Ironvine Search Marketing: August 2006

Thursday, August 31, 2006

www.dentistkids.com - Dentistry for Kids

www.dentistkids.com - Dentistry for Kids

This is a domain (www.dentistkids.com) I created to test Google's new Domain Apps and hosting service.

Supposedly you are supposed to get ranked within a few hours of the site being published, but so far with it being up for about 4-5 hrs now it is not indexed. Might as well blog about it and see if that helps!

I really like the Gmail hosting service and have been using it for a long time for my main domain emails. Getting a chance to try out the website creation tool however, I found it quite limited to what you are able to do with it. You can't even run AdSense on it... or any HTML or script. Maybe you can, but I haven't figured it out yet.

I will play with it more when I get back from vacation on the 7th! Have a happy and safe Labor Day weekend.

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 2:12 PM | Permalink | Comments

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Adobe - Flex 2 Downloads

Adobe - Adobe Trial Downloads

Flex Builder™ 2 with Charting
Flex Data Services 2 Express
Flex Charting 2
Free Flex 2 SDK

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

3 Free Chapters - "Build Your Own AJAX Web Applications"

"Build Your Own AJAX Web Applications"

Your free chapters in PDF format are available at:

http://sitepoint.com/books/ajax1/ajax1-sample.pdf

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Comments

Monday, August 28, 2006

Google, Yahoo, & MSN Update Search Results

The SEW forums report:

Google, Yahoo, & MSN Update Search Results

It appears that all the major search engines have been reported to be updating their indexes in some way. Google is updating back links at some of the Google data centers. Yahoo has been recently reported to have updated its algorithm or index, although there is no official word from Yahoo on this as of yet. And MSN Search has confirmed that an update has occurred to their index recently. While Google's update may not be represented in the index, Yahoo and MSN's updates have reports that the search results have indeed changed. For the better or worse - that is in the eyes of the beholder.

And over at Search Engine Roundtable they report:

BackLink Update at Google

A WebmasterWorld thread reports that back links are being updates at some of Google's data centers. The data centers documented with the updated back links are at 64.233.187.104 and 64.233.187.99.

What does this mean for SEOs and your rankings? Um, not much, in my opinion.

Just keep watching your traffic and see what resolves.

Also, this may be a sign of a PageRank update happening shortly. But again, that Toolbar PageRank doesn't show much.

Oh, there are also MSN Search Update and Yahoo! Search Update taking place now. Funny that it is all happening at once.

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments

Google Apps for Your Domain

Today Google announced the launch of Google Apps for Your Domain (http://www.google.com/a). Kind of a long name for Google and I hope they aren't going to use the acronym! I have been using the Gmail portion of this launch for my own website email since its launch of the Gmail for Your Domain in February 2006 and it has worked extremely well.

-------------

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., August 28, 2006 - Google Inc.
today announced the launch of Google Apps for Your Domain (http://www.google.com/a), a set of hosted applications for organizations that want to provide high quality communications tools totheir users without the hassle of installing and maintaining software or hardware.

In addition to customizing the user interface with their own branding and color scheme, organizations can tailor the service to their needs by mixing and matching the email, messaging, calendaring and other tools offered through Google Apps for Your Domain. Over time, Google will offer versions of Google Apps for Your Domain that are oriented toward the needs of a variety of organizations, from family websites and community groups to non-profits and small businesses, as well as universities, large enterprises, and ISPs.

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 9:04 AM | Permalink | Comments

Friday, August 25, 2006

PPC Campaign Success

"Sesame Elite Search really performs and is so simple! It's the high-tech way to give your practice the exposure it needs. Our Sesame online marketing campaign brings in new patients, and the online visibility allows us to maintain our exclusive practice niche."

-- Drs. Jeremy & Andrew Orchin, Orthodontists in Washington D.C.

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 1:21 PM | Permalink | Comments

Internet Explorer 7 RC 1

Internet Explorer 7 Release Candidate 1 for Windows XP SP2

Yesterday Microsoft released the RC1 of its new IE7 web browser. This replaces the IE7 Beta 3 version. Some of the new features include a streamlined interface, tabbed browsing, printing advances, improved search functionality, instant feeds (RSS), dynamic security protection, and more.

Better Standards Support…
Better standards support in IE also means some pages break. Provided are a set of documentation and tools to help you transition your pages to IE7:

The IE 7 Readiness Toolkit pulls together documentation, tools, and guidance for developers, testers, and ITPros to prepare sites, extensions and applications for IE 7.
The Cascading Style Sheet Compatibility in Internet Explorer 7 - documentation on common breaking patterns and techniques you can do to avoid them.
Developer and ITPro Checklists
The IE Developer Center is the clearinghouse for all (past and present) IE developer information.
Application Compatibility Toolkit that logs and identifies changes in behavior due to changes in IE 7 and Vista.
All of this is wrapped up for you in the Information Index for IE 7.

Web Developer Toolbar, which is a great aid during the development and debugging of a website.

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 8:14 AM | Permalink | Comments

So how -do- you code an AJAX Web page?

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments

The Hello World of AJAX

The Hello World of AJAX

AJAX Tutorial for Very Beginners

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 7:44 AM | Permalink | Comments

Thursday, August 24, 2006

PageRank for Blogs?

I am wondering if it is possible to get PageRank for blogs. Specifically on services such as Blogger. I have looked through so many and have never seen one that has any PageRank, even the Google corporate blogs. I have, however, seen some blogs that are hosted privately that have PageRank, but I believe this stems from their parent URL.

Should blogs be subject to PageRank? Or should it only be allowed for privately hosted blogs and not public ones on a blog hosting service?

Personally I would love to see PageRank on blogs to be able to see at a glance who is popular and who gets those quality results.

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments

Google Ranking Success

#1 on Google and Google Local Results
Search term "amherst nh orthodontist"

Amherst Orthodontics
Orthodontists Deborah A. DeBeradinis & E. Diane Shieh Five Overlook Park, Route 101A | Amherst, New Hampshire 03031 | 603.672.0844.
www.amherstorthodontics.com/

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 8:13 AM | Permalink | Comments

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

How to Market Your Website With Free Publicity!

Simple tips on how to write and distribute an article or press release without any cost. Find out where you can submit your releases and have them be picked up worldwide. This is one of the most valuable tips you can follow to promote a web site!

How to Market Your Website With Free Publicity!
Article by Steve Terjeson

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 9:12 AM | Permalink | Comments

Writely.com (beta) Open to the Public

Writely.com has quietly opened it's doors to the public. This application has been in the works since Google acquired the company late last year. Until now there has been only a limited number of beta registrations and a long waiting list.

I took a good look and run through of the application today to see how much it has changed. (I had used the beta from the parent company before Google aquired it.) I found the use, speed and features to be quite acceptable. There is a lot you can do with the page, including editing the HTML directly, but without script.

The ability to publish online instantly is a huge bonus, including access to post to blogs and create an RSS feed. You can also share access of the document to other users and track revisions.

Writely.com seems to be a well put together application. It is still in beta and there are some small bugs (I found one while writing this). I do think that this application can have a huge impact on the way the internet is used. I can see a tremendous potential in schools, workplaces, and personal use. It is an application that is higly comparable to Microsoft Word, which is currently in the progress of developing its own online office suite.

Here is a sample document snapshot of the document creation screen and you can view the actual public display access here.

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 8:14 AM | Permalink | Comments

Friday, August 18, 2006

Google Data API (Beta, Blogger API)

Along with the new launch of Beta.Blogger.com comes the release of the Blogger data API which allows client applications to view and update Blogger content in the form of Google data API ("GData") feeds. Your client application can use GData to create new blog posts, edit or delete existing posts, and query for posts that match particular criteria. This could be very interesting if applied to say a little AJAX.

Below is a cut& paste of the content links from the Google Data APIs (Beta) Developer's Guide

Contents

Audience
Blogger version compatibility
Interacting with Blogger: examples
Find a blog's feed URL
Request the feed manually
Request the feed using the client library
If you're writing an installed (desktop) client:
Add a blog post manually
Add a blog post using the client library

If you're writing a web application client:
Add a blog post manually
Add a blog post using the client library

Send a query

Interacting with migrated blogs
Installed applications
Web applications

Blogger feed types
Blogger elements and query parameters

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments

PHP Image Manipulation

More Image manipulation with PHP & the GD library

This is a very easy to follow article that I think is very useful in being able to manipulate images on the server side. It walks you through how to resize images, create thumbnails and watermark images along with several other features.

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Comment Form with Image Verification

Sesame Design: Comment Form with Image Verification

In an effort to make web forms more secure and prevent spam we have developed a PHP based dynamic comment form package with image verification. It was designed to make it very easy to use, and no need to modify any cgi or script files! You can have as many form fields as you like.

>>Download the Files<<

Instructions:
1) The page must be saved as .php, but you can name it whatever you like.
2) Include all files in the same directory as the .php page. (sample.php not required)
3) Include the <?php .... ?> section at line 1 of the file
4) Change the To, From Name, and From Email to the correct information
5) The submit button must be named 'submit'
6) The verification textbox name must be named 'txtNumber' and be accompanied by <img src="randomimg.php"> (image size is 85x40)
7) Form action must call the same page (itself) and be set to POST
8) Copy the <?php .... ?> sections at the bottom of the sample.php file and paste under the </form> tag

Optional settings:
To have the page redirected, remove the # and change the redirect URL
To have cc emails add to the php code: $cc='some@email.com';

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments

Open to Everyone! - Google Analytics

Google Analytics Blog: We're open! Instant access now available:
Tuesday, August 15, 2006

I'm happy to tell you that we've just removed the wait to receive a Google Analytics account. Now anyone with a website can instantly create one for free by simply by visiting google.com/analytics or by clicking on the 'Analytics' tab within AdWords. After you create an account, we suggest reading the Installation Guide to get it set up quickly and correctly."

It's great to see Google starting to open up their projects without having to apply for access weeks in advance. I remember when Urchin was first migrated to Google. I signed up and got access within about 10 days. I applied it to all of our corporate sites and it has been a marvelous tool. Along with AWStats, you can create just about any data report you would ever need.

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Search Rankings Have You Roasted? Try This!

The Google campus now has it's very own specially developed Google ice cream sandwich complete with the Google logo on the wrapper. Their campus chef worked with a local ice cream company to develop the creamy dessert which consists of ice cream inside two oatmeal cookies which is dipped and covered in chocolate.

Can someone email one to me, please? :)

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 7:52 AM | Permalink | Comments

Pointing Webmaster Queries to Site Explorer

Yahoo! Search blog: Pointing Webmaster Queries to Site Explorer

A lot of webmasters use Yahoo! Search to get page and inlink data about
their site, using 'site:', 'link:', 'linkdomain:' queries. Starting last night,
we are redirecting all queries of this nature to the Site Explorer results pages, so
that you can benefit from this tool's additional features.

To reiterate, the following types of queries will be redirected:

site:ysearchblog.com
link:http://www.ysearchblog.com/archives/000341.html
linkdomain:ysearchblog.com

All other queries, such as the ones below, will not be
redirected:

ysearchblog.com
ysearchblog
site:ysearchblog.com webmasters
(looking for ysearchblog posts mentioning webmasters)
link:http://www.ysearchblog.com/archives/000341.html Danny Sullivan (looking
for links to the article mentioning Danny Sullivan)
linkdomain:ysearchblog.com site:yahoo.com (looking for links to ysearchblog
from within yahoo.com)

Yahoo Site Explorer is developing into a decently robust tool comparable to Google's Webmaster Tools. Both resources are very valuable to webmasters and search experts alike.

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 7:42 AM | Permalink | Comments

Monday, August 14, 2006

Search News: Search Market Share & Keywords

Search Market Share Percentages

The top three search engines (Google, Yahoo! and MSN) now account for over 94% of all search volume in the US. Since Hitwise last released these numbers in June 2006, Google (http://www.google.com/) has increased its share from 59.3% to 60.2%, Yahoo! Search (search.yahoo.com) has increased from 22.0% to 22.5% and MSN Search (search.msn.com) has decreased slightly from 12.1% to 11.8%. - Searchwrite

Search Term Data Feed on SEMPO.org

Hitwise is publishing a feed of Search term data on the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) website. Featured on SEMPO.org are the top-10, US search terms of 20 online industries rotating on a weekly basis, such as Shopping - Apparel & Accessories, Entertainment - Television, and Travel - Destinations & Accommodations.

Hitwise Search Intelligence data illustrates the search behavior of 10 Million US Internet users across the top search engines, including Google, Yahoo! Search, MSN Search, Ask and more than 160 industries. Hitwise is in the unique position to provide a comprehensive analysis of both search engines and search term trends, as a result of the company's unique methodology and strength of sample.

Yahoo! Search Marketing Application

The new Yahoo Search Marketing application launch schedule has been set with the new Application Launch in Q4 2006 and Ranking Scheme rollout in Q12007 (but perhaps before Christmas shopping season).

Yahoo Search Marketing has been working on the planning of the application for 5 years along with up to 1,000 private testers of the new Yahoo Search Marketing system.

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments

Friday, August 11, 2006

Does Googlebot parse CSS?

Jeff Martin - Search Engine Watch Mod:

I think the bottom line here is as long as when you view the source of the page
you see "href=pagehere.html" the links can be seen and crawled.

Good rule of thumb: Don't try to cheat and no stuffing. You can hide, manipulate, and display data however you want as long as the bots can see and it's not abused.

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 2:57 PM | Permalink | Comments

Google Code - Project Hosting

Google Code - Project Hosting

A new open source directory and project management site brought to you by Google. Personally I don't find it as broad or powerful as other open source code resources out there like krugle.com but it does allow you to further consolidate your time tracking, project management and code resource, e(g)mail, seo, and marketing all in one login.

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 8:42 AM | Permalink | Comments

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 1:18 PM | Permalink | Comments

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 1:14 PM | Permalink | Comments

Article Submission Sites #1

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments

Yahoo! Site Explorer

With the launch of Google Webmaster Tools here is a little look at the Yahoo! Site Explorer. They are quite similar in the methodology of managing listings.

The differences seem to be:
Google Sitemaps has a much better site map listing procedure and verification methods.
Yahoo! Site Explorer has better tools taht show which pages are indexed and what sites link back to you.

There are ups and downs to both, but if you really want to manage a site's optimization you need the big two. MSN where art thou? Anyone?

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

How to market your website - Free!

I wrote an article to provide a simple guideline for beginners to create and submit press releases and articles. One of the biggest ways to help promote a web site, to search engines as well as the public, is to get your name and URL out there.

The article contains simple tips on how to write and distribute an article or press release without any cost. Find out where you can submit your releases and have them be picked up worldwide. This is one of the most valuable tips you can follow to promote a web site!

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 7:56 PM | Permalink | Comments

Yahoo! Search Builder

Yahoo! Search Builder looks to be the counterpart to Google's AdSense search box.

There are some differences between the two that make them fairly unique. Yet both, for the site specific searches, require that your site has been indexed fully for it to pull any relevent information.

One of the differences on Yahoo! Search Builder is not being able to have any ad's personalized as from AdSense.

Two nice things from Yahoo! are the ability to manage the "search in" location and that you are able to track the performance of the search box. You can specifically set the search location to be the web, a specific web site, or a mixute of both, as well as dis-allowing specific words in a "Most Popular" section.

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 8:47 AM | Permalink | Comments

Is my site listed??

I can't tell you how many times I have heard "I can't find my site when I do a search!" or "How long until I am listed?"

So how do you know?

Firstly, you can try doing a search for your name, or use any of the inline search queries available in most of the major search engines.

Or you can use these handy tools from Yahoo and Google to specifically look for your site.

Yahoo! Site Explorer

Google Site Status

Both tools give you some good information about your site. Google even tells you when the last time GoogleBot crawled your site. Yahoo has a nice feature that tells you how many incoming links you have.

Both tools should be valuable to any SEO specialist.

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 8:23 AM | Permalink | Comments

Monday, August 07, 2006

Google Sitemaps to Google Webmaster Tools

With the most recent update to Google Sitemaps they have added several new webmaster tools, increased functionality in adding sites and managing crawls and indexing. Also of note is that Google Sitemaps has been renamed to Google Webmaster Tools.

Google Webmaster Central is the portal for webmasters to submit a site, perform simple checks to see if their site is indexed or to create Sitemaps. It also has links to the Webmaster Blog, Google Group, and Help Center.

No, they still don't allow you to manually change your rankings (other than removing one completely, or a new submission). It is a big push toward Google's way of getting the webmasters ties even closer to Google (like we aren't already) in allowing them to focus the way GoogleBot will crawl their site.

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments

Friday, August 04, 2006

Living Arrangements

Time for another office shuffle. This is my 6th desk now. Seems like they keep shrinking and the work keeps growing. Better than no desk at all ;) Pretty soon I am going to be telecommuting! I wish. Nice thing is I can reach all my domain/web site transfer and search engine optimization project folders without having to stand up. Moving is probably a good way to dust anyway. Back to work!

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 2:51 PM | Permalink | Comments

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Hello, Dr. Sam Smiley!

Dr. Sam Smiley is an orthodontist that has been working on the teeth of the staff here at Sesame Design. His braces are top notch and get those teeth straight and white. I thought about going to him for Invisalign or OrthoClear as I do not like the metal bands of traditional braces in my mouth. Since he doesn't really exist maybe I can get an affordable orthodontic financing plan.

Dr. Smiley's new orthodontic web site design came out well and should help to showcase a basic web design to orthodontist and dentist prospects. The site contains a lot of our orthodontic standard content such as Types of Braces, Life With Braces, and the Orthodontic Dictionary. Dr. Sam Smiley is also profiled in the Meet the Doctor section.

This of course is a post that is not really ment to promote an actual orthodontist, but to test things out on a dental blog level. Feel free to check out his sample orthodontic web site however. There is still lots of very informative dental and ortho content you can learn from.

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 7:51 AM | Permalink | Comments

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Ajax Tutorial » Ajax Help » Ajax Resources

Ajax Tutorial » Ajax Help » Ajax Resources

Some basic AJAX code snippits and links or AJAX resources.

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Javascript: Back Button Navigation

Just a small code snippit that will allow you to create a Javascript [Back Button] navigation link to go back one or more pages.

<a href="#" onClick="history.go(-1)">Back</a>

or

<input type=button value="Back" onClick="history.go(-1)">

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments

Website Submission Directory Lists

Putting up a great website with valid content that people are really going to like is not the only thing you need to do to have a successful web site and good rankings on SERPs. One of the major content values the search engines look for are those quality incoming links to your site.

Having these links tell the search engines that your site is popular and worthy of being listed. It's something that people are going to find somewhere, and they want them to use their service. Probably a little bit twisted version of looking at why they do it, but it makes sense for the layman's point of view.

Below you will find a list of directories and directory lists that you can submit your site to. Some are free, some require registration. Others charge you for each listing or want you to put up a reciprocal link on your website. DMOZ and Yahoo! directories are by far the largest and most popular. You should always start there.

[Starting Point Directory] - PR8
[Thomasnet] - PR8 Industrial Products Only
[Librarian Info Directory] - PR8 Must have free content/info
[Free Web Submission]
[List of free directories] - Lists PageRank(PR), cost, Alexa
[Great directory List]
[Great list of PR6 directories]
[A list of search engine friendly web site directories]
[Excellent directory list] - Allows you to mark all directories you have submitted to.
[600 SEO directories]
[Hitslog.com] - List of directories with Google PageRank(PR)
[Internettreklama.com] - List of directories with Google PageRank(PR)
[Vilesilencer.com] - Massive SEO Friendly, Google PageRank(PR) Directory List
[SEO Friendly List] - 506+ good Free SEO friendly list
[Lists PageRank, costs] - Many directories listed in a forum.
[SEO Company list]- List is comprehensive and has 7 categories
[Massive list with PR, paid or free]
[Lists Google PR, Alexa ranking, saturation, fee or free]
[Google PageRank, Alexa Rank] - Lists requirements for free listing
[Google PageRank and paid listings worth the money]
[List of most important and used directories]
[Interactive Marketing internet directories]
[SEOChat Forums Free PageRank Directories]
[Best-Web-Directories]

Remember it can take a while for directories to publish or index your site. Think of it as an investment into the future!

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments

Yahoo! News

This week we see the launch of a new Yahoo! crawler (Slurp). From the feedback and just taking a cursory look at the general results of the change, you can see that Yahoo! has adapted to the Google method of indexing spam sites and directories. *sigh* Lets hope that their *load and speed* fix for the web hosts doesn't affect the end user. I can just hear the doctors wondering about their rankings already.

July 28, 2006
Weather Report – The New Yahoo! Search Crawler (Slurp) Is Here!
We launched a new Yahoo! Search Crawler, Yahoo! Slurp earlier this week. In addition to crawling the Internet faster, our new crawler is more efficient at visiting websites. As a result, site owners will notice as much as a 25% reduction in the number of requests and bandwidth consumed by the crawler.

While transitioning to the new crawler over the past few weeks, we had been running both crawlers in tandem. In some cases, this increased the frequency of Yahoo Search requests to websites. Now, with the new crawler in full production, we have turned off the old crawler and site owners should see a much lower crawl load without a loss in content coverage.

With this change of behavior in the crawler, you may see some shuffling of the pages that are included in the index and some changes in ranking as well.

Let us know what you observe through our feedback form, or if you have any technical issues with Slurp please contact support.

Thank you to everyone who helped us with this update!

David Simpson
Yahoo! Slurp Team

Priyank Garg
Yahoo! Search

Posted by Steve Terjeson at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments

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Ironvine Search Marketing

Ironvine blog by Steve Terjeson, SEO, SEM, online marketing specialist, web programmer.