Blog
(New Information Almost Daily)
.............
"Any sufficiently advanced
technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clark, 1972
Rank Magic is a division of Treloar Associates. More information about Treloar Associates can be found at TreloarAssociates.com.
The Rank Magic Blog
Fix Outdated Descriptions in MSN Search Results
June 28, 2006 ::: Sometimes when checking
your rankings do you find that the description of your site is outdated or
incorrect? You may wish to check the cached version of your page in order to see
if the search engine has simply been using an older, cached version of your
page. But what if they do have your current page cached?
Google's Supplemental IndexJune 24, 2006 ::: A couple of years ago, Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch noted that in the competition for who had the largest index of web sites, Google had a new feature called the "supplemental index". This supplemental index contains many pages from sites that will never see the light of day during a typical search. These pages are found only when the search is so unusual or narrow that only pages from the supplemental index seem to be a match for the query. Since the "Big Daddy" update began in November 2005, many web masters are finding that more and more of their pages are being relegated to the supplemental index. As SEO Jim Boykin of webuildpages.com explains on his blog, these sites often have duplicate content taken from others, no real content such as fake "directory" sites that create a million virtually generic pages, or "orphaned pages" which are those page that are not linked to from the rest of the website in question or linked to from other sites on the web. Quite often "turn key" web sites like those in the real estate, nutrition, work from home, or other industries that rely heavily on duplicated cookie-cutter web sites have always had a difficult time obtaining rankings -- but substantially moreso with this recent Google update. It seems the lack of actual unique content really hurts these sites when competing with sites that have original, unique content and numerous relevant inbound links.
Major Web Browsers Getting FaceliftsJune 20, 2006 ::: The major Web browsers are getting facelifts as they are increasingly used for handling business transactions and running programs over the Internet instead of simply displaying Web sites. The upgrades are the latest skirmish in the browser war that started in the mid-1990s and led to Microsoft's (arguably evil) triumph over Netscape. The battles reignited in 2004, when Mozilla's Firefox launched and revealed many new features. Firefox has been steadily increasing market share since. On Tuesday, Opera Software ASA is releasing its Opera 9 browser, while Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Firefox are in line for major overhauls later this year. <read the full story from Business Week>
"Risky" Sites in Search Engine Results
June 15, 2006 :::
According to Security Pro News, researchers analyzed results of searches
on Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Ask and found that "all of the major search engines
returned risky sites in their search results for popular keywords" and that
"dangerous sites soared to as much as 72 percent of results for certain popular
keywords, such as 'free screensavers,' 'digital music,' 'popular software,' and
'singers.' Vigilance!
Beware Bad Neighborhood Link PagesJune 10, 2006 ::: Suppose you have a
web site selling shoes. If there's a link to your site from a web site that
also links to gambling sites, Viagra sites and the like then search engines
might think that your web site is related to gambling and Viagra. The search
engines look at the link pages and check to which other web sites the pages
link. Your web site is construed to be in the same neighborhood or category
as other sites that page links to. The theory is like this: If Bob is
friends with Todd, Susan and Chuck, and if you're friends with Bob, then
chances are you're also friends with Todd, Susan and Chuck.
Yahoo Goes After Link Farms and Shady LinksJune 8, 2006 ::: Yahoo has filed a
new patent with the name "Link based spam detection". It's another attempt
from Yahoo to improve the relevancy of their search results by detecting
links from link farms and other shady link sources so they can discount
them. Links from such sites don't count for your site's link popularity if
the search engines can identify them. How Yahoo tries to identify spam sites by using PageRank and TrustRankIn the patent application, Yahoo explains how they want to find spam farms with the help of PageRank and TrustRank:
What does this mean to your web site?Search engine engineers are not stupid. And search engine algorithms are evolving faster than ever. For that reason, it's increasingly important that you don't use "quick fix" solutions to get links to your web site. If a service promises hundreds of links to your web site quickly and easily, then chances are these links are from a link farm. Search engines don't like link farms and it's been reported that some web sites even get penalized by participating in a link farm system. Focus on organic link building and get high quality links that are beneficial to you and your web site visitors. If you use high quality links then you don't have to be afraid of link-spam filters. With these links, search engines will see your web site as a useful resource and that will result in high rankings for your site.
Google Condemned For Click-Fraud Settlement
June 1, 2006 ::: An attorney representing
plaintiffs in a federal click-fraud class action suit pending against Google in
California claims the $90 million settlement Google reached last month in a
related case filed in Arkansas fails to penalize Google or fairly compensate
advertisers victimized by click fraud.
|
June
|
|
Comments? If you'd like to contribute to the blog with an opinion, observation or question, please drop us an email |