| LED Digest 1527: Avoiding Loss in Rankings |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest ................................................. February 27, 2003 Issue #1527 ................................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Site Revamps and Search Engine Position ==-- ~ Sharon Montero "Google recommends to use a permanent redirect..." ~ Jill Whalen "...your rankings should not be lost for long." --== International Fraud Protection ==-- ~ Charles Bennett "There is plenty of fraud attempt [by] wait staff and sales clerks in stores..." ~ John Coons "You might ask Barclays for some direction..." ===== GEEK TIPS ================== --== Sub-domains ==-- ~ Super Perez ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Web Statistics Software ==-- ~ D. Diehl --== Godaddy Gone? ==-- ~ Ed Seward ~ G. Nathan ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Sharon Montero Subject: Site revamps > I have decided to redesign [our] website... I have set up > the page structure differently... will my ratings in the search > engines suddenly drop because some pages return a [404], > or that the link structure is different? - Dirk van der Werff, LED 1525 Hello Dirk, The short answer is ... YES. You should set up a redirection from the old pages currently listed in the search engines to the new pages you have created to avoid any loss in rankings. Google recommends to use a permanent redirect (using a "301" code in HTTP headers). Source: http://www.google.com/webmasters/3.html#A2 > I have over 900 page links with other sites and return > a top ten search with Google for 'plants' and I'm now > concerned... Your top ten ranking on Google for 'plants' is for your Home Page with the URL http://www.plants-magazine.com which is just perfect. So as long as you keep your keyword 'plants' listed in your HTML Title Tag (as you do now) and also keep the keyword 'plants' listed in your Body Tag contents (as you do now), then any other changes you make to your Home Page is OK, and you WILL retain your current rankings, because our research shows that your current ranking for that page is based more on your links to the page than the content on the page. Sharon Montero iWomen Online Network ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Jill Whalen Subject: Site revamps Hi Dirk, You may have some lag time between when the search engines dump your old pages and pick up your new ones. However, the engines should eventually find and index your new pages (assuming your new design is search-engine-friendly) and your rankings should not be lost for long. I recommend setting up a custom 404-error page to catch the visitors that may come from a bad search engine link. A good rule of thumb is to create it to look similar to your sitemap page, and also include a site-specific search box on it. This way your site visitors should be able to easily find what they originally came for. Good luck! Jill Whalen Nitty-gritty SEO Writing Report Now Available! http://www.highrankings.com/seo-writing.htm ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Charles Bennett Subject: Fraud protection Another thought on protecting yourself... There is plenty of fraud attempt right here in the USA. Wait staff and sales clerks in stores that sell credit card numbers know about the CVA and CVVA numbers. When they copy the numbers and expiration date, they copy those as well. Within seconds of you giving the waitperson your card to pay for dinner, the numbers can be called into a pager and used before you are in your car and heading home. The next technique that is driving me crazy is, a person places a fraudulent order. They use the cardholders real address. They add in a different four digit number after the zip code. AVS only checks the five digit main code, many times the package is delivered to the nine digit code regardless of the printed address. OR they call FedEx / UPS and have the package rerouted and say they won't be home at the delivery time. What adds more insult to this technique is you lose the merchandise, shipping costs, chargeback fees and are charged a re-routing fee. I've tried to get the shippers to NOT allow any rerouting or address changes without notifying me first. So far, no go. If you do get to contest a chargeback, unless you have a copy of the signed delivery slip from the cardholder, the Chargeback Department won't even consider it. So if the neighbor signs for it or they have a waiver on file or fill out the little yellow slip that says "ok to leave without a signature" then you as the merchant are out of luck. This is the reason I choose not to use an automatic processing service. There are too many ways to beat it. We won't even discuss company cards or teens using their parents card! Charles Bennett ------- new post - same topic ------- From: John Coons Subject: Fraud protection > ... our business is based in a country [Africa] where Worldpay > will no longer be servicing... [How can I] settle this question of > obtaining an online credit card processing solution... - Andrew Muigai, LED 1524 Dear Andrew, I don't think I can help with your credit card processing although I don't see why you might not establish relations in another Country whereby someone can clear and deposit for you. You might ask Barclays for some direction here. They function in multiple Countries all the time. As to your assertion that discrimination is your root problem, may I suggest it is your government that is the problem no matter the color. Like others I've read in these posts, with one exception all my fraud attempts come from Africa and Indonesia as far as I can tell. For awhile it was running three or four attempts a week. The typical order would involve several diamonds and often more than one credit card number. We no longer treat communication from these Countries seriously. For free commerce to flourish a stable, safe, controlled environment is necessary. A bunch of looters masquerading as Government Officials doesn't cut it. I wish you well, but I'm afraid that it will probably get worse before it gets better. I close with the thought that the Internet has indeed "leveled" the playing field. What you are dealing with, unfortunately, has nothing to do with the Internet actually. Unless your connection has been cut I bet you get access to the same stuff I do. Perhaps the question,"Why don't you ask your Government for help with this?" really answers the question. Best of Luck, John Coons E Diamond www.ediamondco.com ===== GEEK TIPS =================================== From: Super Perez Subject: Sub-domains > I notice some sites have sub domains, for instance > http://www.shop.com has the sub domains > http://product1.shop.com and http://product2.shop.com. > How is this accomplished? - Toon Eppink, LED 1525 Canonical domain names are host dependent. It is quite interesting though if you have the right domain name. We were quite fortunate enough to register the domain name web.ph thus, we are able to create sites like http://prayer.web.ph, http://med.web.ph, http://shop.web.ph and so on. All the subdomains we make are free of any registration fees. We were once offerred US$100K for our domain. We almost sold it :) Super Perez http://web.ph ==== BILLBOARD ==================================== From: D.Diehl Subject: Web stats I appreciate the suggestions given for web stats software but I should give more information as to my situation. I do not have access to the server the website is hosted on other than through FTP (I do not have access to the command line or cron jobs). The server is a Unix and I have a Windows. My logfiles are located in a folder called 'logfiles'. Under this directory are several .gz files that correspond with each day of the month (i.e. 1.gz, 2.gz, 3.gz, etc.). I don't mind using a free script or one that is low in price (no monthly payments). On another site that I had worked on I did use the software offered on http://www.xav.com but I want something with more details. I've looked through the websites suggested and one needs access to the command line and another requires that I download my log files. Another is for servers so that they can use on many other websites, I only need it for one website. I'll look through them some more to see if maybe I can excecute them some other way (maybe I misunderstood it). Thanks for all your help. Any more suggestions would be appreciated. D.Diehl ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Ed Seward Subject: Godaddy > I would just like to point out that Godaddy no longer > seems to be operating. I had a domain name with > them and it has suddenly been transferred to Tucows... - G. Nathan, LED 1525 GoDaddy.com is alive and gaining new registrations every month. I would not use them nor do I recommend my hosting clients use them but they still are operating and registering domain names. If your domain was transferred to Tucows then the admin or tech contact transferred it there. It could not be transferred without the active involvement of the admin or tech contact. If the domain that you are writing about is FENGSHUITIMES.COM then it is registered with Network Solutions, not Tucows. The admin contact for this domain is jywm at bigpond.com . I believe you are talking about a different domain. If you provide the domain name we can help you determine how it was transferred to Tucows. Ed Seward inethosts.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: G. Nathan Subject: Godaddy > What domain name are you referring to? Because the > domain name fengshuitimes.com is registered at Network > Solution... - Brad Kline, LED 1526 Hi Brad, Perhaps I could be mistaken but the domain name I am referring to is www.thien-dimensions.com. We registered this with Go Daddy a while back and set up the hosting for it but have not made any changes to it since then. Recently when I tried to access www.godaddy.com I was unable to access the web site and it still appears to be unaccessible. When I do a WHOIS on the domain name, the information I get says it's registered with Tucows, Inc. Naturally, I am worried about what's now going to happen to the domain name but I assume Tucows or someone from Go Daddy will contact me when it's time for renewal in September 2003. If you have any information to the contrary or would be able to have someone from Go Daddy contact me (or provide me with a contact number) to clear things up, I would be grateful. Regards, G. Nathan, Managing Editor www.fengshuitimes.com ------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1995-2003 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history - with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila." - Mitch Ratliffe |
