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Time and time again on SEO forums, you hear the advice that to improve your rankings, you need to provide a constant source of fresh content and improve your bounce rate.

While there is some truth in this advice, it is mostly a myth as there are so many different factors when it comes down to how well your site ranks.

I’m going to show you the Google Analytics from two of my sites that would normally be considered to not be optimized SEO wise.

They share the following characteristics:

Static content

The content on both sites has been virtually unchanged since they were created.

High bounce rate

The bounce rate (ie: the percentage of visitors that leave the site after viewing one page within a certain period) is over 80%.

Short Visit Duration

Related to bounce rate is the amount of time a visitor spends on your site.  Both of the sites have a average visitor duration less than 2 minutes.

Low Number of Visited Pages

Generally, the higher the number of pages visited, the better, as it indicates your website has content that is of interest to visitors.  Both my sample sites have an average page views of less than 2 pages.

Google Analytics

So given the sites have the characteristics listed above, let’s look at the following analytics for Site 1.

Click to view full size

The analytics period is from October 2011 to the end of November 2013.

As you can see, the number of visits over that period has been steadily rising and there certainly haven’t been any drops in the number of visitors due to major Google updates like Panda and Hummingbird.

The other interesting stats are:

Average Pages per Visit: 1.25

Average Visit Duration: 1:36

Bounce Rate: 83.67%

To show how consistent these figures are, here are the stats from the previous month:

Click to view full size

The corresponding stats for this period are:

Average Pages per Visit: 1.21

Average Visit Duration: 1:40

Bounce Rate: 86.61%

Similarily, here are the analytics for Site 2 (which is a much smaller niche)

Click to view full size

Where the corresponding stats for this site are:

Average Pages per Visit: 1.28

Average Visit Duration: 1:39

Bounce Rate: 83.65%

Why are these sites ranking well?

So the obvious question is why do both of these sites rank well and have very consistent traffic if the don’t fit the general SEO advice on how to rank a site?

The short answer is returning visitors.

In each of the three graphs above, the percentage of returning visitors is around 40%.

The percentage of returning visitors is a very good indication to Google (and other search engines) that your site is useful to visitors as they have a reason to keep coming back.

There is also another related factor, and that’s the referral source.

Click to full size

In the analytics screenshot above, it gives a breakdown as to where/how visitors are reaching the site.

You can see the number one source of traffic is direct traffic.  This means visitors are either typing the URL of the site into their browser or accessing it via a bookmark.

Number two on the list is Organic Search, ie: visitors coming to the site via search engine.

Referrals are the third highest source of traffic.  In most cases, is visitors coming to your site via a link on another website.

Fourth on the list is Social.  This includes visitors coming via Facebook, Twitter and other social media sources.

Given that  less than 40% of visitors are coming via a search engine, this is also a good indication to Google that the site has something of value for visitors as most of them are arriving via other sources.

The Defining Characteristics

So now, you might be wondering what characteristics the two sites that I’ve given a breakdown of the analytics for have in common.

Simple answer is that they are both lookup services.

By that, I mean a visitor comes to the site, enters in some type of query, clicks on a button and sees the result.

There are many examples of lookup services, eg:

• Calculator sites – home loan calculators, temperature conversions, currency exchange rates etc.
• Query sites – search engines (general and specific), domain lookups etc.
• Generators – baby name suggestions, domain name generators etc.
• Voting sites – voting on popular social memes, current affairs etc.

The point is, these sites can provide a useful service to visitor that encourages them to return to the site.

Cheers

There are a number of legitimate reasons why you want to perform Google searches with privacy.

Just because you don’t want Google tracking your searches, doesn’t mean you are up to something bad like looking for illegal software or spamming purposes.

This article covers why it is a good idea to not let Google have access to your search history and how best to perform private Google searches.

On the various marketing forums I read, I see the same questions about PageRank coming up over and over.

The question asked is:

How do I increase my PageRank?

At first glance, this might seem like a reasonable question, until you start to delve a little deeper into the reasons why the question is asked so many times.

In this article, I’ll be looking at those reasons and some of the misconceptions and myths surrounding PageRank.

I thought it would be a great idea to put together a collection of my best Google tips and tricks to make the most of Google for your market research and SEO work.

While we all use Google everyday in some capacity, whether it be simple searches or doing keyword research with Google Adwords Keyword Tool, there are quite a few hidden corners to Google (that’s definitely an under-statement) that a lot of people don’t know about or don’t know how to use efficiently.

Google has announced one of their biggest set of changes to their search algorithms in their Google Inside Search Blog on the 27th Feb 2012.

The changes that were mostly rolled out at the start of February are also known as Google Panda 3.3 update.

There are 40 changes listed on the Inside Search Blog post.   Not all of them are very important from an SEO point of view, but there are some changes that are quite significant.

In this article, I’ll be giving you my opinions on the impact of the key points of the Panda 3.3 update.

Yahoo Site Explorer (YSE) was finally closed in November 2011.

YSE was without a doubt, the most popular tool and source of information for seeing what backlinks a site has.   Many tools and plugins used YSE to get their backlink data, so they all have been affected as well and have had to move to a new backlinking data source.

So now Yahoo Site Explorer is dead, what are the alternatives?

In this article, I will be taking a look at four alternatives for YSE.

Note that the services some of the serviced I’ve reviewed have paid subscriptions, I am only looking at the features/reports that you get with their free offerings.

Backlink Reporting Sites Reviewed

The four sites I’m be taking a look at are:

1. Open Site Explorer – Operated by SEOMoz.
2. Majestic SEO Site Explorer – Operated by Majestic SEO
3. Ahrefs Site Explorer – Operated by Ahrefs
4. Blekko – Search engine with SEO reporting facilities

One thing to note is that all of the four sites will give you different data and different results.  Unfortunately when it comes to backlink data, there just isn’t any resource that can give you 100% accurate results.

Videos of Yahoo Site Explorer Alternatives

For those who prefer the visual medium, I’ve created the following two videos to give you an overview of what each of the sites offers in terms of backlinking data and other SEO data.

This video covers Open Site Explorer, Majestic SEO Site Explorer and Blekko.

This video covers Ahrefs.

Open Site Explorer

Open Site Explorer (OSE) is operated by SEOMoz, who are a highly respected SEO organization.

OSE has free and Pro membership levels, with the paid membership getting you access to additional reports and services.

The reports you get in the free version of OSE include:

• Inbound Links
• Top Pages
• Linking Domains
• Anchor Text
• Ability to compare backlink metrics between up to 5 sites

The following OSE screenshot shows the default Inbound Links report.

 Open Site Explorer Summary

While there is some very useful data returned by OSE, probably the biggest issue is the freshness of the index.  Even though the index is large, it is only contains about 25% of all sites on the web.  That’s one of the reasons why the total number of backlinks reported is substantially fewer than what the other sites report.

Additionally, the data is only refreshed every 30 days or so, which means there is always a lag between new backlinks and when they are reported.

 Click here to try out Open Site Explorer

Majestic SEO Site Explorer

Majestic SEO currently would rank as the most popular Yahoo Site Explorer alternative.

Just about every piece of software like Traffic Travis, Market Samurai etc, all changed their backlinking data source from Yahoo to Majestic SEO.

Like OSE, Majestic SEO Site Explorer comes in free and paid subscription versions, where the paid subscription gets you access to more data.

Majestic Site Explorer reports include:

• Top Backlinks
• Referring Domains
• Top Pages
• Backlink History

Majestic SEO also have a few additional SEO tools that you can access.

The following Majestic Site Explorer screenshot shows the default summary returned for a site.

Majestic Site Explorer Summary

There’s a good reason why Majestic Site Explorer is popular, and that’s due to the size of the data and more importantly the freshness of the data.

Since March 2011, SEO Majestic update their index daily.  In the backlink history reports, you can use the “Fresh Index”, which shows you backlink data from the last 30 days, or you can use the “Historic Index” which shows you all available backlink data that Majestic SEO have for a particular site.

Click here to try out Majestic Site Explorer

Ahrefs Site Explorer

Ahrefs Site Explorer isn’t as well known as Open Site Explorer and Majestic Site Explorer, but it does have some very useful data that the other sites don’t.

Ahrefs is another free/paid subscription service.   If you don’t register, you are limited to 10 queries per day, if you register for a free account, you are limited to 20 queries per day.

Ahrefs Site Explorer reports include:

• Top Pages
• Backlinks
• Anchor Text
• Referring Domains
• Referring Subnets

There is also a SERPs Analysis function that is really handy as it will show you what keywords a site is ranking for and their position and movement in Google, Yahoo and Bing.

The following Ahrefs Site Explorer Screenshot shows you the default information returned.

Ahrefs Site Explorer Summary

Even though the free version of Ahrefs is more limited than the other sites, the information it returns is very useful.   In particular, the ability to see what keywords and what rankings a particular site has is great when you are doing competition analysis.

Click here to try out Ahrefs Site Explorer

Blekko

Blekko is different to the previous sites as it is primarily a search engine.   However, it is a very flexible search engine that gives you very useful SEO data.

Blekko uses special filters/modifers that they call slashtags.  One of these slash tags is /seo, so when you do a query like:

somedomain.com /seo

You will get all the SEO data for that particular domain.

Blekko SEO Reports include:

• Inbound links and their location
• Outbound links
• Internal Links
• Crawled pages and their rank
• Domains that contain duplicate content

The following Blekko screenshot shows the default SEO information returned.

Blekko Summary

Of all the newer search engines that have been created, I’ve found Blekko to be the most interesting and most useful.

While it’s backlink data isn’t as detailed as the other sites, it is free, fast and easy to use.

Click here to try out Blekko

Recommendations

A lot of the time, the type of information and style you like to see it in comes down to personal preference, so my main recommendation is to try out all four sites and see which you like best.

That said, my two favourite sites are:

1.  Majestic Site Explorer – This is mostly due to it having the most comprehensive and accurate backlink data of the four and the freshness of the index.

2. Ahrefs Site Explorer – I like to use this site to get SEO data that the other sites don’t provide, eg: keyword/ranking data.

If you know of any other similar sites (that are free to use), please leave a comment below.

Cheers

So the big question is whether Google +1 will gain enough momentum to be as popular as Facebook Like and Twitter and what impact will that have on Google search results.

What is Google +1?

In a nutshell,  Google +1 is a way for people to indicate whether they like a particular piece of content.

It’s Google’s attempt to compete with Facebook’s “Like” button which has virtually become the de-facto standard for sharing and giving a thumbs up for content we like or find interesting.

What Effect Will Google +1 Have On Search Results?

That’s certainly what a lot of people are asking.  At this stage, the effect is quite minimal, but it’s safe to say that if Google +1 takes off in a big way, it will become a much more important factor in search engine rankings.

Here’s what Google has to say about it:

+1 helps people discover relevant content–a website, a Google search result, or an ad–from the people they already know and trust. Adding the +1 button to your pages lets users recommend your content, knowing that their friends and contacts will see their recommendation when it’s most relevant–in the context of Google search results.

When a signed-in Google user is searching, your Google search result snippet may be annotated with the names of the user’s connections who’ve +1’d your page. If none of a user’s connections has +1’d your page, your snippet may display the aggregate number of +1’s your page has received.

and particularly this quote is revealing:

Content recommended by friends and acquaintances is often more relevant than content from strangers. For example, a movie review from an expert is useful, but a movie review from a friend who shares your tastes can be even better. Because of this, +1’s from friends and contacts can be a useful signal to Google when determining the relevance of your page to a user’s query. This is just one of many signals Google may use to determine a page’s relevance and ranking, and we’re constantly tweaking and improving our algorithm to improve overall search quality. For +1’s, as with any new ranking signal, we’ll be starting carefully and learning how those signals affect search quality.

Notice that Google says that they’ll be seeing how Google _+1 is used and adjusting their search algorithms accordingly.

Should I Start Using Google +1?

Regardless of whether Google +1 actually takes off or not, it certainly doesn’t hurt to start implementing it on your sites.   The worst that can happen is that it will unused or ignored and you can remove it at a later date.

However, if Google +1 does take off, it is a great advantage to get in early to establish some ratings on your sites.

Implementing Google +1 is pretty simple.  You can either generate a code snippet to add to you site at:

http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button

or if you have a WordPress site, then you can use the Google +1 WordPress Plugin from WPMU.org

Given Google +1 is quite new, there aren’t too many Google +1 plugins at this stage, but I’m sure that plenty more will be developed and that Google +1 will be incorporated into the popular social bookmarking plugins.

Hopefully you’ll notice this article has Google +1 buttons at the top and bottom of the article.

Cheers