Entries from Search Engine Roundtable tagged with 'SEO'

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: July 4, 2008

I thought I post this week's video recap on July 4th, because it is a special day. Happy July 4th Americans! In this week's video I show off the various July 4th logos from Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, and other...

Search Engine Optimization Plagiarism Runs Rampant on Blogs

Jill Whalen (whose birthday is today -- wish her a happy one!) wrote a very logical article at High Rankings about the problem of SEO plagiarism. She explains that numerous not-so-established SEO types are regurgitating a lot of articles online...

How Can You Determine the Competency of an SEO?

The Google Webmaster Central blog announced that they recently rewrote an article about whether Google recommends SEOs. To summarize, the article says that there are benefits, but there are also things you should look out for in an SEO and...

Google & Yahoo Begins to Index Some Flash Files (SWF Files)

The news that Adobe announced that Google and Yahoo are indexing SWF Flash files has overtaken the front page of Techmeme this morning. It is also the dominate discussion in all the major search forums. In any event, Google and...

Is there a Minimum Number of Pages Required for Decent Organic Rankings?

While SEO becomes more and more important, people try to find angles that they can exploit or take advantage of so that they can achieve good rankings. In one specific instance, High Rankings forum post asks if there's a minimum...

Search Engine Optimizers Should Back Up Their Statements!

At SEO Refugee, Skitzzo talks about how the SEO blogosphere is starting to shift drastically and people are giving their opinions as fact. Instead of using jargon like "in my experience" or "as far as I can tell," they think...

Moving to a U.S Hosted Server: Will it Impact Country Specific SEO?

A WebmasterWorld thread asks how much of an impact will a site see if it is moved from a Dubai host to a USA based host? The answer is not really all that known. This webmaster's main concern is that...

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: June 29, 2008

You love basketball? I do. This video recap, I play some basketball and you can score some great schwag by watching me play. Learn how by watching. So what did I chat about? Google proves to everyone out there that...

The Evolution and Power of White Hat SEO

In response to Andrew Goodman's summary of SES Toronto, The Lisa wrote a really great and informative post about how white hat SEO has evolved and "advanced SEO" is really traditional SEO. She explains that traditional SEO still works, and...

Serving Different Content Based on Search Query: Is This Allowed?

A High Rankings Forum member has an interesting question about a website he maintains. In the particular example, he is selling a niche item within a broader category. I'll use an example for illustrative purposes: he's basically selling "children's books."...

Google Prefers Alt Attribute in Images

If you had to pick between using an Alt attribute in your images versus a Title attribute in your images, I would go with an Alt attribute. The alt attribute is basically "alternate text" for your image, it is used...

Matt Cutts Talks to USA Today About Google Optimization Techniques

Yesterday, USA Today published an interview with Google's Matt Cutts about how webmasters can optimize their sites for Google. In the article, Matt provides five tips on improving visibility. They are: Figure out what people are searching for and put...

Is Negative SEO Still Possible?

Last year, we looked at the impacts, if any, of negative SEO on websites, a discussion which arose from a Forbes article on the saboteurs of search. One year later, we're still discussing the consequences and seeing if negative SEO...

Google Says, Long URLs May Hurt You

We have talked about URL length issues and SEO and if long URLs are spammy in the past. But now we have a Google Groups thread with a Googler, JounMu, actually commented on a specific URL as being a bit...

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: June 22, 2008

In this week's video recap, I announced the special Father's Day winner of the schwag, plus told you how to win this week (it's easy). I showed off the Father's Day logos from Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, Dogpile and others. I...

Can Quality Sites Be Google Bowled & Hurt in Google's Search Results?

A WebmasterWorld thread asks if there is a way to prevent Google Bowling. Google Bowling is known as a method of using links to hurt your competitors. While Google still denies it, most SEOs believe this is possible can this...

Google Does Not Give Preference to .COM's over .INFO's or Other TLDs

A DigitalPoint Forums thread asks if Google "hates" .info or .tv domains? The answer is simply no. This question was brought up at least three times last night in the Google Webmaster Live Chat event, which I documented and not...

Should You Stop Optimizing for Certain Keywords?

A Cre8asite Forums member contends that optimizing for certain keywords isn't desirable any longer. The reason given is that people aren't ever searching for those keywords (even though it looks like a logical search term). He adds that there's no...

You Should Not See A Downgrade in Rankings From Link Building

A WebmasterWorld thread asks if it is normal to see a downgrade in rankings soon after conducting a link building campaign. In other words, a webmaster builds links to a site that ranks average. The next few days, the webmaster...

Should You Optimize Your Phone Numbers for Search Engines?

A Sphinn discussion is currently underway about Andrew Shotland's SEO for Phone Numbers blog post. In his blog post, he argues that you should optimize for phone numbers for three reasons: (1) Displaying a phone number in your title tag...

Google Defends Bad Link Theory & Repeats That Competitors Can't Hurt You

There is no doubt that Most SEOs Believe Competitors Can Hurt Your Google Rankings specifically with using link building tactics. But when the topic was raised recently at a Google Groups thread, Googler, JohnMu, pretty much denied it. Let me...

SEO is Less About One/Two Word Keywords & More About Longer Tail Keywords

There is an outstanding subscriber (paid access required) WebmasterWorld thread that discusses the topic of short term versus long term phrases. These are the types of threads that make me feel, hey - that $150 subscription pays for itself. Without...

Google Sitemaps: Are They Really Important for SEO?

There are many SEOs spilt on the topic of the value in submitting a Sitemap to Google. In my opinion, it is clear that if a site has very poor navigation and on-page SEO, submitting a Sitemap might be your...

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: June 15, 2008 :: Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all pops out there! Only dad's can win today's schwag, to find out how to win, listen to the video and comment at SERoundtable.com with the correct answer. In this week's recap, I discussed the pros...

What Is Google's Trust Algorithm in Search?

Chris Boggs featured a WebmasterWorld thread when I was away. Chris focused on sharing some of the theories behind Google's trust factors. I wanted to possibly highlight this thread one more time and ask for you to chime in. We...

Is Onsite SEO Dying Down?

Marketing Pilgrim recently published a prophecy that onsite SEO is going to die. The writer says that "[a]s the search engines acquire more revenue, their pool of professionals is also drained with best brains" and that new technologies like OCR...

How Does Google Handle The HTML <base> Tag?

There is an interesting Google Groups thread discussing how Google handles the <base> HTML tag. The base tag specifies a base URL for all the links in a page. But how does Googlebot or Google handle indexing this tag? Google...

Many Webmasters Notice Major Traffic Loss From Google

A weekend WebmasterWorld thread is reporting dozens and dozens of webmasters noticing a major traffic drop due to Google. Some of these webmasters reported traffic declines in the 90% range. Many of the issues seem to be that Google has...

Tools to Analyze Backlink Anchor Text

Search Engine Journal writer Ann Smarty talks about how exploration of competitors' backlinks can give you an idea of your competition's link building strategy and help you with keyword research among other things. She provides some tools for how to...

A Googler's Sage Advice on Absolute vs. Relative URLs

A common question in the SEO space is should I use absolute or relative URLs. Absolute URLs are when you link a URL by using the domain.com portion as well, so linking to my authors page would be a link...

How to Write Search Engine Friendly Code

Jonathan Hochman wrote a very good checklist on Search Engine Land about 12 ways to write search engine friendly code. Some of the tips he outlines are: Don't repeat yourself -- use SSIs and other code snippets instead of being...

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: June 8, 2008

SMX Advanced was the topic of this week, but included in that was discussion on many other search topics. I chatted about using the Google News first click free program for web search, Google's new SEO documentation and the cloaking...

SEO Debate Over 1st Anchor Text is What Matters to Google

A couple months ago we reported on an SEOMoz post that was debated at Sphinn on the topic of which anchor text counts? Is it only the first anchor text on the page linking to a specific URL or is...

Can Google's First Click Free Program be Used for Web Search?

Last night, I had a nice chat with Googler, JohnMu. I joked around with John, asking if he has messed up yet, in terms of Google communication with webmasters. He said not really - which I agree with. But he...

Google Ignites Cloaking & IP Delivery Debate

The Google Webmaster Central Blog posted a blog post named How Google defines IP delivery, geolocation, and cloaking. They cover topics such as making sure to treat Googlebot as a California resident with the Geolocation section, they go over IP...

Yahoo Still Trimming Off Trailing Slash, Causing Webmaster Headaches

A new WebmasterWorld thread has complaints that Yahoo removes the trailing slash from the URLs, possibly causing 404 errors on the receiving site. This is not new, I complained about this issue back in 2004 and it is still an...

Damage Your Competitors Google Image Rankings With Links

So we see that most SEOs believe a competitor can hurt your search rankings, we also wrote an article on How To Penalize Your Competitor's Site in Google but now we have a new WebmasterWorld thread on image search. The...

Google Changes The Definition of a Doorway Page

Beu posted a Search Engine Watch Forums thread after noticing that Google has changed the definition they used for what a doorway page is. On the Google Page, it now reads: Doorway pages are typically large sets of poor-quality pages...

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: June 1, 2008

Last week was Memorial Day and I showed off the logos, minus Googles'. I discussed a Yahoo update, which went unnoticed. I explained how Google dropped .info TLDs and Blogspot blogs. I begged you to take my nofollow poll. Did...

Search Engine Optimization Should Not Be Forgotten when Building Links

Search Engine Journal's Loren Baker reminds us that if we're building links, the basic rules of SEO should not be overlooked or forgotten. Even if you have hundreds of thousands of links, SEO basics are critical to achieve better rankings....

Embedding Related YouTube Videos May Increase Your Ranking in Google?

Talk about theories! A WebmasterWorld thread has a theory that was posted by senior member, travelin cat, who noticed that his top ranking pages tend to have related YouTube video's embedded on them. The YouTube videos are not his videos,...

Is Microsoft & Siemens Teaming Up in Europe Against Google?

I have been tracking a very sensitive thread at High Rankings Forum for the past several days. The original thread creator is fairly cryptic in his details, due to privacy reasons, but I think I have a grasp of what...

Does Google Support The Abbreviations and Acronyms Tags?

Did you know that there are specific HTML markup tags for abbreviations and acronyms? Did you know that people sometimes use them? A Google Groups thread asks if Google actually uses these tags for indexing purposes? The example given in...

May 2008 Yahoo Search Subtle Update

Yahoo Search typically does a search update once a month. Yahoo has announced last night that they have pushed out a new update that may result in "ranking changes and page shuffling in the index." Did we, the Search Engine...

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: May 25, 2008

In this Memorial Day weekend recap, I discuss the recent Google changes, floating fours, case sensitivity, minus X penalties and the local universal search change. I mock Microsoft Live Search's Cashback program. I looked into Ask.com's search update and then...

Google Is On My Site! Will I Be Penalized Soon?

A WebmasterWorld thread has some discussion over one member spotting a Google IP address navigating through his site. The IP address originates from the Mountain View location and resolves to Google, so he is convinced a Googler is manually reviewing...

Google Offers Advice on Automatic Redirection Based on Geolocation & Language

A Google Groups thread has discussion around how this webmaster should handle redirecting its web visitor to a localized version of their site, based on the IP address information. Since I recently wrote a comprehensive article at Search Engine Land...

More Google Floating Four Theories

Remember the floating four story I wrote a week or so ago? Basically how a search result would be in the fourth position and then go so a lower position, then come back to four and then go back again...

Google Still Showing Different Results Base on Case Sensitivity

Back in February, I wrote a story named Upper Case & Lower Case Searches May Return Different Google Search Results. Since then, the discussion on that topic has died off. But in the past month or so, more and more...

Google Search Index Update: May '08 Update

It looks that Google might be conducting some sort of major update. Yes, I know - Google is constantly updating, constantly adding content and "improving" the algorithm. But some changes make a bigger impression in the forums then others. I...

Yahoo Files Patent for Search Term Substitution

Bill Slawski has written up another interesting piece about how search engines substitute other search terms for yours depending on past user behavior. Of course, this is related to a patent he discovered that was filed by Yahoo. Bill explains...

A Deeper Look at the Minus X Google Penalties

Branko at SEO Scientist wrote Anatomy of a Google Filter/Penalty (or how not to do nofollow PR sculpting). In that post, he goes through a specific client who saw signs of the minus X penalty (i.e. -6, -30, -60, -950...

Should You Place Your Site Wide Network Links in an iFrame?

A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion about how one should handle inter-linking a network of sites. You said interlinking a network of sites! In some cases, it make sense to link a property of sites to each other. For example, IAC,...

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: May 18, 2008

In the past week, we covered Mother's Day logos, Yahoo redirecting users to localized versions of their home page and Yahoo showing the location of an ad to searchers. Google is testing a green user interface on the search results...