| LED Digest 2418: Losing Rankings to Scraper Sites |
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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 .............................................. May 29, 2007 Issue no. 2418 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== --== Losing Rankings to Scraper Sites ==-- ~ Peggy Deras "I am watching the formerly pretty good ranking of my web site dwindle..." --== Traffic Expectations ==-- ~ Sandra Combs "...is there any way to know how much traffic our competitors are getting?" ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Emails Bounced as Spam ==-- ~ Tom Aman "Don't spend a lot of time trying to second- guess the problem..." ~ R. Neilson "You might call your ISP to see if they can help resolve the problem." --== Javascript Rollovers & SEO ==-- ~ Robert Flythe "I would recommend you use CSS-based rollover effects instead of Javascript." ========== NEW =================================== From: Peggy Deras Subject: A Cry for Help - Losing Rankings to Scrapers I am watching the formerly pretty good ranking of my web site dwindle to not so hot. I wouldn't be whining about it if the sites ranking higher than mine for keywords like "kitchen designer" were other design firms who had put up sites with great content even better than mine. Unfortunately that is not the case. More and more, when I look at sites that rank higher than mine, they are "placeholder sites" and link farm sites, and sites with "scraped" content (sometimes even MY CONTENT). Here's a perfect example of what I'm talking about. http://www.kitchen180.com/index.html It's nothing but data scraped from other sites, including my own. I can't imagine anyone dumb enough to stay there and click on an ad. But they must or there wouldn't be so many of them all of a sudden. What can be done about these guys? If this keeps up the web will be so clogged with "nothing sites" there won't be any point. I think I have done everything right. I put up a well-designed site. I have great and original content. I spent a couple of years editing on DMOZ to learn the ropes. I had a few years when my ranking was pretty good as a result. 70% of my new business was coming from my web site. I consequently reduced my advertising outlays in other areas and concentrated on web marketing. Now my hard earned rankings are in the toilet and my phone has stopped ringing. Some may be attributable to a downturn in my industry, but I think a lot is due to my lowered rankings. I could spend all day sending in Google complaints but that won't bring my traffic or my leads back. What to do? Peggy Deras, CKD, CID Kitchen Artworks web: www.kitchenartworks.com blog: http://kitchen-exchange.blogspot.com/ Comment? -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Sandra Combs Subject: Site Traffic Expectations Our site is designed to help adults with recent vision loss learn how to manage daily activities; the content provides self help vision rehabilitation to be used in conjunction with, or while awaiting, professional vision rehabilitation services. The site does not provide diagnostic, treatment, or other medical information; the focus is on rehabilitation and retaining one's independence. Funders of the site are basing their expectations of site traffic on the number of adult Americans with vision problems and are disappointed in the traffic numbers. There are a handful of sites that deal with this topic; is there any way to know how much traffic our competitors are getting? How do we measure success? We know that the most relevant search terms are infrequently searched for, and our target population (older, with vision problems) may not use the internet as an information source as much as other groups. Visitors to the site can participate in various ways: a newsletter to subscribe to, optional site registration, a forum, one inexpensive original book to purchase, and articles to download. Slowly, the number of registrants, newsletter subscribers, and people who add the site to favorites is building. But the pressure is on to hire SEO consultants to "fix" the site to increase the traffic. We have several hundred unique visitors per month. Is this a problem? Sandra Combs http://www.visionaware.org Comment? ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Tom Aman Subject: Emails bounced > [My newsletter] bounced from a few recipients with > a response error message that the email is either > spam or contained a virus... I can't imagine what > in the content would trigger a spam blocker. - Reid Neubert, LED Digest 2417 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1821/55/ There is nothing obvious in your message that would cause it to be flagged as spam. So either email from you has been specifically flagged as spam by the recipients (they set something in their filter to block it based on the "From" or the source domain) OR (more likely) their spam filter, for reasons unknown, decided it was spam. Could be as simple as the filter, in the process of being "taught", was told a message containing some phrase was spam and it is now treating all messages with that phrase as spam. Don't spend a lot of time trying to second-guess the problem, it is not worth the effort. A more productive approach would be to send a short email to the bounced recipients telling them that the message bounced, suggest they look at their filtering as they may lose other good messages, and give them a link to the page with the message. Also, tell them that, if they do not want to continue receiving the newsletters from you, to let you know so you can remove them from your list. That should cover all of the bases. Tom Aman Aman Software Comment? -------- new post - same topic --------- From: R. Neilson Subject: Emails bounced I have had that happen several times and it was not me. It was someone else thru my ISP that was sending spam and the recipents server blocked everyone that used that ISP. I contacted my ISP and there was a way they could contact the recipents ISP and correct the problem. I haven't had a problem for nearly 6 months but still watch for it. You might call your ISP to see if they can help resolve the problem. R. Neilson H. L. Supply www.hansons.net Comment? ============ Sponsor Message =========== Why pay more for less? Some content providers charge extra to search-engine optimize copy. And some are so clueless, they don't offer SEO at all. A lot of good that'll do your site. At GetWebContent.com, we SEO everything we write without any additional charge whatsoever. Get it all, http://www.GetWebContent.com/LED ============ Sponsor Message =========== -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Robert Flythe Subject: Javascript Links > We are considering a new design that includes > a JavaScript navigation roll-over with rotating text... > There seems to be a controversy over whether > that page will be penalized for this feature or not - Dale DeHart, LED Digest 2416 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1820/55/ Dale DeHart: I would recommend you use CSS-based rollover effects instead of Javascript. Try to make the web links mainly HTML and style it with Cascading Style Sheets. I do not think Javascript is bad for a website if used correctly. I just would not implement a javascript navigation if I want to the site rank high in the search engines. If you really want a javascript navigation, you can always place HTML navigation links at the footer of your web pages. Robert Flythe Search Engine Marketing Analyst www.ebasedevolution.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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and new." - Ralph Waldo Emerson |
