Google is very cautious when it comes to links pointing to your website – especially when they have little or no relevance. Usually you will find that Google simply ignores these links (whereas Yahoo and Bing will “see” all of them).

Buying links (and selling links) has long been a subject Google has frowned upon (although selling links has usually taken the bulk of Google’s displeasure). Many websites have often trampled their way to the top of the search engine natural listings on the back of spending £1000’s on links.

Up until now, poor quality links (or irrelevant links) has had a neutral effect with Google. They have neither used them towards the overall quality of a website nor penalised the website in question.

Rumour has it that Google caffeine may come along and start penalising websites with irrelevant links, which could see many websites seeing their natural search listings sinking like a stone.

They have also mentioned they will operate an open access network allowing other providers to use their fiber optics. See the video below:

A couple of days ago Google announced the launch of Google Buzz for mobiles. Please watch the video above for a brief introduction on what should prove to be a fantastic application.

Key features:

1. Share Photos & Videos with friends. Send photos & videos whilst you are out and about.
2. “Buzz” about the place you are currently visiting
3. Tag your whereabouts – this means your “buzz” will show up to anyone else in or near the same location.
4. “Buzz” layer allows you to find any nearby “Buzz” from other people who have been to or are in the same location – this allows you to find recommendations of places to eat, drink, visit, see, etc. Or just find out things that might be great to do.
5. “Post Buzz” allows you to add to you “buzz” by simply talking into your phone

Visit buzz.google.com on your mobile browser to download the application – currently only available on IPhone & Google Android, should be coming soon on Blackberry,Nokia S60 and the Windows Mobile.

The question is, how long before Google decide to do this in the UK? And what sort of impact will this have on the business models of lead generation websites or comparison websites? Also, how will this affect the Mortgage Broker industry in the UK (which has been through a torrid 18 months).

I suppose only time will tell…

“Just 4 months after attending the Search Engine Optimisation course with Zaddle Internet Marketing, my website now appears on the 1st Page of Google for DIY Conservatories, which as you know is an extremely competitive search phrase. My aim now, of course, is to get the site in the top 3 natural search listings.

As you can probably tell, I am highly delighted at the progress, given that when I attended the course, our site was somewhere around Page 15 of Google.

The quality of service throughout from Zaddle has been excellent, and I will have no hesitation in recommending you to anyone in the future.”

Chris Tree – Conservatree4u

I think that speaks for itself!

Usually you have a choice of a 301 redirect (if this is possible) or a 404 “this page is no longer here” message with links back to the home page or the “new” page that replaced it. However it appears with 404 messages, that Google still comes back and indexes this page, therefore it has been suggested recently that the 410 message is now sending out a much clearer message, and that the Google Bot is listening.

So (for now), if you don’t want an old page to appear any more in Google, give the 410 message a try.

This started as one of Google’s many Google lab experiments, and has finally “graduated” to be included in the normal Google.com search screen. At the moment (from the UK) it is proving difficult to get access to have a play with this search, however it will appear under “more options” – therefore keep an eye out for it.

Essentially Google Social Search allows you to search for content blogged, twittered or written about by people in your social network.

At this stage we have no idea when it is likely to reach these shores.

The number of new people signing up to Twitter has reduced from 13% in March 2009 to 3.5% in October 2009.

Other statistics include 81% of people signed up to twitter follow LESS THAN 100 people. To me this makes absolute sense (as I found to my cost when I decided to follow lots of celebrity twitter accounts!). Maybe this is beginning to show that people are becoming more refined when using Twitter.

Not surprisingly 82% of people HAVE less than 100 followers (what happened to the other 1% ?!?)

What is encouraging is that people are now engaging more with twitter (and each other), particularly the way people are beginning to set up their profiles correctly – 54% now have a bio in their profile, 65% have now got a link through to a website and 41% of people have included their location.

When we run our Social Media Training Course, we cover the potential value of twitter as both a resource to your business AND as a possible way to pick up new business. And everything posted above is included in our recommendations for setting up a twitter account.

No surprise to learn that Google “pick” which tweets to publish in realtime and which ones they ignore.

So what convinces Google to choose your tweet?

It appears to be based on popularity (as far as we can tell – since Google’s algorithm is in the vault next to the KFC recipe!). By this we mean that it not only depends on the number of followers you have on twitter, but ALSO the number of followers THEY have on twitter (and possible the number of followers they have…….) well you get the idea!

I am also convinced it is about the type of people THEY FOLLOW – i.e. are they following other people with thousands of followers who tweet about similar subjects to you. If they are, then why would they follow you, if your tweets were of a poor quality?

It also appears to be about the quality of your followers – if you have people who tweet alot about the subjects you also tweet about (with a # tag) who have hundreds or thousands of followers.

It appears that all this following and followers adds up in Googles mind as an “endorsement” to your tweets.

This makes sense as why would you follow someone you either had a) no real interest in or b) who was posting poor quality tweets that didn’t add value to your own knowledge on a particular subject.

I don’t know the “reason” twitter was originally created, however I do know that it has become a valuable resource of information and that it is far easier to keep your finger on the pulse regarding almost any particular subject.