| LED Digest 2257: Advantages of Database Driven Sites? |
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Three new topics today on form spam, falling Google rankings, and the advantages (and disadvantages) of database-driven Web sites. Also, the linking discussion continues, and return receipts (and Web bugs) are put to bed. ================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Registration from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. October 2, 2006 Issue no. 2257 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ===================== --== Two Questions: Falling Rank & Form Spam ==-- ~ Dan Rosenfield "I've learned a lot from everyone on this list and hope I can get some responses now..." <Moderator Comment> --== Why Database Driven Sites? ==-- ~ James Miller "...in many cases a database is used when it is not really necessary." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Meta Tags (and More) ==-- ~ Kathy Wilson "I do know that [search engines] index [keyword meta data]..." --== Linking ==-- ~ Mike Banks Valentine "There is no definitive statement forthcoming from the search engines." ~ John Smart "Historically, exchanging links has been important." <Moderator Comment> ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Emails with Just Keywords ==-- ~ Brad Waller ========== NEW =================================== From: Dan Rosenfield Subject: Two New Questions Hello: I've learned a lot from everyone on this list and hope I can get some responses now which can help me and anyone else with the same issues. My first question is what can I do to try to determine why one of my sites has retained a Google PR 6 while falling from #4 to page 40 for an important search term? If anyone has time to take a look, the URL is www.online-degrees-and-scholarships.com. My second question is does anyone know of a way to stop persistent spammers who use the response form on my website to send me multiple "garbage" messages daily? I await your wisdom. Thanks, Dan Rosenfield <Moderator Comment> You may look into adding CAPTCHA or Hashcash functionality to your forms. I've added this security measure recently to the LED posting and contact forms (still messing with it): http://snipurl.com/xrp3 [led-digest.com] Find out more here: http://www.hashcash.org/ and http://www.captcha.net/ -adam -------- new post - new topic -------- [this question was originally in response to the "Creative Linking" thread, but it's a good topic for a dedicated discussion. -adam] From: James Miller Subject: Why Use Databases for Web Sites? My question is why do you need a database anyway? Obviously in some applications this is necessary, but in many cases a database is used, when it is not really necessary. Take the BBC for instance, who run probably the biggest news site in the world. Everything is directly linked. Is this why their stories are often to the top of the search list? This method also has lots of other advantages in that pages are very easily bookmarked. Their policy too is never to remove or change a historic page. I have done a lot of work, where databases have been reflected onto the Internet or Intranet. I have done this with direct programming with the database sitting on a PC and then uploading changed pages using FTP or a direct copy. This works very well with databases of quite a significant size, where changes are usually fairly slow. I can even incorporate simple sorting using the program I have that uploads the database. Advantages of this method are much greater speed on highly used databases and the use of a simple server without a computer the expensive side of the firewall. The only disadvantage is that it uses more FTP space, which in most cases is not a problem. James Miller Daisy Analysis: www.daisy.co.uk ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Kathy Wilson Subject: Meta tags Whether or not any of the search engines use the keywords in meta tags as part of their algorithms for ranking pages, I do know that they index them. Here's how I know: one of my clients is a realtor and the name of her company is commonly misspelled. I added the misspelled name to her keyword meta tags and when I checked her stats shortly thereafter, discovered that it was one of the keywords used to find her website during searches by her website visitors. In my opinion, this alone makes it worth using keyword meta tags. Love, Kathy Wilson http://www.under-one-roof.net Life Purpose Coaching ~ Spiritual Teaching ~ Vibrational Healing -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Mike Valentine Subject: Linking > It's just that, in the course of doing reciprocal link > management work for over 8 years now, I have yet > to see any real indication that a link is devalued > simply due to reciprocation. It still works here, very well. - Dirk Johnson, LED 2256 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1076/55/ I wrote an article titled "Reciprocal Linking is Dead!" three years ago on October 9, 2003 that offended many at the time, but I stand by what I said then - even though it was due to deceptive practices by those requesting links - I stopped doing link swaps back then and have never looked back. My reasons have evolved, but I still believe it is pointless to do link swaps. http://searchengineoptimism.com/reciprocal-linking-dead.html I still get endless link swap requests and send them all to my "No Reciprocal Links" page at: http://website101.com/NO-reciprocal-linking.html There is no definitive statement forthcoming from the search engines. We all have our opinions and preferred methods of building links because we all agree (even the search engines) that they are helpful. There is a noticeable lack of comment from Yahoo and MSN on reciprocal links. But Google's Matt Cutts has said repeatedly that in his blog that Natural links are best. I have yet to see him clearly say DON'T DO IT, just "don't overdo it." As in August of 2005 when he said, "The best links are not paid, or exchanged after out-of-the-blue emails - the best links are earned and given by choice." http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-mistakes-link-exchange-emails/ Or when he said in December of 2005, "it was easy to tell whether a site was (over)doing reciprocal links" http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/tell-me-about-your-backlinks/ Or when he said in May of 2006, "sites where our algorithms had very low trust in the inlinks or the outlinks of that site. Examples that might cause that include excessive reciprocal links" and in the same post, "As these indexing changes have rolled out, we've improving how we handle reciprocal link exchanges and link buying / selling." And then more in that post ... "I think this is covered by the same guidance as above; if you were getting crawled more before and you're trading a bunch of reciprocal links, don't be surprised if the new crawler has different crawl priorities and doesn't crawl as much." And then again in that post, "Some folks that were doing a lot of reciprocal links might see less crawling." http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/indexing-timeline/ All of the above comments were found via my searchroll at Rollyo which includes Rand Fishkin's top SEO bloggers and the official search engine blogs, including Matt Cutts. If you want to know what any search engine or top SEO says about linking, including the leading guys in favor of it at "Linkbuilding Blog" from "Text Link Ads" dot com. Many other SEO's are reciprocal link apologists and claim reciprocal links still work regardless of what they hear from Matt Cutts. Form your own opinions if you can. Those of us with our own positions staked out are not likely to give any ground on them. ;-) I've posted that "SEO and Search Engine Blogger" searchroll again in my blog so LED members can search for themselves (Yahoo results) to see what the search engines and top SEO's have to say on that (or any other) topic. Look for yourselves - http://realityseo.com Mike Banks Valentine -------- new post - same topic -------- From: John Smart Subject: Linking Historically, exchanging links has been important. I don't really have much to contribute on this subject -- I have not researched it yet, or even really read up on it. However, what are we all reading today? The Link Exchange Digest! This would indicate that at least, in the past, exchanging links has been important, and I see valid uses for it now. The only link exchanges I do not get are those google ads you can put on your page. I look for web designers, so as to approach them to offer them hosting services and other goodies. It amazes me how many have the google ad thingy on their home pages, with links to their competitors, with text saying how their competitors are better / cheaper! What kind of a fool throws away business like that? One of my clients sells mechanical hoists that lift the hard top of your convertible car. He swaps links with other sites that sell stuff for high end cars -- they do not compete with each other -- everybody (including the customer) wins. If a Google ad box started sending shoppers away -- well -- why do that? I am sure there are some very good uses for the Google thingy, certainly on information sites -- youth support, health care and the like. But for business using their sites to earn money -- I don't know about that. John Smart InternetDesign.com - A Human Touch in a Digital World <Moderator Comment> Just to avoid any confusion, the LinkExchange banner network (the company that founded the LED Digest) did not actually have any services related to linking (at least how linking is being discussed here). They were primarily a banner serving agency. If anyone's interested, here's an in-depth history of business email lists and the LED Digest: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/38/79/ The article traces the evolution of discussion lists and features interviews with some of the major moderators and publishers. -adam ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Brad Waller Subject: Keyword emails > Robert brings up a good point. I hate people knowing if > I read a mail or not, so I disabled that Outlook function. - John Smart, LED 2256 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1076/55/ I think the issue is not return receipts, but "web bugs" instead. Spammers (and marketers) will embed images in the ads so that they can determine Open Rates. When you read an HTML email and show images, you let the person who sent the email out know that you read the email when Outlook (or your email program) calls for that image. This is why Google and many other email services default to blocking images. If you are worried about this, do not have images turned on as a default in email. Outlook can do this for senders who are not in your "trusted" list. Brad Waller Manage and Sell your own site advertising http://adjungle.com waller, adjungle.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2006 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights. 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