Along with many sites that were impacted by the latest Google trick, ISEdb page rank has dropped to 4. We held PR 7 for over a year and a half and then it was dropped to 6 in the last Google update many months ago.
Last night, I realized the green bar had shrunk and went down to 4. I must say that I panicked for a while and thought Google was targeting ISEdb. I went out to search other sites and noticed some of the main and most popular sites have dropped as well.
I was actually waiting for this to happen since the news about Google going after web sites that sell text ads. Danny Sullivan wrote few weeks ago about this in his post "Official: Selling Paid Links Can Hurt Your PageRank Or Rankings On Google"
Now, the question is, do we sell page rank? I don't know, ask Google that question since they own the green bar.
We do sell text link and that is how ISEdb is funded and editors are paid. Our text links are displayed and marked clearly on the site.
We have also hired a third party ad agency to manage some of the ads. Outsourcing is part of the business these days, right?
We don't use "no follow" attributes in any link that is displayed on ISEdb.COM whether it was paid for or not as some have suggested to avoid this. We never bothered to take that extra step to see which link we should add those attributes to.
Our goal has always been to concentrate on our business and the content of the site and the rest will follow.
The main thing is we didn't see any drop in traffic and the number of subscribers continue to increase.
If you bought ads on our site for the sole purpose of page rank then you didn't do your homework. The market rate for a site with PR 6 or 7 is more than $100 per page. Our rates start at $100/month and your ad is displayed on all pages which by the way is a violation to passing PR.
Our goal was to give our advertisers the most exposure and we will continue to do that whether we have a page rank of 1 or 10.
My daughter recently turned 15 and now that school is out it
means it's time for her to get a job. Unfortunately, despite my threats of
cutting off her allowance, she has not taken job hunting seriously. Weeks ago I
started talking with her about getting out there so she can possibly have a job
lined up and start work by the time school gets out. But, unfortunately, she
never made that a priority. Until she realized that she has no money to pay
for text messaging!
I've never seen her so motivated in my life! She's starting
to take the whole getting a job thing seriously. This week she spent some time
calling places to find out who will hire someone under 16. She found three
places, the skating rink, the water park, and the child care at the gym.
My wife picked up the applications and helped her answering
the questions. It's all so new to her. She got them turned in and went for her
first interview at the skating rink, which, I'm told, went fantastically. She's
got another interview scheduled for next week at the gym. Before I know it, my
little girl will be texting her friends once again. Even better she'll be
learning about real-life responsibilities, and what it takes to
"survive" in the real world. All it took was a little motivation.
Put
feeling into your words
Motivation is a funny thing. You can try to encourage people
by telling them the benefits of this, that or the other, but sometimes it's
just not enough. You've got to make them "feel" it. If you craft your
message right, you can do just that using words only. This is true whether
you're dealing with a child, spouse or a customer over the Internet.
Fast food restaurants use words (and pictures) to make you
feel hungry. Non-profits raise money by making you feel sad and/or that you can
make a difference. Employers motivate by making their employees feel valuable.
Is this all just lip service? It shouldn't be. Feelings only last so long as
the actions behind them support it.
In advertising and marketing you can illicit feeling in your
words and pictures. You can stir feelings of pain, anger, relief, desire,
attraction, want, hope, satisfaction, love, etc., etc., etc.. And if you really
want to close the sale, you have to make people feel like what you are selling
is going to meet their wants or needs.
When you're words convey feeling, then you are motivating
them to take the action you desire. Essentially you're helping them make the
decision because they'll know they'll feel good about the result. This helps
them feel confident and comfortable that they are doing the right thing.
You can talk to your customers and try to explain why they
need what you sell. Or you can use words to motivate them by making them feel
the emotion that will make them want to buy. The difference is, by merely
talking to them you are leaving the decision up to them. When you motivate your
visitors by using feelings, you've actually done them a favor. You've helped
them solve a need. Now they are just not your customer, they are your friend.
As for my daughter, I obviously didn't motivate her enough
with my words. But cause and effect is a wonderful motivator as well!
According to a fascinating release
from search marketer Dan Thies, Google has been aware over a year now
(that he knows of) of a method to destroy a website's ranking. The
method is called proxy hacking.
What is a Web Proxy?
First,
it is important to understand that in their simplest form proxies are
servers that act as a relay for Internet requests. Web proxies are
often used to allow people to surf the net anonymously by forwarding
their requests for content and then delivering the content to the
users. This is similar to sending mail to a person through the post
office except that in this case there is no return address or any
identifying information. For a more detailed explanation here is Wikipedia's definition.
Here is essentially how this Google hack works:
- All is well; your website is www.xyzname.com and it is currently listed in the top 10 in Google for 'xyz'.
- A
hacker comes along and decides that your listing for 'xyz' needs to be
removed (perhaps for competitive reasons or out of spite). So the
hacker gets Google to spider your website through a proxy. The address
that Google would be given to index might look like this:
www.proxysrus.au/proxy/www.xyzname.com/
- When
Google indexes this new URL it looks legitimate and Google's filters
will soon recognize that the content being indexed is exactly the same
as www.xyzname.com. As a result, in the cases that have arisen so far
www.xyzname.com loses its ranking and the freshly indexed proxy URL has
effectively eradicated the competition.
So how is this hack technically accomplished?
Well
I am with Dan Thies on this one, I have no interest at all in sharing
the specifics because the last thing I want to do is enable more evil
in the world. In addition, since I have never seen such a thing done I
can only postulate how it would be accomplished. That said, I think it
is reasonable to share the problems that would need to be surmounted to
make such a thing work:
- When the proxy URL is requested the
server would have to provide the search engines with zero suspicion
that a proxy was delivering the information. This includes URL syntax,
URL length, server header information and latency.
- The proxy URL would have to appear authoritative.
- The proxy would need to be able to thwart the proxy hacking prevention measures that Dan has laid out within his informative article.
At this time it appears the only proxies that are having some success
are the ones that strip all browsing information so that the 'hack
proof' sites cannot tell whether the traffic is legitimate or not. If
they can't tell then they will not know to block Google from spidering
their site through the wrong URL. Again even that attack has been
rebuffed by Dan and his team by enabling noindex and nofollow tags on
his client's sites UNLESS a verified search engine is visiting.
The above info is really only a snippet of the whole story that Dan told. I highly recommend reading his article and considering some of the preventative measures he outlines if you think you are a victim of this technique.
"Wouldn't that just be a Time Warner-AOL redux?" Said breakingviews.com.
"NBC and Yahoo are both focused on building audiences and selling ads to them. AOL was a telecom service masquerading as a dot-com. Moreover, the arrival of Internet video heralds a sea change for the media landscape that Yahoo and NBC would be better off confronting as a team."
"It would also make industrial sense. The winners of Web-television convergence will be those firms that carry the best content and attract the most traffic. NBC, which today kicks off its upfront presentations to advertisers at Radio City Music Hall, certainly has the former. But its Web sites don't command giant audiences.
Yahoo, on the other hand, is the traffic king. Its sites received 1.3 trillion page views in the past year, according to Web information firm Alexa. But its attempts to create proprietary content, following the recruitment of some Hollywood players a few years ago, have flopped. The two firms' respective strengths and weaknesses are complementary. Imagine, for example, how CNBC content could be used by Yahoo Finance, the leading financial portal."
The article also suggests that Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, and Liberty Media could be possible suitors.
Steve Ballmer Microsoft CEO said the company will try to fill holes in its business or enter new markets mostly via small deals, but he also said larger deals are "conceivable,".
"We have not, by default, opted for acquisitions as part of our strategy ... but we don't count them out either," he said. "In general, though (we focus on) smaller deals, we are open to large acquisitions.
News reports last Friday that Microsoft has once again approached Yahoo for a potential merger. Ballmer declined to comment whether he was interested in acquisitions in the $40 billion to $50 billion.
"I don't think you should expect that most of our growth should come from buying large companies and taking costs out," Ballmer said, adding that such cost-reduction strategies are useful in slow-growing, more mature industries, but not software.
Google has launched "Lat Long Blog", a blog focusing on Google Earth, Maps, Local and APIs.
"Things are changing so fast we thought a blog focused on this topic would be the best way to communicate with you, both about our products and about the overall development of geo on the web." John Hanke, Director of Google Earth & Maps said.
Yahoo! have decided to close down its Auction sites in Yahoo! US and Canada.
Auction sites in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan will not be impacted.
The US and Canada Auctions sites will close June 16, 2007 but the account management area will remain open until October 29, 2007.
Local.com today has launched Local Verified, a new advertising program that offers businesses preferred placement in Local.com search results, Search Engine Journal reported.
"Using Local Verified, businesses can secure top placement in Local.com’s local business search results in specific categories and regions. Unlike pay-per-click advertising, Local Verfied is launching with an annual subscription flat rate which is initially being offered at $249 per year."
Google added more integration with Google Calendar. You can download all events in your portfolio such as earnings calls, analyst meetings, and any other material event on your company and portfolio pages to your Google Calendar.
Here is a list of all other features they've added:
- Historical prices: View and download historical end-of-day prices for any U.S. or Canadian company
- Portfolios: You can now download the latest portfolio performance and transaction details from your portfolio
- News feeds: Stay on top of the news using your feed client such as
Google Reader, Bloglines, or as part of your iGoogle
You can read more about it at the Official Google Blog.
NBC Universal is taking sides with Viacom Inc. over a piracy lawsuit filed against Google Inc.'s YouTube site.
The case involves a separate party, Los Angeles News Service operator Robert Tur, who sued YouTube in July for allowing its users to appropriate his famous footage of trucker Reginald Denny being beaten during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
In a filing submitted late on Friday to the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California, NBC Universal and Viacom submitted a friend of the court brief opposing YouTube's bid to dismiss the copyright infringement suit brought by Tur.
"Many of NBCU's most valuable copyrighted works have been copied, performed, and disseminated without authorization by YouTube and other similarly operated Websites. NBCU has a strong interest in preserving the strength and viability of all of its legal rights and remedies in response to such conduct." Reuters
by Mike Moran
Social media is free, but what's the catch? Time. We only have so much time to spend putting our message out there, but we don't want to limit how many people can hear what we have to say. This problem comes up in many ways, but the simplest is the dichotomy between Facebook and Twitter. Many folks decide to spend the bulk of their social time on one or the other, with relatively few people using both. If Google Buzz catches fire, this fragmentation might only increase. What's a marketer to do?
Let's face it. There's no real difference between "friends" and "followers," nor between ""status updates" and "tweets." And why would you decide to spend all your precious social media time updating one venue and not the other, if your customers use both of them? But how can you double the amount of time you spend in social media updating both?
You don't have to. I decided that I prefer Twitter to Facebook so I have every tweet I send out mirrored as my Facebook status. And I do the same thing on LinkedIn. I haven't taken the plunge on Google Buzz yet, but I'll probably do the same thing there, also.
If someone wants to see what I am up to, they can use their favorite method to keep up and I only have to update once. I know people using FriendFeed to accomplish the same thing. In each of your social media lives, you can set up these mirrors to make sure that your customers can keep up no matter what network they are in, while you only need to update once.
Now, I find even though I update in only one place, that I still have trouble making time for more than a few tweets a day, but there isn't anything I can do to help with that.
Be sure and visit our small business news site.
by Sage Lewis
Search Engine Roundtable has reported on a new feature in Google Webmaster Tools. You can now update your Sidewiki profile in your tools section. Learn what Sidewiki is and how you can use it to your benefit.
Be sure and visit our small business news site.
by Sage Lewis
Marketing Pilgrim reports that B2B Marketers will see a 490% Increase in Social Media Spend by 2014. But there are other really interesting stats to be found in this report as well.
Be sure and visit our small business news site.
by Sage Lewis
Matt Cutts has recently put out a post calling for us all to turn in link spam. Learn what he and Google are up to. This has interesting implications for you to consider.
Be sure and visit our small business news site.
by Scott Buresh
Allow me to offer a pre-emptive caveat - I own a successful search engine marketing company. Like most businesses, we are constantly trying to expand our client base - primarily through using the same search engine and internet marketing methods that we deliver to our clients. A quick search on terms such as "search engine optimization company" or "internet marketing company" on Google will demonstrate that we practice what we preach. As I write this, on a "clean machine" (one with all browser settings reset and cookies removed), my search engine marketing company ranks number 1 on Google for both of these phrases and the plural forms of the phrases. Based upon your past search tendencies, your specific location, and whims of the Google Gods, your mileage may vary, but you should find us near the top of the SERPs for those and hundreds of other related terms.
The Value of Integrating Different Internet Marketing Methods
The point here is not to boast - these results are due to the collective efforts of my expert team, not solely my own expertise. The point is to back up my contention that we practice what we preach and that the vast majority of our leads come from the internet marketing methods we apply to our own site. However, there has been much debate over the years in the search engine marketing community about whether it is proper or even hypocritical for a search engine marketing company to use other forms of advertising unrelated to internet marketing. The naysayers generally have a common argument: a quality search engine marketing company "shouldn't need" to engage in any forms of offline marketing. Depending on the goals one has for their search engine marketing company, this may actually be true for some. A smaller boutique firm or an independent consultant may have all the leads they ever want from their internet marketing methods. They may even be turning business away while they make blog posts about how companies such as mine shouldn't need to look offline for additional business opportunities.
However, this again relates directly to goals. If a search engine marketing company has capacity even after they maximize their online leads, and their business plan calls for maximum growth, what is the issue with engaging in other forms of marketing? As long as other marketing channels provide an acceptable ROI, I do not buy the argument that you "shouldn't need it," no matter what your situation.
The metrics are obviously what are important. It has been our experience that our own internet marketing methods provide us with, by far, the highest ROI of any of our other marketing efforts. However, this does not mean that the ROI from our online marketing efforts constitutes the baseline for what is ACCEPTABLE in terms of a return. In fact, we have done the math, and we know that we can afford to pay much more per lead.
Or, to look at this another way, we often work with companies that are embarking upon online marketing for the first time. These companies almost always already have successful offline marketing campaigns in place (after all, they are successful businesses). They are obviously delighted when they discover that their cost per lead or cost per sale with internet marketing is much lower than their other marketing efforts - but does this mean that they decide to shut those other successful channels down? Of course not.
And do we, as a responsible search engine marketing company, advise them that they should shut down those channels and put all of their eggs in the online basket? Of course not. We just enjoy the fact that our internet marketing methods provide the best bang for their buck.
Nobody can deny that the advent of various internet marketing methods has been a game-changer. Some forms of traditional advertising may even be on their last legs. Trade show attendance is down. Magazines and newspapers are in decline. I can't remember the last time a door-to-door salesperson came up to my house* (except those selling a particular religion - but that's a different story).
However, some channels, in our experience, still can provide exceptional returns. Direct mail, done properly, still works for us. Channel partnerships with offline marketing businesses can be profitable. Offline PR, when done properly, provides our search engine marketing company with exceptional exposure and returns. As long as we are achieving acceptable margins on these endeavors, we will continue to use them. And I will continue to stand incredulous when I hear from those who tell me that we shouldn't.
*Unless you count Girl Scouts peddling cookies.
Be sure and visit our small business news site.
There are several instances when you administer WordPress blogs where you will need to perform a 3 1 redirect. It is one of the most important corrective actions you can take when moving content. No other methods are as friendly to search engines but it must be done correctly. This article will explain how....
Download a Free Trial of Windows 7 Reduce Management Costs and Improve Productivity with Windows 7
If you re looking for a web analytics program but don t want to use Google Analytics you might want to give CrawlTrack a look. This web application goes beyond simple analytics to help secure your website. Let s take a closer look....
Download the Windows Azure Developer Kit Get Tools & SDK here. Experience THE platform for coding cloud based apps.
Google has earned the wrath of publishers before. You d be upset at Google too if it looked like the search giant was going to put you out of business -- or at least force you to seriously rethink your business model. Living Stories one of Google s more recent endeavors presents news in a whole new way...with repercussions likely to be felt at every big newspaper....
Microsoft SQL Server® Value Calculator Reduce Costs & Increase Value with Microsoft SQL Server® 2008. Download Today!
You might wonder when it comes to competitive keywords does Google prefer ranking big domains This question can be answered by taking a close detailed look at the relationship between keyword difficulty and the size of the domain. The result of this study is important because it will lead us to a deeper understanding of the behavior of Google s ranking algorithm when it comes to ranking competitive keywords in relation to both small and large domains ....
IT Degree Online Online IT Programs. Flexible Scheduling. Financial Aid Now Available.
The popularity of social networking sites on the Internet offers not only opportunities for friends to meet again online or get in touch with your old classmates and office mates but a new opportunity in the field of search engine optimization strategy. This article illustrates several ways an SEO practitioner can use social networking to increase rankings build trust and authority within a selected niche....
Explore Microsoft Windows Get valuable resources, advice, videos, and tips about Windows 7
I wasn't looking for Google... but Google was looking for me.
Google seemed very austere. No flashing banners, no blinking buttons, no prettiness at all in fact, but very COOL non-the-less. Less is more. Clothed in simple green and blue, I liked Google right away.
Google is a search engine. Wrong. Google is a reputation management tool and what you don't know could be costing you dearly.
The Bastardization of the Blog: Search Engine Optimization really isn't new. To get one's name out there, to get on the almighty first page of Google, and to direct traffic to one's Web site isn't new either; it's the lengths to which we all now go that's as sad as it is alarming.
In order to rank #1 on major search engines such a Google, Yahoo! and Bing, a link builder needs to know the back link profiles of their competitors and industry allies. Here are 16 tools to help you build backlinks more efficiently.
This article presents the proper way of using link reciprocation. It actually lays down the exact scenarios when exchanging links adds value to your link network and when you must avoid such partnerships.
|
|
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=95522c66-21ea-44ce-bd85-e97151a11f09)