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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

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.

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Some Of The Topics Discussed:

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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.

SEO News » Search Engine Roundtable » March 6, 2009

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