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Friday, February 27, 2004

Coming Soon To A Yahoo Near You (from WebProNews)

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 11:27 AM

As searchers become more sophisticated, the search engines are forced to evolve to keep up with the changing times.

During a session at WebmasterWorld's Publishers Conference VI, Tim Mayer from Yahoo! Search explained how Yahoo! has improved its abstracts, the presentation of its results pages, and how it has developed a new algorithm designed specifically to focus on longer query searches using more terms.

Yahoo! now offers a larger index and additional changes have been made to its page cache. Yahoo’s daily crawler discovers and crawls millions of new documents each day. The company is also experimenting with submission quality and the new Yahoo! Slurp bot will crawl links from the URLs that are submitted.

Additionally, Yahoo! Search RSS will be arriving on April 15th.

Yahoo! Slurp. Mayer says Yahoo! Slurp adheres more strictly to robot exclusion standards than any other search bot. The best way to block the bot is through .txt files, as other methods won't necessarily work. The Yahoo! Slurp team currently prefers sites that are navigable by HREF's, not by forms, JavaScript or Flash. The site should not require cookies for entry. Avoid session IDs in the URL. Sitemap links should be included on the home page. Use REAL 404s for error pages.

New slurp commands: Slurp now recognizes the NOARCHIVE meta tag command and crawl-delay, although Yahoo! admits it is still struggling with the way Slurp handles redirects.

Yahoo’s Crusade Against Spam. Yahoo! takes the fight against spam very seriously, using both automated and human filters for fighting spam. Yahoo! Search will be combining intelligences with Yahoo! Mail to offer better anti-spam technology.

Have you been banned? If your site has been banned from Yahoo! for spamming, Slurp will visit your robot.txt but will not go deeper into your site. Paid inclusion members might notice their URLs appearing lower on keyword query pages.

What can you do? If your site has been banned and you've cleaned up your act you can submit your page to the paid inclusion program for review in April or send an email to feedback@yahoo.com and include what method got you in trouble and how you've corrected yourself.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 11:27 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
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Thursday, February 26, 2004

Patent Wars -- Search Engine Giants may be Preparing to Use Courts to Damage Each Other

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 9:19 AM

ZNet writer Stephanie Olsen has uncovered a terribly interesting story. Why do you think Yahoo spent so much money buying AltaVista, AlltheWeb and Inktomi if it is simply going to develop its own search engine with its own database? For the intellectual properties associated with the patents their acquisitions hold.

Just wait to see it in court folks. Yahoo v. Google. Yahoo v. MSN. Yahoo v. et al.

My mother was right. I should have gone to law school.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 9:19 AM.

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Yahoo to introduce new paid-inclusion search tool

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 9:12 AM

This is actually last week's news but last week was busier than expected so it did not make it to the BLOG.

Yahoo is currently drawing results from Inktomi and filtering those results through its own algorithm. As of April 15, Yahoo will be drawing from its own paid-inclusion search database.

Yahoo has not released details regarding costs and coverage but we expect to hear some numbers sooner than later.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 9:12 AM.

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New Trends in Search Engines and SEO

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 9:07 AM

The past year has been one of major transition in the search engine industry. Changes to the landscape have been enormous with mergers, acquisitions, and the easing of several formerly big-players out of the sector or, in the case of AltaVista, Lycos and LookSmart, into the minor leagues. We’ve seen new technologies and revenue models being tested by search firms, along with fresh promises of personalized ad-delivery through contextual placement. While there is no end in sight for changes in this evolving medium, this is a good time to examine the impact of such upheaval on the state of website marketing and search engine placement.

The biggest recent shift in the industry is the steady erosion of Google’s dominance over the past eight months. In mid-July, the SEO community started to notice subtle changes in Google’s ranking algorithm. At that time, Google had an absolute lock on the search engine world with some form of involvement in over 76% of all searches conducted globally. By the time Google released its infamous “Florida Update” in mid-November, Google’s lock-hold was slipping. At that time, Google was the main listings provider for a host of Internet properties including the gigantic search-portal Yahoo!. That changed recently when Yahoo discontinued their relationship with Google in place of their in-house database, Inktomi. With the loss of distribution through Yahoo!, Google now fuels approximately 48% of all search traffic, with the bulk of the remainder split between Yahoo and MSN, both of which are currently fed by Inktomi. (Please note: Yahoo will be moving away from Inktomi in mid-April in favour of their own paid-inclusion database.) While Google continues to enjoy a higher viewership than any other search tool, it has lost a great deal of distribution power since being dumped by Yahoo!. The bottom line here is that there are now three major search engines as opposed to just one and SEO strategies need to change to meet the new environment. Last year, clients were strictly concerned with Google rankings, knowing full well that good Google rankings were a sure-fire ticket into Yahoo. SEO-Reaction: This year, SEOs will need to concentrate on a mixture of strong-keyword enriched copy in order to please Inktomi, along with a well thought-out link-building campaign to please Google. The re-emergence of Yahoo and MSN as serious players in the search industry is beneficial to advertisers and webmasters as competition and the corresponding increase in consumer choices tend to produce better products and services in the long run.

Bigger, Better, Undercut
The validity of the truism about competition driving innovation and producing better products and innovations is demonstrated by the number of new services and innovations introduced over the past twelve months. Search is becoming far more technical and, in many ways, far more specific. Localization and personalization are two of the new common buzzwords in Internet marketing. Localized search results promise increased relevance to the searcher by delivering search results from sources within a reasonable traveling distance such as a postal/zip-code or telephone area-code. Personalized search results promise listings based on specific interests or behaviours of the individual searcher, or the computer used to conduct the search. An early example of a search tool designed to deliver personalized search results is Eurekster. Eurekster bases it’s results on two major factors. The first is the user’s personal behaviour. The second is the behaviour of friends and others belonging to a social or work grouping. The basic idea is that groups share common interests. Weighing a search-query by those interests may produce better, more personalized search results. SEO-Reaction: In order to adapt to these two innovations, website marketers and SEOs will need to add highly specific elements to a client’s website such as geo-specific metatags and text, and corporate identifying information such as full street addresses and telephone numbers. Website marketers will also need to add features to websites making them more useful to individual searchers such as newsletters, local-promotions and blogs to make their site relevant to specific users in order to present a level of personalized attention that will keep viewers coming back, or at least keep the client’s website in the minds of search engine users.

The big three are using these and other features to try to undercut each other’s level of service offerings, including blogging, news aggregators, email and instant-messaging, and a whole host of tool-bars. It is only a matter of time until someone introduces a new technology or search tool that “re-invents” the way we relate to information retrieval. Both IBM and MSN are developing deep-crawling spiders that will certainly expand the scope of search. IBM is developing the Webfountain tool and MSN is slated to release its new search tool based on the coming Longhorn operating system. These tools will include Excel sheets, Word docs, emails, and other documents found on a hard drive that a user has viewed, in search results for that specific user.

Evolution or Bust
Over the past three years, search engine marketing has become the fastest growing advertising medium in the world. New SEO firms are emerging and established SEO firms, like StepForth are growing rapidly. Website owners and webmasters are advised to shop around before choosing an Internet marketing provider. Check out several SEO websites and compare service offerings. Ask serious questions and don’t be afraid to challenge an SEO’s knowledge of the environment. With change comes confusion and we are noting a number of new firms playing on that confusion in order to see short-term gains. A new company in our area will take $200 from clients in order to add their URL to an automated submitter. As difficult as it may be to believe, there are still millions who fall for that old, “better living through automation” argument. Another pitfall to watch out for is hiring a company that is not prepared to evolve their services to meet new technical innovations. As the search world changes, good, honest SEOs are prepared to adapt and tell their clients exactly how that evolution will take place and why.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 9:07 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
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Ask Jeeves is Getting More Relevant as it Slowly Releases New Advances (By Ross Dunn)

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 9:06 AM

It seems that the Ask empire has been quietly innovating while the search engine world focused on the ever public battle between the top 3 search properties. Recently Ask launched "Smart Search" which VP Jim Lanzone noted as "more of an ideology than a brand name". Smart Search has been implemented to improve the natural-language processing that Ask Jeeves made its name on since its inception. In fact, our informal research at StepForth points to a very admirable job on their part. Type in just about any question into the Ask search field and you will more often than not (finally) get a highly relevant answer. There was a time where the results were simply bunk for any reasonably technical question, however, it appears that Smart Search was an incredibly worthwhile endeavor. Does this mean that Ask will become a going concern again? In a world where high relevancy rules they certainly would but it is anyone's guess if they are up to the task of siphoning Google's or Yahoo!'s market share that is so heavily based on user habit.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 9:06 AM.

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View this Article Only: Ask Jeeves is Getting More Relevant as it Slowly Releases New Advances (By Ross Dunn)

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First Place is Not Always the Most Cost Effective Placement (By Scott Van Achte)

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 9:05 AM

In the battle for search engine placement across all organic listings, that golden spot of number one is top priority, and for good reason. That may not hold true in the realm of pay per click advertising. What many people may not know, is that the number one spot, although it typically grabs the highest click through’s, may not always be the most cost effective. Here’s why.

If you are running an ad campaign with limited funds, chances are you will max out your daily budget regardless of where you sit in the top 3, or even top 5 for that matter. It really makes little sense to pay a dollar a click for top spot if you are able to pay 50 cents for number 3.

Lets say you have a 10-dollar a day budget, currently sit in number one spot, and max your budget every day. You’re paying a dollar a click and getting 10 clicks a day. Wouldn’t it make sense to drop your max cost per click to 50 cents, drop to position 3, and generate 20 clicks per day instead? In my opinion it’s a no brainer. If you can increase your traffic while decreasing your spending, that seems to me to be the way to go.

One thing to remember though, regardless of the PPC engine you are using, in most cases the top few positions are distributed across a variety of network sites. Make sure you know which positions will be distributed and stay within them.

Please keep in mind that this example is for illustrative purposes only and will not apply to all ad campaigns or keywords, and typically will work best for those on limited budgets, but this is definitely something to think about when selecting your max CPC.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 9:05 AM.

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View this Article Only: First Place is Not Always the Most Cost Effective Placement (By Scott Van Achte)

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Marketing in Discussion Forums (By Dave Davies)

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 9:05 AM

When you’re working with a limited budget and need to increase your visibility with minimal expense, then forums are a great place to start. The effect of posting information and opinions on forums are two-fold:

When you post to forums you are posting information to a targeted readership that is interested in the forum topic. Provided that you have chosen a forum related to the topic of your website you are, in posting interesting and insightful information, promoting your own knowledge of the area and people are likely to visit your website based on this.

An additional benefit to forum posting is that you will generally have the opportunity to add your website address to your signature. This acts as a beneficial link to your website given that it is from an entirely related site. This will count as a quality link to your website and help to improve your link popularity on the search engines.

While forum posting can be a time consuming process, especially in the beginning while you are having to set up accounts, create your profile, etc. it is one of the best of the zero cost (other than time) marketing tactics.

To find forums related to your topic you can visit one of the major search engines and enter your keyword along with the word “forum”. This should give you a good list to start from though in your travels you may find other quality forums to post to.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 9:05 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Marketing in Discussion Forums (By Dave Davies)

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GoGuides.Org Press Release 2-18-04 - System Upgrades and New Features @ GoGuides

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 9:04 AM

This article will cover the following:

System Upgrades

Change in Editors’ Area

Division of Ownership

Seeking New Search Partners

New Submission Specialist Program

Our Future Plans

-- System Upgrades --

Over the past several months, GoGuides.Org has been undergoing some changes. One of the most notable changes is in the scripts that make the directory run. We are still in the process of writing and upgrading that code. Over the next couple of weeks, the foundation for the entire system will be put firmly in place. Expect a dramatic increase in system speed for both searching the directory and browsing topics once these final building blocks are put in place.

-- Change in Editors’ Area --

From the public side of the directory, everything will appear basically the same. But for editors in the system, there is going to be a dramatic change in the way edits are allowed. Our long time editors will remember the old editing system that was in place for the volunteer editors at go.com.

GoGuides.Org was created by Mr. Robert Barger just days after the closure of that volunteer directory. Many of the volunteers that still edit the directory today have fond memories of that old system, so it is a case of going back to our roots now that we are putting a point system back in place. We have no set time limit for when this part of the project will be completed, but our programmers are working on this daily, so hopefully everything will be fixed in the near future.

-- Division of Ownership --

In December, GoGuides was put on the market. We were approached by numerous individuals and corporations showing great interest in buying the directory. We were astonished by the offers that poured in and the amounts that some search engines were willing to pay for this project. In the end, it was Mr. Barger’s sole decision to pull GoGuides back off the market. This decision was due largely to the outcry from the volunteers in the community and his passion for this project. Because of those factors, we withdraw all offers to sell. It has always been our utmost desire at GoGuides to see this community continue to grow and prosper. Keeping the same owner at the helm will ensure this community stays on track.

The most notable change to announce is the break-up of partnerships in the directory. Shortly after starting GoGuides, Mr. Barger extended a form of shared ownership in the directory to Mrs. Laurie Coby. Over the years, this partnership has proven very successful for the community.

But as the directory has evolved, so has Mrs. Coby’s experience and knowledge in the search engine field. Mrs. Coby has now decided to broaden her horizons and take on the challenging task of running an independent directory at www.web-beacon.com.

Mr. Barger holds full copyright and trademark authority over all intellectual property in the directory and has now willingly provided Mrs. Coby with a copy of the GoGuides.Org directory and has granted her a full end user’s license to use and improve upon that intellectually property as needed in her new project. With the signing of this agreement finalized, Mr. Barger now has a full controlling interest in GoGuides and Mrs. Coby has a full controlling interest in Web-Beacon.

Although going down our own separate paths, both directories are expected to play a key role in the mapping and indexing of the Internet. Both owners have different visions for the editors’ sections of the directories so it will be very exciting to watch how these two projects evolve. This break-up in ownership also puts an end to any speculation and concerns about ownership in either directory. Both directories will continue to have a close working relationship with one another and plan to work jointly on various future projects.

-- Seeking New Search Partners --

GoGuides is seeking to form long-lasting partnerships with other directories and search engines. If you would like to contact us regarding a possible partnership, please email us at: teamsupport@goguides.org

-- New Submission Specialist Program --

In an effort to help web professionals better meet their clients’ needs and to increase submission speed, we have started a new program called the Submission Specialist Program. This allows members to make instant submissions in the directory for a flat low monthly fee without having to join the community as a volunteer editor.

This program allows web developers to make up to 20 instant submissions in the directory for a flat monthly membership fee of $39.95

To learn more about this exciting program, please visit: http://www.goguides.org/DIR/membership.html

-- Our Future Plans --

With the sale of GoGuides now withdrawn and the division of ownership finalized with Mrs. Coby, we are now focusing 100% of our energy into making GoGuides.Org the number one human edited directory on the net. If you would like to be part of our growing community, please apply to become an editor in any topic.

Team Support
www.goguides.org

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 9:04 AM.

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View this Article Only: GoGuides.Org Press Release 2-18-04 - System Upgrades and New Features @ GoGuides

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Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Verison defends Yellow Pages revenues, for free

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 10:22 AM

Verison, the largest telephone company in the US is introducing a search feature at Superpages.com. Verison is the primary publisher of Yellow Pages directories in the USA. They are trying to save this market from Yahoo, Google and MSN. Currently basic listings are free (with registration required).

This is likely an important place for business listings and submissions. We're going to add iit to our submission runs for US-based businesses. I think one or more of the big three will start referencing from here and all will likely spider the listings when they go live on March 1.

for more info, please visit:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040224/wr_nm/tech_verizon_findwhat_dc_1

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 10:22 AM.

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Monday, February 23, 2004

StepForth Uses Clicktracks for Client Site Analysis - Award Winning Software

Written by Ross Dunn and published at 3:01 PM

Since December 2003, StepForth has been using Clicktracks to analyze the statistics associated with some of our client web sites and the results have been very revealing. We are extremely impressed with the results provided by this software which is why were glad to hear that the smaller company Clicktracks tied with statistics giant WebTrends as the Best Marketing and Analysis Product available. The award was handed out by the prestigious website SmallBusinessComputing.com and has been added to the long list of amazing awards that Clicktracks has won since its inception.

Congratulations to the Clicktracks team! Keep up the good work.

If you would like more information on this fabulous web site tracking product, please visit http://stats.stepforth.com

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This SEO News was posted by Ross Dunn @ 3:01 PM.

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Thursday, February 19, 2004

Changes in submission rules at Yahoo

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 9:47 AM

We received this email this morning. Still looking into it to see what costs will be...

Dear Priority Submit customer.

This is an important notification in relation to the following services:

1. Inktomi Search Submit
2. AltaVista Express Submit
3. Fast PartnerSite
4. Summary

1. Inktomi Search Submit
Yahoo! Search has transitioned to its own search technology and is preparing to launch a new inclusion program.

As a bonus for Inktomi Search Submit customers only, Yahoo! Search is providing a free trial of Yahoo! traffic that will end on April 15, 2004. When the new inclusion program launches, Search Submit customers will have the option of joining the new program for ongoing participation in Yahoo! Search results.

Please note that inclusion into Yahoo, applies for existing Inktomi Search Submit customers and is for a limited time only. We will shortly provide details how you can participate in Yahoo! Search results after the 15th April.

Existing Inktomi Search Submit customers will continue to receive distribution from the rest of the "Inktomi" network for full 12 months of service as ordered. Again after the 15th Yahoo! Search traffic will not be included in this.

2. AltaVista Express Submit
AltaVista paid inclusion customers will not receive distribution in Yahoo! Search results. You will however continue to receive traffic from AltaVista for the full duration of your listing period.

When the new inclusion program launches, AltaVista Express Submit customers will have the opportunity to participate and gain traffic from Yahoo! and other major portals.

3. Fast PartnerSite
FAST paid inclusion customers will not receive distribution in Yahoo! Search results. You will however continue to receive traffic from portals that had been previously served FAST results for the full duration of your listing period.

When the new inclusion program launches, FAST customers will have the opportunity to participate and gain traffic from Yahoo! and other major portals.

4. Summary
Both AltaVista and Fast paid inclusion programs will shortly be removed from our range of offerings... those with last minute submissions to be made, please do these as soon as you can before they are removed.

Thank you and all the best.

Kind Regards
Trellian Priority Submit Team
http://www.trellian.com/
http://www.prioritysubmit.com/

You have received this email because at one time you have used the PrioritySubmit.com system.
If you would no longer like to receive these messages please reply to this email with "remove" in the subject line.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 9:47 AM.

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View this Article Only: Changes in submission rules at Yahoo

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Yahoo Introduces Its Own Search Engine!

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 9:43 AM

Yahoo unleashed the biggest surprise of the year today with the formal introduction of their own search engine. While the vast majority of search engine analysts were expecting Yahoo to simply adopt results from the powerful Inktomi database, Yahoo has been quietly and apparently quite effectively developing their own spider, database and ranking algorithms. Last month, Yahoo CEO Terry Semel announced that Yahoo would be moving away from results licensed from Google's database by the end of this quarter. The move to produce in-house search results is part of the growing competition in the search engine industry. The sector is currently dominated by three big players, Yahoo, MSN and Google. Until recently, Google was considered the most important search engine to be ranked on, however the changes made by Yahoo and the anticipated arrival of MSN's own, proprietary search engine have changed the perceptions of many webmasters and search engine analysts. Where there was once only one, there are now three, opening the doors to more competition, better pricing and hopefully better results from all three.

We are very excited about the "new" Yahoo. The listings returned look highly relevant to keywords entered and we don't see much SPAM in the listings, based on the limited number of keyword phrases we have tested. We may still see Google results filtering in and out of Yahoo for a few weeks yet as the techs at Yahoo work out any bugs or problems associated with their new search engine. There are a few features of the "new" Yahoo webmasters and SEOs should be aware of.

* Yahoo seems to be looking at similar page elements as Inktomi, though the results displayed are somewhat different from those shown on HotBot which runs nearly pure Inktomi results. Elements such as keyword densities, keyword enriched titles and keyword arrangement seem to be important factors in Yahoo's current algorithm. We have also seen Google results popping up from time to time. This is very likely a temporary measure to ensure search-continuity as Yahoo engineers continue to develop their algorithm.

* The description meta tag weighs heavily in Yahoo's algorithm. Webmasters are strongly recommended to display similar incidents of keywords in titles, descriptions and body text for each page in their site. (Be certain the incidents are page and topic specific, of course)

* Yahoo has a new spider known as YahooSlurp. YahooSlurp will work a lot like GoogleBot in that it will follow every HREF link on found a website. YahooSlurp will NOT follow SRC links such as images or FRAMES. When optimizing a site that uses FRAMES, correct use of the noframes tag will be necessary. Yahoo's spider can follow dynamic links but Yahoo is advising webmasters to post static pages with HREF (text) links directed to specific sections featuring dynamic content. This tells us that the use of a sitemap will continue to be an SEO Best Practice technique.

* Yahoo will respect common ROBOTS.TXT statements. For more information on ROBOTS.TXT files, please visit: http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/norobots.html

* Paying to get into the Inktomi database should attract more attention from YahooSlurp. I am pretty sure that YahooSlurp will find your site if you don't pay however, paying will buy you much greater frequency of visits from the Slurp spider.

* Inktomi is very old-school when it comes to Keyword densities, keyword arrangement and simple-site structure. Optimizing for Inktomi is a lot like optimizing for AltaVista was a few years back (without the leader-pages and gateways that were once so popular). While Yahoo is clearly not running on pure Inktomi results, the fact they share a spider and likely a database leads us to believe that the two sections of the same firm are working together and will continue to share several common algorithmic attributes.

There are several other factors we are examining in regards to the new Yahoo. Hopefully we will have some answers to these questions in the near future.

* What is the relationship between Directory and Algorithmic listings?
* What is the average "turn-around" time for sites from submission to Top10 or Top20 placement?
* Will the expected absence of Lycos effect Yahoo or Inktomi's database in any way?
* What is the role of AlltheWeb and AltaVista? Both are owned by Yahoo which acquired the two companies when it purchased Overture. Speculation had Yahoo buying AV and ATW for their patents but what about their technologies and databases?

This move, in my mind, marks the second phase of the current war of dominance between the big three. Last year was marked by the many mergers and acquisitions that redrew the landscape. This year we've seen former big players such as LookSmart and Lycos fall below the radar screen as the first major casualties. While it is becoming more difficult to predict the next victims, clearly the big winner this month is Terry Semel and the team at Yahoo.

For search engine users, marketers and advertisers, the increased competition between the three major search tools will be, for the most part, beneficial. It will be easier to find relevant information and easier to achieve strong placements on one or more of the major search entities. In the best and most idyllic circumstances, competition breeds better products, fosters stronger customer relations, and pushes competitors to work harder and smarter. We will see more innovations, new product and service offerings, and a race to "lock-in" users by offering more personalized information resources such as Email, dating services and one-click lookups of common information (such as airplane schedules). Hype it or hope for it, the future looks very search friendly.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 9:43 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Yahoo Introduces Its Own Search Engine!

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Google Looking Good Again :: GOOD NEWS FOR GOOGLE WATCHERS!

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 9:43 AM

It looks as if Google has stabilized, for now at least. After four months of intense updating and incensed advertisers, the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) finally appear worthy of Google's reputation. Last week StepForth predicted a major change at Google which happened over the weekend, resulting in the best results we've seen in months. Google has redesigned their PageRank algorithm, amalgamating semantic language recognition technology acquired from Applied Semantics (purchased by Google in the summer of 2003), and major sections of what has become known as the Hilltop Algorithm.

In what appeared to be the first Google-Dance of the new year, the world's most popular search tool has won its way back into the hearts of many in the SEO community by finally offering clean, clear results.

Google continues to pay very close attention to the quality of incoming links, most heavily rewarding those from "authority" sites with very high page ranks in the 7 - 9 range. Webmasters are advised to check the number of links recognized by Google on a daily basis to keep themselves appraised of any sudden changes.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 9:43 AM.

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google Looking Good Again :: GOOD NEWS FOR GOOGLE WATCHERS!

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Optimum Balance of Organic Marketing and Ad Marketing

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 9:42 AM

The balance of organic and CPC advertising is totally subjective depending on the needs and goals of the advertiser. The following discusses the two most common scenarios for determining a balance of online marketing.

For Startups
The most relevant determining factor for startups is budget; which form of advertising will provide the fastest ROI? Generally speaking, top organic (non-paid) placements are the most effective (top organic placements get more attention) and lucrative form of promotion in the online marketplace and it should be the first target for any Internet marketing plan. Even 2nd page organic placements, however, can take time to achieve so depending on the budget available it is recommended that a small CPC campaign be implemented to generate interim traffic while organic placements are assessed. This two-pronged approach will ultimately provide the marketer with a clearer picture of which marketing tool is more efficient for their targeted terms, thus determining the proper balance for ROI.

The exception is where the competition is so well entrenched that obtaining a top placement is expected to take a great deal of time to attain. In this case, a larger CPC campaign should be created to generate traffic to the web site while organic placements slowly improve.

For Established Sites
In this scenario an established web site is assumed to have unreliable top 10 presence on the organic search listings. In this case, the marketer needs to increase sales to balance the dips in sales during negative organic listing fluctuations. CPC promotions are an excellent solution because they can be manipulated in real time and if properly tweaked they can be incredibly effective for maintaining traffic and reasonable ROI.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 9:42 AM.

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View this Article Only: Optimum Balance of Organic Marketing and Ad Marketing

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Yahoo meta tag and title rules

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 9:36 AM

Yahoo has introduced it's own search engine! Here's a few rules to follow to keep Yahoo happy...

HTML Titles:

Contains less than 80 characters.
Provides call to action.
Uses important keywords and phrases unique to the individual page.
Uniquely describes what the page is about.
Consistent with page Description and web page Body.
Does not unnecessarily repeat your Company Name at the beginning of each Title Tag. The first few keywords of your Title tag are given the
heaviest weight by the search engine, so it is important not to dedicate these first few words to your Company Name if your name is not what customers are searching for the most.
Your Company Name is moved to the end of your Title tag.

META Keywords:

Contains less than 15 keyword phrases each separated by commas.
Uses important keywords and phrases unique to the individual page.
Combines important online action words with your product/service keywords such as, "buy", "shop", "find" and/or "purchase". Use
WordTracker.com to research what action words are used by searchers of your keywords.
Minimal repetition of individual words.
Consistent with Title tag and web page Body content.

META Descriptions:

Contains less than 225 characters.
Provides call to action.
Combines important online action words with your product/service keywords.
Uses important keywords and phrases.
Uniquely describes the page.
Consistent with Title and web page Body content.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 9:36 AM.

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Saturday, February 14, 2004

MSN displaying Looksmart Results (Victoria BC)

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 9:17 PM

Just so y'all know, MSN is currently displaying results drawn from the Looksmart database. Looksmart is still supplying results for MSN to use whenever they need to tweak with Inktomi's feed.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 9:17 PM.

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View this Article Only: MSN displaying Looksmart Results (Victoria BC)

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Google changes happening.

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 9:14 PM

What looks to be the first google-dance since November appears to be winding up. Check out which links on your sites are being recoginzed and rewarded. If we're lucky, Google might be settling out in the near future. It is becoming more predicable but logic says there is at least one more bump on the road to stable SERPs.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 9:14 PM.

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Thursday, February 12, 2004

Lycos No Longer A Search Engine!

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 1:51 PM

By Rebecca Lieb - Internet News.Com

In two dramatic announcements this week, Lycos U.S. said it will shed its portal strategy to become a vast social network; the company also inked a 5-year deal with 24/7 Real Media to outsource display ad sales, ad serving and analytics for its Internet properties.

"This is totally an untapped space. We'll enter the market already in the leadership position because of where we've been," said Mark Stoever, executive vice president of Terra Lycos, U.S., of the company's new direction.

He stressed the new business model capitalizes on the company's experience in online publishing, dating and search. "Lycos will be the first to bring together the entire spectrum of ways people connect online," he noted.

Lycos says the revenue potential for its new model lies in subscriptions and contextually targeted ads. Google provides contextual ads for Lycos through a deal with its parent, Terra Lycos (Quote, Chart).

The company plans to relaunch its homepage in two weeks as a "hub for personal connections." That's step one in a phased rollout with a corresponding national advertising campaign. Lycos search will emphasize enabling users to navigate between various professional, personal, family, business and affinity sites.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 1:51 PM.

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Shake-Up Time (Again) - Google Ranking and Link Analysis

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 1:49 PM

Change Happens
Chances are, the results you see in Google this week are not going to be what you see there next week. We are predicting another massive change to listings over the next week, based on our analysis of how Google is looking at incoming links and its recent behaviour patterns. If you are about to stop reading because this sounds complicated, hold on a minute. It's actually quite simple, in a sad sort of way. Google, which seems to have developed a taste for SPAM, has in the past 24-hours, radically upped the link-count on most of our clients' sites. For example, StepForth has about 1000 incoming links from sites around the web. We measure the number of links recognized by Google twice daily on a rotating sampling of client sites with the StepForth site included in each sampling in order to provide a continuous baseline. Yesterday, Google only recognized 105 of these links. Today, Google shows 220. The last time this sort of link-recognition happened, the StepForth site moved back into the Top20 on Google under our target keyword phrases. Before I dive into link building and what we think Google is rewarding, I would like to make one thing really clear... There is no single magic technique you can use to achieve strong rankings at Google. You need to apply a smart combination of good SEO and writing copy along with a very strong and well thought out link-building campaign. We have spent hours on our site over the past few months and have found the combination of SEO and link-building to be the only ethical solution, short of spamming the heck out of Google.

What is Google looking at?
We've spent the last three months examining and analyzing the relationship between incoming links and Google rankings. One of our early assumptions was that November's Florida Update was a major algorithm change built on changes we perceived in the early summer 2003. This assumption was confirmed by several other SEOs over the course of the past few months and it is now widely accepted that Google is implementing some or all of the Hilltop algorithm. Hilltop (in the most basic terms), applies several levels of analysis to each link it sees directed to a specific site. The links are measured against the content of the original page and the target site. The value of each incoming links is also measured against elements found in and around those links such as anchor text and the text that appears near the link. We are almost certain that text denoting a paid-link such as "Sponsored Site" will be not be considered beneficial and in fact may be considered negativity. We have also found that the anchor text, or the text used to comprise the link (in the link above, the words "Hilltop algorithm" comprise the anchor text) has a major effect on how that link is perceived. We have noted that by mixing up the text used in links, we are able to see steadier improvements than our former method of repeating the same anchor text in all links we acquired for our clients. Lastly, we have discovered that the bad old practice of link-farming, though officially frowned upon by Google, is again being rewarded. We continue to advise against using link-farms as the tech's at Google will almost certainly fix this hole in their next algo update. On a final note about links, StepForth Link-Building expert, Scott Van Achte speculates that the position of the link on a page also has an effect on the ranking of the site the link is directed to. We have not had enough time to vigorously test this speculation but Scott's incidental observations are taken pretty seriously around these parts.

How Long is a Long Time?
Google is going to be in flux for long time folks. This algorithm is not bringing Google any pleasure and is in fact increasing the pressure on their engineering staff. We continue to see multiple visits by Google-Bot in our logs and our client's logs. We continue to see numerous changes in Google rankings often from hour to hour. This tells us that the engineering team at Google is working overtime as it likely has been for the past three months. As I've written in this space at least a dozen times, Google is very aware it has major problems in the results it is returning to its users. Google, which has built one of the most recognizable brand names in the world on clean and relevant search results does not want this controversy to linger any longer. While most in the SEO field believe that Google is simply trying to produce a better product, outrage over the results pages is growing and could attach itself to other issues and scandals that are about to hit the Googleplex in the solar plexus. As geniuses go, the folks at Google are pretty smart. Hopefully they will be smart enough to find a way out of the growing mess before things get really messy in Mountain View.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 1:49 PM.

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View this Article Only: Shake-Up Time (Again) - Google Ranking and Link Analysis

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AdSense Nonsense

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 1:48 PM

In today's feature article, we alluded to a scandal brewing around Google and, like most things Google, this is a big one. Google is having problems surrounding its AdSense program. AdSense is one of the most interesting distribution methods and those problems may brew over into a fraud investigation by the Federal Trade Commission! There is a lot of information to share about this story, more than we have room for in this section. Here's the information directly from the (US) National Anti-Spam Registry website:

"The National Anti Spam Registry has seen an increase of fraudulent reports from several webmasters about Google’s Adsense program. We are reporting these incidents to the public and for those webmasters that feel they have been the victims of this apparent fraud that is being reported. The National Anti Spam Registry is not responsible for any statements that have been made as these statements have been reported to The National Anti Spam Registry for publication. We have omitted the names and contact information from all statements, as The National Anti Spam Registry will be forwarding all reported information onto our attorneys on behalf of the alleged victims of this Internet fraud, The Federal Trade Commission for investigation. If you believe your website has been a victim of any Internet fraud please contact us immediately." from, National AntiSpam Registry website. Check out the link and read the entire passage. Google is going to have another problem to add to its issues...

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 1:48 PM.

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Using Whois Data to Know Where Your Domain has Been

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 1:47 PM

Knowing where your domain name has been is very important when constructing a search engine placement campaign. Most people are pretty sure they know what they have done with their domain name but what most people don't consider is the fact they may not be the first owners of that name. Often webmasters find themselves locked out of major search engines for no reason whatsoever. Sometimes the reason their site doesn't get into the databases is that the domain name has been banned outright for past improper practices. Now, there is a method of checking who, if anyone, previously owned a domain name you might be interested in acquiring. The American company, Name Intelligence, through its WHOIS records, can tell you who owned domain names going back to 2002. This information may prove important when you discover that a domain name such as "claybrick2000.com" was once owned by a porn-distributer or a search engine spammer. If your domain or IP address is on a banned list, the onus is on you to prove to the search engines that your business and website do not break laws or search engine rules.

Another method of researching the history of your domain name is to use the wonderful tool, the WayBack Machine. This handy historical tool keeps copies of all websites on the Internet and will allow you to see what was posted at your domain all the way back to 1996.

Knowing what someone else did with a name that once belonged to them but may now belong to you can be critically important when deciding whether to purchase the domain or not.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 1:47 PM.

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View this Article Only: Using Whois Data to Know Where Your Domain has Been

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Being #1 at Google Can Hurt You if You're Not Ready for It

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 1:46 PM

As the Swinburne University's astronomy department recently found out, having your site appear as a top search result is not necessarily a good thing! In fact, if you are not prepared to be number one, it can bring your server to a crashing halt when swamped by unexpected requests!

Last week Google ran a special logo in celebration of mathematician Gaston_Julia’s birthday. Clicking the logo took users to a Google image search for the terms “Julia” and “Fractal”. It just so happens that the most popular images surrounding these terms were located on a server at Swinburne University and the frequency of requests brought the server to a standstill. It was later moved to another location and is now back online.

This should be a lesson for the rest of us, if you think you may end up number one on Google, be sure that your server can handle it! Who would have thought that being in top spot could cause so much chaos.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 1:46 PM.

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Sicilian Town Terrorized by Cyber-Appliances... No Really!

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 1:46 PM

We couldn't let this one go past without sharing it. Apparently, the Sicilian village of Canneto di Caronia has experienced three weeks that could have come from a Stephen King novel. Their cyber-appliances such as refrigerators, toasters and televisions have been mysteriously exploding, for no reason whatsoever. If the explosions were isolated incidents or had only happened in one home, there might be an explanation for the things that go boom in the night, however, twelve houses have been ravaged by fire and the entire town has been evacuated.

After teams of scientists and engineers failed to find a scientific explanation, the town has turned to the Vatican, hoping to find relief via an exorcism. Father Gabriel Amorth, the Vatican’s chief expert on exorcisms, said: "With cases of demon behaviour it is normal for domestic appliances to be involved and for demons make their presence known via electricity."

I swear we at StepForth are not making this up. The truth is almost always stranger than fiction but, if you require a second or third source, please visit: The Scotsman Newspaper and The Register.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 1:46 PM.

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Thursday, February 05, 2004

Google still considered Broken - AOL drops "open-search" function

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 10:19 AM

OK, you've heard this enough but just for the record. it is February 5th and Google is still broken. That said, things just keep getting worse for Google with AOL posting a log-in page where it used to display the AOL search function. This is another loss of distribution power for Google. Not sure what is happening in Mountain View these days but some folk must be feeling somewhat uncomfortable.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 10:19 AM.

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Wednesday, February 04, 2004

Search Engine Wars: MSN + Google = Netscape

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 7:24 PM

"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." George Santayana (1863 - 1952)
The search engine war between Google and MSN is generating some nasty tactics reminiscent of the Microsoft vs. Netscape battle of the mid '90's. Those who remember that battle will recall the almost surgical methods used by Microsoft to all but destroy Netscape. Today, Netscape is a shell of its former self, kept in a dull corner of the Time Warner empire and denied the attention or funding it needs to reemerge as a viable entity in the browser market. Many will also remember the tactics used by Microsoft to destroy Netscape generated years of anti-trust litigation and almost led to the break-up of the world's richest corporation and largest software maker. At the end of the day of course, Microsoft got off with a wrist slap and the knowledge that the US Government will not kill a goose that lays golden eggs (and whose products run much of the national infrastructure). Microsoft is obviously feeling free to resort to some its old tricks and the search engine wars are about to go mainstream, possibly becoming public entertainment. Remember the film, Pirates of Silicone Valley? This script promises to be even more interesting.

Search is the fastest growing sector of the Internet and the advertising industry. Currently considered a $2 - 2.5Billion industry, industry experts expect search and search technology to generate over $8Billion per annum by 2007. As a yardstick to measure by, the logging industry in British Columbia is valued at approximately $5Billion per year. Search, in other words, is a serious global business that is projected to generate staggering revenues and growth over the next half-decade. That much money tends to generate a great deal of motivation.

According to yesterday's New York Times, Microsoft has officially turned its great eye on Google and is specifically targeting Google and its employees. Microsoft recruiters are said to be calling Google staff at home, telling them that MSN's new search tool will bury Google and that they had better defect north to Redmond Washington as soon as possible before their jobs and soon to be stock options are worthless. Executives from both companies were seen watching each other like hawks at last week's World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland. Wherever a Google representative went, a MSN exec was steps behind, and vica versa. Meanwhile, back in the United States, Microsoft employees are examining Google patents looking for potential weaknesses to exploit. Microsoft is obviously playing for keeps and appears to be preparing to head off the inevitable legal battles that will stem from the introduction of Microsoft's new operating system, Longhorn, currently in development and scheduled for release early next year.

Longhorn and Search
Longhorn is the code-name for the new operating system from Microsoft. When it is released early next year, Longhorn is expected to change the way we relate to searching for information by integrating the function of search directly into the operating system itself. According to the hype, systems running Longhorn will treat any information ever viewed by machine-specific users as a searchable document. For example, if you receive an email regarding Blue Widgets, research Blue Widgets and write a review of Blue Widget products, you would have three documents consisting of 1 email, 1 website, and 1 Word doc. Two of the three information sources are stored on your hard-drive and one is stored on the web. All three are likely to be found through Longhorn's search function. By changing the parameters of search technology, Microsoft is laying heavy money on the safe bet that users will quickly become dependent on Longhorn's search tool. This is basically the same tactic used against Netscape when Internet Explorer was bundled into Windows95(v2.0) in 1996.

"You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can't possibly live long enough to make them all yourself." Sam Levenson (1911 - 1980)

Lessons for Google
Netscape was floored by the sudden switch of alliance in browser users and failed to adapt quickly enough. After being purchased at the height of the dot.com bubble by AOL, Netscape released it's infamous (and doomed) version 6.0 which was full of bugs and did not even approach the versatility of Internet Explorer. The rest is pretty much history for Netscape and opportunity for Microsoft. IE now holds over 92% of the browser market with Netscape scraping less than 4%. The same phenomena may happen with Google, especially after the the recent Florida algorithm update in November and the recent Austin update seen in late January. While Google watchers continue to speculate on the what's, where's and whys of Google's recent update, we all agree on at least one basic thing, Google is trying to create a better search tool in order to compete with MSN and Yahoo. Unfortunately for Google, the effect of the recent updates is highly reminiscent of Netscape v6.0, an obvious attempt to build a better mouse-trap that produced a product inferior to its predecessor.

"If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must man be of learning from experience." George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 7:24 PM.

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Google Legal Battle Threatens SERPs

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 7:23 PM

Google is being sued by American Blind and Wallpaper Factory Inc. for trademark infringement. The case, which was originally thought to only involve AdWords bids on terms associated with American Blind and Wallpaper Factory Inc., has now grown to cover the traditional (free) results produced by Google. According to EWeek, David Rammelt of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, the Chicago based firm representing American Blind and Wallpaper Factory Inc. said, "Our concerns are not just limited to the paid, sponsored links. We are seeing competitors listed when our trademarks are being typed verbatim." Terms that concern Rammelt include, "American Blinds" and "American Blind". Oddly enough, the litigant appears in the Top10 under the keyword phrase "American Blind", just below sites dedicated to visually impaired Americans and Helen Keller.

Chances are, Google will win this suit, at least as it relates to the traditional (free) listings. The case does open a dangerous can-of-worms however as search terms and target keyword phrases may need to be rethought to avoid any trademark infringement in the future. An interesting feature of this case may be the public airing of Google's ranking algorithms as Rammelt and his team dissects Google's ranking methods in open court. The SEO community will likely watch this one very closely.

The success of the litigant would make search engines as we know them, sort of useless. Imagine a search tool being able to guarantee corporate rivals creating similar products could not appear under related keyword phrases if one of the corporations owned trademark rights to those keywords and phrases. A note to greedy lawyers, Just do it.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 7:23 PM.

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Searchers using more complex terms

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 7:21 PM

Search engine users are starting to use more complex search terms, often adding two or three extra words to the traditional 2-keyword phrase. There are multiple reasons for the increasing complexity of search terms, including the continued rapid growth of the Internet and difficulties finding relevant information on the first page of many search engine results pages. Another reason could be that recent changes at Google have frustrated Google users, thus forcing them to be more descriptive in their queries. Webmasters building sites and SEOs working on sites should consider targeting 3 - 5 keyword phrases as well as 2-keyword phrases. When preparing the copy for your website, think about the various phrases searchers might look for your site and find a way to integrate these phrases in the body text of the site's index page and important internal pages. Chances are, your site will see more visitors once it starts catering to searchers who use more than 2 words at a time.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 7:21 PM.

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Janet Jackson's Flash is #1 search query!

Written by Jim Hedger and published at 7:21 PM

Some watch the Super Bowl for the excitement of a winner-take-all battle of gladiators. Some people watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. As almost everyone knows, those of us who watched the Super Bowl this year got to see something a little more revealing than the lingerie bowl. During the MTV organized half-time show, singer Justin Timberlake tore Janet Jackson's top off, exposing her right breast on live TV. The exposure was swift and very quickly covered over, however two grainy frames caught by video editing equipment and TiVO TV owners, have made it to the Internet. Naturally, these images were the most searched for documents over the past 48-hours. In the past, only natural disasters or human tragedies such as 9-11 generated more interest on search engines so quickly.

Leave it to members of the Jackson family to find a way to break records by being bad and/or outrageous.

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This SEO News was posted by Jim Hedger @ 7:21 PM.