March « 2008 « SEO Revolution Blog

Archive for March, 2008

March

Internal Duplicate Content Debate Continues …

I saw over in Jill Wahlen’s forums where she saw that Google is treating index.html the same as the root domain now. While that’s good news, it should be a non-factor, as good webmastering begins with ensuring you have the proper redirects in place on your server so you don’t have to count on Google doing their job, you serve up what you want.

Seriously, don’t count on Google to do your job as webmaster, do it and do it right. If you want to read an article which covers this topic quite nicely, have a read:

Fixing Internal Duplicate Content

Posted in Google, SEM/SEO, Webmaster | 2 Comments »

March

How Did You Spend Your “Earth Hour”?

My family participated tonight and we spent the hour sitting on the floor talking … it was actually a great experience. At the beginning, my oldest daughter (11) said it best: “You mean we have to talk to each other – for a whole hour?!?!”

She survived as did the rest of us. I didn’t look at this as a way to “save energy” but more of a way remind us that we don’t need technology to have a good evening. It is what you make of it.

Posted in Google | No Comments »

March

The Real Yahoo! (YSM) Nightmare

I have greatly scaled back my use of YSM (Yahoo! Search Marketing) mainly due to the poor conversion numbers in comparison with AdWords. But one of my biggest issues over the years is being passionately discussed over at Webmaster World.

The issue?

If you want to leave YSM how difficult is it to take your data? Or, if you control multiple accounts, can you manage them effectively while giving only certain clients access to their data? The answer has been “no” for years and remains so. Why? Who knows. All I can say is I grow tired of hearing “it is in development and should be available in an upcoming update” from my account rep.

Dan Boberg, who is one of the leading people at YSM, and who I first signed a contract with back in 1999 when he was with GoTo.com, is not only bright but does what he can to ensure customer needs are met. He and I have discussed this issue for what seems like years now, but nothing is done due to resistance from above.

Look, Yahoo! needs to understand that your typical super affiliate or heavy PPC user doesn’t use just one network but several. And if I can set up a Yahoo account and then take the data to setup other accounts with AdWords and adCenter, then that makes me happy. However, handcuffing me to your system makes Panama more of a joke than it is.

You guys had, what, four years to rewrite the engine and this is what you came up with? Give me flexibility in taking MY data elsewhere – after all, it is my data. And if I manage 20 accounts, and a client wants to see the account, don’t give him access to my other 19 because they are all on a master account. Just allow them access to their domain only. I cannot tell you how often privacy has been breached over the years because of this. Google does it and it isn’t that hard.

You bought Overture five years ago. What’s been going on over the last five years? From the looks of Panama, not much. I’m going back into my AdWords account …

Posted in Yahoo | No Comments »

March

Are You a Spammer on Accident?

When it comes to spamming Google, some do it on purpose, others it is just by accident. They claim they didn’t know any better, and they’re telling the truth. The problem is, they get whacked in the SERPs just the same.

Here are some things to look out for:

1) Your Domain Name

What does your domain name say about you? When it comes to Spam, plenty. While myself and Bruce Clay have tested that you can have a domain with 10+ hyphens get indexed by Google what does it really look like to the user? Better yet, even if it does get indexed how often it is manually reviewed as a potential Spam site?

Advice: Avoid more than two hyphens in your domain name and concentrate on .com TLD instead of .us, .cc, .info, etc. Those are often looked at as “cheap substitutes” to the real thing.

Myth: Only registering a domain for one year is a sign of Spam.
Truth: No it isn’t – and just because you register a domain for ten years doesn’t mean it isn’t a Spam site either. This is a “mindcrime”. Think about it. With discount registration services, you can often get a domain for ten years for about $70.00 or less. Nothing says “I am committed to this business” as $7.00 a year does. That is garbage and untrue. The length of your registration means nothing.

Tips on Domain Name Registration

2. Copied Content

Yeah, I know we all fall into the bad habit every now and then which we started in high school: innocent plagiarism. But it is plagiarism just the same and it is against the law no matter what country you live in.

Google is cracking down on sites that just offer scrapped (plagiarized content) content with ads.

Advice: If you remove the ads and the copied content do you have anything of value left? If the answer is no, you are treading in “Spamming Waters”.

3) Linking Policy

How is your linking policy? Do you accept all requests for links? Do you have a page which lists links to foreign SEO companies, viagra sites, casinos, payday loans and mortgage refinancing?

Advice: Don’t do that.

Play nice or get whacked by Matt Cutts.

Posted in Google, Webmaster | 2 Comments »

March

Duplicate Content Filters

In Google, the duplicate content filter can be applied to web pages which contain content Google has already indexed, or content which is similar to content previously indexed by GoogleBot. This often happens if you have multiple versions of the same page on your site, or if you used content from other sites.

Currently, when Google finds two or more pages which are duplicate, it will only count one as “authoritative” and discount the others. According to testing, the parameter is PageRank of the page. The highest page wins. Many sites have an HTML version and a Print version of the same page. Do yourself a favor and have both versions in different folders and then exclude the print-only version from being indexed by Google.

Posted in Google, SEM/SEO, Webmaster | No Comments »

March

Web Spam Guidelines – Fact or Fiction?

There has been a document floating around the web and some people think it is legit others feel it is not. Either way, if SEO or PPC is a part of your marketing strategy, it is a must read.

Here is what the document covers:

1) Understanding Search Queries: Why “broad searches” should give “broad results”. For example, if a user searches for “digital camera” and it returns Best Buy’s site, it should give the category page for digital cameras and not the product page for a Nikon D40.

2) Defining Query Types: Navigational, Informational, and Transactional.

3) Spam Labels: Not Spam, Maybe Spam, Spam. On the later two, the reviewer must include commentary as to why they feel the web page is Spam. The document lists the following as examples of Spam:
a) PPC Pages
b) Parked Domains
c) Thin Affiliate Sites
d) Hidden Text/Hidden Links
e) JavaScript Redirects
f) Keyword Stuffing
h) 100% Frame
i) Sneaky Redirects

Examples are given, which can be quite educational. Just hope none of your sites are listed in this document as Spam examples.

4) How to Recognize Scrapped Content

If nothing else, it will raise your awareness in how Spam is seen online.

Download Web Spam Document.

Posted in Google, Webmaster | No Comments »

March

Yahoo! Directory Listing Inaccuracy

If you are one of the few webmasters who still has a Yahoo! Directory listing for $299.00 a year, you may have noticed your listing looks a little “off” as mine does below:

Yahoo Directory Listing Before

The solution? It’s easy. Just look in your code of your home page and you’ll see this line:

Just remove it. What this line is for is to not allow Yahoo to use it’s Directory Title and Description in the SERPs. Unfortunately, what it chooses is well, awful. In about 2-4 days after removing it, your listing will return to “normal” as shown below:

Yahoo Directory Listing After

As you can see the Title is back to normal (no longer just the domain name) and the Description is included, as it wasn’t earlier.

Posted in Yahoo | No Comments »

March

Yahoo! New Open Search

Will they get it right this time? Seriously, will they? The “Same Old Song and Dance” is starting within the Yahoo! camps as the “new” Yahoo! Search will soon rollout.

I’m not being a pessimist here, seriously, it is almost as if we are turning the clock back when Yahoo! acquired Inktomi and said they were going to revamp it and would take the market by storm.

We’re still waiting.

Over at the Yahoo! Blog they are touting the use of microformats. What are microformats? Without going through a lengthy explaination they are just a way to format chunks of information … for example, embedding LinkedIn info into a webpage.

Maybe I am missing the boat here, but it seems clear that what Yahoo! is doing here is adding gadgets to an AMC Pacer. Sure the gadgets are cool, but the car still sucks. So what good is it? Comeon already, quit dumping a billion dollars into stuff like Alibaba and actually fix Inktomi. Correct me if I’m wrong, but they haven’t done squat to Ink since acquiring it over five years ago.

This is just one more reason why the current execs of Yahoo! (even the new ones) just don’t get what search really needs. Just kill Ink if you aren’t going to fix it and go to a complete PPC model with secondary results from your directory.

Give the user something useful for a change.

Tags: microformats, open search, Yahoo
Posted in Yahoo | No Comments »

March

Will Anonymous Forum Posting Be Illegal?

You may have already caught this news story, but I need to comment on it as people are getting out of control over it. Basically, a lawmaker in Kentucky wants to make it illegal to post anonymously in online forums.

Basically, webmasters would be fined, starting at $500.00, for allowing anonymous postings. Now, don’t think that people could use fake names or fake email addresses, as many do anyway, to post anonymously. That isn’t what this is about.

If you have a forum, all you need is IP address capture with date and time stamp. No one can be sure it is the person’s real name, address and email address is being used. When I read what is wanted from this bill, my first thought was, “What moron thought this up?” And then I saw the name.

Tim Couch.

Yeah, the same Tim Couch who couldn’t complete a pass as a QB for the Cleveland Browns. Seriously, this bill should go nowhere. Matt Cutts is from Kentucky. You’d think they’d realize what an idiot Couch was and not elect him. Well, with proposed legislation such as this, they can see for themselves.

Posted in SEM/SEO, Webmaster | 3 Comments »

March

Exact Seek – Beware

About 1-2 times a month, Jayde Online, publishers of the popular Site Pro News and owners of Exact Seek push rather hard their service, and a few fall for it as they make some pretty good claims:

- Flat Fee
- Featured Listing
- Low Cost ($3-4 a month)
- Top Ten Exposure
- World Wide Placement
- AdWords Replacement

Yes, you read that right, they advertise as a Google AdWords replacement. The problem is, they don’t really spell out where that placement will be, and the site has been hammered in the last few Google PageRank updates, falling all the way down to a PR3, which is below average quality for a site, and really low for a directory. And unlike AdWords where you can actually GET traffic, the same can’t be said when you use ExactSeek’s service.

How do I know? I tested it.

I tested on dozens of sites. The result? A trickle of traffic and no conversions. And I’m not talking about just sales here, I had no REAL signups for free newsletters or free offers. Oh sure I had lots of “traffic” from automated bots, but those were flushed with my captcha verification.

My advice is spend your time and money somewhere else. This isn’t a good place to be.

Tags: exact seek, jayde online, sitepro news, website traffic
Posted in SEM/SEO, Webmaster | 123 Comments »