The Escape Blog...

Well now you can with the launch of Google SearchWiki.

Create your own SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) with Google’s latest end-user enhancement - SearchWiki. Strictly speaking it’s actually a re-launch from a previous experiment only now it’s official and its got a name.

How it works

It’s all fairly straightforward. Two icons appear next to each natural search listing page to allow you to re-order the results. Yep… I kid you not!

The up arrow lets you move a result higher up the page. Once you’ve moved a result higher, a down arrow appears so that you can move it back down the page if you wish. The icons will turn bright green once you’ve made an edit to remind you that you’ve edited the result. The X icon will delete the result. A further icon (text bubble) lets you make comments on a listing for others to see.

Remember, the changes you make only affect your own searches and if you want to save the changes you make the next time you run the same search, you’ll need to be logged in to a Google account.

Have fun. Things may not be quite the same from now on.

Here’s more from Google:

How to get better page rank… straight from the ‘horse’s mouth’.

It’s not often that Google invites us to share in some of its recommended optimisation strategies especially given its infamous history of silence on the SEO side of things - often leaving most of us to theorise, speculate and test as best we can.

Recently, however, a short series of articles appeared on the official Google Webmaster Blog intended to throw light on various aspects of linking strategies aimed at providing clarity, dispelling confusion and assisting webmasters in getting better organic search engine rankings.

Dubbed “Link Week”, the articles were written by Maile Ohye, (Developer Programs Tech Lead, Google Inc.) in which one tutorial in particular on inbound links basically described what SEO experts have been saying for some time: content and inbound links are most important - and in that order.

Ohye cited the following on how to earn merit-based links:

“To create unique and compelling content on your site and the web in general…”

• Start a blog: make videos, do original research, and post interesting stuff on a regular basis. If you’re passionate about your site’s topic, there are lots of great avenues to engage more users.
• Teach readers new things, uncover new news, be entertaining or insightful, show your expertise, interview different personalities in your industry and highlight their interesting side. Make your site worthwhile.
• Participate thoughtfully in blogs and user reviews related to your topic of interest. Offer your knowledgeable perspective to the community.
• Provide a useful product or service. If visitors to your site get value from what you provide, they’re more likely to link to you.

In short, provide content, content, content, a little participation, and the links will come.

Each article can be seen as follows: Day 1 (Information Straight from the Source), Day 2 (Internal Links), Day 3 (Outbound Links) and Day 4 (Inbound Links).