It has been a few days… Not sure if it’s only me or not, the Google Malaysia search engine results are using a new different format from the Google.com.

The link title is not underlined. The link URL has been moved up to under link title. Description is now at the bottom. “Cached” (show Google cache copy of the webpage) and “Similar” (show websites with similar content) links have been removed too.

Here is a screenshot of new format:

I don’t have a pair of designer’s eyes but the blue links and black text and green URL seems lighter than the existing format.

My two cents

In my opinion, the new Google search engine results page format seems cleaner and more white space. The URL line moved up a level in the listing might hints that the domain authority is more important now. Big sites may benefit from the new format.

Do you get the new Google results format too? Do you like it, or not? Why?

New Google Search Engine Result Page Format? is an article from: LiewCF Tech Blog. For more updates, please follow @liewcf on Twitter, join Facebook page and subscribe free newsletter.

Serving content in different languages based on visitor’s IP location is OK. Do not serve different content for GoogleBot. Automatic redirection to a page in specified language to get it indexed by GoogleBot.In the Google Webmaster Help video, Matt explains that changing web page title and content to visitor’s local language based on their IP address location (geolocation) is OK. It is not clocking, it is a trick to serve different contents to GoogleBot than normal visitors.

Detecting IP address and serve your website content in visitor’s local language make your site user friendly but it DOES NOT help in SEO (search engine optimization). GoogleBot will still only see your English content.

In the comment, some users suggested that in order for GoogleBot to index your localized content, you need to detect visitor’s location and do automatic redirection to a page of the specified language. That way, GoogleBot would index your content in that particular language. If no redirection, only your original content would be indexed.

Google SEO: Serving Different Languages Based on Visitor’s IP location is Not Cloaking [VIDEO] is an article from: LiewCF Tech Blog. For more updates, please follow @liewcf on Twitter, join Facebook page and subscribe free newsletter.

The 10 minute video is a must-watch for every website owner. The useful tips including how to utilize search queries, reduce duplicate content, and maximize PageRank and other ranking signals to your important pages.

I learned some tricks that I did not know before!

HOW-TO: Use Google Webmaster Tools for SEO [VIDEO] is an article from: LiewCF Tech Blog. For more updates, please follow @liewcf on Twitter, join Facebook page and subscribe free newsletter.

After you changed the WordPress permalink structure, it is important to make sure all old links are redirected to the new links, so that you do not lose your visitors who follow the old links.

Read: Better SEO Page Title for WordPress

I use Google Webmaster Tools to check the 404 File Not Found Error for missing page links. There were hundreds of missing links when I checked. Not good.

After a search on WordPress Plugin Directory, I found the “Change Permalink Helper“. It is a simple plugin (with no configuration) but works very well.

If a link to your site is not found, the plugin will find the post according to the slug and make a permanent redirect (301) to the new location.

Note: The database search for missing posts will add some workload to your site but, trust me, it is worth every single bit!

Related book: SEO Made Simple: Strategies For Dominating The World’s Largest Search Engine (Volume 1)

[image courtesy of Sr. X]

WordPress How To: Auto Redirect Missing Links to New Permalink Structure is an article from: LiewCF Tech Blog. For more updates, please follow @liewcf on Twitter, join Facebook page and subscribe free newsletter.

The SEO guide ebook layout has been redesigned with better readability. It is now looks like a “book” instead of just another word document.

The content includes:

1. SEO Basics
2. Improving Site Structure
3. Optimizing Content
4. Dealing with Crawlers
5. SEO for Mobile Phones
6. Promotions and Analysis

This is a Must-Have SEO ebook for all webmaster and bloggers! It’s free! Click here to download (PDF)

Download: The Google SEO Starter Guide (2010) is an article from: LiewCF Tech Blog. For more updates, please follow @liewcf on Twitter, join Facebook page and subscribe free newsletter.

1. http://www.google.com/ — Google homepage
2. http://www.w3.org/ — World Wide Web Consortium
3. http://www.usa.gov/index.shtml — US Government website
4. http://www.hhs.gov/ — US Department of Health and Human Services
5. http://www.whitehouse.gov/ — The White House
6. http://go8.edu.au/ — Group of Eight (Education)
7. http://india.gov.in/ — National portal of India
8. http://www.miibeian.gov.cn/ — Miibeian (China’s IT department site)
9. http://us.cnn.com/ — CNN
10. http://get.adobe.com/reader/ — Adobe Reader
11. http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ — Adobe Flash Player
12. http://www.facebook.com/ — Facebook
13. http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php — AddThis social bookmarking widget

5 sites in the list are government websites (3 from US, 1 India, 1 China). 2 PR10 sites are Adobe’s and the only PageRank 10 sites for software. Facebook, the World’s most popular social network site, is in the list, too.

The AddThis bookmarking widget made in the PR10 list is surprising me. I think the direct links from all the websites that use the AddThis widget boost its PageRank.

All sites’ PageRank double-checked by me using whatsmypagerank. What’s your website’s PageRank?

[via SEG]

List of PageRank 10 Websites In The World (2010) is an article from: LiewCF Tech Blog. For more updates, please follow @liewcf on Twitter, join Facebook page and subscribe free newsletter.

If you wish to learn about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) then you must read The Beginner’s Guide to SEO by SEOMoz.

Related book: "The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization (Theory in Practice)"

The tutorial cover 10 chapters on SEO for beginners:

1. How search engines operate
2. How people interact with search engine
3. Why search engine marketing is necessary
4. The basics of search engine friendly design & dev.
5. Keyword research
6. How usability, experience & content affect rankings.
7. Growing popularity and links
8. Search engine tools and services
9. Myths & misconceptions about search engines
10. Measuring and tracking success

The tutorial is informative and easy to understand for a beginner. If anyone ask me to teach SEO, I would ask them to read the guide first. You can either read it online or download free PDF file to read on your e-reader (iPad) or print it.

Read also 29 bad SEO practices you want to avoid

The Beginner’s Guide to SEO that Everyone Should Read! is an article from: LiewCF Tech Blog. For more updates, please follow @liewcf on Twitter, join Facebook page and subscribe free newsletter.

Book: "The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization"

1. Do you use pull-down boxes for navigation?
2. Does your primary navigation require Flash, Java or Javascript to function?
3. Is your web site done entirely in Flash or overly graphical with very little textural content?
4. Is your home page a “splash page” or otherwise content-less?
5. Does your site employ frames?
6. Do the URLs of your pages include “cgi-bin” or numerous ampersands?
7. Do the URLs of your pages include session IDs or user IDs?
8. Do you unnecessarily spread your site across multiple domains?
9. Are your title tags the same on all pages?
10. Do you have pop-ups on your site?
11. Do you have error pages in the search results (“session expired”, etc.)?
12. Does your File Not Found error return a 200 status code?
13. Do you use “click here” or any other superfluous copy for your hyperlink text?
14. Do you have superfluous text like “Welcome to” at the beginning of your title tags?
15. Do you unnecessarily employ redirects, or are they the wrong type?
16. Do you have any hidden or small text meant only for the search engines?
17. Do you engage in “keyword stuffing”?
18. Do you have pages targeted to obviously irrelevant keywords?
19. Do you repeatedly submit your site to the search engines?
20. Do you incorporate your competitors’ brand names in your meta tags?
21. Do you have duplicate pages with minimal or no changes?
22. Does your content read like “spamglish”?
23. Do you have “doorway pages” on your site?
24. Do you have machine-generated pages on your site?
25. Are you “pagejacking”?
26. Are you cloaking?
27. Are you submitting to FFA (“Free For All”) link pages and link farms?
28. Are you buying expired domains with high PageRank scores to use as link targets?
29. Are you presenting a country selector as your home page to Googlebot?

Examine your site against the list, how many are truth to your site? Avoid everything in the list. Want to know the reasons? Click here to read the explanation for each item.

29 Bad SEO Practices You Want to Avoid is an article from: LiewCF Tech Blog. For more updates, please follow @liewcf on Twitter, join Facebook page and subscribe free newsletter.

The WordCamp Malaysia 2010 was awesome. Met many great guys and learned a lot from the various talks.

I was one of the speaker too but I didn’t perform well.. Anyway, the most important thing was that the attendees understand what I mean and benefited by my tips.

Here is my presentation slides for WordCamp Malaysia 2010, titled “SEO for Blogs”.

“SEO for Blogs” Presentation Slides (WordCamp Malaysia 2010) is an article from: LiewCF Tech Blog. For more updates, please follow @liewcf on Twitter, join Facebook page and subscribe free newsletter.

Google has started including “site speed” when ranking your website in search engine results. Slow site might drop ranking. How do you check?

Site speed means how fast is your website response to a web request (a visit). Admit it, we love websites that load in a blink. Google’s decision can be totally understood.

How to check website speed?

No, not using a timer and load your website.

There are some free tools for you (site owner or webmaster) to evaluate the speed of your site:

• Page Speed — A Firefox add-on. Required: Firefox & Firebug add-on.
• YSlow — A free add-on for Firefox from Yahoo! that suggest ways to improve website speed. Required: Firefox & Firebug add-on.
• WebPagetest — web tool. show waterfall view of your site load performance plus optimization checklist.
• Google Webmaster Tools’ “site performance” — shows the speed of your website as experienced by users around the world.
• Many more tools

HELP! My site is slow!

Don’t panic.

From Google:

While site speed is a new signal, it doesn’t carry as much weight as the relevance of a page. Currently, fewer than 1% of search queries are affected by the site speed signal in our implementation and the signal for site speed only applies for visitors searching in English on Google.com at this point. We launched this change a few weeks back after rigorous testing. If you haven’t seen much change to your site rankings, then this site speed change possibly did not impact your site.

While you don’t need to worry much. It is always good to improve your site performance.

Try the tools mentioned above and do what you know & can do, such as enable gzip, combine JavaScript/CSS, minimize DNS lookups, etc.

Google Drop Search Ranking of Slow Sites is an article from: LiewCF Tech Blog. For more updates, please follow @liewcf on Twitter, join Facebook page and subscribe free newsletter.