Top tips for webmasters in India

Ever wondered how duplicate content is handled or how to report a hacked site? Are you a beginner webmaster or owner of a small business wanting to get online?

We got Adam Lasnik, Google's Search Evangelist to answer many such questions for you. Jayan, our webmaster forum guide from India, interviewed Adam recently.

Below is an excerpt from the interview.

Watch the complete interview by visiting this playlist on our Youtube webmaster channel.

And here are the top ten tips from Adam to all the webmasters in India:

1. Focus on original and compelling content as the foundation of your site.
2. Put the core content and navigation of your site in text rather than graphics or Flash.
3. Link thoughtfully. Link to sites you trust and respect.
4. Test your site on multiple browsers, including on mobile phones.
5. Don't be fooled into paying for guaranteed Google rankings.
6. Take advantage of the free online resources at Google Webmaster Central.
7. Get attention and respect for your site by responsibly participating in online communities.
8. Protect your site and its visitors. Update your blog/site software to prevent hacking.
9. Use succinct and distinct title tags and image "alt attributes" to help users and Google understand your site's content
10. Focus on your passions and your users - then traffic and revenue should follow.

These tips are simple and will help you in the long run. Take it from Adam.


Posted by Paul and Manasa , Search Quality Team

Google Mobile App for BlackBerry goes Indian

In March, we introduced Google Mobile App for BlackBerry to make search easier and faster. We are excited to announce the availability of Google Mobile App in India with My Location and voice search.

With this app you get local business suggestions even before you click the search button if My Location is enabled. Suppose you are craving for some caffeine. You can just type "coffee" and get the closest cafe near you. With a single click on the suggestion you can call them or look it up onGoogle Maps for mobile.

Get the latest version of Google Mobile App at http://m.google.co.in/

Do you miss the ICC World Twenty20 matches? Do you find typing on the tiny mobile keyboard cumbersome? Just speak "cricket scores" into your Blackberry to get the latest updates. Google Mobile App is truly Indian now, all you need to do is select Indian English from the options menu.

Isn't search by voice easier than typing?

Ever confused about the right way to spell Indian names? Say, you were interested in finding out more about our Lok Sabha speaker, Meira Kumar but you are not sure how her name is spelled. Just speak her name and we show you the correct web results for "Meira Kumar". However, if you said "Meera bai" we would give you the alternative spelling even though "Meira" and "Meera" have identical pronunciations.

To install the the app, visit m.google.co.in on your BlackBerry browser. The app is free to download and use, although your mobile provider's regular data charges will apply. We encourage you to try out the app and leave feedback about your mobile experience in the help forum. For more details check out our help center.

Posted by Pankaj Risbood and Rutvik Doshi, Google Speech Team

Translating the world's information into Indian languages.

In the offline world, most Indians prefer to read, interact, and communicate in their native language rather than English. However, in the online world, Indian language usage remains a small fraction of English usage. One of the primary reasons for this difference is the lack of high quality online content in these languages. At Google, we believe that language is a key for universally accessible information and people should be able to consume information in their preferred language. Google Translate, our automatic translation system, is pretty handy when it comes to quickly translating and understanding a web page, but to create a more polished and professional looking page, it could use a human touch.

Today, we launched Google Translator Toolkit, a powerful but easy-to-use editor that enables translators to bring that human touch to machine translation and create high quality content in their native language. With the large number of Indians who are proficient in English and are passionate about their native language, we hope that this will catalyze the process of making the internet more relevant to Indian users. For example, if you would like to translate a Wikipedia™ article about your city into Hindi, you can simply upload the corresponding English article into Translator Toolkit, review and correct the automatic translation, and click publish. By using Translator Toolkit's bag of tools – translation search, bilingual dictionaries, and ratings – you can translate the article faster, better into Hindi. With the transliteration support integrated in the toolkit, you can create content by typing phonetically using the English keyboard. Best of all, our automatic translation system can learn from your corrections, creating a virtuous cycle that helps translate into local languages faster

Besides Wikipedia, we've also integrated with Knol, and we support common document types including Word and HTML. For translation professionals, we provide advanced features such as terminology and translation memory management.

For more information, check out our introductory video below. And if you're a professional translator or just a linguaphile, try Google Translator Toolkit for easier and faster translations. Be sure and let us know what you think. Thank you for your help in making information more accessible to Indian language users.

Posted by Sanjay Bhansali & Sunil Chandra, Google Translator Toolkit Team

What's your IQ ?

In today's market, it's more important than ever to understand market trends, customer behavior, and maximize ROI. However large or small your website may be and whichever way you drive traffic to it - organic, partner sites, or paid marketing channels - Google Analytics can track it, from click to conversion.

Have you found yourself struggling with measuring the amount of time visitors spend on your website, tracking conversions, or implementing tracking across multiple domains? So, here's your chance! We are now offering a free, online course to increase your knowledge about Google Analytics. The curriculum consists of over 20 self-paced online lessons. It covers everything ranging from Google Analytics implementation, account administration, and data analysis to web analytics techniques and best practices.

Think you're already good at it? Mastered the art of Analytics? It's then time to test your IQ! You can take the Google Analytics Individual Qualification (IQ) test.

While Google Analytics is easy to use for beginners, it is also a very powerful tool in the hands of knowledgeable users. Qualified users will be effective at leveraging the tool’s capabilities and deriving the greatest insights from the data, be it for business or personal websites. If you score 75% or above in the test, you will be awarded a Google Analytics Individual Qualification Certificate, which means that you will also have a Google qualification to spice up your resume.

For course details, visit ConversionUniversity.com. This includes details on how you can purchase the test, as well as all the FAQs and the link to the Google Analytics IQ test .

All the best!

Posted by Neha Jain and Dinesh Jain for the Google Analytics Team