Is your website nowhere to be seen in Google? It might be that Google doesn’t like your website because it looks like spam.

Check the following list to find out whether your website might look like spam or not.

1. Domain name factors that can indicate a spammy website:

The domain names of spammy websites are often very long and contain many hyphens. Those domain names often contain commercial high value keywords (the keywords for which you receive lots of spam messages that we don’t want to mention here).

Spammy domains are often registered by people who own a very large number of domains. The more domains a person owns, the more likely it is that the quality of a single domain isn’t high. Spammy domains are often very young and have a short registration period. Low quality domains also often use .info, .cc, .us and other cheap top level domains.

Spammy websites often have many keyword-stuffed sub domains.

2. Content factors that can indicate a spammy website:

Spammy websites often show very many ads. They also often contain high-commercial keywords. The keyword density and the keyword frequency on low quality websites is often very high.

Spammy websites often have duplicate content and content scraped from other websites. Low quality websites usually don’t have unique content.

Low quality websites usually don’t contain a privacy policy, a copyright notice page and “Contact us” page with a full address.

3. Link factors that can indicate a spammy website:

Spammy websites often have many links to other spam and low quality websites. Low quality websites aren’t likely to have links from trusted sites.

4. Technical factors that can indicate a spammy website:

Spammy website often use redirects (JavaScript, MetaRefresh, etc.) from landing pages. Spammy websites also often use cloaking. Of course, other spam elements such as hidden text also cause problems with search engines.

If your website uses many of the elements mentioned above then it could be classified as spam. In that case, you should consider a redesign of your website.

Search engines will regard your website as a high quality website if it has high quality links and useful content that can easily be parsed by search engines. Avoid everything that could look like spam and make sure that your web pages contain the right keywords in the right elements in the right density.

What are Google Sitelinks?

Google Sitelinks are a collection of links that appears below the result of a website. These additional links link to main pages of the website. They are randomly and automatically chosen by Google‘s algorithm.

As an example, here are the sitelinks that you get for HP.com when you search for “HP“:

Sitelinks only appear for general search terms. You’ll get Sitelinks if you search for “HP” but you won’t get Sitelinks if you search for a term like “HP printer supplies”. Sitelinks show up most often for searches on brand names.

Which links does Google use for the Sitelinks?

Google seems to use the first level links on a website for the Sitelinks. That means that all links that are not present on the homepage of your site won’t be used as Sitelinks.

The links should be descriptive text links or image links with a descriptive IMG ALT attribute. JavaScript or Flash links are not considered for Sitelinks. Google uses 2 to 8 links for the Sitelinks of a website. Unfortunately, it’s unclear how Google assigns the number of links to each website.

The text that is used for the Sitelinks can be the text that are used for the link (anchor text) on the homepage or the title of the linked page. It seems that Google prefers links that appear at the top of a web page.

How can you get Sitelinks for your website?

Unfortunately, there is nothing certain about Google‘s Sitelinks. The following factors seem to influence whether Google displays Sitelinks or not:

1. Your website must have a stable #1 ranking for the searched keyword. Other websites don’t seem to get Sitelinks.
2. Your website must be at least 2 years old. It seems that younger websites don’t get Sitelinks.
3. The number of searches and the number of clicks that your website gets for a certain keyword seem to be considered. Keywords that aren’t searched often enough don’t get Sitelinks. It also seems that your website has to get many clicks for the searched keyword.
4. The number of links that point to your website with the searched keyword as the anchor text seem to influence the creation of Sitelinks. Sitelinks only seem to appear for the main keywords of a website, not for all keywords for which a website is listed.

If your website meets these criteria Google might assign Sitelinks to your website for your most important keywords.

Sitelinks can be a nice addition for searches for general keywords but they usually won’t appear for searches that consist of two to four words. These words are the most important keywords for website promotion and search engine optimization.

People who search for multiple word keywords are more likely to purchase goods or services than people using fewer words (source: Oneupweb Research). Use IBP to find these keywords and to get high rankings for these keywords.

Google‘s new patent application on near duplicate content describes a new method how Google tries to keep its users from finding redundant content in the result pages.

Content may be duplicated for a variety of reasons

There are many reasons why content is duplicated on more than one page, or why documents are very similar:

1. The content of a web page is available in different formats: web page, printable page, PDF, mobile phone page, etc.
2. The content of a web page is syndicated, for example news articles or blog posts.
3. The content management system (CMS) displays the same content in different locations. For example, an item might be listed in a “Size” category and in a “Color” category.
4. The website owner offers mirrors to make sure that a website does not slow down when many people want to access the same page at the same time.
5. Someone stole the contents of a web page to reproduce it on other websites.

To avoid showing the same content more than once in the search results, search engines try to detect these duplicate pages.

What’s in the patent application?

The patent application describes how Google tries to detect duplicate or near duplicate content at different web addresses. It seems that Google might combine several existing methods for detecting new duplicate content to identify more duplicates on the Internet.

The new patent application shows that Google is serious about detecting duplicate content issues. This new patent application is only the latest step in Google‘s attempts to detect duplicate content. For example, previous steps can be found here (PDF) and here.

What does Google do when it detects duplicate content?

It’s hard to tell what Google will do when they find duplicate pages. There are many instances where duplicated content is used for a legitimate purpose.

If Google only removes the duplicate pages from the search results for a certain query that might be okay. If Google penalized duplicate pages by removing them completely from the index, Google might risk not being relevant for very specific queries and it also might penalize the wrong pages.

It’s likely that Google will pick the web page with the best reputation and the best inbound links for the search results if it finds more than one page with the same content.

What does this mean for your website?

If you want to get high rankings, it is easier to do so with unique content. Try to use as much original content as possible on your web pages.

If your website must use the same content as another website, make sure that your website has better inbound links than the other websites that carry the same content.

Article provided courtesy of Axandra- Web site promotion software“

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1. Do What You LOVE: If you’ve chosen your business because you read that this niche was the next hot one, or because your favorite uncle (or your best friend) thinks you’d be well-suited for this business, you may as well pack up now and save yourself some time and money. If you don’t love what you do, it will show…potential customers will know it and will go elsewhere. Is it possible to be successful anyway? Sure — but it won’t be easy and it won’t be fun…and isn’t that why you want to be self employed anyway?

Instead, choose what you love. You’ll know what that is when you find yourself being incredibly productive, forgetting the time passing by, and not being able to wait to get up in the morning to do more!

2. WRITE DOWN Your Business Plan: As a solo entrepreneur, you still need a business plan. Even if you aren’t getting a loan! Would you invest thousands of dollars of your own money buying stock in a company that didn’t have a written prospectus? (I hope not!) Then why would you spend thousands of dollars AND hours of your precious time on a business that doesn’t have a written plan?

Write your plan, get it critiqued by self employment professionals, and most importantly, BE READY TO CHANGE IT. This may seem counterintuitive…why bother writing it down if it’s just going to change? Because writing it down makes it more clear…and helps you get to the next stage of learning and planning and revising. It’s critical–67% of businesses that failed in one study had no written business plan. Want to play the odds?

3. Multiply Your Expected Startup Costs by Two–or Maybe Three: When I started my business, an honors MBA grad with 15 years of solid business experience behind me, I figured I was smart enough to estimate my startup costs accurately. I knew all the things I needed and made conservative estimates and I was still WRONG! That’s right, I was still off by a factor of almost three. Don’t make this mistake! One of the biggest reasons solo business owners fail is because of lack of capital. Give yourself the best possible start by saving or acquiring sufficient startup funds NOW. Before you start!

4. Make Your Market Niche as Small as Possible: Again, this is counterintuitive–shouldn’t you try to appeal to as many people as possible? The paradox is that the more you try to appeal to EVERYONE, the less you will appeal to ANYONE. Let’s say you are selling your house…would you rather list it with the agent who operates in 14 counties, sells both commercial and residential real estate, and sells everything from cottages to estates? Or would you pick the agent who specializes in your community, selling only houses in a well-defined price range that she knows extremely well? Ruthlessly define your niche, make it as small as possible, and stay true to it. You’ll thank me later!

5. Do Marketing Your Way: The temptation is to choose all the marketing methods that the competition uses. To stay with tried-and-true marketing channels. To place advertisements that you know nothing about creating, or make cold calls that give you heartburn. Why? Because (all together now) “that’s how it’s always been done.”

It’s difficult to stand out among your competitors when you are doing the same kind of marketing! So instead, look to your strengths. What do you like to do? What are you good at? Then choose three marketing methods that play to those strengths. (If you need ideas, check out 136 Ways to Market Your Solo Business.)

6. Make Your Market Niche. Remember the Most Important Ingredient in Your Business–YOU: Self employed business owner: know thy self. Spend some time shedding the layers of corporate “I-want-to-fit-in-and-succeed”-ness and spend learning about who you are, what you really value and how you are unique. Then let that uniqueness shine through in your marketing, in how you run your business, in everything you do. Don’t hide your quirks–celebrate them!

Customers go to self employed business owners primarily because they are looking for a personalized experience. They want a relationship with you as the owner of your business. If you try to pretend to be bigger than you are, because you think that’s what they want, they’ll smell right through that and not come back. Be who you are, and trust that who YOU are is going to be attractive to the right people.

7. Build Your Business by Building Relationships: Being self employed isn’t about sitting in the corner alone. Actually it can be–and that isolation is what drives many out of self employment and back into a “job”. Build relationships to survive! Start with your colleagues–others you know who are at the same stage of business as you, or are farther along and willing to mentor you.

Next, build relationships with potential customers. Ask them what they want! Then create products and services based on their input and come back and show them what you have done. Get feedback, tweak, and maybe make your first sale. Stay in touch with your customers even after they leave you.

Last but not least, build relationships with your competitors. You might be able to do this right at the beginning, simply by asking them for their advice. Surprisingly, many ARE willing to share their secrets if you just ask. Later on, build cross-referral relationships, co-marketing alliances, and other relationships that are win-win for you, your competitors, and your customers.

8. Don’t Accept a Customer Just For the Money: This is probably the hardest advice for new self employed business owners to apply. Especially when there is a job, a project, a potential client, just outside your niche, that could keep your business solvent for the next six months. Don’t do it! Taking on a client outside your niche inevitably results in frustration for you, dissatisfaction on the part of the client, and in the end, usually costs you more than you make. Ask any successful solo business owner and they’ll tell you this is true!

9. Don’t Do Everything Yourself: It’s so tempting to fall into the self-deception that “it’s cheaper for me to do it myself.” IT’S NOT! If you aren’t good at something, for instance bookkeeping, it will probably take you 2-3 times as long to do–time you could be spending doing things that are essential for you to be doing personally, like writing your business plan or deciding your marketing strategy. Put sufficient capital into your solo business upfront so you CAN hire help right from the start. You will get off to a quicker start because you aren’t distracted by time-consuming tasks that drain your energy.

10. Assemble Your Support Team: Start with the people who will help you do the things you aren’t good at. Some examples: administrative assistant, bookkeeper, marketing writer, web designer. Then add the people who give you professional business advice: a lawyer, an accountant, a self employment business coach. Finally, include the people who support you personally: your family, friends, and colleagues.

Don’t forget to be part of other’s support teams, too. Share your expertise with other self employed newbies, start a networking group where solo business owners support each other, share a referral with a colleague. Solo Entrepreneurs supporting other Solo Entrepreneurs is what will make us all successful!

Much more is at stake in the search competition than whether you can quickly find a local movie show time and a good Thai restaurant to go to afterwards. Google’s 2007 revenue is projected at $11.5 billion, the bulk of it coming from paid search advertising. In efforts to boost their share of the search pie, competitors Yahoo! and Ask.com made major investments in 2007 — Yahoo! in its functionality and infrastructure, and Ask.com in new features and major non-Internet brand promotion. Microsoft is also investing heavily, including making a friendly $1.2 billion bid in January for Norway-based Fast Search and Transfer, which has technology that could potentially be leveraged to improve Microsoft’s web search… read more.

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Articles provided by Axandra, professional webmaster to

Americans conducted 10.5 billion searches at the core search engines, representing an 8.9 percent gain versus December. Google Sites saw 6.1 billion core searches during the month, while Yahoo! Sites recorded 2.3 billion.”

Yahoo recently published patent applications that gives some insight on how Yahoo finds and evaluates keyword phrases on web pages.

Google is packed with tons and tons of products and information that will help you with what ever it is you want to do.