Archive for September, 2009

September
18

Search Engine Market Share

Yesterday, CNet ran an article regarding Bing just broke the 10% market share mark. While the numbers are accurate, it does track searches, not necessarily clicks – and factored into that data is PPC traffic.

Who cares about PPC traffic? You can get as much as you want, anytime you want, just set up an account. What you want to know is organic CLICK-THROUGH traffic. That is what really counts. The information below is only the US versions of the search engines, the rest of the market are the foreign versions of Google, but you can see when you look at only click-through traffic, Bing doesn’t have 10% market share.

Organic Traffic Market Share

Organic Traffic Market Share

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Posted in Google, SEM/SEO | 1 Comment »

September
11

Are Web Hosts Liable for Hosting Content?

Last week over at Webmaster World, there was a thread which covered a court decision which can be basically summarized as:

In a verdict handed down last week, the jury assessed damages totaling more than $32 million against hosting companies Akanoc Solutions Inc., Managed Solutions Group Inc., both in Fremont, Calif., and Steven Chen, the owner of the two companies. In awarding the damages, the jury agreed with Paris-based Louis Vuitton Malletier S.A.’s claims that the defendants knowingly allowed several Web sites they hosted to sell products that infringed Louis Vuitton’s copyrights and trademarks.

What could the fallout be? Imagine a competitor filing a false claim stating you are trademark infringing, and instead of taking a chance in an expensive court case, your host shuts off your account. Yeah, that is the worst case scenario, but that isn’t something that you want to experience.

Before you get too nervous about this ruling, understand that it states that the host KNEW about the trademark infringement, and decided to do nothing about it. This can be a slippery slope, but if there is a filing of trademark violations in the “real world” does the landlord lock out the retailer until the situation is resolved? No.

Posted in Webmaster | No Comments »

September
9

Myth: Get “Google SEO Love” by Registering Domains for 5+ Years

Crisis Help Line Fail

Crisis Help Line Fail


There are things in this world, that are just, well, wrong. For example, this picture of a crisis help line, which happens to be “Out of Order.” Nice. Do you know what else really bugs me? “SEO Tips” which are actually bad information. One of the biggest SEO myths that I have been debunking for years is the famous:

“Google knows how long your domain is registered for and they will give you more trust and “SEO Love” if you register the domain for 5 or more years. You see, Spam sites only register for one year, so this shows Google you aren’t a spam site and are in the business for the long haul.”

Oh please. Let’s say that a domain runs $10.00 a year to make the math easy. For five years, that would be $50.00. And if we break it down to “cost per month” it’s around $3.00. And it gets worse when you break it down to “cost per day” which is just above three cents. THREE CENTS a day. Yeah, Google is going to give your domain a bump because you are spending three cents a day. Nothing says “I am not a Spammy site” like spending three cents a day.

Can you see how ridiculous this argument is?

Even though I have shown countless testing results showing this was just a myth, people kept buying into it. Finally, yesterday Google actually commented on it. Here is the summary of what John Mu who works for Google said:

Not every TLD publishes their expiration dates, but even if they did, why would the expiration date be the determining factor when comparing two similar sites? A year, the minimum time to register a domain name, is pretty long in internet time.

How do these rumors get started? Usually someone who owns, or has an affiliate agreement with a Domain Registration company and their hopes are when people register, they will do so for more years, thus, increasing their immediate cash flow. Always check out “tips” you are given and ensure they have been tested. Just because it “makes sense” in your head, doesn’t mean it is reality.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

September
5

Meta Tag Information

This post is going to reference many of my articles from the past in hopes of clearing up many misconceptions about meta tags.

Meta Title – There is a difference between the page’s Title Tag and the Meta Title Tag. Learn the difference.

Professionalism Tips – Learn tips to help your professionalism take a step up.

Meta Expires – The right way to “expire” a page online.

Google Tags – Learn the meta tags you need and which ones you don’t need for Google.

Meta Tag Author – This tags declares the author of the HTML or XML document. Learn how to use it the right way to protect your documents from being hijacked.

Meta Content Type – There are four types of Meta Content Tags. Learn each.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »