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A great thing about Google is, it gives webmasters all the help they need to get their websites into Google's index. There's a nice tool available in Google Webmaster Tools called 'Fetch as GoogleBot'. This tool, as we discussed in our SEO Tips for start-ups, can be a great help diagnosing errors and getting a website in Google's index faster. A robots.txt file is used for crawling efficiency, and preventing certain pages from being crawled etc. Sometimes though, GoogleBot might have difficulty fetching your robots.txt file. Here's a solution from Google to this problem.

Have you ever considered grabbing more control over your AdSense ads through, say the AdSense Ad review center? The Ad review Center is a really powerful tool that lets you tweak the settings, and control ads that appear in your site's ad units. Following a set of changes and improvements from Google earlier this year, that gave this useful tool even more power and reliability, Google has now introduced another remarkable feature - image filtering. This new feature will let you find ads, and review them very easily and effectively, hence saving your time.

We often hear and use the term Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with regards to blogging / website designing, and getting content on Google. But what is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear this word? A lot of people picture link building and other such practices, which kind of limits their imagination and their field. But comparing its actual meaning to the way it is used today, do you think there's any difference between the two? And do you think the name is descriptive of the way it is used these days? Or should it be renamed appropriately? Here's Google's viewpoint on the matter.

Google rolls out its algorithmic updates on a regular basis now. And it impacts a lot of websites positively, as well as negatively. Although the negative effect might be because of shady practices or spam action, it could also be a mistake, for which Google offers webmasters an option to file a reconsideration report. So if you think your website has been unduly penalized, or maybe if there's a misconception from Google's side, you can use this option. But some people have been submitting and submitting reconsideration requests, but don't hear anything about it for weeks, or even months. So how long does Google take to actually process a reconsideration request?

By far, the most popular method of acquiring links among webmasters is guest blogging. People write for other websites in exchange for links to their own websites. This not only gives people a backlink, it also gives them a small increase in traffic, hence making it a favorite among bloggers. But sometimes, it seems a bit too easy, as anyone can pick up content from the internet and submit a guest post about it. And since the practice is widely used, a lot of spammy activity is bound to surface at one time or another. So what does Google do about it? Will it penalize websites for links acquired through guest blogging?

Mobile devices such as Smartphones, and especially Tablets, are now fast becoming more and more popular, and although nowhere near replacing desktops, they do seem to be gaining up on browser statistics. Now, they have more than 10% of the share, with Tablets almost as much being used as smartphones. This makes optimizing websites for mobile devices all the more important. But tablet users now don't want you to return a mobile version of your website to them. They want the desktop experience. But although there are no official guidelines from Google on creating search engine and user friendly tablet-optimized site, there are a few tips you can apply to make your website work across multiple platforms.

Are you thinking about launching a new website, or maybe a service or an online store? If yes, then chances are that you might want to take the initial phase of setting up a domain and website a bit more seriously than you'd ordinarily do. Ever opened a webpage, only to find that it is no where to be found on the internet? That's because there's nothing on that domain at present. Worse still is the parked domain page, advertising the hosting company, which makes you think you've finally landed onto an existing page, only to realize that it is no good either. So what sort impression do you want to give to people who know of your newly launched domain's existence, and would like to know more? Is parking the domain a sensible idea?

So, Google PageRank has been updated again this week, just as expected. And so far, the update does not seem to be a major one - but then again, give it some time. The last update took place in August 2012, and the one before that on May 2012. So it's pretty obvious that Google is now rolling out these updates quarterly, i.e. after every three months. So the next update is expected in the first 10 days of February 2013. We congratulate everyone whose PR didn't drop. And for those whose did, there's a few things you can do which we will mention. And again, keep in mind that Google PR should not a priority for you - read on to see why.

Google is always constantly trying to expand its influence by introducing new features, while trying at the same time to improve upon those of its products that are popular. Hence we've seen a plethora of new tools and features being introduced across the Google-sphere in the recent past. And yesterday, we  were talking about this same thing that why Google cuts down on some of its products to give more space to its existing products. Today, we'll talk about a new feature recently introduced in Gmail, which allows you to compose emails much faster and easier.

Google is one of the most successful internet company, and it's scope is so wide now that almost every internet user uses at least one product from Google. And Google continues to expand and create new products. But in the process, it has been pulling the plug on some products as well. Take iGoogle, for example. Or Google Video or Google Talk Chatback. There's a whole plethora of products that Google introduced, but now have been discontinued. But why does the internet giant cut off its products, even when people do seem to be using them?

So the U.S presidential race is a full swing, and expectations are high as the election day arrives. Different people have different ways of keeping track of the race, and so do many websites which provide varying data on who has the most support. But every term (four years), more and more people are looking for reliable sources of information on the voting process and their ballots. Google has now made this incredibly easy, and searching for such information is no longer a hitch. It has launched a Voter Information Tool that will help voters stay updated about the elections.

Making sub-domains on a domain has now become pretty popular, and many bloggers are now using sub-domains to create custom pages, such as contact and about pages. Although they look professional (and classy :P), they raise a concern. Usually, they are not part of a theme or template, and are custom designed. So some of the on-page SEO elements might be present. And Google Panda and Penguin is said to be domain-level penalty, with one low quality page effecting the whole site. So the popular question arises; how does Google view these sub-domains? And what is the difference, if any, between sub-directory structure and sub-domain structure?

Okay. So this is an important question that many people have now started asking: Do Human "Quality Raters" Influence which sites are impacted by Panda? You might have heard of a manual penalty for a site, and in our post about removing backlinks to avoid penalty, we talked about when a website gets hit by an algorithm, and when a site gets manually penalized. This concept gives rise to a common question: if these 'quality raters' influence whether a website gets impacted by an algorithmic update, such as Panda or Penguin, then how is the consumers' reaction gauged? Meaning who is to say which site gets penalized and which doesn't?

Do AdWords Customers get special treatment in organic search results? This is a question that's become quite common now among webmasters, especially those advertising their website with Google AdWords. And that's understandable, considering the money they spend in doing so. A lot of people also think that if someone buys that ad spot on the right side of the page, then his website gets some sort of an algorithmic boost, and gets an advantage over others and thus ranks higher. Is there any truth to it? And if so, is it any fair to the other webmasters? Google answers this important question in a latest video uploaded by Matt Cutts.

Yesterday, we talked about whether or not bad links on your site are worth deleting. The simple answer to the question was, you might as well do it, but it'll be better to adjust your website, rather than trying to bend it. If you've been manually penalized, then this step becomes more or less necessary. But what about the links to your website, which aren't in your control? Luckily, Google has now released a link Disavow tool, which will solve such problems. Quite simply, any unnatural links to your site can be disinherited, or 'disavowed', hence preventing Google from considering them.

Guest blogging is a very popular way of getting backlinks for a site. It is an effective marketing strategy for a blog, and allows you to publicize you content to places beyond your reach. In short, guest blogging is when you write for another website, free of charge, in return for a backlink (or two). And we have already talked about how linking is important for your website. But doesn't it all look a bit convenient? As in, anyone can write (or spin) articles, and get them published on other websites and get more links to rank higher in Google? Here is Google's take on the subject, along with some best practices.