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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Google
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Official Google Webmaster Central Blog (325 unread)
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Search Engine Roundtable
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Daily Search Forum Recap: December 30, 2008
Posted: December 30th, 2008, 10:00pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
Tags: Search Forum Recap
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New York Times Sued Over Linking Practices
Posted: December 30th, 2008, 3:55pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
Tags: Link Building
An article at E-Commerce Times talks about a recently-filed lawsuit against Boston.com, a NYTimes company, that is being sued for its linking practices. According to the article, the simple presence of a link has prompted the suit, but from CenterNetworks, the real reason might be apparent: GateHouse, the company suing the Times, is upset because Boston.com is linking to subpages of the site, thereby causing readers to bypass the significant advertising on GateHouse's home page.
(My commentary: If there were no links there at all, GateHouse still wouldn't see traffic to its homepage. Be happy that you got the link!)
In any event, there is some worry if merely linking will require permission in the future. That would be a pretty silly move.
Then again, I worry that the E-Commerce Times article that WebmasterWorld members referred to isn't accurate since every other article I read on the subject matter is about circumventing the advertising.
Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.
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Are there Honest Copywriters Out There?
Posted: December 30th, 2008, 3:50pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
Tags: Search Engine Industry News
At High Rankings Forums, there's a disgruntled individual who has been looking for honest copywriters and hasn't had any luck. All have been deadbeats.
Maybe this individual isn't looking in the right place, given that there are a lot of good copywriters out there that I know. So how do you find them?
* Get a reference before you hire them.
* Buy a cheap writing sample to see what you're getting into.
* Speak with site owners and find out if they have professional writers on staff who can help with content production.
* Copy+paste snippets of text to make sure they're providing original and not plagiarized content.How do you spot good copywriters?
Forum discussion continues at High Rankings Forums.
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How Do You Ask for Links?
Posted: December 30th, 2008, 3:16pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
Tags: Link Building
Link building is going to happen whether I like it or not, so I better accept the 949394 emails I get per day. A WebmasterWorld thread asks link builders how they ask for links via email. Some tactics include putting the link up first (and thereby then emailing people -- they often will give the reciprocal link) and keeping the email short and brief and personal.
Ask for the link. Don't demand it.
Offer people you link to something valuable in return. For example, wheel suggests that you say something along the lines of "I've got data your visitors may find interesting" or "Here's a unique coupon code."
Since these are email requests, though, can you be reported to Google for spamming someone else? There's no answer to that -- it depends on the recipient.
I should add from my experience that it's unwise to ask big blogs for links. They might have a high PageRank and is extremely relevant for your purposes, but chances are, old posts won't be updated. (And like I said in sentence #1, we get hundreds of link exchange emails a week. That said, most aren't read anymore.)
Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.
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Take the 2008 Search Quiz
Posted: December 30th, 2008, 3:08pm CET by Tamar Weinberg
Tags: Search Engine Industry News
Know everything there is to know about search? You sure about that? Matt McGee is hosting the 2nd annual search quiz and you're invited to challenge me and others.
Last year, I won this cool contest, but this year, well, I won't tell you -- I'll wait for Matt to tell you himself :)
You have till tomorrow evening to play, so be sure to sign up now!
Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.