The Rank Magic Blog

Do Broken Links Hurt Your Rankings?

January 28, 2008 ::: I recently came across an interesting forum discussion on Web Pro World, where someone asked whether having a few (50) broken links on his rather large web site could get him excluded from search engine results.

Bad links typically happen when you link to a page on another web site and they either remove the page or restructure their site so the page ahs a new address. Other typical causes are typos in links within your own site and moving or deleting graphic files that are still in use by some pages on your site.

I know that some directories (I'm thinking of DMOZ.org, The Open Directory) will drop a web site if an editor finds even a singly bad link. But for the search engines, you're unlikely to be banned. Bad links may well cause your rankings to suffer, though.

You'll find the full discussion here. Bottom line: avoid broken links. We run a monthly link check for our clients. If you think we may not be running one for you, please let me know.

Best Time To Send An Email Determined

January 21, 2008 ::: MarketingCharts.com reports that a new eROI study has found the "best email day."

That day, it turns out, is Wednesday. "The average open rate on Wednesdays in the third quarter was 25.4%, and the average click rate was 3.9%," reports MarketingCharts.

As for the time of day - this study really got into the details - "there's a marked upward trend as time passes," and  click rates peak around 4 PM, while open rates top out an hour later.

I guess that means I should send out our monthly newsletter about 3:30 on a Wednesday afternoon. Pretty cool.

CEO of SEO Firm Jailed

January 17, 2008 ::: TrafficPower's history is rather nasty, and includes allegations of black-hat SEO tactics that ultimately got them and their clients banned from Google's index. The company subsequently changed its name to 1P, which apparently is now also defunct, perhaps after word got out that it was the same company labeled by commentators as "the lowest of the low."

Now, TrafficPower CEO Matt Marlon is in jail inLas Vegas as Nevada police investigate how many people he allegedly scammed out of their homes in a foreclosure con. <more here>

Interesting that the stuff this guy was most guilty of is not what got him sent to jail. Reminds me of Al Capone getting sent away for tax evasion.

Nearly 90% Don't Pay Attention to PPC Ads

January 14, 2008 ::: A recent report from Advertising Age revealed some surprising facts. A few that really jumped out at me are below. You can read the entire report in PDF format here.

Top 10 Dumbest Web Site Decisions

January 8, 2008 ::: Kalena Jordan, a well known Australian SEO expert, wrote a sometimes-amusing article for Site Pro News on the dumbest web site decisions she's seen. Here's a quick list, but to get the full effect, both the drama and the humor, see her article. This is in reverse order, a la David Letterman:

Other blogs of interest

The Computer Lady

Drag & Drop Search Engine: SortFix

January 4, 2008 ::: There's a new search engine in town that makes it really easy to refine your searches. SortFix has a little tutorial that runs on its home page when you first go there, to illustrate how to use it. You start with a simple search, and then SortFix gives you a series of buckets. Potential modifiers, called power words, appear in the left-hand bucket, and you can drag them into either the add to search bucket or the remove bucket. When you click on the search button, you get a nicely pared down list of results with a new set of power words. Again, you can drag them into the add to search or remove bucket to further refine your search.

Results come from Google, Yahoo, or The Open Directory (dmoz.org), whichever you select. Pretty cool.