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Daily Search Forum Recap: March 31, 2009

Posted: March 31st, 2009, 11:00pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

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.

Permalink for 'Search_Engine_Roundtable/2009/03/31/SEO_Focused_Log_File_Analysis'

An Introduction to Log File Analysis for SEOs & Webmasters from Eric Lander is a must read for all SEOs out there. He says that if you are not looking at your raw log files, you are missing out on things, even if you have the best web analytics software. Eric goes through the various key metrics in the log files that are key in your log file analysis process.

A Sphinn thread has extremely positive discussion around the article. I wish I had more time this morning to share my thoughts, but the article is great and the discussion makes it even better.

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

iGoogle Custom Themes Not Working For All

Posted: March 31st, 2009, 2:49pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

There are several complaints in a Google Web Search Help thread that users cannot upload their own iGoogle custom themes. iGoogle allows users to pick a theme from a set of pre-made templates or upload their own theme for their iGoogle home page.

It seems like several people are having issues uploading their own theme.

Google employee, Jem, has been trying to help these users figure out the issue. But for a few days now, Jem seems to be at a loss.

For now, people are sharing the images they want to use for their custom theme and hopefully, Jem will be able to figure it out.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 27, 2009

Posted: March 27th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Pulse

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.

(Text) Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: March 27, 2009

Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:37am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

I am in Israel now, so I am skipping the video this week. Here is the text based version of the weekly recap. Google seems to be pushing more search options on searchers through something being called Google Search Wheel. Google also added more search refinements and detailed (longer) snippets to Google web search. Google Blog Search finally pushed out their algorithm update for blogroll detectors. 23% of publishers say more than 75% of their income comes from Google AdSense. AdSense had major issues with double serving ads, which results in a reporting spike and a fix from Google. Did you know unpausing deleted campaigns can reactivate them in AdWords? Advertisers, publishers and affiliates are afraid over a new proposed bill that can tax more retailers. Google mobile has a big issue. iGoogle continues to sign people out. Did you know you can get Google to remove porn for Google Suggest? That was this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Next week, I am back with the video recaps.

Google Releases Major Blog Search Blogroll Algorithm Update

Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:23am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

The much awaited update to the Google Blog Search blogroll detector algorithm has finally been pushed through.

An updated Google Groups thread has Googler, Jeremy Hylton saying:

We have launched a ranking change that reduces the number of results that are returned because of blogroll matches. There are still problems to work out, but this change appears to be a big improvement over our earlier fix. We had originally planned to launch an experiment for link: queries, but decide more recently to release this change first. We are still working on the link: change and expect to have that ready in a few more weeks.

We did expect to see an update for how Google Blog Search responds to the link query, but as Jeremy said, that won't be released yet for the next few weeks. But the blogroll matching detector, which matches for keywords in the blogroll sections of sites, should no longer return results for those keywords.

Why does this matter? Well, lets say you are like me and you track who links or mentions you via Google Blog Search. If someone has the Search Engine Roundtable in the blogroll, and the do a daily blog post, even if that blog post doesn't mention the Search Engine Roundtable, blog search would show that new blog post as a match. Why? Because it is in the blogroll and Google thinks it is part of the content of the blog post. Google said they fixed this issue but they do want feedback at the Google Groups thread.

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

Google Safe Search Filter Bug Still Unresolved

Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:18am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

February 3rd, we reported Google Won't Let Some Searchers Turn Off "Safe Search" Filter, well, almost two months later, the issue is still not resolved. In fact, Google cannot find any issue.

The other day, Googler Skylar said he was unable to find any issue. He said in the Google Web Search Help thread:

Thanks everyone for providing information about your computers and browsers. I’ve been passing these details along to the rest of the team to check on SafeSearch filtering. We're currently unable to find errors with SafeSearch filtering. It is likely that a corrupt cookie, a third-party add-on, or an anti-virus program could be interfering with your preferences. I recommend giving the "Preferences aren't sticking" help article a try to make your preferences stick. In the meantime, I understand that it is frustrating when your preferences don't stick, and I'm sorry for any inconvenience you're experiencing.

But this does not explain why hundreds of searchers are still having this issue.

Forum discussion continued at Google Web Search Help.

Google Fixes AdSense Impression Glitch

Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:13am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Yesterday we reported that AdSense impressions were double reporting. Well it turned out to be more than just a reporting error. Google was double or triple serving the same ads on the same site, which is not something they should have been doing. In any event, Google has announced they fixed the issue:

If you're displaying multiple ad units on your pages, you may have noticed that your pageviews were higher than normal for part of yesterday and today. Our engineers identified a bug which prevented ad units from detecting other units on the same page. As a result, our system logged a pageview for each ad unit that was loaded on a page, instead of a pageview for each page containing ads. In some cases, this also may have caused specific ads to appear in multiple ad units on the same page.
Please be assured that ad unit impressions were still logged correctly and ads were still displayed on your pages, so you were properly credited for all earnings generated from your ads. We've resolved the issue, and although you won't see the pageview count in your reports retroactively changed, your pageview tracking is now back to normal.

But like I said, some ads were double or triple served on the same page.

Forum discussion at Webmaster World and Google AdSense Help.

Do Search Engines Read The Anchor Text of NoFollowed Links?

Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:08am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Optimization

A HighRankings Forum thread asks an interesting question. If I add links to my web page and nofollow them, does Google still read the anchor text of the link and use that in part of how they determine what my page is contextual about.

For example, if I link to Search Engine Land as follows; <a href="http://searchengineland.com/" rel="nofollow">Search News</a> would Google or any other main search engine, take the words "search news" and place that text as being relevant to what this page is about? We know Google won't pass the link value of that link to Search Engine Land, but do we know if Google ignores that text completely?

Has anyone done any tests on this yet? If not, anyone want to try?

Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.

Google Offering Hosting Companies Packaged Google Pack

Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:01am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Google announced they are now offering access providers, such as hosting companies, the ability to easily give their customers access to Google's Webmaster Tools, AdSense, Custom Search, and Site Search. These access providers can sign up at [www.google.com].

Today, we're releasing Google Services for Websites, a few more tools that your hosting company can now enable to help you improve your website. This expanded program includes Webmaster Tools, AdSense, Custom Search, and Site Search, making it easier to drive traffic to your site, monetize your site through the Google ad network, and add various search capabilities to help your visitors find information on your site faster.

We have some discussion around this announcement at WebmasterWorld. WebmasterWorld admin, tedster, said:

Seems like a savvy, and potentially revenue-increasing move. Note that the web host needs to participate for this program to be available: "...a few more tools that your hosting company can now enable to help you improve your website."
The Custom Search Engine is one service that might be a real boon. A CSE is not all that easy for the non-technical site owner to set up right now, and if this service makes it easier, that's a good thing.

Google has been piloting this type of services to some web hosts in the past. Expanding it to any web host and access provider is a no brainer for Google.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

How To Remove Google Porn Suggestions

Posted: March 27th, 2009, 6:55am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Almost two months ago, we asked, Should Google Search Suggestions Show Adult Suggestions? In short, Google, on occasion, showed search suggestion for porn/adult related phrases, as you typed your query. The example I gave then, was when you typed "you," Google would offer a suggestion to youpron which is an adult site. Here is the before picture:

A new Google Web Search Help thread shows that Google listens and does remove porn/adult keyword suggestions from that list. The case in that thread was for when you search for [hvernig] Google offered a suggestion [hvernig á að totta] which in Icelandic means "how to give a blowjob."

Googler, Skylar, said last night that it has been removed. He said:

The inappropriate suggestion will no longer appear when someone types "hvernig" in the search box. Thanks again for sharing your feedback about this query suggestion so that we can improve Google Suggest.

So I decided to check the [you] query and it was gone also:

So how do you remove porn suggestions from Google? Post your complaint in the web search forums.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 26, 2009

Posted: March 26th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

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.

Can META Keyword Tags Confuse Google?

Posted: March 26th, 2009, 11:22am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

We all know that Google ignores the META keywords tag on pages, or at least that is what we believe and what we are told. This does not mean Google ignores other meta tags, such as the meta description, but they do ignore the keywords meta tag.

A recent Google Webmaster Help thread has some confusing information from JohnMu, a Googler.

John said:

One problem I see when looking at your site's meta tags at the moment is that they're all included in your "keywords" meta tag - they're not separate meta tags.
That said, I think you can safely remove all of these meta tags. Google doesn't need them and they can be confusing the way you have them now.

If you look at the thread, we can see that the keywords used in the meta keywords is a bit overboard, to say the least. However, if Google completely ignores the tag, why would it "be confusing." Is it confusing for GoogleBot? Is it confusing for other search engines that might use it? Is it confusing the the searcher who doesn't view the source code of the page?

You see why I am struggling with this post? I know we can't always sit there and analyze the words of Googlers. But sometimes we do and we scratch our heads.

I will ping JohnMu and ask him to comment and clarify. I am sure I am just looking into this a bit too much.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Update: So I John commented and I decided to take a closer look at the site he commented about. What I found was the meta tags coded as HTML entities, which really is incredibly weird and likely does not work for Google or any bot. Here is a picture of the code, where I highlighted the core issue, as I understand it:

So John's comment does make more sense now.

Google AdSense Reporting Off Again: Impressions High & CTR Low

Posted: March 26th, 2009, 11:18am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Feels like at least once a week, I write about how Google AdSense has reporting issues. Today, I spotted a WebmasterWorld thread that has dozens of AdSense publishers complaining that the reports seem off again.

Specifically, the issues are as follows:

Impressions are twice the normal expected amount
Click through rates are about half of the normal expected amount
Earnings are (obviously) on target with what is expected

In summary, many publishers are noticing high numbers in impression reporting, but lower in the actual click through rate, which leads to the same earning reports as they historically see.

AdSenseAdvisor said a few hours ago:

I'm happy to look into this, but please forgive me if it takes some time (it's pretty late in California right now).

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Update: This is now fixed but ads were double or tripled served in some cases.

What Attributes Make Up a Good Web Directory?

Posted: March 26th, 2009, 11:10am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Web Directories

A HighRankings Forum thread asks how does one distinguish between a good and bad web directory. Web directories are often the first step for many link building campaigns. The obvious directories that come to mind to submit to are dmoz.org and Yahoo's directory. But many people like Best of the Web as well.

The question is, how does an SEO or webmaster know which directories are quality and which are not. This gets more important when you are submitting to niche directories.

Here are just some points, off the top of my head, to look for when evaluating a directory.

Age of directory
Is the directory indexed
Is your listing category in the directory indexed
Number of links to the directory
Domain age of directory
Does directory require a link back
PageRank of directory's home page
PageRank of the category of your listing in your directory
Design of directory
How large is the directory

Again, these are just the things that came to my mind as I wrote this post. If you have more to add, please do.

Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.

Unpausing Google AdWords Campaigns Can Activate Deleted Campaigns

Posted: March 26th, 2009, 11:05am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdWords

A Sphinn thread reports that in some cases, unpausing a campaigns in an AdWords account can even activate campaigns that have been deleted.

Gab Goldberg summarized the story, saying:

Google AdWords ripped off this firm for $3200! When they restarted paused campaigns by clicking 'resume all,' Google also resumed deleted campaigns, with all adgroups and ads deleted too!

Several AdWords advertisers said they have seen this happen to them in the past. It just sounds like a major bug to me and I don't see how this can go unnoticed for too long. As AdWords accounts age, some campaigns must be deleted. Often campaigns are paused for one reason or another and when they are unpaused, you can risk being charged for deleted campaigns as well.

This seems like a serious concern to me.

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

Mobile Google Not Working For Many

Posted: March 26th, 2009, 10:59am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

There is a long thread of upset iPhone, G1 and mobile users at Google Mobile Help discussions. It seems like many users who try to access Google.com on their iPhone or G1 are being presented with errors.

The first report came in on the 23rd, saying "I get the following error message: "error to use eval to parse history info json string!" But many other users are complaining as well. This is not only impacting iPhone users, but also G1 users and likely users of Google Mobile on any mobile device.

iPhone users can manually fix the issue by going to Settings, then Safari, and then click on Clear History, Clear Cache, Clear Cookies.

Googler, Bret, said:

Thanks for the feedback guys. We're looking into this issue. I'll post any updates I have to this thread.

Hopefully this gets resolved soon.

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

AdSense Comes To Twitter Via Hex To ACSII Tweet

Posted: March 26th, 2009, 10:49am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

We know Google is on Twitter, so is AdWords and we know at least two AdWords reps are also. Yesterday, AdSense joined Twitter @adsense. The way AdSense joined was in Google style, the first Tweet was:

Ads by 47 6F 6F 6F 6F 6F 6F 6F 67 6C 65

What does that mean? Well, if you use an Hex/ASCII converter and plug in 47:6F:6F:6F:6F:6F:6F:6F:67:6C:65 it translates it to "Gooooooogle." As you see on many Google AdSense ads, they have a line that reads "Ads by Gooooooogle."

The Inside AdSense blog officially announced the new Twitter account. So feel free to follow it on Twitter and while you are at it, follow @seroundtable and @rustybrick.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 25, 2009

Posted: March 25th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

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.

Google Adds More Search Refinements & Detailed Snippets

Posted: March 25th, 2009, 1:01pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

The Google Blog announced Google has added additional search refinements and detailed snippets. Here is part of the announcement:

More and better search refinements
Starting today, we're deploying a new technology that can better understand associations and concepts related to your search, and one of its first applications lets us offer you even more useful related searches (the terms found at the bottom, and sometimes at the top, of the search results page).
Longer snippets

When you enter a longer query, with more than three words, regular-length snippets may not give you enough information and context. In these situations, we now increase the number of lines in the snippet to provide more information and show more of the words you typed in the context of the page. Below are a couple of examples.

We noticed Google testing long snippets at least twice and also an option to control snippet size.

Do you like it?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Are Foreign Links Considered Spam?

Posted: March 25th, 2009, 1:01pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Link Building

A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around the topics of building links from foreign web sites, in different languages.

For example, if I run a web site that is in English, focused for US users - what happens if I get some links from sites hosted in Israel, with Hebrew anchor text, linking to my English web site?

The obvious answer is that these types of links are not considered spam or low quality, simply because of the site's origin. If a foreign site is linking to yours out of relevance, then it is fine. If you go ahead and buy thousands of links on foreign publisher web sites, then that might lead to other issues.

In fact, when you want to rank well in localized versions of Google, it is recommended to not only publish a localized version of the site using the country's TLD, but also to acquire links from sites sharing the localized view and on the localized TLD.

Would acquiring "foreign" links to your USA English based site help you rank in both Google USA and Google localized? Maybe but it might not be the optimal way to go about your country specific SEO.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google: More AdSense Ads = Higher Revenue Per Impression

Posted: March 25th, 2009, 12:51pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

AdSenseAdvisor said in a WebmasterWorld thread that having more ads on the page will lead to higher revenues per impression.

This may be obvious, that showing more ads, will lead in more revenues per page view, but not for all publishers. Some are of the belief that showing less ads increases the value of each click and then might lead to more revenue per impression.

It is nice to see that a Google representative has went on record as saying that this is generally the case.

I assume many of you disagree, if so, why?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense With Matt Cutts Banners

Posted: March 25th, 2009, 12:40pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A DigitalPoint Forums thread posted a screen shot of an unusual Google AdSense ad. Here is a picture of the ad:

Matt Cutts is the head of Google's web spam team. I am not sure how many sales this type of banner would lead to, since those who are looking for SEO services, may not know Matt. But it might lead to conversion for those prospects that do their homework.

In any event, this was a funny thread to spot.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google Pushing More Search Options On Searchers?

Posted: March 25th, 2009, 12:33pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Marty from the aimClear blog emailed me a screen shot yesterday morning, which looked like Google experimental search results. I then spotted a WebmasterWorld thread that discusses the same thing Marty emailed me.

There is a new link in the Google results that says "Show Options." When clicked, it opens up other grouping options. Robert, a WebmasterWorld admin also sees it and he describes the options as:

The main groupings select among...

- types of results (All results, Recent, Videos, Forums, Reviews)...
- time of results (with options between Anytime and the past year)...
- different types of what I'd call snippet displays (with options including standard or longer snippets, and snippets including image thumbnails)...
- and different views (including Standard, Wonder wheel, Timeline, and Search Suggestions)

Here is a screen capture:

When I try to search for the query that they spotted this with, I get a message from Google that reads:

The option you have selected is currently unavailable.

Is this a form of experimental search being forced on searchers?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 24, 2009

Posted: March 24th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

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.

23% of Google AdSense Publishers Say 75% of Their Income Comes From Google

Posted: March 24th, 2009, 1:19pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Last week, I ran a poll asking if Google AdSense made up most of your income. The 129 responses are in and I wanted to share them with you. It seems like 47% of those that make money will AdSense say Google makes up more than 25% of their income. 53% said Google makes up less than 25% of their income. Here is the breakdown:

:: Less Than 25% of My Income said 58 respondents or 45%
:: Over 75% of My Income said 25 respondents or 19%
:: Not Applicable To Me said 20 respondents or 16%
:: Over 50% of My Income said 14 respondents or 11%
:: Over 25% of My Income said 12 respondents or 9%

Is it possible that 23% of publishers make 75% or more of their income with Google? The 23% is when you take out the "Not Applicable to Me" results, since they likely are not AdSense publishers.

Forum discussion continued at DigitalPoint Forums.

What To Do When Clients Mess Up Your Portfolio?

Posted: March 24th, 2009, 1:11pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: SEM SEO Companies

A HighRankings Forum thread asks a question that likely applies to most professions on the web, what does one do when a client messes up your portfolio. For example, you provide SEO copywriting services and that content is used on client X's web site. Then a few months later, the client updates the content here and there and forgets to consult you for those changes. Now, when you want to show your work to future prospects, they are reviewing work that has been mangled by your client.

The same issue applies to when clients make design changes to web sites or when they make SEO changes in terms of title tags, content, and even link building. This can apply to other industries, including even building homes.

The big question is, how do you keep your portfolio in order?

The simple answer is to screen capture the work you have done. A local Wayback Machine, if you will. There is nothing wrong in taking a local copy down of the web site and using that to demo to prospects. In addition, it is always good to have a local copy, that you can use for staging the changes you made to the site, before uploading those changes to production.

Personally, I typically demo sites we built to prospects on our test servers. Why? (1) The content is sometimes cleaner. (2) I can safely make changes to the site without impacting the live site. (3) I don't run the risk of sharing real information and intellectual property with potential competitors.

Do you run into this issue?

Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.

Should Google Allow AdWords Day Parting Based on Searcher's Time Zone?

Posted: March 24th, 2009, 1:04pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdWords

Last week, Yahoo announced enhancements to their search marketing platform. Part of that announcement was that they added the day parting option, giving advertisers the ability to say they want to show their ads on specific days and different times or even increase their bids at different times.

The one option Yahoo has added that the other engines do not have, is that they give you the ability to specify if you would like the day parting settings to be based on your time zone or the searcher's time zone. I was fairly confident that Google set it based on you (the advertiser's) time zone.

I confirmed that today by asking that question in a Google AdWords Help thread. The response lead me to a answer at Google help that read:

Ad scheduling for your AdWords campaigns is based on the time zone you have set for your account. Your ad will appear during the hours shown in your account -- not in the time zone of the regions you have targeted.
For example: Assume your account time zone is set for Amsterdam, but your ads are targeted to Bangkok, six hours ahead. When you schedule your ads to run from 1:00 until 3:00 pm, the ads will run from 1:00 until 3:00 pm Amsterdam time. That means that in Bangkok, six hours ahead, they will be running from 7:00 until 9:00 pm.

So there you have it. Even features such as day parting can get very granular in its targeting options. Google doesn't give you the detailed level of control Yahoo gives you, but do advertisers need it?

Here is a poll, let us know what you think:

Should Google AdWords Add Day Part Time Zone Preferences?
( surveys)

Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help.

Google Issues Free Hour of AdWords API Calls Due to Glitch

Posted: March 24th, 2009, 12:59pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdWords

Yesterday we reported that there was an Google AdWords API Usage Reporting Glitch. In short, Google wasn't telling AdWords API users how many API calls they were making, and since Google charges some advertisers for API calls, it can become an issue.

Google confirmed the issue in a Google Groups thread. Jeff Posnick from AdWords API Team said the issue is now resolved but there was an hour of API call usage Google seemed to have lost. Due to the data loss, Google cannot charge for that usage. Here is what Jeff said:

To update the thread: there was an issue that prevented AdWords API usage information from being updated following the scheduled downtime on March 14. For a few days after there was a backlog of usage info, and both the display in the AdWords web interface and the count returned via the InfoService was out of date. The engineering team believes that this issue is resolved now, and that the underlying circumstances leading to it should not recur.
They did identify a window of about an hour on March 14 for which they were not able to retrieve usage information, and any calls made during that window of time will not incur any charges (nor will they be reflected in the InfoService or the web interface's usage count). However, this window took place during the scheduled downtime, so there should have been only a small amount of traffic that got through during that time.

This likely only impacts a smaller percentage of our readers, but this seemed interesting enough to post about.

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 23, 2009

Posted: March 23rd, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

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.

Advertisers, Publishers & Affiliates Scared Over Proposes California Tax Law

Posted: March 23rd, 2009, 1:18pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Legal Issues in Search

There are two different threads at Webmaster World that show publishers, advertisers and affiliate's concern over a new proposed tax law in California.

The law, as understood in the thread, would potentially tax any seller who using AdWords to market their product or service. Moderator, incrediBILL, explained:

The conclusion I drew after reading the law is that since AdSense directly refers customers via links, as do the AdWords ads showing in the SERPs, it's therefore theoretically possible that anyone using Google as an advertising vehicle could be subject to CA tax.
If people advertising in Google are suddenly subject to collecting and paying CA tax then people will most likely stop advertising on Google.

You can see the details about this tax proposal named AB178 and the hearing won't be until April 13, 2009.

Some are very skeptical over the bill and they are not worried too much about how it might impact them.

Forum discussion at Webmaster World.

Update: 5 Star Affiliate Blog has very good coverage of this concern. Well worth a read.

Proof Google Treats Underscores & Hyphens Differently?

Posted: March 23rd, 2009, 1:10pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

Over a year ago, almost two years ago, there were rumors that Google would treat underscores in the URL the same way they treat hyphens in the URL, as word separators. Matt Cutts squashed the rumor back then, suggesting that Google was not treating them the same.

Historically, underscores (i.e. domain.com/file_name.html) was treated as a single word (i.e. filename) and hyphens (i.e. domain.com/file-name.html) was treated as two words (i.e. file name).

A new WebmasterWorld thread asks more questions on that. Senior member, internetheaven, noticed, and I quote:

I have a URl: www.example.com/folder/file_name.htm
and if you search for:

allinurl: file site:example.com

or

allinurl: name site:example.com

you get 0 results. Whereas if you search for:

allinurl: file_name site:example.com

the page shows up in the results fine.

I thought underscores were the same as hyphens these days?

Well, they are not the same these days, and that might be proof. Technically, I do see results that do match on sites I tested for these types of queries. What I mean is that Google will still highlight and display results for a keyword that is in part of the underscored URL. I am not sure why it did not show up for this member. Maybe it is something happening at Google.com and since I am currently in Israel, I am getting a different data set.

Receptional, WebmasterWorld moderator, explained:

In certain cases, Google may figure out that underscore is being used as a word separator (similar to the process for conjoined words). But an underscore is not a word separator - treating it as such would at a minimum cause a lot of developers to be frustrated when using Google, as many function names etc. use underscores.
Underscores and hyphens have never been treated the same - if you want a guaranteed word separator in a URL, always use a hyphen.

For now, until we hear from Matt on a change in underscores and hyphens, Google treats them differently.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

iGoogle Signing You Out?

Posted: March 23rd, 2009, 1:08pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Personalized search and personalized home pages can be great for most users. The only issue is that you need to be signed in, most of the time, to get personalized results from Google. And if you love those personalized results and home page from iGoogle, being automatically signed out without requesting to be signed out, can be a bit frustrating.

Over the past week, I have seen dozens of threads pop out in several Google forums on the topic of Google automatically signing them out of iGoogle. I ignored it as being a recent security patch that deleted cookies and thought it would be resolved soon.

Google recently posted an announcement on this exact issue, saying:

Several users have reported that they're getting signed out of iGoogle several times each day. This is not the way it's supposed to work, and we're investigating the issue on our end.
If you're affected by this problem, please first check to make sure this isn't a problem with your computer or network; instructions for checking are located in this Help Center article. Once you've eliminated those possibilities, if you'd like to discuss this further please post in this thread.

So if you are also being signed out from Google, don't feel left alone.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

AdSense Publishers Not Happy With YouTube Earnings

Posted: March 23rd, 2009, 1:03pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

There are two threads at Google AdSense Help discussions with AdSense publishers who are simply not happy with the earnings they have been reported to receive from their YouTube content.

Let me quote you some upset publishers:

My revenue is down more than 50%. There were people who were expecting to earn $200 in January and instead earned $80. I was expecting $1000-$2000 and earned a little over $80.

Received my report. 1/5th of my Content Host earning. Shame.

63. Wow. Just as we're writing about it, the amount posted. And it ain't pretty. I had $67 in Content Host earnings (63,600 views/1000 clicks) and only $17 in YouTube earnings... sheesh, that sure wasn't worth the wait!

Some feel ripped off by Google while others feel that there may be a glitch in the system. But one publisher recommends "patience," explaining:

Settle down guys. The Partner program is definitely not a "get rich quick' program. Part of the low revenue is the economy and the other part might be the simple fact that an advertiser does not want to pay a lot to run ads on your videos.
I have seen my YT amount drop to 1/20th or so what I would expect but content host amount is going up and that is fine with me.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Google AdWords API Usage Reporting Glitch

Posted: March 23rd, 2009, 12:56pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdWords

There are reports in the Google AdWords API Google Groups that the Google AdWords API is reporting inaccurate data from the usage tool.

First reports came in on March 19th, where an AdWords API user said:

We have just rolled out an application using API and the Unit Usage from 3 days ago is not showing up. It says on the page where this is viewed that it is updated daily. Anyone know whats going on there? Have we not been charged?

In short, Google charges for certain level of usage for the API. AdWords API users keep track of their usage reporting to stay on top of costs. The usage reporting seems to not be updating correctly and costs are hard to control without that reporting.

Jeff Posnick from the Google AdWords API Team said:

I have a bug open with the engineering team to determine whether there was some underlying problem that prevented the display in the web interface from being updated. Hopefully if there is a problem we can get it resolved so that no further confusion ensues.

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: March 20, 2009

Posted: March 20th, 2009, 10:22pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

Today's Search Video I talk quickly about the logos for the first day of Spring, and also St. Patrick's day logos. Google finally spoke about the AJAX pages. Yahoo added features to search marketing product. Google AdWords tests favorite icons. AdWords keyword tool has a bug. Yahoo Directory might be free. I offered three link building tips. I also gave two SEO tips. Don't fall for a potential Google money scam. SEOs are split on need to specialize. I won't be at SES NY and no video next week. That is what we covered this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

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:

For the original iTunes version, click here or to see the YouTube version in higher quality, click play at hit "HQ."

Some Of The Topics Discussed:

Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 20, 2009

Posted: March 20th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

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.

Can't Get That Golden Link? Go After a Link Off the Golden Link

Posted: March 20th, 2009, 2:31pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Link Building

There is an excellent WebmasterWorld on the topic of getting a "second tier link," as opposed to the link you really want. Wheel, the moderator of the forum, posted that it is not always easy or possible to get the .gov, .edu or aged link that all link builders dream about. When you efforts fail, why not go after those that have links from those "golden link" pages?

Wheel explained:

What I'll do is try to get links from second tier sites. Say I want a find a page on a .gov site that has a list of links. I'd like to be on that page, but I can't get a link. What I'll do is look at all the sites that are linked to from that page and try and get a link from them. I'll still get whatever good comes from that .gov link, just diluted and flowed through another site.

They are not the cream of the crop links, but they are still very valuable. The process is pretty simple:

(1) Discover golden link pages
(2) Request links from those pages
(3) Move on
(4) Click on links from the golden link pages
(5) Request links from those new pages
(6) Rinse and Repeat

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Using Multiple Header Tags for SEO

Posted: March 20th, 2009, 2:19pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

There is an old WebmasterWorld thread on the topic of how many header tags (i.e. H1, H2) you should have on a page and how you should use it. The thread was revived yesterday when Matt Cutts of Google answered a question on that topic on video. Here is the video:

So there you have it. Don't wrap all your content in the H1 tag. You can use it multiple times on a page but use it for page heading above paragraphs of content. Don't over do it.

WebmasterWorld's Tedster disagreed a bit with Matt, he said:

Even though Matt say s it's "OK" to use more than one, I'm still a big fan of using only one H1 element. If it seems like two are really required, I almost always make that content into two pages. Or if the content is too thin to support two pages resonably, I'll figure out a single over-arching headline that can be the H1 to support multiple H2 tags.
I find that approach also "packages" the semantic signals more effectively. That's kind of the way I understand websites, pages, and even code. They are all ways of "packaging" data and information, and we are all packagers.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 10, 2009

Posted: March 10th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

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.

55% Of SEO Companies Won't Offer Pay For Performance Deals

Posted: March 10th, 2009, 4:38pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: SEM SEO Companies

A week ago, we polled our audience asking Are You Still Offering SEO Services Paid By Performance? For example, are you willing to exchange direct payment in exchange for payment on the basis of rankings, or traffic or on revenue earned.

The majority of respondents said they never will or have taken this type of payment in exchange for SEO services.

Here is a breakdown of the seventy-five or so responses to the question "Do You Offer Pay For Performance SEO Packages?"
:: Never said 41 respondents or 55%
:: Very Rarely said 13 respondents or 18%
:: Sometimes, Only Great Ideas said 10 respondents or 14%
:: Very Often, But Depends said 5 respondents or 7%
:: Only Do Pay For Performance said 3 respondents or 4%
:: Other answer said 2 respondents or 3%

I wish we would of had more responses, I guess I should have pushed this poll more. But I do think these numbers make sense and likely represent the industry as a whole.

Forum discussion continued at Sphinn.

Happy Purim: No Logo From Google This Year

Posted: March 10th, 2009, 3:18pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

In March 2007, Google Israel had a special logo for today's Jewish holiday, Purim. Last year and today, there is no special logo at Google Israel or Google or any of the search engines that I looked at, including Yahoo, Live.com, Ask.com, or even DogPile.

But that is okay, we have a special theme live for the holiday. Here is a picture of it, but you can see the whole theme live at the Search Engine Roundtable:

We also had a theme last year and a picture of that is over here.

Maybe Google will have a logo in 2010? It is a fun holiday and they can go wild with the logo, if they like.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

Utah Law Passes Ban On Trademarked Search Ads: SEMs Discuss

Posted: March 10th, 2009, 3:06pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Legal Issues in Search

Last week at Search Engine Land, I covered an Eric Goldman story on Utah trying to pass a bill for the third time, on regulating search ads. In short, the bill finally passed in the Utah House (still needs to be approved by Senate) and it holds search advertisers liable for targeting trademarks as keywords. It does not hold the search companies, i.e. Google, Yahoo and Microsoft liable (that bill failed). To see the bill, click here.

Shorebreak at WebmasterWorld gives a good explanation of the bill:

This bill, sponsored by 1-800-Contacts, prevents search engines from being able to serve competitive ads if someone searches for a branded/trademarked keyword. So, for example, if someone Google's '1-800-Contacts', Google would not be able to serve LensCrafters' ad, even if Lenscrafter didn't include the brand term in their ad copy.

Now, most search companies do not allow the trademarked terms to appear in the ad copy, but do allow bidding on many trademarked terms, as long as they are not in the ad copy. There has been a ton of legal precedent in this area already, so that is why Eric Goldman is surprised it finally passed. He said it "barely made it through due to the fierce last-minute lobbying efforts of 1-800 Contacts."

That being said, some advertisers hate the law and some actually like it. Guess who likes it and who hates it? :)

Many don't believe this law will last, since e-commerce goes over state boundaries and because geo-targeting capabilities are often not 100%.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

AdSense Stats Issue Maybe Related To Google's Contextual Relevancy Failure

Posted: March 10th, 2009, 2:58pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

This and last week we reported issues with Google reporting up to date stats. Many publishers felt that Google had a major reporting delay and they were very concerned. Typically, it turns out to be nothing and the numbers tend to update themselves over time. But this time, it was a little different.

Google admitted to a bug in the AdSense contextual targeting system that returned irrelevant ads on publisher sites. Typically, Google AdSense ads are relevant to the content on the page, but something went wrong where Google's contextual targeting went off. On Thursday of last week at 2pm (PST) a bug for "approximately 10 hours" triggered these issues. The issue was resolved by Friday morning, according to Google.

Google admitted that non-contextually targeted ads may result in lower earnings and impact your earnings for those ten hours. Google said:

You were still credited for all valid clicks and impressions on the ads which appeared on your sites, but this bug may have impacted your overall AdSense for content revenue if you had visitors to your pages during these hours. Please note that because we're unable to determine which ads would have been viewed or clicked on by visitors to your sites in the absence of the bug, we will not be manually adjusting yesterday's earnings.

The big question was, was this a reporting glitch or were these publishers that severely impacted by the relevancy issue?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Postpones Blog Search Ranking Update

Posted: March 10th, 2009, 2:53pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

Two weeks ago, we reported that Google Blog Search To Test New Link Command Features Next Week. Well, it has now been postponed a bit.

An updated Google Groups thread has Googler, Jeremy Hylton saying this has to be pushed off by a couple weeks. He said:

Unfortunately, we ran into some delays with these experiments and had to push back the schedule a couple of weeks.

I know many folks were eager to see the changes this or last week, but it seems like we may have to wait until the end of this month or early April.

In short, the changes were going to impact how Google Blog Search returns matches for blog posts for queries. Google is a bit too inclusive right now on what they return as keyword matches on blog posts. Google Blog Search is working on fine tuning their "blogroll detectors" and other detectors to make the results more relevant.

Forum discussion continued at Google Groups.

New Yorkers Upset Google Label's World Trade Center Site as Ground Zero

Posted: March 10th, 2009, 2:43pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

If you go to Google Maps and zoom into the World Trade Center Site, you will see that Google has labeled the area, "Ground Zero."

Ground Zero was what many people started calling the World Trade Center after the terrible attack on September 11, 2001. I think most of us still remember the day vividly. But some New Yorkers (and I am a New Yorker) are upset that Google still labels the area Ground Zero.

Here is the complaint from at least one New Yorker found in Google Maps Help discussion area:

Please remove the "Ground Zero" label from the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan. I realize that anyone not from New York City comes here expecting to visit the site and that this is a common reference, but that is not its real name and it should not be used. It is equivalent to awarding the attackers a marksmanship medal, and we should not be doing that, nor frankly should we be equating what happened here with a nuclear bombing reference. All NY'ers refer to the site as 'the World Trade Center site', and that's what it still is to us, and will be again, if they ever get the construction completed. Finally, as a born-and-raised New Yorker who was here htat day I find the label 'ground zero' just plain despicable, and I really wish people wouldn't use it, and people I know here feel the same way. Please stop encouraging its use.

I can totally understand this person's frustration and rational here. But from a searcher's perspective, people still search for worlds like "ground zero" and "september 11" on Google Maps. Google still wants to return those results. I guess technically, Google can hide the label on the map itself and just return this area for the search, but maybe searchers find it useful.

Tough call here. As many people know, maps and borders and what you call places can become a very touchy and sensitive topic.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 9, 2009

Posted: March 9th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

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.

Google Ignoring AdSense Font Selection

Posted: March 9th, 2009, 2:50pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A few weeks ago, Google finally gave AdSense publishers a way to specify the font type they want to show on their web sites. AdSense publishers were really happy with the added control and Google was happy to give publishers this level of control.

So why am I seeing reports that Google is ignoring these AdSense font preferences and overriding them with something else?

A WebmasterWorld thread has several publishers complaining that Google is not using the font they picked in the AdSense ad set up.

One said, he doesn't mind, because it helps against "ad blindness." But why give the publisher the option. If I set my preferred font, then use it. If I don't set it, then feel free to experiment.

One publisher said:

just curious whether anyone else has set up their ads with a fixed font, only to see them carry on changing.
i know it's probably just google testing the fonts again, but why are they carrying on testing them when they've already given us the option to change them

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google's Keyword Tool Acting Funky?

Posted: March 9th, 2009, 2:40pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdWords

Over the weekend, I heard some reports of issues with Google's keyword tool. I received a Twitter from @dalka, I spotted a Google Groups thread from the AdWords API forum and a Google AdWords Help forum thread with complaints.

They all surround the keyword tool, both via the API and via the external web based tool. Jeff Posnick from the AdWords API Team said:

Fresh search volume data is currently being pushed out and replicated globally, and the engineering team believes that the sporadic -1 results you were seeing is a side-effect of that process. Once it is complete there should be up to date data available globally. They mentioned that you should check again on Monday to confirm this.

AdWordsPro Stephen, an official Google representative said:

It sounds like the AdWords system is reacting to receiving many requests from you in a very short time. Using scripts or 'screenscrapers' to gather data from AdWords is a violation of the AdWords terms and conditions, and there are some automated monitors that enforce this.

There does seem to be minor issues with the tool, so be on the look out if you are using any of these tools today.

Forum discussion at Google Groups and Google AdWords Help.

Frozen Google AdSense Stats Continues to Plague Publishers

Posted: March 9th, 2009, 2:32pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Google AdSense statistics have been having issues updating since March 4th. In fact, we have seen reports prop up again and again since then. March 6th, people were complaining and people have been complaining since, including this morning.

We have two threads, one at WebmasterWorld and the other at Google AdSense Help. Each thread complains about the same thing, over the course of the weekend and today.

There are also dozens of threads at DigitalPoint Forums on the issue.

We have no official word from Google on these recent issues.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help.

Google Docs Security Breach Should Encourage People Not to Use Google Health

Posted: March 9th, 2009, 2:18pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Late last week, I saw dozens and dozens of threads in the Google Docs Help discussion forum, where Googlers were saying that they would contact these individuals directly, via email. Now, I saw a bunch of these, but didn't really look into them, simply because the issue was handled off the public forum.

Over the weekend, Google posted the details of the issue, which seemed to me to be a major security breach. Let me quote it:

We wanted to let you know about a bug (now fixed) that affected a small percentage of users who may have shared permissions between some documents in their account without their knowledge. This inadvertent sharing happened only when the document owner, or a collaborator with sharing rights, selected multiple documents and presentations from the documents list and changed the sharing permissions. (This issue didn't affect spreadsheets.) As part of the fix, we used an automated process to remove collaborators and viewers from the documents that we identified as being affected. We apologize for the inconvenience of having to re-share your docs. We have sent notifications to the owners of impacted docs, informing them of this fix and posted this information to the Apps Status Dashboard: http://www.google.com/appsstatus

Can you imagine if you were sharing financial information or personal medical information with someone and some how, it was shared with strangers? And Google wants you to use Google Health to share your most confidential and personal details with your doctor and family? I am all for sharing in exchange for convenience but what is stopping a security bug like this from happening on Google Health?

Forum discussion at Google Docs Help.

URL Case in SEO Matters

Posted: March 9th, 2009, 2:10pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Optimization

Sometimes we forget or forget to look after basic SEO topics. The other day, I caught one of my programmers allowing both capitalized URLs and lowercase URLs result in having the same destination page. Let's take Twitter as an example, since it was brought up in a Google Webmaster Help thread.

Twitter allows both capitalized and lowercase URLs return the same page. For example, both [twitter.com] and [twitter.com] return the same exact page, content and information. But Google considers http://twitter.com/google and http://twitter.com/Google to be different pages, in many cases.

Now, Google isn't that dumb, just do a search for [www.google.com] (the capitalized version) and Google will know you really want the lowercase version:

But you don't want to make Google figure this stuff out. What you should do, is make sure there is only one version, preferably the lowercase version in my opinion. If someone does go to a capitalized version, 301 that page to the lower case URL.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 6, 2009

Posted: March 6th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

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.

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: March 6, 2009

Posted: March 6th, 2009, 7:35pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

Please let me know if you prefer the longer videos in the comments area. Google may have updated PageRank, but the "brand push" is called the "Vince" change. I talk in detail about the "Vince" change and why webmasters are upset. A publisher takes Google to small claims court and wins. You can close down your competitors in Google Maps. Google emails webmasters about malware, again. Microsoft preps new search engine, Kumo. Ask.com just went to far when they started framing search results again. Google UK is testing one line Sitelinks. SEOs still fear the Google supplemental index. Google does expandable AdSense ads. Google AdSense adds Euro reports after exchange rate complaints. AdSense updated their home page. Google delayed payments to some advertisers by three months. AdWords title bug shows more than 25 characters. Is business improving for you in the past two weeks? Finally, happy Square Root day! Again, please let me know about the length and to see the full video, you need to use the iTunes feed or download the original file (I am working on getting an extended YouTube account). That was this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

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:

For the original iTunes version, click here

Some Of The Topics Discussed:

Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!

Business Improving Recently? Poll: How Are You Weathering The Recession

Posted: March 6th, 2009, 3:04pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: SEM SEO Companies

I was hoping to reach out to our audience and find out, via an anonymous poll, how your companies are weathering the recession.

Why now? Well, I noticed a HighRankings Forum thread that discusses some SEO companies noticing a recent "jump" in business. In fact, the new thread has three people saying they noticed a recent spike in leads and sales over the past two weeks. One explained:

I work by referral only and in the past 5 months or so, it was dead, very little came in, but in the past two weeks, wow. Is it a trend here? I'm trying to figure out why all of a sudden I'm getting all this new work? I love it, don't get me wrong, but why now? Anyone else notice the phone ringing a bit more these past few weeks?

It is funny, because I said the same thing about my business just the other day. We don't do SEO, but we do provide extensive web development services and in the past week or two, I have been going into more and more prospects, including closing some. The previous month, was pretty dead.

Heck, I listen to the financial news every day and it is very sad. Yesterday was incredibly depressing. But maybe we are starting to see the first signs, via the grassroots, that things may be turning around? Not spending money is important during a recession, but you cannot close your business down and stop innovating and improving.

Please share with us how your business is doing. Check all that apply:

How Is Business Doing For You Now?
( surveys)

Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum .

Take Google to Small Claims Court: You Might Win

Posted: March 6th, 2009, 2:58pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Huffington Post has a story about a Google AdSense publisher who had his account terminated by Google for "posing a signficicant risk to advertisers." That advertiser sued Google in small claims court for $721, the amount of money he had accrued for clicks on his site. Guess what? He won! Seriously, go read the story, it reads very well.

Let me now give you the AdSense publisher reaction from DigitalPoint Forums.

Its small claims court. Google didn't even have lawyers representing them - a paralegal instead.
All you'll win is the few bucks Google owes you. Better than nothing I guess... but you cannot get your account back via small claims court.

Sounds like a rare exception, doubt others would be able to do it.

Very nice article. I'm happy for the dude. Everybody whose account got cancelled, sue Google!

You can see his original posts in the Google AdSense Help Forum.

Is this going to spark a ton of law suits for Google?

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google Malware Scanners Do Not Use Google Cache

Posted: March 6th, 2009, 2:45pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

Google has been very proactive about cleaning their index of pages that contain malware. In fact, they have stepped up the email notifications to webmasters with these issues. So I have been seeing thread after thread in a multitude of forums on malware related topics.

A Google Webmaster Help thread has one person asking if he should check the Google Cache to see if Google indexed the cleaned up version of his site. In response to that, Googler, Oliver Fisher said Google doesn't use the Google Cache to look for malware. He said:

Google's automated malware scanners don't use the cached version of the pages. They make real fetches while evaluating the pages.
When the scanners reviewed the tpod site yesterday (at ~4am PT), they found lots of fake Yahoo counters, including on the pages you've listed. If you've cleaned up the site now, you should file for another malware review via Webmaster Tools.

It does make sense that Google would bypass an older copy of the site and go directly to the pages to see if they are infected, in almost real time.

Oliver, I believe, specializes on the Google Malware team and has written topics at the Google Webmaster Blog on Malware related issues. Oliver rarely posts in the help area, so it is nice to see posts when he does them.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

"Place Closed" In Google Maps: Close Your Competitors Down on Google

Posted: March 6th, 2009, 2:25pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

A few weeks ago, I wrote a story named Google Maps Closes Down Business When it is Still in Operation. In short, Google labelled a business in Google Maps as being closed, when it was actually in business and servicing companies. Back then, I thought it was an issue with a user not correctly setting his or her Google Local Business Center information. But I was wrong. It seems to be a bug with Google's Local Business Center.

We have several threads in the Google Maps forum and one longer one in the Google Maps Help discussion area.

Googler, Joel H described how this can work. But let me show you how you can do the reverse, i.e. close down a business on Google Maps without having access to that business.

Let's go to Microsoft's listing in Google Maps.

Then click on the "Edit" link on the left bottom side of the map bubble:

Then click on "Remove Place:"

Then check off, "it is permanently closed" and add a comment:

My request went through and it likely will be rejected:

Like I said, it will likely be rejected, because it is Microsoft. That is why I picked Microsoft. But for some smaller businesses, removing them, might slip through the cracks, like they did for these businesses.

If your business is verified with Google's Local Business Center, I don't think there is a way for anyone to make this request. But for the majority of business in Google Maps that are not "verified," this can easily be done and potentially hurt sales for those businesses.

"Community Edits," aren't they great? FYI, this is nothing that new. I am illustrating this not to have a bunch of people start removing businesses, but rather to make it harder for these things to happen. Clearly, this has turned into a bigger mess then one expected.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google UK Testing "Classic" One Line Sitelinks

Posted: March 6th, 2009, 2:14pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

I posted a search brief on this topic at Search Engine Land, when I saw Search Engine War noticing Google UK testing single line Sitelinks. But it seems like more folks in the UK are noticing the "classic" Sitelinks showing up. I call them "classic," because the first time we saw Sitelinks, they were in the form of a single line.

A WebmasterWorld thread has one UK searcher noticing them. They call it "mini" but there is nothing "mini" about having any extra line in the Google search results. Typically, Sitelinks look like this:

Eight links, in four rows and two columns. Earlier, Google was testing four links in a single column:

But originally, before we even knew what they were called, they were on a single line:

Search Engine War has a picture of the new "classic" Sitelinks in place.

Personally, I prefer the single line Sitelinks - at least from a searcher's perspective. Just seems cleaner and lets me see more results on a page.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 5, 2009

Posted: March 5th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

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.

Advertisers: Are You Noticing Less Searchers?

Posted: March 5th, 2009, 2:57pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdWords

Rimm-Kaufman posted data that shows how their are less people searching for products and services to buy, leading to less sales, which impacts the overall PPC budgets. Yes, all related to this global recession.

I laid out the key points in my Search Engine Land brief:

Approximately 20% reduction in sales from search ads from last year
Approximately 20% reduction in his costs from search ads from last year
The average order value from search ads dropped 10% from last year
The conversion rate from search ads seemed to remain stable from last year
There may be more competition in the space, but hard to prove

One advertiser noticed this himself and posted a question at Google AdWords Help asking if others noticed this. The only response we have so far is from a Google representative, AdWordsPro, who wouldn't comment about what Google has seen.

Advertisers, take the anonymous poll and let us know if less people are searching and clicking on your ads.

Less Searches & Clicks For Your Search Ads?
( polls)

Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help.

Google Ad Blindness: Google Introduces Expandable AdSense Ads

Posted: March 5th, 2009, 2:43pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

In a day and age where 70% of Google publishers are reporting less earnings with Google, Google needs to take bold moves to get more people to see and click on their ads.

Google introduces expandable ads. The ads will be displayed on publisher sites and they can click on the ad to make them expand into a much large ad that overlays over the content of the page. The expandable ads can contain movie streams, show video game clips, or display various views of an item for sale.

Google said this won't disrupt the end user because it has to be clicked on to be expanded, will never be "double its width or height," the "user may close the expanded panel at any time," it won't change your content, and it has to comply with their terms. There is a comprehensive help section devoted to expanded ads at Google AdSense Help.

Here is a sample ad:

Publishers await to see if this helps earn them more money. Who is the real loser here? I guess the searcher or the average consumer. Outside of that, the advertiser, publisher and Google are all winners.

Also, this may lead to publishers trying new tricks to get people to click on the ad. Note, clicking on an ad to expand it does not generate cost to the advertiser, it is only the click that leads to the advertiser's landing page that has any cost.

By the way, Google is also testing more interactive ads, according to Amit Agarwal.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

When Search Spam Gets Evil: "Craphat"

Posted: March 5th, 2009, 2:32pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Spam

There are different levels of search spam. Some search spam involves creating spam on sites you control. Some spam involves injecting links into third party sites, hacking sites, infecting computers, phishing attempts and so on. Where does search spam cross that line and become "evil." That is somewhat of a debate, but Danny Sullivan is coining the term "craphat" in order to differentiate between "blackhat" and "whitehat" SEO. Because, many believe that "blackhat" SEO is not necessarily "evil" and that some people who consider themselves "blackhat" go to extremes that make some "blackhats" not want to be considered blackhat anymore. Which is why I think the industry hats and colors are melting a bit.

Danny created a Sphinn thread to discuss this topic, the topic of "craphat" SEO. How does Danny define this work?

Real crap? Automated link drops. Anyone who runs a blog, look at the shit that your comment filter catches automatically. It’s a crap harvest. Manual off-topic link drops, like we delete routinely here. Gibberish pages that say nothing and serve no purpose either than to get a rank and shove some Google AdSense ads at the top of them. Or one of my favorite examples, or not so favorite because it’s so sad, how a memorial site that Mike Grehan did for a friend got covered in link spam, adding to the further stress his widow was already under.

Danny thinks the industry should "try to stamp out." But being a realist, Danny knows "it won’t get stamped out," but adds, that it "doesn’t mean we shouldn't try."

Spam is getting worse and worse by the day and people are going to extremes they may have never thought they would go to. Matt Cutts discussed this in detail with his Virtual Blight video.

How can we make a difference and help prevent this type of stuff? Can we?

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

Google Confirms Algorithm "Change" But Down Plays Brand Push

Posted: March 5th, 2009, 2:13pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

About a week and a half ago, there was the start of discussion around Google's brand push in the algorithm. Some people started noticing that for some queries (mostly generic queries), more "big brands" were showing up in the search results.

The discussion started at WebmasterWorld and then Aaron Wall provided some statistical data to back the rumors. HuoMah, then chimed in, trying to keep SEOs on their feet and thinking logically about this.

In any event, Matt Cutts of Google made a video talking specifically about this change:

In the video at 1 minutes and 17 seconds in, Matt said, they made a "change" but he wouldn't call it an "update", but rather a "minor change." In fact, in Google they call it the Vince's change (see 1 minute 30 seconds in). In short, he said this impacts a relatively small number of queries, not the long tail ones and it is more about "trust," the "quality" of the page, the page's "PageRank" and "value" then about brands.

One example he gives at 2m12s is that if you type in eclipse into Google, the first result is not from Mitsubishi. So he says it is not "brand" focused but more about trust.

Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld and Sphinn.

Are You Still Offering SEO Services Paid By Performance?

Posted: March 5th, 2009, 2:03pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: SEM SEO Companies

There are many ways to price your services. In the SEO world, you can charge a monthly fee, you can charge by hour, you can charge for results, you can take a piece of the action and so on. The Pay for Performance model is popular amongst some SEO firms, while others prefer the steady and secure income of other pricing models.

Search Engine Guide has a very nice write up on this model named Is the Pay-for-Performance SEO Model Still Viable? The article goes into the various forms of Pay for Performance, including (1) Pay Per Ranking (2) Pay for Traffic and (3) Pay Based on Revenue. Stoney deGeyter shares his personal experience with these models and concludes "while some SEOs have figured out how to make the pay-for-performance pricing model work for them, I remain skeptical."

There are over twenty comments on that article and it went hot on Sphinn. I thought we run a poll, asking you guys, do you still offer Pay for Performance payment models in this new economy? Take the poll:

Do You Offer Pay For Performance SEO Packages?
( surveys)

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

Google AdSense Updates Home Page While Stats Lag

Posted: March 4th, 2009, 11:16pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

If you visit the Google AdSense home page you may notice that the login page has been redesigned. Here is a picture of the new page:

The old one looked like this:

We anticipated the new home page would be coming soon this morning, when we reported about the recent login issues with AdSense. This also probably means that many (not all) AdSense counters, notifiers and trackers are having issues operating now.

Note that this is occurring while there are major stat delays with the AdSense reports.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 4, 2009

Posted: March 4th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

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.

Study: Fear Still Exists Over Google's Supplemental Index

Posted: March 4th, 2009, 2:48pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

A month and a half ago, we polled our audience, trying to gauge how concerned SEOs are with Google's 'hidden' supplemental index. The results are now in, we have 80 responses and I wanted to share them with you.

Here is the breakdown of responses to the question "Are You Concerned Over Google's Supplemental Index?"

:: Somewhat Concerned said 32 respondents or 40%
:: Very Concerned said 24 respondents or 30%
:: Not Concerned said 24 respondents or 30%

As you can see, 70% of SEOs are still concerned, on some level, with Google's supplemental index. Whereas, only 30% are not concerned at all. I suspect the results would have been much different if Google didn't drop the supplemental tag from the search results.

Forum discussion continued at HighRankings Forum.

Google AdSense Publishers Unable To Login Last Night

Posted: March 4th, 2009, 2:38pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Last night, I noticed dozens of reports that Google AdSense publishers were unable to login to their AdSense consoles. The first report came in at 1:59am (EST) from a Google AdSense Help thread.

Most of these publishers noticed a new Google AdSense login page. The page then wouldn't allow them to login. The question is, is Google testing a new login page for AdSense? I know a lot of third party AdSense tracking tools stopped working last night as well. Maybe Google tried to change things up to prevent those scraper bots from bogging down their system? I don't know.

At 5:57 this morning, a Google AdSense representative, William, confirmed the issue and said it was fixed. Some publishers may still have issues logging in, if you do, he recommends "clearing the cache and cookies or try using a different browser."

At about 2:50am, I saw first reports at a DigitalPoint Forums thread that publishers were able to login again. But there are still lingering reports of publishers not being able to login. So make sure to listen to William's suggestion above.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help, DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

Google SMS Search Goes Offline Again

Posted: March 4th, 2009, 2:28pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

If there was a three strike rule for Google SMS Search, Google would have been out a long time ago. For the fourth time in about two months, Google SMS Search went offline again.

The most recent, was the other day. We have two threads at Google Mobile Help. The first thread has confirmation from a Googler.

Googler, Zeke said:

Thanks for posting. Yes, we were experiencing some issues yesterday with the mobile aggregator used by many carriers. This caused a delay in responses, but them problem has been fixed.
You should be able to use Google SMS normally now. Please let me know if you run into any other trouble.

The later thread specifically complains about Google not returning hockey scores. I tried some of those searches and they did not return results for me, but searching for [scores lakers] did work just fine for me.

Here are the past articles we wrote on Google SMS search failing:

Google SMS Search Not Returning Search Results, January 8, 2009
Did Google SMS Search Die Again?, January 15, 2009
Google Finally Confirms Fixing SMS Search, January 27, 2009
Google Mistakenly Sends Dozens of Unwanted SMS Messages To Users, February 3, 2009

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

Google AdSense Shows Reports In Euros For Some Publishers

Posted: March 4th, 2009, 2:22pm CET by rustybrick

Google has announced the addition of showing a new currency for publishers based in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain. So now, AdSense reports support both the US Dollar and now the Euro.

Why the recent change? Well, besides for it being a very popular request (not just Euros but other currencies), AdSense publishers based in those countries have been very upset with the exchange rate Google uses this. Google said this will allow "earnings converted daily, you'll avoid the risk of currency exchange fluctuations between USD and the Euro." To change currencies, you need to agree to new set of Terms and Conditions, which are explained in Google's post.

Overall, many publishers are really happy that Google added this option. Many others want the currencies to be expanded to more options outside of just the US Dollar and the Euro.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

Reaction: Microsoft Testing New Search Features: Code Name Kumo

Posted: March 4th, 2009, 2:08pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Microsoft MSN Search

Microsoft Search, MSN Search, Live Search, Windows Live Search, and now Kumo? Yea, Microsoft is still finding themselves with a brand for search. Currently, Live.com is the search portal for Microsoft, but everyone knows they have issues branding that portal. Plus they need to differentiate. Until now, and even now, they are playing catch up with search technology, trying to get up to speed with even Yahoo. Google, well - they are pretty far ahead.

Microsoft's answer? Code name, Kumo. I am not going to show screen shots, that has been done all over the web already. I would suggest reading Danny Sullivan's break down of screens and features.

I want to share the reaction from the webmaster from WebmasterWorld. Here are select quotes from the thread:

Good news but you cannot "catch up". A new service won't create more searches so they'll have to cut into Yahoo and Google to borrow some of theirs.
You know, it's the Yin and Yang and Yahoo effect.

Microsoft entered and took over the browser war in about 5 years.
In search, they have not gained any ground in 5 years. Time to go back to making your OS better. Like maybe having an upgrade path from XP to your latest OS, considering XP still has a 70% market share... But hey, we are talking Microsoft here... They will do what they want regardless of common sense.

If they're smart and they can work out the licensing, the next version of Windows will ship with IE, FF, Chrome and Safari all set to go and all defaulting to their search engine.
Oh yeah, and they'll quit changing the name of their search engine every year.

Oh yeah, and they'll quit choosing stupid names for a search engine, like Live or Kumo.

Sounds like lipstick on a pig to me. Google's safe for another decade or two.

What I like about this new search they are testing is their focus on the usefulness of the search engine in terms of accomplishing tasks. Microsoft appears to be looking closer at user intent.

Some of this comments are classic! I was wrong, I thought by now Microsoft would be totally competing with Google. I admit it, I was wrong.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Search March 2009 Webmaster Report Update

Posted: March 4th, 2009, 2:03pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google PageRankSERP Updates

In our monthly tradition, we are reporting on the March 2009 Google Search changes as seen via the ongoing WebmasterWorld thread. You can see the February report that we posted last month to catch up.

This month, one member feels Google is now weighing heavier on the keywords used in backlinks (anchor text) to determine page relevancy. Full member, jcmiras said:

Assuming you searched for "word1+word2+word3" (without quotes), usually, we thought that all of the pages that appear in the SERP should contain all of the keywords. However, there are pages in the result which contain only "word1" and "word2" but "word3" is not there, instead, it is on one of the pages that that particular page in the SERP is linking to.

WebmasterWorld's administrator, Tedster, said he has seen a recent spike in chatter about this in the forums and elsewhere.

Other news that happened recently and that is being discussed include stories that we posted within the past couple weeks. They include:

Keep watching this space and the WebmasterWorld thread for updates.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 3, 2009

Posted: March 3rd, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

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.

Happy Square Root Day : Google Not That Geeky?

Posted: March 3rd, 2009, 4:23pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Industry News

You think Google is a "geeky" company? Well, they did not have a special logo for Pi Day last year, nor do they have a special logo for today, Square Root Day.

What is Square Root Day? Well, today is 3-3-9 and it is celebrated on "dates where the day and the month are both the square root of the last two digits in the current year," according to Wikipedia. The next time it is celebrated will be on April 4, 2016, so it doesn't happen all that often.

We decided to put up a special theme for the day, even though no other search engine did. Here is our theme:

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums and Google Webmaster Help.

Update: Google's Twitter account posted a mention saying, "Happy Square Root Day from all of us at Google!" at 5:16pm (EST) linking to a search result for square root of 9.

SEO News » Search Engine Roundtable » March 2009

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Search Engine Roundtable (75 unread)

Posted: March 31st, 2009, 11:00pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: March 31st, 2009, 2:52pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Tracking Conversion Measurements

Posted: March 31st, 2009, 2:49pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Posted: March 27th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Pulse

Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:37am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:23am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:18am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:13am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:08am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Engine Optimization

Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:01am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Posted: March 27th, 2009, 6:55am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Posted: March 26th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: March 26th, 2009, 11:22am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

Posted: March 26th, 2009, 11:18am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Posted: March 26th, 2009, 11:10am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Web Directories

Posted: March 26th, 2009, 11:05am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdWords

Posted: March 26th, 2009, 10:59am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Posted: March 26th, 2009, 10:49am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Posted: March 25th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: March 25th, 2009, 1:01pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Posted: March 25th, 2009, 1:01pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Link Building

Posted: March 25th, 2009, 12:51pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Posted: March 25th, 2009, 12:40pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Posted: March 25th, 2009, 12:33pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Search Engine

Posted: March 24th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: March 24th, 2009, 1:19pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Posted: March 24th, 2009, 1:11pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: SEM SEO Companies

Posted: March 24th, 2009, 1:04pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdWords

Posted: March 24th, 2009, 12:59pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdWords

Posted: March 23rd, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: March 23rd, 2009, 1:18pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Legal Issues in Search

Posted: March 23rd, 2009, 1:10pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google Optimization

Posted: March 23rd, 2009, 1:08pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Other Google Topics

Posted: March 23rd, 2009, 1:03pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Posted: March 23rd, 2009, 12:56pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdWords

Posted: March 20th, 2009, 10:22pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Buzz RoundUp

Posted: March 20th, 2009, 10:00pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Search Forum Recap

Posted: March 20th, 2009, 2:31pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Link Building

Posted: March 20th, 2009, 2:19pm CET by rustybrick