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><channel><title>Sebastian Cowie</title> <atom:link href="http://www.sebastiancowie.com/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /><link>http://www.sebastiancowie.com</link> <description>Freelance SEO Consultant, Metal Head and Beer Drinker. Grab a beer and read my rants, tips and tricks on SEO.</description> <lastBuildDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 11:10:06 +0000</lastBuildDate> <language>en-US</language> <sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency> <generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1</generator> <xhtml:meta xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" name="robots" content="noindex" /> <item><title>Google Releases “Help for Hacked Sites” to Combat Compromised Websites</title><link>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/general/google-releases-help-for-hacked-sites-to-combat-compromised-websites/</link> <comments>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/general/google-releases-help-for-hacked-sites-to-combat-compromised-websites/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Thu, 14 Mar 2013 11:02:28 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Sebastian</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[General]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://www.sebastiancowie.com/?p=1526</guid> <description><![CDATA[In an attempt to reduce the number of hacked or compromised sites, Google has released an online tutorial series dubbed “Webmasters help for hacked sites”. There are 8 different steps in the recovery process, each of which is targeted towards a different level of user. If you are unfamiliar with any of the steps outlined in the guide, then Google recommends contacting your hosting provider or support team to let them handle the issue. Even the most tech savvy webmasters occasionally fall prey to vulnerabilities in popular scripts. This is particularly true of CMS platforms like WordPress or Joomla, with one of more memorable issues in recent history being the heavily exploited vulnerability within TimThumb. If you’ve recently seen instances within Google’s SERPS of any of the following messages for your website: This site may be compromised This site may harm your computer Reported attack page! Phishing (web forgery) suspected Notice of suspected hacking Then your website may be compromised. Head on over to http://www.google.com/webmasters/hacked/ to learn more about the removal process or start by watching the video below.]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/general/google-releases-help-for-hacked-sites-to-combat-compromised-websites/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Does Guest Blogging Really Work? &#8211; A Live Case Study</title><link>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/link-building/does-guest-blogging-really-work-a-live-case-study/</link> <comments>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/link-building/does-guest-blogging-really-work-a-live-case-study/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sun, 06 Jan 2013 09:28:16 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Sebastian</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Link Building]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://www.sebastiancowie.com/?p=1413</guid> <description><![CDATA[Now that Guest Blogging has become an SEO&#8217;s weapon of choice, there has been a substantial increase in the level of outreach that is currently being undertaken on a day to day basis (and subsequently a decrease in the quality of outreach and content) but the question at hand today is, does guest blogging really work and if done corrently how effective is it? The Challenge &#38; The Benchmark Starting from the 7th of January 2012 I will attempt to write 30 guest posts over the course of 60-90 days (although 20 will probably be my limit) and have them all published by the 7th of April. All content will be unique and anchor texts will be diversified. I will be completely transparent with regards to all the posts and they will be available to read below. The target key terms and current benchmark as of the 6th of January (Google UK) are as follows: SEO Consultant &#8211; 37th Freelance SEO Consultant &#8211; 2nd Freelance SEO &#8211; 13th Guest Post Service &#8211; 3rd SEO Consultancy &#8211; 22nd Update: 21st January 2013 Based on the three guest posts that have gone live so far, there has been a significant uplift in organic visibility which can be seen in the &#8220;current live results&#8221; section below. I&#8217;ll be pushing this particularly hard this week. At this rate of growth and with the possible update last week, I believe it will be possible to hit page 1 for all the aforementioned key terms. Update: 3rd April 2013 Progress is still being made across all key terms. Current Live / Queued Posts 5 SEO Tips for Insurance Portals &#8211; http://www.click-conversion.com/2013/01/11/5-seo-tips-for-insurance-portals/ &#8211; Anchor: SEO Consultant /w G+ Attribution 5 WordPress Plugins [...]]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/link-building/does-guest-blogging-really-work-a-live-case-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>3</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Deciphering The Google Reconsideration Request Responses</title><link>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/deciphering-the-google-reconsideration-request-responses/</link> <comments>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/deciphering-the-google-reconsideration-request-responses/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Wed, 21 Nov 2012 08:34:30 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Sebastian</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[SEO]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://www.sebastiancowie.com/?p=1289</guid> <description><![CDATA[For those that feel that they may have been hit by a penalty, Matt Cutts has released a video explaining the various responses that you can expect to receive. In the wake of the numerous Panda/Penguin updates, Google also released the disavow links tool (16th October 2012). As a result, the response time for a recon-request may have increased while webmasters purge their low-quality backlinks and disavow links they were unable to move. The Video According to Matt Cutts, users of the reconsideration request form should expect a response within &#8220;a week, or several days&#8221;. In some circumstances the backlog can be up to two months, but &#8220;that typically only happens when a new tool has been launched&#8221;. The Responses For those that haven&#8217;t had a chance to watch the video, Matt Cutts states that you should hear back with &#8220;roughly one of three different replies&#8221; Yes &#8211; We think you&#8217;re in good shape, so your reconsideration request has been granted. It might be No &#8211; We still think you have some work to do. In some situations, you don&#8217;t have any sort of manual issue at all We have processed your reconsideration request. Google can see that you&#8217;ve resolved some issues, but there are still outstanding problems that you need to take care of Deciphering The Responses No Manual Penalty If you receive a response within 2-3 days, this is usually the &#8220;The no manual penalty e-mail&#8221;. Although this can be frustrating, it does rule out any manual action against your site Yes Congratulations, your reconsideration request has been approved. If your issue was backlink or penalty orientated then you can expect to see a recovery within the next week or so. No Unfortunately [...]]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/deciphering-the-google-reconsideration-request-responses/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>1</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>EMD, Panda &amp; Penguin &#8211; The &#8220;Trilogy of Search Terror&#8221;</title><link>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/emd-panda-penguin-the-trilogy-of-search-terror/</link> <comments>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/emd-panda-penguin-the-trilogy-of-search-terror/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sat, 06 Oct 2012 12:11:45 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Sebastian</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[SEO]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://www.sebastiancowie.com/?p=1220</guid> <description><![CDATA[Over the past few weeks Google have released an onslaught of new updates dedicated to reducing spam and increasing the quality of their organic results. As if releasing the EMD and Panda updates back to back wasn&#8217;t bad enough, Google decided to release their latest data refresh of Penguin yesterday (5th October 2012). Today I&#8217;m going to be covering what these new updates mean for you and discussing the close proximity of all three updates dubbed &#8220;The Trilogy of Search Terror&#8221; by Search Engine Watch. The Timeline Google Panda &#8220;20&#8243; &#8211; 27th September 2012 The EMD Update &#8211; 28th September 2012 Google Penguin 3 &#8211; 5th October 2012 The EMD Update &#8211; 28th September Minor weather report: small upcoming Google algo change will reduce low-quality &#8220;exact-match&#8221; domains in search results. — Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) September 28, 2012 On the 28th of September Google released a new update aimed at targeting EMD&#8217;s in an attempt to increase the quality of their SERPS. Matt Cutts was quoted as saying that it would impact 0.6% of English-US queries and that it was unrelated to Panda/Penguin. New exact-match domain (EMD) algo affects 0.6% of English-US queries to a noticeable degree. Unrelated to Panda/Penguin. — Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) September 28, 2012 Proximity Of Updates It wasn&#8217;t until the 3rd of October that Google had confirmed with SearchEngineLand that there had also been a Panda update on the 27th of September. What really stood out, was that Matt Cutts had openly announced the EMD update, but there was no public announcement of the Panda update. Leading to speculation that further updates may be afoot. The Panda 20 Update – 27th September The most recent Panda update prior to this one, was [...]]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/emd-panda-penguin-the-trilogy-of-search-terror/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>4</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Directory Submissions &#8211; Is It Time To Call it a Day?</title><link>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/link-building/directory-submissions-is-it-time-to-call-it-a-day/</link> <comments>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/link-building/directory-submissions-is-it-time-to-call-it-a-day/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sat, 01 Sep 2012 11:08:04 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Sebastian</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Link Building]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://www.sebastiancowie.com/?p=848</guid> <description><![CDATA[Is it time for the final curtain call on directory submissions? Are they causing more harm than good, and what do we do about DMOZ and Yahoo? <a
href=/seo/link-building/directory-submissions-is-it-time-to-call-it-a-day/">Read More...</a>]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/link-building/directory-submissions-is-it-time-to-call-it-a-day/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>2</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Google Panda 3.9 &#8211; Official Release (24/07/2012)</title><link>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/google-panda-3-9-official-release-24072012/</link> <comments>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/google-panda-3-9-official-release-24072012/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Wed, 25 Jul 2012 19:30:34 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Sebastian</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[SEO]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://www.sebastiancowie.com/?p=808</guid> <description><![CDATA[So it's about that time of the month where Google deems it appropriate to run a data refresh on their Panda update - weeding the SERPS, freeing it from miscreants and sites that were MFA. <a
href="/seo/google-panda-3-9-official-release/">Read More...</a>]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/google-panda-3-9-official-release-24072012/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>10</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>How Google Penguin Spawned A Rise In Negative SEO</title><link>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/how-google-penguin-spawned-a-rise-in-negative-seo/</link> <comments>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/how-google-penguin-spawned-a-rise-in-negative-seo/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Tue, 12 Jun 2012 19:00:58 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Sebastian</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[SEO]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://www.sebastiancowie.com/?p=763</guid> <description><![CDATA[Looking at the repercussions of the Google Penguin &#038; Panda updates and why looking to other search engines and avenues of traffic may safe your online business ... <a
href="/seo/how-google-penguin-spawned-a-rise-in-negative-seo/">read more, you know you want to.</a>]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/how-google-penguin-spawned-a-rise-in-negative-seo/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>1</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>How Google Penguin Has Affected My Affiliate Sites</title><link>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/how-google-penguin-has-affected-my-affiliate-sites/</link> <comments>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/how-google-penguin-has-affected-my-affiliate-sites/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Wed, 23 May 2012 23:17:53 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Sebastian</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[SEO]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://www.sebastiancowie.com/?p=722</guid> <description><![CDATA[Before I begin, I should warn you that this post does cover black / grey hat strategies and if you’re looking for a fix for your site and are 100% certain you haven’t engaged in any underhanded tactics then you probably won’t learn anything that can help you fix your site today. If you’re interesting in the effects of Penguin on various platforms then <a
href="/seo/how-google-penguin-has-affected-my-affiliate-sites/">keep on reading!</a>]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/how-google-penguin-has-affected-my-affiliate-sites/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>4</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Looking At The Future Of SEO &#8211; feat. Penguin &amp; Panda</title><link>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/link-building/looking-at-the-future-of-seo-feat-penguin-panda/</link> <comments>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/link-building/looking-at-the-future-of-seo-feat-penguin-panda/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Thu, 10 May 2012 08:14:24 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Sebastian</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Link Building]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://www.sebastiancowie.com/?p=669</guid> <description><![CDATA[My latest blog post discussing the impact of Penguin &#038; Panda, and some helpful hints that should help you adapt to the latest updates! <a
href="/seo/link-building/looking-at-the-future-of-seo-feat-penguin-panda/">Read more...</a>]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/link-building/looking-at-the-future-of-seo-feat-penguin-panda/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>3</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>The Day Of Reckoning &#8211; Google Web Spam Update (24th April 2012)</title><link>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/the-day-of-reckoning-google-web-spam-update-24th-april-2012/</link> <comments>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/the-day-of-reckoning-google-web-spam-update-24th-april-2012/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:34:42 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Sebastian</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[SEO]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://www.sebastiancowie.com/?p=654</guid> <description><![CDATA[The 24th of April 2012 is a day that will be remembered by many search engine optimisation specialists as a day of destruction, panic and chaos. This day brought the infamous Google Web Spam update that has seen not only black hat link builders suffer, but their white-hat brothers have seen substantial drops as well. <a
href="/seo/the-day-of-reckoning-google-web-spam-update-24th-april-2012/">Read More...</a>]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.sebastiancowie.com/seo/the-day-of-reckoning-google-web-spam-update-24th-april-2012/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>4</slash:comments> </item> </channel> </rss>
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