What featured over 750 webmasters and a large number of Googlers from around the world, hundreds of questions, and over one hundred answers over the course of nearly two hours? If you guessed "the Tricks and Treats webmaster event from this earlier this month!" well, you're either absolutely brilliant, you read the title of this post, or both!
How did it go?It was an exhilarating, exhausting, and educational event, if we may say so ourselves, even though there were a few snafus. We're aware that the sound quality wasn't great for some folks, and we've also appreciated quite-helpful constructive criticisms in this feedback thread. Last but not least, we are bummed to admit that someone (whose name starts with 'A' and ends with 'M') uncharacteristically forgot to hit the record button (really!), so there's unfortunately no audio recording to share :-(.
But on more positive notes, we're delighted that so many of you enjoyed our presentations (embedded below), our many answers, and even some of our bad jokes (mercifully not to be repeated).
What next?Well, for starters, all of us Webmaster Central Googlers will be spending quite some time taking in your feedback. Some of you have requested sessions exclusively covering particular (pre-announced) topics or tailored to specific experience levels, and we've also heard from many webmasters outside of the U.S. who would love online events in other languages and at more convenient times. No promises, but you can bet we're eager to please! Stay tuned on this blog (and, as a hint and hallo to our German-speaking webmasters, do make sure to follow our German webmaster blog ;-).
And finally, a big thank you!A heartfelt thank you to my fellow Googlers, many of whom got up at the crack of dawn to get to the office early for the chat and previous day's runthrough or stayed at work late in Europe. But more importantly, major props to all of you (from New Delhi, New York, New Zealand and older places) who asked great questions and hung out with us online for up to two hours. You webmasters are the reason we love coming to work each day, and we look forward to our next chat!
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The presentations...We had presentations from John, Jonathan, Maile, and Wysz. Presentations from the first three are embedded below (Wysz didn't have a written presentation this time).
John's slides on "Frightening Webmastering Myths"
Jonathan's slides on "Using the Not Found errors report in Webmaster Tools"
Maile's slides on "Where We're Coming From"
Written by Adam Lasnik, Search Evangelist
Edited on Wednesday, October 29 at 6:00pm to update number of participants
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Items by Adam Lasnik
Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
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Reflections on the "Tricks and Treats" webmaster event
Posted: October 29th, 2008, 6:20pm CET by Adam Lasnik
Tags: events
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Webmaster chat event: Vote early and often!
Posted: October 21st, 2008, 2:17pm CEST by Adam Lasnik
Tags: events
No matter where in the world you are, you can vote right now on webmaster-oriented questions by registering for our free Webmaster chat ("Tricks and Treats") which is scheduled for tomorrow at 9am PDT (5pm GMT). Even better: you can suggest your own questions that you'd like Webmaster Central Googlers to answer.
We're using the new Google Moderator tool, so posting questions and voting on your favorites is fun and easy; you'll receive an e-mail with a link to the webmaster chat questions right after you register. Click on the check mark next to questions you find particularly interesting and important. Click on the X next to questions that seem less relevant or useful. From your votes, Google Moderator will surface the best questions, helping us spend more time in the chat on issues you really care about.
Feel free to review our post from yesterday for more details on this event.
See you there!
P.S. - Speaking of voting: If you're an American citizen, we hope you're also participating in the upcoming presidential election! Our friends in Google Maps have even prepared a handy lookup tool to help you find your voting place -- check it out!
Written by Adam Lasnik, Search Evangelist (and humble host of this event)
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Join us for our third live online webmaster chat!
Posted: October 20th, 2008, 11:10am CEST by Adam Lasnik
Tags: events
You know how some myths just won't die? Well, do we have some great news for you! A not-so-scary bunch of Gooooooooooooglers will be on hand to drive a stake through the most ghoulish webmastering myths and misconceptions in our live online "Tricks and Treats" chat this coming Wednesday.
That's right! You'll be treated to some brief presentations and then have the chance to ask lots of questions to Googlers ranging from Matt Cutts in Mountain View to John Mueller in Zurich to Kaspar Szymanski in Dublin (and many more folks as well).
Here's what you'll need- About an hour of free time
- A computer with audio capabilities that is connected to the Internet and has these additional specifications
(We'll be broadcasting via the Internet tubes this time rather than over the phone lines) - A URL for the chat, which you can only get when you register for the event (don't worry -- it's fast and painless!)
- Costumes: optional
What will our Tricks and Treats chat include?- INTRO: A quick hello from some of your favorite Help Group Guides
- PRESO: A 15 minute presentation on "Frightening Myths and Misconceptions" by John Mueller
- FAQs: A return of our popular "Three for Three," in which we'll have three different Googlers tackling three different issues we've seen come up in the Group recently... in under three minutes each!
- And lots of Q&A! You'll have a chance to type questions during the entire session (actually, starting an hour prior!) using our hunky-dory new Google Moderator tool. Ask, then vote! With this tool and your insights, we expect the most interesting questions to quickly float to the top.
When and how can you join in?- Mark the date on your calendar now: Wednesday, October 22, at 9am PDT, noon EDT, and 5pm GMT
- Register right now for this event. Please note that you'll need to click on the "register" link on the bottom lefthand side.
- Optionally post questions via Google Moderator one hour prior to the start of the event. The link will be mailed to all registrants.
- Log in 5-10 minutes prior to the start of the chat, using the link e-mailed to you by WebEx (the service hosting the event).
- Interact! During the event, you'll be able to chat (by typing) with your fellow attendees, and also post questions and vote on your favorite questions via Google Moderator.
We look forward to seeing you online! In the meantime, if you have any questions, feel free to post a note in this thread of our friendly Webmaster Help Group.
Edited on October 21st at 12:15pm and 12:29pm PDT to add:
We've decided to open up the Google Moderator page early. Everyone who registered for this event previously and everyone registering from this moment on will receive the link in e-mail. Also, the event is scheduled for *5pm* GMT (correctly listed on the registration page and in the followup e-mails).
Written by Adam Lasnik, Search Evangelist - About an hour of free time
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Join us for another live chat - June 19, 2008
Posted: June 16th, 2008, 9:46pm CEST by Adam Lasnik
Tags: feedback and communication
Written by Adam Lasnik, Search Evangelist
When it comes to talking with webmasters, we just can't get enough.
This past March we had the pleasure of connecting with hundreds of you online in our first-ever Webmaster Help Group online live chat, which included a presentation on Images in Google Search by Maile, lots of feedback from you on webmaster issues, a site clinic, and dozens of questions answered by folks from our Google Webmaster Central team.
Given the success of this previous chat, we've decided to do it again. We're hosting another free live chat (dubbed JuneTune), and we'd love to have you attend!Here's what you'll need:- About an hour of free time.
- A phone, or ability to make a phone call online (e.g., with Skype or Gizmo5, etc.)
- An internet-connected computer, and these additional specifications.
- A URL for the chat, which you can only get when you register for the event (you can likely do this in under 60 seconds)
- INTRO: A quick hello from some of your favorite Help Group Guides
- PRESO: A presentation on Personalization in Google Search by our own John Mueller.
- FAQs: We're calling this "Three for Three," and we'll have three different Googlers tackling three different issues we've seen come up in the Group recently. What will they be? You'll just have to attend the chat to find out!
- And lots of Q&A! You'll have a chance to type questions during the entire session, and we'll pick as many as we can to answer in writing and in speaking during the chat.
- Mark the date on your calendar now: Thursday, June 19, for about one hour starting at 2:00pm PDT / 5:00pm EDT / 21:00 UTC / 23:00 CET
- Register right now for this event. Please note that you'll need to click on the "register" link on the lefthand side.
- Using the link e-mailed to you by WebEx (the service hosting the event), log in 5-10 minutes prior to 2pm PDT.
We hope you can stop by, and look forward to chatting with you! In the meantime, if you have any questions, feel free to post a note in this Groups thread. -
Join us for an online live chat this Friday!
Posted: March 24th, 2008, 7:50pm CET by Adam Lasnik
Tags: events
Written by Adam Lasnik, Search Evangelist
Many of us Webmaster Help Group guides have happily gotten to meet Group members at various functions around the world. Over sandwiches in San Jose. Salads in Stockholm. Sweets in Sydney. And it's been super!
But some of you are hard to find and so we haven't had the pleasure of chatting with you. Therefore, we've decided to visit you right through your beloved monitor screen.
On Friday, March 28 at 9am PDT / noon EDT / 16:00 GMT, we'll be having our first-ever all-group live chat, where you'll have a chance to hear and see us answer some of your most pressing questions. All that's required is a phone (we'll pay for the call), a sufficiently-modern web browser, and an internet connection.
We'll be posting a "sticky note" with more details in the Random Chitchat section of the Group a day or two before this online meetup, and we're looking forward to chatting with you soon!
Talkatively yours,Adam and the English Webmaster Help Guides
EDITED ON MARCH 26 TO ADD:More information about the chat is now available on this page. -
Server location, cross-linking, and Web 2.0 technology thoughts
Posted: August 2nd, 2007, 12:46pm CEST by Adam Lasnik
Written by Greg Grothaus and Shashi Thakur, Search Quality Team
Held on June 27th, Searchnomics 2007 gave us (Greg Grothaus and Shashi Thakur) a chance to meet webmasters and answer some of their questions. As we're both engineers focused on improving search quality, the feedback was extremely valuable. Here's our take on the conference and a recap of some of what we talked about there.
Shashi: While I've worked at Google for over a year, this was my first time speaking at a conference. I spoke on the "Search Engine Friendly Design" panel. The exchanges were hugely valuable, helping me grasp some of the concerns of webmasters. Greg and I thought it would be valuable to share our responses to a few questions:
Does location of server matter? I use a .com domain but my content is for customers in the UK.
In our understanding of web content, Google considers both the IP address and the top-level domain (e.g. .com, .co.uk). Because we attempt to serve geographically relevant content, we factor domains that have a regional significance. For example, ".co.uk " domains are likely very relevant for user queries originating from the UK. In the absence of a significant top-level domain, we often use the web server's IP address as an added hint in our understanding of content.
I have many different sites. Can I cross-link between them?
Before you begin cross-linking sites, consider the user's perspective and whether the crosslinks provide value. If the sites are related in business -- e.g., an auto manual site linking to an auto parts retail site, then it could make sense -- the links are organic and useful. Cross-linking between dozens or hundreds of sites, however, probably doesn't provide value, and I would not recommend it.
Greg: Like Shashi, this was also my first opportunity to speak at a conference as a Googler. It was refreshing to hear feedback from the people who use the software we work every day to perfect. The session also underscored the argument that we're just at the beginning of search and have a long way to go. I spoke on the subject of Web 2.0 technologies. It was clear that many people are intimidated by the challenges of building a Web 2.0 site with respect to search engines. We understand these concerns. You should expect see more feedback from us on this subject, both at conferences and through our blog.
Any special guidance for DHTML/AJAX/Flash documents?
It's important to make sure that content and navigation can be rendered/negotiated using only HTML. So long as the content and navigation are the same for search crawlers and end users, you're more than welcome to use advanced technologies such as Flash and/or Javascript to improve the user experience using a richer presentation. In "Best uses of Flash," we wrote in more detail about this, and are working on a post about AJAX technology. -
Best uses of Flash
Posted: July 5th, 2007, 5:15pm CEST by Adam Lasnik
Written by Mark Berghausen, Search Quality Team
We occasionally get questions on the Webmaster Help Group about how webmasters should work with Adobe Flash. I thought it would be worthwhile to write a few words about the search considerations designers should think about when building a Flash-heavy site.
As many of you already know, Flash is inherently a visual medium, and Googlebot doesn't have eyes. Googlebot can typically read Flash files and extract the text and links in them, but the structure and context are missing. Moreover, textual contents are sometimes stored in Flash as graphics, and since Googlebot doesn't currently have the algorithmic eyes needed to read these graphics, these important keywords can be missed entirely. All of this means that even if your Flash content is in our index, it might be missing some text, content, or links. Worse, while Googlebot can understand some Flash files, not all Internet spiders can.
So what's an honest web designer to do? The only hard and fast rule is to show Googlebot the exact same thing as your users. If you don't, your site risks appearing suspicious to our search algorithms. This simple rule covers a lot of cases including cloaking, JavaScript redirects, hidden text, and doorway pages. And our engineers have gathered a few more practical suggestions:- Try to use Flash only where it is needed. Many rich media sites such as Google's YouTube use Flash for rich media but rely on HTML for content and navigation. You can too, by limiting Flash to on-page accents and rich media, not content and navigation. In addition to making your site Googlebot-friendly, this makes you site accessible to a larger audience, including, for example, blind people using screen readers, users of old or non-standard browsers, and those on limited low-bandwidth connections such as on a cell phone or PDA. As a bonus, your visitors can use bookmarks effectively, and can email links to your pages to their friends.
- sIFR: Some websites use Flash to force the browser to display headers, pull quotes, or other textual elements in a font that the user may not have installed on their computer. A technique like sIFR still lets non-Flash readers read a page, since the content/navigation is actually in the HTML -- it's just displayed by an embedded Flash object.
- Non-Flash Versions: A common way that we see Flash used is as a front page "splash screen" where the root URL of a website has a Flash intro that links to HTML content deeper into the site. In this case, make sure there is a regular HTML link on that front page to a non-Flash page where a user can navigate throughout your site without the need for Flash.
If you have other ideas that don't violate these guidelines that you'd like to ask about, feel free to ask them in the Webmaster Help Group under Crawling, Indexing, and Ranking. The many knowledgeable webmasters there, along with myself and a cadre of other Googlers, will do our best to clear up any confusion. -
Why we attend conferences
Posted: May 23rd, 2007, 6:17pm CEST by Adam Lasnik
Posted by Adam Lasnik, Search Evangelist
I've always loved traveling. Okay, not the flights so much, especially given that I typically travel coach (yes, even for work trips). But getting to learn interesting cultural tidbits, enjoy regional cuisines, and meet new people... it all definitely makes my life richer. Even the little things -- linguistic differences ("How are you going?" in Sydney) and just walking around (pass on the left in the UK!) -- can be fascinating.So I shouldn't be surprised when my friends tease me about my traveling as a representative of Google's Search Quality team: "Must be really rough!" However, being an active part of conferences actually isn't all glamour and relaxation.
Here's a glimpse of the reality:
- Sometimes (though thankfully rarely) I get metaphorically used as a human punching bag.
- There's no pause button on my corp and personal e-mail accounts. Days at conferences = LOTS of email to catch up on!
- And on a related note, what's with the no-wifi nonsense?! I have Verizon broadband [sic] for my laptop now, but still... ack!
- Attending conferences requires an enormous amount of extra time overall. I stubbornly seem to create presentations fresh for each conference, I collaborate with other Googler speakers on their presentations (and vice versa), and I end up with a ton of additional (valuable but time-intense) work from info I glean at the conferences. Based on this and the e-mail reason noted above, I've noticed that each day of conference = five days of combined prep + analysis + implementation.
But here's why I still really like going to conferences:
- I learn a bunch from other speakers. When folks from other search engines or various experts speak, I often think -- hey, that's useful information, or that's a particularly thoughtful way of explaining stuff. I'm still pretty new to the conference-speaking circuit, so every bit I soak up helps!
- SEO and webmaster folks are typically rather fun people. :-)
- Though I don't always make time for this, it's certainly neat getting to spend some time exploring various cities. Okay, so San Jose doesn't count (it's right next to Google), but I can't wait to check out Toronto (and, likely via a few personal days beforehand, Montreal).
- I learn a great deal from webmasters I chat with. I'm able to go back to my colleagues here and say - hey, this is how our algorithm changes or our guidelines are being perceived, these are challenges we didn't anticipate from our tools, and so on. And it's not just about search; I've gotten thoughtful earfuls about Gmail, Calendar, and practically everything else about Google, and I do my best to relay this feedback to my colleagues in other departments.
- Lastly, seeing someone in person provides a very helpful new perspective on what they're meaning to communicate online. It's easy to misread text on a page, especially when there's no immediate opportunity to follow up with questions. But in person, issues get cleared up on both sides, and that's good for everyone.
Thankfully, it's not just me who's presenting to and chatting with webmasters from Google -- I'd be exhausted, and you'd get quite bored of me. As you can see from the list below, our conference-going is genuinely a team effort: Through this month and June, you'll find Google Search Quality and Webmaster Central folks present at these conferences:
Search Engine Strategies - Xiamen, China - May 25, 26-30- Jianfei Zhu (Senior Software Engineer): Get a Lesson from Spamming
Search Engine Strategies - Milan, Italy - May 29-30- Brian White (Technical Program Manager)
- Luisella Mazza (Search Quality Analyst)
- Stefano Bezze (Search Quality Associate)
American Marketing Association Hot Topics Series - New York, NY - May 25- Maile Ohye (Senior Developer Support Engineer): Search Engine Marketing
Google Developer Day - San Jose, CA (was originally set for Mountain View) - May 31- Jonathan Simon (Webmaster Trends Analyst)
- Maile Ohye (Senior Developer Support Engineer)
Search Marketing Expo Advanced - Seattle, WA - June 4-5- Matt Cutts (Software Engineer): You&A, Personalized Search and Penalty Box
- Vanessa Fox (Product Manager, Webmaster Central): Duplicate Content
Search Engine Strategies - Toronto, Canada - June 12-13- Adam Lasnik: Search Engine Friendly Design and The Worst SEO Myths, Don'ts, and Scams
Searchnomics - Santa Clara, CA - June 27- Shashi Thakur (Software Engineer): Search Engine Friendly Design
- Greg Grothaus (Software Engineer): Search & Dynamic Web Sites and SEO for Web 2.0
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We look forward to seeing many of you in person! But even if you can't or don't want to go to one of the conferences we attend, we welcome your questions, comments, or even just a friendly introduction in our Webmaster Help Group.
Take care, and enjoy your summer, wherever your online or offline travels may take you!
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Musings on Down Under
Posted: May 11th, 2007, 5:40pm CEST by Adam Lasnik
Posted by Aaron D'Souza, Software Engineer, Search Quality
Earlier this year, a bunch of Googlers (Maile, Peeyush, Dan, Adam and I) bunged ourselves across the equator and headed to Sydney, so we could show our users and webmasters that just because you're "down under" doesn't mean you're under our radar. We had a great time getting to know folks at our Sydney office, and an even greater time meeting and chatting with all the people attending Search Summit and Search Engine Room. What makes those 12-hour flights worthwhile is getting the chance to inform and be informed about the issues important to the webmaster community.
One of the questions we heard quite frequently: Should we as webmasters/SEOs/SEMs/users be worried about personalized search?
Our answer: a resounding NO! Personalized search takes each user's search behavior, and subtly tunes the search results to better match their interests over time. For a user, this means that even if you're a lone entomologist in a sea of sports fans, you'll always get the results most relevant to you for the query "cricket". For the webmaster, it allows niche markets that collide on the same search terms to disambiguate themselves based on individual user preferences, and this really presents a tremendous opportunity for visibility. Also, to put things in perspective, search engines have been moving towards some degree of personalization for years; for example, providing country/language specific results is already a form of personalization, just at a coarser granularity. Making it more fine-grained is the logical next step, and helps level the playing field for smaller niche websites which now have a chance to rank well for users that want their content the most.
Another question that popped up a lot: I'm moving my site from domain X to Y. How do I make sure all my hard-earned reputation carries over?
Here are the important bits to think about:- For each page on domain X, have it 301-redirect to the corresponding page on Y. (How? Typically through .htaccess, but check with your hosting provider).
- You might want to stagger the move, and redirect sub-sections of your site over time. This gives you the chance to keep an eye on the effects, and also gives search engines' crawl/indexing pipelines time to cover the space of redirected URLs.
- http://www.google.com/webmasters is your friend. Keep an eye on it during the transition to make sure that the redirects are having the effect you want.
- Give it time. How quickly the transition is reflected in the results depends on how quickly we recrawl your site and see those redirects, which depends on a lot of factors including the current reputation of your site's pages.
- Don't forget to update your Sitemap. (You are using Sitemaps, aren't you?)
- If possible, don't substantially change the content of your pages at the same time you make the move. Otherwise, it will be difficult to tell if ranking changes are due to the change of content or incorrectly implemented redirects.
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Deftly dealing with duplicate content
Posted: December 18th, 2006, 11:28pm CET by Adam Lasnik
At the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in freezing Chicago, many of us Googlers were asked questions about duplicate content. We recognize that there are many nuances and a bit of confusion on the topic, so we'd like to help set the record straight.
What is duplicate content?
Duplicate content generally refers to substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar. Most of the time when we see this, it's unintentional or at least not malicious in origin: forums that generate both regular and stripped-down mobile-targeted pages, store items shown (and -- worse yet -- linked) via multiple distinct URLs, and so on. In some cases, content is duplicated across domains in an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings or garner more traffic via popular or long-tail queries.
What isn't duplicate content?
Though we do offer a handy translation utility, our algorithms won't view the same article written in English and Spanish as duplicate content. Similarly, you shouldn't worry about occasional snippets (quotes and otherwise) being flagged as duplicate content.
Why does Google care about duplicate content?
Our users typically want to see a diverse cross-section of unique content when they do searches. In contrast, they're understandably annoyed when they see substantially the same content within a set of search results. Also, webmasters become sad when we show a complex URL (example.com/contentredir?value=shorty-george〈=en) instead of the pretty URL they prefer (example.com/en/shorty-george.htm).
What does Google do about it?
During our crawling and when serving search results, we try hard to index and show pages with distinct information. This filtering means, for instance, that if your site has articles in "regular" and "printer" versions and neither set is blocked in robots.txt or via a noindex meta tag, we'll choose one version to list. In the rare cases in which we perceive that duplicate content may be shown with intent to manipulate our rankings and deceive our users, we'll also make appropriate adjustments in the indexing and ranking of the sites involved. However, we prefer to focus on filtering rather than ranking adjustments ... so in the vast majority of cases, the worst thing that'll befall webmasters is to see the "less desired" version of a page shown in our index.
How can Webmasters proactively address duplicate content issues?- Block appropriately: Rather than letting our algorithms determine the "best" version of a document, you may wish to help guide us to your preferred version. For instance, if you don't want us to index the printer versions of your site's articles, disallow those directories or make use of regular expressions in your robots.txt file.
- Use 301s: If you have restructured your site, use 301 redirects ("RedirectPermanent") in your .htaccess file to smartly redirect users, the Googlebot, and other spiders.
- Be consistent: Endeavor to keep your internal linking consistent; don't link to /page/ and /page and /page/index.htm.
- Use TLDs: To help us serve the most appropriate version of a document, use top level domains whenever possible to handle country-specific content. We're more likely to know that .de indicates Germany-focused content, for instance, than /de or de.example.com.
- Syndicate carefully: If you syndicate your content on other sites, make sure they include a link back to the original article on each syndicated article. Even with that, note that we'll always show the (unblocked) version we think is most appropriate for users in each given search, which may or may not be the version you'd prefer.
- Use the preferred domain feature of webmaster tools: If other sites link to yours using both the www and non-www version of your URLs, you can let us know which way you prefer your site to be indexed.
- Minimize boilerplate repetition: For instance, instead of including lengthy copyright text on the bottom of every page, include a very brief summary and then link to a page with more details.
- Avoid publishing stubs: Users don't like seeing "empty" pages, so avoid placeholders where possible. This means not publishing (or at least blocking) pages with zero reviews, no real estate listings, etc., so users (and bots) aren't subjected to a zillion instances of "Below you'll find a superb list of all the great rental opportunities in [insert cityname]..." with no actual listings.
- Understand your CMS: Make sure you're familiar with how content is displayed on your Web site, particularly if it includes a blog, a forum, or related system that often shows the same content in multiple formats.
- Don't worry be happy: Don't fret too much about sites that scrape (misappropriate and republish) your content. Though annoying, it's highly unlikely that such sites can negatively impact your site's presence in Google. If you do spot a case that's particularly frustrating, you are welcome to file a DMCA request to claim ownership of the content and have us deal with the rogue site.
In short, a general awareness of duplicate content issues and a few minutes of thoughtful preventative maintenance should help you to help us provide users with unique and relevant content.