Google’s Toolbar PageRank (PR) has a mixed reputation amongst SEOs. Some say that it is deliberately misleading, as it has no relation the PageRank algorithm that determines listings. Others however, find a use for it. Here at the FirstFound Blog, we’ve found that it can be useful in identifying sites to request links from.

PageRank – The Theory

As numerous search engine bloggers, SEO experts and people with common sense have discovered, links in to your site from high PR sites carry more weight with the search engines than links from low PR sites.

Although toolbar PR isn’t always an accurate reflection of a site’s real PR, it does have it’s uses as a rough indicator. That means that you can use it to priioritise a list of likely links, to make better use of time spent on building links.

Using Toolbar PR as a Link Building Tool

Step 1: Identifying Sites

When identifying sites to get links from, bear the following in mind: You want relevant sites. Industry blogs, niche directories, suppliers – these are the sorts of sites that will carry weight with Google. If you’re a garage in Farnborough, a link from a restaurant on the Isle of Skye isn’t going to score highly on relevancy. Keep links local, or in your niche. You also need more links from unique domains, rather than dozens of links from the same domain – being featured in a site’s sidebar links is always subject to diminishing returns!

Step 2: Prioritising Sites

Use the toolbar Page Rank tool, rank your sites in order of PR, from highest to lowest. Then, start to target the highest ranking sites first. Don’t disregard anything with a low Page Rank though, as sometimes it isn’t 100% accurate. As a rule of thumb though, you should be focussing your efforts on any sites with a PR of 3 (the average) or higher.

Step 3: Requesting Links

Now it’s just a matter of getting the sites you’ve identified to link back to you. Google frowns upon paying for links, but you can offer a reciprocal link, or ask if you can write a guest post for a blog. Just remember that when you’re requesting a link, a personalised and friendly email goes down much better than anything starting “dear sir/madam”.

For more SEO advice, visit FirstFound on Facebook, or keep up to date with us on Twitter.

A recent survery shows that Google’s sometimes controversial Streetview feature is turning Britain into a nosey nation. According to a survey commissioned by Central Scotland Joinery, over one third of Brits have used the service to spy on the homes of the rich and famous.

Topping the list is the house of a Mr. Barack Obama, of Washington DC, USA, with over 19% of respondents admitting to having a peek at his huge white house. Hot on his heels though, is Hugh Hefner’s infamous Playboy Mansion – home to a selection of supermodels that you’d be better off looking for on a Google Image search.

Making up the top five are the home of Apple boss Steve Jobs (really Apple fans, are you that mental?), “Beckingham” Palace and Simon Cowell’s Beverly Hills house. Shamefully though, a fair chunk of survey participants admitted to hunting down the home of inexplicable celebrity Katie Price (Jordan).

In non-celebrity news, 16% of people admit to searching for ex-partners homes, while 47% have taken a virtual tour of their childhood home.

Whether or not Streetview will replace more traditional forms of stalking, such as hiding in hedgerows and investing in high powered binoculars remains to be seen, but The FirstFound Blog would like to remind readers that stalking isn’t much of a hobby and could land you in court. So you’d be best of sticking to Streetview.

The Google war machine rumbles on again. Not content with ongoing conflicts with Facebook, Microsoft and the entire country of China, Google have set their sights on communications service Skype.

Until the end of the year, Gmail users in the US and Canada will be able to make free calls to national numbers, along with calls to the UK, France, Germany and China for just two cents a minute.

Up until now, low cost internet to telephone calls have been dominated by Skype’s service, which also allows for free online video, audio and text communication. With over 560 million registered users and 8.1 million paying customers, Skype are fairly entrenched in the market. To the point that their company name (like Google’s) is used as a verb to describe their key service.

So, will Googling overtake Skypeing as the internet’s primary form of instant communication? Only time will tell on this one.

Photo credit

Internet search giants Google and leading US broadband provider Verizon are in talks regarding the future of the internet.

Currently, under a system called “Net Neutrality”, all websites are treated equally when it comes to content being shown. However, campaigners fear that Google and Verizon will broker a deal that will split the internet in two.

The claims are as follows:

Upper Tier

The upper tier will be comprised of the websites that are paying Google and Verizon. They’ll benefit from faster loading times, more visibility and increased traffic.

Lower Tier

The lower tier will consist of everyone else. They’ll get nothing. Load times will slow to a crawl, traffic streams will drop to a trickle and the Internet as we know it will wither. This is widely regarded as a bad thing.

Of course, Google have re-affirmed their commitment to net neutrality, and have dismissed the claims as scaremongering. There’s sure to be another twist in this tale, so make sure to check back with The FirstFound Blog for the latest news as we hear it.

Google have announced that as of 14 September 2010, a selection of adverts will not be removed for trademark policy, if they meet certain criteria.

The criteria, described in detail on Google’s help pages are as follows:

Ads which use the term in a descriptive or generic way, and not in reference to the trademark owner or the goods or services corresponding to the trademark term.

• Ads which use the trademark in a nominative manner to refer to the trademark or its owner, specifically:

o Resale of the trademarked goods or services: The advertiser’s site must sell (or clearly facilitate the sale of) the goods or services corresponding to a trademark term. The landing page of the ad must clearly demonstrate that a user is able to purchase the goods or services corresponding to a trademark from the advertiser.

o Sale of components, replacement parts or compatible products corresponding to a trademark: The advertiser’s site must sell (or clearly facilitate the sale of) the components, replacement parts or compatible products relating to the goods or services of the trademark. The advertiser’s landing page must clearly demonstrate that a user is able to purchase the components, parts or compatible products corresponding to the trademark term from the advertiser.

o Informational sites: The primary purpose of the advertiser’s site must be to provide non-competitive and informative details about the goods or services corresponding to the trademark term. Additionally, the advertiser may not sell or facilitate the sale of the goods or services of a competitor of the trademark owner.

These changes will affect all ads in the UK, Ireland and Canada.

If you’re interested in an AdWords campaign, FirstFound are offering half price on AdWords set up fees. This offer won’t last for long, so take advantage of it quickly.

The majority of FirstFound Blog readers won’t remember this, but back in May 2009, Google launched a service which would change the very world we live in.

Rather than relying on email, instant messaging and Skype, we’d instead need only one single all-encompassing communications tool.

Google Wave.

Now, less than two years later, Wave is being quietly shelved.

And as someone who signed up for the Wave Beta, I can explain why.

It just wasn’t that good. There were very few advantages to Wave over email, instant messaging and the like, so there was nothing to entice users into taking it up. Other than novelty, which by June 2009 had all but worn off.

And a communications system with nobody to communicate with, is the most pointless invention imaginable.

There’s a lesson to be learned here. Don’t waste time on things that there’s no market for.

Owners of multiple Google/iGoogle/Gmail accounts, rejoice!

Google have announced that they’ll be soon allowing users to sign in to multiple accounts on the same browser, meaning there’ll be no more logging in and logging out, just to access seperate Analytics or Webmaster Tools accounts (just us then?).

Unfortunately, this won’t be available on mobile sites, but surely that’s just a matter of time.

For more information, visit the Google Help Page.

As Google gear up to make some changes to their Image Search, traffic data has been released showing that over a billion image searches are carried out every day.

This comes as a boost for the search engine market leaders, especially as the young pretenders at Bing have increased their market share substantially. In the past 12 months, Bing’s multimedia advertising campaign has helped Bing corner 12.7% of the US market. Second place Yahoo are only slightly ahead on 18.9%, but Bing will need to pull out all the stops to overtake Google – who currently account for 62.6% of search traffic.

Strangely enough, image searches for FirstFound tend to take you to Optimise Magazine – which is well worth a read. And don’t forget to give us your feedback in our survey!

Long time readers of the FirstFound Blog and Optimise will know that web users are in the middle of a battle for Internet supremacy. On one side is the search giant Google, facing off against social networking leviathan Facebook.

Over the past few months, Facebook has overtaken Google as the most visited site in the world, with their fan pages and messaging functions competing with search and Gmail. But news outlets are reporting that Google is looking to encroach on Facebook’s turf with their own brand new social media site.

Google has been undertaking a research campaign to find out just how sites like Facebook, MySpace and Bebo operate – and the next step will be a survey launched from Google’s Dublin offices. Apparently surfers will be offered 60 Euros to tell the search market leaders just how social media affects their lives.

And the end result? Google Me – a brand new social networking site that will attempt to lure Facebook’s expanding userbase back into the Google fold.

Will it work? Only time will tell, but Google will be hoping to avoid the criticisms that have cropped up surrounding their controversial StreetView service.

In the meantime, you’ll be able to find FirstFound on leading social networking sites Twitter and Facebook – but expect us to give you all the information you need on Google Me as it becomes available.

Despite the meme that “typing Google into Google breaks Google”, certain team members’ propensity for searching for their own names and the fact that most of the internet is made up of naked ladies, the most searched-for term on the Internet isn’t Google, Adam Ramsden or Busoms.

No, it’s Justin Bieber. And that sound you hear is thousands of Brits scratching their heads and saying “Who?”

Who is Justin Bieber?

He’s not a social media guru or politician, he’s a 16 year old pop star who’s practically unknown outside of the USA. Which makes it all the stranger that he’s more searched for than internationalpop star Lady Gaga, international sarong model David Beckham and US President Barack Obama.

And it’s not just search. The youngster is also camped out in Twitter’s trending topics list, and has been the recipient of everything from online vote rigging to YouTube hacking.

So what does this mean for Search?

If anything, it means that searchers are getting younger. The chances of anyone over 18 searching for Justin Bieber are slim, so it’s safe to assume that American teenage girls have suddendly become a huge portion of the online market.

So maybe it’s time to rethink the business model and start selling Justin Bieber CDs?

Actually… We’ll stick to SEO.

If you want to trend on Twitter, take a look at FirstFound’s FREE Social Media Guide. And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook!