Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
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Daily Search Forum Recap: June 29, 2010
Posted: June 29th, 2010, 11:00pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Search Forum Recap
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Second June 2010 Google PageRank Update
Posted: June 29th, 2010, 4:00pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google PageRankSERP Updates
Earlier this month, we had a Google PageRank update and now there are many many reports of another PageRank update.
We have threads at DigitalPoint Forums, WebmasterWorld and Google Webmaster Help with people reporting their Google PageRank score changed in the Google Toolbar.
Of course, most of us don't give a hoot about toolbar PageRank - but nevertheless, people look.
I'd be surprised if you didn't check your PageRank score on at least one site after reading this post.
What you do with that information after is the important thing. Do nothing. Toolbar PageRank is outdated, shows you very little about the true quality of the site and is there as a PR gimmick.
Did your Google Toolbar PageRank increase or decrease or just stay the same?
Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums, WebmasterWorld and Google Webmaster Help.
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Google China Now a Fake Search Box Page, Directing Users To Hong Kong
Posted: June 29th, 2010, 3:40pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Search Engine
In March, Google began redirecting Google.CN to Google.com.hk in order not to censor the Chinese search results anymore. Well, China isn't happy with that, they simply do not want their Chinese users to get unfiltered results.
Google has been threatened by China that if they don't stop redirecting users, they will take away Google's license to operate in China. Google caved - they want to still operate in China, although they said they don't want to operate there - it is confusing, you see.
So now, some people who go to Google.CN are being send to a special landing page at [www.google.cn]. This landing page will soon become the default at Google.CN. The landing page is one huge link that when clicked, takes you to Google Hong Kong. Technically, it is not a redirect, but to a user, it does seem deceptive on how the implementation was done.
It appears that you are clicking in a search box to do your query. But when you click, you are redirected to Google Hong Kong. That seems deceptive to me. Google should man up and leave China and stop playing games. If they want to stay in China, then deal with it, filter the results and stay. But to do it this way, just seems wrong to me.
What do you think? Yes, it says Google.com.hk but it just seems way confusing for the user. And isn't Google all about making it best and not confusing for the user?
Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums and WebmasterWorld.
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Google Webmaster Tools Reporting Inflated Link Counts
Posted: June 29th, 2010, 3:30pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Optimization
Have you checked out link count in Google Webmaster Tools today? If not, you may be in for a surprise when you do. It seems like most people's link counts are incredibly inflated.
A Google Webmaster Help thread and WebmasterWorld thread has several webmasters noticing the major inflation of their link counts in Google Webmaster Tools.
Personally, I see Google is telling me I have 974,494 links to this site. But some people are reporting just under 2.5 million links, where millions were added over a single night. Here is one report:
Today i have seen my webmaster account for my site to see "links to your site" section. It amazed me when i saw a figure "2,439,598" which is thousand times higher then what i've noted yesterday. Is it a bug in webmaster tools, or i actually have all these links.
So if you see some numbers that don't make sense in the Google link tool report, don't worry - it seems fairly wide spread.
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help and WebmasterWorld.
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On Page SEO VS. Off Page SEO: Which Trumps?
Posted: June 29th, 2010, 3:09pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Search Engine Optimization
"Content is King" or Links are supreme - that is the classic SEO debate. Which SEO component is more important? Links or on page SEO? This debate is as old as Google and while it was much more of a debate years ago, it still triggers some debate nowadays.
These days, even the biggest link builder would admit you need strong content and some basic SEO to rank well for competitive keywords. Or maybe not?
A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around this topic. One person said he ranks top for a competitive keyword with zero content on his page related to that keyword. He thinks that you don't need the content on the page to rank well. Maybe, I think it depends.
Tedster, WebmasterWorld administrator cited a client case. He said:
I can guarantee you from the past week's experience that there is. I have a client whose highest traffic page fell from #1 on two big query terms to pages 3 and 4. What they did was change (not tweak, demolish) ALL the body content and the page template. I was not informed ahead of time and I only learned about it after the traffic drop appeared.
What do you think? Take my poll below:
On Page SEO VS. Off Page SEO: Which Trumps?online surveys
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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Google Doodle For Antoine de Saint-Exupery's 110th Birthday
Posted: June 29th, 2010, 2:59pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
Google has a special logo, aka Doodle, on most of the Google properties today for the 100th birthday of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. For some reason, Google.com, Google USA does not have a doodle for Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Here is a picture of the doodle:
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is a well-known for his short novel named The Little Prince, which is depicted in the Google Doodle above. Antoine was born 100 years ago today on June 29, 1900 and died in 1944. He was in the French Air Force during World War II. In 1944 he disappeared over the Mediterranean. You can learn more about him at Wikipedia.
Why did Google.com not show the logo? He spent two years of his life in New York City, writing. So why not at Google.com?
Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.