Google cache- what is it?

When you do a Google search for just about anything, you will see the word "cached" on the bottom line of the search result (SERP).





What does this mean?

Googleguide.com (not associate with Google) explains it this way: "Google takes a snapshot of each page it examines and caches (stores) that version as a back-up. The cached version is what Google uses to judge if a page is a good match for your query."

Google saves the cached page with the date saved at the top of the browser window. So, if the result is not what you were looking for the page may have been changed since the day Google cached it. You can see what the page looked like when Google cached it.

You can also use the Way Back Machine to see what a page looked like before Google started caching the pages. I will always appreciate the Way Back Machine because more than once I've deleted important pages on my websites. They could only be recovered there.

So, if you were thinking that the Google cache was a bad place like Purgatory or the infamous Google sandbox, so rest easier.

In fact, it has been suggested that the cached date of the page may be more important than the vaunted "Page Rank" of that page. Think about it. If you see a recent date on the cache page it means that Google spent the time to visit it recently. This impliesmore trust in the site and page. [I did some checking with my own sites and I see that most were cached during the past week whether I changed those pages or any other pages in the site or not. So, I do not think this idea is valid.]

Greg Cryns
The Mighty Mo website design and promotion
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SEO - is the page TITLE important? You betcha!

One of the most important SEO expectations is to get people to click on your link in the search engines.

This may not be as easy as it sounds. Think about how you search and what you decide to click on.

Let's say you search for "SEO". Easy enough. Try it in Yahoo. I did that just now and came up with these results (after the first four that are ads but look like natural search results).


Which would you choose to click on right now? They all look pretty good, right? Chances are that the information on all of these sites would be very good as well. So, you decision will be influenced by the headline that grabs you. Is that a fair assumption?

Assuming that you know what Wikipedia does you may skip that one if you were looking for someone to do your SEO work. The rest look pretty much the same.




So, it is likely that you would quickly skim the descriptions below the links to see if the results would give you someone to consider to do that work.

If you are the business owner you are trying to influence your decision by using words, phrases and simple good copywriting techniques to get your attention. Pick me! Pick me!

Efficient SEO people will try to make sure that each page on your site will scream Pick Me! Pick Me! Each title meta tag will be different on each page as will the descriptions. This works most of the time to tell the search engines what you want to say to the public. It does not work 100% of the time but often enough to make this good SEO practice.

You may not be the #1 result found but your headline and page description may be all you need to beat out your competition. Check your own website now to make sure each page has its very own identifiers that could make all the difference to your business online.

But remember getting click throughs is only the beginning.

The page they click to needs to be optimized for whatever effect you want to occur.

Do you want the visitor to join your email list? Do you want your visitor to make a decision to buy on the spot? Do you want your visitor to obtain good information from the page and help them to think of you when they are ready to buy?

SEO is much more complicated than it was a few years ago when the job was almost entirely about good meta tags (that barely matter any more except for the title and description tags) and keyword placement.

Finding and hiring a good SEO person is like finding gold in a California mountain stream. Hard to find but tough to beat, as the old ad goes.

Greg Cryns
Free Freelancing Report
Wahm Search Engine - good advertising values

SEO - the goal is to increase your targeted traffic, right?

Until recently I only thought of SEO as a way to get your website noticed by the search engines. In the business this is known as SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

I now see SEO more as a process that makes people aware of your webdite rather than a set of technical rules to put your website high up in the search engine ranks.


For example, if you post an answer on Yahoo Answers, people do click on the link you provide as the source of your knowledge. Well, why can't the source be your own website? How about article marketing? Is this part of the new SEO?

I think it is. When you submit an article to a great article sites such as EznieArticles.com and GoArticles.com a link back to your site should be provided in your author bio. (If it is not, then you are a very generous person indeed)

That link will enable people to find your website directly from the article directory. If people like what you write, then they may want to read more of your stuff.

I am told that Ask.com does not have a "no follow" policy for links posted in answers. True, the search volume of Ask.com is far less than Google, but we need to take advantage of any avenues to increase our website exposure.

Remember, the "no follow" tag used by Google does not mean people cannot cross over using the link posted anywhere else. It means that the site linked to will not get "Google juice" or higher Google Page Rank or respect from Google.

Here are some SEO techniques to get targeted traffic:

1. there are some (but not too many) good website directories to join. (if you want a list of my favorites, send me a message)
2. Participate in forum and blog discussions. This is a proven method (by me) to get a fair amount of traffic to your website.
3. Press releases: well written press releases can deliver decent traffic.
4. Link exchanges with other websites can send minimal traffic. But a good inbound link has other value, perhaps more Google juice.
5. I have good results from Yahoo Answers.
6. I have good results from Ryze.com

The point I am trying to make is that I strongly recommend to my clients that they help themselves by using these diffent SEO techniques. The new SEO requires more effort on the part of my clients or they can hire me to do some of that work.

So, you will get traffic using other techniques and that to me is the main goal of SEO, is it not?

What do you think?

Greg Cryns The Mighty Mo Website Design and SEO service
Free Freelancing Report
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SEO - change is in the air, be ready

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SEO Changes - Are Your Sales Dropping as Your SEO Rankings "Soar high?"

Some claim that SEO is dead. John Alexander, the founder of Search Engine Workshops, disagrees and so do I. Rather than dying, Search Engine Optimization needs to rethink and rework. We should not be surprised since the Internet changes daily.

The warning goes like this: your search engine placement is still high but your sales are declining. What happened? Did your webmaster fail you?

Read more: http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/articles/seo-changes.html

Search Engine Optimization has many more factors to consider. Recently Google introduced SearchWiki which has the potential to turn the SEO world on its head by personal search results based on your personal search habits.

Check out this illuminating article: Personalization of Search and its implications for SEO

Advanced competitive intelligence is something you need to learn now before the search world passes you by.

Greg Cryns
The Mighty Mo! website design and SEO promotion

Caution! All SEO service is equal

This is a guest post from a fellow whose philosophy appears to mirror mine about SEO. Enjoy!

Different Companies Offer Different SEO Services
by Andy Calloway

Search engine optimisation is still a pretty misunderstood service and it's small wonder - people are bombarded with information about it all the time and yet much of this information is extremely confusing and hard for the layman to understand.

SEO services are usually offered in segments with the most obvious one being 'search engine submission' which everybody seems to think is the answer to all their problems. Very often people expect that when they've submitted their site to Google it will be available within a few days - I feel a little sad for them when I explain that it will take six to eight months for them to see any real results!

You see, 'site submission', although it is one of the most common SEO services offered by consultants and 'all things to all buyers' websites is probably a massive distraction. I've seen adverts from companies offering to submit your site to thousands of search engines for very little outlay and many people believe this will get them a boat load of traffic.

Unfortunately, it won't.

Your site will not be ranked highly by Google based on you telling it you exist. It will only rank highly if you tell it that your site is relevant and interesting, and you can't do that by submitting it to all and sundry.

SEO services that are worthwhile

When you engage an SEO services company then you need to be looking for one that understands the need for quality content publication and effective off-site link building. But not just building any old links - they need to be quality links from good websites with high regard at Google and these just can't be bought in bulk.

I have seen adverts for sites offering thousands of back-links for little cash and they really only help if your product or service is in an area that has very little competition. If you have any competition that has done even a little bit of decent SEO, they will beat you. Five good quality links will beat a thousands poor quality links easily.

So, ensure your SEO company is offering a service where they will promote your company through articles, participating in forums and general off-site content building. But you should also be looking at what your site says to your customer. A good site will make it easier for the visitor to buy from you, period. If your site is easy to buy from and your visitors can understand it then it will also be easy for Google to understand.

And this leads on to something I have mentioned in many of my articles - don't ever optimise for Google. Optimise for your customers, they're the ones that buy from you and they're the ones that will eventually make your fortunes.

Andy Calloway is the director of SEO Services at Calloway Green Ltd, a web development and SEO consultancy in the West Midlands, UK. We provide a wide range of SEO services and search engine optimisation to businesses of all sizes. For free SEO information, download our e-book DIY SEO now!

What do you think about companies that provide SEO service?

Greg Cryns

The Mighty Mo Website Design and Promotion

SEO - embrace the changes

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results.
~Wikipedia

Fasten your seat belts. There are major changes coming down the search engine pipes soon. What used to be accepted as SEO good practice will need to be overhauled.

In the past when you hired a SEO expert you looked for someone who knows how to edit the content and the HTML within your website to provide a reason for search engines to respect your website. Good SEO work pushed your website toward the top of the first page in results.

Other SEO techniques include local search (by city or region), image searches and searches by industry.

The term "search engine friendly" is often used to refer to the design of a website including its navigation menus, shopping carts and content management systems.

There are many opinions in the SEO community about how to improve your search engine ranking. This is because there is not one, simple, road map to search engine optimization success. Why? Because the search engines often change their algorithms (rules for ranking websites)because they are always looking for ways to improve the results for its customers, the people searching the web.

Never think of your website as a search engine customer. Your site is search engine inventory. In the effort to make their customers happy campers, search engines can be ruthless toward websites that do not follow their rules. Your website can drop from #3 to #568 overnight.

My experience is that if you are not in the top 10 for a search term you effectively are excluded from the results. Searchers sometimes will go no further than the top three results.

So, it is not good business to take the word of someone who achieves good results for a specific SEO technique as the golden rule. There are plenty of reasons why one or two tweaks he made will not improve your ranking.

Take everything you hear about SEO with a grain of salt, especially in 2009.

There will be a reshuffling of the results based on what search engines know about your personal preferences. Yes, the search engines will know a lot more about you and what you want to see based on what you searched previously (if you have personalization turned on - this happens when you sign up for Google tools and even Gmail).

Traditional ranking methods will not go away completely, but if you depend on the past you risk being invisible in the future.

You will be served better by thinking of higher quality of traffic, talk more conversions, talk more about gaining better "visibility".

According to SEO expert John Alexander, "search ranking has always been about 'top visibility' to the correct searching audience PLUS being able to 'compel the visitor to respond' or take action. The truth is that in the future the question will be more about what percentage of your web pages are being found, by your most correct target audiences, using the right keyword phrases AND for what percentage of the time."

John Alexander believes (and so do I) that we need to learn "why" more than "how" search engines do things.

Embrace the change!

Photo by Danard Vincente

Greg Cryns
Work At Home Profiles

Get some SEO smarts to get targeted visitors

It's good to combine knowledge about SEO (search engine optimization) into your website content. Why not? It makes sense to use the knowledge you have earned by studying the topic.

SEO is a technique to learn what the search engines like to see on your blog/website and then apply what you learned to your site. For example, keyword research is an important aspect of SEO to help get your website into a high search engine position. But this is just one of many factors in SEO.

So learn some SEO. Yes, it will consume some of your time, but you will be well rewarded and pleased when your visitor counts starts to rise.

Beware of what you read about SEO, though. There are some very uninformed "experts" out there who simply don't have the experience to back up their research. Experience is a primary ingredient to success in any venture.


Here are a couple of good sources to bone up on SEO.

1. John Alexander's Search Engine Workshops . John knows how to outsource. He has the help of Robin Nobles and Martin, his webmaster, to keep things running smoothly. I am a very happy customer of John's as a paid subscriber. There is a whole lot of information on the website. Give it a look.

2. Jill Whalen's High Rankings blog is very valuable. I've been following Jill for years. She won me over when she told us to think about content more than SEO. Both are important, but I learned that when you try to influence the search engines, you tend to get burned.

When you put up a new blogpost, for example, it is valuable to think about a key phrase or two but, more important, is to concentrate on giving your reader lots of value. The search engines will reward you for your effort.

There are other good SEO sites out there. Please tell us who you love in the comments.

Photo by http://staticphotography.com

Greg Cryns
http://www.workathomeprofiles.com
Scentsy: http://www.scentsy.com/16684
http://www.wahmsearchengine.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/calgreg