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Search Engine Roundtable

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Search Engine Roundtable

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/09/SEOs_Finally_Looking_at_Page_Segments__Blocks_'

    SEOs Finally Looking at Page Segments (Blocks)

    Posted: January 9th, 2009, 2:17pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    David Harry has an excellent write up on the SEO implications of page segmentation. In short, the piece goes over how search engines can, and probably do, look at each web page and segment the page into components. For example, they can pull out the navigation, footer, ad blocks, and so on from the main body copy.

    This concept is far from new, it goes way back and we even covered it back in mid-2004 with Block (Passage) Level Link Analysis by MSN. It just makes sense, why treat the ads on the page the same way one would treat the body content. That is the purpose behind Text Link Ads new product inLinks.

    In any event, there is some good overall discussion around the topic at Sphinn. Fantomaster said:

    This is developing into an extremely important aspect of state-of-the-art SEO that cannot be ignored with impunity. While it's anybody's guess (still) how much of this technology has already been implemented by the search engines, you can easily bet the farm that it'll happen rather sooner than later.

    In any event, if this is a new concept to you, you may want to read up on it. If some search engines are not deploying this yet, then they likely will soon. It just makes logical sense.

    Forum discussion at Sphinn.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/05/Newbie_Thread_of_Week__Alphabetized_META_Tags'

    Newbie Thread of Week: Alphabetized META Tags

    Posted: January 5th, 2009, 2:33pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    Sometimes I seriously wonder where some of these SEO theories come from. One that caught my eye this week was found in a Google Webmaster Help thread, asking if it can hurt your SEO efforts if you do not alphabetize your META tags.

    The thread creator wrote:

    Can anyone tell me if it hurts indexing sites that the meta tags have been alphabetized?

    But my editor tends to alphabetize them.

    This webmaster asked a valid question. Since his web editor went through the trouble of making the tags in alphabetical order, should he do the same manually? The answer is no, it doesn't help in any way.

    ZydoSEO replied to the thread, in which a Googler confirmed, saying:

    The meta tags can appear in any order as long as they are contained inside the <head> element. It is not a problem to alphabetize them from Google's perspective... Only possibly from your perspective since time could probably be better spent doing something other than alphabetizing HTML elements.

    In any event, I thought it would be fun to share this with many of the readers here.

    Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/05/Newbie_Thread_of_Week__Alphabetized_META_Tags'

    Newbie Thread of Week: Alphabetized META Tags

    Posted: January 5th, 2009, 2:33pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    Sometimes I seriously wonder where some of these SEO theories come from. One that caught my eye this week was found in a Google Webmaster Help thread, asking if it can hurt your SEO efforts if you do not alphabetize your META tags.

    The thread creator wrote:

    Can anyone tell me if it hurts indexing sites that the meta tags have been alphabetized?

    But my editor tends to alphabetize them.

    This webmaster asked a valid question. Since his web editor went through the trouble of making the tags in alphabetical order, should he do the same manually? The answer is no, it doesn't help in any way.

    ZydoSEO replied to the thread, in which a Googler confirmed, saying:

    The meta tags can appear in any order as long as they are contained inside the <head> element. It is not a problem to alphabetize them from Google's perspective... Only possibly from your perspective since time could probably be better spent doing something other than alphabetizing HTML elements.

    In any event, I thought it would be fun to share this with many of the readers here.

    Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/05/Poll__Do_You_Like_Video_Thumbnails_Near_Google_Search_Results_'

    Poll: Do You Like Video Thumbnails Near Google Search Results?

    Posted: January 5th, 2009, 2:18pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    Ever since Universal Search hit Google, we have been noticing flavors of video thumbnails and static images left aligned on the Google search results. A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around this latest format and some are happy with it, while others are not.

    Here is a picture of a subset of a Google search results:

    You tell me, which one will catch your eye first? Likely the one with the image next to it on the right. So, this can be a great way to get your search results more exposure, and a higher click through rate, which might result in a higher conversion rate for your site. At the same time, if you are the listing above the one with the image, you are likely to see a drop in CTR, due to the result directly below. So this can help some webmasters, while hurt others.

    Here is a poll on this topic, would love to see the responses:

    Clearly, adding videos and images to your site, will help you gain the exposure over your competitors. The WebmasterWorld thread discusses various methods on how to get these images near your search result.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/05/Poll__Do_You_Like_Video_Thumbnails_Near_Google_Search_Results_'

    Poll: Do You Like Video Thumbnails Near Google Search Results?

    Posted: January 5th, 2009, 2:18pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    Ever since Universal Search hit Google, we have been noticing flavors of video thumbnails and static images left aligned on the Google search results. A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around this latest format and some are happy with it, while others are not.

    Here is a picture of a subset of a Google search results:

    You tell me, which one will catch your eye first? Likely the one with the image next to it on the right. So, this can be a great way to get your search results more exposure, and a higher click through rate, which might result in a higher conversion rate for your site. At the same time, if you are the listing above the one with the image, you are likely to see a drop in CTR, due to the result directly below. So this can help some webmasters, while hurt others.

    Here is a poll on this topic, would love to see the responses:

    Clearly, adding videos and images to your site, will help you gain the exposure over your competitors. The WebmasterWorld thread discusses various methods on how to get these images near your search result.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/01/01/Happy__09_New_Years_From_Search_Industry__Logos_from_Google__Yahoo__AOL__Live__Ask___Others'

    Happy '09 New Years From Search Industry: Logos from Google, Yahoo, AOL, Live, Ask & Others

    Posted: January 1st, 2009, 1:55pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsSearch Engine Industry News  

    Happy New Years Search Engine Roundtable readers! I would like to wish you a happy and healthy 2009 from myself and the whole search industry. To keep up our tradition, below is a collection of special logos from the 2009 New Years. The logos are from the search engines Google, Yahoo, Live.com, Ask.com, AOL, Dogpile, Baidu and search community sites BruceClay, Cre8asite Forums and us.

    Google's Logo:

    Yahoo's Animated Logo:
    Seems like Yahoo had a calendar that said December 31, but on New Years itself, they have nothing.

    Live.com's Theme:

    AOL's Animated Logo:

    Ask.com's Theme:
    2008...

    2009...

    DogPile's Logo:

    Baidu's Logo:

    BruceClay's Logo:

    Cre8asite Forums Logo:

    Search Engine Roundtable's Theme:

    Want to go back to the past? Here are logos from New Years 2008, New Years 2007, Google's 2006 logo, Search Engine Roundtable's 2006 logo, Ask's 2005 logo, and Cre8asite's 2005.

    Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums, Google Webmaster Help, DigitalPoint Forums, HighRankings Forum, Search Engine Watch Forums, Cre8asite Forums, and WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/12/31/Tough_SEO__SEO_For_Sites_You_Don_t_Manage___Leftover_SEO'

    Tough SEO: SEO For Sites You Don't Manage & Leftover SEO

    Posted: December 31st, 2008, 3:29pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    If you're about to take on a prospective SEO client and they start taking the initiative on their search engine optimization (in ways you hadn't even thought of), should you proceed with the client -- especially if you're going to disagree with them (since their initial implementation was probably a measure to cut costs and keep their spend down?)

    Probably not. But before you lose the client, make sure to educate them. Show them why you are doing something. Eventually, both you and the client may have a good relationship as goals and objectives are clearly defined.

    What about an SEO client whose site is not accessible for you to actually perform the SEO? The other option may be link building, but on-page SEO is still very important. If you can't do that, try creating "microsites" that you actually can SEO.

    What would you do?

    Forum discussion continues at High Rankings Forums and Cre8asite Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/12/31/Search_For_Child_Day_Care_Site___Google_Suggests_Porn_Site'

    Search For Child Day Care Site & Google Suggests Porn Site

    Posted: December 31st, 2008, 2:28pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    Conduct a search for the child day care site KindyList and you might be presented with a "Did You Mean?" suggestion from Google. The issue is that Google is suggesting you search for Candylist instead, which is far from a child friendly site, it is a pornography site.

    Here is a screen shot of me searching for KindList:

    Notice the Did You Mean? at the top. When you click on Candylist, you get this search result:

    If you click through, you get nudity, pornography and so on.

    Yes, Google's "did you mean" results are purely algorithmic, but I agree with the webmaster here. The webmaster complained in a Google Webmaster Help thread saying that this is just not appropriate. I agree. The did you mean algorithm is nice and very useful, but it needs checks for these types of cases. Should the did you mean ever return a X-rate set of results for a non-X-rated originating set of results? I don't think so.

    Forum discussion continued at Google Webmaster Help.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/12/30/Are_there_Honest_Copywriters_Out_There_'

    Are there Honest Copywriters Out There?

    Posted: December 30th, 2008, 3:50pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsSearch Engine Industry News  

    At High Rankings Forums, there's a disgruntled individual who has been looking for honest copywriters and hasn't had any luck. All have been deadbeats.

    Maybe this individual isn't looking in the right place, given that there are a lot of good copywriters out there that I know. So how do you find them?

    * Get a reference before you hire them.
    * Buy a cheap writing sample to see what you're getting into.
    * Speak with site owners and find out if they have professional writers on staff who can help with content production.
    * Copy+paste snippets of text to make sure they're providing original and not plagiarized content.

    How do you spot good copywriters?

    Forum discussion continues at High Rankings Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/12/30/Take_the_2008_Search_Quiz'

    Take the 2008 Search Quiz

    Posted: December 30th, 2008, 3:08pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsSearch Engine Industry News  

    Know everything there is to know about search? You sure about that? Matt McGee is hosting the 2nd annual search quiz and you're invited to challenge me and others.

    Last year, I won this cool contest, but this year, well, I won't tell you -- I'll wait for Matt to tell you himself :)

    You have till tomorrow evening to play, so be sure to sign up now!

    Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/12/26/Very_Valuable_Parked_Domain__WWW.YOURDOMAIN.COM'

    Very Valuable Parked Domain: WWW.YOURDOMAIN.COM

    Posted: December 26th, 2008, 1:43pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    I found a DigitalPoint Forums thread that was pretty funny. In short, they mentioned how www.yourdomain.com has a PageRank score of seven. It is true, the parked domain, www.yourdomain.com does have a PageRank score of seven.

    Web Page URL: http://www.yourdomain.com
    The Page Rank:
    7/10


    It is a very valuable domain, not just for its toolbar PageRank. I mean, everyone uses it as an example of talking about where to place your domain. Can the owner better monetize it? I am not a domainer, so I don't know.

    But it is funny to see domains with little on them be worth so much, possibly accidently?

    Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/12/25/Happy_Holiday__08_From_The_Search_Engine_Industry'

    Happy Holiday '08 From The Search Engine Industry

    Posted: December 25th, 2008, 3:25pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsSearch Engine Industry News  

    I just wanted to wish everyone a warm and happy holidays! Every year I try to echo the same message about our industry. From the search engines, the search marketing firms and the search community, this industry is truly a pleasure to be working in. The warmth and care I have personally experienced in the industry is very meaningful to me. So thank you and have a wonderful holidays!

    As it is tradition at the Search Engine Roundtable, we have for the past five years, documented the holiday logos from the search engines and search industry. Here they are:

    Google has five logos, here they are in order:

    Yahoo's animated logo:

    Live.com's holiday theme:

    DogPile has a Christmas and Chanukah theme:

    Ask.com has a nice theme:

    AOL.com's logo is actually animated also:

    Baidu:

    FriendFeed has a logo:

    Quintura's logo:

    BruceClay has two logos:

    Hitwise dresses up their logo:

    Marketing Pilgrim is colorful:

    PPC Heros is ready:

    Cre8asite Forums:

    Search Engine Roundtable, that is us, we have a new theme every day. Here are the ones you have seen, including Chanukah, Festivus and Christmas - but we got more to come!

    That is the logo roundup, hope I did not miss anyone.

    Want to go back to the past years? Here are the 2007 logos, plus Google's five logos, 2006 logos, Cre8asite in 2005, also '05 Search Engine Roundtable and '05 Google, Yahoo and Ask, plus we have 2004 and some of 2003 archived for you.

    Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help, Google Docs Help, WebmasterWorld, HighRankings Forums, WebmasterWorld, and Cre8asite Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/12/22/Search_Engine_Land_Does_Major_Revamp__Becomes_More_News_Formatted'

    Search Engine Land Does Major Revamp: Becomes More News Formatted

    Posted: December 22nd, 2008, 6:15pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsSearch Engine Industry News  

    Search Engine Land has a new look as of this morning. The new look really makes the site look more "news" oriented. Stories are no longer in chronological order all the time. We (I am the news editor) have the ability to control which sections the content shows up and for how long. This is great flexibility that Danny, Greg, Matt and the rest of the team will use.

    In addition, my favorite feature is that readers can comment directly at Search Engine Land. This way, if you hate what I wrote, you can blast me right there. Instead of having to submit the story to Sphinn, or sending me hate mail. This should make for good times.

    There is also a new premium membership, which I recommend you sign up for. You get a lot in return and it is your way at giving back to the community. I personally do this at many sites, including WebmasterWorld and SEOmoz, amongst others.

    Huge kudos to the team who worked for months and months to get the new design, features and format live. It totally is impressive and makes me want to redo the Search Engine Roundtable - which would mean scrap Movable Type for a custom built CMS (I will never go with WordPress).

    Anyway, I hope you like the new features - I sure do!

    Forum discussion on the new design and features at Sphinn.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/12/22/2008_Holiday_Season_Logos_From_Google___Search_Engine_Roundtable'

    2008 Holiday Season Logos From Google & Search Engine Roundtable

    Posted: December 22nd, 2008, 3:54pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsSearch Engine Industry News  

    Last night, those of us who celebrated Chanukah lit the first candle. This means it's holiday season officially! Google is also building momentum with their holiday festivities with two new images:

    And given that there are 8 days of Chanukah, we're doing something special at Search Engine Roundtable. Every night around the time the Daily Search Rountup comes out, we'll have a new theme. Here's our first logo which is live until later this afternoon:

    Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums and Cre8asite Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/12/22/Google_s_Search_Quality_Team_Says_They_Don_t...'

    Google's Search Quality Team Says They Don't...

    Posted: December 22nd, 2008, 2:19pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    In response to an upset webmaster's post in the Google Webmaster Help forums, Googler JohnMu wrote down four things that some people suspect Google of doing, which he says he has never seen since working at Google. These include:

    1. Googlers changing crawling, indexing or ranking of content they don't agree with. As a data point, check the search results for http://www.google.com/search?q=jew as well as the explanation at http://www.google.com/explanation.html.
    2. Large companies being able to encourage Google to change crawling, indexing or ranking of a site they don't like. Yes, they contact us, but no, they don't get any results.
    3. A site being damaged with regards to crawling, indexing or ranking, by someone else on the outside. I've seen sites run into troubles for getting hacked, but I've never seen them run into trouble because of something someone other than the owner did outside of the site.
    4. A spam report being taken seriously if the site itself was abiding our Webmaster Guidelines. 42,000 spam reports wouldn't change a thing, regardless of who filed them, if the site is compliant.

    Do I believe John here? Yes, 100%. Do I think Google has ever done any of these without John knowing about it? I think it is possible. To be fair, John does add:

    Obviously, any of these things could theoretically happen, but I haven't seen it happen, and I don't believe it's something a webmaster has to worry about. If it ever became obvious to Googlers that one of these things happened, it would be resolved immediately -- so if you feel that it has happened, please take the time to submit a spamreport with the details. We take these reports very seriously.

    Do you think Google is 100% honest about these topics?

    Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/12/22/Google_Search_Not_Working_For_Some_On_Mobile_Safari__iPhone_'

    Google Search Not Working For Some On Mobile Safari (iPhone)

    Posted: December 22nd, 2008, 2:12pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    Google recently optimized for the hundredth time, the Google Search experience on the iPhone and also Android. But it seems like ever since the upgrade, many iPhone and iPod Touch users are having issues searching at Google on mobile Safari.

    A Google Mobile Help discussion thread has bug reports from several iPhone/iPod Touch users complaining they can no longer conduct searches in Safari on Google.

    Rebooting the devices did not help.. Supposedly, some users have noticed a JavaScript bug on line 21. The error is "TypeError: undefined value".

    I tried this on my iPhone and it worked fine for me. So hopefully it is now fixed.

    Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/12/18/Yahoo_to_Retain_90_Days_of_Search_History'

    Yahoo to Retain 90 Days of Search History

    Posted: December 18th, 2008, 3:47pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsSearch Engine Yahoo  

    Yesterday, the blogsophere was abuzz with news that Yahoo will be retaining data for 90 days. At Search Engine Land, Barry explains that "[t]he data policy is not just inclusive of their search data but also their page views, page clicks, ad views and ad clicks."

    The industry has been pretty quiet about anonymizing data since June 2007. But this new announcement, which shortens the length of data retention by more than a year compared to other engines, is a bit eye-opening. It's also perceived as a great move on behalf of Yahoo and one that will put pressure on Google to do the same thing.

    Well, it's a great move on behalf of Yahoo if they actually remove all query information after 3 months (and not just IP information). After all, I can't help but think about Thelma Arnold who was identified by her search behavior and not her actual IP location.

    What, then, is Yahoo retaining after 90 days and what is Yahoo scrapping? We don't know. Do you?

    Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld. More blog discussion is on Techmeme.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/12/18/Share_Your_Funny_SEO_Mistakes'

    Share Your Funny SEO Mistakes

    Posted: December 18th, 2008, 2:17pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    I found a fun but serious SEO mistake in a Google Webmaster Help thread that I wanted to share with you all. But I felt it would be fun, if you had the time, to share at least one of your funny, but deadly, SEO mistakes - that you have seen first hand, in the comment section below.

    The mistake documented in the thread was that someone was not sure why his Webmaster Tools account was showing the status of "network unreachable" for many of his URLs. JohnMu from Google looked into the issue to explain that although you and I (ordinary users) can see those URLs, for some reason, GoogleBot was being shown a 500 error page. The way John was able to reproduce that was by simply changing his browser's useragent to the same useragent GoogleBot uses, "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)". Then he surfed to the page to be presented with the 500 error.

    This is a deadly but sad mistake. Normally people will go out of their way to serve up better optimized pages for GoogleBot. But to serve up error pages to GoogleBot, while serving up your beautiful content only to your users - well, that is kinda anti-SEO. This webmaster's issue had to do with a problem with ASP.net's URL rewriting system he was using and how he set it up.

    Your turn, share a quick story below of a funny SEO mistake you have seen.

    Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/12/15/How_to__Deoptimize_Your_Website'

    How to: Deoptimize Your Website

    Posted: December 15th, 2008, 3:56pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    If you had no regard for your website and wanted it to be penalized or not ranked well, what would you do to make that happen? A WebmasterWorld thread discusses the potential issues that may relate to penalties, and I've turned that discussion into a "what kind of tactics can get your site penalized?" (or "how do I deoptimize my website?")

    You can cause problems by considering the following:

    1. Have high and unnatural keyword densities
    2. Overuse of meta tags
    3. Repetitive use of keywords in navigation and linking
    4. Removal of non-site external links from within a site (or by adding nofollow to all external links)
    5. Having too many reciprocal links

    But this is probably just the tip of the iceberg. What could you add to this list?

    Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/12/15/Google_Malware_Warnings_Can_Be_Removed_In_24_Hours'

    Google Malware Warnings Can Be Removed In 24 Hours

    Posted: December 15th, 2008, 2:02pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    No one likes malware; web surfers, searchers, webmasters, and so on. But malware can hurt a lot when your search result in Google is labeled as not being safe due to malware. No one will click on your result, for good reason.

    Often, malware gets onto a site though some type of security breech. Hackers take advantage of those loop holes and then place malware on your site, that may infect your visitors. So Google (and other search engines) try their best to keep people away from your sites, if they believe your site has been infected with malware.

    That being said, if you are able to remove the issue from your site and your site is malware free - you can remove that message in the Google search results within 24 hours.

    A Google Webmaster Help thread has JohnMu of Google saying, "automatic reviews generally take about a day until everything is cleared up (warnings everywhere); there are situations where they take much less time and there are times when they take a bit more."

    For more on this, check out Google's blog post on this matter.

    Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/12/15/Andrew_Orlowski__Google_Did_Not_Admit_To_Hand_Picking_Top_Results'

    Andrew Orlowski, Google Did Not Admit To Hand Picking Top Results

    Posted: December 15th, 2008, 1:52pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    Google cranks up the Consensus Engine by Andrew Orlowski at The Register completely took Marissa Mayer's comments out of context when he wrote in his introductory line:

    Google this week admitted that its staff will pick and choose what appears in its search results. It's a historic statement - and nobody has yet grasped its significance.

    Marissa did not admit that. She said at a LeWeb conference in Paris that Google may look at SearchWiki data and use that data to influence the search results. Specifically, if "thousands of people" remove a result using SearchWiki, then Google might take notice. She did not say if Google would have Google staff "pick and choose" search results. I, as others, assumed that any SearchWiki changes to the core index would be done algorithmically, not by hand.

    To say Google "staff will pick and choose what appears in its search results" is a "historic statement" is false. Because, (1) Google did not say this and (2) many speculate there is human involvement in the Google index, to some extent. Google has been open about their human evaluators in the past and there has always been rumors of Google picking the top results for the most important categories. This might just add to those rumors, but it is not an admission.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, Search Engine Watch Forums and DigitalPoint Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/12/11/Google_Zeitgeist__Sarah_Palin_is_Most_Popular_for_2008_on_Google'

    Google Zeitgeist: Sarah Palin is Most Popular for 2008 on Google

    Posted: December 11th, 2008, 4:45pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    We featured the popular searches for 2008 from Ask, Google Product Search, and Yahoo. But now, we get the official word on Google's front-facing search engine of the most popular terms. The 2008 Google Zeitgeist reveals the most popular terms:

    1. sarah palin
    2. beijing 2008
    3. facebook login
    4. tuenti
    5. heath ledger
    6. obama
    7. nasza klasa
    8. wer kennt wen
    9. euro 2008
    10. jonas brothers

    The first thing that looked out of place was #3. I'm apparently not alone with that mindset. Why would so many people be searching for Facebook login?

    In any event, here you go. These are Google's most popular searches.

    Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/12/11/What_PPC_Bid_Management_Tools_Do_You_Use_'

    What PPC Bid Management Tools Do You Use?

    Posted: December 11th, 2008, 4:31pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsSearch Engine Tools  

    In a Google Groups thread, AdWordsPro Sarah has asked us what our favorite bid management tools are. There are a two different tools represented thus far, and it's interesting to see what you've got to add.

    One user acknowledges that he likes Google's tools (which fortunately are free).

    Another is using SearchRev.

    I'm going to mention that I saw a demo for Acquisio's tool back at SMX East, I think, and it looked mighty fine. (I don't use any tool right now since I don't really do PPC regularly, but if I had to pick something, this would be it.)

    What tools do you use?

    Forum discussion continues at Google Groups.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/12/04/Poll__Average_Search_Is_Not_Ready_For_Google_s_SearchWiki'

    Poll: Average Search Is Not Ready For Google's SearchWiki

    Posted: December 4th, 2008, 2:39pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    A few weeks ago, Google launched SearchWiki to the public, making all Google searchers who are logged in, advanced searchers. I was surprised by this, so I asked you guys, do you think the average searcher is ready for this.

    After 150 responses, the results are in. 124 (or 82.67%) of you said, no, the average searcher is not ready for the Google SearchWiki. While only 26 (or 17.33%) of you said, yes, the average searcher is ready for the Google SearchWiki.

    Maybe my post skewed the results, but honestly, are we ready for this?

    Forum discussion continued at Cre8asite Forums, WebmasterWorld, Sphinn and DigitalPoint Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/12/04/Google_s_SearchMash_Is_Now_A__Dinosaur_'

    Google's SearchMash Is Now A "Dinosaur"

    Posted: December 4th, 2008, 2:32pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    Remember Google's SearchMash? The search engine they used to test wild and fun stuff for advanced search features? Well, as TechCrunch noted a week or so ago, Google stopped the testing at SearchMash.com.

    Now if you go to http://searchmash.com/ you will see this message:

    Why did Google kill it? Well, maybe it had to do with Google launching SearchWiki a few days prior? Maybe it has to do with Google cutting costs or maybe something else.

    There didn't seem to be an official response from Google on why it is missing. But we can make our own assumptions.

    Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

    Update: WebmasterWorld had a thread the day it went down and I missed it somehow! Not sure how. :)

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/11/27/Happy_Thanksgiving__08_From_The_Search_Industry'

    Happy Thanksgiving '08 From The Search Industry

    Posted: November 27th, 2008, 1:32pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsSearch Engine Industry News  

    We wanted to wish all you American's a Happy Thanksgiving. As you can see, if you click through to the Search Engine Roundtable, we have a special theme live for the day - it is worth checking out. In addition, many search search engines and search related sites have special logos or themes live. Let me take you through them, as I do every year, at the Search Engine Roundtable.

    Google's Logo:

    Yahoo's flash logo:

    Live.com's theme:

    Ask.com's theme:

    DogPile's logo:

    AOL's logo (which is also animated):

    FriendFeed's Logo:

    Cre8asite Forums Logo:

    Search Engine Roundtable's theme:

    For the past years, see Thanksgiving 2007, Thanksgiving 2006, Thanksgiving 2005 and Thanksgiving 2004.

    Happy Thanksgiving everyone and we will likely postpone all new posts until tomorrow.

    Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/11/26/Why_Shouldn_t_SEOs_Obsess_Over_the_Site_Command'

    Why Shouldn't SEOs Obsess Over the Site Command

    Posted: November 26th, 2008, 2:10pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    Many SEOs use the site command to see how healthy their site is in a particular search engine. So you plug in site:www.mydomain.com in a search engine and the search engine will return the number of pages they have indexed for that domain. If you know you have a hundred pages and the search engine indexed 90% of those pages, then you are pretty well off.

    But the problem is, the site command is not often all that reliable. We had recent reports that Google is dropping pages and we had recent reports that Microsoft Live Search is dropping pages as well. Most SEOs determine a drop in pages indexed by the number of results returned by the engine for a site command.

    But is this a valid way of really determining how many pages a search engine indexed of your site? From what I am hearing from search engine representatives at both Google and Microsoft, the answer is no. A webmaster should not depend on the number returned by a site command as a reliable indicator of the number of pages a search engine has indexed of their site.

    Googler, JohnMu, wrote in a recent Google Groups thread three reasons why SEOs and Webmasters should not depend on this number:

    • The previous approximation was incorrect, the current one is closer to the actual number of URLs that we have indexed or would show to users
    • The previous approximation was close and the current one is worse than before (this can happen)
    • A change in our algorithms (we make a lot of changes that will impact crawling, indexing and ranking -- for some sites perhaps more than for others)

    At the same time, Microsoft's Jeremiah Andrick told me that it "is problematic to use the "site:" operator to determine how many pages for a site are included in the Live Search index. The “Site:†operator generates an estimate of the pages in the index. These numbers can vary wildly depending on when you execute the query."

    That being said, how can you get an accurate number of pages indexed by a search engine for your site?

    I know Google's Webmaster Tools has in their Sitemaps section a place to show you the number of pages submitted in your Sitemap compared to how many URLs actually indexed. So, this might be a better indicator, but I am nervous about this number, because way too often I hear of reporting glitches in Webmaster Tools.

    Another option is to track each and every keyword phrase your pages rank for. Then see by keyword, not by site command, if those pages rank. This can be time consuming, but there are ways to automate this.

    Overall, using the site command might not be the best way to determine how healthy your site is in a particular search engine. I know many SEOs use this as a factor, but maybe it is time we think again about this?

    Forum discussion at Google Groups.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/11/17/Google_Tests__Skip_Intro__Link_in_the_SERPs'

    Google Tests "Skip Intro" Link in the SERPs

    Posted: November 17th, 2008, 4:32pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    Today, gabs spotted a new feature in Google.co.uk that lets you skip through the splash screen of sites. Using this query, you can see a similar result to this:

    Search Engine Land spotted this in June, and it looks like Google isn't done testing this out yet. Further, the "Skip Intro" link isn't very visible, so it'd be interesting to note how many people actually have seen this but never actually clicked on it (probably because they overlooked it).

    It's a nice addition, but indeed, I think the "Skip Intro" link would need to be more prominent to be useful.

    Forum discussion continues at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/11/14/Is_it_Worthwhile_to_Buy_a_High_PageRank_Domain_and_301ing_it_'

    Is it Worthwhile to Buy a High PageRank Domain and 301ing it?

    Posted: November 14th, 2008, 3:13pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    What happens if you want some good link juice to your domain? You may engage in the practice of buying a site and 301ing it to your old domain. In yesterday's PubCon session, we even talked about buying sites for maximum exposure and minimum risk. But the question is really: will you get juice by doing this?

    At a High Rankings Forum post, member Randy claims that Googlers say that the "trust" of the site gets reset upon a domain transfer and that you won't get the PR value. At the same time, how is Google to know that you have bought a domain for this purpose? That said, Randy says it's 50/50.

    If you have experience in this area, the comments area of this post is waiting for your insights.

    Forum discussion continues at High Rankings Forum.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/11/14/I_m_Insulted_But_Should_We_Give_Up_Live_Blogging_'

    I'm Insulted But Should We Give Up Live Blogging?

    Posted: November 14th, 2008, 2:45pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsSearch Engine Conferences  

    It is now 8am, I am at my desk, in my office in New York. I landed this morning at about 5:20am in Newark, NJ, after flying all night (the red eye) back from PubCon Vegas 2008. It was an exhausting three days. Between live blogging, keeping up with the forum news, writing at Search Engine Land, speaking on panels, meeting with people and search companies, running my daily business and being married - it is just exhausting.

    So, about 30 minutes ago, I notice a Sphinn thread, which links to a blog post (which I won't link to) that totally trashes our live blogging efforts. This guy calls live blogging, "useless" and "inaccurate." He goes on to say what we do is "selfish disregard for reporting integrity." To call live blogging "selfish," oh, that makes me mad. To call the 38+ conferences we've flown to, paid hotel costs, sometimes paid conference passes for, "selfish." To call the dumbing, incredibly tiring and exhausting work it is to sit there, session after session, to write down the words that come out of speakers mouths, no matter if you disagree with them or if you find them boring - or, even worse, love what they are saying, but are too consumed in typing down what they are saying to have the time to actually appreciate the words of wisdom - to call that "selfish" (long sentence, sorry, been up for over 24 hours).

    I have often wanted to stop live blogging these conferences. Why? Simply because it is extremely taxing on the individuals who do the live blogging. It seems simple, but it really is not. But I have decided to continue live blogging because most people appreciate it and many tell me they "depend" on it.

    So to read a "blogger" who has had a blog since September 30th, 2008 - yea, you got that, completely trash this effort. Well, I am totally disgusted and insulted. Not just for myself, but for all the volunteers who spend their own money and time to make this happen.

    I have been on both sides of the coin. I speak and I live blog. It is true that live bloggers might get something wrong or hear it wrong or miss important parts. That is the nature of the game. But does that mean there is no value to it?

    Danny Sullivan has often wanted people to stop live blogging and pull out the key elements of the sessions. I agree with that, 100%. But we invented live blogging in this industry, people, I think, expect it of us. If not, then I am more than happy to stop - because honestly, it would be a relief to not have that burden of responsibility. To not have to get up at 4am on a conference day to make sure to get all my work done prior to the sessions, so I can be at a session at 9am to live blog it for people who cannot make it to the session. So I would love to not have that burden.

    Hence, I leave it up to you. Please take the poll below and tell me if you want us to stop live blogging:

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/11/06/Track_Your_Google_Links_Over_Time_with_glync'

    Track Your Google Links Over Time with glync

    Posted: November 6th, 2008, 3:27pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsSearch Engine Tools  

    Russ Jones over at The Google Cache talks about a new tool he released for public consumption. It's called glync and gives you historical data of links you have accrued over time using Google Webmaster Tools. There is a free version (for up to 30 days of tracking) and a pro version with more time, valued at $5/month.

    Here's a video:

    What do you think?

    Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/11/04/Learn_Search_Engine_Optimization_by_Doing__Not_by_Reading'

    Learn Search Engine Optimization by Doing, Not by Reading

    Posted: November 4th, 2008, 3:33pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    Lisa Barone writes a great piece at the We Build Pages blog about how you'll become a good SEO by actually doing SEO, not by reading SEO strategy on all those blogs you subscribe to.

    It's simply not good enough to know. You need to test, retest, and verify your changes. Blogging is only part of it, but it's not the whole picture.

    I know way too many people who have read a book on SEO and subscribe to blogs and say they are competent SEOs. I even know someone who makes this claim as an "SEO Consultant and Expert" and the individual doesn't even have a title tag on their page. Please.

    Lisa is right. It's time you look at individuals who are in the regular practice of applying SEO skills on a regular basis than to have those who simply write upon it to be the SEOs you hire. How many journalists who write a well-researched and informed article about zoology would you actually consider zoologists?

    Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/10/31/Google_Makes_All_PDF_Documents_Copy___Paste_Friendly_with_OCR'

    Google Makes All PDF Documents Copy & Paste Friendly with OCR

    Posted: October 31st, 2008, 2:07pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    Google announced that they are now using OCR technology to index and show an HTML version of a scanned PDF document. In the past, Google only showed an HTML version of PDF's created with text enabled formatting. But now, if a document is scanned as an image, Google can create an HTML version using OCR.

    For example, this PDF is a scan of a cooperative agreement between Google and Regents of the University of California. You cannot copy and paste the text from the PDF document. But now, with Google's OCR capabilities, you can view the HTML version and use this text in your own agreements, saving you the expense of starting from scratch on your own agreements.

    Ever find that perfect document that you wanted to reuse for contracts, marketing material, how-tos, and so on? But you were unable to reuse it because it wasn't copy and paste friendly? Well, now you can use Google to get to it. From now on, when searching for documents like this, try filetype:pdf in the search box along with your search query.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/10/30/Why_Are_Old_News_Results_Showing_Up_in_My_Google_Searches_'

    Why Are Old News Results Showing Up in My Google Searches?

    Posted: October 30th, 2008, 3:44pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    Numerous webmasters are reporting that Google News (and Google Book Search results, as we reported) are showing up in the SERPs for particular Google searches. However, these news stories aren't recent; they are relatively old and dated.

    Unfortunately, I'm not able to reproduce the search (perhaps I'm searching for terms that always have associated news), but there's a question about Google's relevancy if it's providing old news stories.

    Further, to that end, there are also observations of MSN and Yahoo shopping results. Interesting.

    Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/10/29/Your_Successful_SEO_Campaign_Starts_with_a_Blueprint'

    Your Successful SEO Campaign Starts with a Blueprint

    Posted: October 29th, 2008, 4:10pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    The Online Marketing for Marketers blog has a goo blueprint that you should adhere to if you're looking for a successful search engine optimization campaign. Your blueprint should include:

    * Defined goals
    * Keyword and competitive research
    * A content outline
    * Evaluation of technical issues
    * Offsite marketing

    Then, you need to lay out the action plan. Who in the team is responsible for what?

    Would you add or remove anything from this blueprint?

    Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/10/29/Google_SearchWiki___Google_Expands_Web_Results_Voting_Test'

    Google SearchWiki : Google Expands Web Results Voting Test

    Posted: October 29th, 2008, 2:09pm CET by rustybrick
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    About a year ago today, we wrote about a Google experimental test for voting up web results. Well, it seems like Google is now pushing that test out to users. Several folks are now seeing it.

    We have a WebmasterWorld thread with some people noticing it. We have blog posts from Justin Hileman, Garett Rogers, Alex Chitu and a German blog noticing this. Here is a video that demonstrates it all:

    Alex notes that all users are not yet able to see this, but you can see "traces" of the Google SearchWiki by appending &swm=2 to the end of your search result string.

    Going back in time, Google had a remove result feature, which they dropped a while back. This is a bit more sophisticated than simply removing results from the search results.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/10/28/Google_Product_Search_Adds_New_Categories'

    Google Product Search Adds New Categories

    Posted: October 28th, 2008, 4:41pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    The Google Base Blog announces new updates to Google Product Search. The post explains that the product_type attribute has been added and should apply the category and values from the taxonomy listed here. Further, the blog post states more about the taxonomy:

    The Google product taxonomy is a tree of categories that describe product families, with verticals (Electronics, Home & Garden, etc.) at the highest level, followed by more specific product families or products within these broad categories (such as Electronics > Audio > Audio Players & Recorders > MP3 Players).

    While Google finds this value optional, I'd consider it pretty helpful and I'm sure others would agree.

    Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/10/16/How_Google_Handles_Flash__The_Tried___Tested_Version'

    How Google Handles Flash: The Tried & Tested Version

    Posted: October 16th, 2008, 3:03pm CEST by rustybrick
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    Beu has done an outstanding job testing how Google truly handles Flash indexing and crawling. To take you back, Google began indexing Flash in July 2008 and then we had a follow up post on it in late August.

    Let me summarize Beu's four findings:

    (1) Google has an issue associating text content within a Flash document with the correct parent URL or as a single entity.

    (2) Flash documents does receive PageRank "independent of their own parent URLs."

    (3) Google does not index URLs "containing #anchors (fragment identifiers) in Flash per W3C Guidelines."

    (4) Google does not translate Flash content into different languages.

    I would recommend you see his Flash SEO Tips for 2009 as well.

    Based on Beu's tests, he has asked Google a fairly sophisticated question at Google Groups. I'll quote the question:

    Can anyone confirm that Googlebot "sees" text content provided via PE (progressive enhancement) since support for simple JavaScript like SWFObject was introduced? If so, what causes Flash files to be indexed in many cases and not the parent URL where content provided via PE resides? Is there anything webmasters can do to request which version (Flash or (X)HTML) is indexed in SERPs, for example like www or non-www in webmaster tools?

    That would be a nice addition but personally, I don't think it will be coming any time soon.

    Forum discussion at Sphinn and Google Groups.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/10/15/Things_You_Should_Expect_from_an_SEO'

    Things You Should Expect from an SEO

    Posted: October 15th, 2008, 3:48pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    Stoney DeGeyter has written an insightful piece on Search Engine Guide on what you should expect from your SEO consultant. Obviously, depending on your goals, this may differ, but the ideas are the same. He explains that traffic is something to look at, but that's not what the client should only seek. Conversions are obviously important, and so are rankings, but that's not how to prove the effectiveness of the campaign. At the end of the day, ROI is really the most substantial measurement of this kind of engagement.

    Stoney mentions that communication is key to make sure that expectations are set and followed throughout the duration of the contract.

    Indeed, this article is pretty informative and should help you review the precautions before starting your new SEO campaign.

    Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

    This post was pre-written and scheduled for publication on October 15th.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/10/14/How_To_Optimize_for_Something_New_and_Unknown'

    How To Optimize for Something New and Unknown

    Posted: October 14th, 2008, 9:02pm CEST by cre8pc
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    When faced with marketing a brand new product or idea, how do you optimize for keywords that nobody is searching for yet? Can you find other ways to present the product, such as focus on value proposition? Would social media help here?

    SEO For the Unknown explores this interesting topic at Cre8asiteforums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/10/14/Where_Did_the_Phrase__Search_Engine_Optimization__Come_From_'

    Where Did the Phrase "Search Engine Optimization" Come From?

    Posted: October 14th, 2008, 3:01pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    In August of 2006, Rohit Bhargava coined the term SMO for social media optimization. Now search engine optimization has been around a little longer than that, but where did it come from? According to Bob Heyman, in a guest post on Search Engine Land, he did.

    Bob explains that it was 1995 when the name came to mind. Once upon a time, a rock band created a website with a URL that couldn't be recalled without pulling it up in the SERPs. Unfortunately for the rock band, however, the official web page for the band was on page 4 of the SERPs. Bob explains that after that call, he resolved to make search engine rankings a priority, and thus, "search engine optimization" was born.

    So why, then, is Jason Gambert claiming that he coined the phrase SEO in 2007? Give it up, Jason.

    Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

    This post was pre-written and scheduled for publication on October 14th.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/10/10/Google_Showing_Content_Attributes_on_Search_Results'

    Google Showing Content Attributes on Search Results

    Posted: October 10th, 2008, 3:10pm CEST by rustybrick
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    The other day, we reported again that Google Testing Dates on Search Snippets. But it is much more than just dates. Google is now showing additional attributes from the content on the page. For example:

    Notice how the above result shows post numbers, author numbers, and the last post date. Clearly, in this case, Google thinks this blog post is a forum post or maybe not, maybe Google classifies the "comments" in the blog post as a threaded type of discussion.

    They also pull out author names, for example in a case of searching for minotti, the last result looks like this (hat tip):

    Will this stick? I am not sure - my gut tells me no, Google won't keep these in most cases. Maybe specific queries will return these details, but I just don't feel that Google will keep these additional attributes on the search results pages. At least not in this fashion.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/10/10/Google_To_Offer_RSS_For_Their_Search_Results___Scrapers_Begone_'

    Google To Offer RSS For Their Search Results : Scrapers Begone?

    Posted: October 10th, 2008, 2:54pm CEST by rustybrick
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    A couple days ago, Matt McGee at Search Engine Land confirmed the reports the Wall Street Journal that Google will be offering web search result notifications not only via Google Alerts, but also via RSS format.

    Yahoo and Live Search both have RSS results enabled in auto-discovery mode on the search results pages. Google does not and has not enabled this ever. Why now? Honestly, I am not sure why Google has waited this long? I know they don't want their search results to be used for many purposes outside of searching. Does this mean that rank checking tools can go the RSS route, as opposed to the scraping route? I doubt many will change and it is hard to know exactly how Google will release the RSS flavored results. Will it be only via Google Alerts or will Google enabled auto-discovery like Yahoo and Live does? Many of the other Google search properties, like Google News and Blog Search have auto-discovery enabled.

    Time will tell - but I am happy about this. It makes Google's web results more accessible.

    Forum discussion at Sphinn.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/10/09/Google_Testing_Dates_on_Search_Snippets'

    Google Testing Dates on Search Snippets

    Posted: October 9th, 2008, 3:48pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    A WebmasterWorld member is spotting some interesting Google interface tests with regards to placement of dates on snippets of SERPs. pageoneresults writes:

    In performing certain search queries, Google appears to be inserting the date of the page in front of the Snippet. I just performed one search and 5 of the 10 results had dates preceding their Snippets. One of them had the date towards the end of the Snippet.

    Of the 6 dates shown, all were within the past 10 days with the exception of a Press Release from 2007.

    Michael Gray has spotted this as well. (Note: this differs from the visits that are recorded by Google if you're logged in.)

    He believes that Google is finding that the dated results is actually faring well for Google. From my experience, the inclusion of the date has helped especially since dated results feel fresher.

    In fact, if you do site: searches, you can find some good results as well, and another person agrees that the dated results are obviously incredibly helpful, especially in a technological field where things are always changing.

    I'm guessing we'll be seeing more of that in the future.

    Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

    This article was pre-written and scheduled for publication on October 9th.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/10/09/Do_You_Know_Who_is_Speaking_at_Pubcon_'

    Do You Know Who is Speaking at Pubcon?

    Posted: October 9th, 2008, 3:40pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsSearch Engine Conferences  

    This year, Pubcon 2008 is going to be held between November 11 through the 14th in Las Vegas. Both Barry and I will be blogging and speaking, but the best news is all about the keynote speaker -- the Pubcon blog announces that producer George Wright of Blendtec's "Will it Blend" series will be keynoting the event.

    How are people reacting? Well, in a paid WebmasterWorld discussion, people can't believe it and can't wait.

    Are prizes on the horizon? I've been a huge fan of Will it Blend for such a long time and want to get one of those blenders myself, but my $25 blender seems to do the job. I'm not alone, it seems:

    I so covet one of these, but $350 is a little steep for a blender (last I checked the price).

    If you're not going to Pubcon, then, it's time that you signed up!

    Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld (paid link).

    This post was pre-written and scheduled to be posted on October 9th.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/10/08/What_s_New_With_Google_Maps_for_Mobile_'

    What's New With Google Maps for Mobile?

    Posted: October 8th, 2008, 2:30pm CEST by rustybrick
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    Google Maps Guide Tom has given us a summary of the most recent updates the Google Maps team enabled on the Google Maps for Mobile product. Tom created a Google Groups thread detailing each point and they include:

    • The Sony Ericsson device memory issues should be addressed really soon.
    • Touch screen support coming to LG Vu users soon
    • Internal/External GPS issues are being worked on
    • Google Maps desktop version data takes several weeks to come down to the mobile version

    If you want more details, make sure to check out the Google Groups thread.

    Forum discussion at Google Groups.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/10/02/Google_Lets_You_Search_as_if_it_was_2001'

    Google Lets You Search as if it was 2001

    Posted: October 2nd, 2008, 5:02pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    Want to see the old Google -- probably before half of you were born searching? Check out Google's search engine from 2001, and what Google calls its oldest available index. You'll probably notice that Gmail back in 2001 was a Gnome-based Linux mail client and that YouTube didn't exist. Searching for Barry Schwartz back in 2001 brings back some psychology dude who must've written a book (joking aside, I own the book). Searching for Tamar Weinberg yields no results of the present Tamar Weinberg, but that's probably because I didn't get married (and didn't change my last name) until 2005. However, you can dig up relevant information by searching with my old name, so I consider this pretty accurate for 2001.

    Besides that, though, those searching reflect back on a day when Google wasn't dominated by ads and when their rankings (#1) were easier to achieve. Further, it seems that some are trying to leverage this old search engine for competitive research.

    Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/10/02/Next_Week_s_Charity_Party_is_Coming_Up_at_SMX_East'

    Next Week's Charity Party is Coming Up at SMX East

    Posted: October 2nd, 2008, 4:45pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsSearch Engine Conferences  

    We're gearing up for next week's conference, SMX East, to be held in NYC. If you aren't going, it doesn't mean that you can't participate in the great networking available. With the forthcoming charity party, you can mingle and network too!

    Here are the details:

    Where: 795 8th Avenue (between 48th & 49th street)
    When: Monday, October 6 from 8pm-midnight
    What: A charity party where your $50 supports Ronald McDonald house.

    Hope to see you there!

    Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/10/02/Google_Blog_Search_Relaunches_With_News_Front_Page'

    Google Blog Search Relaunches With News Front Page

    Posted: October 2nd, 2008, 3:07pm CEST by rustybrick
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    Everyone is talking about the announcement that Google Blog Search looks more like Google News, the home page and works a bit more like Techmeme. Danny has a quick post on it, ReadWriteWeb calls it a Techmeme Killer, but Matt Cutts explains the core differences between what Google is doing and what Techmeme does.

    Honestly, it feels like just yesterday when Google launched blog search. Well, technically, it was a little over three years ago. But over time, blog search became more and more part of Google.

    So now, Google Blog Search has a new front page with subcategories:

    The interesting bit is that although tons of blogs and news sites are covering the news, we only have a bit of discussion. In fact, the only discussion I found was a single post at WebmasterWorld.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/09/30/Will_Using_Google_Analytics_Hurt_My_Search_Engine_Rankings_'

    Will Using Google Analytics Hurt My Search Engine Rankings?

    Posted: September 30th, 2008, 4:05pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    In another one of those "I heard it from someone else" rumors circulating throughout the Internet, a High Rankings Forum member claims that he read an article that said that using Google Analytics on his site can hurt his search result rankings. The author's example was "do you really want Google to know that your visitors have stayed on your site for only 15 seconds?"

    All forum members don't believe that Google Analytics is any indicator of search result placement (and I'd love for the Google Analytics article author to actually validate his own theory rather than spit out information that drives real search optimizers batty).

    Sometimes people can search for something and find it on the first page within seconds and not need to hang around. Just because someone visits a web page for less than 15 seconds doesn't mean they aren't finding what they're looking for.

    Forum discussion continues at High Rankings Forums.

    This post was prewritten and was scheduled for publication on September 30th.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/09/30/Search_Engine_Optimization_Improves_with_Site_Size____Or_Does_It_'

    Search Engine Optimization Improves with Site Size -- Or Does It?

    Posted: September 30th, 2008, 3:54pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    On one Crea8site Forums thread, Barry Welford asks if size is a factor in SEO success. It seems from the results that bigger sites (1000+ pages, according to him) have biggest (45%) success. Smaller sites could still be improved upon, according to 27% of the respondents, and 18% actually find success with a sub-1000 page site.

    In the meantime, with such few respondents (I should have mentioned that only 11 people have responded), you can't gather that much from the poll, and forum sentiment echoes that thought.

    Regardless, EGOL has some interesting feedback, and I will follow that with my own experience:

    I think that the measure of success is not really in how big the site is but instead with who is running the site. I have a 5000 page site that is doing great and a five page site that is doing great.

    Recently, Technorati released its state of the blogosphere 2008 and Muhammad Saleem noted that high quality is still king. I'm in agreement here. My "small" (~280 pages) blog is doing darn well.

    Forum discussion continues at Cre8asite Forums.

    This post was written earlier and was scheduled for September 30th.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/09/26/Google_Pushing_Book_Search_Results_in_Web_Search_Results_'

    Google Pushing Book Search Results in Web Search Results?

    Posted: September 26th, 2008, 3:20pm CEST by rustybrick
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    A WebmasterWorld thread is reporting seeing an spike in the number of instances Google is showing Google Book Search results within the web results. A few other members have agreed in seeing a larger number of book results in the Google web results.

    Robert Charlton speculates Google may be testing if searchers like these results. And based on click data, they may decide to keep the results more prominent or not.

    I think it is a seasonal thing. As one member points out, "these have been there for weeks and are increasing their density by the week." What is about this time of the year? Back to school maybe? In fact, almost exactly last year, we reported the same exact issue. Last year on September 24th I wrote, Google Book Search Results in Google.com Organic Results? It was discussing how members noticed an increase in book results coming up.

    Google started experimenting with Google Book Search results in web search back in December 2004.

    So do you think this is a seasonal thing for back to school season or just a test?

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/09/25/Some_Yahoo_Users_Noticing_New_Home_Page_Design'

    Some Yahoo Users Noticing New Home Page Design

    Posted: September 25th, 2008, 2:51pm CEST by rustybrick
    TagsSearch Engine Yahoo  

    About a week ago we reported about the news that Yahoo is testing a new home page design. Since then, we have really not heard any chatter about people actually seeing the design in place. I personally see the old design and that is expected because Yahoo is testing out the new design on a test group.

    Last night, a DigitalPoint Forums thread started, telling members that he saw the new design. This user was using Internet Explorer and was automatically redirected from www.yahoo.com to m.www.yahoo.com. Clicking on m.www.yahoo.com will not load the new design for everyone, because most users who tried it, including myself, do not see the new design.

    Aurora Brown, the individual who saw this new design, posted a screen capture at AuthorityDomains.com:

    It is a simpler design, but will Yahoo users like it?

    Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/09/18/Some_Insights_into_Image_Optimization_for_Search'

    Some Insights into Image Optimization for Search

    Posted: September 18th, 2008, 5:30pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    Earlier this month, Bill Slawski wrote about how search engines use images to rank web pages. He explains that search engines often look at text, alt tags, and similar contextual elements to rank images. He also refers to a Microsoft patent that uses image scores to aid in rankings. This system considers the contents of an image (whether it has a person, is a photograph or not, etc.) with its position on a page and then its site level features (which may distinguish between navigational images versus one-time-only images).

    On Cre8asite Forums, iamlost wonders if there are other elements that will impact the rankings. For example, do page layouts impact these rankings? Do CSS or HTML resizing of image dimensions impact the scores?

    I suppose these could have open-ended questions at this time. However, yannis has responded with some good image optimization techniques.

    • He says that you should enclose your images in divs (defined by a photo class).
    • Image titles should be in h3s or larger.
    • Images that you want search engines to know about should be 35-40% of the page size and should be on the top of the page.
    • The image name is still important.
    • Captions should be added to images.
    • Never forget those ALT tags (but TITLE tags are not as important).
    • You don't need LONGDESC.
    • You can refer to the image from somewhere in your content to boost its relevance.
    • EXIF information from images may be important in the future but it is not being used now.
    • Search engines are getting smarter at figuring out what is in images (face recognition, for example).
    • Use aesthetically pleasing images.

    There's a pretty valuable ongoing discussion over at Cre8asite Forums with more member follow-up, so check it out.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/09/18/Is_it_Time_for_Another_SEO_Break_'

    Is it Time for Another SEO Break?

    Posted: September 18th, 2008, 5:09pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    Last year, Matt McGee wrote the 2007 version of 21 reasons why you need a break from SEO. This year, Matt shares 21 more reasons why you may need to take your SEO break. Reasons include:

    * searching for social media avatar photographers (instead of wedding photographers)
    * having your spouse keep track of your conference schedule (and adding SEX to the calendar!)
    * communicating with your spouse via blogs
    * finding marketing potential for Google's new virtual world
    * syncing Matt Cutts's vacation schedule with your own personal calendar

    ...and more. Matt's list always gives a good laugh, so read it before you finish swallowing that coffee.

    Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/09/17/Google_Disable_the__Hidden__Site_Search_Feature_'

    Google Disable the "Hidden" Site Search Feature?

    Posted: September 17th, 2008, 3:19pm CEST by rustybrick
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    A WebmasterWorld thread uncovers a very interesting occurrence that is taking place when using a site command feature, known as the "hidden" or "invisible" site command search.

    If you want to search with a site command but don't want the referral data to show that you are using a site command while searching, you use to be able to use a flavor of a Google Custom Search Engine to get at it. The example given is:

    [www.google.com]

    Notice that when you search using that command, up come videos from YouTube.com or video.google.com, included in the webmasterworld.com results. A site command is suppose to restrict the results, only to results from that site, i.e. webmasterworld.com.

    The same issue happens when you change it to sitesearch=seroundtable.com. But it is not an issue when using the Google Custom Search Engine that I placed on this site, see here.

    At first, I thought it may be an issue with Google Custom Search Engines. Because last night, TechCrunch reported that there was a major outage with the Google CSE. But Google said they fixed that, so that is not the issue.

    Maybe the thread creator is right:

    I suspect google have deliberately broken this method of site searching precisely because it is invisible to the user, and they would rather people use the Custom Search Engine system instead. But that's just the cynic in me.

    Who knows, maybe this is the wrong query string in the first place?

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/09/16/Google_Shares_Information_About_its_Human_Search_Evaluators'

    Google Shares Information About its Human Search Evaluators

    Posted: September 16th, 2008, 5:18pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    As we know, algorithms are very powerful in influencing the search results. However, we also know that Google has human evaluators -- thousands, in fact. In a recent blog post on the Official Google Blog, one of Google's engineering directors shed some light into the role of human evaluators. The relevant piece of information is here:

    Google makes use of evaluators in many countries and languages. These evaluators are carefully trained and are asked to evaluate the quality of search results in several different ways. We sometimes show evaluators whole result sets by themselves or "side by side" with alternatives; in other cases, we show evaluators a single result at a time for a query and ask them to rate its quality along various dimensions.

    Tedster at WebmasterWorld is pretty interested in these results; the fact that human evaluators actually look at results side by side to help improve the quality of its search results is pretty reassuring.

    Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/09/16/Optimize_Your_Google_Videos_with_a_Transcript'

    Optimize Your Google Videos with a Transcript

    Posted: September 16th, 2008, 4:14pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    Have you created a video recently? Did it have a video transcript? The Google Video Help document actually suggests one; in fact, you should also code it appropriately like so:

    HH: Hours starting at 00
    MM: Minutes starting at 00
    SS: Seconds starting at 00
    mmm: Milliseconds starting at 000

    But is it helping the user? In response to the Cre8asite Forums post by Barry Welford, iamlost says that this time coding is beneficial for Google's data-mining process but not so much for a general user. In a way, I'm compelled to agree. I'm the kind of person who would rather read a transcript, but in the format that Google suggests, it's not as user friendly as I'd prefer.

    Li Evans says, however, that transcripts have really helped her -- they've produced "amazing results." There are a few open ended questions directed at her about how she applied video, so check out Cre8asite Forums for the continued discussion.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/09/15/It_s_Time_to_Use_SEO_Terms_Correctly__or_Maybe_to_Learn_SEO_and_Stop_Claiming_You_Do__'

    It's Time to Use SEO Terms Correctly (or Maybe to Learn SEO and Stop Claiming You Do!)

    Posted: September 15th, 2008, 4:49pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    There's a big problem in the SEO industry and that's the fact that people are not using SEO terms correctly. Jill Whalen has written a great post on Search Engine Land to this effect -- she says that due to there being no industry definitions, lack of knowledge (or laziness), and "old wives tales" (where people misinterpret something happening due to something else), SEO terms are not really understood at all times. She closes her great wirteup with a powerful statement: "After all, if the very people who make up our industry can't get it right, how will others?"

    Would you disagree that this is a problem? Most Sphinners think that Jill is spot on the money. Here's a great response to the article from SEOAly:

    Part of this problem comes from a combination of ignorance and being cheap on the part of site owners and designers opting for SEO consultation, rather than hiring an SEO to do the work. Some aspects of SEO can't be dumbed down into a bullet point list of tasks for those who will actually be making the changes. Hence the common reference to ALT tags, headers, title META tags, etc. - they don't understand enough about the concept of SEO as a whole to know what the terms actually refer to.

    Aly also makes a rational follow-up "argument" that I personally identify with -- a lot. A lot of people, she says, claim that they know SEO when they don't. Those who know SEO don't usually say "hey, I know SEO!" There are a lot of charlatans out there.

    Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/09/15/How_Detailed_Are_Your_Monthly_SEO_Billing_Reports_'

    How Detailed Are Your Monthly SEO Billing Reports?

    Posted: September 15th, 2008, 4:28pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    You're an SEO. You are tweaking client pages and billing your clients at the end of the month. Is there a standard industry practice of what you should actually put on your client bills, such as work completed?

    There is no "industry practice" from what many of us have heard. However, in the event of any work completed, this is something you need to judge for yourself. If it's a small invoiced amount, typically, you don't need to do a breakdown of work completed. If it's a lot larger, however, you may want to tell your client exactly what work was performed.

    Torka makes a good statement regarding acceptable billing practices that work for you and the client. Your results may vary:

    I think the goal should be to achieve balance so the client feels comfortable they're getting what they pay for, and you aren't overly burdened with recordkeeping and reporting requirements.

    If in doubt, discuss with your client.

    Forum discussion continues at High Rankings Forum.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/09/15/Google_Continues_Test_Side_By_Side_Videos_in_Web_Search'

    Google Continues Test Side By Side Videos in Web Search

    Posted: September 15th, 2008, 2:48pm CEST by rustybrick
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    About three weeks ago, I covered a story at Search Engine Land on Google Blogoscoped finding Google testing two video results, in the web search results, on the same line. Here is a picture:

    It appears Google is continuing the test. AccuCast started a Search Engine Watch Forums thread showing two video results on the same line, for a search at Google UK for MTV awards. I personally do not see it, but I kind of like the two video results on one line.

    Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/09/10/SEO_and_SEM_Tips_for_Political_Campaigning'

    SEO and SEM Tips for Political Campaigning

    Posted: September 10th, 2008, 3:00pm CEST by rustybrick
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    Elections are at the top of mind in the United States and that means campaigning. Search Marketing is now a proven and important avenue for politicians to work in, to promote their brands, name, campaign and ultimately win the election.

    A HighRankings Forums thread has an SEO asking for tips on working with politicians in the search engine optimization and marketing space. Here are some of the tips found within the thread, but I do recommend checking out the discussion.

    • Target politician's name
    • Go after misspellings, if it makes sense
    • Target your competitor(s) name and misspellings
    • Target popular topics, such as climate change, human rights, gun control, Afghanistan, climate change, and so on
    • Test first with AdWords
    • Use press releases, Wikipedia, Blogging, Social Media, offline contacts and more

    The ideas go on and on.

    Forum discussion at HighRankings Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/09/04/How_Do_You_Do_SEO_for_a_Site_that_is_Under_Construction_'

    How Do You Do SEO for a Site that is Under Construction?

    Posted: September 4th, 2008, 4:48pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    Sometimes it's better to do SEO for a site before it's launched. Such is the case for a High Rankings Forum member who is looking to build up his site's presence before it's actually live for the masses. How do you do SEO for a site that is not yet launched, though?

    It's not that hard, believe it or not, even though some other forum members suggest that you shouldn't do this until the site is completed.

    For one, if you know what your site is about, you can start writing articles on a related subject matter and build links to the content. But make sure these pages have the place in the final site design, because if you do changes on a site that's under construction, it really is doubtful that it will help unless you know exactly what you're trying to accomplish.

    You can definitely rank webpages that are under construction, but the value in doing so is lost on me. Even if you work hard and get ranked early on, you will only rank for the content that is on your website, so if the page is not finished and you change that content in the future your rankings will change.

    That said, SEO can be done just about any time, but it's generally agreed that the best course of action is to do it after the final site is launched.

    Forum discussion continues at High Rankings Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/09/04/Search_Engine_Rank_Checking_Tools__Such_as_WebPosition_Gold__Are_Back_in_Business'

    Search Engine Rank Checking Tools, Such as WebPosition Gold, Are Back in Business

    Posted: September 4th, 2008, 3:17pm CEST by rustybrick
    TagsSearch Engine Tools  

    It has been confirmed via a WebmasterWorld thread that many search ranking checking tools have been working over the past day or so.

    Just about a month ago we reported about the issues people were having with WebPosition Gold and other rank checking tools. We first thought Google was going after these rank checking tools but then we learned that the issues were due to Google testing out new HTML structures and layouts in the search results pages.

    The WebmasterWorld thread reports that not only is WebPosition Gold now working, but other rank checking tools also. So maybe the Google experiment is over or maybe it is on a vacation? Or perhaps, the tools built in a fix for the scraping issues.

    I still know Google hates these tools but will they go as far to block them?

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/09/03/Should_SEO_Companies_Offer_Refunds_'

    Should SEO Companies Offer Refunds?

    Posted: September 3rd, 2008, 4:44pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    A High Rankings Forum member who has been working on a yearlong SEO agreement is now facing new management with his client and they're requesting a refund for services (mostly because some project deliverables weren't actually delivered). Should this SEO comply and return the money?

    Well, this is a questionable issue. The particular SEO had no written policy, and that needs to be amended. In the future, a written policy (if even to say "No Refunds") is desirable and will avoid these issues. At this point, though, one forum member suggests that some money should be returned. I'm not sure I would be quick to agree that any money should be returned simply because of a management shake-up -- perhaps the money shouldn't have been paid in the first place.

    Now it's your turn to answer this and let us know what your thoughts are. The poll is below.

    Would you issue a refund? Do you think you would give in given the circumstances of this particular forum member?

    Forum discussion continues at High Rankings Forum.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/09/03/Google_Image_Filter_Being_Too_Sensitive_Again_'

    Google Image Filter Being Too Sensitive Again?

    Posted: September 3rd, 2008, 3:47pm CEST by rustybrick
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    Google just can't win. I beat up Google on showing pornography or inappropriate images in their image search engine or on web search way too often. We complained in December that Google Image Search was too sensitive and then Google seemed to have relaxed the filter in June. But then we saw more porn or images that would upset some people.

    Now, I am seeing reports at WebmasterWorld that Google may have tightened the filter to be more sensitive again. The filter does not appear to be as strong as the December filter, but it is discussed that it is more strict that after the June changes.

    This is a hard balance to find but it is something Google and other image search engines struggle with daily.

    Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/09/03/Searchers__Google__at_Yahoo____Yahoo__at_Google'

    Searchers 'Google' at Yahoo & 'Yahoo' at Google

    Posted: September 3rd, 2008, 3:13pm CEST by rustybrick
    TagsSearch Engine Yahoo  

    Go to Yahoo Search and use their search suggestions. All I want you to do is enter in "G" into the search box and obtain the search suggestions.

    Yea, Google comes up as a suggestion. This is really a common thing. People go to search engines to find other search engines. In fact, I have seen several clients go to Google.com and type in "google" to get back to Google.com. I am not joking.

    The search suggestions typically try to show you the most common searches for your partial search phrase. It is not surprising to me that Google is a popular search at Yahoo. In fact, try typing in "Y" into Google, you will see Google puts YouTube first, but in fact, Yahoo is search more often, according to the numbers:

    Again, not surprising.

    Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/09/01/Should_I_Continue_Working_with_an_Ignorant_SEO_Client_'

    Should I Continue Working with an Ignorant SEO Client?

    Posted: September 1st, 2008, 4:34pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    A High Rankings Forum member has run into a bit of a rut with one of his clients who was "'brainwashed" by an SEO that editing the meta tags (and repeating keywords) would result in great rankings. The original SEO wants to get his client back, but doesn't know how to best approach this. Is it even worth the hassle?

    While this is posed to the High Rankings Forum for member advice, the general consensus is that "only you can make this decision." In other words, it may not be worth the hassle to keep this particular client.

    Jill Whalen makes this argument as well:

    Clients don't tell you what to do. You tell them what you're going to do.

    Otherwise, they don't need to be a client. If they already know what they want, then let them do it. They obviously don't need you since they already know everything.

    Would you stay with a client who refuses to acknowledge reason and considers spammy (short term success, if at all) tactics?

    Forum discussion continues at High Rankings Forum.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/08/29/Search_Engine_Penalties_Are_Scary__Says_Most_SEOs'

    Search Engine Penalties Are Scary, Says Most SEOs

    Posted: August 29th, 2008, 3:08pm CEST by rustybrick
    TagsOptimization Search Engine  

    Tamar wrote a piece named Do Search Penalties Worry You? I had her add a poll asking SEOs if they are scared of search engine penalties.

    The 98 responses are back and it is about split. 56% are afraid of search penalties while 44% are not afraid of search penalties. Personally, I would be afraid of a penalty, even if I was to be hit by collateral damage. I am surprised that more SEOs are not afraid.

    Here is the break down:
    :: Yes said 55 respondents or 56%
    :: No said 43 respondents or 44%

    Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/08/28/Google_Suggest_to_Change_the_Ways_of_Search_Engine_Optimization'

    Google Suggest to Change the Ways of Search Engine Optimization

    Posted: August 28th, 2008, 4:51pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsGoogle Search Engine  

    Earlier this week, we reported that Google Suggest was going to become more mainstream -- that is, that it would be the search default. Essentially, Google would "choose" the search phrases you were aiming to search for. This decision has been already challenged as search engine marketers wonder the consequences of this decision.

    On Sphinn, lots of debate is cropping up about how this will change the face of SEM -- for good. In one post, we see 9 ways how the decision will impact search marketing. Some of these include the negative impact to long tail searches, more traffic to regional sites, and less opportunity to capitalize on misspellings, among others.

    In another post, Google Suggest is thought to "completely change the query landscape" because the drop-down box may offer you suggestions that will change your mind on the search phrase you may have aimed to look for initially. The same concerns (capitalization on misspellings and long tail optimization) are brought up in this post as well.

    However, that's not all. Martin Bowling explains that Google Suggest is a reputation management nightmare. Using an illustration for Obama, one sees that a lot of 'common' searches include 'obama antichrist' and 'obama muslim,' search phrases you wouldn't think of (or would you?). Because of effective reputation management, though, the actual SERPs for "Obama" hardly show any of those negative pages, but the bitter taste doesn't really leave your mouth. This can eventually grow over time and the reputation management dangers could increase. Indeed, that is a bit worrisome.

    There are a lot of related discussions on Sphinn:

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/08/28/Vanessa_Fox_to_Speak_at_the_Upcoming_SEMNE_Event'

    Vanessa Fox to Speak at the Upcoming SEMNE Event

    Posted: August 28th, 2008, 4:37pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
    TagsSearch Engine Conferences  

    On September 16th in Trumbull, CT, Vanessa Fox will speak about how marketing will enhance your search traffic. It should be a good talk and this blogger may actually be there to liveblog it for the Search Engine Roundtable community.

    Here's the information in case you want to see the famous Vanessa in the flesh:

    Where: Trumbull Marriott Merritt Parkway - Trumbull, CT (Near Bridgeport, Milford and Stratford)
    When: Sept. 16, 2008 from 6:30PM-9:00PM
    Speaker: Vanessa Fox, formerly with Google and Zillow; Currently with Search Engine Land and Ignition Partners
    Cost: Free to SEMNE Members and $39 for non-members until Sept 1, 2008 when it will be $49.

    More information about the event is on the SEMNE website.

    Hopefully, we'll see you there!

    Forum discussion continues at High Rankings Forum.

  • Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2008/08/22/SES_San_Jose_Roundtable_Live_Coverage_Day_Four_Recap'

    SES San Jose Roundtable Live Coverage Day Four Recap

    Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 3:02am CEST by rustybrick
    TagsSearch Engine Strategies 2008 San