~Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/docs/en/about.html

Webmaster Tools helps you see how your site is performing in our search results, troubleshoot potential problems, and build Google-friendly sites. Webmaster Tools is for anybody with a website – bloggers, online stores big and small, government and education sites.

Make sure Google can find all the pages on your site

Webmaster Tools helps you see your site the way Google sees it. If we have a problem accessing any of the pages on your site, we’ll let you know. And it goes both ways: You can tell us about pages on your site by submitting a Sitemap

Drive traffic to your site

We’ll show you who’s linking to you and how. Want to see which pages on your site get the most links? Which keyword searches drive the most traffic? We’ve got that too.

Build a Google-friendly site

Use our Content Analysis to identify potential issues with the content on your site. The robots.txt analyzer tool will help make sure you’re not accidentally blocking Googlebot from crawling your site. And our Help Center is your first stop for official Google guidelines on creating the very best sites possible.

Remove pages from Google’s search results

Things change. Pages get removed. Tell us about pages you don’t want in our index, and we’ll remove them from our search results.

And it’s free!

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/docs/en/about.html

1. SEO keyword phrases have been applied to each product/page, as viewable in each page’s HTML code (keyword-rich title, meta data, headline and image alt tags, body copy, anchor text, page navigation, etc).

2. In-bound link exchange relationships, with related sites, have been developed and implemented, as viewable on your links page and the Websites that link to you. A list of in-bound links/sites will be made available.

3. The expectation is that good Google ranking is a result of good, Google-approved optimization.

4. Guarantees: I guarantee to adhere to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines for SEO (http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769).

5. Expectations for success: being indexed in Google; being ranked within Google’s top-30. These are expectations, not guarantees. Timeframe: indexing and good ranking can take anywhere from 30 days to 3-6 months or longer.

6. Since indexing and ranking is strictly in Google’s hands, no guarantee is made for any indexing or ranking whatsoever! I guarantee to provide Google’s “best practices” SEO techniques for your Website. On-going optimization may be required to help maintain ranking position; however, indexing and ranking is strictly in the hands of Google.

(verified Jan 8, 2009, 10:30 a.m. PST)
#3 Google natural ranking for “collaborative law Austin” for www.MelissaMWilliams.com/
#4 Google natural ranking for “vintage fur coats” for www.Scivago.com/
#6 Google natural ranking for “vintage coats” for www.Scivago.com/
#18 Google natural ranking for “Austin divorce attorney” for www.MelissaMWilliams.com/

The current sites above that I have in Google’s top-10/top-20 natural ranking are a result of my adhering to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines for SEO. But their ranking can never be guaranteed. No SEO professional can guarantee ranking, since no one knows Google’e ranking algorithms, except Google.

These are Google top-10 “natural” rankings, not paid-placement. Check the stats for yourself (verified Jan 5, 2009). Let’s do something similar for your site! Don’t get blacklisted! Work with a Search Engine Optimization SEO professional. Contact Reid Walley.

#1 on Google
Keyword: Vintage Fur Coats
Website: Scivago.com
Verified: Jan 5, 2009
We finished search engine optimization for Scivago.com 3 years ago, in Jan. of 2006, and it’s been in Google’s Top-10 “natural” ranking ever since!

#3 on Google
Keyword: Collaborative Law Austin
Website: MelissaMWilliams.com
Verified: Jan 5, 2009
We finished search engine optimization for MelissaMWilliams.com on Nov. 20, 2008 and achieved #2 Google “natural” ranking 3 weeks later on Dec 14, 2008.

#3 on Google
Keyword: Vintage Coats
Website: Scivago.com
Verified: Jan 5, 2009
We finished search engine optimization for Scivago.com 3 years ago, in Jan. of 2006, and it’s been in Google’s Top-10 “natural” ranking ever since!

Need search engine optimization for your Website? Contact Reid Walley.

#4 on Google for “Vintage Fur Coats”
#7 on Google for “Vintage Coats”
Website: Scivago Vintage Coats
Verified: November 21, 2008

And let’s not forget the Google AdSense ads that have been bring in money the whole time because of our first-page search engine ranking.

Last month, Google published an official statement about linking out to other websites. Some webmasters still think that linking to other websites might have a negative effect on their Google rankings. That is not the case.

Links to other websites can have a positive effect on your website if you link to the right websites. Here’s a summary of Google’s statements:

The good side of outbound links

Relevant links to other websites can help your website visitors. For example, you could provide your readers in-depth information about similar topics or you could offer your readers your commentary on existing resources.

Outbound links can also help your credibility. Links to the right websites show that you have done your research and that you have expertise in the subject manner. Good links to other websites can make visitors want to come back for more analysis on future topics.

A very positive effect on links to other websites is that they help you to build relationships with other domain experts. If you send visitors to another website then that website might send visitors to your website in return.

The bad side of outbound links

Links to other websites can have a negative effect on your website if you don’t monitor to which websites you link. According to Google, unmonitored (especially user-generated) links and undisclosed paid advertising outbound links can reduce your website’s credibility.

If your website allows user comments or other user created contents, then you should make sure that these comments are moderated and/or you should add the rel=”nofollow” attribute to user generated links.

Google doesn’t like paid links. If you accept money for outbound links, you should also add the rel=”nofollow” attribute to the link.

Google recommends not to have more than 100 links per web page. Too many links on one page confuse your website visitors.

Should you worry about the PageRank of the linked website?

Google makes it very clear that you shouldn’t worry about the PageRank of a website as long as you are linking to a website you believe your website visitors will enjoy.

It doesn’t matter if the linked website has a lower PageRank than your website as long as the website is somehow related to your site. According to Google, webmasters should consider outbound links as a common sense way to provide more value to their users, not as a complicated formula.

If you link to good websites, outbound links will have a positive effect on your site.

• #7 for keyword: “collaborative law austin”
• #8 for keyword: “austin collaborative divorce”
• #9 for keyword: “austin collaborative law”
• #9 for keyword: “collaborative divorce austin”
• #20 for keyword: “austin divorce attorney”

I provided Website design using WordPress, Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as, on-page search engine optimization. It’s been about 5 weeks between initial keyword research / optimizing the pages and the current natural Google rankings. Melissa is an Austin divorce attorney who specializes in collaborative law Austin.

Google rankings verified Oct 3, 2008.