February
22, 2006
In This Issue:
1. Bad SEO Advice
2. In the News - MSN Updates, Goodbye Front Page,
Google Interface pic
3. More News Headlines
4. This Week's Q&A - Cold Fusion?
5. Wrapping It Up
_________________
Bad SEO Advice
How many people do you think read USAToday.com?
Probably in the millions every month, right? Right.
Let's hope that only a tiny percentage of those
visitors read the latest "Ask an Expert"
column written by a man named Steve Strauss. Strauss'
column, which was posted Monday, deals with SEO.
Here's a link:
USAToday.com: Searching
for business? Look to your Web marketing
Now, there are a few basics in there which count
as good, accurate advice. But there are a few
doozies, too, that I fear the average business
owner will take as gospel truth. Example:
"Whatever keywords your customers would (hopefully)
use to find your site must be used throughout
your site, but especially in your meta tags (the
title and words describing the page)."
Noooooo! Please, let's not perpetuate the myth
that the keywords meta tag has any real value
today. It doesn't. Strauss also recommends some
"quality link exchanges with other good sites,"
which by itself is not a bad idea in terms of
bringing in traffic to your web site, but particularly
with Google, link trading has little impact today
on your search engine rankings.
But you guys know all this already.... right?
Right.
_________________
In The News
MSN Updates
MSN has updated both the look of its search engine,
as well as the algorithm behind it. From a very
quick and unscientific test, it appears the algorithm
is very heavily weighted toward on-page factors,
with little concern for inbound links. That is
to say, it's closer to Yahoo than Google - but
Yahoo circa 2002 or 2003. Still a ways to go.
As for the new look, I'm no fan at all, but you
can decide for yourself if you like the gray better
than the previous blue.
MSN Search
Goodbye Front Page
That sound you heard last week was the sound of
professional web developers everywhere rejoicing
at the news that Microsoft Front Page is going
the way of the Dodo bird - extinct. PC World reported
on this last week and MSFT confirmed it -- when
the new version of Office comes out later this
year, no more Front Page. Goodbye to the worst
HTML editor ever.
PC World: Bye-bye,
FrontPage in New Office, Says Microsoft
New Google Interface
Google is always testing new "looks",
and every so often someone grabs a screenshot
of one of the more interesting tests. That's the
case with this one, which shows a 3-column layout
rather than the current 2-column approach.
Flickr: New
Google Interface
_________________
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.
Targeting
Local Audiences With Search, Part 1: MSN
February 2, 2006
What are the current and emerging opportunities
for local marketers on the major search engines?
Part one of a series.
Targeting
Local Audiences With Search, Part 2: Yahoo
February 16, 2006
What are the current and emerging opportunities
for local marketers on the major search engines?
Part two of a series.
News
search engine optimization
February 21, 2006 - Search Engine Watch
More headlines: http://www.owtweb.com/news/
_________________
This Week's Q&A
Matt,
I recently took up providing web maintenance for
an organization with an existing web site. The
site was originally built by a volunteer, and
then turned over to a different volunteer to maintain...and
then they realized if they wanted good work done
fast, they would have to pay someone. (Cheaper,
faster, better -- pick any two!)
Problem is, the site is built in Cold Fusion.
I don't know a darn thing about it, but I can
see from looking over the code that it's a big
mess and the navigation needs some serious revision.
Plus the site loads slowly and they'd like to
move it to a faster host, but it seems most hosting
companies don't even handle .cfm. Should I just
tell them to scrap it and start building from
scratch? And should I learn Cold Fusion -- or
is it obsolete?
Thanks,
Kat
Hi Kat,
I would tell them to start from scratch and explain
that it's an investment that may cost more up
front (or might not if the code is really that
bad), but will provide more cost-efficiency over
the long haul.
I'm not a Cold Fusion guy -- heck, I'm not much
of a programmer whatsoever -- but my experience
matches yours when you talk about limited support
for Cold Fusion. Perhaps someone else reading
Net Gains would disagree? I don't know.
I do know, though, that if you're up for learning
something new, I would recommend PHP and MySQL
-- it's a combo that is supported very widely
and will give you, the self-employed web developer,
a lot more value to offer your clients and a lot
more opportunities to get new clients.
(Have a question? Email questions@owtweb.com)
_________________
Wrapping it Up
It's official: Jeeves, of Ask Jeeves fame, is
retiring.
Thanks for reading,
Matt McGee
The OWT Newsletter is a weekly service
offered free to anyone interested in learning
more about web development, search engine optimization/marketing,
and just about anything else related to running
a business web site. You don't need to be an OWT
client to subscribe to our newsletter!
Subscribing and unsubscribing can
be done online at OWTweb.com. You may share this
newsletter with others as long as the newsletter
is shared in its entirety.
Private replies to emails will
be written if we have time, but we don't provide
web site critiques or consulting services for
free. You can learn more about our web development
and search engine marketing services online at
www.owtweb.com. |
