July 13,
2005
In This Issue:
1. Google & Site Profiles
2. In the News - New Google features, Cheat Sheets
3. More News Headlines
4. This Week's Q&A - none!
5. Wrapping It Up
_________________
Google & Site Profiles
There's an idea going around that I'm buying into
about how Google views a web site and how their
view of that site influences the ranking of its
pages. The idea is that Google has a "site
profile" for everything in its index, and
your behavior as a webmaster or site owner should
generally match your site's profile consistently
over time; when it doesn't, you may be subject
to drops in rankings or even worse fates.
This idea started during a recent search conference,
where a Google engineer was asked if Google penalizes
a site that suddenly adds a substantial amount
of new pages. The engineer essentially replied
by saying this, paraphrased from someone else's
paraphrase: Google looks at actions like this
and determines if it's "good" or "bad."
There might be legitimate reasons for a small
site to suddenly expand into a big site. But the
assumption is that such an action is suspicious.
Google will compare your site expansion to others
with a matching action -- say, expanding from
10 pages to 100 -- and if those previous examples
were deemed to be spammy, your site will be lumped
in that group. In other words, if what you do
on your site fits the profile of spammy sites,
you could be penalized.
This idea of each site having a profile has more
evidence. Think back to Net
Gains #52 where we discussed a recent Google
patent application, and I wrote: "...historical
data associated with a web page is a strong factor
in ranking." That's your profile -- the historical
data Google knows about your site. Google can
easily track how many incoming links you have,
how many pages your site has, who you link to
and who links to you. And dramatic changes to
any of these kinds of information are often associated
with spammy, low-quality web sites.
What's it mean for you, the webmaster and/or business
owner? Ultimately, "be careful" is the
most important thing. If you're involved in a
link building campaign, don't overdo it out of
the chute and suddenly get 100 new sites linking
to you in a matter of days. If you're serious
about adding quality content to your web site,
don't expand with dozens of new articles over
a couple of days. Be the turtle, not the rabbit
-- slow and steady can lead to success. Take your
time to build a great web site and don't use unnatural
methods to rank better. Make sure your site's
profile doesn't fall into that "spammy"
category.
If you want to read more about this, here are
a couple links beginning with the recap of the
Google engineer's original comments.
SEO Scoop: Google
engineer explains...
SEW Forum: Google
and website "profiles"
_________________
In The News
Google Testing New Features
If you use Google regularly, maybe you've occasionally
seen some new "look" or feature that
you've never seen before. One of the SEW Forum
members saw an interesting one this week: under
the #1 listing in the SERPs, the addition of five
additional links from that same site. In other
words, the top-listed site has a total of 6 pages
linked from that prime position. You can see a
screenshot in the forum thread linked below. How
much more valuable would that top spot be if you
get 6 links to your site instead of one?
SEW Forum: New
More Results Experiment on Google
Web Developer Cheat Sheets
UK web guy Dave Child has shared several cheat
sheets on his uniquely-named web site. You can
get quick helper files in PDF or PNG formats for
things like CSS, PHP, MySQL, and more.
ILoveJackDaniels.com: Cheat
Sheets
_________________
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.
Losability
vs Usability
July 12, 2005 - Digital Web
The growth of user-centered design practices has
signified an important shift in the business goals
of technology so that critical decisions are driven
by the impact on the front end (user interface)
instead of the back end (IT and development).
What
price PageRank?
July 11, 2005 - ClickZ.com
Do you honestly believe that little green meter
on the Google toolbar counts for anything?
A
new form of local search engine optimization (Part
1)
July 07, 2005 - ClickZ.com
A new form of local SEO is becoming mainstream
-- and requires different tactics. Part one of
a two-part series.
More headlines: http://www.owtweb.com/news/
_________________
This Week's Q&A
No questions came in this week, and previous questions
have been answered. C'mon, folks - don't be shy
about asking what's on your mind!
(Have a question? Email questions@owtweb.com)
_________________
Wrapping it Up
Hope business is treating you well -- back to
school season starts soon, and then it's time
to be getting ready for the holidays. Don't put
off your planning.
Thanks for reading,
Matt McGee
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