Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
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5540 items (5015 unread) in 3 feeds
Google
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Official Google Webmaster Central Blog (325 unread)
SEO
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Emily Chang (347 unread)
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Search Engine Roundtable
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Search Engine Roundtable (6 unread)
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Daily Search Forum Recap: August 20, 2009
Posted: August 20th, 2009, 11:00pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Search Forum Recap
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Why "SEO Experts" Get a Bad Rep from Newbies
Posted: August 20th, 2009, 3:54pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: SEO Forum News
I follow tons and tons of threads on SEO, SEM, Google, etc. I have been doing this for just about six years. One thing I often see is that there are people who want quick answers to why they don't rank well or how they can become rich in days. When they don't get the answer they like, they rant on how unhelpful the "experts" in the field are.
A WebmasterWorld thread member, wheel, was very smart about his post. He initially posted a teaser saying, I built a site five years ago, did SEO for a month on it and it still ranks in the top ten for a competitive keyword with zero additional work. Of course, we all wanted to know how he did it and he strung us along. But that was part of his plan, his plan to get us listening so he can follow up and blast all us newbies. He said:
The secret is, there is no secret. There are two themes that run through this and all the other forums, for years. The first is, everyone's looking for the latest trick or secret to ranking. The second theme is all the experts (at least the ones that I read) tell us to forget the glitter and develop proper backlinks.
And people repeatedly don't like the answers from the experts - to forget the glitter and develop proper backlinks. We want a quick technical answer. We don't want to hear what basically means 'try working hard yourself'. The experts actually aren't holding back some big secret or the latest trick. They ARE telling you directly and specifically what to do. Hard work marketing your website is what gives high long term rankings, not some technical gimmick.
It is true - SEO, money, happiness, etc, doesn't come easy - it requires work. Wheel, did explain how he got the site and his other sites to succeed in the search results, but it wasn't over night and it took work. For more on how he did it, read the thread and get to work.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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86% Of SEOs Say They Can Rank #1 In Both Google.com & Regional Googles
Posted: August 20th, 2009, 3:46pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Optimization
A couple weeks ago, I asked our readers how feasible it was to rank in the number one spot in Google.com and at the same time rank #1 in a regional flavored Google search space. We have just about a hundred responses, so I wanted to share the results with you.
In short, 86% of the respondents said it was possible. 46% said yes, it is doable, 40% said it depends on the keyword, 11% said it was not possible and the rest didn't really answer the question. Here is the visual breakdown:
Question: Can You Rank #1 In Regional Google & Google.com?
:: Yes said 45 respondents or 46%
:: Depends On Keyword said 39 respondents or 40%
:: No said 11 respondents or 11%
:: Other answer... said 2 respondents or 2%Forum discussion continued at HighRankings Forums.
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Video: Google's Matt Cutts Presentation at WordCamp
Posted: August 20th, 2009, 3:39pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Optimization
A DigitalPoint Forums thread links to Matt's slides from WordCamp. The slides can be found on Google Docs, but I say, skip those and watch the video below of Matt's presentation.
The one thing I learned from it was that it makes sense to have keywords in your URL and if you want to rank well for alternatives to the title of your page, put that keyword in the URL. Matt's example was for a blog post with the word "Change" in the title, but he wanted to also rank for "changing," so he put that word in the URL and it does work, he said.
In any event, the presentation is extremely fun to watch. Matt has really become an excellent speaker over the years.
Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.
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Microsoft Claims To Fix Fake Referrals or "Single Word Query" Complaint
Posted: August 20th, 2009, 3:31pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Microsoft MSN Search
Last night, Microsoft Bing representative, Brett Yount, said that they have rolled out a fix for the fake referrals or single word query issues people have been noticing. Brett said:
We released a fix last night that should take care of these issues. If you are still having problems, let me know and I will investigate.
I am just not confident that this is resolved for the long haul. Why? Well, history shows that this has been going on since 2007 and has popping up time and time again since.
Plus, I was hoping for an official explanation on what this issue was, and I have yet to see one.
Forum discussion at Bing Forums.
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Google Video Porn in Universal Results For Famous Indian Actress, Rambha
Posted: August 20th, 2009, 3:16pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Search Engine
Yesterday, I spotted a post in the Google Web Search Help threads from an individual who claims to be representing Rambha, a famous Indian actress. This person is looking for Google to remove a video from the Google search results that depicts Rambha as having sexual relations.
Currently, a search for rambha returns video results in the middle of the page. This is Google Universal Search in action, one of those videos shows a woman depicted to be Rambha as having relations with a man. It is hosted on Google Video, displayed on Google web results.
I reported the video, as did this person, over 24 hours ago. I was hoping it would be removed from the search results. Not because it shows Rambha in a bad light, but because it is adult content and my adult filter (SafeSearch) is set to moderate.
I am sure there are plenty of videos reported to Google every day, but videos that end up on the search results page for a search term that receives hundreds of thousands of searches per month - must have a way of being moved to the front of the line. If not, a blog post about it over here, tends to speed things along.
We do report on Google porn issues from time to time, when the details are public in a thread.
Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.