BOULDER, CO -   All Internet users have experienced the frustration of clicking on a Web link to find information, only to be disappointed by a message such as “Page Not Found.” SEO expert Ali Husayni, of Master Google, offers tips on how companies can avoid disappointed customers – and Google ranking drops – because of broken links.

Husayni, President and CEO of the Google SEO company, offers insight into broken links and solutions to avoid them. “If a page is listed with Google and other Web pages on the Internet link to it or the site itself, yet the page is later removed, it creates a negative experience for web surfers,” Husayni says. “When they click on the link, they reach a dead end – Such as ‘404 Error — Page Not Found.’  Google wants to improve people’s experiences on the Web, and frowns upon sites that send people nowhere.”

It is a frustrating dilemma when someone is interested in gaining information about a topic that’s posted, yet when they try to click on the link the page has been removed.

One solution can be to ask hosts of sites that link to the page you want to remove to update their links. However, this could be difficult at times if you do not have a relationship with the host site.
“Google rankings of sites with broken links are negatively impacted,” says Husayni, an SEO expert. “It could take months to regain prior, higher rankings after they have been lost. This occurs particularly when a removed page is listed within the Google XML Sitemap.”

According to Google’s Webmaster Central information pages, Sitemaps provide a way to inform Google about pages on your site that may not be discovered otherwise. An XML Sitemap is a list of your Website pages. Developing and submitting a Sitemap helps ensure that Google knows about all of your site’s pages, including URLs that might not be discoverable by way of Google’s usual crawling process.

To avoid negative results from broken links, try not to ever remove a page from your site – however this is not always easy to do, Husayni says. And if one is removed, use a 301 redirect to tell Google spiders that the page is removed.

Google recommends that if you need to change a page’s URL as shown in the search engine results, that you use a server-side 301 redirect. Google’s Webmaster Central information pages say this is an ideal way to ensure that users and search engines are directed to the right page. The 301 status code means the page has moved permanently to a new location.

The 301 redirects are most useful if you have moved your site to a new domain, and want to make the most seamless transition. When people reach your site through different URLs, if your home page can be reached in many ways, then it is good to select one of the URLs as a preferred (canonical) destination, and use 301 redirects to send traffic from other URLs to the preferred URL. You may use Webmaster Tools to set your preferred domain.

It also is helpful to use 301 redirects if you are merging two websites and want to make sure that links to outdated URLs are redirected to the right pages.

To implement a 301 redirect for Websites hosted on servers running Apache, you will need access to your server’s .htaccess file. If you are unsure about your access or server software, check with your web host.  You may consult the Apache Tutorial and the Apache URL Rewriting Guide for more information, Google advises on its Webmaster Central pages. If your site is hosted on a server running other software, check with your host for details.

Addressing the issue of broken links is worth the time and effort to resolve. It can help avoid frustration from customers who visit your site and prevent drops in rankings.

© 2010 Master Google. Authorization to post is granted, with the stipulation that Sinai Marketing dba Master Google are credited as sole source. Linking to other sites from this press release is strictly prohibited, with the exception of herein imbedded links.

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UPDATE – Dec. 1: The $99 SEO package is now offered for free.

We have a new $99 SEO package that we will start offering on October 1st. Clients who submit their site or blog can get SEO services with an estimated value of $1000, saving $900.

The following services are included in the package:

• Keywords Analysis – We will identify your site’s most critical keywords.
• Complete Web Site Optimization – We will optimize the entire site to improve its Google Ranking. This service includes:

o   Employing Google Webmaster Tools to find site errors and repairing them.

o   Deleting any (X)HTML code blocking Google from freely indexing your Web site.

o   Updating the site’s title tag, description tag, and image tags.

o   Creating an XML site map to your Web site.

• Google Analytics – We will set up your Google Analytics, allowing you to monitor the site’s traffic.
• Reports – We will provide weekly reports showing where the site ranks on Google, Yahoo! and Bing.

We are widely known for our Free SEO services and our Top of Google Guarantee package, in which we guarantee to get a client’s Web site to the top of Google or we will repay the client’s money. We do not promise first page placement with the $99 package. But, our services will increase your site’s ranking on Google and other search engines. Your site’s Ranking Report will demonstrate the increase in only a few weeks.

“This is the package for those businesses that don’t qualify for our Free SEO offer and don’t want or can’t afford our Top of Google package,” says Ali Husayni, CEO of Master Google. “Unfortunately, we can only provide these services to 90 sites per month. We sign clients up on a first-come, first-serve basis. Some clients may need to wait for their opportunity to come up.”

We cannot supply the $99 SEO package to sites with these issues:

• Banned or red-flagged by Google.
• Will not open up – for any technical reason.

“Providing the $99 service does require File Transfer Protocol (FTP) access. Such access permits us to optimize your Web site,” says Husayni. “A lot of clients get anxious at the thought of supplying us with this information. However, it will be 100% safe. As many happy clients can confirm, we are a respectable and trustworthy business.”

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UPDATE – Dec. 1: The $99 SEO package is now offered for free.

A better name for our Free/$99 SEO package is “Google Web site optimization package.” Let me explain. Google Search Engine Optimization (GSEO) has two main parts: Web site optimization and link-building.

Web site optimization refers to modifying the back-end code of your site, along with its text, to help Google and other search engines rank it better for your desired keywords.

Optimization is the foundation of GSEO, but only comprises 5-10% of the overall effort. In short it includes:

• Monitoring Google Webmaster Central for any possible site errors
• Identifying the most important keywords for each campaign
• Removing any code blocks in Google’s way
• Interlinking all the pages so Google spiders can easily find/index the content
• Updating the title tags of the site’s pages
• Updating the meta tags of the site’s pages (including the description tag)
• Updating the alt image tags
• Inserting H1, H2, … tags where appropriate
• Inserting <strong> tags where appropriate
• Adding text to the sites’ pages where appropriate
• Inserting the keywords within the text
• Adding an XML sitemap to the site
• Removing any black-hat SEO techniques used in the past

The above ensures that Google will be able to read, index and understand your site and what its keywords are. The optimization is the basis of GSEO and, without it, the other SEO techniques will not bear fruit.

On the other hand, the majority of GSEO is off-site: links pointing to your site from reputable, strong Web sites are what push your site above everyone else’s.

If someone has a good knowledge of GSEO, the optimization process doesn’t take more than a few hours. Nevertheless, if done incorrectly, Google might flag your site for SEO malpractice.

With the Free/$99 SEO package, we’re offering to perform the optimization – that would normally cost at least $1,000 – for a fraction of that price. We can afford to do that because the link we place on your newly optimized site is valuable and helps us and our paying clients rank better on Google without harming your site. So, our Free/$99 SEO package is mutually beneficial.

What We Don’t Offer

Free/$99 SEO package does not offer a top of Google ranking guarantee. The optimization of your site will improve your rankings but, since most of the Google SEO (GSEO) work is off-site, you may not see your site on the first page if your keyword is a competitive one.

For example, if your site is now on the 10th page of Google for your keyword, after a few weeks (when Google notices the updates to the site), your ranking may improve to page one, two, three or four – depending on how competitive your market is.

If you have the investment and you understand the benefits of being at the top of Google search results, we offer exclusive SEO services that will guarantee your site’s top of Google rankings for your site (if your site qualifies for such services). We even offer a 100% money-back guarantee.

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We are experiencing an enormous surge in business and have a record number of clients for our SEO services.

“We have been overwhelmed by the volume of new clients,” observes Ali Husayni of Master Google. “Our search engine optimization methods have gotten such good results that more and more companies are taking notice. Every day we are getting inquiries from new clients.”

To prevent compromising service quality, our staff asks new clients to wait a month before we can begin SEO efforts. We take clients on a first-come, first-served basis. “If you’re thinking about our SEO services, the sooner you sign up, the sooner we can start improving your Google ranking,” says Husayni.

Husayni attributes the company’s explosive growth to a variety of factors. “Our clients experience terrific results and recommend us to friends and colleagues. We also enjoy a Top of Google ranking for vital keywords.”

“Ali Husayni and his team at Master Google have proven their worth to us,” says Dr. Winburn of www.mavenlive.com. “Because of Ali and his team we now have first page placement for almost all our keywords and this has resulted in a 5 fold increase in traffic to our site.”

Our well-known “Top of Google” package guarantees (in most cases) that we’ll get your site within the top five Web sites on Google’s 1^st page for your company’s main keyword. If we can’t get the site among the top five in a few months, we will refund 100% of our fees.

We are also famous for the free SEO services we give small businesses.

“We have improved rankings on Google and other search engines for more than 700 Web sites – employing a 100% free SEO service (valued at $1,000). Eligibility only necessitates a site with a page rank of 2 and your agreement to place our link on your site,” explains Husayni.

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One of the primary tenets of SEO is this: always have updated content. When Google reads, indexes, and ranks sites based on their content, it examines more than 200 criteria to rate Web sites for every key word. One of these criteria is how often a site’s content is refreshed.

Fresh Content: Google’s Web site rankings give priority to Web sites that stay current on the events in their field of expertise and that can show they are doing new things. Fresh blog posts, additional pages, or re-written pages show that the Web site is up-to-date and helps to encourage visitors.

“Major search engines not only rank pages upon relevant content…but by fresh content as well,” writes Loren Baker on SearchEngineJournal.com. “Even after your site has been ‘optimized to the max,’ your rankings will increase to a certain level and then not go much higher. To get to the top and stay there, your site should deliver fresh, relevant content on a regular basis.”

“Here at Master Google, each month we create one or two new writings for every client and put them on their site,” says Ali Husayni. “You can also refresh your content by re-writing your homepage – or a different page on your site. You are providing your visitors with identical information, but you’re giving the sense that your Web site is current – and that will get it a better Google Web site ranking.”

How Much Fresh Content? The more frequently a Web site is refreshed, the higher it will move in the rankings. For example, news sites tend to receive high Google Web site rankings because they’re updating their pages several times a day.

“We can create new Web site content for our clients as often as they like, but the expense could outweigh the positive effect if we refresh it more frequently than 2-3 times a month,” explains Husayni.

Other SEO experts support this idea. On SEO.com, Scott Smoot relates this story: “I noticed a huge drop in my traffic from organic search…It provided a powerful example of the need for fresh content…I hadn’t updated for almost 4 months. I have no doubt that other sites competing for my keywords were updating more regularly. I went into my site and submitted a blog post… just a ‘sorry I haven’t posted anything lately’ post…The result was a complete return of the rankings and traffic (and then some).”

How Much Contend Must be Re-written? No one really knows. Google reveals very little of its page ranking formula – and that information isn’t included. “If we revise a Web site’s content, we strive to re-write 100% of it,” remarks Husayni.

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Many of you may have seen your site’s ranking on Google Search Results (SR’S) fluctuate and you have wondered why. Recently, one of our subscribers asked me the same question and I thought it would be beneficial to post an answer for everyone.

I have personally seen Google search results fluctuations since I started my SEO career. For one thing, if it wasn’t for Google changing the search results pages, none of our clients would have had top of Google rankings, right?

But what we mean here is gaining and losing first page or top positions in cycles. Normally, this doesn’t happen for very competitive keywords, as top players always have SEO experts on their sides. But for less competitive keywords, this is a common phenomenon.

Here are some reasons that you see your site’s rankings fluctuate on Google:

1- Posting fresh content: Google values fresh content on sites. Adding a new story to your blog, posting a new article on your site or simply rewriting your site’s homepage could trigger Google bots to move you up the scales a few notch. Same could go for your competitors. However, the improvements in rankings don’t last that often unless you keep on updating your site’s content.

2- Optimization Removal: if our SEO team has optimized your site and you have over-written the optimization work by uploading your old files to the server, you have caused your site’s rankings to be dropped. In this case, you can ask our team to re-upload the files.

3- Different Google bots: each Google bot (spider) uses a slightly different algorithm; so, theoretically, when different spiders visit your site, they would rank your site according to their algorithm.

4- Duplicate content: this is also more likely a theory as I have not seen the proof of it, but I was just reading Google Webmaster Help and someone had claimed if your site’s content is copied by someone else, it could fluctuate your rankings. However, what I’ve seen with duplicate content is that rankings will drop to 10+ pages of Google SR’s.

We appreciate your comments/questions.

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Google rankings of many Web sites suffer greatly because of a phenomenon called “duplicate content.” One of our clients, cryoserver.com was penalized (red-flagged) for this particular reason prior to signing up with us. The site was ranked on page 13 of Google SERP’s for one of their main keywords.

Duplicate content refers to “substantive blocks of content” that match or are similar to “content within or across domains”, according to Google webmaster central. Google simply reduces the ranking of both pages/Web sites if it notices similar content being posted.

Here are some examples of duplicate content and tips on how to resolve them:

Mirrored Sites
Having mirrored sites refers to the same Web site being hosted on two or more different domains. This was basically what cryoserver.com had done. They had their site hosted on cryoserver.com as well as forensiccs.com.

Use a domain-level redirect from one domain to the other to resolve the mirrored sites issue. Also, use 301 redirects for any linked-to Web pages within the redirected domain.

We asked cryoserver.com to redirect the mirrored domain to the main one. After only one week, Google removed the red-flag and now their site ranks on the 3rd page (still some SEO work is needed to get them to the first page).

The same for-sale items on e-commerce Web sites
This is very common when it comes to e-commerce sites. Many URL’s are dynamically created and linked to from the home-page or other pages. Or simply, one product is placed within different categories. To resolve this issue, you should avoid dynamically building your pages and use different description even for the same products if they’re placed on different categories (having different url’s).

Copied text to be placed on competitors Web sites
If someone copies your text and place it on their site, your site could be penalized (flagged) by Google spiders for having duplicate content. This doesn’t happen too often, but when it does, it reduces your site’s rank on Google dramatically. To resolve this issue, you should contact the site that copied your text and ask them (by using all means) to remove the stolen text from their site. If they don’t comply, you should just rewrite your own content (painful, but it’s easier and less expensive than hacking the other site and removing your text).

Print-only versions of Web pages
Avoid print-versions if at all possible. If you cannot, use a “no-follow” tag wherever you link to a print-version copy of your Web pages.

Web pages that generate a mobile-friendly version
Similar to above, use “no-follow” tags so Google spiders don’t follow the link.

If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to ask. We will respond to all questions in a timely manner.

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This is a question often asked by many Webmasters who do not see their site on the first page for their keywords. Google bans/flags sites that use spam (black-hat) SEO techniques. Most of these techniques are used when the site is optimized using unacceptable SEO techniques, which are referred to as “black-hat” – thus the Web site owner/Webmaster has full control over the use of such techniques. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t notify Web site owners if their site is flagged, neither places an error in Webmaster Tools. And finding the answer takes a bit of expertise on your part.

To know if your site is banned (red-flagged) by Google, follow the following steps:

1- Copy a portion of your site’s content (at least two sentences) and paste them into Google search within quotes (“your site’s text”). That way you’re asking Google to return only the sites that have that exact content. If you only see your site in the search results, that means everything is fine. If you see other sites listed next to yours, but yours is at the top, that means the other sites have copied your text and that’s not a good thing, but your site is still not flagged. However, if your site is not ranked at the top or is not listed at all, that means either your site is flagged, or you have copied someone else’s text – neither of which are good news.

2- Search Google for some of the keywords within the title tag of your site (the title tag appears within your site’s back-end code as as the text after <title> – also, it shows up at the top of the browser when you load your site. If your site comes up #1, or towards the top of Google search results, then it is not banned.

3- Search for your main keyword (which is also part of your title tag if you’ve optimized it correctly). If your site is within the first 10 pages, then most probably it is not banned. If it is listed after the 10th page, it is most probably flagged. I say “most probably” because this very much depends on many factors such as selecting your main keyword correctly, etc.

And if my site is red-flagged, is there any chance to get it un-flaged?

In most cases, yes; you can get your site un-flagged – and lately Google does this rather quickly. To un-flag your site, follow the following steps:

1- Identify why your site was flagged in the first place. Some of the common reasons are using duplicate content, keyword stuffing, door-way pages, etc. (for a better list, you can read our Google SEO eBook). This is by far the most important step. If you’re unable to identify why Google has flagged your Web site, there is no way for you to help remove it.

2- Remove the “black-hat” SEO technique that got your site flagged. If you used duplicate content, re-write it. If you used keywor-stuffing, remove them, and so forth.

3- Next time Google spiders visit your site, they will notice that you have removed the spam techniques and will slowly give your positions back on the search results. If you want the process to take place faster, get some inbound links for your site.

In general, avoid using questionable SEO techniques on your site – especially do not ever link to sites you do not know their online reputation. Read extensively on the subject before you go for optimization of your site or consult someone who knows the game. There are many gray areas that you could go into and sometimes the lines between white-gray-black are blurred.

Good luck with getting your site ranked at the top of Google.

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For the first time we have refunded the full amount of its fees to a client, making good on our 100% money back guarantee. Our contract promises that within three months we will get a client’s Web site placed on the first page of Google for at least 50% of the site’s keywords. If we cannot meet those placements, the contract states that Master Google will refund 100% of the client’s money.

During a search, Google uses software called spiders that find relevant Web sites, read their code and content, and rank them for the user’s specific keywords. Our Web site optimization paves the way for Google spiders so they can easily read the client’s site and find the most important keywords. We combine that with a sophisticated link-building campaign, taking our clients’ Web sites on their way to the top of Google.

Unfortunately, in this case, when we contracted with the client, we were unaware that this particular site had already been flagged by Google for the use of unacceptable Web site building techniques – namely duplicate content. After three months, we were unable to make sufficient progress in increasing the site’s placement on Google’s first page. So we refunded 100% of the client’s money. Since the client was a small start-up business, the owner needed to invest every penny carefully.

After receiving the refund, the client took the time to write an unsolicited testimonial about Master Google’s President, Ali Husayni: “I found Ali’s site from an article on a Google finance site. I sent him a request and he was on the phone with me the same day. He talked about his services and his money back guarantee. He said we carry a gentlemen’s agreement on the main part. He worked on my site for three months. I was one of the few that could not be brought up to the top in such a short time.”

“I was running out of resources to keep his services,” the client added. “When I mentioned this to Ali he understood and was kind enough to refund me the full amount I had paid him for his SEO work.  He did this because he is the rare honest businessman. There are not too many honest guys like Ali left in the world. He only accepts people who he believes he can help. What have you got to lose? If he fails, you get your money back.”

“Many of our clients are struggling new or small businesses,” Husayni said. “We really want to help them improve their Google ranking and increase their revenues and we were sorry we could not help this particular client. In the two years Master Google’s money back guarantee has been in place, this is the first client who couldn’t be helped and received a refund. We are the only SEO company that offers this kind of guarantee and it’s important that our clients know we stand by it.”

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Dear friend,

I’m very much excited to announce that you can now get the entire eBook we worked so hard to prepare. My excitement is because I’m sharing many years of my experience in SEO with everyone who is interested to learn – whether an SEO guru, newbie or a client of mine.

Our future clients could also see the level of expertise we implement in SEO by reading this eBook and comparing it with other information available online.

As the first edition, I’m sure the book has room for improvement. I’m very much open to ideas and feedback from all of you. So, please don’t hesitate to speak your mind here or by sending me an email.

The cost of this book is $40 and is 100% refundable within 12 months from the purchase date. So feel free to use it, test its techniques, wait to see the results and if you’re unsatisfied with the outcome, let us know and we’ll refund your money back.

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