| LED Digest 2380: The Question of SEO Standards |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom www.GetWebContent.com/LED : the LED's Key Sponsor The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. April 2, 2007 Issue no. 2380 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== --== Google Search Results Dropping ==-- ~ Paul Harris "Can anybody explain this?" --== Ramifications of Google's Homepage ==-- ~ Shel Horowitz "The question of how this custom material is auto-selected could...shut us out in a popularity contest..." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== HTML Standards and Search Rankings ==-- ~ John Smart "...should the site for the deaf be accessible to those who are blind?" ~ Al Toman "There is quite a difference between 'no standards' and 'not knowing the standards'. Yes?" --== Google Alerts for Competitive Intelligence ==-- ~ Debra Mastaler "There is a great little website that has a number of alert services in it's directory..." --== iFrame Exploit to Run Hidden Adverts ==-- ~ Kevin Houston "Too bad you can't edit the request object under vbscript." --== Last Modified Javascript Trick ==-- ~ Jon Langley "You could set it up so that the cron file even writes slightly different content..." ~ Tom Aman "I offer what has proved to be a popular free program called WebBug..." ========== NEW =================================== From: Paul Harris Subject: Has Google dropped some results? One of my clients enjoys a number 1 spot in Yahoo.com with phrase "retro watches" - 5.5 million entries & a number 2 or 3 slot in Google.com - 1.8 million entries with the same phrase. The domain is www.retro-watches.co.uk I've noticed over the last 6 months that with Google there were at its peak 5.5 million references to "retro watches" then month by month reducing to the current 1.8 million. On the other hand Yahoo is going the other way with the number of references going from 3 million to current 5.5 million Can anybody explain this ? Paul Harris www.designaweb.biz Comment? -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Shel Horowitz Subject: Major ramifications for info-publishers - Google's Latest Followed a link from http://www.grokdotcom.com newsletter, published by Jeffrey and Bryan Eisenberg. Google continues to push the envelope on user interface, and opens up a portal to yahoo-style personal pages -- but then there's another feature... ----------------------- "... I added a tab called SEO and Google automatically populated it with the latest headlines from SEOmoz, SEO News, Search Engine Land, Search Engine Watch and a number of other SEO sites. "I asked Google how it was determined what sites would be included in this set of default content. Apparently, it's decided by the most common choices of other people who have added a similarly named tab. In other words, these represent the aggregate choices of an ad hoc community, defined by the people who are interested in SEO and have decided to add these sites as content to their home page. "Okay, that's interesting. But let's factor in Google's other recent announcement, the fact that they now have an integrated personal suite that shares user data from search history and what you have on your personalized home page..." Source: http://outofmygord.com/archive/2007/03/20/Googles-Home-Page... ----------------------- You have to go down pretty far, to the part about adding a tab. The question of how this custom material is auto-selected could either give a nice "long-tail" buzz to the best indy resources out there (as amazon often does), or shut us out in a popularity contest that favors the Simon & Schusters of the world. Shel Horowitz http://www.frugalmarketing.com Marketing Strategic Planning, Consulting, and Copywriting Comment? ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: John Smart Subject: Standards > Would not last year's ruling against Target be construed > as something that "demands closer attention to accessibility" > since it basically said that if you are a brick and mortar > company and have a website, your website must be ADA > compliant? - Jeremy Weiss, LED Digest 2378 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1781/55/ Our daughter is completely blind, and I think all physical stores should be accommodating to her needs - or the needs of those in wheel chairs, or with any other factor that may impede their progress through a store. She uses JAWS screen reader to navigate the internet - and does really well with it. I would expect any government site, any site that deals with her utility services or other related factors should be fully accessible to her. As for Target, it should be their call. If she cannot 'see' their site, then she cannot spend her money there; they lose out on the deal. But I am pretty sure that they have an idea of how much business they lose, and how much it would cost to not lose that business. Clearly the equation is that it would cost a LOT more to be screen readable than the extra revenue this would bring - because this is not good publicity for them, so that is factored in. How far would this go? One of my clients sells hoists for hard tops for convertible cars, now blindness normally prevents one from driving a car, but there *may* be a blind person out there who wants to purchase one of these hoists for a family member or a friend. So on the prospect of selling no more than 1 hoist every 10 years (numbers pulled from the air, but they seem fee sable) and with a hoist selling for around $500, should he have to spend hundreds of dollars making his site accessible? Then the whole embedded audio files - what about bandwidth? Then another client sells lip-reading instructional videos. This is almost a Saturday night live sketch - should the site for the deaf be accessible to those who are blind? Should we make it possible for blind people to easily buy videotapes teaching them how to lip-read? I think there are places where sites should have to be 'blind friendly' - educational sites would be another one in that list, but for the rest of them, I think it should be their call. John Smart InternetDesign.com A Human Touch in a Digital world. Comment? -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Al Toman Subject: Standards > There are no standards in search engine optimization. - Michael Martinez, LED Digest 2378 Michael, Search engines are 100% pure math and language following very stringent standards (else the code would blow up, rendered useless). Mr. Larry Page and his crew are continually optimizing their search engine, its algorithm. Now, in the case of SEO (if you will), these folk are more correctly, "web page for search engines optimizers." The problem being, they do not know, meaning, having no knowledge, of the search engine's standards, its algorithm, the math and language behind it. There is quite a difference between "no standards" and "not knowing the standards". Yes? Prior to Sept 10, 2005, I did not know what an SEO was. After much reading and learning, today, if I wanted to know anything about Search Engine Optimization, I would call the likes of Mr. Larry Page. That's about it. No contest. Larry (and the likes) wins, hands down. It's that simple. Al Toman studio 9 web design Comment? ============ Sponsor Message =========== Ever wonder why Presidents and board chairmen hire professional writers to craft their speeches? Because they're usually trying to sell something, be it a new federal program or a lame excuse for a lousy fourth quarter. You're in sales, too. Online sales. Your site needs words that sell, power words. www.GetWebContent.com/LED words. ============ Sponsor Message =========== -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Debra Mastaler Subject: Google Alerts > I have used Google Alerts in the past to monitor my > clients' competitors and unfortunately have found it > almost worthless. One specific search I tried was... > 95% blogspot splogs. - Cayley Vos, LED Digest 2379 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1782/55/ I totally agree with you Cayley, it's not the greatest website monitoring tool out there which is surprising given who offers it! I use TrackEngine and GoogleAlert http://www.googlealert.com/ (not to be confused with Google Alerts www.google.com/alerts ) and like both. Also use BotABlog to monitor the blogosphere and have heard of WatzNew but never used it. There is a great little website that has a number of alert services in it's directory - check out www.agentland.com. Their chick icon is kind of scary looking but the site is helpful! And for the record, I am NOT affiliated with any of these sites. Debra Mastaler Alliance-Link.com http://thelinkspiel.blogspot.com Comment? -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Kevin Houston Subject: Iframe Exploit Responses > Here's one example of how a hacker could untroduce an > unwanted iframe: ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=1346 - Veronica Yuill, LED Digest 2376 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1779/55/ Thanks to Veronica and everyone else who responded: The site is subscription-only and the only page that was hacked was our index.asp This would seem to indicate to me (but by no means does it prove) that the attackers were external. We actually do take registration data and echo it in a confirmation step. I am pretty certain that we are not screening the input. I will suggest that get updated immediately. This has also made me think of how someone could exploit our free trial period (or just happily pay $20 /mo because they are making $200 /mo off our traffic) to do terrible things to our webserver with a fork() ;) Just because you have trusted clients, doesn't mean you can _trust_ your clients. We currently let our members type _anything_ into a press release, or the rider section of a contract, and never screen for nasties. That will have to wait for version 5.0 (being designed now) but it will definitely be a global solution. Too bad you can't edit the request object under vbscript. it would be so sweet to slip in and strip out all the verbotten characters prior to any other code getting a peek. Thanks again, Kevin Houston PS now our mailserver is being spanked by some slimy spammer and I have to switch over all of our housekeeping emails from ASPmail (which doesn't support authentication - nor allow you to _READ_ the mail properties) to Fathmail, which does support those methods. Comment? -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Jon Langley Subject: Javascript-trick > Check out this cool javascript trick > I read recently http://anekostudios.com/ - Adam Audette, LED Digest 2378 I haven't read the last newsletter yet, but just reading this one and the comment about "Last Updated" and Javascript Trick. I haven't done this, but surely, If you want a last updated date to appear correctly, then you would want the file to be "Uploaded" or "Updated". If I wanted to do this, then the way I would go is to set up a Cron job to "Write" a new file and replace the old one. If you do it weekly, then the last modified flag will be reset to a weekly date. You could set it up so that the cron file even writes slightly different content based on if it was the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th week. That way, it will actually be different as well. If you haven't got Cron capabilities, then incorporate it into the main page. When it loads up, delete the old file and write a new one. Jon Langley http://www.jons-all-sorts.co.uk Comment? -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Tom Aman Subject: Javascript trick > ... on 2 of my systems... the alert box simply > shows the CURRENT date and time. - Al Toman, LED Digest 2379 In my previous post that appeared in the same LED as Al's, I pointed out that any 'dynamically created page' was 'Last-modified' at the time it was created by the Web server. Al, if the pages on your system are dynamically created in any way (asp, php, use SSI, etc.), then the Javascript trick will only show the current date and time because that was when the Web server created the page. I don't know what the problem would be with Opera but I suspect it is either not handling the Javascript correctly or is not keeping the information needed (the required header) to give the correct response. The Javascript trick is merely reporting the header information that is being sent by the Web server. For those interested, I offer what has proved to be a popular free program called WebBug on my Web site that will let you easily have a look at the headers exactly as returned by the Web server. You can download WebBug at http://www.cyberspyder.com/webbug.html Tom Aman Aman Software http://www.cyberspyder.com Comment? ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by GetWebContent.com The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. Free no-obligation proposal: http://GetWebContent.com/LED The Archives: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/126/120/ Subscribe: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/52/77/ Unsubscribe, Change Email, or Hold / Resume Delivery: http://www.led-digest.com/content/category/4/17/86/ (c) Copyright 1995-2007 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie." - Mae West |
