Project AdSense - SEO

If Santa Claus Worked For Google

nospam@example.com (AdSense Strategies) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 07:19:56 -0700

We all know that Santa Claus does his very best to make sure all of the "nice" children get toys at Christmas. He works all years making his toys and then spends Christmas Eve traveling the globe in his sleigh delivering the toys to all the good boys and girls around the world. But, what if Santa Claus worked for Google? Could he be doing things better?

Google Claus as the new improved Santa would now be known would make Christmas more fair. He would optimize his routes, his toy making and bring even more joy to the good , or should I say most popular, boys and girls of the world, but how?

Continue reading "If Santa Claus Worked For Google"

Does PageRank Matter?

nospam@example.com (AdSense Strategies) — Thu, 17 May 2007 07:42:21 -0700

One of the most over discussed topics on the net is whether or not PageRank actually matters to search engine results. 99% of the time, the discussion ends with some "authority" giving you an example of a search which shows a lower pagerank site higher than one with a higher pagerank.

What a load of bull!

Let me tell you this, PageRank counts. Now, that statement requires a little extra explanation. Let me give you some point form notes:

2 sites with the same PageRank on the Google toolbar do not necessarily have the exact same pagerank!
When all other things are equal (SEO wise), then PageRank is the deciding factor for search engine placement.
The PageRank you see on the toolbar, or by looking at those "Future PageRank" sites is almost always out of date.

So, if you have a site with PageRank 3 and you're comparing it to another site with PageRank 3, they are not the same PageRank. PageRank is more finely granulated than a 0-10 numbering system.

Here's my concrete example (you knew it was coming, didn't you).

I had a web site: http://recipes.gocurious.com, entitled "Best Ever Recipes". I added a bunch of content to the site and got some backlinks.

I then decided to register a domain: best-ever-recipes.com because I know that domain name helps in SEO results. I then permanently forwarded the old to the new (so that I didn't lose any of my old backlinks) and proceeded to get backlinks to http://www.best-ever-recipes.com and add more content.

Just before the latest PR update, I decided to use new software on the recipe site, Serendipity instead of Jooma. My better half (who does all the work on that site) was not happy about loosing the old site's look. So, I decided to split the sites into two distinct sites. The old one using Joomla and the new one using Serendipity.

Now, just before the split the site was ranked #1 or #2 on google for the phrase "Best Ever Recipes", depending on which day you did the search. It was also ranked well on "Best Recipes Ever".

Apres split, both sites had PageRank 3 (cool), but neither site was #1 or #2 on the phrase "Best Ever Recipes". The old site (http://recipes.gocurious.com) was ranked #9 and the new site not ranked at all even though it had the exact same domain name and had the phrase "Best Ever Recipes" all over the place.

This leads me to one conclusion.

3/2 = 3 (in google terms...in other words, there is a lot of difference between 3 and 4 in PageRank), and PageRank matters. You can take a high 3 in pagerank and split it to two low 3's.

The new site is coming along well and getting ranked much better than the old (hooray to Serendipity), but the old still wins on the phrase "Best Ever Recipes"...

For those of you new to Project AdSense, this blog is not necessarily meant to draw conclusions, it is meant to document what did/didn't work so that others can learn from it. The bottom line is that PageRank matters, it is always out of date (on the toolbar) and getting quality backlinks is something that you should strive for.

Increase Links Naturally With Link Popularity Building

nospam@example.com (AdSense Strategies) — Thu, 10 May 2007 05:37:06 -0700

I found this little article by Wendy Suto and decided it was exactly the type of thing which belongs on Project AdSense or the AdSense Project or whatever this site is called:

Businesses can gain a competitive edge with Google and other significant search engines through relevant link building strategies. The search engines track links in ranking algorithms while crawling the Web. It is advantageous to grow the number of incoming links to your company’s site alongside effective search engine optimization techniques.

There are numerous link building solutions.

1. Free and paid link directories

Link directories all provide either one-way or reciprocal links. Some are free, while others are paid only. Link directories are beneficial because Websites that place your link on their site without requesting a link back to their site are considered more valuable than reciprocal or link exchanges, in the eyes of major search engines. There are many reputable directory sites that are well trafficked by potential buyers for your product. You will find one-way and reciprocal link directories by typing into any search engine search box, keywords like “submit a link”, “add a URL”, or “add link”.

Some small business owners will only link to sites that link back to their site. This creates reciprocal links pages and triangular link patterns. Reciprocal links do not improve a Website’s rankings, and should only be done to give value to your site visitors. This is not a savvy SEO tactic or a wise link building practice. Stay clear of SEO companies who use these link exchange strategies; they are not considered real SEOs by other professionals in the field.

2. Business Blogging

This is an ever growing Internet trend gaining in popularity with businesses – corporate blogs. Blogging started as personal spaces for individuals to share their thoughts and the events around them, like an online diary. Corporate blogging is then defined as another way to publish business-related content and gain more visibility for your company on the Web. By offering information and sharing knowledge, a company can quickly establish itself as a leading industry expert, get information to customers quickly, increase sales, attract journalists seeking news releases, and attract new customers looking for relevant information.

3. Article Directory Submissions

Article directories are sites that house free reprint articles, allowing authors (people like you) to become known as experts in a field or industry. These sites help authors gain one-way link popularity because others seeking free articles to reprint on their newsletters, Websites, blogs and in print can find them here. Reprint articles can only be used elsewhere if providing a link back to the author’s Website. You also receive free advertising and promotion.

4. Press releases

Submit your company’s news releases to sites like PRWeb.com and PRNewswire.com to allow journalists and bloggers to find important information about your company, its products and services. These releases also build links to your site, and attract attention from prospective buyers.

5. MySpace.com

This is a tremendous opportunity for free publicity, through networking with prospects from around the world. Place your business profile, your company logo and business pictures, commercials and videos, write comments on other myspace.com profiles, receive email, instant message, and search for prospective clients. MySpace.com also has a business section that is cost effective and a great way to share your business with people searching for a certain product or service. This is another way to increase your link popularity.

6. Yahoo! Answers

This site is relatively new, and lets people in all industries become an expert in their fields. Answer questions in categories related to your expertise. Choose a subject from an extensive list of categories. Create a profile on Yahoo!, and you get to list up to 3 other one-way links. Yahoo! Geocities offers free a Website template and tools to build a simple Website. All these avenues add a host of easy ways to increase link popularity for your business.

7. One-Way Links on other Business Sites

Even with these link building strategies, having one-way links are considered much more valuable than link exchanges, also called reciprocal links. One way links from other related business sites or blogs with pertinent subject matter to the Website is an excellent way to drive traffic to your site. Although it is time consuming asking other sites to link to your site, these methods will assist in building stronger link popularity interest among the major search engines.

8. Business Networking Sites

FastPitchMedia.com and LinkedIn.com are two business networking sites that give professionals and business executives many resources under one place. These one-stop shops give professionals a lot of excellent exposure for free, by housing a database of business owners linked to each other’s online networks. Try something new! Create a profile through these sites, and you will reach other decision makers, stay in touch with others in your network, fill a key position, and keep contact information current.

Wendy Suto is president and CEO of Search Circus, Inc., an ethical SEO firm specializing in one-way link popularity building. The company also offers natural search engine optimization, blog marketing, Website copywriting and article submission solutions. As a certified search engine optimization consultant, she teaches SEO seminars throughout Cleveland, Ohio.

wendy@searchcircus.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Wendy_Suto
http://EzineArticles.com/?Increase-Links-Naturally-With-Link-Popularity-Building-(LPB)&id=550935

Project AdSense #1 on Yahoo

nospam@example.com (AdSense Strategies) — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 14:25:57 -0700

Yep, we're #1 on Google, #1 on Yahoo and #3 on MSN. It's all about SEO, page title and domain name choice. Cool!

Project AdSense #1 on Google

nospam@example.com (AdSense Strategies) — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 14:16:54 -0700

Of course, it's #1 for the search term "Project AdSense", but this confirms a number of things.

1) Domain name counts (even sub domain)
2) Page Title Counts
3) Irritating repetition of keyword phrases counts.

Of course, I'm getting absolutely no traffic on this site from that search term, but hey...it's nice to know that it's listed as #1 for even one search phrase.

Finally figured out SEO URLs on Serendipity with GoDaddy

nospam@example.com (AdSense Strategies) — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 06:31:42 -0700

It wasn't easy, but I've finally found a combination of configuration and hacks which made the mod_rewrite based SEO URL's on Serendipity work on my GoDaddy account.

Basically a combination of changes to permalinks (adding a trailing slash to certain items) along with a change in one of the php files with respect to rss links seems to have helped out. I would have preferred a totally Serendipity based solution (i.e. a fix to Serendipity) or a GoDaddy solution (i.e. a mod_rewrite setting), but I guess this will do.

I fully expect my next upgrade of Serendipity to undo my changes

Here's my personal notes on the subject. They are not comprehensive, but they are meant to remind me of what I've done:

1) Enable mod_rewrite
2) Change appropriate permalinks to have trailing /
3) Change include/plugin_internal.inc.php
- Changes here are second instance of index.rss to
have trailing slash
- Also do index.rss1 index.rss2 and comments.rss2

Observations about Measuring backlinks and PageRank

nospam@example.com (AdSense Strategies) — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 10:10:27 -0700

I've seen people saying that the Google sandbox does not exist. I say this is both true and untrue. I have seen my site appear in the google index in as little as a week, however there are portions of googles searches which I believe are way behind current. Let me give you some examples.

I have a Christmas site

http://christmas.gocurious.com

I started developing this site, probably in October 2006. Google shows 9 backlinks to this site (as seen by going to advanced search and choosing links.

I have another site

http://mma.gocurious.com

I started developing this site, slightly afterwards.

Google shows 2 backlinks to this site (same method).

Here's the rub. I have recently written 10+ MMA related articles. These articles at minimum should be worth 1 backlink each (however, they are distributed to multiple article sites, so maybe more).

So, I go to one of my competitors sites (although competitor is not correct...they are Christmas sites, aren't they). Anyway doing a link search on that site yielded 43 backlinks, most of them internal. I know my site also has these internal links, but they aren't showing up.

Conclusion1: The backlinks and links shown currently were harvested sometime in early November, a full 3 months prior to the pagerank update. So, if you are wondering how old the data is which is being used for the current pageranks, it is 3 months old. This is just an educated guess, but probably correct.

Conclusion2: Assuming I am correct with #1, then the next pagerank (perhaps April or May) should show a dramatic increase in backlinks for both sites, but my MMA site should go through the roof.

OR

For some reason, Google is not seeing the real backlinks to my site as existing...yikes! Or most/all of these article directories are blocking outbound links...I prefer to use the stale data theory.

Note: This does not mean that google uses old data for search engine rankings or search results. I know they index my MMA site (at least the main page) about every week or two.

So, if you are thinking about setting up a web site and you have a target date to reach pagerank or full SEO, you'd better start 6 months in advance. Start by putting up your root page, then get your linking done (either by article marketing, buying links or smart link trading). Then add relevant meaningful content. Of course everyone else will tell you to build up the content on your site first and perhaps they are correct...what do I know? Not much, but I am learning!