Search
Engine Optimisation Web Log (BLOG)
This News Blog is dedicated to bringing news, information
and innovations targeting the Search Engine Optimisation industry. |
Editor: Matt Paines
 blog@xseo.com
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Is it Better to Optimise a New or Old Domain?
Whilst during a more relaxed moment
of web browsing earlier this morning (insomniacs anon) I was reading
some old patent applications from Google, and it reminded me of a conversation
about domain names and links that I had at length with a client recently.
The patent effectively talked about the prospect of a site being in
existence for many years and comparing it with a new domain which rapidly
grows in link popularity.
Yahoo!'s New
Paid Search.
While rumours continue to circulate
about Microsoft's Adcenter being fully launched in the US and a beta
imminent for the UK, Yahoo have jumped in and announced their new system
to take on both Google's and MSN. Yahoo!'s
new Paid Search.
BigDaddy Causing Problems.
Is Big Daddy becoming more infamous
than the Florida
or Jagger
updates? Webmasters are reporting that their sites are not being crawled
for weeks, SERPS returning old pages and once successful phrases failing
to return results. Some sites have lost almost all of their indexed
pages with cache dates going back to January 2004.
We have also seen new sites that have a cache one day, only to have
no cache at all a couple of days later. It also appears to be dependent
on from where you are looking, different ISP's and even computers are
seeing different things.
These fluctuations may be as a result of Big Daddy but Eric Schmidt
of Google hinted that there maybe other factors "machines are full....
we have a huge machine crisis". He estimates that robot generated
spam is taking up between 1/5 and 1/3 of Googles Index, which probably
explains why Google is on such a mission to detect webspam.
Microsoft
in talks with Yahoo!
It has been reported in the Wall
Street Journal and on CNN
that Microsoft
and Yahoo
have been having discussions to join forces in the "search wars"
against Google
.
This week there has also been speculation that MSN
AdCenter, Microsofts
competitor product to Google AdWords and Yahoo's
Search Marketing, has been switched online in searches through MSN.
MSN's AdCenter Beta was launched earlier this year for the US market
and is a significant improvement over both the Google and Yahoo products.
| Adv |
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XSEO Top Again.
I'm sure many of you understand the
analogy about "cobblers and their shoes", and to be honest
recently it has been true with us, we haven't put much effort into our
own optimisation of late. However, we decided
recently that perhaps it would be best if we did actually put some effort
into it.
This week we have top 10's, for our primary search term " search
engine optimisation ", in all three search engines Google,
Yahoo and MSN. In fact whilst there may be other SEO's above us in the
listings - XSEO
ARE THE ONLY ONE IN THE TOP 10 OF ALL THREE SEARCH ENGINES.
Penalty Notifications from Google.
Google have announced their WebSpam
team are working with the SiteMaps team in an experiment to notify webmasters
of penalties. According to Matt Cutts of Google.
"In the early days when Google had 200-300 people there was no
way we could do everything we wanted to do. But as Google grows, we
get more of a chance to “go back and fix things,” to build
the ideal search engine. And part of doing that is having more and better
communication with webmasters."
This is good news and not before time.....nice
one Matt
Local Trade Warning - Update.
On the 10th of April I blogged about
an organisation that"VIRTUALLY" existed four doors away from
our offices in Stafford. This week we had a response from them! ECYAN
Alexa Maxed.
For some time Alexa has been
gathering data from it's toolbar users on what sites they visit. It
then publishes this data, but up until the last week all that could
be viewed was the traffic stats for the last 2 years. There was a way
by playing with the URL that enabled users to get the data for 5 years
- but it was one of those things that few knew about. Now Alexa has
introduced a MAX button, which gives the same effect.
Microsoft
Launches Academic Search Beta.
Microsoft have just announced
the beta release of its Windows Live Academic Search service in seven
countries. The new search service is designed to help students, researchers
and university faculty conduct research across a spectrum of academic
journals. The program is a cooperative effort between Windows Live Search,
industry association CrossRef, and more than 10 leading
publishers. Academic
Search Beta
68% of Websites Cannot be Found.
In cooperation with Tilburg University
Dutch SEO/SEM Company, Checkit,
has conducted research on the online "findability" in search
engines of the 100 largest advertisers in the Netherlands. The results
are remarkable: 68% of the websites cannot be easily found by search
engines. The complete Findability Top 100 can be found on the Checkit
website
Local Trade Warning.
A slight departure from the usual blog
theme, we are getting an increase in the quantity of calls looking for
the people that run online business based four doors away from our offices.
We are also getting calls for an Internet marketing company T6 based
at the same address. The only people we can see at number 58
Foregate Street is a tanning studio.
PR and Backlinks, Google
Update.
True to their word, now that Bigdaddy
is fully integrated, Google has updated its PageRank and BackLinks.
View the PageRank Update history...
Web Directories, why bother?
Recently there has been much "sabre
rattling" from Google with regard to the merits of paying for links,
they haven't specifically made it clear whether directories are included
in their warnings. Interestingly the original college thesis by Larry
Page and Sergey Brin (the very thing that started Google) mentions the
importance of web directories, and specifically makes reference to BOTW
(Best of the Web). Greg Hartnett from BOTW gives an interesting interview
to Shimon
Sandler. He also discusses "link farms" and "spam
directories".
Bigdaddy goes Live.
Google are claiming that Bigdaddy has
now been rolled out to most datacentres. As Bigdaddy stabilizes it is
expected that PageRank, for individual URLs, is likely to settle down
as well. It has also been speculated that there may well be a PageRank
update in the next couple of weeks.
Bigdaddy Looms Closer.
For some months now Google has been
working on a software upgrade to it's infrastructure, named Bigdaddy.
The update will provide the framework for a series of improvements to
the core of search quality. It is claimed that it will improve it's
handling of redirects and canonical (duplicate) pages. Google have announced
that they are down to the last couple of datacentres before the switchover
to the Bigdaddy system, this could be as soon as the next couple of
weeks.
Microsoft
Delays Vista.
Microsoft's long awaited replacement to it's ageing XP operating system,
named Vista has been delayed further. Launch was anticipated for quarter
three 2006.
Microsoft delays Vista...
Adv
Getting Away with Spam.
We often get asked, is it still possible to spam the search engines,
and are the engines really likely to catch you? The answer of course
is yes on both counts, for simple spam techniques the engines are able
to auto detect, the more complex methods generally come from other webmasters
reporting your actions. There are still techniques out there that work,
however all the engines are on a mission to identify spam. If you have
a "brand" why would you want to risk it. Getting
away with spam ...
Microsoft
Unveils Windows Live Search Beta
Innovative new search service delivers compelling new design, new search
categories and custom search services; new betas of Windows Live Toolbar
and Live.com also launched. Windows
Live Search Beta...
MSN
Street-side.
Computer gaming vs. mapping. Microsoft
have released their preview of
Street-side. Designed to complement the current map view, aerial
view, and bird's eye view that the Windows Live Local site already has
today, Street-Side provides users with an even more detailed way to
explore their local environment. MSN
Street-Side...
The Power of DMOZ.
DMOZ have provided the directory listings
to Google for many years. When submitting many people do not consider
how the description is used. The fact is that the DMOZ description in
Googles search engine listings can "overwrite" those in the
code on the page. The
power of DMOZ...
Link Building, the Future.
For ages now there has been speculation
into where the search engines will go as far as link spam. There has
been much talked about with going back to the old days of monitoring
traffic clicks from donating sites as a means of validating link authority.
This meaning that just having a link in is not good enough - it has
to be used. This of course is open to abuse, by either automated software
hiding behind proxy servers or teams of low cost human users.
However during one of the seminars at the New York Search Engine Strategies
show it became clear that the engines are working on more than that,
they are also looking at duration of visit plus and follow through.
The resounding tone from the engines for the conference is "clean
up your act" or we'll do it for you.
