Major Google Update

Major Google Update -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum: "there seems to have been another major update on google"

labs.google.com - Papers by Googlers

labs.google.com - Papers by Googlers: "Below is a partial list of papers written by people now at Google, showing the range of backgrounds of people in Google Engineering"

Google spawns social networking service | CNET News.com

Google spawns social networking service | CNET News.com: "A Google representative said that the site is the independent project of one of its engineers, Orkut Buyukkokten, who works on user interface design for Google. Buyukkokten, a computer science doctoral candidate at Stanford University before joining Google, created Orkut.com in the past several months by working on it about one day a week--an amount that Google asks all of its engineers to devote to personal projects. Buyukkokten, with the help of a few other engineers, developed Orkut out of his passion for social networking services...

The goal of a social networking service is a far cry from Google's long-stated mission of organizing the world's information. Instead of helping connect people to information on the Web, it would be helping people connect with other people.

It also once again raises the notion that Google aspires to become a portal like Yahoo, something that the company has long denied. Google already helps people shop, read news, thwart pop-up advertisements, get stock information and publish to the Web"

orkut - helpMembership to orkut is by invitation only.

If you have a friend who's a member of orkut, have them invite you to join.

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis

eyefortravel.com - Travel Distribution News, Events and Analysis: "BT Openzone Access Points at Railway Stations
BT Openzone will be available at 13 key railway stations by spring of this year - with more to follow. The roll out will mean that passengers will be able to surf the web wirelessly at broadband speed from stations in the capital at Euston, Liverpool Street, Waterloo, Victoria, Fenchurch Street, Paddington, Cannon Street, and Charing Cross. (1/23/2004)
In other parts of England, commuters and other passengers will be able to sample the benefit of BT Openzone service at Birmingham New Street, Leeds City, Manchester Piccadilly and Liverpool Lime Street. North of the border, Edinburgh Waverley will have its own BT Openzone access point.
In addition, BT Openzone access points will be installed at London Bridge and Glasgow Central by summer, taking the total to 15 stations."

Free Charts Generated from your Google Adsense Reports

Free Charts Generated from your Google Adsense Reports: "charts based on your
Google AdSense Reports"

Search Engine Theme Pyramids

Search Engine Theme Pyramids: "The whole Themes theory is to look at the site as a whole and compartmentalize it. Start with broad content (1 keyword) and work your way down to the specific keywords you want to target. Then link to the topics above and below, but not across, to reinforce the pages with link text and insite link popularity"

Semantics -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum

Semantics -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum: This "paper that describes the processes that were going on over at Applied Semantics before Google bought them up. It's long and you probably won't even be able to get it in a single read - pretty heavy stuff in there. If you can muscle your way through and then go back to the stuff you aren't clear on, you'll have an excellent foundation for understanding how all this works.

Cover Page: "Patterns in Unstructured Data
Discovery, Aggregation, and Visualization"

This paper doesn't deal specifically with Google, but is an overview of the entire thing (though it does explain some potential uses for it - a search engine included). Once you wrap your mind around the concepts, you can almost look at Google and see it happening.

Also bear in mind that this is only part of it. There's Topic Sensitive PageRank and LocalRank that are also somewhat new to the game (within the last year) and vastly overlooked (I suppose due to the complexities of it all) by most. With the semantics kicking in, the levels of integration of these two are also boosted considerably....

Interesting theory:
So, in your competitive markets where people vie for the same terms and everyone is optimizing pages for the "terms" and not the "concept" of a "martin guitar" owned by "Scott Rahin", the whole semantics thing falls apart.

In the end, if there's a sector like this (think "real estate" and "hotels" and "airfares" and other highly optimized and competitive areas) then the semantics have no hope of working so it either works poorly, or Google has something in there to kick that part of the algo out. ...

Comments re:August 2009: How Google beat Amazon and Ebay to the Semantic Web (Ftrain.com): "Amazon, remember, scooped up Alexa a while back. Alexa isn't so much a "search" property, but rather, an "indexing engine" which is, as this article points out, the primary problem with the Semantic Web - you have no way of indexing all the documents...

How Consistent Page Structure Allows Google To Extract and Assume Specific Information, we can see how Google doesn't always need an RDF feed to make its Semantic extractions. It just needs to be set up in a way that it can identify what's what. In that example, you can also see that it doesn't necessarily have to be products for which it's extracting the information. And, even if you only have a few pages on your site, you can still be in good shape if there are enough people in your sector using the same "pointer words" and they have employed consistency factors (even if they aren't exactly consistent with your own layout). This post also talks about how URL structure (even though what you name the directories and pages isn't important) can help in this too.

This post about navigational structure helps you understand how you can use site structure to achieve the same types of results. The pyramid scheme (in this case, that's a good thing) allows your "pointers" to be pointing to concepts on the deeper pages and not on the same page as in the first example.

----

I should point out that these techniques now work very well on larger sites.


...the semantics portion of the algo is only going to increase in importance. It does work - if you are presenting the data to them in the right way. There will be a grace period (how long? I dunno) where you'll be able to rank well using the "keyword" model but over the next 12-24 months, expect that model to slowly and progressively become less effective as more and more SEOs embrace the new technology and those patterns and semantic extrapolations become more the norm in web design."

NEW CONCEPTS: TSPR (Topic Sensitive PageRank) and LocalRank

ARTICLES & PAPERS REFERRED TO ABOVE:
:August 2009: How Google beat Amazon and Ebay to the Semantic Web (Ftrain.com)

Cover Page: "Patterns in Unstructured Data
Discovery, Aggregation, and Visualization"

Scientific American: The Semantic Web: "The Semantic Web
A new form of Web content that is meaningful to computers will unleash a revolution of new possibilities
By Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler and Ora Lassila "

Integrating Applications on the Semantic Web: "For the Web to reach its full potential, it must evolve into this Semantic Web, providing a universally accessible platform that allows data to be shared and processed by automated tools as well as by people"

RDF Semantics: "This is a specification of a precise semantics, and corresponding complete systems of inference rules, for the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and RDF Schema (RDFS)."

Heavy:


Sitemaps? -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum: "The page relationships are derived from linking structure, not URL structure. "
How Consistent Page Structure Allows Google To Extract and Assume Specific Information, we can see how Google doesn't always need an RDF feed to make its Semantic extractions. It just needs to be set up in a way that it can identify what's what. In that example, you can also see that it doesn't necessarily have to be products for which it's extracting the information. And, even if you only have a few pages on your site, you can still be in good shape if there are enough people in your sector using the same "pointer words" and they have employed consistency factors (even if they aren't exactly consistent with your own layout). This post also talks about how URL structure (even though what you name the directories and pages isn't important) can help in this too.


Learn From A Forum's Structural Design -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum: "a sitemap is murder on your PR. PR works in a way where a page has a certain 'number' assigned to it. 80% of that number is divided up equally amongst all the outgoing links on that page and passed along to the next page. So if you had regular navigation that passed through a couple of pages, your site would start with a high PR out front and get a little lower at the next level and a little lower at the next level and so on. Your 'broader' less focused pages (the ones with the more general and more competitive search terms) will have a higher PR and your more specific pages (the ones with focused terms that aren't as competitive and don't need as much PR to rank well) get less PR.

When you link through the sitemap, though, all of your pages get an equal share of a highly dilluted amount of pagerank.

---

Oh - and Google's only going to crawl a certain number of links on a page. I think their site says 100, but I suspect that it may be higher in some cases. PR of the page with all the links on it seems to have a bearing upon how many of those links on it Google will bother to crawl.

So, if your site has 125 pages, then 25 pages of your site will never get crawled. "

CNN.com - Sources: Google developing ad service for e-mail - Jan. 19, 2004

CNN.com - Sources: Google developing ad service for e-mail - Jan. 19, 2004: "Google developing ad service for e-mail"

Google is getting more and more concerned about locking in users. It wouldn't surprise me if they did something very sophisticated with e-mail,' said Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineWatch.com, who tracks the industry.' Apparently, Google has purchased an e-mail management software maker and registered the domain name googlemail.com. The article also speculates that Google is slowly on the way to becoming a full-fledged portal, with the gradual addition of more and more portal-like features like Froogle.

In an e-mail response to questions from Reuters, (Google) spokesman David Krane said, "Google has a number of projects in the works to test monetization in various scenarios.

"In fact, Google's AdSense contextual ads are already used in a number of e-mail newsletters," he said


Future????
Google Eyes New Email Service, Expansion: "You log into your GoogleMail account, and it has emailed you an entire evening's worth of web crawling for the data you were looking for. It's searched for places for your for your next vacation, and has managed to provide you with not only information, but Froogle'd for the best prices too. It's suggested things you'd like to do, and gone out and found the most popular sites about that as well. All you have to do is log into your Google HomePage and accept its suggestions, or negotiate with your own little GoogleBot for other venues.

Could this be the beginning of intelligent software agents? It would seem that if anyone could bring such a thing to us, it would be the Google folks"
"

Resellers online , trademarks & Google

I-Search Digest
Understanding Internet Search Technology
2004-01-15| Issue #582
MarketingWonk: Archives (online marketing and advertising news sorted by date and category)

Google has informed me that the trademark owner has complained about
the improper use of their trademark in our listing:

----------------------------------------------
Campaign: 'New Drivewerks Campaign,' Ad Group: 'Ad Group 17'
----------------------------------------------

KEYWORD(S): LifeLine, LifeLine Safety Kits, LifeLine Safety Travel
Kits, Lifeline First Aide Kits

Action taken: Disapproved
Issue(s): Keyword trademark term
~~~~~~~~~

SUGGESTIONS:
-> Keywords: We have disapproved the trademark term "Lifeline" and/or
variations of this keyword in your Google AdWords campaign.


This indeed opens up a huge can of worms. Suppose that you sell
automotive parts for Fords. If you can't use the name "Ford" in the search
listing, then the applicability of your paid-search listings is nearly
worthless. It would appear that it would be only a matter of time
before Google starts receiving hundreds of letters from trademark owners who
want AdWords listings pulled from the Queue (let's eventually include
Overture in there as well). If this continues, it will indeed have a
profound impact on paid search results. For example, if you typed in
"Cisco Routers" into Google, 100% of the AdWords listed use the
trademarked name "Cisco."

Trouble is brewing, any comments anyone? I'm going to have my SEO firm
(BeyondInk.com) look into alternative ways around this problem...


One question becomes, is your issue with Google or with the trademark holder? In particular, there is a big problem of trademark-holder-reseller relations that may speak to an unhealthy relationship there more than it does to any issue with Google and how they handle issues (or to the law, for that matter). Interestingly, though, such issues have been around for quite awhile in SEM even where one is not paying for keywords. There is competition amongst, for example, whether a weight-loss-company franchisee will get traffic to their site on certain keywords ("Jenny Craig South Florida") or whether the parent company takes a stand and begins making all sorts of demands of its franchisees regarding their marketing methods (including content, page titles, meta tags, etc.). It's a messy business and very often not somethng Google is in a position to solve. To their credit, in asking for a ruling on the American Blind case, Google seems to have taken the initiative in wanting to establish some legal principles where there currently are few precedents. You're quite right, though, a seller of Ford parts needs the leeway to be able to advertise to buyers of these, and surely, it should be neither Ford's nor Google's decision whether they're allowed to do this. Google would probably rather allow it, but they need the sanction of a court ruling or two, presumably, to give them the confidence to resist large trademark holders' complaints. In your case, unfortunately it seems that you might have to actually pursue legal action to be reinstated on those terms. It would not be a terrible idea to contact Google directly first to state your case,

Google Fans Fill Web With Buzz Over IPO (TechNews.com)

Google Fans Fill Web With Buzz Over IPO (TechNews.com): "going public is not Brin's and Page's first choice. Both have indicated in past statements that they're in no hurry to do an IPO. But because of Securities and Exchange Commission regulations governing private companies of a certain size, Google would be forced to disclose its financials this spring even if it didn't go public. Since the company will soon lose a key benefit of staying private, most Google analysts consider it a near-certainty that the company will try to reap the rewards of going public. And the rewards could be enormous. "

Prospect Google IPO similar scenario to netscape...

People worth looking up....HSMAI names top marketing minds in hospitality

HSMAI names top marketing minds in hospitality: "HSMAI's 'Hot List' of 25 Most Extraordinary Sales & Marketing Minds in Hospitality & Travel

- Mickey Arison, CEO, Carnival Cruise Lines
- Jim Berra, Vice President, Loyalty Marketing, Starwood Hotels & Resorts
- Dan Collins, Vice President of Marketing, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company
- Amy Curtis-McIntyre, Vice President of Marketing, JetBlue
- Mike Dimond, CHME, Senior Vice President of Marketing, The Broadmoor Resort
- Dorothy Dowling, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, ARAMARK, Sports & Entertainment
- Dan Hanrahan, Senior Vice President, Royal Caribbean
- Vicky Freed, Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Carnival Cruise Lines
- Dave Hartvigsen, Senior Vice President of Lodging, Intrawest
- Priscilla Hurley, Director of Marketing Communications, Affinia Hospitality
- Dave Johnson, CEO, Aimbridge Hospitality
- Andrew Jordan, Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing & CMO, Wyndham International
- Mike Leven, President & CEO, US Franchise Systems
- David Neeleman, CEO, JetBlue Airways
- Jill Noblett, Vice President of Loyalty and Direct Marketing, Cendant Corporation
- Betsy O'Rourke, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Travel Industry Association of America
- Steve Pinetti, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants
- Spencer Rascoff, Vice President, Hotels and Packages, Hotwire.com
- Michael Reichartz, Vice President, Lodging, Expedia.com
- Barry S. Sternlicht, Executive Chairman, Starwood Hotels & Resorts
- Tom Storey, Executive Vice President, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts
- Jens Thraenhart, Director of Internet Strategy, Fair"

Google adds travel search tools

Google adds travel search tools: "Google has also added new travel-related tools, allowing users to check the status of U.S. flights by typing a flight number into the query bar, or check the weather at a particular airport by entering the airport's three-letter code and the word 'airport.' "

Mike Grehan - Yahoo v Google

Features: "Unless you've been living in Saddam Hussein's last known address for the past month or so, then you may not be aware that Google is being ousted from Yahoo! And in its place comes Inktomi. Hence Yahootomi"

Search Engine Wars - Innovate To Survive in 2004

Search Engine Wars - Innovate To Survive in 2004: "Search Engine Wars - Innovate To Survive in 2004"

Google special searches

Just a reminder:
Free Pint - Helping you use the Web for your work: "TIP OF THE MONTH: Some Hidden Google Tools

I know, I know... you're already an expert Google searcher, and you've been using Google since you were in short pants (now, that's an expression that dates me, isn't it?). But I'm still going to toss out a few tools and resources that you might not have found already.

* If you want all of Google's tools and options conveniently displayed on a single screen, try FaganFinder (http://www.faganfinder.com/google.html). I like it because I am reminded of all the choices I have and settings I can tweak, including toggling the Duplicates Filter on or off, using the file format search, and setting the number of results per page. It even has handy links for typing non-English letters.

* Right now, the only search engines that support the 'NEAR' operator (search for this word within X words of that word) are Alta Vista and MSN. But there's a nifty Google hack called Google API Proximity Search (GAPS) that lets you look for two words within one, two or three words of each other. Head over to http://www.staggernation.com/cgi-bin/gaps.cgi and try it out.

* Google has a synonym feature that lets you search for not only the word you type in the search box but also for some common synonyms of the word. The syntax is ~word, so, for example, if you type ~food in the search box, you will also retrieve web pages that have the word cooking, nutrition, recipe or restaurant. Sometimes that's a nifty tool, but it has its drawbacks. I tried ~aluminum and it not only retrieved pages with the British equivalent, aluminium, and words with the atomic symbol AL, but also pages that mentioned Weird Al Yankovic, Al Jazeera, Al-Anon, and the official page for the state of Alabama. Use thi"

google duplicates - ie resellers, affiliates etc

ResourceShelf: "See Also: 'Challenges in Web Search Engines'
This twelve-page paper was written by Dr. Monika Henzinger (Research Director, Google), Dr. Rajeev Motwani (Professor at Stanford) and Dr. Craig Silverstein (Director of Technology, Google). From the abstract, '...article presents a high-level discussion of some of the problems with information retrieval that are unique to web search engines. The goal is to raise awareness and stimulate research in these areas.' Content quality, spam, cloaking, duplicate hosts, and vaguely structured data are some of the topics discussed."

More on Google's Upcoming (We Think) IPO
The article quotes Peter Norvig, Google's director of search quality saying, "Google is all about providing access to information, not being a venue for ads." The article continues, "Norvig said that although the company offers paid search results, they're always clearly marked and never get in the way of the objective results that remain the company's focus."

And while we're on the Google beat a couple of comments about this quote and other matters.


A comment or two.
1) All of the major web engines are doing a good job of labeling paid content. The problem is that many people have no idea what the differences is vs. non-paid content.

2) One problem that Google runs into is how much of their database is duplicate or near duplicate content, something that the traditional research database tries to avoid. Expect more on this soon (much more study is needed) but a few examples right now

SEO Chat - Google - Google PageRank Primer

Neatly put:
SEO Chat - Google - Google PageRank Primer: "Be sure to always keep in mind that PageRank is not the same thing as your site�s ranking on the search engine results pages (SERPs). They are entirely separate items. PR is the relative importance of a page on the web, expressed as a number. The SERPs are where your site appears on a search for your keywords.

PageRank is not a series of equal steps; it is logarithmic in its calculation. In the same way that the earthquake Richter scale is exponential in calculation, so too is the mathematics behind Google PageRank. It takes one step to from a PR0 to a PR1. It takes a few more steps to PR2 and PR3. Now, it takes even more steps to PR4, many more steps again to PR5, and so on. Each level is progressively harder to reach."

Yahoo! News - Google Fans Fill Web With Buzz Over IPO

Yahoo! News - Google Fans Fill Web With Buzz Over IPO: "Jeremy C. Wright, a self-described 'Business and Tech type person' who asserts on his blog that the Google IPO 'is evil.'
The hype surrounding the offering, he writes, is 'creating a bubble-type mentality' that can end only one way -- with a bust.
He compares the Google IPO to another famous IPO, the Netscape offering in 1995 that is credited with helping set off the first round of Internet mania.
'Hopefully Google fares better than Netscape did,' he writes.
Most Silicon Valley insiders think it will, but no one can know for sure.
'What they've accomplished in five years is nothing short of remarkable,' said Think Equity's Moe. 'The question is whether they have what it takes to create the next act.'
Not even a Google search can answer that."

Brand Erosion, or How Not to Market Your Hotel on the Web / Critical Online Distribution Issues Revisited a Year Later / Max Starkov / June 2003

Brand Erosion, or How Not to Market Your Hotel on the Web / Critical Online Distribution Issues Revisited a Year Later / Max Starkov / June 2003: "Surveys show that overwhelming majority of customers will not stay at a hotel with a poorly done website that does not reflect well the hotel product and the destination. It is becoming a common belief now that if your hotel website is not up to par there is something wrong with the hotel itself.

Conclusion first but loads of meat here for selling totaltravel to small businesses...

Online distribution is here to stay. The Internet has changed the way travel is being negotiated, managed and purchased. By 2005 over 20% of all hotel bookings will be completed on the Internet. This year alone 13%-14% of all hotel bookings will come from the Web and 53% of them will be direct-to-consumer. How does your hotel company compare to these national averages and where are your competitors? If you do not fare better than the national average, you are already behind your proactive competitors.

It’s not just about selling over the Internet at any cost. You have to know that the Web can be either your best ally or your worst enemy. If your online distribution is skewed toward the online discounters, this can permanently damage your brand and price integrity. The direct-to-consumer model should become the foundation, the centerpiece of any hotel company's online distribution strategy. It provides the hotel with long-term competitive advantages and lessens dependence on intermediaries, discounters and traditional channels about to become obsolete.

There has never been a better time to embrace the Internet and Direct Online Distribution in particular. An experienced eBusiness hospitality consultancy can help you navigate and utilize the Internet to its fullest potential.


On the Search Engines:
Search engines are considered major brand builders on the Web. Hotel listings or paid advertising on Search Engines, Directories and Portals (e.g. Google, Yahoo, MSN) contribute directly to the brand building of the hotel itself. Due to the nature of these services and their perceived impartiality, the branding interaction is exclusively between the Internet visitor and the hotel. A natural (algorithmic) listing of the hotel website, paid hotel banner ad or pay-per-click sponsored listing directly contributes to the brand building of the hotel, not of the search engines.

Hotel listings and paid banner ads on the Online Intermediaries:
Some hoteliers claim that by positioning their hotels on the online discounters like Hotels.com, Travelocity or Expedia.com they are �branding� their hotels. We believe that this is a very na�ve justification for a very unhealthy Internet distribution strategy. And here is why.
When the Internet user lands on an Expedia.com page, due to the nature of this service as an online intermediary, the branding interaction is exclusively between the Internet visitor and Expedia, and not with the hotel-advertiser on Expedia. In this sense if an Internet user sees a merchant hotel listing or a paid hotel advertising banner on Expedia, the visitor considers this as a positive branding experience benefiting Expedia (“Wow, these guys even have the Waldorf Astoria! Good for them! I made the right choice to visit Expedia!”). Website users tend to view hotel listings and banners in the same manner as pop-up ads and promotional features such as “Featured Hotels” or “Hotel of the Week” and treat them as yet another marketing gimmick employed by the online intermediary to sell them more stuff.

The direct-to-consumer distribution model should become the foundation, the centerpiece of any hotel company’s online distribution strategy. Why? First of all, The Internet is the ultimate “Direct Distribution Medium”. Why direct distribution is so important? It provides the hotel with long-term competitive advantages and lessens dependence on intermediaries, discounters or traditional channels that are about to become obsolete.

Direct-to-consumer online distribution has the following benefits:

Puts the hotel in control of its Internet presence and exposure
Prevents brand and price erosion
Lessens dependence on online discounters and intermediaries
Is the shortest path to establishing interactive relationships with customers
Provides long-term opportunities to benefit from the lifetime customer value
Is the least expensive way to distribute hotel inventory--direct to consumer!
Direct online distribution is not just a theoretical, “ideal scenario” approach. Many surveys show that online customers prefer dealing directly with the travel suppliers, including hotels, when purchasing travel online.

Though some of the major brands have done a good job with their global websites, none of them fares particularly well on the local search engine level. For example, in order to be picked up by the search engines, a local Hilton property has to implement relevant copy and destination content with specific target keywords, description tags and meta tags that are completely different from the global Hilton.com website. It has to achieve link popularity on its own. Hence, the need a local branded hotel to pursue its own website and search engine strategy...

Online Lookers vs. Online Bookers

Another interesting phenomenon is the purchasing habits of online travelers. Jupiter Media Metrix estimates that nearly 60% of the online population in North America (192 million in 2002) uses the Internet to research travel. 50% of those researching travel information online (online lookers) actually make their purchases online (i.e. become online bookers). The other 50% look online, but book offline, due to privacy issues, security concerns, purchasing habits, or need to speak with a live agent to finalize the travel booking, etc.

PhoCusWright also reports that 50% of US Online Travelers looked online, but booked offline in 2001 (52% in 2000).

Simply put, if 100 people book on your website, at least another 100 will be influenced by your website to book your hotel, but will make the booking offline (via phone, walk-ins, etc). This underlines further the critical importance of your hotel Direct Online Distribution Strategy and your hotel website visibility to the bottom line.

Search by Location

Search by Location: "Search by Location FAQ" Google has very recently added structured Yellow Pages data (business names and phone numbers) to its Search by Location beta test. Formerly, search results were based exclusively on Google's algorithm. However, the inclusion of the new structured data, together with some additional enhancements, have tremendously improved the usability of the application.

Cool tool BuzzToolBox Blog

BuzzToolBox Blog: "Goofresh
Google offers a date-based syntax, but you can only access it via the advanced search, which limits your time options, or the daterange: syntax, which uses Julian dates and is a bit difficult to use. Goofresh is a way to search for sites added today, yesterday, within the last seven days, or last 30 days."

How to Cheat Google AdWords Select - Part 2

ADWORDS:
How to Cheat Google AdWords Select - Part 2: "if you�re not using all the tools and tricks that AdWords provides, then you�re definitely leaving money on the table. And, when your competitors see your results, they�ll think you�ve somehow cheated the AdWords system.

This series of articles will systematically show you how to:

Generate the absolute best keyword list for your target market

Use simple techniques to vastly expand your productive keyword list

Create highly clickable copy for your ad

Precisely limit the distribution of your ad to only those prospects who are most interested

Beat the competition with creative bidding strategies

Dramatically reduce costs of your campaigns while increasing clickthroughs "

Google Dance Case Studies - hugely useful

Google Dance Case Studies: "By Danny Sullivan, Editor
December 7, 2003
While various webmaster forums have lots of discussion about the recent Google changes, specifics about particular situations are often lacking. It's much more useful to look at real life examples rather than deal with generic situations. So, as people have been contacting me, I've asked permission to use their stories to illustrate in real life how the changes at Google have made impacts. Here are some stories. You can read them all by scrolling through the article or use the links below to jump directly to sections of interest. Also be sure to see other articles about the recent changes on the Florida Google Dance Resources page."

Report on Report On Google - Topic Sensitive PageRank? | SEO Research Labs

To edit & annotate;
Free Report On Google - Topic Sensitive PageRank? | SEO Research Labs: "How To Prosper With The New Google"

Core of new algo:

"Applied Semantics' CIRCA Technology is based on a language-independent, highly scalable ontology that consists of millions of words, their meanings, and their conceptual relationships to other meanings in the human language. The ontology, aided by sophisticated search technology, is the basis for a conceptual understanding of the multiplicity of word meanings, enabling computers to more effectively manage and retrieve information which results in improved knowledge discovery opportunities for searchers."

What CIRCA allows Applied Semantics (and Google) to do, is to identify concepts related to specific words and phrases. They use this technology right now to serve up relevant advertising in a variety of contexts. Applied Semantics technology may also be involved in Google's
keyword stemming system.

Among other things, CIRCA can calculate how closely related or similar "phrase A" is to "concept B." If you search for "Colorado bicycle trips," CIRCA can relate that conceptually to a region (Colorado, which is in the Rocky Mountains), to concepts like bicycling and travel, etc. This is important, because it means that they can calculate the "distance" between your search query and various concepts in their database.

Understanding The Changes, Ignoring The Noise: For some search queries, the results have been radically changed – in a few cases, the top 100
listed pages have all dropped out. The folks at Google Watch have compiled a listing of affected search terms (see www.scroogle.org), and the amount of change in each, which has proven very valuable in conducting parts of our research.

When we looked at hundreds of unbiased real world search queries and mapped out the amount that each has changed, there is a very clean distribution in terms of how much they have changed. In the real world, radical changes are the exception, not the rule.

Looking at "real estate," according to Scroogle.org's methodology, 77 of the top 100 pages dropped out of the top 100. Looking at the more pecific "colorado real estate," 24 of the top 100 dropped out. You can see this pattern repeated over and over again. The more generic
searches show more changes in the top results. Look at the pages that dropped out of the "real estate" top 100. You will see a whole lot of local
realtors who managed to link their way (using PageRank and link text) into enviable positions, but not too many are really among the 100 most relevant pages for that query.

The first page I see listed among the "missing" is titled "Southern California Real Estate." Interestingly enough, that page shows up at #2 for the more specific search "Southern California Real Estate." In other words, they haven't been penalized, they just don't show up where they
don't belong any more.

Not so different for TT if have followed tips for links & content....
Those sites that have a lot of content and lots of relevant links (both incoming and outbound) have done well. Those that have gotten by with doorway pages and link swaps are no longer quite so successful.


Nothing really new in conclusions, just the usual warnings:

If you have mapped out a lot of content in your site plan, the task of writing it all can be daunting. So much so, in fact, that some folks never start, and try to get by with cheap tricks like machine-generated "doorway pages." Don't fall for these "quick fixes." The risk exceeds the
potential reward, and it's not that hard to develop content.

So you've got a beautiful, useful, content-rich website, perfectly targeting your desired visitor with the search terms he/she is going to use. Every page is a shining example of optimized content, it's all linked together perfectly... you're done, right? Wrong! If you stop after step 3, you're going to be very disappointed. Search engines aren't terribly impressed with a website that nobody else has linked to.

Above all: Don't Stop When You Hit The Top!
A lot of folks make a very critical error, when they start seeing good search engine rankings and the nice increase in traffic that good rankings can bring. They get busy with their new visitors, then they stop. They stop working on content, they stop working on links, and they eventually
stop seeing good rankings.

Then, they start complaining about Google, or Inktomi, or whatever search engine dropped them first. They'll shout to the rafters that the search results have gone to heck in a hand basket, that the search engines are persecuting them, etc. etc. My advice to you is simple – don't stop when you hit the top. Keep forging new relationships, keep building links, keep adding content, and keep your web site up to date. Your competition
isn't going to stop trying to beat you, and that includes the folks who are still ahead of you. The effects of your efforts usually show up in the search engines a couple months later. Some folks give up after a few weeks, because they haven't seen instant results...

If you're going to make a commitment to a search engine strategy for your website, and make the substantial investments it takes (both time and money), then stick with your commitment and execute your strategy. Don't give up too early, and don't stop when you hit the top.

Why I wouldn't buy Google :: Search Engine Optimization at ChriSEO.com :: Search Engine optimization and web site ranking tips, articles and news

Google vs Yahoo - I see a head to head battle emerging....
Why I wouldn't buy Google :: Search Engine Optimization at ChriSEO.com :: Search Engine optimization and web site ranking tips, articles and news: "1. Any JimWorld regulars will recognize my first point, sagely given by jcokos, PageRank is patented by Stanford. A number of other acquisitions by Google also have this drawback. Meaning that, effectively, what Stanford wants it's likely to get. These aren't technologies that can be quickly replaced, so even if there is some sort of agreement, the balance of power is always going to be in Stanfords favour.

2. Google is inherently non-commercial. It comes with an expectation of being free to its users. Any attempt to change that would lead to the mass flocking of its users to elsewhere. The methodology that Google uses to draw revenue is it's text ads system. The internet has seen systems work well time and time again and then decline in to uselessness. Works now, as effective next year? Probably not. With competitors catching up text ads are going to have less and less effect o�n the viewer and therefore be worth less to the advertiser. What, exactly, is going to replace those revenues and shouldn't Google be implementing that now?

3. With Yahoo buying pretty much every decent search engine and Microsoft throwing its dollars at building o�ne, Google is set to face the strongest competition it has had to face in recent years. With the gap between technologies and capabilities closing, with o�ne engine being largely similar to another, you can no longer compete o�n being 'better'. It becomes a marketing game. Does Google have the skills? I doubt it. Even if it does, is it as good at it as Microsoft, definitely not.

4. Google exists and promotes itself o�n secrecy and rumours. Buying in would be a bit like buying a car that works"

IPO news

Bloomberg.com: Top Worldwide: "Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc. hired Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to arrange its initial public offering, a sale that may raise as much as $4 billion,"

Google's House of Cards

Problems inherent in the Adsense system...

Google's House of Cards: "The true reason Google refuses to budge is the program is built on a shaky foundation. To secure the large distribution network AdSense needs, Google must pay publishers good prices. But if advertisers make separate bids for contextual ads, most would bid significantly less than they do for paid listings. Publishers would see revenue fall dramatically. This, in turn, would lead many sites to either remove the AdSense tags from their pages or demand a better revenue share.
AdSense is a house of cards, built on a foundation that forces advertisers to overpay for contextual ads. If Google allowed separate bids, it would risk losing revenue on multiple fronts: from the lower bids, the loss of distribution, and the loss of revenue share. The company bet it could keep prices high and revenue shares low as it built this program. But with smart advertisers turning off their AdSense ads, it's time for Google to give advertisers what they want"

Slashdot | Better Search Results Than Google?

How people search...
Slashdot | Better Search Results Than Google?: "Searching for info about electronic products is the worst on google.
I use the following along with any thing i want to search and it usually does the trick
-shop -shopping -price -buy -order -shipping'.
This no doubts subtracts one or two sites which are good but atleast filters out most of the shopping sites."...

The thing I have noticed to be the greatest single limit on web searching is the operator. I can regularly find things on the net that my co-workers cannot. This is because I understand keyword boolean searching at a deeper level than most people.

I blame this on the level of education of the common population, as opposed to being evidence of my own superiority. 8-)

In a world where most people have never actually met or "dealt with" a librarian (archivist, whatever 8-) it should surprise nobody that these self-same people have no idea what it means to take personal responsibility for organizing their own approach to knowing things.

Having grown up near and actually talked to librarians all my life I actually understand how to group information. Applying that knowledge to a search for some words and against others isn't that far a stretch.

It is a personal pet peve of mine to have to listen to people bemoan Google (etc.) when these self-same people have never even *noticed* the advanced search link, nor even learned the power of the minus ("-") in the standard search bar.

There is no technology that can "fix" bad user inquiries that won't in turn "ruin" good ones.

From my own experience with developing search technologies for an e-content site, these guys are on the right track. Compared to a lot of search technologies out there, Google is dumb. But it is blazing fast, general purpose, and smarter than most of its (former) compettitors. Part of why it is dumb is that it is so general purpose. To make a search engine smarter, you have to add context. Specialized search engines can do this by standardizing their inputs. Google could do this too, but it would require complex parsing of everything that it spiders.

Another thing that Google really lacks is detection of duplicates. Google tries to do this, but does it poorly. I remember recently doing a search on Google for an obscure DB2 error code, and getting the same page out of the IBM manual over and over again, all on different college websites.
This is another area where linguistic/statistical analysis could really help. Most knowledge-base products offer a "More Like This" feature that is an index of linguistic similarities between items. An easy way to detect duplicates with such a system is to have a fine scale and place an uppler limit on similarities, i.e. any two items with a similarity > N are likely to be duplicates.

All of this being said, I would be surprised if Google does not address these issues in the very near future. I do not think they have gone down the path that many large companies go down where they stop trying to innovate and instead just try to protect their turf

MarketingWonk: November 2003 Archives (internet advertising & online marketing industry news)

Re PR:
MarketingWonk: November 2003 Archives (internet advertising & online marketing industry news)
What is a good page rank? Google has my home page listed as a six. The other pages are fives some fours.
>
> Is six an OK rank? a bad rank? Will a one person site ever get a
> rating of nine or ten? Should I try for a higher number or be
> satisfied with my current page rank?

Hmm, just a six. Really, you should give up on every hoping to do well with Google. If you're not a nine or a ten, you'll simply never appear for anything.

NOT!

Honestly, do yourself a favor and uninstall the Google Toolbar. A PR6 value is actually pretty high, but in and of itself, it doesn't predict how well you'll do with Google.

Each page within your web site will have its own PR value. That's only one part of many factors that influences if each and every page will rank well for different terms.

Another key factor is link context. Amazon, last time I looked, was a PR9 site. Search for "books," and it's number one. Search for "cars," and it doesn't appear. Why? No one links to Amazon and in or near the link uses the word "cars." The links are not contextuall relevant for that term.

Try something else. Search for something at Google, anything. The
results that come up should all be listed by PR value, right -- those with the highest PR scores first. Not so. Start visiting sites. You'll be surprise to see things like a PR4 site may come first, then a PR6 site, then PR5, then PR6, then PR4 and so on.

To recap, the PR value you have is not the primary factor to concern yourself with. Instead of trying to raise your PR score, instead, ensure that you are offering great content and the best possible user experience to your users. That will bring in some links to you naturally, which should help both the PR score and your contextual linking. Also, seek out sites related to your topic and audience that are non-competive. Ask for links, and be free to link out in return, if your audience will gain from that.

And Andrew, excellent job with I-Search! I've greatly enjoyed reading the new posts coming in under your helmsmanship, as well as the ample stage-setting comments you've often provided.

cheers,
danny

Google email response to Florida enq List archives at Adventive

List archives at Adventive: "t archives"

reply:

Thank you for your note. Please be assured that Google does not accept payment for inclusion of sites in our index, nor for improving the rank of sites in our results. As you may know, results in our index change regularly based on ongoing, automated processes aimed at improving the quality and content of our search results. Changes you observe may include, but are not limited to, addition of new sites, changes in the ranking of existing sites, sites falling out of the index or getting
dropped and sites' content fluctuating between old and new content.

We realize these changes can be confusing. However, these processes are completely automated and not indicative of wrong-doing or penalization of individual sites. We currently include over three billion pages in our index and it is certainly our intent to represent the content of the Internet fairly and accurately. The ongoing changes you have observed are part of this effort.

While we cannot guarantee that your clients' pages will consistently appear in our index or appear with a particular rank, we do offer guidelines for building a "crawler-friendly" site. You can find these guidelines at http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html . Following
these recommendations may increase the likelihood that your clients' sites will show up consistently in Google search results.

We appreciate your feedback and will pass it on to our engineers.

Regards,
The Google Team

In the Wake of the Florida Update - High Rankings Advisor

In the Wake of the Florida Update - High Rankings Advisor: "++In the Wake of the 'Florida' Update++"

Concludes: Overall, it will take some time for any definite/solid information to filter down about the true effects of the "Florida" update. Theories
will continue to swirl around the 'Net. So will rankings! But the fact remains that "common-sense" SEO copywriting wins out in the long run.

Google Dance Syndrome Strikes Again, Part s 1,2,3

Google Dance Syndrome Strikes Again, Part 2: "Google Dance Syndrome Strikes Again,"

Q. Does this mean Google no longer uses the PageRank algorithm?

Google never used the PageRank algorithm to rank Web pages. PageRank is a component of the overall algorithm, a system Google uses to measure how important a page is based on links to it. It's always been the case link context was considered, as well as page content.

Unfortunately, some call Google's system of ranking "PageRank." Google itself can make this mistake, as on its Webmaster's information page:

The method by which we find pages and rank them as search results is determined by the PageRank technology developed by our founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
The page describing Google's technology more accurately puts PageRank at the "heart" of the overall system, rather than give the system that name.

PageRank was never the factor that beat all others. It's been, and continues to be, the case that a page with lower PageRank might rank higher than a page with a higher PageRank. Search for books. and if you have the PageRank meter switched on in the Google Toolbar, you'll see how The Online Books Page with a PageRank of eight comes above O'Reilly, although O'Reilly has a PageRank of nine. That's a quick example. You can see more by checking yourself.

Google IPO News

Google IPO News: "News of Google's suspected IPO is everywhere as Bloggers, industry experts and journalists seek to give the subject a new spin. Check out this collection of articles on Google's situation and decide for yourself what you think."

So much traffic from page 7 SERP!

So much traffic from page 7 SERP!: "the important outcome is traffic, and not a magic ranking number.
During the never ending stream of Florida posts I looked for reports which discussed the effect on traffic numbers rather than obsessing over rankings. To say they were few and far between is somewhat of an understatement.
I realised long ago that while a drop in rankings on primary terms may be a pointer that all is not well, it does not automatically mean a fall in traffic.
I realise that this may seem patronising to our experienced members, but for the benefit of the newbies.... if you are not getting access to your site statistics, and numbers of unique visitors in particular, then do something about it. Decent stats are your best friend and you are flying blind without them."

Florida & PatentsThe Gazette ... Issue: 208 (12-22-2003)

The Gazette ... Issue: 208 (12-22-2003):

" I spoke directly with Google about these allegations and they stated unequivocally that there is "Absolutely nothing commercial affects the ordering or display of search results. Period. The only crossover between the 'organic' results and the adwords results is that adwords knows what you searched on. Beyond that, the two are completely separate entities. Any manipulation of the core search results other than algorithmic relevance, which is completely computer driven would go against the very fiber of what Google is and stands for as a company."
.
..possible internal struggles within Google related to technology patents, we wondered if we hadn't stumbled upon something big and moved to put together this article. Though I do not agree with many of the theories of the poster, the thread by 'rossendryv' is located here: http://www.jimworld.com/apps/webmaster.forums/action::thread/thread::1071160110/forum::google/.
As I looked further into the facts, and did a bit of deductive reasoning, things started making more sense, and this 'theory' began to look more and more logical"

BW Online | December 16, 2003 | Google Here, There, and Everywhere

BW Online | December 16, 2003 | Google Here, There, and Everywhere: " If the FedEx move is any indication, then the guys at Google have only started their attempts to turn their search engine into the all-purpose Web information tool."

Digital revolution leaves Google feeling quite flush - 2003-12-15 - San Francisco Business Times

Digital revolution leaves Google feeling quite flush - 2003-12-15 - San Francisco Business Times: "The noted Internet search engine has recently installed digital toilets at its Mountain View offices"

Google Enhances Froogle, Offers New Ad and Search Features

Google Enhances Froogle, Offers New Ad and Search Features: "Google.com users will now also notice three Froogle result links appearing at the top of product-specific query results, similar to the way news links are included for news-oriented queries. These results are focused on specific products, for searches on product names, not categories. Queries need to be very specific to appear in main Google search results...

New Google AdWords features for advertisers include a Visual click-through rate status indicator on the campaign management page indicates how well keywords are performing. The billing summary page has been redesigned to be easier to use, and larger advertisers with contracted spends now see details of account budgets and percentage spent to date."

Google's Florida Update: One Month Later

Google's Florida Update: One Month Later:

Concludes that Google may be rolling out "an artificially intelligent, self adapting algorithm"
"It's been almost one month since Google started rolling out the Florida update and millions of listings were dropped from the results. In that time, hundreds of search engine marketers and thousands of website owners have dealt with the loss with all the classic signs of bereavement: at first, denial, then anger, gradually changing to acceptance and finally, healing. We're moving on, understanding that we're just part of the never ending circle of Google. "

"I said this was a filter aimed at aggressively optimized and affiliate sites. After several hours of team research and speaking to others in the industry, I'm beginning to think this is part 1 of a major change in how Google will rank sites. Danny Sullivan put forward his theory that Google is now using two algorithms, a new more sophisticated one on the more competitive searches and the old one on the less competitive searches...

There has been some discussion about the possible role Google's recent purchase of Applied Semantics may be playing here...

Applied Semantics Concept Server used language patterns, including semantics and ontology to try to both determine the real meaning of the words on a website page and also to anticipate what people are looking for. It tries to interpret concepts based on the use of words, their proximity and the patterns they occur in. What if Florida was Google's first attempt to start introducing this concept to their search engine?

What if Google is combining the artificial intelligence of Applied Semantics Concept Server and this monitoring of click throughs. .. As Google monitors more searches, the Concept Server will start to notice patterns between similar concepts and the type of results chosen by the searcher. With every search, Google will be better able to anticipate what the searcher is looking for, even if their query isn't right on target...

Google Dance is a thing of the past. Changes in results will happen fluidly and consistently, based on ongoing relevancy monitoring based on click throughs. It's almost as if Google has taken a page from Direct Hit's book and gave it a Google twist. Direct Hit was the one time search engine wunderkind that used searcher click throughs to determine relevance. Apparently its back end technology still plays a part in determining results on Ask Jeeves and Teoma.

Secondly, it would mean that individual rankings will move much more frequently and reliance on specific keyphrases will become less important.

Thirdly, a change like this will take a while to fully roll out, so Google will continue to take us on a roller coaster ride for the foreseeable future.

Lastly, this would be the first major step forward in search engine technology in quite some time, and that's probably the biggest reason why we think we might be on to something...

"Why did Google not just come out and tell us what they were doing, rather than force us to guess?" This point is a little more valid. Officially, Google's line was that is was just another algorithm change. If our theory is correct, this statement is true in substance, but grossly understated in scope. The Google Guy gave a few more hints on Webmaster World, but remained pretty tight lipped and virtually disappeared from the forums during the worst of the turmoil...



"

More on Google stemming

Search engine news, on Web searching and search engine optimization: "it is not always obvious when this occurs. 'The stemming does not seem to occur on single word searches or on phrase searches,' he says.
This means that you can use quotation marks to override the automatic stemming. You may also put a plus sign in front of words you would like Google to leave untouched, like this: car +park "

Links on stemming:

Google help:
Google Help: "Word Variations (Stemming)
Google now uses stemming technology. Thus, when appropriate, it will search not only for your search terms, but also for words that are similar to some or all of those terms. If you search for 'pet lemur dietary needs', Google will also search for 'pet lemur diet needs', and other related variations of your terms. Any variants of your terms that were searched for will be highlighted in the snippet of text accompanying each result"
Search Engine Showdown News: Google Starts Auto Stemming Searches

D Sullivan: What Happened To My Searches On Google?: "Yes, and this addition of stemming is the most significant change searchers should be aware of. When you now search on Google, it will automatically look up variations of words. So a search for travel tips behind the scenes is looking for pages that have all of these words, and perhaps others, on them:
travel
travelers
traveling
tips
tip

Stemming can be overridden. When you enter any search command, in front of a word, stemming is shut off for that word. So:

travel +tips

Would only enable stemming on the word travel while

+travel +tip

Would disable stemming on both terms."

Google Web Search Features - Numbers

2 ) Google Web Search Features: "Search By Number

Parcel tracking IDs, patents and other specialized numbers can be entered into Google's search box for quick access to information about them. For example, typing 'fedex' followed by a space and a FedEx tracking number will return the latest information on your package"

Two new (beta) Google Web Search Features - USA only

1) Google Web Search Features: "Travel Conditions

To see delays and weather conditions at a particular airport, type the airport's three letter code followed by the word 'airport.' For example, San Francisco International Airport updates can be found by searching for 'sfo airport.'"

- Michael Campbell's internet marketing secrets

- Michael Campbell's internet marketing secrets: "Issue is #38 published December 11 2003"

1) look for a spring shake up in search. Google
goes public with a rapid spike in price. Yahoo sells off their
stock and announces a switch to Inktomi. Google stock falls in
price, as word spreads that search domination is over.

2) Google algorithm change.... or just an angry executive?

There's a lot of theories flying around. Most can be dismissed
with a few clicks and a little research. Some people thought
it was an over optimization penalty, others a bug. Whatever it
was, and still is, Google has upset a lot of people...my conclusion is.... don't hit, play fair, hold hands
crossing the street, and always follow the Google guidelines
that say, "Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains
with substantially duplicate content."

3) more insight - and mathematical proof - into the Google
changes, be sure to read Leslie Rohde's research paper
entitled, "A Statistical and Experimental Analysis of Google's
Florida Update, using the link below.
Florida

Search engine news blog | Search Engine Lowdown

Search engine news blog | Search Engine Lowdown: "Google reps were scarce, with those manning the booth reluctant to talk about the recent update despite the constant requests from attendees. Google really was keeping a low profile at the event, not wanting to send their normal engineers to speak. As one of my co-workers put it, Google simply sent the �sacrificial lambs�."

A Merry Christmas for Content Writers at Search Engine Roundtable Weblog

A Merry Christmas for Content Writers at Search Engine Roundtable Weblog: "A Merry Christmas for Content Writers
Hi everyone-- I'm honored to be a part of this little adventure and hope to have some good discussions here.
For my inaugural post I'd like to mention a little gem from a post on High Rankings Forum's Florida update thread. (Seems every forum has one or ten.) The moderator Old Welsh Guy, in his normal brilliantly funny fashion, has composed a verse for a Christmas card to Google.

Your Algo sucks
times are now hard
here's your XXXXXX
Christmas card
He's kidding, of course (he did fine in the update), but it's pretty amusing.
The upshot of this (long, of course) thread, and the related (very long) threads on the other forums I frequent, is that:
1) Florida's been really hard on a lot of people. The jury's still out on the conspiracy theories, and there's currently a lot of debate among those who chose to make changes to their sites to recover rankings and those who made no changes-- it seems ranking are returning to many, and they're returning to both those who changed and those who didn't.
2) Content sites have fared well. Content seems to be as important as ever, if not more so. Which is a premise from which I will be making a lot more posts in the future: if content is king, how do I get some good content?
3) Don't take free traffic for granted. We're all looking forward to the day when Google has some decent competitors.
But, again, see #2: they all like good, quality content. "

SEC rule may nudge Google toward IPO | CNET News.com

That ruling I mentioned...
SEC rule may nudge Google toward IPO | CNET News.com: "A private company must report its finances once it has more than 500 common shareholders--or stock-option holders--and $10 million in assets, according to section XII(g) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. That means a private company must file quarterly forms with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that disclose operating expenses, profits, partnerships, shareholders and many other details--a laborious process that can cost as much as $2 million annually."

new google layout screen shot

For real or caused by spyware?

More Florida...Search engine news blog | Search Engine Lowdown

Search engine news blog | Search Engine Lowdown: "Who will come out on top?

1. Those web sites that target more than just a few search terms. Your site should be relevant for more than just the generic phrases.
2. As I have always said, relevant links are the key, not just any link. Look at SEL, we've jumped to a PageRank of 7 with just 39 links, but each one of them is from a relevant site and not a single one solicited.
3. With Google now stemming search results, we no longer have to worry about whether to target the singular or plural search terms.

Don't panic, continue to make your site relevant for targeted search terms and don't employ spam techniques and you should weather the 'florida' storm"

A few quotes from In conversation with... Daniel Dulitz - Google Engineer.

people are just casually surfing the web they can see
what Google's PageRank impression of that page is. And
that's great. I'm all for people doing that. But for
search engine marketing, search engine optimisation
purposes, yeah, I'd say that there's too much emphasis
placed on what that PageRank number actually is.
Our job as a search engine is to return the best results
that we can. And we're not naive enough to think that we
can condense every indicator about a page into a number
from one to ten. We certainly can't do that. So, if people
are trying to look at what we're doing and their idea is
based on that single number from one to ten, then ...
well, they're not going to be effective in figuring out
what we're doing at...

I think part of the problem also, is that people are
fascinated too much about what kind of rank they have at
search engines – regardless of whether it's any use having
that rank. You know, whether it brings them any traffic or
not. And those issues seem to become just so important to
them. As far as I'm concerned, I get a better idea of what
traffic I'm getting, and from where, just by looking at
log files – not by doing a rank check to see if I'm still
number one for my own name spelt backwards...

...Much more important than checking your rank on search
engines... In fact, I think THE most important thing
you can possibly do is track conversions of users who
visit your site – and to track that by referrer – yes, as
you say, to analyse your own site logs.
Then you can work backwards from there, you can see what
referrers are doing a good job for you. Are these
directory or links from other sites providing a lot of
good traffic AND are search engines providing good
traffic. And then you can look at changes in those
relationships. You can detect between yesterday and today
that there are fewer conversions from, say, Alta Vista
than there used to be. Then you have a real live person
case asking the question...

Mike G
So, as I said, you can learn a lot more about your success
from your log files than you will doing a rank check for a
keyword or phrase, which even if you're number one,
doesn't convert for you...

Florida Google Dance Resources

MOST COMPREHENSIVE TO DATE:
Florida Google Dance Resources: "Florida Google Dance Resources
By Danny Sullivan, Editor
December 7, 2003
This page summarizes articles from Search Engine Watch and resources from elsewhere that pertain to major changes to Google's search algorithm that happened in November and December 2003. 'Florida' is the nickname that's been given to this particular wave of changes known as the Google Dance."

Google Dance Case Studies

Google Dance Case Studies: "Google Dance Case Studies"

How to Get Google to Deep Crawl

How to Get Google to Deep Crawl: "Too many people focus on driving crawlers to the home page in order to cultivate PageRank. Toolbar PR is only a representation, an estimate, of many factors that go into determining a website's popularity. On a scale of 1-10, it is a very rough measure. See this interview with a Google Engineer and take note of what he says about the shortcomings of the Google PR shown in the toolbar.
Concentrate instead on creating content that is good enough that other webmasters will feel it is worth linking to. I know, this won't work in every business model- that's when ingenuity and creativity come into play."

Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone

Brett_Tabke, top tips from 2002 - a few choice items... from " a condensed SEO bible."
Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone: "The following will build a successful site in 1 years time via Google alone. It can be done faster if you are a real go getter, or everyones favorite a self starter."

H) Insite Cross links.
(cross links in this context are links WITHIN the same site)
Link to on topic quality content across your site. If a page is about food, then make sure it links it to the apples and veggies page. Specifically with Google, on topic cross linking is very important for sharing your pr value across your site. You do NOT want an "all star" page that out performs the rest of your site. You want 50 pages that produce 1 referral each a day and do NOT want 1 page that produces 50 referrals a day. If you do find one page that drastically out produces the rest of the site with Google, you need to off load some of that pr value to other pages by cross linking heavily. It's the old share the wealth thing.

P) Gimmicks.
Stay far away from any "fades of the day" or anything that appears spammy, unethical, or tricky. Plant yourself firmly on the high ground in the middle of the road.

The multiplier effect of many pages is not mentioned often enough, and IMO the phrase: "You do NOT want and "all star" page that out performs the rest of your site. You want 50 pages that produce 1 referral each a day and do NOT want 1 page that produces 50 referrals a day."

What Happened To My Site On Google?

Danny's 3 basic "golden Rules"

1) Have a good, descriptive HTML title tag that reflects the two or three key search phrases you want your page to be found for.
2) Have good, descriptive body copy that make use of the phrases you want to be found for in an appropriate manner.
3) Seek out links from other web sites that are appropriate to you in content"

Three golden rules of link building:

1) Get links from web pages that are read by the audience you want.

2) Buy links if visitors that come solely from the links will justify the cost.

3) Link to sites because you want your visitors to know about them

So not much has changed re the basics:
Search Engine Placement Tips: "Search Engine Placement Tips By Danny Sullivan, Editor October 14, 2002 "

On pageRank:

Google never used the PageRank algorithm to rank web pages. PageRank is simply a component of that overall algorithm, a system Google uses to measure how important a page is based on links to it. It has always -- ALWAYS -- been the case that the context of links to the page was also considered, as well as the content on the page itself

What Happened To My Site On Google?

Review of Florida dance in Q&A form, conclusions included below:
What Happened To My Site On Google?: "What Happened To My Site On Google?
By Danny Sullivan, Editor December 7, 2003 "

Smart businesses will realize they need to budget for this, just as they budget for advertising and to obtain leads in the real world. It's the rare and exceptional company that can get by on PR alone ... free listings aren't guaranteed. Yes, search engines can do what they want. Yes, it's foolish for anyone to have built a business around getting what are essentially free business phone calls via Google.

My advice is unchanged -- do the basic, simple things that have historically helped with search engines. Have good titles. Have good content. Build good links. Don't try to highly-engineer pages that you think will please a search engine's algorithm. Focus instead on building the best site you can for your visitors, offering content that goes beyond just selling but which also offers information, and I feel you should succeed.

Google and other search engines will continue altering their ranking systems, just as they always have done -- and that listings will change, sometimes dramatically, as a result.

Trademarks and SEM

Trademarks and SEM: "Trademarks and SEM
� � � Paid Search Strategies"

"Google’s Trademark Policy"

Google Adwords: FAQ:
Google's trademark policy is fairly simple. The trademark holder governs how the trademark is used as a search term. There are two options: a blacklist of advertisers who may not use your trademark and a whitelist of advertisers who may. For dealing with problems, read Google's full trademark complaint procedure.

Overture's policy is a bit more permissive, allowing advertisers to use a trademarked term as a search term for "comparative advertising, sale of a product bearing the trademark, or commentary about the trademark owner or its product." The policy acknowledges some "fair use" of trademarks results in consumer confusion.

If you have a trademark issue, you may get different resolutions from different engines. Read each engine's policy, and start discussions armed with the appropriate facts and supporting documentation.

News

News: "Espotting inks paid listings deal with Lastminute
London, December 4 2003, (netimperative)


by Susie Harwood
Espotting, the European search marketing network, has landed a pan-European distribution deal with Lastminute.com to provide the online travel firm with paid listings across five countries.

Under the agreement, Lastminute will include Espotting's listings on the exit pages of its four channels: 'hotels, 'flights', 'holidays' and the new 'flight+hotel' dynamic packaging functionality.
The deal covers all four channels in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, but is already live on the UK hotels pages.
A lastminute.com branded pop-under page will be served to users leaving the hotels channel of the site without making a booking, and will display Espotting's top five keyword specific listings to the corresponding channel. For example, the channel 'hotels' will feature 'hotels' and 'cheap hotels'.
Espotting said that its dedicated content editors have worked with Lastminute to select the relevant keywords."

Travel Stockwatch - 04-Dec-03. - 06 Nov 2003

Travel Stockwatch - 04-Dec-03. - 06 Nov 2003: "Performer of the day, without doubt, was Lastminute.com, which added 16p to close at 292p. What is more, The Times is predicting that the shares will grow in value in coming months and is rating them as a �buy�. "

Lastminute poised for trade launch of dynamic packaging - 04-Dec-03. - 06 Nov 2003

Lastminute poised for trade launch of dynamic packaging - 04-Dec-03. - 06 Nov 2003: "Lastminute poised for trade launch of dynamic packaging"

Precis of contending theories Google's Florida update - what really happened

Google's Florida update - what really happened: "Any pages that are found to exceed the threshold of 'allowable' seo, are dropped from the results. That's a summary of the theory.
At first I liked this idea because it makes very good sense for a search engine to do it. But I saw pages that were still ranked in the top 10, and that were very well optimized for the searchterms that they were ranked for. If an seo filter was being applied, they wouldn't have been listed at all.
People noticed that the filter was being applied to some searchterms but not to others, so they decided that Google is maintaining a list of searchterms to apply the filter to. I never liked that idea because it doesn't make sense. If Google can apply a filter to one search on-the-fly, it can apply it to all searches on-the-fly.
Another idea that has taken hold is that Google have implemented LocalRank. LocalRank is a method of modifying the rankings based on the interconnectivity between the pages that have been selected to be ranked. I.e. pages in the selected set, that are linked to from other pages in the selected set, are ranked more highly. (Google took out a patent on LocalRank earlier this year). But this idea cannot be right. A brief study of LocalRank shows that the technique does not drop pages from the results. It merely rearranges them a bit.
It was noticed that many search results were biased towards information pages, and commercial pages were either dropped or moved down the rankings. From this sprang the theory that Google is maintaining a list of 'money-words', and modifying the rankings of searches that are done for those words, so that informative pages are displayed rather than commercial ones.
Google sells advertising, and the ads are placed on the search results pages. Every time a person clicks on one of the ads, Google gets paid by the advertiser. "

Conclusion: every effect that the Florida update has caused can be attributed to a Hilltop-type, expert-based system.

I can see flaws in every theory that has been put forward thus far. The flaw in the seo filter idea is that there are highly SEOed pages still ranking in the top 10 for searchterms that they should have been filtered out for. The flaw in the LocalRank theory is that LocalRank doesn't drop pages, but a great many pages have been dropped. The flaw in the list of searchterms is that if a filter can be applied to one searchterm, it can be applied to them all, so why bother maintaining a list. The flaw in the money-words list idea is that, if it ever came out that they were doing it, Google would run the risk of going quickly downhill. I just don't believe that the people at Google are that stupid.

The expert-system, or something like it, accounts for every effect that we see. I am convinced that this is what Google rolled out in the Florida update. Having said that, I must also add that it is still a theory

What next: then the first thing to realise is that the system cannot deal with all searchterms, so targeting non-generalised and lesser search terms, using the usual search engine optimization basics, will still work.

For more generalised searchterms, the page needs to be linked to by multiple expert pages that are unaffiliated with the page. By "unaffiliated" I mean that they must reside on servers with different IP C block addresses than each other and than the target page, and their URLs must not use the same domain name as each other or as the target page. These expert pages can either be found and links requested or they can be created.

Florida Fever: The Google Update Uproar

Florida Fever: The Google Update Uproar:

Conclusion: "A number of forum posts indicated that Google was taking aim at SEO. I don't believe so. I think Google is trying to wipe out bad SEO and affiliate programs and unfortunately there are a number of innocent bystanders who got hit in the crossfire. But every indication from Google itself (both from posts to forums and in replies to help requests) seems to indicate that Florida is a work in progress. "

The filter: the Florida update was rolled out November 16th. It appears to be a new filter that is applied to commercially based searches, triggered by certain words in the query. The filter clears out many of the sites that previously populated the top 100.

The sites affected: The target is pretty clear. Its affiliate sites, with domains that contain the keywords, and with a network of keyword links pointing back to the home page of the site. The filter is remarkably effective in removing the affiliate clutter. Unfortunately, legitimate commercial sites with lower page rank are being removed as well. There seems to be a PageRank threshold above which sites are no longer affected by the filter.

Google should understand this

Google should understand this: "1) A webmaster's point of view:

Google owes its existence to Adwords. Adwords supply the revenue for serving the 'free' results.

If I spend money on advertising with any media, I expect that media to be of reasonable standard and observe some deontology.

As an Adwords advertiser, I expect from Google to serve 'free' results that are unbiaised and independent from their advertising section.

If (this is only an 'if' ) it was proven that Google:

- have used Adwords data, in any way, to influence their 'free' results;

- have tampered with their 'free' results in order to get more Adwords revenue;

- have introduced one or several 'spies' into the webmaster community with the purpose of disseminating supposedly helpful, but in reality fallacious information that will lead to the fall of money-making websites, and lead their owners to hopefully buy more Adwords;

If any of the above was true, I would then tend to think that this is a case for an ethic committee... or maybe even for a criminal court?

2) A consumer's point of view:

Google is not free. I pay for the 'free' results by purchasing any item that is being sold through Adwords. I expect the 'free' results to be unbiaised and independent from their advertising section. If it was proven that Google are tampering with the free results to gain financial advantage, I would feel deceived and I would then tend to think that this is a case for an ethic committee... or maybe even for a criminal court?

-- "

Google should understand this

Google should understand this: "If many, many companies/websites enjoyed high rankings for a variety of search phrases and these rankings were procured in a 'legal and ethical way' and then lost all their rankings because of an algorithm change that again, unfairly penalized these companies for no apparent reason (while other competing companies remained unscathed) then these companies ABSOLUTELY would have a bonafide legal argument against Google.

Google has a wide reach on the internet (some might say a monopoly as it pertains to search results) and with that comes alot of responsibilty AND scrutiny, warranted or not"

Cre8asite forums. Google - Google is stemming now. [ Search Engine Optimization, Usability and Web Design. ]

Cre8asite forums. Google - Google is stemming now. [ Search Engine Optimization, Usability and Web Design. ]: "Quote:
Google now uses stemming technology. Thus, when appropriate, it will search not only for your search terms, but also for words that are similar to some or all of those terms. If you search for 'pet lemur dietary needs', Google will also search for 'pet lemur diet needs', and other related variations of your terms. Any variants of your terms that were searched for will be highlighted in the snippet of text accompanying each result.

This is taken from the Google Search Tips. Until recently it said quite the reverse. That's a pretty fundamental change to bring in without a fanfare!"

Forbes.com: Change to Google ranking system irks merchants

Forbes.com: Change to Google ranking system irks merchants: "SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Some business owners who depend on Google driving Internet users to their Web sites are angry over a change to the top search engine's ranking system, which they say threatens to dent their revenue during the holiday shopping season."

Traffick | Minding the Internet Search Engines' Business

Traffick | Minding the Internet Search Engines' Business: "I suggested that Google was making more effort to discern the 'type' of information on a page (resource/discussion/information, store/affiliate, company, etc.) 'was heading down the right path.' Norvig even went so far as to agree that the type of thing Google 'might' do would be to look for information such as 'how long a company has been established, what kind of information is it showing to the site visitor, etc.' "

Prepare to be Monetized, Punk: Google Plays Sherriff with Commercially-Oriented Search Listings

Prepare to be Monetized, Punk: Google Plays Sherriff with Commercially-Oriented Search Listings:

"The shortest path to the truth seems to be the following rule: 'where there is a critical mass of advertisers, Google has chosen to re-rank the index.'
Google is doing what search engines have been doing for years: studying common SEO techniques and trying to ensure that clever marketers don't get the upper hand in the "free" index. What's different is how much is at stake if Google can indeed dislodge the best-laid plans of free-riders at this crucial stage.

We've seen trends towards giving more top-ten listings to sites that involve discussion, comparison, content, resources, etc.. It's just been accelerated now, and made more aggressive.

Another revenue angle to consider: Google now actually stands to make money from quality content sites which get ranked well. That's because many of these sites now show AdSense ads, and Google gets a little revenue share from them, too.

Advertisers who have always struck the right balance between paid and unpaid listings, between interesting content and company information, and commercial pages, won't have been caught flat-footed by this latest diabolical Google reshuffle.

But plenty of cocky search-marketing cowboys -- those who felt a growing sense of entitlement to rankings they "earned" for their sites on the strength of little more than a few cheap parlor tricks -- have been knocked to the dirt hard in this latest dustup. Most will pick themselves up, knock back a couple of shots of the hard stuff, and prepare themselves to fight again. But some won't."

News: Google France fined for trademark violation

Implications....
News: Google France fined for trademark violation: "Luteciel and Viaticum claimed intellectual property rights in 'bourse des vols' and 'bourse des voyages,' which roughly translate to travel market and airflight market."

Search Engines And Legal Issues - previous case list

Search Engines And Legal Issues: "Legal experts urge webmasters to think carefully before using tactics such as competitors' words in meta tags or buying trademarked keywords on search engines."

Got any top tips re Google Adwords? : e-consultancy.com

ADWORDS:
Got any top tips re Google Adwords? : e-consultancy.com:
Google Adwords explained
-------------------------------------------
Jim at Web Diversity provides detailed information on the four tiers
that Google's technology uses to determine where to place a listing.
Essential reading for those that pay for placement on Adwords, or
those thinking about doing so.

"There are 4 types of keywords you can have in Google Adwords :

1. Broad match - your ad is shown if the words you are bidding on show anywhere in your list.
2. Phrase match - your ad is shown if the phrase you are bidding on is shown within the context of the search made
3. Exact match - your ad is shown if the phrase you are bidding on is shown EXACTLY as the search made.
4. Negative match - your ad is NOT shown if one of the stop words you choose is used"

Search engine news, on Web searching and search engine optimization

Search engine news, on Web searching and search engine optimization: "Google's global usage share has reached has increased from 55.2 percent to 56.1 percent since OneStat's previous report.
According to OneStat the seven largest search engines on the web are:
Google 56.1%
Yahoo 21.5%
MSN Search 9.4%
AOL Search 3.7%
Terra Lycos 2.3%
Altavista 1.9%
AskJeeves 1.6%"

Google: Current Algo Update-Dance -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum

Google: Current Algo Update-Dance -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum: "believe that it is not a simple matter of the hilltop algorithm,.. there is much more in play here. Another interesting algorithm is the Topic-Sensitive-Pagerank algorithm. This algorithm consideres up to 16 or more different PageRank factors.

The original PageRank formula considered only 1 factor. It also failed to recognize any unrelated links. Google tried to compensate for this with things like looking at the anchor text,.. but all these things were just minor updates to compensate for what the original PageRank was missing. This new update does a much better job as it improved determination of relevancy of a back link"

One more theory...Google: Current Algo Update-Dance -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum

Google: Current Algo Update-Dance -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum: "the results are dominated by quasi, directory-like web pages. This is what leads me towards concluding that G has implemented something similar to Hilltop. Studying that document closely compels me think it is likely that an Expert Page can also become an Authority Page.

Expert Pages are described as pages 'about a certain topic with links to many non-affiliated pages about that same topic'.....operative words are 'many' and 'non-affiliated'

Authority Pages are described as 'an authority on the certain topic if and only when some of the best expert pages link to it'.

Directory-like sites that are informational- based fit the profile of both Expert and Authority. Typically, those type of sites would not have an abundance of affiliated links.

IMO, they have been rewarded by fitting the descriptions and having backlinks that are typically non-afilliated."

BW Online | November 25, 2003 | These Sites Are a Shopper's Dream

BW Online | November 25, 2003 | These Sites Are a Shopper's Dream: "In October, Yahoo launched an even bigger initiative: scanning the entire Internet for product listings, though without returning pricing data. That looks like a broadside at Google's online product search engine, Froogle. Launched last December, Froogle doesn't offer side-by-side comparisons, but it does allow shoppers to arrange product listings by price. It pulls in hundreds of thousands of unique visitors each month and is growing smartly -- and selling ads.

'We don't usually monetize beta products, but we do monetize Froogle,' says Marissa Mayer, director of consumer products at Google. While Google contends that Froogle isn't a shopping-comparison site but rather a search engine to help customers find products, analysts wonder if the search leader has bigger plans. 'If Google starts taking the online shopping-comparison part of its business more seriously, Shopping.com and the others in that group could have a big problem,' says Nielsen's Leathern.

The sector's leaders say they aren't afraid of Google. They argue that its basic search technology, called PageRank, might prove difficult to adapt to online shopping. 'With PageRank, the thesis is you can always rank the most relevant results at the top and the least relevant results at the bottom. In shopping, relevancy is a function of the user. Is it the brand first? Is it the lowest price? There's no PageRank that will solve what's in your head vs. what's in my head,' says Tolia.

Froogle's Mayer says its product does what it's intended to do very well, which is find products and not necessarily supply comparison features. And Froogle can perform the most important relevancy calculation, namely ranking product offerings by price."

Price war predicted after Virgin deal - 28-Nov-03. - 06 Nov 2003

Price war predicted after Virgin deal - 28-Nov-03. - 06 Nov 2003: "Industry commentators are predicting a price war on routes from London to New York and Sydney after Virgin Atlantic came a step closer to launching a service between Hong Kong and Sydney. "

Google: Current Algo Update-Dance -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum

One more set of "conclusions"...
Google: Current Algo Update-Dance -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum: "Saying this future of SEOs are still bright as Dan said if you get the clue you win if not you loose. We have to do a lot of research on the current algo and one thing that is special about this algo is if we rank we have the chance of ranking for all the keywords in our theme, Google has clearly said in their guidelines,

QUOTE
Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.


This is just a way to broad band matching instead of matching a query to a keyword phrase, I have clearly explained how to win this game in my previous posts here is a small briefing.

Sprinking the words related to your site all over your site,

breaking down anchor text to match different keywords,( examples personalized)

proper internal internal link structure to support the theme of your site link to pages in your site with appropriate keyword in it avoid phrases here too,

Linking you site to some high quality sites in your category,

getting links from authority pages, directories, relevant sites,

adding your domain name or company name to the anchor text,

giving enough food(contents- I am talking about contents around 400+ words per page) to the robots to make our site more relevant to the matching query,

avoid any type of stress on your phrases like the way we used to add it once in header, once in title, once in bold, once in italic avoid anything like this.

Just add it promptly somewhere on your page may be on your header or your body or title somewhere other than that just distribute the keywords related to your site all over your place"