Forums - Arizona SEO | Phoenix SEO

iGoogle Porn: Still An Issue?

On January 19, 2010, In SEO, by rustybrick

Back in May 2009, we first reported of issues with pornography on iGoogle. Ever since then, there have been issues that popped up here and there. That is the overall issue with having user generated content (i.e. user generated gadgets).

The latest batch is in the form of “live cams” and the issue was submitted to Google Web Search Help forums recently, in an older thread. This batch comes up for a search on to do list in the iGoogle Directory. They were also submitted by the same user, Mandy. Here are some safe pictures:

There are several more and they all seem to be in the form of cams. I have a good blocking system here for this type of stuff, so the videos won’t render on my computer. Here is a safe picture, what I find funny is that it is being monetized by Google ads.

In any event, Google was notified about this issue. Paul from Google said:

Thanks for letting us know — we’re investigating this now. I really appreciate your taking the time to bring these to our attention.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Back in May 2009, we first reported of issues with pornography on iGoogle. Ever since then, there have been issues that popped up here and there. That is the overall issue with having user generated content (i.e. user generated gadgets).

The latest batch is in the form of “live cams” and the issue was submitted to Google Web Search Help forums recently, in an older thread. This batch comes up for a search on to do list in the iGoogle Directory. They were also submitted by the same user, Mandy. Here are some safe pictures:

There are several more and they all seem to be in the form of cams. I have a good blocking system here for this type of stuff, so the videos won’t render on my computer. Here is a safe picture, what I find funny is that it is being monetized by Google ads.

In any event, Google was notified about this issue. Paul from Google said:

Thanks for letting us know — we’re investigating this now. I really appreciate your taking the time to bring these to our attention.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Link Building Sources That Are Important

On January 8, 2010, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis

Everyone keeps telling us links are very important for our ongoing search engine optimization efforts. Some of these types of inbound links are obvious but some are not so obvious and could still generate both power and visitors to your website. It is important to understand all the variety of different types of relevant [...]

Everyone keeps telling us links are very important for our ongoing search engine optimization efforts. Some of these types of inbound links are obvious but some are not so obvious and could still generate both power and visitors to your website. It is important to understand all the variety of different types of relevant links that you are capable of achieving over time.

Here are some of the most important types of links to build to your website:

1. Press Releases: Press releases are a very important ingredient to any online marketing campaign. Links embedded into the press release can generate very useful links for your website from other industry related sites. If it is a really newsworthy topic and other websites pick up the information it will be even more beneficial in generating new pathways to your website.

2. Articles: Articles used to have a bit more weight to them but they are still very important. The right types of articles could very easily get picked up on other industry leading websites leading to very good links and a steady stream of highly targeted website traffic.

3. Profiles: Website profiles usually only give you one link but that one link is a very important link. Whether it is from Facebook or LinkedIn the links let the search engines know that you are serious about growing your business in many different areas online.

4. Forums: Most forums are very old so the links you could get from them will help your business in a great way. Not to mention the traffic you could generate from being active in a forum is sometimes very surprising. Many of the older forums have a great deal of activity and if it’s a forum dedicated towards your industry than you should be there regardless.

5. Local Profiles: Don’t think because you want to take your business international that listing yourself in the local places and directories isn’t important. The links will let the search engines know that you have a physical address connected with your business helping grow your trust factor.

6. Blog Comments: Leaving intelligent related comments behind on your targeted industry blogs is very helpful. Many of the links appear in Google webmaster tools all while driving highly relevant traffic to your website.

6. Industry Associations: Local online and offline industry associations are a great way to build trust with your website visitors. Often many times association memberships include the opportunity to have profiles and links to your website. This not only helps with link building but builds highly relevant visitors to your website.

These are some of the most important link sources you should have as part of your long term link building efforts. Remember it is important to diversify your approach so you never want to be top heavy on any of these efforts. Keeping your links balanced and growing is the name of the game.

Yahoo Search January 2010 Update?

On January 6, 2010, In SEO, by rustybrick

There is a single report at a WebmasterWorld thread of a possible Yahoo Search update. Senior member, textex, is noticing changes in the Yahoo Search results, but clearly, the Yahoo Search Blog has not posted anything since December 15th.

Typically, when it comes to Yahoo Search updates – we normally see it being reported in the forums before Yahoo posts anything on their blog about it. Also, we typically see Yahoo Search update every quarter or so and the last update was in September 2009, so we are do an update.

Do you notice any ranking changes in Yahoo or a shift in your Yahoo referrals?

Note: As Yahoo loses market share, less and less webmasters and SEOs are concerned about Yahoo. So it doesn’t surprise me to see such little activity in the thread at this point. I do hope the thread picks up.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

There is a single report at a WebmasterWorld thread of a possible Yahoo Search update. Senior member, textex, is noticing changes in the Yahoo Search results, but clearly, the Yahoo Search Blog has not posted anything since December 15th.

Typically, when it comes to Yahoo Search updates – we normally see it being reported in the forums before Yahoo posts anything on their blog about it. Also, we typically see Yahoo Search update every quarter or so and the last update was in September 2009, so we are do an update.

Do you notice any ranking changes in Yahoo or a shift in your Yahoo referrals?

Note: As Yahoo loses market share, less and less webmasters and SEOs are concerned about Yahoo. So it doesn’t surprise me to see such little activity in the thread at this point. I do hope the thread picks up.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Isaac Newton 367th Birthday Brings Google’s First Animated Doodle (Logo)

On January 4, 2010, In SEO, by rustybrick

If you visit Google.com today, you will see a Google Doodle (logo) of an Apple tree. If you wait a couple seconds, you will notice that one of the apple’s falls off the tree. Yes, it is Issac Newton’s birthday, 367 years ago today, and it is also the first ever (I believe) animated Google Doodle (logo) in history.

Here is a picture of the logo:

Want to see how it was/is animated? Here is a short video:

Everyone, I think, knows the story behind Issac Newton’s theory of gravitation. So hence the apple falling off the apple tree. It is great to see Google have a Doodle for Issac Newton. But you got to believe there will be two points of controversy with this Doodle.

(1) Like always, there are plenty of other important events that occurred on January 4th

(2) Google has never really animated their logo in the past. Why now? They did recently have a neat I’m Feeling Lucky easter egg. Too see that click here.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help, DigitalPoint Forums and Google Webmaster Help.

If you visit Google.com today, you will see a Google Doodle (logo) of an Apple tree. If you wait a couple seconds, you will notice that one of the apple’s falls off the tree. Yes, it is Issac Newton’s birthday, 367 years ago today, and it is also the first ever (I believe) animated Google Doodle (logo) in history.

Here is a picture of the logo:

Want to see how it was/is animated? Here is a short video:

Everyone, I think, knows the story behind Issac Newton’s theory of gravitation. So hence the apple falling off the apple tree. It is great to see Google have a Doodle for Issac Newton. But you got to believe there will be two points of controversy with this Doodle.

(1) Like always, there are plenty of other important events that occurred on January 4th

(2) Google has never really animated their logo in the past. Why now? They did recently have a neat I’m Feeling Lucky easter egg. Too see that click here.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help, DigitalPoint Forums and Google Webmaster Help.

Bing’s MSNBot Crawling Fake File Names?

On December 28, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

A WebmasterWorld thread and an older Bing Forums thread has discussion from webmasters over the issue of Microsoft Bing’s web crawler, MSNBot, crawling file names that do not exist on a specific site.

This reminders me of the ongoing issue of Bing creating fake referrals in webmaster log files. This has been going on for years, where Microsoft claims they have fixed it, but never really has.

In this specific case, it seems like Bing is creating file names on a specific site to crawl. Wel, they are not creating files, just trying to fetch pages that do not and never have existed on a specific site. I am not sure if this is a Bing issue or a webmaster issue.

A long time WebmasterWorld member explained the issue:

In what is apparently a rather old bad behavior, msnbot has a practice of regularly requesting totally manufactured URIs that appear to be designed to trigger 404 errors. Here are two sample log entries of the two styles of bogus URIs msnbot requests:

’65.55.207.126′¦Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:39:49 -0500¦’msnbot/2.0b (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)’¦’*/*’¦’/ADBF3C7AB534E8356F30D8AC05291640_00000.temp019f.html’¦”
’65.55.207.28′¦Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:46:22 -0500¦’msnbot/2.0b (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)’¦’*/*’¦’/000166709_00001.temp00be.html’¦”

The requests ALWAYS take on one of the formats above starting with either a 32byte GUID or a nine digit integer.

In the Bing thread, another person said:

For many many years, msnbot has been crawling my sites looking for files that have never existed… i’m trying to figure out why…
the filenames have changed slightly in recent times but they have been similar in structure since the beginning… they are something like 000092601_00002.temp0001.htm… in other words, 9 numbers underscore 5 numbers dot temp 4 numbers dot htm… the search for these is all over my server’s directory tree…

I’ll emphasize once more that these files have never existed on my site and i have no clue how msnbot may have picked them up…

Honestly, I feel bad that I am always beating up on Microsoft. I know they are new to the game, when you compare them to Google. But I have to report these issues.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & Bing Forums.

A WebmasterWorld thread and an older Bing Forums thread has discussion from webmasters over the issue of Microsoft Bing’s web crawler, MSNBot, crawling file names that do not exist on a specific site.

This reminders me of the ongoing issue of Bing creating fake referrals in webmaster log files. This has been going on for years, where Microsoft claims they have fixed it, but never really has.

In this specific case, it seems like Bing is creating file names on a specific site to crawl. Wel, they are not creating files, just trying to fetch pages that do not and never have existed on a specific site. I am not sure if this is a Bing issue or a webmaster issue.

A long time WebmasterWorld member explained the issue:

In what is apparently a rather old bad behavior, msnbot has a practice of regularly requesting totally manufactured URIs that appear to be designed to trigger 404 errors. Here are two sample log entries of the two styles of bogus URIs msnbot requests:

’65.55.207.126′¦Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:39:49 -0500¦’msnbot/2.0b (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)’¦’*/*’¦’/ADBF3C7AB534E8356F30D8AC05291640_00000.temp019f.html’¦”
’65.55.207.28′¦Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:46:22 -0500¦’msnbot/2.0b (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)’¦’*/*’¦’/000166709_00001.temp00be.html’¦”

The requests ALWAYS take on one of the formats above starting with either a 32byte GUID or a nine digit integer.

In the Bing thread, another person said:

For many many years, msnbot has been crawling my sites looking for files that have never existed… i’m trying to figure out why…
the filenames have changed slightly in recent times but they have been similar in structure since the beginning… they are something like 000092601_00002.temp0001.htm… in other words, 9 numbers underscore 5 numbers dot temp 4 numbers dot htm… the search for these is all over my server’s directory tree…

I’ll emphasize once more that these files have never existed on my site and i have no clue how msnbot may have picked them up…

Honestly, I feel bad that I am always beating up on Microsoft. I know they are new to the game, when you compare them to Google. But I have to report these issues.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & Bing Forums.

Bug When Updating Google Maps Local Listing

On December 14, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

Starting over the weekend, if you tried to update a Google Maps business listing in the Google Local Business Center, you would get a weird error. We have many reports in the Google Maps forums, many.

The error sometimes looks like this:

System Error

We’re sorry, but we are unable to serve your request at this time. Please try back in a few minutes.

Try again document.write(“|\n\x3ca href\x3d\x22/local/add/businessCenter?hl\x3den-US\x26amp;gl\x3dUS\x22 onclick\x3d\x22history.go(-1); return false;\x22\x3e

Return to previous page\x3c/a\x3e”); | Return to previous page

Google Maps Guide Linda replied to many of the threads with the same message, it read:

Hi,

We’re aware of this system error issue and we hope to have this fixed by next week. Please check your account again next week to verify your business listing.

Thanks for your patience.

Best,
Maps Guide Linda

The Google Maps threads include these four help threads, but I believe there are many more.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help Discussions.

Starting over the weekend, if you tried to update a Google Maps business listing in the Google Local Business Center, you would get a weird error. We have many reports in the Google Maps forums, many.

The error sometimes looks like this:

System Error

We’re sorry, but we are unable to serve your request at this time. Please try back in a few minutes.

Try again document.write(“|\n\x3ca href\x3d\x22/local/add/businessCenter?hl\x3den-US\x26amp;gl\x3dUS\x22 onclick\x3d\x22history.go(-1); return false;\x22\x3e

Return to previous page\x3c/a\x3e”); | Return to previous page

Google Maps Guide Linda replied to many of the threads with the same message, it read:

Hi,

We’re aware of this system error issue and we hope to have this fixed by next week. Please check your account again next week to verify your business listing.

Thanks for your patience.

Best,
Maps Guide Linda

The Google Maps threads include these four help threads, but I believe there are many more.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help Discussions.

Google Images Trying Bing’s “Infinite Scroll”?

On December 14, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

I may be totally misunderstanding a post from swainzy in Cre8asite Forums, but maybe not. Swainzy is upset that she cannot change the number of results shown in Google Image Search, just like this person at the Google Web Search Help thread.

But what Swainzy added later seemed to imply to me that Google is testing Bing’s infinite scroll feature, which continues to show you more and more pictures as you scroll the page.

She said:

G. may be over riding how many images you can see on one page but wow, it’s much faster and the new page stays where you were on the last page. So if you are at the bottom, you don’t have to see the image ads anymore.

Is Google copying Bing, who copied someone else?

I personally like the infinite scroll on Bing. Give it a try for red panda at Bing, just scroll and you will see what I mean.

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

Update: Google confirmed this test, a spokesperson told me:

We’re continually testing new interfaces and features to enhance the user experience. What you describe below was one such test, which only a small percentage of users saw. We don’t have any additional details to share at this time but I hope that helps. For more information on the experiments we run, please see: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/this-is-test-this-is-only-test.html

I may be totally misunderstanding a post from swainzy in Cre8asite Forums, but maybe not. Swainzy is upset that she cannot change the number of results shown in Google Image Search, just like this person at the Google Web Search Help thread.

But what Swainzy added later seemed to imply to me that Google is testing Bing’s infinite scroll feature, which continues to show you more and more pictures as you scroll the page.

She said:

G. may be over riding how many images you can see on one page but wow, it’s much faster and the new page stays where you were on the last page. So if you are at the bottom, you don’t have to see the image ads anymore.

Is Google copying Bing, who copied someone else?

I personally like the infinite scroll on Bing. Give it a try for red panda at Bing, just scroll and you will see what I mean.

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

Update: Google confirmed this test, a spokesperson told me:

We’re continually testing new interfaces and features to enhance the user experience. What you describe below was one such test, which only a small percentage of users saw. We don’t have any additional details to share at this time but I hope that helps. For more information on the experiments we run, please see: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/this-is-test-this-is-only-test.html

SEOs Freak Out: Google To Personalize All Search Results

On December 7, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

Back in February 2007, Google began personalizing search results based on your search history. Google would do so, only when you were logged in. Now, Google announced they are personalizing search results for everyone, even if you are not logged in.

Google explains:

Previously, we only offered Personalized Search for signed-in users, and only when they had Web History enabled on their Google Accounts. What we’re doing today is expanding Personalized Search so that we can provide it to signed-out users as well. This addition enables us to customize search results for you based upon 180 days of search activity linked to an anonymous cookie in your browser. It’s completely separate from your Google Account and Web History (which are only available to signed-in users). You’ll know when we customize results because a “View customizations” link will appear on the top right of the search results page. Clicking the link will let you see how we’ve customized your results and also let you turn off this type of customization.

This is big stuff for the SEO world. No matter how much we complained earlier that the personalized search results made it hard to “optimize” for, this only impacted a fraction of all Google searchers. Most people had no idea how to even log into Google. Now, Google is personalizing results by default and these same people will have no idea how to turn off personalization. So now all these users will see different results, on some level, and it does impact the SEO space – more so than when Google launched this in 2007.

SEOs, most of them, are mad. Let me quote some of the more trusted names in our forums:

Cre8asite Forums:

So let me get this straight: to completely opt-out, you’ll have to login permanently? Which moron came up with that scheme?

Wow… this is really going to overly favor websites like amazon and ebay that already have a huge reach.

The rich will get richer.

HighRankings Forums:

Google is using a “secret cookie” not attached to the Google.com domain to handle the Web History/Personalized Search for users who are not logged in.

The gradual impact over time will be that unaware users who click on Google search listings will reshape their search results. Unless Google develops some sort of injection to show people new (fresh) content, discovery will become more difficult for less sophisticated users.

Good news for Randy and 1dmf’s Google Rank Extractor. And also for moving people further and further away from traditional rank checking as a measure of success.

DigitalPoint Forums:

Google are there to find ways to best meet the needs of the searcher. As much as we want them to be, they are not there to meet our SEO needs.

WebmasterWorld:

The possible impact to all is staggering.

This just feels so very wrong-headed that the mind boggles! As I often explain to IT staff, NOT EVERYTHING THAT CAN BE PROGRAMMED SHOULD BE PROGRAMMED.

Sounds like an attempt at a product improvement. SEOs may or may not like it, but the real question is whether Joe Searcher likes it. If Joe does, Google will remain one big step ahead of its competitors. If Personalized Search turns out to be Google’s answer to Windows Vista, Google will need to bring back Google XP or leapfrog to Google 7.

Danny Sullivan has an excellent write up about this at Search Engine Land, he doesn’t seem to touch on the SEO view of this.

Honestly, if this makes Google more relevant for their searchers – all power to them. I am not going to say I know what is better for the average searcher. They can quickly figure this out after days and decide to keep it, turn it down, or off completely. SEOs will adapt, like they always do – we are a strong and smart bunch – I am not worried.

Forum discussion is plentiful and it is at Cre8asite Forums, HighRankings Forums, DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

Back in February 2007, Google began personalizing search results based on your search history. Google would do so, only when you were logged in. Now, Google announced they are personalizing search results for everyone, even if you are not logged in.

Google explains:

Previously, we only offered Personalized Search for signed-in users, and only when they had Web History enabled on their Google Accounts. What we’re doing today is expanding Personalized Search so that we can provide it to signed-out users as well. This addition enables us to customize search results for you based upon 180 days of search activity linked to an anonymous cookie in your browser. It’s completely separate from your Google Account and Web History (which are only available to signed-in users). You’ll know when we customize results because a “View customizations” link will appear on the top right of the search results page. Clicking the link will let you see how we’ve customized your results and also let you turn off this type of customization.

This is big stuff for the SEO world. No matter how much we complained earlier that the personalized search results made it hard to “optimize” for, this only impacted a fraction of all Google searchers. Most people had no idea how to even log into Google. Now, Google is personalizing results by default and these same people will have no idea how to turn off personalization. So now all these users will see different results, on some level, and it does impact the SEO space – more so than when Google launched this in 2007.

SEOs, most of them, are mad. Let me quote some of the more trusted names in our forums:

Cre8asite Forums:

So let me get this straight: to completely opt-out, you’ll have to login permanently? Which moron came up with that scheme?

Wow… this is really going to overly favor websites like amazon and ebay that already have a huge reach.

The rich will get richer.

HighRankings Forums:

Google is using a “secret cookie” not attached to the Google.com domain to handle the Web History/Personalized Search for users who are not logged in.

The gradual impact over time will be that unaware users who click on Google search listings will reshape their search results. Unless Google develops some sort of injection to show people new (fresh) content, discovery will become more difficult for less sophisticated users.

Good news for Randy and 1dmf’s Google Rank Extractor. And also for moving people further and further away from traditional rank checking as a measure of success.

DigitalPoint Forums:

Google are there to find ways to best meet the needs of the searcher. As much as we want them to be, they are not there to meet our SEO needs.

WebmasterWorld:

The possible impact to all is staggering.

This just feels so very wrong-headed that the mind boggles! As I often explain to IT staff, NOT EVERYTHING THAT CAN BE PROGRAMMED SHOULD BE PROGRAMMED.

Sounds like an attempt at a product improvement. SEOs may or may not like it, but the real question is whether Joe Searcher likes it. If Joe does, Google will remain one big step ahead of its competitors. If Personalized Search turns out to be Google’s answer to Windows Vista, Google will need to bring back Google XP or leapfrog to Google 7.

Danny Sullivan has an excellent write up about this at Search Engine Land, he doesn’t seem to touch on the SEO view of this.

Honestly, if this makes Google more relevant for their searchers – all power to them. I am not going to say I know what is better for the average searcher. They can quickly figure this out after days and decide to keep it, turn it down, or off completely. SEOs will adapt, like they always do – we are a strong and smart bunch – I am not worried.

Forum discussion is plentiful and it is at Cre8asite Forums, HighRankings Forums, DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

Six Years Covering the Search Marketing Community

On December 2, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

Today is the official six-year anniversary of the Search Engine Roundtable. To date, we have written over 10,700 (10,740 to be exact) articles here, and over 1,841 in the past year. But it is not about the quantity of posts, I feel we have always produced unique and useful content, day in and day out here for the past six years. If we couldn’t provide unique and helpful content, I doubt I would be keeping this up. And like I always say, the content comes from the community (i.e. the forums), which has always determined what we write about and what I feel is important to highlight to a wider audience.

This article, being my 7,958th article since starting this site (1,754 over past year) will highlight some of what I feel are the most important changes over the course of the year in our industry. If you want to see the same type of post for the 2008 year, see my five year anniversary write up from last year.

I would like to thank all our contributing authors, the volunteer live conference bloggers, our sponsors, the search engines, and of course – you guys – the community. Finally, I would like to thank my wife for putting up with my addiction to search, especially after having our first child.

A quick reminder, if you have not yet subscribed to us via RSS or email, please consider doing so. Also, please consider subscribing to our weekly video recaps and on Twitter at both @seroundtable and @rustybrick.

Enough of that, let’s get into the meat of the past year:

Today is the official six-year anniversary of the Search Engine Roundtable. To date, we have written over 10,700 (10,740 to be exact) articles here, and over 1,841 in the past year. But it is not about the quantity of posts, I feel we have always produced unique and useful content, day in and day out here for the past six years. If we couldn’t provide unique and helpful content, I doubt I would be keeping this up. And like I always say, the content comes from the community (i.e. the forums), which has always determined what we write about and what I feel is important to highlight to a wider audience.

This article, being my 7,958th article since starting this site (1,754 over past year) will highlight some of what I feel are the most important changes over the course of the year in our industry. If you want to see the same type of post for the 2008 year, see my five year anniversary write up from last year.

I would like to thank all our contributing authors, the volunteer live conference bloggers, our sponsors, the search engines, and of course – you guys – the community. Finally, I would like to thank my wife for putting up with my addiction to search, especially after having our first child.

A quick reminder, if you have not yet subscribed to us via RSS or email, please consider doing so. Also, please consider subscribing to our weekly video recaps and on Twitter at both @seroundtable and @rustybrick.

Enough of that, let’s get into the meat of the past year:

Adult Escort Business Owner Looking for Fair Shot in Google?

On November 30, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

We have reported a few times how Google Maps is being abused by seductive images and local results. What I found incredibly interesting was a thread at Google Maps Help where a Googler called out one person for spamming Google Maps and then reporting it.

Joel from Google asked:

V London & Jack London – you are both with the same domain: vlondonescorts.co.uk which is a source of this spam. What are you trying to achieve by reporting threads like this here?

I have seen many weird things in forums, but this is up there.

This person goes on to complain about the London Escort listings being at the top of the Google search results. I suspect his main business listing was removed or does not rank well for that search. The others keep coming in with new listings each day, in an effort to out spam Google’s spam detection tools.

I don’t fully get why he would come in and complain, especially in such a category – but what do I know.

Forum discussion at two Google Maps Help threads.