Category Archives: Search Engines
21 Search Engines Homepage Hijack
I’m going to set aside the usual Friday stuff because I’m really surprised to not be able to find a lot of information on this particular issue. I want to get it out there, because I’m starting to see this with increasing frequency. The user, somehow, someway, gets their homepage changed to “21 Search Engines” without them knowing it. Whenever this occurs, additional spyware/adware is found on the system.
Now, which came first, the chicken or the egg? I do not know, but if you find yourself in this situation, it is advised that you:
Geek Friday: Handling Duplicate Content Across Domains With Google Canonical
There may be times when duplicate content on a single website is needed. That’s where Google’s canonical link element comes in. On a page with such content, it can aid in ensuring the correct one is being indexed by a search engine.
However, there may also be legitimate reasons that multiple domains would appear to have the same content, and that is more problematic than duplicate content on a single website. For that reason, Google came up with a cross-domain canonical link element.
It comes at a cost, though. Each URL will need a mapping to a new one. It is also not as powerful as a 301 redirect. In addition, it is a suggestion for search engines rather than a directive. These are considerations for its use. On the plus side, done correctly, it might actually be better than a 301 redirect for some SEO purposes.
Recently, Google also announced that canonical can be put into an HTML header to cut down on abuse.
Geek Friday: Black Hat vs White Hat Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
I don’t cover a lot about search engine optimization (SEO). The reason is it is rather tedious. I myself get quite lax about it (perhaps too much so).
However, it is good to post about it once in a while, even if it is just to remind myself about it. Yet, SEO done incorrectly can actually hurt your page rank rather than aid it. There are some practices that can get you banned from any search indexing by a particular search engine, in fact, so it is best to make sure you are staying on the side of acceptable practices.
Page Rank Zero?
As a webmaster, it is difficult to ignore Google page ranking (PR). As a webmaster, I also get a lot of spam such as:
After reading your blog post I browsed your website a bit and noticed you aren’t ranking nearly as well in Google as you could be.
Google Search Blocking
This one sort of slipped under the radar for me. The Telegraph reported last week on “Google Search: block websites you don’t like”. If you have ever clicked on a Google search result that was a complete dud (and who hasn’t?), then this will avoid this in your future search results (it will not affect others, at least not yet).
You might be familiar with the “Cached” link below the main result. If you click on the main link and the material has changed, often you can click on Cached to see older results that might be relevant. Well, now next to that may be a “Block all xxxx.xxx results” which will block that website from your search results.
I’ve noticed, however, it doesn’t show for all searches (hence I don’t have a screenshot).
It seems like such a simple idea, it makes you wonder, “Why didn’t they do this before?
Page 1 SEO, Guaranteed!
I suppose there must be people in the world who are willing to pour honey over themselves and then go out into some type of wilderness and wait for the ants to attack.
Hardly a week goes by that I don’t get a call from some search engine optimization (SEO) company. They will gladly give me “organic” rankings that will put me onto the “first search page”. Interestingly, I already am in many of my markets, in one segment anyhow. So, what do I want to pay them for again?
Well, I ran across an item where someone was looking to get on the first Google page in an organic search. Well, aren’t we all? However, “organic” doesn’t come cheaply. It will take either time or money. Most likely, it will take a little of both.
Well, I suppose they’ve been inundated by now with all sorts of scam artists and the like.
I have to wonder, though. If someone is good at SEO, cannot you do a Google search and narrow it down?
Just thinkin’, ya know.
Not Another SEO Company Calling!
I’m amazed at how many sales calls a small company like mine will get from Search Engine Optimization (SEO) companies. Even more surprising is that they call at all. After all, I do setup web pages for people.
I’m not going to say they are a waste of money, but what a lot of people don’t tell you is that SEO is a black art. Basically, you come up with a strategy, try a few things and measure the results. It is time consuming, I’ll give you that. However, the complexity of it all is rather hyped.
Why do I say that? Because “content is king”, as the saying goes. If you don’t have good content, it doesn’t matter how many people you drive to the site, they aren’t going to stick around very long. Only you and your marketing executives can say what works for the type of customer you are trying to attract. Once word gets out, they will tell others of like mind, who will come and stick around and tell their friends, and so on.
That is the most important part of SEO. The rest is about getting people there who would not ordinarily find you.
Google rankings? Yeah, that’s important, but you can buy that directly if you want to part with enough money. The most important think about Google to remember is that no one knows for sure the algorithm used to display the search results. The second most important thing to remember is that Google isn’t the only game in town, and ranking low in other search engines can actually hurt you on Google.
Keywords? Hopefully, you already know the most important ones from your market research. SEO can suggest others you haven’t thought of, but hopefully the most important ones are already in your content.
I’m not saying that all SEO companies are a rip-off, nor am I saying all of them are not worth the money spent. However, as they say, there is a time and place for everything. If you don’t have good content, and if you don’t know your keywords, then you have some work to do before hiring an SEO, IMO.
Along those lines, there is an interesting article by Miriam Ellis on Search Engine Guide about “Should You Hire An SEO Who Cold Calls You?" Her answer? In short, “No.”
One compelling reason why not is whether or not you would trust just any restaurant that happens along to celebrate a special occasion with the most important person in your life. For example, if you wanted to celebrate your wedding anniversary, wouldn’t you get recommendations from your friends? So, would you hand over the success of your company’s web presence to the first SEO business that comes along?
Geek Friday: Roll Your Own SEO
This is probably more of a “pseudo-geek” post, as it really does not require technological knowledge. However, there are free ways you can advertise yourself online and draw traffic to your blog or website. All it takes is some time.
It’s all about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It is about finding ways to draw interest in your online presence. it is about raising the number of searches and hits on your pages. All of this is so you can raise your level in Google’s search engine so that even more people, who hopefully turn into customers, can find you.
It’s sort of like a virtual version of a popularity contest. The more popular you are, then the more popular you become. As people start to take notice, they tell others who in turn take notice and tell even more people. The online game is somewhat like that as well. As you build more links and show up on more searches, the more people link and point out your site to others, resulting in higher search engine ratings which allow even more people to find you.
Michael Gray of Graywolf’s SEO Blog put out an excellent article about “13 Ways to Promote your Local Business for Free”. I had already signed up for and used about half of these, but he has some on his list I’d not heard of. I can attest to the power of the ones I have used, so I urge anyone with a business to promote online to read his article and at least give them a try.
Some of the tools can seem a little confusing. Google is one that is always making changes, which makes for constant confusion. For example, Google Base, which is listed in Gray’s article, is now Google Merchant Center. Also, I had thought I had already done the YellowPages.com thing, but when I went back I noticed it had never been verified.
So, I want to point out a couple of things:
- You don’t have to do it all at once. Pick the easy items first and circle back around for the more difficult ones.
- Go back on a regular basis. You might want to tweak the description, add a picture or add or change your tagline. Or, like I learned with YellowPages.com, you might have overlooked something entirely that needs to be corrected before your ad will be placed out there.
I would like to add into the mix, since presumably a lot of you are in NE Ohio, that you will want to hit up Cleveland.com to get added to their business directory as well.
Do be aware that advertising online gains exposure to other advertisers as well as customers. YellowPages.com will probably call you and offer their SEO services, for example, but so might FlyByNight.com. So, be careful. There are a lot of rip-offs out there.
One company, in fact, annoyed me to no end. They only charged $5.95 per month they said. What was not clearly stated is that they also charged per click. Frankly, I suspect their numbers were off, but even if they were correct, it was still $90 per month for the middle-of-the-road plan. It’s not like I noticed a huge gain in customers, either!
However, Cleveland.com has a company they work through, Cleveland Live, LLC, and I noticed the difference right away. If you are a local company targeting mostly local customers, it’s hard to beat, actually.
Unless you just have a huge advertising budget or competition is very fierce, it is my opinion that paying for more than one SEO product is probably not the best use of your money. Each subsequent SEO package brings you rapidly diminishing returns. Also, keep in mind that if you are already buying space in the Yellow Pages, you are probably already paying for SEO in some form. Best to check!
The important thing is to treat your web and/or blog site like any other form of marketing. Promote, tweak, make changes, promote, publish and republish. Then, polish and republish again. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Some other avenues where you can promote your business is on Facebook (I recommend getting your business it’s own page, or people will think you are just there to spam them), eBay Classified and Craig’s List. I have to admit I’ve gotten nothing but spam from Craig’s List, but others swear by it. As with anything, your mileage may vary.
A Word About Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
You have a website. You probably want people to visit it. In order for that to happen, people have to find it. If someone types in certain keywords into a search engine, will your site come up on page 1? Page 2? If your site is listed further down than that, it’s almost guaranteed that very few will find your site.
The art (and anyone who pitches it as a “science” with hard and fast rules should be avoided) of raising one’s ratings on search engines is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The reason it is more art than science is because Google, one of the largest search engines out there, does not reveal exact details on how they rank websites. This helps to keep websites from finding flaws in their algorithm and getting artificially higher than expected results.
John D’s Computer & Network Services assists individuals and companies, particularly in the area of organic search engine optimization. This method is slower, but it has longer lasting results. Some SEO companies will not tell you about this method, as it doesn’t generate them as much money. However, this method is vindicated in the article “How SEO Services can offer good traffic for your Website”.
One other popular method that the above article does not go into is paying for search engine placement. You can have a “sponsored” link on Google, Yahoo or other search engines by paying them a certain amount under certain conditions. Ethical search engines make a visual difference between sponsored and normal results, so there isn’t anything unethical about this. However, it should be noted that it is very short term and can potentially be the most costly.
Organic SEO, on the other hand, costs more in time than money. It means analyzing the traffic and making adjustments as you go. It means building a quality website rather than throwing money after short term results. It means offering great content!
That’s why the expression “Content is king” exists. Let’s face it, even if you pay off all of the search engines, prod and bribe a bunch of others to link to your site and tweak keywords all day long, it doesn’t mean a thing if there’s nothing there that people want to read.
