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: August 2, 2010
Posted: August 2nd, 2010, 11:00pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Search Forum Recap
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Longer Anchor Text As a Link Building Strategy
Posted: August 2nd, 2010, 3:36pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Link Building
When doing a form on unnatural link building, you try to make it look more natural. One way is to make sure to mix up your anchor text. Another way is to make sure the sites your links are on are not linking to you in an unnatural way. Maybe that means sitewide links on some sites, maybe it means the placement of the link and maybe it means the words used in the link.
A WebmasterWorld thread has one link builder asking how important it is to go long with your anchor text. Instead of using the prime keyword in your anchor text, why not extend it?
Rather than using "green widgets" as the anchor I prefer using something like "consumer guide to green widgets" embedded within a sentence. The preference is to gain SERP positions of green widgets.
The link builder asks:
Does the added text dilute the effect on the desired phrase green widgets?
Does it? Even if it does, it might be a good strategy to mix that up a bit? What would you do?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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Interesting Comment From Google On Most Common Keywords Report
Posted: August 2nd, 2010, 3:30pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google Optimization
If you login to Google Webmaster Tools and go to the "Keywords" under "Your site on the web," Google will show you the "most common keywords Google found when crawling your site." In fact, Google said, these keywords "should reflect the subject matter of your site." But what if they don't?
A Google Webmaster Help thread has one person complaining his blog shows the months of the year as being his most common keywords in his report. What should he do?
Googler, Jonathan Simon replied saying:
I took a look at some of your site's pages and found that month names are fairly prominent on your pages especially when there are comments (where each comment has a month name associated with it). You could modify the date format associated with comments so that dates are displayed in a different format like MM/DD/YYYY but I don't think you should really spend your time worrying about this. A better way to address this issue would be to focus on the keywords in the list that are representative of your blog's content. Consider how your blog includes those Keywords and do something similar for other keywords that you'd like your blog to be associated with. I find it's helpful to view the Keywords list in combination with the queries (reported in the Search Queries section) which are generating impressions and traffic for your site. If you see queries that are bringing your site lots of impressions but only few clicks and find those same queries aren't listed the Keywords report for your site, then that information should assist you in prioritizing your efforts when you're considering adding new content to your blog.
Maybe this comment can help others?
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.
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Does Google Send Higher Converting Buyers To Higher Quality Score Ads?
Posted: August 2nd, 2010, 3:08pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Google AdWords
A WebmasterWorld thread has an interesting but maybe/likely completely false theory on how Google AdWords may work.
Now, if I understand the thread correct (note: very little sleep last night), this person is proposing that Google may be sending better qualified buyers to those ads with a higher quality score.
In short, Google may know which searchers converts at a higher rate than other searchers. So maybe, Google prefers to send that searchers an ad that has a higher quality score?
The senior member wrote it out in detail, but ended his post with a short summary:
This could mean that the higher the quality score of your keywords, the more likely it is you will receive a higher quality visitor from AdWords. I am not talking about bid prices, just the QS vs traffic quality.
An interesting concept and some think this is totally off base but others say, "I would not be surprised if it were an element in both AdWords and AdSense."
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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Yahoo Image Search Now Sending More Traffic Than Google?
Posted: August 2nd, 2010, 2:57pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Yahoo Search Engine
We see stats on image search usage, comparing Google to Yahoo to Bing to even sites like Facebook or Flickr. But which sends webmasters the most traffic? Google Analytics doesn't make it very easy to filter search referrers but image search engine, but those that rely on image search as a traffic source keep close tabs to that metric.
Zeus, a forum personality that I have come to respect in terms of any image search topic he posts, wrote a post at WebmasterWorld.
Google recently redesigned image search leading to webmasters complaining that they may receive less traffic. Zeus said that is happening and due to that, Yahoo is sending him more traffic via Image Search than Google. Zeus said:
We all know that google images has made some unnecessary changes to there layout and here the last weeks time Yahoo images has taken the first spot in my stats for the first time ever, in just a week.
Has anyone else seen the same?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
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Fortune: "Google: The Search Party Is Over." Really?
Posted: August 2nd, 2010, 2:50pm CEST by rustybrick
Tags: Other Google Topics
Google: The search party is over by Fortune Magazine wrote a large piece on Google and their business. In part, they wrote:
It looks a lot like the midday break at some elite college campus. But almost 12 years after it was launched by precocious Stanford grad students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google and its founders are grappling with a very grownup set of problems. Google's core business, online search, is slowing. That is partly due to Google's own success; it's hard to keep posting record growth rates when you dominate a business so thoroughly -- Google sites lead the U.S. market with 64% of all searches conducted. But more crucially, the web has changed significantly since Google became a verb. There is (at long last) fresh competition from Microsoft's Bing, and also a new wave of sites and services that offer alternatives for consumers' time and attention -- and the advertisers that follow them.
The web is changing and some believe Google isn't changing fast enough with the web.
A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around this article. Some are floored by the article, one person said, "Wow that must be one of the most stupid articles I ever read." Moderator, incredibill wrote, "He lost me when he compared Apple and Google stock, apple's and oranges, pun not intended." Another member said, "I guess Fortune is more likely the one in trouble and just trying desperately to get some attention."
Eurydice said we currently live in a Google world, but before the Google world, no one saw Google coming. Now, Facebook is the big buzz, "Google can't change that, no more than the portals could force the attention to stay on portals," said the WebmasterWorld member. Eurydice added, "Social won't be the final stage. Facebook will have its day in the sun. And in 5-7 years, the next phase will come along."
What is your take?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.