Archive for the ‘Google’ Category

If you are like me you have many domains just sitting around not doing much. I keep a notebook of ideas and when a new idea pops into my head I do two things. I write it down in the notebook and I buy a relevant domain. I may or may not actually develop the idea anytime soon but buying the domain early ensures I get what I want.

You have a number of choices when it comes to dormant domains. Some people are lazy and just leave them parked at their registrar. Other people use PPC parking services to earn a few bucks. I personally like to put my domains in the virtual wine cellar (domain cellar?) to age.

With Google’s current algo, older domains have a much better chance to rank. Over at WebmasterWorld there is a discussion going on whether just having a domain registered counts toward the aging. In my opinion it does not.

I believe you need both content and links on a domain for it to start aging in Google’s eyes. So this is how I prepare my domains to store in the domain cellar.

• Add domain to one of my reseller hosting accounts (unlimited domains).
• Create a front page with a minimalistic design.
• Add brief paragraph on the subject matter the domain is about.
• Add 10-20 internal links to subcategory pages containing 2 frames.
• Each subcategory page used the page name convention key-word-phrase.html.
• The top on-site header frame contains a logo and internal links.
• The lower off-site frame points to another website that is already ranking for the target sub-content.

I don’t bother putting up adsense or any monetization. The investment in the domains future is worth way more than a few adsense clicks or domain parking pages can earn me.

Now that it’s up, make it a habit to get 2-3 links a week for each domain (link condom free). With the number of user generated content sites on the web this should not be hard or take much time.

In a year or so when I finally get around to developing a site I don’t have to worry about a sandbox and the domain has enough history to rank for what I want. So stop wasting precious your domains on domain parking pages and get them ready for the future. You might even get lucky and even start ranking for some keywords before you start to build an actual sites. I actually know of several sites that have such frame pages ranking for certain keywords.

I read someone’s comment on a blog today stating they didn’t think ALT text meant much to Google. There is so much misinformation dealing with SEO it’s sometimes hard to tell the truth from the bull. The confusion usually stems from either old information still live on websites or just the fact that much of what we do is based on past experience. A lot of what I see on forums these days is the blind leading the blind.

While doing a site search on Google for Xuru.com you will find evidence that Google treats ALT text as nothing less than on page content. I used a template for Xuru.com and didn’t do much in the way of SEO to tell the truth. On my category pages where I did not add a description tag, Google is showing the top most content from the page since there are no keywords provided in the search box to center the search listing around. See where I highlighted in the first listing “balloon left slice right slice.” That is the ALT text for the balloons in the pager header. To me that is proof positive that the ALT text is content to Google.

Last night, while listening to Net Income [mp3 link], Cshel brought up the site review panel at PubCon. Using his super secret agent laptop Matt Cutts called out a webmaster for having around 50 domains. From the sounds of it he was not interlinking them so no big deal right? Well maybe not. Why would Matt bring up the 50 different domains that where unconnected unless Google was using this information.

I’m sure the Google spam filters are much like email spam filters in that they use a point system to flag sites for penalty or manual review. The more points a site or page accumulates, the more likely it’s spam. I could see why Google would be wary of webmasters who have thousands of domains registered. Let’s just hope this is something that would only flag a manual review and not something that would cause an automated penalty.

So what are all my fellow tin-foil hat group members supposed to do?

• Private Registration - The public cannot access private registration data but can Google? On the same Net Income show, I think it was Cshel who mentioned a company she worked for that was a registrar had access to all private domain registration data from the main registrar database. If that’s true, there is no such thing as private registration when it comes to Google.
• Fake Registration Data - By using fake info when registering a domain you can avoid Google being able to connect your whois data. This does not mean that Google can’t still connect domains by use of Adsense, Google Analytics, or the servers you host on. Do you really have the time it takes to create a separate account for each and every domain for all of these services? While unlikely to happen, there is also the small chance of losing the domain for using fake info.

It’s up to you to decide how thick you want your tin-foil hat. I think this is definitely a sign to at least setup a new profile for any sites that are less than white. For example, I would have one profile for your white hat content sites and another for your MFA / black hat sites.

Update: Matt Cutts just posted the session details. A must read.

Update 2: It has been confirmed that Google cannot see past private domain registrations. That doesn’t mean they don’t have contracts with larger registrars to get the information for a fee.

Google has teamed up with StopBadware.org to combat spyware, viruses, and so on. If StopBadware flags your website as either hosting badware or linking to another site hosting badware, Google will flag your domain and warn surfers of a possible threat. It is unclear whether actual rankings can be affected by this flag. Maybe Matt Cutts or Vanessa can give some clarification.

The good news is Google Webmaster Central now informs webmasters if their website has been flagged for badware. While I don’t use the sitemaps tool often, Webmaster Central really is becoming invaluable to any serious webmaster. First they start reporting website penalties and now this.

As search engine optimization evolves into a more well rounded marketing discipline, SEOs are revisiting more traditional marketing objectives. No longer does the job stop at attracting visitors to a website. Conversion tracking is the name of the game.

Rand posted “When an Action Comes Around, You Must Track It” over at SEOmoz but I feel he missed one very important metric that can directly affect search engine rankings. Google has it’s own conversion metric based on user behavior which will become an increasing factor in rankings as time goes on.

I don’t know the exact number of Google toolbars installed, but I am estimating it’s in the millions. Combine that data with the data from Google Analytics and you have a very comprehensive sample group to determine user behavior.

If someone finds you in the #1 spot for your targeted keyword and clicks the link to visit your site, Google knows if they go on to visit multiple pages or if they drop off after the first page. This behavior is a very strong indication whether the user found what they where looking for. If a large enough percentage of visitors never go beyond that one page, then that would be a very good indication to Google that they need to drop you for another site that shows signs of being on topic to the searchers needs.

All statistics programs track page views per visitor, but they do not treat these numbers as conversions. You will need to manually segment them based on search queries and add conversion values. Now determining what value to place on these types of visitors is up for discussion. Any takers?

So go and check your stats program. If the average page views per visit coming from your search terms is anywhere near 1 , then it’s time to do some tweaking to those pages. Give the visitors what they are looking for or be prepared to no longer receive those visitors.

Brian just posted a brilliant article titled “How to beat the Google Sandbox” over at SEOmoz.

If you want to beat the Google Sandbox then don’t directly link build for your target small business site. Instead set up your own content and links on more authoritative third-party sites, and link build for these pages instead.

With the Sandbox filters set to maximum over at the Plex, we are always looking for new and inventive ways to drive traffic to new sites. No longer can we site around and wait for Google to let us into the circle of trust.

I look at this technique like a spy game. If I can’t get a pass into the Trustbox, I’ll just pay someone else who is already a member to go in and spread my gospel.

While your at it, make sure to go read every article listed on this page of Jim Boykin’s blog. There may be people who know as much about link building as he does, but few are willing to share that information as openly.