Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, yesterday, and the day before, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Feeds
5033 items (4508 unread) in 3 feeds
Google
(305 unread)
-
Official Google Webmaster Central Blog (305 unread)
SEO
(4203 unread)
-
Emily Chang (334 unread)
-
Search Engine Roundtable
(3869 unread)
Search Engine Roundtable (7 unread)
-
Daily Search Forum Recap: October 23, 2008
Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 11:00pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
Tags: Search Forum Recap
-
Recent Google PageRank Discussions & Observations
Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 5:24pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
Tags: Google Optimization
Michael Gray explains why PageRank sculpting is important. He explains that Google has downplayed the use of PR sculpting but it seems that it's working pretty well for some people. Using an analogy with two very different cars (one, an old shoddy car; two, an expensive powerhorse) he says:
The links on your website are touch points between your website and Google’s crawling and indexing spiders. Much like cars not all websites are the same, not all websites have the “horsepower” to take advantage of tactics like nofollow and pagerank sculpting. The key is figuring out if you are closer to the Ford Gremlin or the Ferarri Enzo and adjusting your strategy accordingly.
Indeed, many forum members agree that PR sculpting is beneficial especially for small sites where you can drive the link juice to the proper pages.
In a second thread, PageRank is dissected by Ann Smarty at Search Engine Journal. Ann summarizes a WebmasterWorld discussion about the Graybar and how the PageRank toolbar, if gray, can mean two things: either the site is broken (not SEO'd) or the site is penalized. She also discusses some myths and truths regarding the gray bar. Some items of note include the fact that the gray bar is not equivalent to PR0, it actually doesn't mean the site is deindexed/penalized, it can indicate improper behavior, PR can change with no impact on performance, and more.
Forum discussion continues at Sphinn (PR sculpting) and Sphinn (PR myths).
-
Yahoo's Q3 2008 Earnings Announced
Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 4:58pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
Tags: Other Yahoo Topics
Yahoo has released its Q3 earnings report with some interesting observations. First, the earnings this quarter are $1,786 million, which is a a 1 percent increase compared to $1,768 million for the same period of 2007.
Currently, fifteen thousand employees work for Yahoo (though layoffs are being reported), and some forum members wonder why. Most importantly, they wonder why Yahoo's CEO is still in play especially given the huge missed opportunity with the Microsoft deal. Here's one statement about the poor direction of Yahoo:
Yahoo, IMHO is terribly mismanaged to the point that it no longer is credible as a search engine or directory as search results are severely lacking.
There's still hope, though, as some people say. Yahoo needs to be a lot more innovative. The question, probably, is: how?
Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.
-
Google AdWords API Version 13 Released
Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 4:46pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
Tags: Google AdWords
AdWords API Advisor informs us via Google Groups that Google AdWords API v13 has been released. Though mentioned in the release notes, the these new features include enhanced geotargeting options, ability to retrieve only active campaigns/ad groups, campaign budgeting suggestions, new report types, mobile image ads, quality-based bid/Quality Score support, and more.
On a somewhat related note (but not really), the AdWords API Blog announces that in time for the holidays, Google is offering a bonus of 20% more API units at no additional cost through January 15.
Forum discussion continues at Google Groups and WebmasterWorld. -
Yahoo! Search Marketing Rolls Out New Features
Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 4:29pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg
Tags: Yahoo Search Marketing
YahooPete has written on three of his usual forums to let us know that Yahoo Search Marketing has come out with many desired features. They include:
* Country-level targeting
* City and zip-level targeting
* Targeting English-speaking US and Canada Internet usersThe Yahoo Search Marketing Blog goes into these changes in more detail.
As forum members are writing, these are changes that they really appreciate.
Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld, Search Engine Watch Forums and DigitalPoint Forums.
-
Best Place to Get Webmaster Help for Live Search
Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 3:25pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Microsoft MSN Search
Microsoft has been really focusing on building out support and tools for webmasters for their Live Search product. It is beginning to show. A DigitalPoint Forums thread reports one webmaster who has been trying to gain assistance for two years, was now able to get clear and useful feedback from Microsoft.
Why all of a sudden? Well, because of Microsoft's Live Search Webmaster Tools and their now active Live Search Webmaster Forums. This particular webmaster was able to figure out the issue through the use of both the tools and forums.
So, if your having issues with your website in Live Search, make sure to register with webmaster.live.com and check out the Microsoft Live Search Webmaster Forums.
Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.
-
How To Serve Age Verification Pages to Google For Porn or Alcohol Sites
Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 3:03pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Optimization
US law requires an age verification page for when someone visits a web page about pornography, alcohol or other adult oriented pages. But this comes with a challenge for webmasters who want to make sure those pages are accessible to search engines.
For example, if you search for vodka one of the top results is for absolut.com, and if you click on it and in your in the US, you are taken to absolut.com/us and it pops open an age verification box. At the same time, absolut.com has over a thousand pages indexed in Google, how so?
A Google Groups thread has a response from a Googler on how to handle these situations. Susan Moskwa of Google said:
This topic comes up periodically for sites (alcohol, porn, etc.) that need to serve an age verification notice on every page. What we recommend in this case is to serve it via JavaScript. That way users can see the age verification any time they try to access your content, but search engines that don't run JavaScript won't see the warning and will instead be able to see your content.
Google won't run the JavaScript request and GoogleBot will simply bypass that page and crawl the site. Of course, what if JavaScript is turned off on a child's browser?
Forum discussion at Google Groups.