February 9,
2005
In
This Issue:
1. Google Updating
2. In the News - Google Adds Maps, Web Design Books
3. More News Headlines
4. This Week's Q&A - Using PDFs
5. Wrapping It Up
_________________
Google Updating
Google's "sandbox" was the topic of our Q&A last
week, and it continues to be the hot topic on the webmaster and
SEO mailing lists and message boards I read. The news since last
week's Net Gains is that some web site owners and webmasters are
finally seeing their web sites come out of the sandbox, and ranking
well again on Google for their key words and phrases. Of course,
there's no rhyme or reason to what kind of sites are being "freed."
There's a flip side to this coin: Just as many web site owners
are reporting that their sites have all but disappeared from
Google's index within the past week. Last Thursday, Feb. 3rd seems
to be
the date most are saying is when all this began. And by all accounts,
we're now officially in the middle of a large-scale Google update.
Us webmaster types always give these things a name, and this
one is being called Allegra.
As I'm monitoring the sites of a couple clients, this update
is still very much in progress. There are webmaster tools which
allow
you to see SERPs from many of Google's different datacenters,
and the results are dramatically different this morning. If
you haven't
noticed a change for the worse in your Google ranking, consider
yourself lucky. If you have, the best advice right now is to
be patient and let this update finish. It may take weeks before
Google
is done tweaking its algorithm, and then weeks after that before
we can assess what happened.
Regardless of your situation, the advice I offered last week
is appropriate to all: Stop focusing so much on Google. We
have three
major search engines now, and it makes no sense to put all
your eggs in one basket. If your site is built to rank well
in Yahoo
and/or MSN, you should be able to survive the whims of Google's
updates.
_________________
In The News
Google Adds Maps
Google has launched a new map service that it hopes will compete
with Yahoo's very popular Yahoo! Maps. Google's version offers
a unique experience in that the maps are larger and you can move
around a map without having to reload the page. It offers similar
driving direction tools and information about local businesses
that can be targeted to a specific area. Here, for example, is
Google's map of "hotels
near 98109".
That's the area code in Seattle near Key Arena and the Space
Needle. By the way, if that link doesn't work for you, it's
because Google
Maps isn't fully browser-compatible yet. In any case, Google
will eventually roll this in with its Google Local Search
that we've
talked about here many times in recent months.
Google Maps (beta)
Web Design Books
Digital Web magazine posted an article last week listing four
recommended books about web design. If you're a designer,
you might want to
check out the list and the books mentioned.
The Four Best Web Design Books You Might Have Missed
_________________
More News Headlines
Here are a few news headlines worth your time to read.
These are just some of the headlines we've posted
to OWTweb.com in recent
days.
How to play in Google's sandbox
February 09, 2005 - Search Engine Guide
Search engine marketing should aim at Google's top 10 listings,
study shows
February 08, 2005 - Internet Retailer
Yahoo launches 'contextual' search
February 03, 2005 - News.com
More headlines: http://www.owtweb.com/news/
_________________
This Week's Q&A
Hi Matt,
I've noticed quite a few PDF files that are ranking well in Google
and other search engines for some of the searches I do in my
industry. The PDFs seem to have content that's similar to web
pages from the same company, but the PDF's rank better for
some reason. Is this a new way to get better rankings? Is it something
we should consider to help our visibility?
Frank
Hi Frank --
We've also noticed PDF files ranking well on various queries,
and have done some very small testing that shows there
may be some
benefits from placing PDFs on your web site to increase
visibility. If you think about it, it makes sense: PDFs are most
often
highly informational documents, such as research papers,
how-to guides,
white papers, etc. So perhaps they should rank well on
certain search queries.
If your business is such that offering informational PDFs
on your web site makes sense for your human visitors,
I would do it. But
a couple things to keep in mind:
1. Don't just copy your web site text word-for-word.
That doesn't help your visitors at all. Make sure the
PDF has
more / different
information that is available on your web site.
2. Make sure you create your PDFs from Microsoft Word,
Quark, or Adobe InDesign -- something that will allow
the text to
remain formatted as text in the PDF.
(Have a question? Email questions@owtweb.com)
_________________
Wrapping it Up
More funnies: Business
2.0 magazines "101 Dumbest Moments
in Business" 2005 edition.
Thanks for reading,
Matt McGee
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