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High Rankings Advisor: SEO Q&A - Issue No. 007April 17, 2002 ________________________________________________________ ~~~IN TODAY'S ADVISOR~~~ *Introductory Comments: ----> 10,000 and Counting! *Search Engine Marketing: ----> Google Results Disappearing ----> Submitting Limited-Time Sites ----> Figuring out Which Pages are in Inktomi ----> Getting Framed Sites Listed ----> Backward Links Disappearing *This Week's Sponsor: ----> AltaVista's Web Marketing Services *Other SEO News: ----> Search Engine Strategies London ----> Adding Domains to Lycos InSite Select ----> Google and Automated Queries ----> ActDumb *Advisor Wrap-Up: ----> Pretending to be a Professional ________________________________________________________ ~~~Introductory Comments~~~ Hey guys, guess what? The Advisor has passed the 10,000-subscriber mark this week! Whoo-hoo! Thank you all for your continuing support. Keep those email questions and feedback pouring in! Today I have lots of great search engine optimization questions and answers for you, plus some interesting search engine news. So let's get right to the good stuff! - Jill ~~~Search Engine Marketing Issues~~~ +++Google Results Disappearing+++ John A. Robb [jrobb@lorrex.com] Hello Jill, I received my High Rankings newsletter today. Enjoyed it as usual. I experienced an odd situation today that I am wondering if you can shed some light on. I've revamped a site I maintain for alumni of a youth program I participated in many years ago :-) I have been tweaking here and there with the aim of improving rankings and relevancy. It seems to be working. But here is the odd thing - for one of my keyword combos I was delighted to see my placement as number one on Google, I just love Google. Then when I did the SAME search a few minutes later my results were gone! I was back to the old ranking way down 20 or below. It continues to get odd in that when I perform the SAME keyword search in Yahoo! I get the desired result of being placed at number one! Do you have any idea why Yahoo!'s Google powered search gives a different result from the main Google site, and why the results would be as you expect and then disappear! Any light you can shed would be appreciated. Thanks Jill. Cheers, John +++Jill's Response+++ Hey John, Yep, I've got some light to shed! At the time you were doing your searches (last week), Google was right in the middle of what some SEOs have named the "Google Dance." [Sorry, I'm not sure who coined this term - if you know who it was, I'd be interested in hearing from you!] The dance is the time of month when Google is updating its entire index. When it's dancing it's vacillating between its various databases. This is why sometimes you'll see your new optimized site, and other times your old site info. The good news is that the high rankings you're seeing are most likely an omen of what is to come once the index settles down! Your position may not be exactly as you saw it during the "dance," but it will probably be somewhere in the vicinity. During this time of the month, you simply have to wait it out and not worry about it too much. Just be happy in the knowledge that eventually, the fruits of your labor will pay off! As to Yahoo!'s Google results (Yahoo! Web Pages), it seems to take them a bit longer to show Google's latest database. This too will eventually get sorted out when the dance is over. In fact, this week things have settled down a lot, and most likely the results you're now seeing are the ones that should stick until the next major update. It's important to note that Google results can fluctuate at any time during the month, not just during the dance period; however, these changes aren't usually as sweeping as the dance changes. There will probably come a time when Google's results are constantly in a dance state, since they have said they hope to reindex many sites more frequently. +++Submitting Limited-Time Sites+++ Anna Parikh [AnnaP@EPILEPSYNSE.CO.UK] Hi Jill - My question is about submitting sites that will only be live for a limited time. We are launching a site for a campaign that we are doing, and we are planning to have the site live for a few weeks before and after the campaign, so a total of about 6 weeks. I am planning to submit the site by paid-inclusion, as I obviously can't wait for it to be included for free. But what do I do when the site closes? - I don't want to have all the search engines still linking to a site that doesn't exist. How do I get the site removed quickly from the search engines? Anna Parikh +++Jill's Response+++ Anna, Sounds like you should simply do pay-per-click (PPC) ads through Overture and Google AdWords Select. You don't need to bother with SEO for short-term marketing, as it's really a long-term proposition. You need some quick ads and that's what you'll get with PPC. Plus, when your campaign is over, you simply stop. If you do choose to do some SEO and use the paid-inclusion programs, you could substitute different URLs to the programs when you're done with the current site (assuming you have something new in the works!). This way, the old URLs would be dropped and you could begin promoting something else! _________________________________________ GET INTO THE ALTAVISTA INDEX QUICKLY AND EASILY _________________________________________ AltaVista proudly announces the best way to manage your site! AV's Web Marketing Services programs ensure opportunities for fast URL inclusion, highly qualified traffic, guaranteed freshness & detailed reporting - all designed to set your Web site apart from the pack. Add enhancements to drive traffic to your most important pages today! See: <http://ilib.com/!sd0304/www.altavista.com/addurl> _________________________________________ +++Figuring out Which Pages are in Inktomi+++ Bernero, Andrew [andrew.bernero@experian.com] Hi Jill - how can you determine if you have multiple pages in Inktomi? I did a search for "rankwrite" and found only the home page within the first few pages that I checked. I found the same results from our company, and was considering joining their paid inclusion program, but it wouldn't seem worth it if AOL only includes 1 url per domain. Andy Bernero +++Jill's Response+++ Hi Andy, That Inktomi is tricky to check, isn't it? Last week when I was checking the number of pages Ink had listed for Rank Write, it appeared as if they had only two pages of RankWrite indexed! (It actually had hundreds.) Unfortunately, you can't simply type your URL into an Inktomi-based engine and count on accurate results. The good news is that my friend Alan Perkins has a nifty tool here <http://www.searchmechanics.com/look/look.htm> which can check this for you. Just click the HotBot box for Inktomi results. You can also check the number of your pages on other engines with this while you're at it. Hope this helps! +++Getting Framed Sites Listed+++ Jane Muha [janemuha@hotmail.com] Hi! I am new to web sites creations. I recently had a friend of mine help me write two web sites. She is a developer and I trusted her, however, she wrote my sites with frames. Am I doomed to not getting indexed in the search engines? To my dismay I found out later that just because people "develop" for a living doesn't mean they know anything about writing a search engine friendly web site. Any help would be appreciated. Jane +++Jill's Response+++ Hi Jane, You'd be surprised how many Web site developers know nothing about search engine optimization. If not created properly, framed sites are indeed difficult to obtain high rankings with. However, they can be indexed if you know a few simple tricks. Please read my article on this subject here: </framedsite.htm>. +++Backward Links Disappearing +++ Mark Goodman [mark@accomplish.co.uk] Hi Jill I have been reading your excellent articles with great interest. I have installed the Google toolbar and have been looking at backwards links. Our site is getting over 500 visitors per day, and I know that it is listed on a fair few site including some of my own. However the Google backward links toolbar says that it cannot find any links? Typing just [Our Company URL] into Google gives a lot of results. I am confused as to why this is and have noticed it on some other sites we run. Can you shed any light on what am I doing wrong? Any help gratefully received. Best regards, Mark Goodman Accomplish Web Design www.accomplish.co.uk +++Jill's Response+++ Hi Mark, Lately, it appears that those who own a number of sites on similar topics are running into problems like yours. Many people have created multiple domains for just one company in hopes of having an added presence on the Internet, and specifically within the search engines. Google has been cracking down on this type of thing, and has been experimenting with some automatic filters to sniff them out. Those sites that appear to be inflating their search engine presence this way are often ending up with problems such as the ones you're describing. Is it possible that this is what's happening in your case? ~~~Other SEO News~~~ +++Search Engine Strategies London Conference+++ The Search Engine Strategies conference will be held in London on April 23 & 24 at the Covent Garden Exhibition Centre / New Connaught Rooms. The conference Web site has more details and can be found here: <http://www.intmediaevents.com/sew/london02/>. I'll be speaking there with my former Rank Write partner, Heather Lloyd-Martin, about writing for the search engines. Hope to see you there! +++Adding Domains to Lycos InSite Select+++ If you want to submit multiple domain URLs to the Lycos InSite Select program, but haven't figured out how, I've got the inside scoop for you! There are two ways you can add additional domain URLs. When you first sign up, you can choose "Advanced Submission" and simply add the multiple URLs you want listed. However, if you want to add a specific URL to an existing InSite account, here are the instructions, as sent to me from the Lycos Customer Service Department: -------- 1) Log into your InSite Account. 2) Click on the link labeled "View Site Details." 3) Click on "Edit existing page URLs" and type in the new URL(s). 4) Submit the form, and the URL will be associated with your account. 5) Go to the "Change number of spidered pages" to correct the number of URLs. Continue on through the process until you process the payment for the additional URLs. You will be charged $12 per page. Please note that by adding URLs to an existing InSite account, in actuality you are canceling your original subscription. Your InSite account is credited for the dollar amount of the unused portion of the original account. Then when you process payment after adding the new URLs, you are then actually charged for the new dollar amount. The credit that you have in your account is applied. You will not be charged twice for the $18 yearly fee or be charged twice for listing the original URL(s). --------- I plan on trying it later today or tomorrow. Hopefully all will go smoothly. +++Google and Automated Queries+++ Remember a few weeks ago <http://www.HighRankings.com/issue005.htm#seo6> when we discussed Google's not allowing automated queries such as those produced by WebPosition Gold's Reporter function? Here's an interesting article at C|Net on this topic: <http://news.com.com/2100-1023-883558.html>. +++ActDumb+++ Last week I gave you my negative opinion on LookSmart and their new change-the-rules-in-the-middle-of-the-game business model. As time passes, things are looking even worse than I had originally thought. If you've checked your LookSmart accounts, you may find that you'll use up your *free* clicks within a few days or weeks, and would have to pay thousands of dollars a month just to maintain the clicks you were previously getting. Thanks for the "upgrade," LookSmart. Rather than talking about them again (and because I really don't feel like setting my blood a-boil), I'll just direct you to this anonymous satirical letter from "ActDumb": <http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/t2819/s.html>. No, I didn't write it, but I wish I had; it's right on the mark! ~~~Advisor Wrap-Up~~~ What a great response to my review of Andrew Goodman's Google AdWords Select special report last week! (See <http://www.HighRankings.com/issue006.htm#seonews2> if you missed it.) If you purchased the report and are testing out Andrew's tips, please let me know how it works for you. Like I said last week, it was definitely helpful to me, so I'm curious to find out if you were able to get similar great results. I know that Andrew has had a lot of good feedback on it himself. He's also working on updates to the report as he learns more himself. The link to purchase it is here: <http://hop.clickbank.net/?thewebwhiz/pagezero>, and again, that IS an affiliate link, just so you know! I'm afraid that unless you'll be in London next week, you're gonna have to live without me until May 1st. I have no idea whether I'll have any Internet connectivity while I'm there, so I don't plan on sending out the Advisor next week. (Yeah, yeah...I know, even if I did have connectivity I wouldn't be doing the newsletter because I'll probably be too hung over...but can't I at least pretend to be professional once in awhile?) Have a good one; I'll catch you in May! Jill    |
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