professional wordpress themes

Disabling Right Clicking Should Not Hurt Your Google Ranking & SEO

On January 21, 2010, In SEO, by rustybrick

A new HighRankings Forum thread asks if there is any downside in terms of SEO for using JavaScript that disables the ability to right-click on the page. The thread asks:

One of my company’s sites has right-click functions disabled (yes, I realize this doesn’t really stop people from stealing content – it wasn’t my choice). I’ve noticed when I use a spider emulator (seo-browser.com) that our image alt tags appear to be invisible to the spiders. I can see the alt tags on the actual site, and I’ve verified that they are in the code, but they don’t seem to show up for spiders. Could this be caused by our right-click disabling?

Most people in the thread say that it should have no impact on spiders crawling the site.

I then saw an older thread from Google Webmaster Help where Googler, JohnMu, said the same thing. He said and I bolded the key point:

Personally, I find the use of right-click-blocking JavaScript slightly annoying because there are many legitimate reasons why you might want to use the context menu (eg to bookmark the page) and it doesn’t really stop people from viewing the source (Ctrl-U brings it up if you don’t want to use the main menu). That said, this is not something that would bother Googlebot :-) .

Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum & Google Webmaster Help.


A new HighRankings Forum thread asks if there is any downside in terms of SEO for using JavaScript that disables the ability to right-click on the page. The thread asks:

One of my company’s sites has right-click functions disabled (yes, I realize this doesn’t really stop people from stealing content – it wasn’t my choice). I’ve noticed when I use a spider emulator (seo-browser.com) that our image alt tags appear to be invisible to the spiders. I can see the alt tags on the actual site, and I’ve verified that they are in the code, but they don’t seem to show up for spiders. Could this be caused by our right-click disabling?

Most people in the thread say that it should have no impact on spiders crawling the site.

I then saw an older thread from Google Webmaster Help where Googler, JohnMu, said the same thing. He said and I bolded the key point:

Personally, I find the use of right-click-blocking JavaScript slightly annoying because there are many legitimate reasons why you might want to use the context menu (eg to bookmark the page) and it doesn’t really stop people from viewing the source (Ctrl-U brings it up if you don’t want to use the main menu). That said, this is not something that would bother Googlebot :-) .

Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum & Google Webmaster Help.



0 Comments
Leave A Response

Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
 

SEO’s are Not a Free Hotline

On January 17, 2010, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis

It boggles my mind how some people will call a place a business of and actually get upset when free information is not provided where it usually is paid for. I would never in my wildest dreams call a doctor or lawyer and demand they get on the phone and start asking for free advice [...]

It boggles my mind how some people will call a place a business of and actually get upset when free information is not provided where it usually is paid for. I would never in my wildest dreams call a doctor or lawyer and demand they get on the phone and start asking for free advice only to get upset that it was not provided.

If you search online you will quickly find that there are ample amounts of free information regarding the search engine optimization industry. Everything from detailed how-to guides to lists of qualified sources that can walk you through virtually almost any problem you might have with your website. There are also numerous forums that are updated every single day with very new fresh information relating to the search industry. Most of the forums are littered with internet marketing experts smacking their chops waiting to get involved in good forum thread discussion. There is no reason why anybody should call a place of business and weasel their way to try to get free knowledge and information, information that clients pay top dollar for. I usually smell this within the first few seconds on the phone with a person. After conducting internet marketing for many years my knowledge is valuable. You shouldn’t get upset when I offer my consulting rates when specific SEO related how-to questions come up over the phone. This is not to say you can ask about process and method but detail how-to questions should not be coming up during an initial sales call. We are not a soup kitchen. We provide a marketing service that helps business grow their presence online using a variety of internet marketing related efforts that took years to learn and polish. Each business situation is different. By blurting out an answer to your question we are actually doing you a disservice because there is usually more to that answer than just a quick reply.

If you really have a problem hire an internet consultant for an hour or two. If the answer helps your business grow you shouldn’t have a problem paying the fees for a few hours of time from a person that has been doing SEO for over ten years. Not only will they have your undivided attention but most likely provide you with a solution and then some that could help turn your business around in a great way. Respect an SEO experts time and they will respect your problem or situation even more.

0 Comments
Leave A Response

Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
 

Microsoft Bing Says They Are “Fairly Slow”

On January 7, 2010, In SEO, by rustybrick

One of the latest comments to come from Microsoft’s Bing representative in the Bing Forums was that they consider themselves to be “fairly slow.” Fairly slow at indexing new sites and new pages, that is.

Brett Yount, the Program Manager at Bing Webmaster Center, said in a Bing Forums thread:

It is well known in the industry that MSNbot is fairly slow.

Did he just say that? For real?

So what is Microsoft’s solution to get new sites into their index? Well, either spam Digg or Yahoo Buzz to be discovered or post a message in the Site not in index thread at Bing Forums and they will manually add you. Yes, there is a forum thread pretty much acting as a URL submit form. How 1995 of them.

Forum discussion at Bing Forums.


One of the latest comments to come from Microsoft’s Bing representative in the Bing Forums was that they consider themselves to be “fairly slow.” Fairly slow at indexing new sites and new pages, that is.

Brett Yount, the Program Manager at Bing Webmaster Center, said in a Bing Forums thread:

It is well known in the industry that MSNbot is fairly slow.

Did he just say that? For real?

So what is Microsoft’s solution to get new sites into their index? Well, either spam Digg or Yahoo Buzz to be discovered or post a message in the Site not in index thread at Bing Forums and they will manually add you. Yes, there is a forum thread pretty much acting as a URL submit form. How 1995 of them.

Forum discussion at Bing Forums.



0 Comments
Leave A Response

Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
 

Bing Support Rep Still Not Admitting Lack of Canonical Tag Support

On January 6, 2010, In SEO, by rustybrick

Two weeks ago, we reported that Bing doesn’t support the canonical tag at all. I kind of blasted Brett Yount, the Product Manager of Bing Webmaster Center, that he kept on saying Bing uses it as a “hint.”

Today he comes back into the forum and answers a question related to it in a Bing Forum thread. Brett said, “to my knowledge, we have very little support for the canonical tag.”

Brett, is it a “hint” or nothing at all. “Little support” is not the same as no support, which is what we heard from others directly at Bing. Also, what does “little support” mean when it comes to the canonical tag? Does it mean that you treat the canonical tag as a 301 redirect or not? It can’t mean you do both – can it? Maybe it means that if there is a canonical tag and a 301 redirect in place, doing the same action, Bing will treat it as a redirect (I am being sarcastic here).

I just don’t get it.

Forum discussion at Bing Forum.


Two weeks ago, we reported that Bing doesn’t support the canonical tag at all. I kind of blasted Brett Yount, the Product Manager of Bing Webmaster Center, that he kept on saying Bing uses it as a “hint.”

Today he comes back into the forum and answers a question related to it in a Bing Forum thread. Brett said, “to my knowledge, we have very little support for the canonical tag.”

Brett, is it a “hint” or nothing at all. “Little support” is not the same as no support, which is what we heard from others directly at Bing. Also, what does “little support” mean when it comes to the canonical tag? Does it mean that you treat the canonical tag as a 301 redirect or not? It can’t mean you do both – can it? Maybe it means that if there is a canonical tag and a 301 redirect in place, doing the same action, Bing will treat it as a redirect (I am being sarcastic here).

I just don’t get it.

Forum discussion at Bing Forum.



0 Comments
Leave A Response

Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
 

Microsoft adCenter Offering Free Search Ads Over New Years?

On January 4, 2010, In SEO, by rustybrick

A WebmasterWorld thread and adCenter Forum thread have reports that Microsoft adCenter is reporting that clicks are not being charged. Yes, the adCenter reports are showing a $0.00 cost per click in their reports.

Here are some of the reports from the advertisers:

Whilst I’d love this to be real, looks like a bug as clicks priced at 0.00 aren’t so common!

No matter which report I call up – I’m not being charged (according to the reports) for clicks.

Yes, I’m seeing the same thing. All reports yesterday and today show $0.00.

I’m guessing we’ll see this resolved Monday morning. On the other hand, it might be Microsoft’s way of thanking us for our business in 2009 ;)

Many suspect this is some sort of reporting glitch. I suspect so to. But it would be nice if it was not a glitch and Microsoft gave some of their advertisers a nice New Years bonus.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and adCenter Forum.

Update: I guess this is a bug, @adCenter tweeted:

adCenter Zeros

Update 2: Tuesday, January 5th at 11am (EST) @adCenter tweeted the issue has been resolved.


A WebmasterWorld thread and adCenter Forum thread have reports that Microsoft adCenter is reporting that clicks are not being charged. Yes, the adCenter reports are showing a $0.00 cost per click in their reports.

Here are some of the reports from the advertisers:

Whilst I’d love this to be real, looks like a bug as clicks priced at 0.00 aren’t so common!

No matter which report I call up – I’m not being charged (according to the reports) for clicks.

Yes, I’m seeing the same thing. All reports yesterday and today show $0.00.

I’m guessing we’ll see this resolved Monday morning. On the other hand, it might be Microsoft’s way of thanking us for our business in 2009 ;)

Many suspect this is some sort of reporting glitch. I suspect so to. But it would be nice if it was not a glitch and Microsoft gave some of their advertisers a nice New Years bonus.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and adCenter Forum.

Update: I guess this is a bug, @adCenter tweeted:

adCenter Zeros

Update 2: Tuesday, January 5th at 11am (EST) @adCenter tweeted the issue has been resolved.



0 Comments
Leave A Response

Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
 

Can You Optimize for Stop Words in Search Results?

On December 30, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

A HighRankings Forum thread asks an interesting SEO question. The question is, can you optimize for stop words in Google or other search engines?

His particular example seems flawed, in that he is calling IT a stop word and it is stopping him for optimizing for the query [it companies]. However, when I search for [it companies] in Google, it does seem to figure out, IT here stands for information technology.

But in general, is there a need to optimize for stop words? Do we have more examples of cases? If so, can it be done?

Here is a poll:

Can you SEO for stop words?(polls)

Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.

Update: See Jill’s comment below for the issue this SEO has in the thread.


A HighRankings Forum thread asks an interesting SEO question. The question is, can you optimize for stop words in Google or other search engines?

His particular example seems flawed, in that he is calling IT a stop word and it is stopping him for optimizing for the query [it companies]. However, when I search for [it companies] in Google, it does seem to figure out, IT here stands for information technology.

But in general, is there a need to optimize for stop words? Do we have more examples of cases? If so, can it be done?

Here is a poll:

Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.

Update: See Jill’s comment below for the issue this SEO has in the thread.



0 Comments
Leave A Response

Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
 

Bug: Bing Webmaster Tools Not Accepting URLs with Hyphens

On December 17, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

There are a few reports in a Bing Forum thread that adding a site to Bing Webmaster Tools might not work. Specifically, if the URL or domain contains a hyphen (dash) such as www.best-domain.com.

Brett Yount from the Bing Webmaster team confirmed the bug, saying:

Currently, we are having a few difficulties which I just received confirmation from the indexing team. They are currently working on it, but said that if you try a couple times, it should work. If not, and your site isn’t in the index at all , please post on the not in index thread and I will work to get your home page (only) into the index.

I personally tried adding a domain with a hyphen and it worked for me on the first try. So maybe it is resolved or maybe those specific domains have other issues?

Forum discussion at Bing Forum.


There are a few reports in a Bing Forum thread that adding a site to Bing Webmaster Tools might not work. Specifically, if the URL or domain contains a hyphen (dash) such as www.best-domain.com.

Brett Yount from the Bing Webmaster team confirmed the bug, saying:

Currently, we are having a few difficulties which I just received confirmation from the indexing team. They are currently working on it, but said that if you try a couple times, it should work. If not, and your site isn’t in the index at all , please post on the not in index thread and I will work to get your home page (only) into the index.

I personally tried adding a domain with a hyphen and it worked for me on the first try. So maybe it is resolved or maybe those specific domains have other issues?

Forum discussion at Bing Forum.



0 Comments
Leave A Response

Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
 

Bing UK Out of Beta, But Too Soon?

On November 19, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

Bing UKAbout a week ago, Bing announced they have taken Bing UK (www.bing.co.uk) out of beta. They basically said, you can now get more relevant UK results when in the UK and searching in the UK. Here is a snippet from the blog post:

When you search for Football, what kind of answers do you expect to find. Well, I guess it depends on where you are doing the asking, if you are in the UK you probably don’t want to see NFL schedules. You probably mean what we in the US call soccer. Well today, millions of searchers in the UK can rest assured that Bing knows what they are talking about. We are excited to announce today that Bing in the UK is shedding its beta tag. We want to congratulate our pals over in the UK on a huge milestone.

A HighRankings Forum thread is taking issue with this. Two searchers from the UK were not satisfied with the localized version of Bing. They said:

I did a study yesterday and the example they provided (Football) still returns the NFL – something they said that the UK ‘wouldn’t be interested in’. The universal search results are even worse with US today results of ‘American Football’ being returned (and two images of an American Football).

You are certainly right, doesn’t look like Bing UK has any UK inteligence, I just did a simple search for the word ‘analyse’ , and the no.1 result returned was spelt with a ‘z’ , looks like Bing has a long, long way to go yet eh Andy!

I personally tried a search for football in Bing.com and Bing.co.uk and I am seeing tailored results for each region. Yes, NFL.com comes up in the UK, but not in the top result. Since I am not from the UK, it is hard for me to judge.

Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.


Bing UKAbout a week ago, Bing announced they have taken Bing UK (www.bing.co.uk) out of beta. They basically said, you can now get more relevant UK results when in the UK and searching in the UK. Here is a snippet from the blog post:

When you search for Football, what kind of answers do you expect to find. Well, I guess it depends on where you are doing the asking, if you are in the UK you probably don’t want to see NFL schedules. You probably mean what we in the US call soccer. Well today, millions of searchers in the UK can rest assured that Bing knows what they are talking about. We are excited to announce today that Bing in the UK is shedding its beta tag. We want to congratulate our pals over in the UK on a huge milestone.

A HighRankings Forum thread is taking issue with this. Two searchers from the UK were not satisfied with the localized version of Bing. They said:

I did a study yesterday and the example they provided (Football) still returns the NFL – something they said that the UK ‘wouldn’t be interested in’. The universal search results are even worse with US today results of ‘American Football’ being returned (and two images of an American Football).

You are certainly right, doesn’t look like Bing UK has any UK inteligence, I just did a simple search for the word ‘analyse’ , and the no.1 result returned was spelt with a ‘z’ , looks like Bing has a long, long way to go yet eh Andy!

I personally tried a search for football in Bing.com and Bing.co.uk and I am seeing tailored results for each region. Yes, NFL.com comes up in the UK, but not in the top result. Since I am not from the UK, it is hard for me to judge.

Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.



0 Comments
Leave A Response

Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
 

Breadcrumb Navigation : How Important For On Page SEO?

On October 19, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

A HighRankings Forum thread has discussion on how useful the breadcrumb trail / navigation is for your SEO strategy.

Most people agree that having them from a usability standpoint, makes total sense. So, for users, it makes sense. But does it benefit your on-page SEO? I would think most SEOs would say, it does.

In fact, one of the ask the SEOs panels (forgot which one) at SMX East, all the panelists agreed that breadcrumbs are so easy to add and can add a tremendous amount to your on-page efforts, you should 100% spend the time to get them implemented.

If you bring up the old topic of is the first anchor text link the only one to count, then it is a matter of how you handle the CSS placement of those links in your HTML source. But overall, I think every SEO would say, that in most cases, having that breadcrumb navigation wouldn’t hurt and can benefit on some level, if done right.

Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.


A HighRankings Forum thread has discussion on how useful the breadcrumb trail / navigation is for your SEO strategy.

Most people agree that having them from a usability standpoint, makes total sense. So, for users, it makes sense. But does it benefit your on-page SEO? I would think most SEOs would say, it does.

In fact, one of the ask the SEOs panels (forgot which one) at SMX East, all the panelists agreed that breadcrumbs are so easy to add and can add a tremendous amount to your on-page efforts, you should 100% spend the time to get them implemented.

If you bring up the old topic of is the first anchor text link the only one to count, then it is a matter of how you handle the CSS placement of those links in your HTML source. But overall, I think every SEO would say, that in most cases, having that breadcrumb navigation wouldn’t hurt and can benefit on some level, if done right.

Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.



0 Comments
Leave A Response

Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
 

Seth Godin: Sliced Bread

Malcolm Gladwell: Outliers

Anthony Parinello: Your Price is Too High