things to consider when choosing a domain name
Choosing the right domain name for a website is important in several ways. One is branding, another is search engine rankings, and a third is the target audience/market. Mistakes can be made, and it is better to prevent them that to try to correct them, so right from the start of creating a new website, the domain name itself should be given some consideration.
Target Audience / Market
The major search engines, such as Google, have regional (country-specific) versions in which people are able to search only for websites and pages that are to do with the country. There are two ways for the engines know which websites are to do with a particular country. One is the location of the server where the site is hosted, and the other is the top level domain name extension (TLD). The UK's TLDs, for instance, are .co.uk, .org.uk, etc. Unless a website has a country's domain name extension, or is hosted in the country, it won't be returned in the results when people search the regional engines for country-specific sites and pages.
If a business website is aiming only at people in its own country, then it is important to have a top level domain name extension for that country. Hosting a site with a .com domain extension in the country may be ok if it is hosted in the country, but, if the site targets a country, then it's much safer to go with the country's top level domain name extension, and have the site hosted in the country.
For a world-wide audience and searches that aren't country-specific, it isn't really necessary to consider the TLD, although .com, .net, etc. domain names may be favoured in the search results.
Search Engine Rankings (keywords in domain names)
Search engines use the words in domain names as a ranking factor, and unless a site is being heavily branded, it is good to include keywords in the domain name. The domain name words should be seperated with hyphens. E.g. london-hotels.co.uk rather than londonhotels.co.uk. Search engines treat hyphens as spaces, so the first domain name is "london hotels" as far as the engines are concerned, whereas the second one is "londonhotels" - all one word, and a word that people don't search on, so it doesn't help with the rankings. The first example does help with ranking the site for 'London hotels'.
Branding (business name)
It goes without saying that, when branding a business or company is important, the domain name should be the name of the brand. Even so, it is still necessary to have a country-specific domain name if the business targets people in a particular country.
Using a branded domain name does not prevent the site from doing well in the search engines for its important keywords - it just doesn't add any help for ranking purposes.
Some online brands combine the brand with keywords. For instance, in the UK, we have a TV advertising company called cottages4u. Unfortunately, the word "cottages" in the domain name doesn't help with ranking it for 'cottages', because it isn't a seperate word. On the other hand, using seperate words (cottages-4u), so that the domain name helps with the rankings, isn't good for people to type into their browsers. Keywords in domains are helpful for rankings, but not so much that it's better to include hyphens in a brand name - it isn't. Seperating keywords with hyphens is good when people are not expected to type the domain URL into a browser but, for branding, it's better not to use hyphens.
Summary
Right from the start of creating a website, consideration must be given to its domain name. If the business targets only one country, use the domain name extension of that country. If the business is to be strongly branded, use the domain name for the brand name, and not for keywords, unless they coincide. If the domain name isn't important as a brand, then make it up of important keywords, seperated by hyphens.
http://www.webworkshop.net/domain-names.html
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Website Hosting Scams
how they are done and how to spot them
Rogue Website Hosting Companies
Outright scams by website hosting companies are rare, but they do exist and should be watched out for. We had a case in the forum (Rogue web hosting company changing customers' websites) where the web host used the server to intercept all page requests for all sites of all of their website hosting customers. If a request was from a person, the normal page was returned, but if a request was from a major search engine spider, the web host's server scam modified the page that was returned, by dynamically adding a set of links to it. This was done to all the web host's customers' sites, and without their knowledge or permission.
Most of the added links pointed to the web host's own websites, but some pointed to non-existant (virtual) sub-folders within the customer's site. When any search engine spider requested a page within those non-existant sub-folders, the system dynamically created a page of links to the host's own sites, and the host's sites got even more links pointing to them. When people requested any of the non-existant pages, they were redirected to the site's home page, but for search engines, each hosting customer's site contained sections that the customer didn't put there, and didn't know existed. The extra sections couldn't be seen by FTP, because the sub-folders and pages didn't physically exist. They were virtual, dynamically created, sub-folders and pages, which were only ever seen by search engine spiders.
The purpose of the scam was to add many links, with targetted link text, to the website host's own sites, so that they would be pushed up the search engines' rankings. In doing it, the customers lost out in ranking positions, because the host was channeling PageRank out of the customer sites, which caused them to lose a little ranking power.
We were able to get Google to deal with the web host's site without harming the innocent customer sites, so that case worked out ok. But it isn't an isolated case, and the possibility of a website hosting company scamming customers is something to be aware of. The problem with that type of scam is that most customers wouldn't know how to spot it. There are no extra files to be seen by FTP, and, without knowing the file paths and names of the virtual pages, how can such a scam be spotted?
How to spot the scam
Fortunately, Google comes to our aid. Do any search in Google. At the foot of the results page there is a link to "Language Tools". Click it. Near the top of the returned page is a box in which you can enter the URL of a page to be translated ("Translate a web page:"). Enter your page URL there, leave the setting at German to English, and click "Translate". There will be no German words in your page, so it will all come back in English. If the web hosting company has changed anything in your page, you will see the changes in the translated page.
How does that work? When the web server serves one page to people, and a different page to search engine spiders, it is called cloaking. The scam that I've described serves different pages to search engines than those that are served to people. Search engines get the added links, but people don't. It is cloaking. Cloaking looks at the IP address of the requestor before deciding which page to send. If it is the IP of a search engine spider, the page with the added links is returned. We can't spoof a Google spider's IP address, but Google's translation tool uses a Google spider's IP address, because it is a Google spider, so the host returns the page that is intended for search engines. That's how you can see any modificatoons that have been done to your pages by your website hosting service.
If your website hosting company is a small business, you might want to check a few pages from time to time.
Unfortunately, the orginal forum thread about that scam was lost in a technical glitch, but the thread linked to at the top of this piece shows what the cloaked pages looked like, and some links to 'saves' of the original thread pages are posted at the end of the thread.
Hacking Problems
A case (sitemaps hacked??) recently appeared in the SearchEngineWatch forum where websites had been hacked, so that pages are modified when search engine spiders request them. Those particular modifications were to benefit porn sites. In this case, the hack is easy to spot by FTP because real sub-folders and files are added to the sites, so it isn't invisible as in the previous case.
Google people checked it out, and concluded that it wasn't the hosts who were to blame, but the likelihood is that cPanel usernames and passwords had been hacked so that the new sub-folders and files could be placed in the sites. The hack caused one of the sites to be penalised by Google, but it is likely to be re-included now that the cause has been exposed.
This type of hack is bound to be on the increase, and should be watched out for. It is easily spotted by FTP, due to the extra sub-folders, but it is better to prevent it in the first place by using totally obscure passwords.
http://www.webworkshop.net/hosting-scams.html
Rogue Website Hosting Companies
Outright scams by website hosting companies are rare, but they do exist and should be watched out for. We had a case in the forum (Rogue web hosting company changing customers' websites) where the web host used the server to intercept all page requests for all sites of all of their website hosting customers. If a request was from a person, the normal page was returned, but if a request was from a major search engine spider, the web host's server scam modified the page that was returned, by dynamically adding a set of links to it. This was done to all the web host's customers' sites, and without their knowledge or permission.
Most of the added links pointed to the web host's own websites, but some pointed to non-existant (virtual) sub-folders within the customer's site. When any search engine spider requested a page within those non-existant sub-folders, the system dynamically created a page of links to the host's own sites, and the host's sites got even more links pointing to them. When people requested any of the non-existant pages, they were redirected to the site's home page, but for search engines, each hosting customer's site contained sections that the customer didn't put there, and didn't know existed. The extra sections couldn't be seen by FTP, because the sub-folders and pages didn't physically exist. They were virtual, dynamically created, sub-folders and pages, which were only ever seen by search engine spiders.
The purpose of the scam was to add many links, with targetted link text, to the website host's own sites, so that they would be pushed up the search engines' rankings. In doing it, the customers lost out in ranking positions, because the host was channeling PageRank out of the customer sites, which caused them to lose a little ranking power.
We were able to get Google to deal with the web host's site without harming the innocent customer sites, so that case worked out ok. But it isn't an isolated case, and the possibility of a website hosting company scamming customers is something to be aware of. The problem with that type of scam is that most customers wouldn't know how to spot it. There are no extra files to be seen by FTP, and, without knowing the file paths and names of the virtual pages, how can such a scam be spotted?
How to spot the scam
Fortunately, Google comes to our aid. Do any search in Google. At the foot of the results page there is a link to "Language Tools". Click it. Near the top of the returned page is a box in which you can enter the URL of a page to be translated ("Translate a web page:"). Enter your page URL there, leave the setting at German to English, and click "Translate". There will be no German words in your page, so it will all come back in English. If the web hosting company has changed anything in your page, you will see the changes in the translated page.
How does that work? When the web server serves one page to people, and a different page to search engine spiders, it is called cloaking. The scam that I've described serves different pages to search engines than those that are served to people. Search engines get the added links, but people don't. It is cloaking. Cloaking looks at the IP address of the requestor before deciding which page to send. If it is the IP of a search engine spider, the page with the added links is returned. We can't spoof a Google spider's IP address, but Google's translation tool uses a Google spider's IP address, because it is a Google spider, so the host returns the page that is intended for search engines. That's how you can see any modificatoons that have been done to your pages by your website hosting service.
If your website hosting company is a small business, you might want to check a few pages from time to time.
Unfortunately, the orginal forum thread about that scam was lost in a technical glitch, but the thread linked to at the top of this piece shows what the cloaked pages looked like, and some links to 'saves' of the original thread pages are posted at the end of the thread.
Hacking Problems
A case (sitemaps hacked??) recently appeared in the SearchEngineWatch forum where websites had been hacked, so that pages are modified when search engine spiders request them. Those particular modifications were to benefit porn sites. In this case, the hack is easy to spot by FTP because real sub-folders and files are added to the sites, so it isn't invisible as in the previous case.
Google people checked it out, and concluded that it wasn't the hosts who were to blame, but the likelihood is that cPanel usernames and passwords had been hacked so that the new sub-folders and files could be placed in the sites. The hack caused one of the sites to be penalised by Google, but it is likely to be re-included now that the cause has been exposed.
This type of hack is bound to be on the increase, and should be watched out for. It is easily spotted by FTP, due to the extra sub-folders, but it is better to prevent it in the first place by using totally obscure passwords.
http://www.webworkshop.net/hosting-scams.html
WebProWorld are Spammers
I hate email spam. Email spam is sending unsolicited bulk emails to people. I.e. the people who receive the emails didn't ask for them, and didn't agree to receive them. But what if a company tricks you by placing an agreement to receive the emails in a place where you are unlikely to see it when you click on a link for something else. Cheating? It is in my book. In that circumstance, you didn't knowingly optin or agree to receive the emails, therefore, the emails are unsolicited - spam.
iEntry is a publishing company who produce a myriad of newsletters that are delivered by email. The purpose of the newsletters is to sell advertising in them. But iEntry have a problem. They can't sell advertising for very much money if the newsletters don't have reasonably large circulations. The larger the circulation, the more money they can get for the advertisements.
Many websites offer newsletters. There is usually an opt in system on the site so that people can choose to receive them, and iEntry is no different in that respect. But those systems don't always produce the number of optins that would increase the circulation enough to make good money from the advertisements, and it must be very tempting to find other ways of acquiring optins, even if it means hiding automatic optins from people. After all, the advertisers, who would be paying more money for the ads, are unlikely to realise that most of the 'optins' didn't know that they were opting in to anything, and that they didn't agree to receive anything, and that they don't want to receive anything. The advertisers would end up paying higher prices to deliver their ads to people who they think chose to receive them - but they didn't. Not only did they not choose to receive them, but they specifically don't want to be spammed by them. But that's exactly what iEntry does.
How do they do it? Many website owners want their websites to be listed in the various online directories, so they submit them to the directories. iEntry owns a directory called Jayde. So a website owner goes to the Jade site and submits his site. In submitting the site, he confirms that he has read Jayde's terms and conditions. Of course he doesn't read them, because it's just a directory and the T&Cs are bound to be perfectly normal. Or if he does decide to read them, he sees the length of the page, and decides not to bother. After all, it's only a directory, just like all the other directories. That's the way that most people would do it, and that's exactly what iEntry rely on to pick up newsletter optins that aren't willing optins at all. The T&C includes a statement that submitting a site to the directory automatically opts the person in to receive a newsletter.
Yes, the statement is there to be seen, but who reads lengthy T&Cs when submitting a site to a perfectly ordinary directory? To my way of thinking, the statement is intentionally hidden from people for the purpose of getting newsletter optins without people realising it - hence, unsolicited emails.
Another way that iEntry gets unknowing optins is with their WebProWorld forum. When people register in the forum, without realising it, they automatically optin to receive a newsletter - hence, unsolicited emails - spam. This is how it works...
The forum is perfectly normal in that, when a person registers, a confirmation email is sent. The email contains a link to activate the new account. Such confirmation emails are normal for many kinds of sites, and people are used to them, so they click the link without reading the rest. What they don't realise is that buried at the bottom of the email is a statement that clicking the link automatically opts in to receive a newsletter. They didn't knowingly opt in to receive the newsletter - hence, unsolicited emails - spam.
The spamming was discussed in a thread in WebProWorld's forum. During the discussion more and more people posted to say that they were receiving the spam as well. Nobody had realised that the forum's confirmation email contained the newsletter statement, because it was hidden at the bottom, and out of sight without scrolling all the way down to see it. As a result of that discussion, WebProWorld moved the statement up a little, but it is still too far down, especially when everyone knows what the email is, and just clicks the link to complete the registration.
There was another discussion in this site's forum, called "WebProWorld are spammers".
I am sure that iEntry have more ways of getting unknowing optins that I don't know about. The upshot of it is that many, probably most, people receive their newsletters without ever knowingly opting in. They didn't choose to receive them, they were unsolicited, and that makes the newsletters spam. Since many or most of the emails are spam and unwanted, the advertisers must be paying way over the odds, wrongly believing that people who receive the newsletters chose to receive them.
Unsubscribe?
So what about opting out of the newsletters? It can be done. There's an "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of each one, and it works. But sometime down the line, it's a near certainty that the spam newsletters will start coming again - not always because iEntry adds you to the list again, although they do do that, but because the tricks are still out there waiting to catch the unwary - all of us! I have unsubscribed to every newsletter several times, but they always start up again. That's because the tricks were well hidden, and like everyone else, I didn't know they even existed.
http://www.webworkshop.net/webproworld-are-spammers.html
iEntry is a publishing company who produce a myriad of newsletters that are delivered by email. The purpose of the newsletters is to sell advertising in them. But iEntry have a problem. They can't sell advertising for very much money if the newsletters don't have reasonably large circulations. The larger the circulation, the more money they can get for the advertisements.
Many websites offer newsletters. There is usually an opt in system on the site so that people can choose to receive them, and iEntry is no different in that respect. But those systems don't always produce the number of optins that would increase the circulation enough to make good money from the advertisements, and it must be very tempting to find other ways of acquiring optins, even if it means hiding automatic optins from people. After all, the advertisers, who would be paying more money for the ads, are unlikely to realise that most of the 'optins' didn't know that they were opting in to anything, and that they didn't agree to receive anything, and that they don't want to receive anything. The advertisers would end up paying higher prices to deliver their ads to people who they think chose to receive them - but they didn't. Not only did they not choose to receive them, but they specifically don't want to be spammed by them. But that's exactly what iEntry does.
How do they do it? Many website owners want their websites to be listed in the various online directories, so they submit them to the directories. iEntry owns a directory called Jayde. So a website owner goes to the Jade site and submits his site. In submitting the site, he confirms that he has read Jayde's terms and conditions. Of course he doesn't read them, because it's just a directory and the T&Cs are bound to be perfectly normal. Or if he does decide to read them, he sees the length of the page, and decides not to bother. After all, it's only a directory, just like all the other directories. That's the way that most people would do it, and that's exactly what iEntry rely on to pick up newsletter optins that aren't willing optins at all. The T&C includes a statement that submitting a site to the directory automatically opts the person in to receive a newsletter.
Yes, the statement is there to be seen, but who reads lengthy T&Cs when submitting a site to a perfectly ordinary directory? To my way of thinking, the statement is intentionally hidden from people for the purpose of getting newsletter optins without people realising it - hence, unsolicited emails.
Another way that iEntry gets unknowing optins is with their WebProWorld forum. When people register in the forum, without realising it, they automatically optin to receive a newsletter - hence, unsolicited emails - spam. This is how it works...
The forum is perfectly normal in that, when a person registers, a confirmation email is sent. The email contains a link to activate the new account. Such confirmation emails are normal for many kinds of sites, and people are used to them, so they click the link without reading the rest. What they don't realise is that buried at the bottom of the email is a statement that clicking the link automatically opts in to receive a newsletter. They didn't knowingly opt in to receive the newsletter - hence, unsolicited emails - spam.
The spamming was discussed in a thread in WebProWorld's forum. During the discussion more and more people posted to say that they were receiving the spam as well. Nobody had realised that the forum's confirmation email contained the newsletter statement, because it was hidden at the bottom, and out of sight without scrolling all the way down to see it. As a result of that discussion, WebProWorld moved the statement up a little, but it is still too far down, especially when everyone knows what the email is, and just clicks the link to complete the registration.
There was another discussion in this site's forum, called "WebProWorld are spammers".
I am sure that iEntry have more ways of getting unknowing optins that I don't know about. The upshot of it is that many, probably most, people receive their newsletters without ever knowingly opting in. They didn't choose to receive them, they were unsolicited, and that makes the newsletters spam. Since many or most of the emails are spam and unwanted, the advertisers must be paying way over the odds, wrongly believing that people who receive the newsletters chose to receive them.
Unsubscribe?
So what about opting out of the newsletters? It can be done. There's an "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of each one, and it works. But sometime down the line, it's a near certainty that the spam newsletters will start coming again - not always because iEntry adds you to the list again, although they do do that, but because the tricks are still out there waiting to catch the unwary - all of us! I have unsubscribed to every newsletter several times, but they always start up again. That's because the tricks were well hidden, and like everyone else, I didn't know they even existed.
http://www.webworkshop.net/webproworld-are-spammers.html
Doorway Pages & Links
Before Google came onto the scene with their links-based PageRank, doorway pages were the most effective of the search engine optimization techniques, because they didn't usually need any pages to link to them, and top rankings were relatively easy to achieve. But with PageRank and link popularity playing such a big role these days, are doorway pages still as effective as they used to be?
Doorway Pages Overview
A doorway page is a web page that is optimized to rank well for a particular search term. It is called a 'doorway' because people enter the website by clicking on the doorway page's listing in the search engines' search results.
It is common for a doorway page to be specially created as a doorway for a particular searchterm, but it is equally valid to select the site's most relevant existing page for the searchterm, and optimize it to rank highly in the search engines so that it becomes the doorway page for that term.
Back in the days when search engines based the rankings solely on a page's content, it was normal for one doorway page to be created for each search term. Each page was submitted to the engines and, if they were optimized better than the competition's pages, they would achieve top rankings. They could stand alone and didn't need to be a part of the 'normal' site. Therefore, they didn't need to be designed for users to see, and so they could include an instant redirect to the most relevant of the site's content pages. Search engine optimization was easy back then!
But times change, and search engines no longer base the rankings solely on a page's content. These days inbound links and inbound link text are both very important to achieving top rankings. An 'inbound link' is a link that comes into a page - from the receiving page's viewpoint it is 'inbound'. 'Inbound link text' is the text on the remote page that users click on.
For Google, inbound links and inbound link text are among the most important factors in determining rankings. It means that the traditional, specially created, stand-alone doorway pages are no longer as successful as they used to be because they need to be linked to from other pages on the web, and aquiring good links for them from other websites is just about impossible. What site would want to link to a doorway page?
But all is not lost for doorway pages. All that's needed is to rethink what they are and what they do. Here are two main strategies:-
http://www.webworkshop.net/doorway-pages-and-links.html
Doorway Pages Overview
A doorway page is a web page that is optimized to rank well for a particular search term. It is called a 'doorway' because people enter the website by clicking on the doorway page's listing in the search engines' search results.
It is common for a doorway page to be specially created as a doorway for a particular searchterm, but it is equally valid to select the site's most relevant existing page for the searchterm, and optimize it to rank highly in the search engines so that it becomes the doorway page for that term.
Back in the days when search engines based the rankings solely on a page's content, it was normal for one doorway page to be created for each search term. Each page was submitted to the engines and, if they were optimized better than the competition's pages, they would achieve top rankings. They could stand alone and didn't need to be a part of the 'normal' site. Therefore, they didn't need to be designed for users to see, and so they could include an instant redirect to the most relevant of the site's content pages. Search engine optimization was easy back then!
But times change, and search engines no longer base the rankings solely on a page's content. These days inbound links and inbound link text are both very important to achieving top rankings. An 'inbound link' is a link that comes into a page - from the receiving page's viewpoint it is 'inbound'. 'Inbound link text' is the text on the remote page that users click on.
For Google, inbound links and inbound link text are among the most important factors in determining rankings. It means that the traditional, specially created, stand-alone doorway pages are no longer as successful as they used to be because they need to be linked to from other pages on the web, and aquiring good links for them from other websites is just about impossible. What site would want to link to a doorway page?
But all is not lost for doorway pages. All that's needed is to rethink what they are and what they do. Here are two main strategies:-
http://www.webworkshop.net/doorway-pages-and-links.html
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