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Austin Tx -- In mid-December, Google discovered "a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google".  Whoa!  In consequence to this Google has been thinking of pulling the plug on the web in china.  Previously Google was complying with China's strict designs on censoring Google searches.  Programming Google in such ways as the "Golden Sheild Project" which when searching for prohibited Chinese keywords,  Google China would display the following statement at the end of the page (translated): "In accordance with local laws, regulations and policies, part of the search result is not shown."

Google China  was founded in 2005.  According to Analysis International Google has a market share in China of 29%.  Though Google is worried about the loss of its position on the web in China, they have taken the step of embracing open and public resistance by sharing information about these attacks for two reasons 1.The security of human rights. 2. That this goes to the heart of a much bigger design, the global debate about freedom of speech.

It seems to me that Google will do all in its power to resolve the issue of censoring the web in China. Possibly designing ways to get around the strict programming.  There are a lot of folk here in Austin that will be very interested in seeing how Google goes about this. Hoping that the freedom of speech and human rights will be protected through out the world.

Tags: china | trends | search engines | SEO | freedom of speech

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We've been inundated with calls from frustrated website owners experiencing low traffic to their sites due to not showing up in prominent search engines. The questions we've been asked sound like, “Do you make websites show up on Google?” or “How much would it cost to have my website on Google?” These questions reflect a general misunderstanding of how search engines function. I hope to clarify that all here.

Website owners want to be prominently displayed in all searches even remotely connected to the subject in which they operate. Those searching for information generally don't care where the information comes from, as long as it is valuable and answers their questions. When search engines first entered the market, their algorithms were simplistic and website developers could easily manipulate certain components of the site in order to be “found” easily. Using search engines like infoseek.com, dogpile.com or even google.com could often lead to search results that had very little to do with the original search.

Over the years, the searching mechanisms of Google and the like became more refined and it is now much more difficult to simply manipulate a few aspects of the site and find yourself on the top of searches. In fact, Google doesn't disclose the specifics of how their search engine really works, hoping to curb abuse from savvy web developers. However, that's not to say we don't know the basics.

Blogs and/or Forums.

Google loves websites that have constantly refreshing information. In Google's eyes, a website that is constantly refreshing most likely has up-to-date information and they know it cannot be easily manipulated. Having an active forum community on your site or maintaining a daily or weekly blog can do wonders helping your search engine optimization. In fact, you are reading this right now because we know the value in it.

Links

While Google knows you can easily edit the links on your site to other pages, it knows that it is difficult for you to add links to your site on other people's pages. If you have multiple accounts in various social networking sites like linkedin.com, facebook.com, or myspace.com, it helps a lot if you can provide links to your site from their site. Also, you should consider writing testimonials for local companies you have good dealings with who not only put those testimonials on their sites, but link the contact information of the person who gave the testimonial. The more links you can get to direct people to your page, the better.

Words, not Images

Far too often, websites use images such as .jpegs or .gifs to display text. Usually this is because they can find an ornate look that cannot be duplicated in the conventional fonts used in web browsers. Although sometimes this is inevitable, do remember that Google or any other search engine cannot “read” the text on the image. To them, it's just a picture. Do your best to use the regular fonts so Google can effectively read your page and help direct people to your site.

There really are many, many different ways to help your site be found on search engines and the importance of which should not be underestimated. There are companies you can hire that specifically look into every facet of your website, including the very coding itself, to optimize its chances of being found. But the bottom line is to keep your page informative and helpful. Doing so will make everybody happy.

Tags: Blogs | SEO | google | search engines

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