Marketing & SEO Discussion List - LED Digest

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From: James Miller

Subject: Google dropped

> I have seen the experience of being dropped from google

> by having too many mirror webpages. My question is when

> will it be considered a mirror page?

        - Thomas Yoon, LED 1979

I think we can get a bit paranoid on this one.

My wife and I both have personal sites, celiamiller.com and

jamesmiller.com.  These yo-yo up and down in Google all the time.

Interestingly Celia's has got a lot higher recently since she has

decided to do a Race For Life in aid of Cancer Research UK, which

makes me think that your rating may actually depend on other pages

to which you are linked.  When I put the link into raceforlife.org

into the page it went up.

The other point is that MSN Search sometimes puts her much higher

than Google.  At other times they are the other way round.

Heigh-ho!  What goes around comes around.

James Miller

Daisy Analysis:

www.daisy.co.uk

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From: Michael Martinez

Subject: Google dropped

When the textual content of two or more pages is essentially the

same, Google will attempt to choose at most only one of them for

inclusion in query search results.

People should be aware that Google has been rolling out substantive

changes in their indexing and query processing on an almost monthly

basis since December. Major changes of record occurred in December,

early February, mid-March, late April, and the end-of-May/beginning

of June.

Their changes have been substantial and far-reaching.  The sites

least affected by these changes tend to be dynamic (frequently

adding new content), large (thousands of pages of conent), and

well-established (more than four years old).  THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS

TO EVERY GENERALIZATION.

Many sites which have depended solely on link popularity have been

hit hard. Many sites which have depended solely on content have been

hit hard.

It appears that Google has implemented a radical new technology in

incremental stages, and there is no indication that they have

finished rolling out changes. They appear to be moving toward the

use of multiple index structures and concurrent multiple query

processors.

Based on what I have seen (in my traffic logs, and in numerous fora,

and in various search engine tracking services), there now appears

to be a statistically significant shift in user activity AWAY from

Google.  It's too soon to determine whether this is the beginning of

a decline in Google's popularity or if it's just a summer

adjustment.  Search patterns tend to change in the summer months.

But I believe that frustrated Webmasters are now being joined by

frustrated searchers who are tired of the instability and decline in

quality of search results that Google has demonstrated over the past

several months.  If they don't settle down soon, they will probably

lose their dominant position to Yahoo! by the end of the year.

According to the latest statistics (and we all know that statistics

have to be taken with a grain of salt), Yahoo! is almost running

neck-and-neck with Google right now.

Michael Martinez, author

Visualizing Middle-earth, Parma Endorion, and

Understanding Middle-earth http://www.michael-martinez.com/

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From: Jenny Halasz

Subject: Google dropped

A comment to all who've posted or read "Google dropped"

While it's tempting to blame search engines for a fall in traffic or

in rankings, you must remember that at the end of the day, they are

a business just like you are. You have no intrinsic right to the

listings that they provide. That being said, it can definitely be

frustrating and in some cases even ruin a business if the search

engine traffic that so many take for granted goes away.

It's sometimes difficult to see why the search engines have so many

"rules" that may seem arbitrary to you. However, there is a method

to the madness. Think like a search engine. Your goal is to put the

most relevant results in front of your users. To do that, your

spiders have to be able to index pages (without lots of redirects),

read copy and keywords (in visible text on your page), and make

judgements (based on your link popularity and value) as to how much

of an authority your site is on a particular subject.

If you take the time to learn the basic elements of each of these

three sections, you will have success, and then you won't have to

worry about how the Google algorithm is changing this month, unless

you just find it fun to follow.

Ultimately, search is growing up quickly, and with that growth comes

growing pains. From everything I see though, it's headed in an

amazing direction that few can even fathom.

Finally, (shameless plug) hire an ethical marketing company to help

you with this. The amount that you pay an SEM company to monitor

this stuff for you and as a result, increase your traffic ­ will be

well worth it. If you can find a company that still focuses on your

marketing message in addition to your SEO presence too, so much the

better. Good luck!

Jenny Halasz

www.websourced.com

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From: Paul Harris

Subject: Credit cards

> Do any LEDrs know of better online processing rates,

> even real-time, or who use Yahoo's small business?

        - Richard Takaba, LED 1979

UK Rates - I pay 2.00% on credit cards , 18 pence per transaction on

debit cards , The process is Card Holder Not Present & I don't use a

pay provider , all card processing through my web sites using SSL.

The only other cost is the rent of the card processing machine - £15

per month

Paul Harris

Designaweb

www.designaweb.biz

paul, designaweb.biz

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From: R. Neilson

Subject: Cancelled orders

When orders are placed do you send a confirming e-mail and

electronic invoice to your customer before shipping the CD?  As a

suggestion make sure you set up your ordering so that an

confirmation of order is sent by e-mail as soon as the customer

completes checkout.  In that confirmation set a time frame to cancel

the order or it will be sent.  State that there are no refunds on

computer software and all sales are final.  This will hopefully

prevent cancellations and request for refunds.

R. Neilson

H. L. Supply

www.hansons.net

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From: Claudia Lynn

Subject: Website Posting

Hello -

I have relied on my webmaster for years to post new information on

my website www.askmothersadvice.com.  However, since he has become

ill and is moving from his home, I want to learn how to do this

myself.  I dread going back to school.  Is there a program I can

purchase?  If so, what is the best one?

Claudia Lynn

bequestbook, aol.com

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"Heigh-ho! What goes around comes around." - James Miller