Webby introduces concept of Domain Popularity

Alan Webb, Editor and CEO, ABAKUS Internet Marketing www.abakus-internet-marketing.de/en/, also known as Webby on various forums, presents the following SEO theory. Also, the linkdomain tips are excellent. Thanks, Webby.

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Web CEO now includes MSN beta search in rankings reports

Recently, I suggested to Web CEO that they include the MSN beta search engine in their software. They agreed, and it is now one of the search engines you can choose when running ranking reports. There are many search engines to choose from, but I routinely only run reports on Google and Yahoo, and now MSN beta is there too. Each of my keywords shows the current ranking of the Big Three side by side. Excellent comparison tool. Of course, there are numerous other features in Web CEO, but the ranking reports are what I use most often. So, if you were looking for a tool similar to Digitalpoint’s keyword tracker (that remembers ranking results over time) for something other than just Google, Web CEO now has all the major (and minor) search engines, including the new MSN beta.

Gmail search found to be lacking

Yesterday, I remembered that I had never emailed someone back and went in search of the original email in my Gmail account, so that I could reply. I could not remember much about the email except that it had the word “monkey” in it. So, I typed the word “monkey” into the Search Mail form and was perplexed that it returned 0 results. After being frustrated for a few minutes, I finally typed in the word “monkeys”, and voila, it found the email immediately.

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MSN beta search ranking tool

The first of its kind that I am aware of – a ranking tool to check your SERPs position in MSN beta search. Check it out at www.devppl.com/msnbetarankings.php. I hope more will crop up soon so that we have a few to choose from. Thanks go out to whoever made this one.

The Great Google Hoodwink?

Was the announcement that Google doubled the number of sites indexed really true? And if true, is there more to it that Google doesn’t want the press and public to know? Is there a sandbox, and if so, why does it exist?

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Google updates backlinks

Although BL updates are not exactly exciting anymore, at least Google has honored its tradition of making changes on or near holidays. And speaking of holidays, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. May the turkeys be on your plates and not in your SERPs.

New MSN using Rosette Linguistics Platform

Found this press release that could prove to be of interest when analyzing the new MSN beta search results. I am unclear if it is only for multilingual processing or not, but it may lead to some interesting info regardless. The press release is at www.econtentmag.com/Articles/ArticleReader.aspx?ArticleID=7372 and you can get more information about the Rosette Linguistics Platform at www.basistech.com

Pre-update tremor

Time to go out on a limb and make a prediction. Google had a small update this weekend that was larger than its continuous updates, but smaller than what we could call a major update, such as the likes of Florida. My prediction is that this was a pre-update tremor, where Google is testing out an algo change on a small scale. If they like what they see, I expect to see a much larger update within the next few weeks.

Buying your way out of the sandbox

If Google is indeed sandboxing new sites for a period of 6 months or more, then what is that costing you while you wait? If your site truly would have ranked well during that time, but is being placed “on hold”, you could easily be losing out on a lot of money. One option to avoid the long wait is to purchase a related, already existing site. Is there a hobby site, or a long-forgotten site buried in the SERPs that is related to your topic? You may be able to purchase the site from the owner for very little money. Whatever you pay for it, it could very well be less than the cost of waiting around for a new domain to come out of the sandbox. Buy the existing site, do whatever you would have done to make a new site, and watch as your rankings rise much more quickly than a new domain would have. I cannot guarantee that this will circumvent the sandbox woes, but it seems like the best option right now.

More directories to submit to

Yet another nice list of directories can be found at www.socengine.com/seo/guide/seo-list-of-directories.php

Condensed version of Google SERPs

I mentioned recently that it would be a good idea to take a screen shot of the current Google SERPS, so that if any major changes occur, you could more easily make comparisons. Unfortunately, very few results will show up in a screen shot, so here is a better way to handle the problem. By conducting your search using http://www.google.com/ie?q=&num=100&hl=en, the results will consist only of the hyperlinked titles, without the descriptions. (And the results are numbered for your convenience). You should be able to get a screen shot of the top 20 results this way.

Easily generate robots.txt file with this tool

Nice little free tool that makes it easy to generate a robots.txt file, ensuring you do not accidentally make a blunder that would end up blocking the bots you did not intend to block. It also has a good tutorial on robots.txt. You can use it at www.mcanerin.com/search-engine/robots-txt.htm.

Some questions to ask yourself if you have poor rankings

Here is a quick 10-point checklist of things to consider if you are not ranking well in the SERPs. If any of these look like they may be a problem, do some research if necessary and solve the problem.

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