of those article directory sites can be pretty bad too. So you’d see users landing on those sorts of pages have a bad experience. If you’re thinking of boosting your reputation and getting to be well-known, I might not start as the very first thing with an article directory. Sometimes it’s nice to get to be known a little better before jumping in and submitting a ton of articles as the first thing.

Translation: Yes.

About The Author:
Jason Lee Miller is a WebProNews editor and writer covering business and technology.

The description tag is one of the “big three” meta tags, which also include the title tag, and the keywords tag. These three meta tags along with other tags are located in the html code of your website between the sections marked and . While this information is not seen on your web page when someone views your site with a browser, the head section is read by the search engine “robots” and helps the search engines to “understand” what your web page is all about.

Writing the description tag is a good exercise because it will force you to become clear about what you are doing and what you are offering to your viewers. A description tag is in fact like a short mission statement, explaining your enterprise in a nutshell. If someone wakes you in the middle of the night and asks you what your website or your business is all about, you should be able to answer with a concise two or three sentence description without any hesitation.

Here is step-by-step guide to creating and using effective description tags:

1. Write like a journalist. Mention the important W’s, such as who, what, where, when, why. In a description tag, the “what” is the most important element. What do you do? What do you sell? Where do you do it? What is this page all about? Describe what you do in a simple sentence and be sure to incorporate the words and phrases which are most likely to be used when people search for your product or service.

Suppose your business is the Kenosha Wisconsin Window Cleaning Company. A description tag for your main page might start off like this: “The Kenosha Wisconsin Window Cleaning Company provides window cleaning services for residences and businesses in the greater Kenosha, Wisconsin area.”

2. Include your Unique Selling Proposition or USP: The USP is actually the “why” of the classic “who, what, where and why” formula. Why should someone use your service and not someone else’s? The USP is what sets you apart from the others.

Remember when someone makes a query in a search engine yours will not be the only site that comes up. Your competitors will also be there, and they will offer similar products or services. In many search engines the description tag or part of the description tag is displayed in the search results. If your description tag provides some distinctive information, conveying a unique benefit that you provide, then the likelihood that a searcher will click through to your site will increase.

Let’s go back to the example of the Kenosha Window Cleaning site and add the USP to the description. The first lines of the description read: “The Kenosha Wisconsin Window Cleaning Company provides window cleaning services for residences and businesses in the greater Kenosha, Wisconsin area.” Another sentence saying “We guarantee a great job every time at a price you can afford,” could be added to give more detail about the quality, guarantee and the affordability of the service.

3. Put this description in the meta tag section of the head and in the text of the page itself.

You’ve just taken some time to explain what your web page is all about, and have included some compelling reason why someone should buy your product or service. Don’t hide this information in a place where your readers cannot see it. If you only put the description in the meta tag section, then the search engine robots will see it, but many of your visitors will not.

Rather, use your description as part of your first paragraph or even as part of your opening headline. Your description contains your important key phrase and key words. If you place it in the opening paragraph or somewhere on your page, then the search engine optimization value of the description is doubled or even tripled. A big mistake in search engine optimization is to use meta tags, but then have no descriptive text on the page, relying on images to convey the message. Use the description tag to begin your text, and add some more to amplify it and expand on what you have written.

4. Write a distinct description tag for each of your pages, focusing on the unique content and purpose of that particular page.

Another big mistake on many websites is to use the same meta tags on all the pages. Each of your pages is different. Each page has or should have a special item of importance. Look at your pages and think of the special part that the page plays in your overall marketing effort, and make a unique description tag. As with the description tag for your main page, put this description within the text of the page itself.

Even if you get a professional search engine optimization service to write the main meta tags for your site, you can put this knowledge into practice whenever you add new pages to your site. Good description tags will help your site to be found in search engine queries, and when used as part of the main text of your pages will also help your web visitors to quickly understand your most important marketing messages.

About The Author
Donald Nelson is a web developer, editor and social worker. He has been working on the Internet since 1995 and is currently the director of A1-Optimization a firm providing affordable search engine optimization and other website promotion services.

Unfortunately, only 7% of all websites are visible on the search engines according to a recent StatMarket.com study. The reason for this phenomenon is that most web sites are not properly optimized and promoted to achieve high search engine rankings.

The Top 3 Components Of Optimizing Your Web Site for Top Search Engine Rankings:

To achieve the best overall, long-term search engine positioning, three components must be present on your web site:

1. Content component (Your web page text.)
2. Link component (How you link your pages together.)
3. Link Popularity component (The in-bound links to your site.)

1) The Content Component

The most important part of the content component (of a search engine algorithm) is keyword selection and where you place keywords on your web pages. In order for your target audience to find your site on the search engines, your web pages must contain keyword phrases that match the phrases your target audience is typing into search queries. Finding these keywords that your target audience uses to find your product is accomplished by conducting keyword research.

2) The Link Component – Internal Linking

The strategy of placing keyword-rich text on your web pages is useless if the search engine spiders have no way of finding that text. The way your web pages are linked to each other has huge impact on your site’s search engine positioning. Be sure to link your pages together with your keywords within your links.

3) The Link Popularity Component – Acquiring In-Bound Links

The “Link Popularity” or Google “PageRank” (PR) component of a search engine algorithm analyzes how many web sites link to your website.

95% of the battle of getting high rankings at the search engine is acquiring quality and relevant links pointing to your web site. Ever since Google entered the search engine market, all the major Search Engines have started using links as the primary way they rank web sites. This is known as your web site’s “Link Popularity” or in Google’s case it’s called “PageRank” or “PR.”

For example, the heart of Google’s algorithm is PageRank, a system for ranking web pages developed by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University. Here is what Google says about their “PageRank” web site ranking algorithm at their web site…

“PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.”

As Google explains, Links and PageRank are critical to ranking high in the search engines. In fact, inbound links and the text within those inbound links account for 95% of effective search engine optimization.

Relevant Links:
But, attaining optimal link popularity is not as easy as simply obtaining as many links as possible to your website. The quality and relevancy of the sites linking to your site holds more “weight” than the quantity of sites linking to your site. Since Yahoo is the most frequently visited site on the web, a link from Yahoo to your website carries far more “weight” than a link from a smaller, less visited site.

Here’s what Google Developer Matt Cutts has to say about links…

The Top 4 Strategies for Acquiring Links to Your Web Site:

Below are the four critical steps for achieving high rankings by acquiring text links to your web site…

1) Get a higher Google PageRank score than your competition For any given keyword. There is a minimum PageRank required to rank at Google. In order to see what this minimum PageRank number is, search Google for your keyword and look at the PageRank of your competition’s web sites that are ranked in the top 10 of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). An easy way to view the PageRank scores of your competition is to use Google Toolbar or the SEOChat PageRank Search tool.

2) Get more relevant links than your competition. All links are not created equal. The best links are “relevant” links from web pages related to your keyword.

3) Get more links on more different web sites than your competition. Getting links on a variety of different web sites on different networks is crucial for high rankings.

4) Use the keywords you want to rank high in the search engines as the anchor text of your in-bound links. “Anchor text” is the visible text within a hyperlink. Text links and anchor text are the two most important criteria for how Google and other top Search Engines rank web sites.

Here is an example of a link containing the keyword phrase “ERP Software” within the anchor text…

Everyday, the Search Engines average 300 Million searches. In a recent Forrester Research report 81% of consumers on the Internet find products and services by using the Search Engines. Search Engine Optimization allows you to achieve top search engine placement and a tap into a new source of qualified visitors who are actively searching for products and services on the Internet.

Unfortunately, only 7% of all websites are visible on the search engines according to a recent StatMarket.com study. The reason for this phenomenon is that most web sites are not properly optimized and promoted to achieve high search engine rankings.

The Top 3 Components Of Optimizing Your Web Site for Top Search Engine Rankings:

To achieve the best overall, long-term search engine positioning, three components must be present on your web site:

1. Content component (Your web page text.)
2. Link component (How you link your pages together.)
3. Link Popularity component (The in-bound links to your site.)

1) The Content Component

The most important part of the content component (of a search engine algorithm) is keyword selection and where you place keywords on your web pages. In order for your target audience to find your site on the search engines, your web pages must contain keyword phrases that match the phrases your target audience is typing into search queries. Finding these keywords that your target audience uses to find your product is accomplished by conducting keyword research.

2) The Link Component – Internal Linking

The strategy of placing keyword-rich text on your web pages is useless if the search engine spiders have no way of finding that text. The way your web pages are linked to each other has huge impact on your site’s search engine positioning. Be sure to link your pages together with your keywords within your links.

3) The Link Popularity Component – Acquiring In-Bound Links

The “Link Popularity” or Google “PageRank” (PR) component of a search engine algorithm analyzes how many web sites link to your website.

95% of the battle of getting high rankings at the search engine is acquiring quality and relevant links pointing to your web site. Ever since Google entered the search engine market, all the major Search Engines have started using links as the primary way they rank web sites. This is known as your web site’s “Link Popularity” or in Google’s case it’s called “PageRank” or “PR.”

For example, the heart of Google’s algorithm is PageRank, a system for ranking web pages developed by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University. Here is what Google says about their “PageRank” web site ranking algorithm at their web site…

“PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.”

As Google explains, Links and PageRank are critical to ranking high in the search engines. In fact, inbound links and the text within those inbound links account for 95% of effective search engine optimization.

Relevant Links:
But, attaining optimal link popularity is not as easy as simply obtaining as many links as possible to your website. The quality and relevancy of the sites linking to your site holds more “weight” than the quantity of sites linking to your site. Since Yahoo is the most frequently visited site on the web, a link from Yahoo to your website carries far more “weight” than a link from a smaller, less visited site.

Here’s what Google Developer Matt Cutts has to say about links…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Thematic incoming links from authority sites
carry more weight than on-page optimization.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Top 4 Strategies for Acquiring Links to Your Web Site:

Below are the four critical steps for achieving high rankings by acquiring text links to your web site…

1) Get a higher Google PageRank score than your competition For any given keyword. There is a minimum PageRank required to rank at Google. In order to see what this minimum PageRank number is, search Google for your keyword and look at the PageRank of your competition’s web sites that are ranked in the top 10 of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). An easy way to view the PageRank scores of your competition is to use Google Toolbar or the SEOChat PageRank Search tool.

2) Get more relevant links than your competition. All links are not created equal. The best links are “relevant” links from web pages related to your keyword.

3) Get more links on more different web sites than your competition. Getting links on a variety of different web sites on different networks is crucial for high rankings.

4) Use the keywords you want to rank high in the search engines as the anchor text of your in-bound links. “Anchor text” is the visible text within a hyperlink. Text links and anchor text are the two most important criteria for how Google and other top Search Engines rank web sites.

Here is an example of a link containing the keyword phrase “ERP Software” within the anchor text…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
F*R*E*E (ERP Software) white paper shows how
to increase profitability and reduce inventory. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Relevant Links and PageRank are critical to achieving high search engine rankings. Want proof? Do a search at Google for the highly competitive keyword “computers” and you’ll find Apple and Dell computers rank numbers 1 and 2 in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Now, click through to the Apple and Dell web pages and look for the word “computers” in their web page text. What did you find? Neither Apple.com or Dell.com have the word “computers” in their text, yet they’re ranking #1 and #2 at Google.

Relevant Links and PageRank Win!

The sites with the most relevant links and highest Google PageRank win every time and rank the highest at the top search engines. There are many methods you can use to acquire text links, including buying links from a broker, Internet directories, reciprocal linking, Internet publicity, and others.

About The Author
Matt Hockin is President of Interactive Marketing, Inc., an Internet marketing consulting company providing web site optimization and search engine marketing services that “tune up” web sites for increased conversion rates, traffic, qualified leads, and profitability. For more information, visit InteractiveMarketingInc.com

The vast majority of people get nowhere and give up before giving themselves a chance, simply because they rely on organic search engine listings for traffic. Even their blogs get few visitors – if they get any. If that is you, then there is way out of this, and an easy way to get masses of visitors without having to rely on search engines. Article marketing.

This applies to the following forms of web page:

• Traditional website pages
• Blogs
• Squidoo lenses
• Facebook pages
• Myspace pages
• Any other online page that can be accessed via a URL or web address

If you have a need for visitors to any of these pages that you run or own, then Article Marketing is your answer. You can forget search engine optimization and trying to get your web page seen on other blogs or forums. You should write articles or have them written for you. Website traffic is so easy to get using article marketing.

As a professional article ghost writer I have a very deep understanding of how many different people use articles in many different ways to promote their products, services, websites, blogs, lenses and WEB2 pages, and from the amount of money that many of them pay me to write literally dozens and dozens of articles, they are doing very well from it.

Their pages are not listed in the top 100 pages on Google for their keywords, let alone the top 10, yet they make masses of money from their sites. Why? Because they get traffic from their articles. How do they get that traffic? Forget the lies and the hype. I have read it all and most untruths come from those that don’t believe in article marketing because they have never tried it. Here is the truth of the matter.

Readers

People read articles on article directories. If you write an article, or pay to have them written, and then submit them to directories, then they will be read by visitors to these directories. I have read ignorant people write that nobody reads articles on article directories, but they are talking nonsense. People do read them. I get an average of about 200 people reading each of my articles on each directory per month, and I submit two articles a week to over 50 directories – work it out for yourself.

No, on second thought I’ll work it out for you. That’s 80,000 readers a month. I get about 20% of readers clicking through to my website – what if you wrote one article a day (300,000)? Would that be good for you, or do you want to pass?

Clicks

I get links to my website from each directory. Readers can click on my article and visit my website. Readers can copy my article to their own websites, and they do, and I get clicks from their websites to mine.

Links

If links are important to you, you get a link to your website from each directory to which you submit your article. You also get a one way link for each article that somebody else copies to their website as content. This happens quite frequently. For each article I write I get about 10 one way links from each of at least the five main directories I keep checking up on each month. That’s 50 backlinks a month per article. I write 2 articles a week for each of my websites. Work it out.

Advertise Your Web Pages

When you write articles you get to advertise at least one link, and often three, in the ‘Author’s Resource’ section of each article directory to which you submit the article. Mine go to at least 50, though generally around 400, each time.

You can use any page in any website you want, or a Squidoo lens, or any of your blog pages, a Facebook or MySpace page or any other web presence that can be accessed by means of a URL (http://www. – - -). No matter what type of web page you run, you can use article marketing to drive traffic straight to it.

To do it successfully, however, you have to know how to go about it the right way. You need to know the little tricks and tips that the internet marketers like to refer to as ‘Secrets’. It can be a lot more powerful that using SEO – in fact it generally is – but you must know how to do it properly if you want to be successful. I used to pay $97 plus for SEO books or to find out how to get traffic. I do so no longer – I only need the one way, even though I can get my sites listed in 2 days and get them in the top 10 these days almost at will.

Article marketing is better for your website than SEO – it’s also better for your blog, your lens your… Check it out.

Article Source:
About The Author
For details on how to use article marketing properly to drive masses of traffic to your web page, blog, lens, etc. visit www.articleczar.com where you will find all the information you need to succeed online – and a lot more, including a few free gifts just for visiting.