Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
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Daily Search Forum Recap: December 26, 2008
Posted: December 26th, 2008, 10:00pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
Tags: Search Forum Recap
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Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: December 26, 2008
Posted: December 26th, 2008, 5:35pm CET by rustybrick
Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp
Happy Holidays from the Search Engine Roundtable. I go through the various holiday logos, talk about how Googler's are working on Christmas, how they paid publishers early and how some earned less over the past holiday. In addition, I discuss a comment Matt Cutts left on how bounce rates have no impact on rankings. I then go through a list of things Google won't do, a myth thing. I mentioned a possible Google PageRank update. Google is working through the blog link command issue. Google added search by style options. I mocked newbies, well - not really. Finally, I thank you all for reading and participating in our five years of writing at the Search Engine Roundtable. Thank you and have a Happy Holidays!
Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed (note: If YouTube shows a video not found message, just refresh the page and play it again, it is a YouTube bug):
For the original iTunes version, click hereSome Of The Topics Discussed:
- Happy Holiday '08 From The Search Engine Industry
- Googlers Working on Christmas in 2008
- Google & Yahoo Pay Publishers Early for Holiday Season
- How'd You Do With Google AdSense this Holiday?
- Google Says, Bounce Rates For Search Rankings "Spammable" & "Noisy"
- Google's Search Quality Team Says They Don't...
- Christmas & Holiday 2008 Google PageRank Update?
- Google Blog Search Fixes Link Issue But Asks For Additional Help
- Google Image Search Enhancement: Search By Style
- Letting of Newbie SEO Steam at Google Webmaster Help Groups
- Search Engine Roundtable Is Five Years Old - December 2nd
Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!
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Weekly Search Buzz RoundUp - 12/26/08: It's Not as Dead as You'd Think this Holiday Week
Posted: December 26th, 2008, 3:49pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp
Happy holidays! Some of you are still celebrating and that's quite all right - enjoy the 4-5 day weekend while you can! But you've missed some happenings and we're ready to serve!
Holidays, holidays, holidays
Yesterday, people celebrated Christmas. Google anticipated the holiday for 5 days with a unique logo but we've also done some cool stuff over here at Search Engine Roundtable. Have you seen it yet?And while we alluded to that 5 day weekend, not everyone at Google was celebrating. JohnMu visited the forums on Christmas like one helluva dedicated guy. :)
Finally, you might have gotten your Google AdSense or Yahoo publishing network checks early this year, but don't expect to have earned a lot yesterday. It was a pretty slow holiday week.
Google: Probably Not Accounting for Bounce Rate in the Algo
Matt Cutts semi-confirmed that the Google search team is probably not accounting for bounce rates because they are spammable and noisy. He suggests that the Google Analytics guys care a lot more about bounce rates than the Search Quality Team.Other things the Google Search Quality Team Doesn't Do
People don't like what Google does but they really don't necessarily know what Google does or doesn't do. JohnMu confirms what Google doesn't do which includes Google crawling differently on sites they don't agree with, large companies being able to influence how Google crawls their websites, that crawlers can damage sites, and that Google will react to spam reports when a website is clearly not in violation of any rules. Seriously -- for at least the first three of these, it's a little outrageous to put the blame on Google.Google Toolbar PageRank Update, Perhaps
Numerous webmasters reported a Google PageRank update. Have you noticed anything?Google Fixing Blogroll Links in Blog Search
While I'm still encountering issues with inaccurate Google Alerts due to blogroll links showing up in Google Blog Search, Google's team is acknowledging that they're fixing it. I hope so!Google Image Search Enhancement: Cool
If you haven't noticed yet, you can now search by style in Google Image Search. That means you can distinguish line art from photographs and faces and more. Whee!Let's Make Fun of SEO Newbies
There's a Google Webmaster Help thread that pokes fun at SEO newbies. Hey guys, I bet you were all n00bs once!Happy Birthday to Us
Search Engine Roundtable is 5 years old and Barry has celebrated the year by writing a "year in review" post. Whoooooooooosh!
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If Link Buying is Bad, Shouldn't PRWeb Be Bad Too?
Posted: December 26th, 2008, 3:07pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
Tags: Link Building
Since there's a huge war on paid links, is it true that you should avoid link buying at all costs? That means even using sites like press-release distributor service PRWeb.
Perhaps -- but PRWeb's goals are obviously not in the link building sphere. The goal for PRWeb is promotion of a particular service or website, not for link building. It's uncertain how Google handles links that are generated through PRWeb.
Randy says an important piece of advice for how you should handle this in general:
Truth be known, all link building should be approached from a Promotions/Advertising/Marketing mindset, not an SEO one. Get links that will stand a chance of bringing you real traffic from real qualified people visiting your site.
Forum discussion continues at High Rankings Forum.
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How'd You Do With Google AdSense this Holiday?
Posted: December 26th, 2008, 2:53pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
Tags: Google AdSense
Do people really use the Internet during the holiday season? According to the activity on Twitter yesterday, perhaps they actually do. But elsewhere on the 'net, that may not necessarily be the case. Publishers report that they get the lowest earnings during the holiday time, for the most part.
Of course, like any industry, there are always anomalies. A few publishers, but hardly the majority, report that the performance has been pretty good.
I guess I'm not too surprised.
Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.
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Googlers Working on Christmas in 2008
Posted: December 26th, 2008, 1:53pm CET by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
Like last year and the year before that, this year, we have Googlers responding to questions in the help forums.
Googler, JohnMu, like last year, came in and responded to at least one thread, likely more. In a Google Webmaster Help thread John tried to help a webmaster deal with temporary down time. He gave the following advice:
Instead of returning a default website when an error occurs, it's much better to let us know that it's a temporary issue (result code 503). That way, we'll know not to look at the content and to try again later.
In addition, Matt Cutts also joined in on a Merry Xmas thread, late last night saying, "luzie, thanks for the welcome. :)"
There were plenty of other Googlers, and likely other search reps at other companies working or participating in company events, on Christmas. I just wanted to document a few.
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Very Valuable Parked Domain: WWW.YOURDOMAIN.COM
Posted: December 26th, 2008, 1:43pm CET by rustybrick
Tags: Search Engine Optimization
I found a DigitalPoint Forums thread that was pretty funny. In short, they mentioned how www.yourdomain.com has a PageRank score of seven. It is true, the parked domain, www.yourdomain.com does have a PageRank score of seven.
Web Page URL: http://www.yourdomain.com The Page Rank: 7/10
It is a very valuable domain, not just for its toolbar PageRank. I mean, everyone uses it as an example of talking about where to place your domain. Can the owner better monetize it? I am not a domainer, so I don't know.
But it is funny to see domains with little on them be worth so much, possibly accidently?
Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.