Has anyone got the location of an up to date SEO document with tips for "working" the Google Florida update?

I know this isn't the right forum really, but I thought someone might know.

Glyn

The "Florida" upate is old news; Google's ranking approach has changed significantly since that update. You'd be wasting time learning tips for how to deal with it now, unless you just want to build an understanding of history. :)

But perhaps the problem is just in the wording of your question: are you looking for tips for optimizing for Google right now, or are you looking for tips for how it should have been done a month or two ago (during the "Florida" days)?

Originally posted by glyn canada
Has anyone got the location of an up to date SEO document with tips for "working" the Google Florida update?

I know this isn't the right forum really, but I thought someone might know.

Glyn

On a personal note, I have noticed the google search results changed drasticly and not for the better.

Websites that were ranked very high lost there placement b/c google hopes they will advertise on their site using Google AdWords to recover their loss.

Oddly enough, google is thinking like Microsoft . . . about making $$ . . . not that there is anything wrong with that ;)

Ironically, Microsoft is trying to create a better search engine to capture market share and google just gave up (w/o even trying) trying to beat MS and decided they should just focus on making more money and not worry about search results since they are already well established.

Makes sense to me. Why try to beat a company (in search engine results) that has far greater resources that you -- My $.02

MS is a big threat to anyone. If they wanted to they could easily take over the web hosting industry. All they need to do is place a link in the next windows, put in a couple bugs, and their all set.

"Sorry, Internet Explorer will not open this web page b/c it's not hosted with microsoft."

No seriously though, To answer your Q. Google SEO is dead. MSN Seo is the next thing but who will be the next leader in searches? Google where AdWords will get king --- or MSN which will be the next google?

Originally posted by JayC
The "Florida" upate is old news; Google's ranking approach has changed significantly since that update. You'd be wasting time learning tips for how to deal with it now, unless you just want to build an understanding of history. :)

But perhaps the problem is just in the wording of your question: are you looking for tips for optimizing for Google right now, or are you looking for tips for how it should have been done a month or two ago (during the "Florida" days)?

Okie dokie,

how can I optimize for Google now without spending out on Adwords? I want to code my own page and optimize it. I am going to submit to DMOZ etc, but I wondered about Google specifically.

thx

Glyn

Go to the google site:

google.com/webmasters/

Probably a bit obvious, but you never know...

The google updates are also talked about on certain webmaster forums. If you pm me I can give you the URL. Would not be right to post other forum here IMHO.

webmasterworld is regarded as the leading seo forum and has nothing to do with hosting.
SEO for google - as always lots of content, the more the better, no fluff pages, keyword filenames,keywords in title + description,keywords in alt tags, keywords throughout page - some in bold, h1, italic., inbound links with keyword text, themed linking,static urls (no session ids and turn your long queries into static urls with mod_rewrite) ......
but!! don't let you're site look like it's seo'd, tricky huh ;)

msn beta doesn't tickle my taste buds, although my sites rank high in it i just don't like it. Inktomi is looking quite good. This is gonna be an interesting year!


/added

sid007, google is in no way short of a bob or two and isn't about to tarnish it's reputation by trying to earn a quick buck!

Originally posted by glyn canada
I want to code my own page and optimize it. I am going to submit to DMOZ etc, but I wondered about Google specifically. Well... the entire topic of "how to optimize for Google" is too vast to get into all of the intricacies here. But the good news is that after the uproar over "update Florida" things have, for the present time, simplified a little. To a large extent what worked before that update took effect is working again, for a lot of sites and queries.

Basically, "Florida" brought to major changes into play: a heavy implementation of "semantics" apparently utilizing some of the technologies Google acquired with the purchase of Applied Semantics a few months ago; and a shift in the established balance between "authority" and "hub" values. The effect as far as search results was that sites with a high authority score -- most visibly, directories and pages at sites like ebay and amazon -- were often found at the top of listings, and that pages that (intentionally or not) were heavily optimized for specific phrases but didn't include semantically-related terms didn't do well. That was often inaccurately referred to as an "over-optimization penalty." Since the LSI (latent semantic indexing; read this document (http://javelina.cet.middlebury.edu/lsa/out/cover_page.htm) to see what that's about) implementation affected only a set of specific search terms that were in the applied orthography, that effect of "Florida" was seen only in a related subset of search results.

The majority opinion has been that the factors brought into play with that update were over-applied. The most recent Google update appears to have backed off on both, and expanded the breadth of the LSI orthography. To a large extent, search results today are very close to what they were "pre-Florida," though LSI is having a big impact in some areas.

So, the basics of optimizing for Google are again much what they long have been: first, build content. For sites where it's possible, add new pages continually. Focus each page on one or two key phrases (so, as always, keyword research remains the first step of optimization). But with the implementation of semantic indexing, don't go overboard and overuse the phrase -- the intent of that technology is to work with "natural language" in determining what a page is about. Overusing your key phrase will work against you. Just the same, the recent update seems to give value to such elements as page titles, headings, and anchor tags -- as well as a higher than before reliance on outgoing links and continued importance on incoming links.

By the way, at the webmasterworld Publishers Conference last weekend a Google rep stated that they're trying several new scoring techniques every month -- so more changes are still to come. SEO is going to remain challenging for a while. Yahoo's new non-Google index, for example, is one new challenge, as is understanding the new Overture Site Match program... so, back to work! :)

Originally posted by JayC

By the way, at the webmasterworld Publishers Conference last weekend a Google rep stated that they're trying several new scoring techniques every month -- so more changes are still to come. SEO is going to remain challenging for a while. Yahoo's new non-Google index, for example, is one new challenge, as is understanding the new Overture Site Match program... so, back to work! :)

yup and any update we see now isn't an update to the index but a change in the algo, as jayc says tinkering with new techiques.

Fresh content is damned important because if you add a new page every day or havea rotating story on your pages they will be placed well through fresh listings. When you see a search result that has a little date on the bottom of it that is a fresh listing.

Good luck :)