There is an interesting thread going on at Outfront on the subject of Page Rank. Specifically, what goes into calculating not only rank, but how rank should be looked at as only part of the equation in determining how a site is treated by Google and some of the other engines. Here is an excerpt from one post in the thread:
... you have on-page optimization factors and off-page optimization factors. Both are important, but IMO - off page/off site factors are more important.
Here are a few on page factors: meta keywords, meta description, keywords in title, domain name, position terms in title, page size, (h1, h2, h3, h4), words at the beginning of sentence or paragraph, valid HTML, text to html ratio, anchor text, alt text, broken links, internal linking, proximity of keywords to other factors, keyword density in body, bold/italic/other keywords, file name, file size, text around links, age of site, age of links, case of keywords, misspelling, bad grammar, plurals and many many more.
Off page: Page rank, anchor text (and all that goes with it), theme of site linking to you, number of back links, server response time, SEO programs, speed that links are required... basically links, links, links.
As you can see, the complexity of what goes into determining how your sites fares goes way beyond one or two factors.
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
KatieNoPrivacy.com
Suppose you purchased a domain name in 1996 for your personal use called Katie.com. Suppose further that someone wrote a book based on the life of a girl name Katie who was molested:
The book, "Katie.com," chronicled the plight of Katherine Tarbox, a 13-year-old from Connecticut who struck up an online relationship with a man she believed was 23. He turned out to be a 40-year-old registered sex offender, and when she met him in a Houston hotel a couple of months later while in town for a swim meet, he molested her.
And, suppose further that the author decided to name the book Katie.com. The book, by the way, has been quite a success --but not for Katie Jones who owns the real katie.com Website.
With the book's release to critical and commercial success, Jones -- the real katie.com -- began receiving millions of e-mails a week to her katie@katie.com inbox.
You can read the full story on CNN.com, but you would think that either the author or publisher would have checked out whether katie.com was an actual site before using it for a book name.
The book, "Katie.com," chronicled the plight of Katherine Tarbox, a 13-year-old from Connecticut who struck up an online relationship with a man she believed was 23. He turned out to be a 40-year-old registered sex offender, and when she met him in a Houston hotel a couple of months later while in town for a swim meet, he molested her.
And, suppose further that the author decided to name the book Katie.com. The book, by the way, has been quite a success --but not for Katie Jones who owns the real katie.com Website.
With the book's release to critical and commercial success, Jones -- the real katie.com -- began receiving millions of e-mails a week to her katie@katie.com inbox.
You can read the full story on CNN.com, but you would think that either the author or publisher would have checked out whether katie.com was an actual site before using it for a book name.
Monday, August 02, 2004
How Google lets itself be manipulated
There is something seriously wrong with Google's approach to page rank. This is especially true when it comes to blogs.
Consider this search phrase: "Blogging Tips."
The number 2 return (just before Blogger Forum) is a site called "Blogging Tips" located on BlogSpot. Take a look at the site before we continue.
Ready? Now, what have you noticed about the site? Right, it is a blog. Now, what else? It has a page rank of 6. Google must really consider this an important site since it is #2 on the search phrase return and the site itself is ranked number 6. Notice anything else?
How about this: THIS BLOG ONLY HAS ONE ENTRY.
And this: THE ONLY ENTRY WAS POSTED IN AUGUST 2003.
Consider further: THE SOLE ENTRY ON THE SITE IS ENTIRELY PLAGERIZED.
So, in summary, you can plagerize someone else's work, post it as a blog, and Google will reward you with a high page rank for having absolutely nothing of any value to anyone. By the way, I pointed this out about six months ago and Google has done nothing. As a matter of fact, the page rank is now higher than my first post about this site.
It really makes me wonder why anyone bothers trying to impress Google. I see way too many cases of really informative and helpful sites not getting the ranking while jokes like Blogging Tips slide by with Google lapping them up. So, all of you folks who agonize over Google rankings just remember this: all the hype about Google's ability to rank sites in an orderly and logical way is just that, hype. It breaks down way, way too often.
Consider this search phrase: "Blogging Tips."
The number 2 return (just before Blogger Forum) is a site called "Blogging Tips" located on BlogSpot. Take a look at the site before we continue.
Ready? Now, what have you noticed about the site? Right, it is a blog. Now, what else? It has a page rank of 6. Google must really consider this an important site since it is #2 on the search phrase return and the site itself is ranked number 6. Notice anything else?
How about this: THIS BLOG ONLY HAS ONE ENTRY.
And this: THE ONLY ENTRY WAS POSTED IN AUGUST 2003.
Consider further: THE SOLE ENTRY ON THE SITE IS ENTIRELY PLAGERIZED.
So, in summary, you can plagerize someone else's work, post it as a blog, and Google will reward you with a high page rank for having absolutely nothing of any value to anyone. By the way, I pointed this out about six months ago and Google has done nothing. As a matter of fact, the page rank is now higher than my first post about this site.
It really makes me wonder why anyone bothers trying to impress Google. I see way too many cases of really informative and helpful sites not getting the ranking while jokes like Blogging Tips slide by with Google lapping them up. So, all of you folks who agonize over Google rankings just remember this: all the hype about Google's ability to rank sites in an orderly and logical way is just that, hype. It breaks down way, way too often.
Monday, July 26, 2004
Where Google is going with Picasa and Hello
Picture this: you send your best friend a picture from your weekend trip to the beach. Along with the picture, you lament that you would rather have been on a date. You and your friend both get served a Google AdSense ad for a Web dating service.
People have been asking "Why is Google paying big bucks for Picasa and then giving away the software for free?" Put Picasa together with Hello which is a peer-to-peer messaging service. Hello comes with Picasa. Google controls both. Are you getting the picture, or do you need Picasa to enhance the image for you?
The big bucks are going to come from users clicking the ads that are going to be served up at some point with their image sharing and instant messaging. Who has a better handle on context-sensitive advertising than Google? Nobody; not by a long shot.
Some of this is hinted at on WebProNews which links to some interesting threads at Webmasterworld. If you like rank speculation, take a look. As one post in the thread said: "Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and lots and lots of others are all going to make lots and lots of money with this. Compete? Heck, they'll all be needed to meet demand."
People have been asking "Why is Google paying big bucks for Picasa and then giving away the software for free?" Put Picasa together with Hello which is a peer-to-peer messaging service. Hello comes with Picasa. Google controls both. Are you getting the picture, or do you need Picasa to enhance the image for you?
The big bucks are going to come from users clicking the ads that are going to be served up at some point with their image sharing and instant messaging. Who has a better handle on context-sensitive advertising than Google? Nobody; not by a long shot.
Some of this is hinted at on WebProNews which links to some interesting threads at Webmasterworld. If you like rank speculation, take a look. As one post in the thread said: "Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and lots and lots of others are all going to make lots and lots of money with this. Compete? Heck, they'll all be needed to meet demand."
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Blogging tips
You can't have too many tips when it comes to blogging. One good source is an article at NetGuideWeb which is pretty successful at compiling tips from various blog authors into one place. Here's one of my favorites:
"In a personal blog, there needs to be something that sets it apart from others in its class. It might be that it's particularly useful -shares inside-track knowledge, provides up-to-the-second analysis, hard-to-find links. Or it might have a point of view that's unusual, funny, insightful."
"In a personal blog, there needs to be something that sets it apart from others in its class. It might be that it's particularly useful -shares inside-track knowledge, provides up-to-the-second analysis, hard-to-find links. Or it might have a point of view that's unusual, funny, insightful."
Monday, July 19, 2004
Google buys Picasa
Keep in mind that Google is in a forced "quiet" period pending the public offering of Google stock. That is why you may not have heard too much about the recent purchase of Picasa by Google.
If you don't know anything about Picasa, just think management and manipulation of digital photographs.
Immediate speculation raised the idea Google would go beyond radio and TV clips and enter the online-music business, selling downloads of music files. "You can't ignore it. There is tons of money to be made off of music," Danny Sullivan, editor of searchenginewatch.com, told the Post. --Seattle Times
I don't know about sales of digital music, but searching and AdSense ads going across the digital spectrum is something I can see Google getting more heavily into.
In the meanwhile, Picasa is a good product and is available in a free download. Go HERE and try it out for yourself.
If you don't know anything about Picasa, just think management and manipulation of digital photographs.
Immediate speculation raised the idea Google would go beyond radio and TV clips and enter the online-music business, selling downloads of music files. "You can't ignore it. There is tons of money to be made off of music," Danny Sullivan, editor of searchenginewatch.com, told the Post. --Seattle Times
I don't know about sales of digital music, but searching and AdSense ads going across the digital spectrum is something I can see Google getting more heavily into.
In the meanwhile, Picasa is a good product and is available in a free download. Go HERE and try it out for yourself.
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Website do's and dont's
There is a very interesting thread at Thomas Brunt's Outfront on site design.
Frontpage? Javascript? Frames? Some good information on what to include and what to avoid on your site.
Frontpage? Javascript? Frames? Some good information on what to include and what to avoid on your site.
Friday, July 09, 2004
Blogger burnout
It happens to all of us. The old feeling that writing that blog has become a chore rather than fun. One or two days go by without blogging and you feel a sense of obligation to get something posted.
I coined a word a couple of years ago for this (I think I was the first, anyway): the "Blahgs".
One long time blogger (Counterspin Central) quit entirely on June 10.
Markos Juniga writes the Daily Kos and says "I never can post something and say I'm done for the day because I'm always thinking about the next post. I'm always feeling like I'm letting people down if I don't have any new stuff up on the site."
"I definitely get burnt out," he said. Sometimes "I'll go through the week and I'll go, 'Wow, that was a really bad week.' ... I haven't found a way to control it, to be honest. Either I'm on or I'm not on. I can fake it and maybe people don't notice it, but I know it when I'm not at my best." ---from Wired News
I coined a word a couple of years ago for this (I think I was the first, anyway): the "Blahgs".
One long time blogger (Counterspin Central) quit entirely on June 10.
Markos Juniga writes the Daily Kos and says "I never can post something and say I'm done for the day because I'm always thinking about the next post. I'm always feeling like I'm letting people down if I don't have any new stuff up on the site."
"I definitely get burnt out," he said. Sometimes "I'll go through the week and I'll go, 'Wow, that was a really bad week.' ... I haven't found a way to control it, to be honest. Either I'm on or I'm not on. I can fake it and maybe people don't notice it, but I know it when I'm not at my best." ---from Wired News
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
Top ten site mistakes
Originally put together in 1996 and updated in 1999, the "Top Ten Mistakes" is still good advice for bloggers and Webmasters today.
Well worth the read. Here's one snippit that some bloggers should pay heed to:
"It is as hard as ever to read scrolling text, but aggressive use of distracting animation now causes even more problems than in 1996: users have started equating such designs with advertising which they routinely ignore."
Well worth the read. Here's one snippit that some bloggers should pay heed to:
"It is as hard as ever to read scrolling text, but aggressive use of distracting animation now causes even more problems than in 1996: users have started equating such designs with advertising which they routinely ignore."
Tuesday, July 06, 2004
Point of Blogs is missed
Why is it that the mainstream media continues to miss the point of blogging entirely? For some reason the "journalists" are under the impression that blogging is reporting and, as such, all blogs should consist of balanced reporting. Nothing could be further from the truth.
There are some very good points made in this regard on the Captain's Quarters:
"No one expects blogs to be balanced and unbiased, unlike expectations for reporters of national media outlets. Unfortunately, they usually don't meet expectations in this regard, either becoming cheerleaders for a candidate (Jodi Wilgoren from the New York Times) or distortion providers against a candidate (Walter Pincus and Dana Milbank from the Post). Michelle Malkin notes some fairness and accuracy issues from the Post's past that he conveniently omits from his critique."
True, blogs are strictly a person's point of view. A blogger blogs about whatever is interesting from the blogger's perspective. Balanced? Against what? Here is the point that journalists need to let sink in: blogging does not even pretend to be balanced. Only the hypocrites among the journalists pretend to be balanced. With us, there is no pretense.
There are some very good points made in this regard on the Captain's Quarters:
"No one expects blogs to be balanced and unbiased, unlike expectations for reporters of national media outlets. Unfortunately, they usually don't meet expectations in this regard, either becoming cheerleaders for a candidate (Jodi Wilgoren from the New York Times) or distortion providers against a candidate (Walter Pincus and Dana Milbank from the Post). Michelle Malkin notes some fairness and accuracy issues from the Post's past that he conveniently omits from his critique."
True, blogs are strictly a person's point of view. A blogger blogs about whatever is interesting from the blogger's perspective. Balanced? Against what? Here is the point that journalists need to let sink in: blogging does not even pretend to be balanced. Only the hypocrites among the journalists pretend to be balanced. With us, there is no pretense.
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