isimo is an excellent metasearch engine that also provides access to a number of large, authoritative specialized search engines. Altogether, it's a superb research tool.
Vivisimo (which is trying to sell its product to corporate customers) calls itself a clustering engine rather than a search engine because it organizes the results of other engines into groups or clusters. It seems to be designed to make finding information as convenient as possible for the searcher. Using Vivisimo, you can approach a subject from several orientations, refine your search, and visit sites with a minimum of time and effort.
In addition to accessing 12 web search engines, Vivisimo searches definitive search engines in the fields of health (Medline (or PubMed)), business (Business.com), government (FirstGov), patents (Delphion), news (CNN, World News, others), shopping (Yahoo!Shopping) and auctions (Yahoo!Auctions and eBay).
A RESEARCH POWERHOUSE
Vivisimo is useful for many types of research, but because of its particular combination of general search engines and specialized engines, it's ideal for any type of health-related research. For example, suppose you wanted to find information about the safety and effectiveness of influenza vaccines, new vaccine patents, and news and business developments having to do with vaccines.
You might start your query in Vivisimo by typing influenza vaccine or flu vaccination in the search box and doing a web search. Then, you might choose to search the specialized search engines relevant to your subject by selecting a category in the drop-down menu next to the search box.
If you elected to search Medline (or PubMed), Patents, and News, you would retrieve abstracts of articles from the leading medical journals, abstracts of the latest patents and current news articles
You might refine your search by adding such words (depending on their relevance to the engine you're searching) as safety, effectiveness, delivery systems, demand, etc. to your query.
SEARCH TIPS
You can use the plus and minus signs to require or forbid a word, in addition to the Boolean search operators AND, OR and NOT and NEAR. In my experience, quotation marks to signify a phrase also work although Vivisimo's Search Syntax Page does not include them.
It's advisable to go the search engines you're not familiar with to see which search operators they accept because Vivisimo will only submit your search to the engines that support the operators you enter. (For example, Medline (or PubMed) uses Boolean operators, while FirstGov does not).
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/78816
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Reviews of Two First-Rate Consumer Search Engines
In light of the current recession and rising unemployment, it is more important than ever to be an informed consumer. Consumer search engines can help you to identify high-quality items, gain access to product reviews and locate online merchants who sell the products. Two of the best consumer search engines are ConsumerSearch and Active Buyer's Guide.
ConsumerSearch - COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION ABOUT HUNDREDS OF PRODUCTS
You can get an education about hundreds of products using ConsumerSearch. This search engine not only provides valuable background information and reviews of products, it furnishes links to other product reviews which it rates for credibility. In addition it displays the names of online vendors who sell recommended products.
Full Story: For example, suppose you need a new refrigerator, but have no idea what criteria to use in judging this item. After choosing the category Refrigerator, click on Full Story and you'll get a complete description of the different types of refrigerators (e.g., freezer on top, on the bottom, side by side), various product features (e.g., adjustable shelves, icemakers), and an analysis of the price ranges for different models.
Also discussed in Full Story are the opinions of various reviewers and their consensus (if any) concerning the best models for different needs and situations.
Fast Answers: If you're familiar with the features of refrigerators and just want to find out which models are recommended, you can select Fast Answers. Displayed here are the top refrigerators in each category with a paragraph summarizing the research about them. In addition, you're presented with some general information about refrigerators.
All Reviews: To see reviews of refrigerators, click on All Reviews. Here you'll find links to reviews both on the Internet and in publications that you can buy (e.g., Consumer Reports). The reviews are rated by ConsumerSearch, and include discussions about the way the products are tested, and how reliable and informative the reviews are.
Where to Buy: Finally, you can click on Where To Buy to find links to approved online outlets that sell recommended refrigerators. In addition, there are links to several shopping search engines.
ACTIVE BUYER'S GUIDE - HELPING YOU FIND THE BEST PRODUCT FOR YOUR NEEDS
Active Buyer's Guide is like ConsumerSearch in that it contains a lot of information about the products it covers, however it encompasses far fewer products. Unlike ConsumerSearch, it also provides a search engine and an interactive buyer's guide that can help you find a product specifically suited to your needs.
Let's continue with our example of trying to find information that will be helpful in buying a new refrigerator. After selecting the category Refrigerators, you're offered three categories of information - Refrigerator Decision Guide, Basic Search, and Tips for Buying Refrigerators.
Tips for Buying: If don't know what to base your purchasing decision on, click on Tips For Buying Refrigerators. Here you'll find information about several features of refrigerators, (e.g., price, freezer location, shelves, bins, etc.), and a discussion of why they may be important to people with particular needs.
Basic Search: Your next step might be to search for products by selecting Basic Search . The Active Buyer's Guide search system provides two ways to search - by specific brand or model, or by using its menu to specify the features you want. For example in refrigerators, you can specify the price, brand, color, freezer location and size. I have found this search feature to be extremely useful and effective.
Each result includes a link to a picture of the product, a list of over 40 features (including color, capacity, yearly energy consumption, refrigerator shelf type, etc.) retail outlets selling the product, reviews of the product, and the price. (Of course, the list of features varies by product.)
Selecting a result transports you to a page for that specific refrigerator which includes links to product reviews and online vendors who sell the item, plus links to general information about refrigerator features and a glossary of terms relating to refrigerators.
Side-by-Side Charts: A fabulous feature of Active Buyer's Guide is that you can compare all the features of an unlimited number of resulting models in a side-by-side chart by simply checking the Compare box included for each result.
Decision Guide: The Decision Guide (in this case Refrigerator Decision Guide) is an interactive question and answer exercise which is supposed to provide you with a list of the products that best fit your needs. You're asked to specify which features you care about most, rating how desirable a particular feature is to you. The "tradeoffs" are where it really gets tricky. For example, would you rather have an icemaker and one bin or three bins and no icemaker?
My attempt to use the Decision Guide did not result in a list of products appropriate for me. You may have a different experience.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/81237/2
ConsumerSearch - COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION ABOUT HUNDREDS OF PRODUCTS
You can get an education about hundreds of products using ConsumerSearch. This search engine not only provides valuable background information and reviews of products, it furnishes links to other product reviews which it rates for credibility. In addition it displays the names of online vendors who sell recommended products.
Full Story: For example, suppose you need a new refrigerator, but have no idea what criteria to use in judging this item. After choosing the category Refrigerator, click on Full Story and you'll get a complete description of the different types of refrigerators (e.g., freezer on top, on the bottom, side by side), various product features (e.g., adjustable shelves, icemakers), and an analysis of the price ranges for different models.
Also discussed in Full Story are the opinions of various reviewers and their consensus (if any) concerning the best models for different needs and situations.
Fast Answers: If you're familiar with the features of refrigerators and just want to find out which models are recommended, you can select Fast Answers. Displayed here are the top refrigerators in each category with a paragraph summarizing the research about them. In addition, you're presented with some general information about refrigerators.
All Reviews: To see reviews of refrigerators, click on All Reviews. Here you'll find links to reviews both on the Internet and in publications that you can buy (e.g., Consumer Reports). The reviews are rated by ConsumerSearch, and include discussions about the way the products are tested, and how reliable and informative the reviews are.
Where to Buy: Finally, you can click on Where To Buy to find links to approved online outlets that sell recommended refrigerators. In addition, there are links to several shopping search engines.
ACTIVE BUYER'S GUIDE - HELPING YOU FIND THE BEST PRODUCT FOR YOUR NEEDS
Active Buyer's Guide is like ConsumerSearch in that it contains a lot of information about the products it covers, however it encompasses far fewer products. Unlike ConsumerSearch, it also provides a search engine and an interactive buyer's guide that can help you find a product specifically suited to your needs.
Let's continue with our example of trying to find information that will be helpful in buying a new refrigerator. After selecting the category Refrigerators, you're offered three categories of information - Refrigerator Decision Guide, Basic Search, and Tips for Buying Refrigerators.
Tips for Buying: If don't know what to base your purchasing decision on, click on Tips For Buying Refrigerators. Here you'll find information about several features of refrigerators, (e.g., price, freezer location, shelves, bins, etc.), and a discussion of why they may be important to people with particular needs.
Basic Search: Your next step might be to search for products by selecting Basic Search . The Active Buyer's Guide search system provides two ways to search - by specific brand or model, or by using its menu to specify the features you want. For example in refrigerators, you can specify the price, brand, color, freezer location and size. I have found this search feature to be extremely useful and effective.
Each result includes a link to a picture of the product, a list of over 40 features (including color, capacity, yearly energy consumption, refrigerator shelf type, etc.) retail outlets selling the product, reviews of the product, and the price. (Of course, the list of features varies by product.)
Selecting a result transports you to a page for that specific refrigerator which includes links to product reviews and online vendors who sell the item, plus links to general information about refrigerator features and a glossary of terms relating to refrigerators.
Side-by-Side Charts: A fabulous feature of Active Buyer's Guide is that you can compare all the features of an unlimited number of resulting models in a side-by-side chart by simply checking the Compare box included for each result.
Decision Guide: The Decision Guide (in this case Refrigerator Decision Guide) is an interactive question and answer exercise which is supposed to provide you with a list of the products that best fit your needs. You're asked to specify which features you care about most, rating how desirable a particular feature is to you. The "tradeoffs" are where it really gets tricky. For example, would you rather have an icemaker and one bin or three bins and no icemaker?
My attempt to use the Decision Guide did not result in a list of products appropriate for me. You may have a different experience.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/81237/2
Reviews of Two Legal Search Engines for Consumers
'm a believer in the old adage "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing," but not when I need the services of a lawyer. I find that when I'm familiar with the basic legal facts about a matter, my lawyer and I can accomplish my goal with a minimum of confusion, in the shortest time possible.
For example, if I'm drawing up a will, it helps to know who can be chosen as an executor, what a living trust is, and how property can be divided, so that I can mull over my own preferences about these issues before seeing my attorney.
Of course, if my legal facts are not accurate, they will be less than worthless. Two specialized search engines that provide access to reputable legal information for consumers are USLaw.com and FindLaw for the Public.
USLaw.com - CLEAR, COMPREHENSIVE LEGAL INFORMATION FOR CONSUMERS
USLaw.com is without a doubt the best place to go for consumer information about legal matters. The information you'll find here is consistently well-organized, well-written and informative. Although the articles are not overly long, they are amazingly comprehensive, and touch on the major issues relating to a topic.
There are about 2,000 articles in USLaw's database. The main areas it covers are family law, employment, immigration, real estate, finance, health and injury, crime and the courts, commercial issues and small business. Most seem to have been written specifically for USLaw.com by professionals in various fields of law, or have been excerpted from books.
Although the number of documents in the database is not large, its scope is relatively limited - the common legal concerns of individuals and small businesses - so most searches result in a fairly long list of relevant, helpful articles.
Search Tips
No search operators are available in USLaw.com. Entering one or two search words having to do with your subject will usually retrieve the best results. For example, if you are withholding your rent payments because your landlord is not providing heat and you want to find information about the legal ramifications, you might enter
withhold rent
This would retrieve 13 articles, most with direct relevance to your subject (e.g. Landlord and Tenant: Solutions for Breach of the Warranty of Implied Habitability and Landlord and Tenant: When Payment of Rent is Excused).
Each search result includes the title of the item and a short description.
Special Features
Special features at USLaw include a search engine for locating USLaw.com prescreened attorneys in your area, plus two fee-based services - access to the advice of a staff lawyer either in real time or by e-mail, and a service enabling you to create your own legal documents
FindLaw FOR THE PUBLIC - RETRIEVES LEGAL INFORMATION FROM MANY SOURCES
FindLaw for the Public is part of FindLaw, a very large site that is geared to providing information for legal professionals. A particularly useful feature of FindLaw for the Public are the legal "guides" covering many areas of law that are of special interest to consumers. These guides contain links to various types of information and resources, including articles, FAQ's, legal forms, message boards, etc.
Search Tips
FindLaw for the Public gives you a choice of 10 databases to search (on its drop-down menu) - FindLaw, document library, legal dictionary, legal news, legal websites, all websites, US government sites, US Supreme Court, all Circuit Courts, and the US Constitution. For the average consumer, searching the legal websites will provide the most useful information.
When searching the legal websites, you can use the minus sign to exclude a word and quotation marks to indicate a phrase.
Results
The format of the items retrieved differ among the databases. Items resulting from a search of the legal websites contain the title, a description and the url.
Special Features
You can find lawyers in many specialties using FindLaw's extensive search engine. In addition, you can get information and advice relating to your topic, and read many sad stories at FindLaw's message boards.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/88089/2
For example, if I'm drawing up a will, it helps to know who can be chosen as an executor, what a living trust is, and how property can be divided, so that I can mull over my own preferences about these issues before seeing my attorney.
Of course, if my legal facts are not accurate, they will be less than worthless. Two specialized search engines that provide access to reputable legal information for consumers are USLaw.com and FindLaw for the Public.
USLaw.com - CLEAR, COMPREHENSIVE LEGAL INFORMATION FOR CONSUMERS
USLaw.com is without a doubt the best place to go for consumer information about legal matters. The information you'll find here is consistently well-organized, well-written and informative. Although the articles are not overly long, they are amazingly comprehensive, and touch on the major issues relating to a topic.
There are about 2,000 articles in USLaw's database. The main areas it covers are family law, employment, immigration, real estate, finance, health and injury, crime and the courts, commercial issues and small business. Most seem to have been written specifically for USLaw.com by professionals in various fields of law, or have been excerpted from books.
Although the number of documents in the database is not large, its scope is relatively limited - the common legal concerns of individuals and small businesses - so most searches result in a fairly long list of relevant, helpful articles.
Search Tips
No search operators are available in USLaw.com. Entering one or two search words having to do with your subject will usually retrieve the best results. For example, if you are withholding your rent payments because your landlord is not providing heat and you want to find information about the legal ramifications, you might enter
withhold rent
This would retrieve 13 articles, most with direct relevance to your subject (e.g. Landlord and Tenant: Solutions for Breach of the Warranty of Implied Habitability and Landlord and Tenant: When Payment of Rent is Excused).
Each search result includes the title of the item and a short description.
Special Features
Special features at USLaw include a search engine for locating USLaw.com prescreened attorneys in your area, plus two fee-based services - access to the advice of a staff lawyer either in real time or by e-mail, and a service enabling you to create your own legal documents
FindLaw FOR THE PUBLIC - RETRIEVES LEGAL INFORMATION FROM MANY SOURCES
FindLaw for the Public is part of FindLaw, a very large site that is geared to providing information for legal professionals. A particularly useful feature of FindLaw for the Public are the legal "guides" covering many areas of law that are of special interest to consumers. These guides contain links to various types of information and resources, including articles, FAQ's, legal forms, message boards, etc.
Search Tips
FindLaw for the Public gives you a choice of 10 databases to search (on its drop-down menu) - FindLaw, document library, legal dictionary, legal news, legal websites, all websites, US government sites, US Supreme Court, all Circuit Courts, and the US Constitution. For the average consumer, searching the legal websites will provide the most useful information.
When searching the legal websites, you can use the minus sign to exclude a word and quotation marks to indicate a phrase.
Results
The format of the items retrieved differ among the databases. Items resulting from a search of the legal websites contain the title, a description and the url.
Special Features
You can find lawyers in many specialties using FindLaw's extensive search engine. In addition, you can get information and advice relating to your topic, and read many sad stories at FindLaw's message boards.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/search_engines/88089/2
Friday, May 18, 2007
6 Things High Ranking Websites Have That Yours Doesn't
've looked at a lot of websites over the years and helped a lot of clients, and I've yet to meet anyone who is totally committed to making their site as successful as it could be.
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This is particularly true when it comes to search engine optimization. Most online businesses make a half-hearted attempt to get better search engine rankings, but rarely implement anymore than one or two things that could really help make their site a success.
Which of the following does your website have?
1. Unique Page Titles.
Take a look at a selection of web pages that come up high in the search engine results for any search term and you'll notice they all have one thing in common: unique page titles. Denoted by in HTML, page titles tell the search engines what your web page is about, and are thought to be a critical factor in how search engines determine the order in which pages are displayed in the search engine result pages (SERPS) for a specific search term.
2. Descriptive Keyword Links.
How do search engines find and index your site? They follow links from one page to another, indexing content as they go. If the links they follow contain keywords and phrases that are relevant to the page content, the search engines will boost the ranking of that page in their results. You should also use keywords and phrases in the site's navigation (menu), as those terms are (or should be) highly relevant for the page they link to.
3. Keywords in Your On-page Copy.
If you want the search engines to know what your page is about, and rank it appropriately, you must scatter keywords throughout your on-page copy. Keywords in your copy establish your site's relevance for words searchers use when they're looking for your product or service.
4. Clean, Accessible Website Design.
Messy, bloated HTML code, 404 errors, re-directs, too many graphics, content hiding behind forms etc., all hinder the search engines' ability to index your site. And if they can't index it, they can't rank it. Follow W3C's accessibility guidelines when building your website. Better yet, ask your website designer what he knows about standards compliant website design. If he or she can't answer, find someone who can.
5. Focused Site Topic.
It seems logical that the more focused your site is, the higher it will rank for related search terms. For example, a site that is focused on the sale of exercise mini-trampolines will probably do better for the search term "mini trampolines" than a site that tries to sell a number of unrelated or a selection of different exercise equipment. In addition, it makes sense to create specialty websites whenever possible. That way, you don't fall into the trap of trying to do too many things and end up doing none of them well.
6. Relevant Incoming Links.
The number of other sites that link to your site's pages is important but the quality of those sites, and the text used in the link, carries much more weight with the search engines. For example, one relevant link from an "authority" site such as a .org, .gov, or a site that's proven itself as a reliable source, provides more value than several links from unrelated or "unproven" sites.
Of course, there are other several other factors that go into determining a site's ranking (far too many to go into here) but these are some of the most important.
They're all easy to implement, so there's really no excuse for not taking advantage of them especially if you want to make sure your site is found and visited by as many people as possible. Then all you'll need to worry about is getting those people to buy something from you on a frequent basis.
And that's really what it's all about.
To your success,
Julia
Comment on this article at: Read this article at http://www.juliahyde.com/mw/high-ranking-websites
About The Author:
Julia Hyde is an advertising copywriter and consultant specializing in search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and traditional advertising. She currently runs Creative Search Media, a full-service advertising and search engine marketing agency. You can contact Julia via her website at http://www.juliahyde.com
FREE ePolicy Guidebook
Reduce the risks of uncontrolled email and web usage....
FierceIPTV
Businesses Beware - New Battlefront in Email and Web
Research Report: Magic Quadrant for E-Mail Security Boundary, 2006
IronPort Email Security Appliance Overview
Hundreds more titles...
This is particularly true when it comes to search engine optimization. Most online businesses make a half-hearted attempt to get better search engine rankings, but rarely implement anymore than one or two things that could really help make their site a success.
Which of the following does your website have?
1. Unique Page Titles.
Take a look at a selection of web pages that come up high in the search engine results for any search term and you'll notice they all have one thing in common: unique page titles. Denoted by in HTML, page titles tell the search engines what your web page is about, and are thought to be a critical factor in how search engines determine the order in which pages are displayed in the search engine result pages (SERPS) for a specific search term.
2. Descriptive Keyword Links.
How do search engines find and index your site? They follow links from one page to another, indexing content as they go. If the links they follow contain keywords and phrases that are relevant to the page content, the search engines will boost the ranking of that page in their results. You should also use keywords and phrases in the site's navigation (menu), as those terms are (or should be) highly relevant for the page they link to.
3. Keywords in Your On-page Copy.
If you want the search engines to know what your page is about, and rank it appropriately, you must scatter keywords throughout your on-page copy. Keywords in your copy establish your site's relevance for words searchers use when they're looking for your product or service.
4. Clean, Accessible Website Design.
Messy, bloated HTML code, 404 errors, re-directs, too many graphics, content hiding behind forms etc., all hinder the search engines' ability to index your site. And if they can't index it, they can't rank it. Follow W3C's accessibility guidelines when building your website. Better yet, ask your website designer what he knows about standards compliant website design. If he or she can't answer, find someone who can.
5. Focused Site Topic.
It seems logical that the more focused your site is, the higher it will rank for related search terms. For example, a site that is focused on the sale of exercise mini-trampolines will probably do better for the search term "mini trampolines" than a site that tries to sell a number of unrelated or a selection of different exercise equipment. In addition, it makes sense to create specialty websites whenever possible. That way, you don't fall into the trap of trying to do too many things and end up doing none of them well.
6. Relevant Incoming Links.
The number of other sites that link to your site's pages is important but the quality of those sites, and the text used in the link, carries much more weight with the search engines. For example, one relevant link from an "authority" site such as a .org, .gov, or a site that's proven itself as a reliable source, provides more value than several links from unrelated or "unproven" sites.
Of course, there are other several other factors that go into determining a site's ranking (far too many to go into here) but these are some of the most important.
They're all easy to implement, so there's really no excuse for not taking advantage of them especially if you want to make sure your site is found and visited by as many people as possible. Then all you'll need to worry about is getting those people to buy something from you on a frequent basis.
And that's really what it's all about.
To your success,
Julia
Comment on this article at: Read this article at http://www.juliahyde.com/mw/high-ranking-websites
About The Author:
Julia Hyde is an advertising copywriter and consultant specializing in search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and traditional advertising. She currently runs Creative Search Media, a full-service advertising and search engine marketing agency. You can contact Julia via her website at http://www.juliahyde.com
Factors Effecting the Page rank
PageRank is a link analysis algorithm which assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of "measuring" its relative importance within the set. The algorithm may be applied to any collection of entities with reciprocal quotations and references.
FREE ePolicy Guidebook
Reduce the risks of uncontrolled email and web usage....
FierceIPTV
Businesses Beware - New Battlefront in Email and Web
Research Report: Magic Quadrant for E-Mail Security Boundary, 2006
IronPort Email Security Appliance Overview
Hundreds more titles...
Google might use the following to determine the ranking of your pages:
• The frequency of web page changes
• The amount of web page changes (substantial or shallow changes)
• The change in keyword density
• The number of new web pages that link to a web page
• The changes in anchor texts (the text that is used to link to a web page)
• The number of links to low trust web sites (for example too many affiliate links on one web page)
Domain Name Consideration:
• The length of the domain registration (one year vs. several years)
• The address of the web site owner, the admin and the technical contact
• The stability of data and host company
• The number of pages on a web site (web sites must have more than one page)
How Google might rate the links to your web site:
• The anchor text and the discovery date of links are recorded
• The appearance and disappearance of a link over time might be monitored
• The growth rates of links as well as the link growth of independent peer documents might be monitored
• The changes in the anchor texts over a given period of time might be monitored
• The rate at which new links to a web page appear and disappear might be recorded
• The distribution rating for the age of all links might be recorded
• Links with a long life span might get a higher rating than links with a short life span
• Links from fresh pages might be considered more important
• If a stale document continues to get incoming links, it will be considered fresh
• Google doesn't expect that new web sites have a large number of links
• If a new web site gets many new links, this will be tolerated if some of the links are from authorative sites
• Google indicates that it is better if link growth remains constant and slow
• Google indicates that anchor texts should be varied as much as possible
• Google indicates that burst link growth may be a strong indicator of search engine spam
For more details on Page Rank visit at www.halfvalue.com and www.halfvalue.co.uk
http://www.selfseo.com/story-19296.php
FREE ePolicy Guidebook
Reduce the risks of uncontrolled email and web usage....
FierceIPTV
Businesses Beware - New Battlefront in Email and Web
Research Report: Magic Quadrant for E-Mail Security Boundary, 2006
IronPort Email Security Appliance Overview
Hundreds more titles...
Google might use the following to determine the ranking of your pages:
• The frequency of web page changes
• The amount of web page changes (substantial or shallow changes)
• The change in keyword density
• The number of new web pages that link to a web page
• The changes in anchor texts (the text that is used to link to a web page)
• The number of links to low trust web sites (for example too many affiliate links on one web page)
Domain Name Consideration:
• The length of the domain registration (one year vs. several years)
• The address of the web site owner, the admin and the technical contact
• The stability of data and host company
• The number of pages on a web site (web sites must have more than one page)
How Google might rate the links to your web site:
• The anchor text and the discovery date of links are recorded
• The appearance and disappearance of a link over time might be monitored
• The growth rates of links as well as the link growth of independent peer documents might be monitored
• The changes in the anchor texts over a given period of time might be monitored
• The rate at which new links to a web page appear and disappear might be recorded
• The distribution rating for the age of all links might be recorded
• Links with a long life span might get a higher rating than links with a short life span
• Links from fresh pages might be considered more important
• If a stale document continues to get incoming links, it will be considered fresh
• Google doesn't expect that new web sites have a large number of links
• If a new web site gets many new links, this will be tolerated if some of the links are from authorative sites
• Google indicates that it is better if link growth remains constant and slow
• Google indicates that anchor texts should be varied as much as possible
• Google indicates that burst link growth may be a strong indicator of search engine spam
For more details on Page Rank visit at www.halfvalue.com and www.halfvalue.co.uk
http://www.selfseo.com/story-19296.php
Google's New Web Page Spider
Search engines use automated software programs that crawl the web. These programs called "crawlers" or "spiders" go from link to link and store the text and the keywords from the pages in a database. "Googlebot" is the name of Google's spider software.
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Research Report: Magic Quadrant for E-Mail Security Boundary, 2006
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Hundreds more titles...
Types of Google Spiders:
Many webmasters have noticed that there are now two different Google spiders that index their web pages. At least one of them is performing a complete site scan:
• The normal Google spider: 66.249.64.47 - "GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.0" 404 1227 "-" "Googlebot/2.1"
• The additional Google spider: 66.249.66.129 - "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 38358 "-" "Mozilla/5.0"
Difference between these two Google spiders
The new Google spider uses a slightly different user agent: "Mozilla/5.0". This means that Googlebot now also accepts the HTTP 1.1 protocol. The new spider might be able to understand more content formats, including compressed HTML.
AdWords Spider
Google is using a new crawler software program for their AdWords advertising system that automatically spiders and analyzes the content of advertising landing pages. Google tries to determine the quality of the ad landing pages with the new bot. The content of the landing page will be used for the Quality Score that Google assigns to your ads. Google uses the Quality Score and the amount you are willing to pay to determine the position of your ads. Ads with a high quality score can rank higher even if you pay less than others for the ad.
Purpose of Google Spider
Google hasn't revealed the reason for it yet. There are two main theories:
• The first theory is that Google uses the new spider to spot web sites that use cloaking, JavaScript redirects and other dubious web site optimization techniques. As the new spider seems to be more powerful than the old spider, this sounds plausible.
• The second theory is that Google's extensive crawling might be a panic reaction because the index needs to be rebuilt from the ground up in a short time period. The reason for this might be that the old index contains too many spam pages.
What does this mean to your web site?
If you use questionable techniques such as cloaking or JavaScript redirects, you might get into trouble. If Google really uses the new spider to detect spamming web sites, it's likely that these sites will be banned from the index. To obtain long-term results on search engines, it's better to use ethical search engine optimization methods. General information about Google's web page spider can be found here.
Receive Email When Google Spiders Your Page
A search engine spider is an automated software program that locates and collects data from web pages for inclusion in a search engine's database. The name of Google's spider is "Googlebot". If you have a web site that allows you to use PHP code then your web pages can inform you when Google's spider has indexed them. This little piece of PHP code recognizes Googlebot if it visits the web page, and it informs you by email when Googlebot has been there.
For more details on Google’s Spider visit at www.halfvalue.com and www.halfvalue.co.uk
http://www.selfseo.com/story-19305.php
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Types of Google Spiders:
Many webmasters have noticed that there are now two different Google spiders that index their web pages. At least one of them is performing a complete site scan:
• The normal Google spider: 66.249.64.47 - "GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.0" 404 1227 "-" "Googlebot/2.1"
• The additional Google spider: 66.249.66.129 - "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 38358 "-" "Mozilla/5.0"
Difference between these two Google spiders
The new Google spider uses a slightly different user agent: "Mozilla/5.0". This means that Googlebot now also accepts the HTTP 1.1 protocol. The new spider might be able to understand more content formats, including compressed HTML.
AdWords Spider
Google is using a new crawler software program for their AdWords advertising system that automatically spiders and analyzes the content of advertising landing pages. Google tries to determine the quality of the ad landing pages with the new bot. The content of the landing page will be used for the Quality Score that Google assigns to your ads. Google uses the Quality Score and the amount you are willing to pay to determine the position of your ads. Ads with a high quality score can rank higher even if you pay less than others for the ad.
Purpose of Google Spider
Google hasn't revealed the reason for it yet. There are two main theories:
• The first theory is that Google uses the new spider to spot web sites that use cloaking, JavaScript redirects and other dubious web site optimization techniques. As the new spider seems to be more powerful than the old spider, this sounds plausible.
• The second theory is that Google's extensive crawling might be a panic reaction because the index needs to be rebuilt from the ground up in a short time period. The reason for this might be that the old index contains too many spam pages.
What does this mean to your web site?
If you use questionable techniques such as cloaking or JavaScript redirects, you might get into trouble. If Google really uses the new spider to detect spamming web sites, it's likely that these sites will be banned from the index. To obtain long-term results on search engines, it's better to use ethical search engine optimization methods. General information about Google's web page spider can be found here.
Receive Email When Google Spiders Your Page
A search engine spider is an automated software program that locates and collects data from web pages for inclusion in a search engine's database. The name of Google's spider is "Googlebot". If you have a web site that allows you to use PHP code then your web pages can inform you when Google's spider has indexed them. This little piece of PHP code recognizes Googlebot if it visits the web page, and it informs you by email when Googlebot has been there.
For more details on Google’s Spider visit at www.halfvalue.com and www.halfvalue.co.uk
http://www.selfseo.com/story-19305.php
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Domain Names
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
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
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