Topic Category: Google
Google is the most popular search engine, and processed the majority of internet searches done in 2005. Below you'll find articles about Google search algorithm updates, new Google features, and Google news in general.
April 29, 2008
Should You Put A Blog On Your Site?
By Scott Goodyear
Two of the most common questions that people ask about online marketing is, 'should I put a blog on my site?' and 'how do I get my site indexed quickly?'. The answer, in many cases, is yes and perhaps with your blog. If you want to be indexed by Google and other engines quickly, the answer is often "get a blog". While I won't get into all of the pitfalls of having a blog, I did want to show you one small indexing benefit that is related to having a blog...
March 13, 2008
Does Google Think Your Site Was Hacked?
By Scott Goodyear
Has your site recently taken a nose dive in the rankings? Do you find that your site is no where to be found even if you use your domain name as the search term? Whether you have a Google WebMaster Tools account or not, you may now find a note from the WebMaster team waiting for you, after you've created an account and verify your site.
March 06, 2008
Google's Extra Search Box And Load Times.
By Scott Goodyear
Ranking on your company name, product name, etc. just became that much more important. Perform a search on various brand and company names like Wikipedia, Best Buy, New York Times, and others and you'll find an extra search box just below the first result. By adding keywords to this search box, it will further refine a search so that results come only from the listed site.
September 06, 2007
"Are Paid Links Evil?" from SES San Jose, what you missed...
By Scott Goodyear
I'm back from attending the Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference in San Jose and I'm putting together a few posts about my experience. In the meantime, I'll relate part of my experience from the "Are Paid Links Evil?" session. It was a lively session that was more food for thought than actionable tips...
July 24, 2007
Google, Underscored URLs Are OK. Also, Thoughts On Hyphenated Domain Names.
By Scott Goodyear
CNet's News Blog reports that Google will soon be able to read underscores that separate keywords in a URL. Thus in a URL like somesite.com/sonoma_wine_country.asp, Google will now see these three keywords sonoma, wine, and country as three distinct words rather than one long run on word with underscores in it. This great news for many blog users and further assists web masters when planning to add new content to their sites and deciding on what page names to create.
July 19, 2007
Google announces that it collects personally identifiable information, and you should too!
By Curtis Friedl
Google has announced that it will continue to collect personally identifiable information about its sites user, and maintain the collected information in a personally identifiable fashion for 18 months down from its previous 24 months. On the one hand each of us in the SEO environment, and the average internet user understands the basics of what is being said. It is important to support our law enforcement groups, and fight the spammers, and other threats that we find in the online portion of our world.
May 31, 2007
Double Click has been eaten by Google
By Curtis Friedl
Now there is a catchy title worthy of a true marketing giant. Ok on to the real meat, no pun intended, ok maybe a little. Google recently announced that it has purchased Double Click for 3.1 Billion!! While many have indicated that Double Click was worth only a fraction of that price Google thought other wise, in their press release they cited several keys to the purchase.
May 17, 2007
Apple.com telling Google "we don't want to rank"?
By Scott Goodyear
As I mentioned a while back, Google states that they are getting more aggressive in how they treat links. High rankings based entirely on links (i.e. the term does not appear on the page) are often called "Googlebombs". For several years Apple.com has enjoyed a first page ranking for the terms MP3 Player, MP3 Players, and often top 10-20 rankings for related terms like MP3 device, digital music player, and others. Today they no longer rank in the top 100 for keywords that they should dominate like MP3 players and simply MP3. In the past, they were supported by benign Googlebombs.
February 23, 2007
Google Bombs Mostly Defused or Are They?
by Scott Goodyear
Google has announced that they have defused most Google bombs via an algorithmic update. For most sites, you have very little to worry about. In this post, I will: define what a Google bomb is, what sites may have to worry should Google become more aggressive about defusing these bombs, and should things remain as they are, some potential "SEO Karate" that bombed sites may wish to employ.
November 28, 2006
No Ranking In Stone, Understanding Google Data Centers
by Scott Goodyear
www.marketposition.com
Ever work to obtain top 10 rankings, achieve them, and then you are told by a client or manager that your hard work can not be found in their web search? Many long-time SEOs know that search results are variable and that no search engine ranking is cast in stone however not everyone knows how to explain this. In this article, I'll explore a few of the reasons why search results can differ and I will also point you to a few resources that you may wish to reference if facing this discussion.
November 17, 2006
Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! Adopt Standard Sitemap Protocol
by Richard Drawhorn
The three major search engines have agreed on a sitemap protocol to make it easier for search crawlers to index web site content. In this post, I'll take a detailed look at the accepted site map protocol and provide an example. This should be of interest to you if your web site does not yet have a sitemap, or if you wish to ensure your existing sitemap is in the correct format.
October 30, 2006
Google Custom Search Engine - 5 Custom Search Engine Examples
by Scott Goodyear
Google has recently released the Google Custom Search Engine. This new re-invention on "add Google to your site" is getting a lot of press on various web related blogs and even a few news outlets. Below you will find 5 cool ways in which you might choose to implement this tool for clients sites, your own sites, or even if you don't have a web site to use it on, how it can be a very great tool in your web based arsenal for sales, research, and world domination. (Don't want to use Google? These tips can also be used with a wide variety of existing alternatives like Eurekster's Swicki, the Yahoo's Search Builder program, Rollyo, and many others).
September 26, 2006
Google Reaches Out to Webmasters with New Tools
by Richard Drawhorn
About a month ago, Google introduced their Webmaster Central, a set of features designed to help webmasters learn how to ensure their content is indexed by Google. In this post I'll explore Google's Webmaster Central features, including the new Webmaster Tools (formerly Google Sitemaps).
July 20, 2006
Google Now Supports the NOODP Tag
By Curtis Friedl
As mentioned in a previous MarketPosition article, MSN announced their support for two new tags that can be entered into the header of your html documents. Using these tags will indicate to MSN that you prefer your own site's title and description information rather then the use of the Open Directory header information that it may currently be using.
June 10, 2006
The Google Supplemental Index
By Scott Goodyear
A couple of years ago, Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch had noted that in the competition for who had the largest index of web sites, Google had a new feature called the "supplemental index". This supplemental index contains many pages from sites that will never see the light of day during a typical search. These pages are found only when the search is so unusual or narrow that only pages from the supplemental index seem to be a match for the query. Since the "Big Daddy" update began in November 2005, many web masters are finding that while Google continues to crawl through their pages, and that updates to their pages do seem to be in Google's cache, still more and more of their pages are being relegated to the supplemental index.
April 19, 2006
Google Completes "Big Daddy" Algorithm Update
by Richard Drawhorn
In a January blog entry, we noted that Google was beginning testing on a new update known as "Big Daddy". These changes have now been completed and are live on Google.
February 15, 2006
Google Sitemaps Adds Additional Features
by Richard Drawhorn
Back in July, 2005, we published an article about Google's new Sitemaps feature. There have been a few significant improvements to Google Sitemaps since then, and in this update I'll review them.
January 27, 2006
Google 'Big Daddy' Search Test
By Scott Goodyear
Periodically Google tests new incarnations of their search algorithm. Googler Matt Cutts has encouraged conversation/review of a possible Google update called 'Big Daddy' at: "http://66.249.93.104".
December 13, 2005
Google's Jagger Update
By Scott Goodyear
Right now we are in the busiest shopping season of the year; most of us are watching our sites and rankings with a more critical eye than usual. Have you noticed any recent changes in your Google rankings? While you could say "yes" during many parts of the year (as Google is constantly updating/refining the algorithm they use to rate a web page's relevancy, i.e. rank), if you have noticed changes good or bad in the last few months, these changes may have been due to a recent group of updates which are collectively know within the search marketing community as the "Jagger" updates.
November 01, 2005
Special Access to SearchEngineNews.com Google Editorial
We're very pleased that WebPosition 4 is receiving positive feedback. Recently Stephen Mahaney, editor of SearchEngineNews.com and President of Planet Ocean Communications, wrote an editorial opinion called "Shouldn't Google Get Real?" In it, he weighs the benefits and fears about WebPosition against the realities of Google's terms of service. It's a good article and one we feel that users, and would-be users, of WebPosition should read. So, this month we've arranged special access into what Stephen is telling his paid subscribers. For an insider look within the 'subscription only' pages of Planet Ocean's SearchEngineNews.com. Go to:
http://www.searchenginenews.com/articles/special/googlegetreal.html
user name: special
password: access
Enjoy!
July 29, 2005
Google Sitemaps Beta Released
By Richard Drawhorn
This month Google released the beta version of its new Google Sitemaps service. The point of this service is to help Google index your content more effectively.
May 15, 2005
Google Reveals Ranking Components in Patent Application!
...by sketching their ideal search engine, Google dropped a truckload of clues about how their engine actually ranks sites!
May 15, 2005
Google Limits Link Popularity Searches?
Some Google searchers have been noticing a new limitation when checking link popularity using the "link:" command. If you perform too many of these searches within a certain period of time, a page is returned claiming that your computer has spyware installed on it and requires a code to be entered on the page before the search results will be returned.
May 15, 2005
Google Updates Toolbar PageRank for Many Pages
Courtesy of SearchEngineNews.com | May 2005
Around the 22nd of April, Google implemented a long overdue large-scale update of the toolbar PageRank for many sites. You might want to check your PageRank to see if you were affected. Google's backlinks feature (the number of incoming links to your site Google shows when you do a link:www.yoursite.com command) was also updated.
April 15, 2005
Google Local Goes Mobile
Google announced the launch of Google Mobile Local on Monday. This is significant because now users with smart phones and pda's will have the ability to search for a local business and get directions and a map. If you have a mobile device, the days of using a map to find a local address could be a thing of the past.
If you have a physical business location, be sure to register with Google Local so your customers can find you through Google's local search from thier desktop or mobile device.
March 15, 2005
Major Index Update for Google, Some Relief for Sandboxed Sites
Courtesy of SearchEngineNews.com | March 2005
Google was on a tear this month, undergoing a significant rewrite of its search engine listings in what may have been the longest rolling update we've seen ever! One particularly interesting development relates to the so-called Google Sandbox effect.
March 15, 2005
Search Engine Strategies New York 2005 Update
We normally don't talk about SES shows in MarketPosition, but the most recent SES conference in New York provided us with some insights that we believe are significant enough that they should be passed along.
February 15, 2005
Google Ranking Algorithm Change
A widespread shuffle in relevancy scores started appearing in Google around the beginning of February, and the consensus is that major changes have occurred in Google’s ranking algorithm.
December 15, 2004
Enhancements Made to Google Print
Google has recently launched a new version of Google Print. One of several updates to the year old tool will enable publishers to manage which books are included, and to also share a percentage of ad revenue from Google. The new release of Print will contain the full text of books instead of just a promotional excerpt as in the previous version. Search results are also displayed in a different location from the pervious version.
November 15, 2004
Google Increases its Index
Google claims it has increased the size of its index to nearly double its previous size. According to the tag line on the Google search home page, they are now boasting 8,058,044,651 web pages indexed.
October 15, 2004
Google Introduces Desktop Search
The hot topic in the world of search this month is certainly the announcement on October 14th of Google's Desktop Search release.
August 15, 2004
Google's Long-awaited IPO Debuts
Google's dutch auction IPO began its first day of NASDAQ trading on August 19th, closing 17% higher.
May 15, 2004
Google Announces “Online Auction Style” IPO
By Brent Winters
Google recently announced that it expects to raise as much as $2.7 Billion in its initial public offering. The long awaited IPO announcement came with a twist. Google has chosen to shun the traditional Wall Street IPO approach of selling shares, but will instead sell them via a Dutch style online auction. Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston will underwrite the process.
May 15, 2004
CNN Search no longer powered by Google
Up until February, Yahoo counted Google as its longtime search partner.
March 15, 2004
USA Today: Business Nets Millions with Top Google Ranking
USA Today reported that Corrugated Metals in Chicago netted "millions and millions of dollars in sales" after investing just $200/month for a top ranking in Google. This intriguing quote appeared in the February 4th, 2004 article entitled: "For Google, many retailers eagerly jump through hoops"
March 15, 2004
Google Adds 1 Billion Pages
Google announced a new index boasting 1 billion additional Web pages on February 17th. This occurred just one day prior to Yahoo's announcement that they'd removed Google, their long-time search partner from the Yahoo search results. With the new pages, the size of Google's searchable database has increased by about one-third, or from 3.3 billion pages to 4.28 billion.
January 15, 2004
Dispelling the Myths - Will WebPosition Get My Site Banned from Google?
by Matt Paolini
In mid November of 2003, Google seriously revamped their ranking algorithm. As a result, many sites were dropped from their index, or fell dramatically in rank. This infuriated many Web site owners at the height of the holiday buying season. Since that time, many accusations have been thrown at Google as to the reasons why this happened. Some say it's a plot to encourage people to buy Adwords listings. Others have even theorized WebPosition is somehow to blame. Still others cite more traditional causes.
December 15, 2003
Google's "Florida" Update Spawns a Hurricane of Ranking Changes
Every month Google updates its index causing rankings to rise and fall. Those in the industry know the phenomenon as the "Google Dance." This month's "dance," beginning in mid-November has broken new records in stirring up controversy, anger, and debate. Many of the discussion forums are packed with literally thousands of message postings on this topic alone. Everyone seems to have a theory as to what has happened or not happened.
June 15, 2003
"Google Dance" Causes Widespread Confusion
If you've been involved in search engine marketing for long, you may have heard of the phenomenon known as the "Google Dance." No, this is not a hot new dance step you'll see at your local nightclub. Instead, it describes a scenario where Web pages tend to "dance" up and down in rankings on Google, generally over several days each month. The technical reasons for the so-called Google Dance vary. Usually, they coincide with Google's introduction of a new, fresher index at the end of the month. At this time they may also introduce a change in their ranking algorithm, an unintended bug in their system, or a combination of the two.
June 15, 2001
Exclusive Interview: Learn Inside Secrets of How Google Works!
As most of you know, Fredrick Marckini is the founder and CEO of iProspect.com, a leading search engine positioning services firm and a frequent contributor to the MarketPosition Newsletter. He was generous enough to provide us with articles based on several recent exclusive interviews he was granted with senior executives and engineers at major search engines and directories. These interviews were conducted in the course of writing his newest book, "Search Engine Positioning" the follow-on to "Achieving Top-10 Rankings In Internet Search Engines."
February 15, 2001
How to Avoid Being Banned by Google
Google has recently become more active in banning Web sites that it feels are spamming its index or are operating outside its rules. Most evidence suggests that they are not systematically banning Web sites in an automated fashion. However, reports indicate that their staff may be using additional methods to find and scrutinize sites more closely than they have previously.
July 15, 2000
Google Tip: Learn what the search engine really saw
One of the easiest ways to gain a top ten ranking is to study the source code of pages that already rank in the top ten for your chosen keyword. The idea is to give the search engine what it wants to see. If it likes to see six hundred words on the page, then create a page with six hundred words. The WebPosition Page Critic does an excellent job of analyzing top ranking pages and then providing the key statistics of the page that you'll want to emulate. It flags you when you fall outside of acceptable ranges so you can easily build a page that has the best chance of ranking in the top ten.
