March 9,
2005
In
This Issue:
1. Bad Spellers of the World, Untie!
2. In the News - Google Local, More SES New York, Expired Domains
3. More News Headlines
4. This Week's Q&A - Crawling drop-downs
5. Wrapping It Up
_________________
Bad Spellers of the World, Untie!
That's the slogan appearing on one of the best t-shirts I've
ever seen. If you get the Signals or Wireless catalogs, you've
probably seen it, too. It's a good laugh, but it also reveals a
basic truth: There are a LOT of bad spellers out there.
Why do I bring this up on a newsletter about web development
and search visibility? I have a couple reasons.
One, too many bad spellers are managing web site content. This
is always a danger when we work with clients who want to do their
own site management. If the person who's in charge of that is
a poor speller, the web site suffers. Put yourself in the mind
frame of a web shopper. Are you going to feel comfortable making
a
purchase
from a web site that says something like this:
"Our oversized beach towles are 100% coton, tripple thick,
and are made from the finest importted two-ply thredds avaleable.
Guarinteed!"
You probably won't. And I wouldn't either. That's something I
just made up, but I've seen web sites where the spelling is that
bad,
and chances are you have, too. So keep the bad spellers away
from your web site management at all costs.
But that bad speller can help with something else, which is the
second reason I bring this up. Bad spellers are also shoppers,
and when they use search engines, they may not spell the names
of your products correctly. If you sell manual widgets online,
can your web site be found when someone searches for "manuel
widgets"? This is not the big deal it used to be because
the major search engines now all have very smart spell checking
tools,
and when you spell a search incorrectly, it will ask you if you
meant to search for the correctly spelled term. Still, if the
bad speller on staff wants to help, identifying keywords that
searchers
might misspell is one way he or she can.
_________________
In The News
Google Upgrades Local Search
Google has added a couple features to Google Local Search, including
the expected addition of the new Google Maps into the local search
tool. (By the way, good news for us Mac users -- Google Maps is
now Safari-friendly.) The other addition to Google Local is the
integration of reviews into the results -- like restaurant reviews,
for example. But these reviews are culled from other places on
the web, not from direct user input (like you'll find on Yahoo's
local search).
Nice adds, but Google Local still has a way to go. When I do
my favorite "test search" -- "italian restaurants -
kennewick wa" -- Google Local shows me establishments in Umatilla,
Pendleton, Pasco, and Richland before it lists several that are
actually in Kennewick. Not good.
Search Engine Strategies Conference - New York
I mentioned the big SES conference briefly in last week's newsletter,
and want to do so again. This time to point you toward SEOMoz.org
for a very nice recap of many of the presentations and panels
at the conference. Feel free to pick and choose your topics.
SEOMoz.org: SES 2005, New York
Grabbing Expired Domains
Mike Davidson, a designer and consultant over in Seattle, writes
about his ordeals in trying to register a domain that was
about to expire.
"So I placed a backorder through GoDaddy for $18.95 thinking
that was all I needed to do. During the week that followed, I learned
a lot about the domain expiration process. Two and a half
months
and $369 later, I am the proud owner of a shiny new domain.
A really really good one."
Good read.
How to Snatch an Expiring Domain
_________________
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.
Google formally launches desktop search tool
March 07, 2005 - Reuters
Questions for Amazon.com's Barnaby Dorfman, VP of A9
March 07, 2005 - ClickZ.com
Google: A $50 billion one-trick pony?
March 03, 2005 - Business Week
Its focus on Web-searching -- an increasingly limited arena --
may be blinding it to big opportunities elsewhere
More headlines: http://www.owtweb.com/news/
_________________
This Week's Q&A
Hello Matt,
I know it's good to give search engines text links so they can
easily crawl a web site. Can search engines also follow links
that are used in drop-down menus? We have a lot of pages on
our company site, and the easiest way to present some of our navigation
is in a drop-down menu.
Bill
Hi Bill --
In just about all cases, SE crawlers have no problem with links
that are presented in drop-down menus. Just look at the
code you're using, and if it looks like a link, it should be
fine. The few
cases where this may be a problem are with some javascript-based
drop-down menus where the link itself is buried inside
a bunch of code that prevents the crawler from realizing there's
a
link in there somewhere.
If you have pages on your site now that can only be accessed
by using a drop-down menu, do a search on Yahoo or Google
and if the
page is there, you're fine. If it's not, but you think
it should be, you might have a problem. Look at the drop-down
code you're
using and make sure the links look like links.
(Have a question? Email questions@owtweb.com)
_________________
Wrapping it Up
Back to work for me. Hope business is treating you well these
days!
Thanks for reading,
Matt McGee
The OWT Newsletter is a weekly service offered free to anyone
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