| LED Digest 2484: The Myth of Site Submits |
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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. www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ : the LED's Premier Sponsor Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. September 4, 2007 Issue no. 2484 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ===================== --== Designing for AOL ==-- ~ Nancy Cardinali "...how can I 'use' AOL on my machine to see what the problem is and fix it?" ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Submitting Sites - How Often? ==-- ~ Martyn Gay "Fortunately this is a myth..." ~ Patricia Skinner "I always get sites indexed by linking to them from a site that's already indexed." ~ Steven Birk "Just was wondering if you have a sitemap XML file for your site?" --== Ecommerce Sites - PCI Compliance ==-- ~ Scott Marino "Dedicated servers are certainly more costly, but are worth the extra expense..." --== Recommended Web Awards? ==-- ~ Steve Pronger "There are easier and more effective ways to build links." ========== NEW =================================== From: Nancy Cardinali Subject: Designing for AOL Browsers Hi All, About a year or so ago, I did a small redesign for one of my clients. Yesterday (!?) she informed me the site does not display as intended in her browser - using the dreaded AOL. My question, how can I 'use' AOL on my machine to see what the problem is and fix it? I know you can do a free month with AOL, but I'm nervous about being able to get rid of them afterwards. The site is: http://www.drlindaberry.com . If anyone out there with AOL would check it out and let me know if there is a big white space after the top logo, I'd sure appreciate it. She may be a DR., but that doesn't mean she knows diddly about a computer - and she doesn't! So this could simply be a problem with her old browser or machine or something. I'm mortified she has waited this long to inform me of this problem! Thanking in advance, Nancy Cardinali www.CardinaliDesigns.com *Consolidate your online and print image for name recognition* ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Martyn Gay Subject: Site submission > I know submitting other than your main page to the major > search engines more than monthly is not allowed & can > get your listing removed. - Terry Smith, LED Digest 2483 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1894/190/ How does the search engine know the page is being submitted by the site owner? If listings were removed or penalized for over submission, then I would be able to repeatedly submit my competitor's site, and get him booted out of the search engine rankings. Fortunately this is a myth (but I'll avoid calling this another "myth peddled by SEO experts" as I know I upset a few "SEO experts" last time I said that). ---------------------- "Fiction: A website will be removed from Google's index if it's 'over-submitted'." "Fact: We don't require submission nor do we penalize sites for 'over-submission.' You're free to submit as often as you wish. However, given the nature of our inclusion process, your time is better spent improving the content and links of your site." Source: http://scholar.google.com/webmasters/facts.html ---------------------- For the reasons I mentioned above, I suspect that the other major search engines operate similar policies. Martyn Gay ASP Shopping Cart Software www.cactushop.com -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Patricia Skinner Subject: Site submission It's better not to submit at all. I always get sites indexed by linking to them from a site that's already indexed. Simple, and highly effective. Patricia Skinner -------- new post - same topic --------- From: Steve Birk Subject: How often should sites be submitted? Terry, Just was wondering if you have a sitemap xml file for your site? The reason I ask is that with my new site I am rolling out at http://MedicalNewsCenter.com, I have had over 685 of my pages added to Google in the last couple of weeks, and some pages are starting to get added into Yahoo and MSN as well. That's without submitting any pages to any search engine through any kind of "Add your URL" type of page. I do use Google Webmaster Tools and submitted my sitemap to Google through my Webmasters Tools account, and also took advice from Google http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py... to put the complete URL of your sitemap xml in your robots.txt file as well. I guess Google and other search engines can find your sitemap xml file easier that way. Seems to be working I suppose, without the need to submit any pages individually through any kind of "Add your URL" type of page at a search engine. Regards, Steven Birk http://MedicalNewsCenter.com Complete, Current and Credible Medical News Coverage ============ Sponsor Message =========== 2007 Is Aging Fast, So Is Your Content! Remember when search bots visited every four or five months? Now their noses are in your tent constantly. Weekly. Maybe even daily. What's a webmaster to do? Give 'em what they want! Fresh copy. Great copy. Relevant copy. http://www.GetWebContent.com/LED copy. ============ Sponsor Message =========== -------- new post - new topic --------- From: Scott Marino Subject: PCI compliance > It's time for me to step up from my third party eCommerce > solution to hosting my own eCommerce Software, which > requires that I become PCI Compliant... Can any of you > recommend a hosting company that has demonstrated > the ability to pass daily PCI Compliance scans? - Brian Butki, LED Digest 2483 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1894/190/ I manage the sites for several online retailers and can share the following experience / recommendation with regards to PCI compliance, keeping a server up to date and hosting. In a shared hosting environment, where you are one of thousands of sites on a server or even in a VPS virtual private server environment, you are unlikely to get any host to make changes to get the server up to the latest patches. The main reason being as simple as - if it is not broken (meaning, the server is running), why fix it. Introducing new patches can cause problems with other software on the server and may introduce problems for the sites hosted on that server. In a dedicated server environment, you are more likely to get them to upgrade to the latest patches (or can do it yourself if you are technically proficient at administering a server). If you are the only customer on that server, the impact to other users (who don't care if the server is PCI compliant) is not there. Dedicated servers are certainly more costly, but are worth the extra expense (my opinion). Having peace of mind that the only sites (yes, you can host multiple sites) on a dedicated server are ones you know of is comforting. You don't have to worry about what the other people on the site are doing. I know many small business owners want to keep costs low. To do this, they opt for the lowest cost hosting plan they can find. There are lots of plans for less than $10 per month. For that $10, you get tossed in with thousands of other sites on a server that is set to run at consistently high utilization rates. There are likely many nice people sharing that server, but potentially some not so nice ones. You have no control of who is on that server and what they are doing. A low cost dedicated server can be found for under $150 a month. It certainly sounds like a lot of money when compared to the $10 shared plan. What they fail to see is the value of the exclusivity and security of knowing that you are the only one on the server. As a comparison, the $10 plan gets you a small space in an unknown neighborhood (could have good or bad neighbors) while the $150 plan gets you a known safe secure neighborhood. If you were renting a brick-and-mortar store, wouldn't you want to rent in safe neighborhood? Best of luck... Scott Marino -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Steve Pronger Subject: Web awards > My web design is not all about ranking, it is also > about keeping visitors once they are there and > getting new visitors in unique ways that might never > have looked for the site from traditional venues... - Kythera Ann, LED Digest 2482 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1893/190/ I have no argument with that Kythera, but in your original post you said: > Yet I consistently get their sites to rank > high in their subject areas, how? - Kythera Ann, LED Digest 2480 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1891/190/ Correct me if I'm wrong, but I take that to mean the strategies you offered are responsible for high search engine rankings. That's where I have a problem. If jigsaw puzzles and screen savers result in visitors staying longer and somehow leads to a sale, then all well and good. I'm not suggesting that this isn't something you should do if it works for your clients. But this has nothing to do with search engine rankings. If recommending "cool" sites in forums gets visitors to that site, which in some cases results in sales, then that's great too. But again, nothing to do with rankings. You're a graphic designer. I'm sure you do great work. If the quality of your work helps the sales process in particular circumstances, that's also great. Again, nothing to do with rankings. If you're looking at award sites as a link building strategy, then I can see that yes there may be some value. But no more than submitting to an editor-reviewed directory. There are easier and more effective ways to build links. You also argue that these are "contextual" links. That's not what I call a contextual link. How is a link from a site about free clip art (animationgold.com) on a page with links to sites about Pakistan, Egyptian sand sculptures and Ms Whyte's second grade safari, contextual? If I want a contextual link pointing to my web design site, then it would be on a page about web design, as evidenced by the file name, page title, description meta and content. The link would be in the context of an article about web design, and not just one of a bunch of unrelated links, apart from the fact that the webmaster considered them worthy of an award. As for the perceived value of being given a award from sites like animationgold.com, no offence to you or the owner of this site, my view hasn't changed. Worthless. > I did a test with an author, two sites, opened at the same > time, one went for rated awards, the other didn't. The one > that went for rated awards received more traffic and better > link ranking than the other during a three month test. Sorry, but this proves nothing. If by "link ranking" you mean ranking in the SERPs, and presuming they weren't identical sites, then there are a multitude of reasons why one would outrank the other. Was any on-page SEO done on the second site? Any link building? Were you targeting the right keywords? I guess it comes down to you and I having different philosophies Kythera. I see a commercial website as a means to an end. A sales tool. It's not something that should be, or needs to be, given an award in order to add value to the owner's business. The focus should be on that business, not the website itself. Steve Pronger http://www.stevepronger.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by: GetWebContent.com The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. 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