Thursday, January 05, 2006
SEO FOR 2006
As you know, every year is always rocked by a plethora of changes in the search engine marketing world. The acquisition of smaller companies by the Big 3 changes the marketing landscape as we know it every month and with every update to the index that is made, we hold our breath and hope that we come out better (if not, the same) in the end. So when it comes to the new year, there are many things that we should look out for to stay on top of the rankings.
1. Quality Content: I say this so often and I cannot overemphasize this enough: Content is KING! Search engine spiders, crawl the net to find what? Content! Your site has information (hopefully) that you want the spiders to see and include in their index. By the creation and publication of quality content, you give the search engines more reason to return. You are feeding them what they want. In 2006, you should be finding creative ways to get your content noticed and viewed as well as finding creative ways to publish fresh content on a regular basis. A very good way this is done is through the use of message boards (hosted on your site) and by blogs (enabling you to publish more frequently).
2. Don't Overextend Your Link Exchange Structure: Backlinks were a popular way to increase your rankings fast in the search engines. The tradition holds: find a PR7 website and trade backlinks and you'll be indexed in Google within 24 hours. That strategy still holds true and is beneficial for new websites.
But in my opinion the days of tremendous link-swapping are coming to an end. Many websites have been founded with the purpose of allowing you to exchange links with other websites. This has caused a massive influx of webmasters who want to exchange a ton of links with the hope that it will help them in the search engines.
But what really matters when it comes to links is the amount of quality one-way backlinks that direct users to your website. You want the balance of links to be in your favor, that is what leads to success.
Also, there has been talk of search engines taking notice of these "link-farms" and penalizing those who take part in them. So if you do take part in link exchanges, please be moderate in respect to the number of exchanges you take part in.
3. RSS and XML: Two new technologies that have begun to take center stage especially in 2005 include a programming language that has been around for several years called XML. XML is shorth for extensible markup language and is a derivative from HTML. The main difference is your ability to create descriptive tags for your data.
This has led to the advent of RSS or real simple syndication. RSS is a way for you to publish your data to an XML file hosted on your site. Users subscribe to your RSS feed via the XML file and whenever you make a changes to your XML file they are notified. It's become a major technology used by news agencies and bloggers alike as a simple method of publishing your information across a wide variety of platforms.
XML has also proved useful with the Google Sitemaps program, newly released in 2005. The optional tags available with the XML sitemap allow you to be descriptive about the individual pages on your site including dates the individual pages were modified. There are some small things you need to pay attention to when creating this: namely you have to follow the Google xml schema, and you have to be diligent about tracking and fixing errors in the code. But if used correctly, it is a great way to help Google index the hidden pages of your website due to javascript or flash.
4. Stay away from Flash and Javascript for the time being: Flash and Javascript are very powerful tools for creating dynamic and eye catching websites. The most prominent problem with the two technologies is that the spiders can't index through them (at least not yet). This limits your ability to have the search engines index portions of your site. Many have speculated that the Big 3 are working on solving this problem, but for the time being, avoid or limit your use of these technologies.
5. Avoid Unethical SEO: There are a lot of programs out there that help you to acheive maxmum linkback ratios in a very short amount of time. Some of them are good; some are bad. In fact, some of them will waste your effort trying to post trivial comments on blogs or trying to maximize your link exchanges. In my opinion, you should seek success in SEM the right, ethical way. Seek out honest web companies to exchange a moderate amount of links with. Post only relevant comments to forums and blogs because that behavior leads to lasting link backs. Also, don't try to manipulate your website to make it appear to have a higher PR than you really do. Google sees that one!
6. Last, but not least, Articles: There is a little bit of controversial talk about whether it is right to post articles for free use in directories. In my opinion, you are providing a well needed service to webmasters and I don't see this one as a potential loss for 2006. Information is valuable. And websites that need content (especially fresh content) desire what you do to make their efforts a success. So it is natural for your website rankings to benefit through backlinks from those articles. It's a win-win situation.
One other thought on this subject. Right now, the search engines can punish websites for having duplicate content, and that is an argument that many will propose. But, the search engines will usually only punish you if the html format of a web site is similar, not a couple of articles. So posting articles is safe for now.
But be cautious. Many lucrative methods of ethical SEO can be turned into a problem when too many people attempt to abuse the technology.
So that's it. Short, but informative. SEO is both an art and a technology that we have to use correctly for the right type of success. Who knows what the year ahead may bring, but playing your cards right, you can acheive success and avoid any pitfalls that may come.
1. Quality Content: I say this so often and I cannot overemphasize this enough: Content is KING! Search engine spiders, crawl the net to find what? Content! Your site has information (hopefully) that you want the spiders to see and include in their index. By the creation and publication of quality content, you give the search engines more reason to return. You are feeding them what they want. In 2006, you should be finding creative ways to get your content noticed and viewed as well as finding creative ways to publish fresh content on a regular basis. A very good way this is done is through the use of message boards (hosted on your site) and by blogs (enabling you to publish more frequently).
2. Don't Overextend Your Link Exchange Structure: Backlinks were a popular way to increase your rankings fast in the search engines. The tradition holds: find a PR7 website and trade backlinks and you'll be indexed in Google within 24 hours. That strategy still holds true and is beneficial for new websites.
But in my opinion the days of tremendous link-swapping are coming to an end. Many websites have been founded with the purpose of allowing you to exchange links with other websites. This has caused a massive influx of webmasters who want to exchange a ton of links with the hope that it will help them in the search engines.
But what really matters when it comes to links is the amount of quality one-way backlinks that direct users to your website. You want the balance of links to be in your favor, that is what leads to success.
Also, there has been talk of search engines taking notice of these "link-farms" and penalizing those who take part in them. So if you do take part in link exchanges, please be moderate in respect to the number of exchanges you take part in.
3. RSS and XML: Two new technologies that have begun to take center stage especially in 2005 include a programming language that has been around for several years called XML. XML is shorth for extensible markup language and is a derivative from HTML. The main difference is your ability to create descriptive tags for your data.
This has led to the advent of RSS or real simple syndication. RSS is a way for you to publish your data to an XML file hosted on your site. Users subscribe to your RSS feed via the XML file and whenever you make a changes to your XML file they are notified. It's become a major technology used by news agencies and bloggers alike as a simple method of publishing your information across a wide variety of platforms.
XML has also proved useful with the Google Sitemaps program, newly released in 2005. The optional tags available with the XML sitemap allow you to be descriptive about the individual pages on your site including dates the individual pages were modified. There are some small things you need to pay attention to when creating this: namely you have to follow the Google xml schema, and you have to be diligent about tracking and fixing errors in the code. But if used correctly, it is a great way to help Google index the hidden pages of your website due to javascript or flash.
4. Stay away from Flash and Javascript for the time being: Flash and Javascript are very powerful tools for creating dynamic and eye catching websites. The most prominent problem with the two technologies is that the spiders can't index through them (at least not yet). This limits your ability to have the search engines index portions of your site. Many have speculated that the Big 3 are working on solving this problem, but for the time being, avoid or limit your use of these technologies.
5. Avoid Unethical SEO: There are a lot of programs out there that help you to acheive maxmum linkback ratios in a very short amount of time. Some of them are good; some are bad. In fact, some of them will waste your effort trying to post trivial comments on blogs or trying to maximize your link exchanges. In my opinion, you should seek success in SEM the right, ethical way. Seek out honest web companies to exchange a moderate amount of links with. Post only relevant comments to forums and blogs because that behavior leads to lasting link backs. Also, don't try to manipulate your website to make it appear to have a higher PR than you really do. Google sees that one!
6. Last, but not least, Articles: There is a little bit of controversial talk about whether it is right to post articles for free use in directories. In my opinion, you are providing a well needed service to webmasters and I don't see this one as a potential loss for 2006. Information is valuable. And websites that need content (especially fresh content) desire what you do to make their efforts a success. So it is natural for your website rankings to benefit through backlinks from those articles. It's a win-win situation.
One other thought on this subject. Right now, the search engines can punish websites for having duplicate content, and that is an argument that many will propose. But, the search engines will usually only punish you if the html format of a web site is similar, not a couple of articles. So posting articles is safe for now.
But be cautious. Many lucrative methods of ethical SEO can be turned into a problem when too many people attempt to abuse the technology.
So that's it. Short, but informative. SEO is both an art and a technology that we have to use correctly for the right type of success. Who knows what the year ahead may bring, but playing your cards right, you can acheive success and avoid any pitfalls that may come.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Matt Cutt's on the BIG DADDY Data Center
About a month ago I alluded to a data center called “Bigdaddy” that people could check out as a preview. We’re ready to collect feedback on the Bigdaddy data center now. Let’s start with some Q&A.
Q: Why are you giving this a name? Isn’t that normally the privilege of Brett Tabke and the moderators at WebmasterWorld (WMW)?
A: Brett and WMW normally name updates. But this is neither an update nor a data refresh; this is new infrastructure. It should be much more subtle/gentle than an update.
Q: Why is it called Bigdaddy?
A: That’s a good story. Bigdaddy got its name right here:
At Pubcon, there was an hour-long Q&A session one morning. After the session was over, a bunch of us skipped the next session of talks to talk more in the lunch room (that’s me in the blue shirt). I knew we had a test data center that would need feedback, so I asked for suggested names. One of the webmasters to my right (JeffM) suggested “Bigdaddy.” Bigdaddy is his nickname because that’s what Jeff’s kids call him. So I said I’d use that the next time we needed a name for feedback.
Q: Why did you wait so long to ask for feedback?
A: There were a couple reasons. First, I knew that Bigdaddy wouldn’t go live before the holidays were over. Second, the team working on this data center wasn’t showing it 100% of the time; at night, they’d take it out of our data center rotation to tinker with it. That would have been a recipe for confusion. Now we’re past the holidays and the Bigdaddy data center is live 100% of the time. In fact, Bigdaddy is now visible at two data centers: 64.233.179.104 and 66.249.93.104.
Q: Do you expect this to become the default source of web results? How long will it take?
A: Yes, I do expect Bigdaddy to become the default source of web results. The length of the transition will depend on lots of different issues. Right now I’m guessing 1-2 months, but if I find out more specifics I’ll let you know.
Q: What’s new and different in Bigdaddy?
A: It has some new infrastructure, not just better algorithms or different data. Most of the changes are under the hood, enough so that an average user might not even notice any difference in this iteration.
Q: I noticed some ranking changes across all data centers. Was that Bigdaddy?
A: Probably not. There was a completely unrelated data refresh that went live at every data center on December 27th. Bigdaddy is only live at 64.233.179.104 and 66.249.93.104 right now.
Q: Is there specific types of feedback that you want?
A: We’d like to get general quality feedback. For example, this data center lays the groundwork for better canonicalization, although most of that will follow down the road. But some improvements are already visible with site: searches. The site: operator now returns more intuitive results (this is actually live at all data centers now).
Q: What else can you tell me about Bigdaddy?
A: In my opinion, this data center improves in several of the ways that you’d measure a search engine. But for now, the main feedback we’re looking for is just general quality and canonicalization.
Q: Will this datacenter make me coffee? Is it the solution to all possible issues ever?
A: No. No data center will make 100% of people happy. For every url that moves into the top 10, another url moves out. And the changes on Bigdaddy are relatively subtle (less ranking changes and more infrastructure changes). Most of the changes are under the hood, and this infrastructure prepares the framework for future improvements throughout the year. If you see a webspam or quality issue, let us know so that we can work on it.
Let’s finish off with a couple more Q&A’s.
Q: I see something weird on the Bigdaddy data center. Should I leave a comment on your blog?
A: Please don’t; that’s not the best place to leave it. I would leave the feedback either in a spam report (for webspam) or the “dissatisfied” form for any other feedback. The only Google person reading the comments on this blog will be me, so your feedback will get the best bang-for-the-buck if you put it into one of those two forms.
Q: Are you sure you don’t want me to just drop a quick comment about my problem here? Right now?
A: I’m about blogged out for the day, and there are better places to discuss this stuff (WebmasterWorld, Search Engine Watch Forums, etc.). The best way to get people to process your feedback is to use the spam report form or the dissatisfied link, make sure that you include the keyword “bigdaddy” and try to be as specific and clear as you can.
Okay, now let’s get to the meat of this post: how to give us feedback on Bigdaddy. I’d be delighted to get webspam feedback, but I’m most interested in hearing feedback about canonicalization, redirects, duplicate urls, www vs. non-www, and similar issues. Before you send in a report, please read my previous posts on url canonicalization, the inurl operator, and 302 redirects. Now here’s where to send feedback:
Reporting spam in the bigdaddy data center
I definitely want to hear about webspam that you see in Google. The best place to do that is to go to http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html . In the “Additional details:” section, I would use the keyword “bigdaddy” in your report.
Reporting other quality issues in Google’s index
Do the search that you’re interested in on 64.233.179.104 or 66.249.93.104, then click the “Dissatisfied? Help us improve” link at the bottom right of the page. Again, fill in details and use the keyword bigdaddy so that folks at Google can separate out feedback specifically about this data center.
If I see feedback reports that aren’t helpful, I’ll try to provide suggestions for how to give solid reports that we can use.
Q: Why are you giving this a name? Isn’t that normally the privilege of Brett Tabke and the moderators at WebmasterWorld (WMW)?
A: Brett and WMW normally name updates. But this is neither an update nor a data refresh; this is new infrastructure. It should be much more subtle/gentle than an update.
Q: Why is it called Bigdaddy?
A: That’s a good story. Bigdaddy got its name right here:
At Pubcon, there was an hour-long Q&A session one morning. After the session was over, a bunch of us skipped the next session of talks to talk more in the lunch room (that’s me in the blue shirt). I knew we had a test data center that would need feedback, so I asked for suggested names. One of the webmasters to my right (JeffM) suggested “Bigdaddy.” Bigdaddy is his nickname because that’s what Jeff’s kids call him. So I said I’d use that the next time we needed a name for feedback.
Q: Why did you wait so long to ask for feedback?
A: There were a couple reasons. First, I knew that Bigdaddy wouldn’t go live before the holidays were over. Second, the team working on this data center wasn’t showing it 100% of the time; at night, they’d take it out of our data center rotation to tinker with it. That would have been a recipe for confusion. Now we’re past the holidays and the Bigdaddy data center is live 100% of the time. In fact, Bigdaddy is now visible at two data centers: 64.233.179.104 and 66.249.93.104.
Q: Do you expect this to become the default source of web results? How long will it take?
A: Yes, I do expect Bigdaddy to become the default source of web results. The length of the transition will depend on lots of different issues. Right now I’m guessing 1-2 months, but if I find out more specifics I’ll let you know.
Q: What’s new and different in Bigdaddy?
A: It has some new infrastructure, not just better algorithms or different data. Most of the changes are under the hood, enough so that an average user might not even notice any difference in this iteration.
Q: I noticed some ranking changes across all data centers. Was that Bigdaddy?
A: Probably not. There was a completely unrelated data refresh that went live at every data center on December 27th. Bigdaddy is only live at 64.233.179.104 and 66.249.93.104 right now.
Q: Is there specific types of feedback that you want?
A: We’d like to get general quality feedback. For example, this data center lays the groundwork for better canonicalization, although most of that will follow down the road. But some improvements are already visible with site: searches. The site: operator now returns more intuitive results (this is actually live at all data centers now).
Q: What else can you tell me about Bigdaddy?
A: In my opinion, this data center improves in several of the ways that you’d measure a search engine. But for now, the main feedback we’re looking for is just general quality and canonicalization.
Q: Will this datacenter make me coffee? Is it the solution to all possible issues ever?
A: No. No data center will make 100% of people happy. For every url that moves into the top 10, another url moves out. And the changes on Bigdaddy are relatively subtle (less ranking changes and more infrastructure changes). Most of the changes are under the hood, and this infrastructure prepares the framework for future improvements throughout the year. If you see a webspam or quality issue, let us know so that we can work on it.
Let’s finish off with a couple more Q&A’s.
Q: I see something weird on the Bigdaddy data center. Should I leave a comment on your blog?
A: Please don’t; that’s not the best place to leave it. I would leave the feedback either in a spam report (for webspam) or the “dissatisfied” form for any other feedback. The only Google person reading the comments on this blog will be me, so your feedback will get the best bang-for-the-buck if you put it into one of those two forms.
Q: Are you sure you don’t want me to just drop a quick comment about my problem here? Right now?
A: I’m about blogged out for the day, and there are better places to discuss this stuff (WebmasterWorld, Search Engine Watch Forums, etc.). The best way to get people to process your feedback is to use the spam report form or the dissatisfied link, make sure that you include the keyword “bigdaddy” and try to be as specific and clear as you can.
Okay, now let’s get to the meat of this post: how to give us feedback on Bigdaddy. I’d be delighted to get webspam feedback, but I’m most interested in hearing feedback about canonicalization, redirects, duplicate urls, www vs. non-www, and similar issues. Before you send in a report, please read my previous posts on url canonicalization, the inurl operator, and 302 redirects. Now here’s where to send feedback:
Reporting spam in the bigdaddy data center
I definitely want to hear about webspam that you see in Google. The best place to do that is to go to http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html . In the “Additional details:” section, I would use the keyword “bigdaddy” in your report.
Reporting other quality issues in Google’s index
Do the search that you’re interested in on 64.233.179.104 or 66.249.93.104, then click the “Dissatisfied? Help us improve” link at the bottom right of the page. Again, fill in details and use the keyword bigdaddy so that folks at Google can separate out feedback specifically about this data center.
If I see feedback reports that aren’t helpful, I’ll try to provide suggestions for how to give solid reports that we can use.
Monday, January 02, 2006
Spam at it's best
Expecially when you get something like this. Keep in mind my main site receives 2000 visitors per day.. Are these guys nuts?
I got this in my email
Hello Todd
This is Sean the mad scientist at Marketingtool.com. The Marketingtool.com web design shop directory has featured listing spots available in your region. Marketingtool.com was founded in 1999 and has grown to become the largest and most popular directory of its kind. Over ten thousand people a day visit while shopping for a vendor. With over 58,000 vendors a featured listing promotes you to the first page of multiple cities in your desired region(s). My featured listing vendors are my primary clients and they are small businesses - just like mine. Take a look at a small sample of available featured listings below:
The exclusive guaranteed 2nd listed Vermont Search Engine Optimization Directory State-wide featured listing for Vermont. Based on current performance, we estimate more than 98 visitors will click through to this listing during the next twelve months. During that time over 140 visitors will see this listing. Fee is $20 for a 3 month - or $50 for a 12 month - reservation with the option to renew indefinitely.
I got this in my email
Hello Todd
This is Sean the mad scientist at Marketingtool.com. The Marketingtool.com web design shop directory has featured listing spots available in your region. Marketingtool.com was founded in 1999 and has grown to become the largest and most popular directory of its kind. Over ten thousand people a day visit while shopping for a vendor. With over 58,000 vendors a featured listing promotes you to the first page of multiple cities in your desired region(s). My featured listing vendors are my primary clients and they are small businesses - just like mine. Take a look at a small sample of available featured listings below:
The exclusive guaranteed 2nd listed Vermont Search Engine Optimization Directory State-wide featured listing for Vermont. Based on current performance, we estimate more than 98 visitors will click through to this listing during the next twelve months. During that time over 140 visitors will see this listing. Fee is $20 for a 3 month - or $50 for a 12 month - reservation with the option to renew indefinitely.
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Google New years update happening now?
I noticed it about an hour ago the infamous "test results" have now spread to 5 Data centers.. We will see by morning.
