SEO Ibiza - Superior Small Business SEO

While we’re talking about search engines other than Google - not exactly breaking news or anything, more of an observation and question, but what IS going on with Yahoo?

Back in July they announced a merger between Microsoft’s Bing Engine and Yahoo, which could / should have  in theory meant that they could maybe,  one day, challenge Google for market-share? LOL! hardly.

Watching Yahoo’s performance gives the appearance of a search engine in total disarrray, lurching between catastrophic meltdown and sudden repair again, we have whole sites crashing out of the Yahoo index across a wide range of keywords, and then bursting back into the index in an incredibly strong fashion again the next time you look.

People complain about Google Flux but this makes Google’s geo-differences and search personalization look rock solid stable by comparison.

Check the examples shown below..

We keep hoping that this is the new “Bingahoo” search engine in action and our sites are just phenomenally strong on it, but alas no, it’s just Yahoo being continually sh*t. Do you all see this constant & massive see-sawing on Yahoo too?

C’mon Microsoft / Yahoo sort it out, Google needs a strong competitor now to keep them in check before their systems develop sentient thought and start properly abusing all our personal private info it knows..

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With the global dominance of Google (in the western world at least) these days, apart from the odd check of Bing or Yahoo, and the very occasional use-age of Dogpile if the information we want is really well hidden, and as we work with Google as the the dominant search engine of the decade, we mostly search with it too.

So it’s not often that we would really try another search engine over the last few years, much less one that wasn’t brand new, and likely launched in a blaze of marketing glory, but that’s what happened today, somehow we stumbled onto:

ixquick

..catchy name eh?  - but try it out (box below) - seriously it’s not bad at all, definitely better than Bing we reckon.

..It’s far from new, first reviewed in (er hem.. 2000..) its some kind of meta search engine, (like Dogpile et al) but that gives strangely “Googley” results, but without the recent serious concerns over personalization and user privacy as ixquick bills itself as “protecting your privacy”

From their privacy page here

Ixquick’s position:

	You have a right to privacy.
	Your search data should never fall into the wrong hands.
	The only real solution is quickly deleting your data or not storing them to begin with.
	In June 2006 we started to delete our users’ privacy data within 48 hrs.
	As of January 2009 we do not even record our users’ IP addresses at all anymore.
	We are the first and only search engine to do so.
	Our initiative is receiving an overwhelmingly positive response!

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Ixquick will wholeheartedly continue on its mission to offer you great search results in the best possible privacy!

How refreshing is that?

We havent had time to thoroughly test it yet, its supposedly porting information from “the best of the rest” of the engines (below) but gives a familiar enough SERP to leave Google users happy we think?

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- So hang on, here’s a good search engine, with Google-y style and quality results, that allows webmasters to embed it in their sites, and who don’t require you to sign away all your privacy rights to use their service…

hmmm…..

Unfortunately, we have no clue how it works, so delivering superior seo results from it, may be a little while off yet..

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Ok we spotted something to do with link relevance this week, we think maybe the first public sighting ever, and it’s big.

…BIG !!

Basically we have seen a site ranking for a phrase, due to content on the linking site, it ranks for words that are just near the links (to it)

But the words are not in any link anchor text, from there or anywhere else, Kapiche?

There are several excellent resources on Link (Ranking) Value Factors notably SEOMoz & Wiep.  Moz don’t really mention this at all, Wiep does, but the SEOs interviewed range from not very interested, to completely disinterested in the value of this as a ranking factor.

..If we are correct, this observation will change that forever.

Quoted from Wieps page, with our own entry at the end

04. Surrounding text (near-link relevance)

Q. Does the content of a text that directly surrounds a link of positive influence the value of a link? This question only covers the content that surrounds the link directly. The overall page relevance will be mentioned later on.

Eric Ward: “Multiple factors play into the ultimate effect of surrounding text. In some cases it will be useful, in some cases it will be useless.”

Bob Gladstein: “It’s not clear to me whether it’s more a matter of the general theme of the page or just text in the area of the link, but it does make a difference.”

Peter van der Graaf: “Surrounding text in de direct vicinity of a link is important, but links in the vicinity are just as important.”

Maurizio Petrone: “Nowadays, anchor text is by far a more important factor rather than the text surrounding the link. If the text is not unique (within the website, too) its value decreases long more.”

André Scholten: “Context can mean a lot, there a words that have a total different meaning when placed in a different context. Search engines will determine which linked page is more relevant when searched for a specific context.”

Hamlet Batista: “This is documented in the original paper describing Google’s search engine and on one of the latest patents. Extensive testing is required to be certain.”

Ralph Tegtmeier: “More of an informed guess than a scientifically proven assertion. I’m fairly confident, however, that proximity of keywords and targeted search terms will play a fairly important role soon.”

SEO Ibiza - Yes absolutely, Google now looks at and factors in the  content and text around the links.

You can now rank for other peoples content if they link to you!

This week we have seen a site ranking for specific keywords from the body /content of the linking site.

• The keyword string is 5 words long.
• The ranking site ranks for keyword 1 + 2
• The linking page url and titles do include keywords 3-5
  
• The ranking site does not contain keywords 3, 4 and 5 at all.
• The Google cache shows the usual-

“These terms only appear in links pointing to this page: keyword3 + keyword4 + keyword5″

Repeat, keywords 3, 4 & 5 are NOT link anchors, they are merely just on the page /url  / titles of the linking site! There are definitely no incoming links whatsoever with anchor text keywords 3, 4 or 5.

Running the search with Keyword1 + Keyword 2 + Keyword3 + Keyword4 + NEWKeyword6 removes the ranking site from the SERP, ie it’s just these 3 words, and definitely because of the linking sites links / content.

If anybody would like to see this discovery for yourselves leave a comment and if know you we’ll mail you the example.  Otherwise you had better start thinking about the content & text around your inbound links, because you can now rank for it

Merry Xmas to all from SEO Ibiza

25.12.2009 - had a chance to have a good look at it yesterday, and  thankfully as today the SERP has changed. Although the results remain today, today there are other sites in the SERP displaying similar odd rankings as well and the result is not so stand-out as it was upon first noticing on the 22nd.

The linking site has now appeared one position below the ranking site too, and two other keyword 1 + keyword 2 sites are showing keyword 3, 4 and 5 as “links to this site”.

We’re now trying to replicate the effect with a similar pairing of experimental sites.  watch this space.

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So all the while everyone’s been focused on Google Caffeine and what their results may look like after the rollout “after the Holiday season, to save webmaster stress” Google have been chuckling away to themselves knowing that, that’s not what we need to be worrying about at all.

What we didn’t know is that they were going to quietly put live with no prior discussion, warning or concern about “webmaster’s stress” at all..

The most important single change to the index since the Big Daddy update..

Personalized search is now STANDARD, as in “Opt-out” for EVERYONE

Announced suddenly on the Google blog here

Today we’re helping people get better search results by extending Personalized Search to signed-out users worldwide, and in more than forty languages. Now when you search using Google, we will be able to better provide you with the most relevant results possible.

For example, since I always search for [recipes] and often click on results from epicurious.com, Google might rank epicurious.com higher on the results page the next time I look for recipes. Other times, when I’m looking for news about Cornell University’s sports teams, I search for [big red]. Because I frequently click on www.cornellbigred.com, Google might show me this result first, instead of the Big Red soda company or others.

Previously, we only offered Personalized Search for signed-in users, and only when they had Web History enabled on their Google Accounts.

What we’re doing today is expanding Personalized Search so that we can provide it to signed-out users as well.

This addition enables us to customize search results for you based upon 180 days of search activity linked to an anonymous cookie in your browser.

It’s completely separate from your Google Account and Web History (which are only available to signed-in users).

Leaving aside the Privacy Issues for a moment, the SEO significance of this is HUGE, we’ve mused about a year ago about the “rankings are dead” chorus, but here we actually are..

Personalized search for EVERY USER..

..Meaning EVERYBODY SEES DIFFERENT RESULTS

As always, the most comprehensive discussion on the subject is on Webmasterworld HERE and you’ll be able to see exactly how much “stress Google have saved webmasters over the Xmas season” over there

This has so many implications going forwards, SEO will never be the same again..

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So the long-awaited Google Caffeine Rollout will be “going live after the Holidays” according to Matt Cutts.

“Back in August we mentioned a developer preview of Caffeine, which is new technology that improves our indexing infrastructure.

The feedback on Caffeine has been very positive, so we’re ready to move from the developer preview to the next stage of the roll out: going live with Caffeine at one data center. This means that a small percentage of Google’s users will benefit from the technology behind Caffeine in their regular searches.

I know that webmasters can get anxious around this time of year, so I wanted to reassure site owners that the full Caffeine roll out will happen after the holidays.

Caffeine will go live at one data center so that we can continue to collect data and improve the technology, but I don’t expect Caffeine to go live at additional data centers until after the holidays are over.

Most searchers wouldn’t immediately notice any changes with Caffeine, but going slowly not only gives us time to collect feedback and improve, but will also minimize the stress on webmasters during the holidays.“

Interestingly they are now taking into account “stress on webmasters during the holidays..”

- In the meantime the sandbox.google.caffeine site is now switched off and displays this message..

Thank you!

We appreciate all the feedback from people who searched on our Caffeine sandbox.

Based on the success we’ve seen, we believe Caffeine is ready for a larger audience. Soon we will activate Caffeine more widely, beginning with one data center. This sandbox is no longer necessary and has been retired, but we appreciate the testing and positive input that webmasters and publishers have given.

©2009 Google

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More waiting…

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Just over a year ago Andy Beard almost broke our server with a Twitterstorm regarding our observation of Wordpress.com nofollowing their Tag links and thereby removing the high PR advantage it’s authors used to enjoy.

Today it was pointed out to us by an IE user (yes, they do still exist)  that body text links from Wordpress.com are now redirected, striking another blow against the Spammers and Sploggers who plague free systems.

Outgoing body text links are now redirected through an intermediary subdomain http://go2.wordpress.com/ thereby removing any linkjuice  / value that Wordpress.com bloggers may have thought they were sending.

There’s a forum post about it here saying if you pay for the Ads free version , then this isnt implemented, but we cant see too many “linkwheel” implementations (past or future) paying for their “web2.0″ properties, so this will likely achieve the desired effect against any “SEO users” who still haven’t gotten Wordpress’s message, and the rest, well they wont get any ranking benefits for any time spent spamming WP anymore.

We’re also expecting several sites we watch belonging to client competitors to take a rankings hit fairly soon, as these old links get re-cached and disappear off the linkmap.

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There’s a lot of talk about the Caffeine infrastructure already being live, and about the supposedly incredible speed at which it now reacts to onsite changes.

“Caffeine is unquestionably in evidence in main SERPs. I have pages ranking, TOP 3, minutes after publication”

“13 minutes on live SERPs, in at #2. - that’s for a completely new page for a new product on a ecom site (i.e not a blog or forum or other “freshness-affected” site). It came in above several other ecoms and displaced the manufacturer.”

However there are still distinct differences between the “sandbox caffeine” results and Google (old) leading some of the more cynical to think the algo update will be coming live at the now-traditional October (Halloween) time, just in time to drive lots of people to Adwords for Xmas.

.    . There’s also lots more visible SERP changes, the Triple Indented listing we spotted (first) back in March of this year seems to have become the norm in the last few days, we’re seeing it everywhere lately.

The first of these even has mini-sitelinks showing too, plus 2 indented dropdowns. (click to enlarge) And speaking of sitelinks, how about this, is this a new record for sitelinks ?

Peter Schiff’s www.schiffforsenate.com site now has sitelinks in less than 4 months. It was first registered less than 4 months ago on 24th June 2009, doesn’t even have toolbar PR showing yet,  (still showing grey bar) but now has 5 sitelinks..

Clearly Google thinks this is important too

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So we’ve been consulting with www.webtext.com and their excellent Irish web designers - Redmillion.ie (Galway’s finest) on the v2.0 site rebuild and migration which has just gone live this morning.

Isn’t it pretty? 

It’s quite ironic really coming right on the heels of the Derek Powazek nonsense that this particular project shows the way SEO and web design can work together in a happy partnership for the benefit of the project and customer.

The guys at Redmillion are no slouches at SEO by any means, they build well optimized sites anyway, and do ongoing SEO for some of their customers, and they rank pretty well themselves for their local and national terms anyway, in fact they’re periodically on the first page of Google.ie for SEO Ireland, (and will likely be top 5 a few weeks after this one )

However as primarily web designers they didn’t have either the time, nor the requisite experience of phrase- targeted site rebuilds and migrations, nor the specialist market knowledge on the relevant SERPs strength, competitivity, and weaknesses, nor how to balance the site’s link-weighting for maximum leverage, subtle title nuances, nor blog integration tactics, or know (from long experience) the best domain consolidation  strategies, or that we needed to move the hosting package to properly target the UK etc etc etc…

We would say they probably do now though..

So they did the graphic design, we thrashed out the structure together on Skype one afternoon, they built a smart modern-looking site, we optimized it’s ass..

Here we are, everything is good. Watch out for it in a chart near you soon, and give them a try, its a great service.

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Have you heard of this clown yet?  ..Derek Who?  He seems to have suddenly burst into the SEO-sphere in the last few days with another extremely lame, cliched SEO rant ala the Jason Calcanis publicity stunt of a while back.

As with our last numpty web designer experience Delboy thinks he knows everything but actually just reveals the breadth and depth of his ignorance in his petulant rantings.

You can read the fool’s bumblings here if you so desire and his follow-up drivel is here.

Derek’s [not very] well thought out and very [un]intelligent  tirade isn’t saying anything that long lines of numpties haven’t previously queued up to say  before, with the aim of getting a few links, but there’s something about the tone of this clown that will likely irk any decent SEO or organisation.

We left a comment on the latest “post” this morning that numpty must have deleted (because he obviously  can’t handle the truth) and he has already been more than answered by the likes of SEO Book here, and Search Engine Land here, and in a more adult fashion than Delboy managed  in his clueless  rants which is great, because it now leaves us free to take a more creative approach.

..So lets get at it then with some Ibiza style responses to numpty’s nonsense, but first lets have a picture of him.

This picture of greatness was taken from an article about where him and his girlfriend were fired from JPG Magazine for being useless.

Ok, so we’re just going to re-write the very few bits of it that even deserve any response (and ignore the rest that doesnt) from an SEO’s point of view.

“Web Design is not a legitimate form of marketing. The lies should not be believed by people with brains or souls. If someone charges you for “Web Design”, implying that your shiny new website..

…might actually bring you new business..

you have been conned.

The ascendency of Google has meant that, if your goal is to get the most eyeballs possible (as any ad-supported media business’ goal is) then prominent placement in the search engine results became a top priority.

And so, like the goat sacrificers and snake oil salesmen before them, the “web designer” was born, promising you that his code will verify and all will be well.

These scammers claim that they can dance the magic dance that will please the Customers and make cash rain down upon you from the pretty designs they conjure into existence.

Do. Not. Trust. Them.

The problem with Web Design[ers] is that 95% are  utterly clueless, and  most of the rest have got proper jobs and don’t make websites for the  general public. Hence the public-serving web designers’ pretty identical pagetitles, lame-ass site structures and “what-we-do” pages are filling up the bottom 950 positions of  your Google search.

1. The good advice is so obvious to anyone but a total numpty..

Look under the hood of any SEO plan and you’ll find advice like this: make sure to use keywords in the headline, use proper formatting, provide summaries of the content, include links to relevant information. All of this is a good idea, and none of it is a secret.

It’s so obvious, but anyone who pays a web designer thinking this might actually get implemented is a fool.

Maybe Derek should get acquainted with our Open Letter to Web Designers here, (it ranks #1 for “Letter for Web Designer) and save his clients some Google pain in the future.

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So it’s here, after all the waiting it’s finally out, Google Wave is rolling out by the traditional “invite only” system as per the Gmail release, and it does look pretty cool.

There’s a dirty great long 1 hr 20min video about it here, or the more impatient of you can watch this 10 minute abridged version below.

Invites are liable to be fairly scarce to start with, you can apply here Google Wave Application and we’ll let you know when we get in and start playing, in the meantime you could always try ebay

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