| LED Digest 2153: Ranking Fairness |
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================================================== 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 Reg. 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 .............................................. May 4, 2006 Issue no. 2153 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Google Rankings - Are They Fair? ==-- ~ Will Bontrager "[This] is kinda like focusing on one kernel of corn..." ~ Michael Martinez "The Google 'link:' command does not report accurate results." ~ Tom Aman "A question for Robert..." --== Dealing with Shipping Costs ==-- ~ Michael Linehan "Doing the micro-businesses is part of how [the IRS] train their auditors." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Lulu.com ===-- ~ James Miller --== Throwing Down the Gauntlet - Test Site ==-- ~ Dan Rosenfield ~ John Smart --== Backups ==-- ~ Steve Warriner ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Will Bontrager Subject: Unfair Google > I am doing a research paper on "Google Rankings: Are They Fair?". > When I use Google "link: www.pointofsuccess.com" It shows > numerous incoming links from a website called pmq.com... - Robert Winter, LED 2151 Robert, are you sure pointofsuccess.com is benefiting from "such 'poor-quality' links"? Maybe they might have other incoming links, high quality links, from other web sites? Note that I'm not an SEO expert. It just seems like concentrating on back links from one site to determine why a site ranks like it does is kinda like focusing on one kernel of corn to determine why the ear is shaped like it is. Will Bontrager -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Michael Martinez Subject: Unfair Google It's not all about links. And the Google "link:" command does not report accurate results. Google disabled it years ago because too many SEOs were obsessing about links. Google's algorithm assesses relevance first. The linkage score (as represented by their PageRank algorithm) is then combined with the relevance score. Many pages rank better on the basis of relevance alone, outranking many pages with large numbers of inbound links. Google has openly admitted (through GoogleGuy, Matt Cutts, and other sources) to ignoring (or devaluing) inbound links. They have also delisted many sites that have failed to meet their criteria for inclusion in the index. Where Google is concerned, not all links count, so you (and everyone else) are wasting your time counting links. Michael Martinez "Cuando Maria canta, canta para mi" http://www.michael-martinez.com/ http://michael-martinez.blogspot.com/ -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Tom Aman Subject: Unfair Google A little research will show that incoming links form only a part of the ranking algorithm used by Google so I don't see why Robert regards this as a problem. In doing such a research paper, it seems to me that the place to start is with all the info supplied by Google (see http://www.google.ca/support/webmasters/). While they do not spell out their ranking methods in detail, a little reading "between the lines" can go a long way to explaining why some sites unexpectedly rank poorly. For example, with regard to Flash, Google states, ------------------- "Yes, Google indexes pages that use Macromedia Flash. However, our crawlers may experience problems indexing Flash pages." ------------------- So a really well designed site that happens to depend on Flash may rank poorly because the crawler failed to complete indexing it and the designer may never realize that Flash is causing the problem. While content, incoming links, etc. may be important for rankings, before worrying about anything else, a site should ensure it at least follows the guidelines because these deal with what the Google spider does with images, dynamic pages, Javascript, cookies, DHTML, etc., etc. One suggestion from Google is to look at your site using a text browser such as Lynx (see http://pachome1.pacific.net.sg/~kennethkwok/lynx/ or http://lynx.browser.org/). If you can't see all of your site with Lynx, then the search engine crawlers may not be able to see all of it. A question for Robert: "Without knowing the details of the algorithms used, *all* the factors involved, as well as details of the design of each page on a site (re frames, Javascript, Flash, etc.), how can anyone determine if the Google rankings are fair?." Tom Aman Aman Software http://www.cyberspyder.com Home of CyberSpyder Link Test -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Michael Linehan Subject: Shipping charges - audit > ... shipping calculations need to be very > carefully done... who wants an audit, and > to be the 'example' that the IRS are looking for. - John Smart, LED 2151 And for anyone thinking John is being melodramatic with the audit warning, don't ever think they only bother with a certain size of company. Doing the micro-businesses is part of how they train their auditors. Keep your books well and avoid any red flags. Michael Linehan Marketing Alchemy www.marketing-alchemy.com ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: James Miller Subject: Lulu.com I have just published my first book. Well not really, as it may not be real publishing to everybody. What I've done is use www.lulu.com to create a book from my course notes. It is called "Making the Most of the Internet". Some of you will agree with what I say and others will not. But then the idea is to provoke people into doing what is best for their companies, organisations, charities or themselves. It was a very painless process and I'd recommend it to anyone, who wants to publish anything from a novel to a local history. Basically, you create a Word or other document and then Lulu turns it into a PDF. You add a cover, precis etc. and say whether it is to be printed or downloaded or both. http://www.lulu.com/content/260614 That links to the book. James Miller Daisy Analysis www.daisy.co.uk -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Dan Rosenfield Subject: Test Website > I propose that we put our money where are mouths are, set > up a fictional web site, get it listed on Google, then make changes > and see how they affect the positioning. A Google-lab test. - John Smart, LED 2151 The test website idea is super. I'll gladly do some copy writing, some search engine and directory submission work, and get involved in others areas as needed. However, instead of a fictional business, might we want to think about creating a site which will help a worthwhile charity raise money or recruit volunteers, or a site which might otherwise be helpful to people. There are a million good causes... cancer research, anti-smoking campaigns, etc. I don't really care what we choose, but let's pool our efforts to create and experiment with a site that can do some good. Make sense? Dan Rosenfield www.online-degrees-and-scholarships.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: John Smart Subject: Test site Okay, well, thank you all for the vote of confidence. We need some plans set out first. First of all we need a theme. Ideally, we want a subject that isn't swamped (web services and vitamins are out!) I was thinking theme parks although Google reports 55,000,000 results for theme parks. So any suggestions for a theme? Next is layout. How should we start. Heavy on CSS or light on CSS. Classic style <.h1><.h2><.p> etc. or more visually attractive? After layout we need to look at meta tags. Which ones do we want to include? Are we putting commas between the keywords? Finally domain name. I have a couple that are currently unused: Biographictherapy.com Restoresmhs.com Santamariamug.com Savedodgers.com Given that a domain is $10, I don't know that we have to follow this route, but if any of you can tie any of those in with any of this - have at it! I think having areas for focus than a free for all is a good idea. Which means we need staff! Someone to head up design, another for meta, another for artwork, another for site submission etc. What can you do, and what do you want to do? And please - we do need all the help we can get - but it would be much more helpful if you don't join in, than if you join in and discover you do not have the time to give this and end up walking away. I am carefully looking at how much I can contribute - I don't want to have to abandon this project at a vital moment. Finally we have hosting. This is one are where I can help :) And site stats so we can see what is going on, who is visiting and how. We must set up plans to keep the data clean. Only link to this site if you document it. Only find it in Google etc and follow the link if you document that. Undocumented traffic is useless. Finally, what do we get out of this? Well, if we run the project well, and document it well, then we all have a great tool for ourselves and our clients. The worse case is some lost time. So all the time we spend playing solitaire (come on, you know you do when the client / boss is out of the office!) will be spent on something more beneficial!! I do not profess to know what I am doing - on this subject or any other matter! If I am missing something - PLEASE chip in and tell me! I am going to get a document on line with a list of plans, and it will be an open document that we can all work on. Links will be sent as soon as everything is in place. John Smart, Technical Director InternetDesign.com - A Human Touch in a Digital World -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Steve Warriner Subject: Backups I agree with Tom Anson [issue 2146], you can spend a huge amount of time getting back up to full speed after a restore. I have 2 computers and 3 hard drives. The primary (0) drive is partitioned into 2 drives. The 1st one contains my OS and only programs that have to be installed to the C drive, and the second partition contains images (created and managed by BootitNG) of all partitions. The second hard drive is partitioned: one for all other installs, a second for downloads, a third for data files, a fourth for duplicate copies of the images of all the other partitions, and a fifth for files I feel are confidential. (I can use BootitNG to boot up without loading the last 2 partitions, as I have an always-on connection and use the task manager for maintenance overnight). The image of my OS is of a virgin install that has been tweaked and set up as I want it. So when windows gets quirky I can paste a copy of the OS image to my C drive in about 10-15 minutes and be ready to go. I use TweakUI to relocate items such as my documents, my desktop, favorites etc. to my second hard drive. I recently had to replace my motherboard, so I put the second hard drive in my other computer and could carry on with all my programs and data files. Just a note that I did not find BootitNG at all intuitive. It took me 6 months (I don't live in front of this thing) just to really get it working and another 6 months to come up with my current setup, which still has some holes to plug, such as non-C drive installs that have to write to the registry, and keeping the C drive image updated without introducing the corruption that causes problems with Windows. Best, Steve Warriner ------------------------------------------------------- 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. "Over a large number of bets, the odds even out and we can make predictions; that's why casino owners are so rich. 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