Ironvine Search Marketing

Ironvine Search Marketing >> How Google Ads Are displayed

2007-04-05T14:23:00.000-07:00

Big news from Google about how AdSense ads are displayed.

There are 2 changes.

#1 - Google AdSense has decided to switch the background color of the top ads from blue to yellow. By changing to a brighter color it will help ads stand out more on the page. Personally I liked the cool comforting of blue.

#2 - Instead of clicking anywhere in the box, users now need to click on the link in the top line of an ad in order to be taken to an advertiser's site. Together, these changes help decrease the likelihood that a user will unintentionally click on an ad, while making our highest quality ads more visible.

Now my question is, does this affect all Google ads or just the Premier section ads? And how will this affect performance since it will almost look like a natural result (or like Yahoo's paid placement)?

Good, or bad we will see.

Blue is Out, Hello Yellow

Technorati Tags: Google, AdWords, Search, Marketing, Paid Search, Online Marketing, Sponsored Search, SEO, SEM, Ironvine

AdWords Bug Response

2007-02-20T11:22:00.000-08:00

Inside AdWords: Unexpected Minimum Bid Increases

Official Review Post at Ironvine Search Marketing http://ironvine.com/blog/index.php/archives/google-adwords-bug-response/

Finally, word from Google about what happened.

There are still some high costs being incurred, so I don't know if this fix was supposed to take care of these, or if its just the new quality score generating Google revenue.

Any feedback on what you have experienced vs. what Google says below? Feel free to comment.

Unexpected Minimum Bid Increases

Last Friday, during a routine infrastructure update, we experienced a technical issue that significantly increased the minimum bids for some keywords. Because the maximum CPC for these keywords was not changed, a number of impacted keywords became inactive for search, resulting in fewer leads for some advertisers. This technical issue was completely unrelated to the Quality Score updates that we have planned for later this week. We sincerely apologize for any disruption that it may have caused to your traffic. Below, we've answered a number of questions that we've heard since Friday:

When was this issue resolved?
This issue was resolved by our engineers on Saturday morning (PST) for the vast majority of impacted keywords. The minimum bids for these keywords have since returned to normal.

Will you be issuing credits?
Once we have completed our analysis of the impact, we'll automatically issue credits to advertisers who overpaid due to this issue. As soon as these credits have been applied, we'll email the affected advertisers to let them know.

I paused some of my ad groups because the minimum bids increased and they are still unusually high. What should I do?
If you paused any of your ad groups on Friday due to this issue, we recommend that you unpause them, but do not raise your maximum CPC. Unpausing your ad group should allow the minimum bid to return to normal without taking any other action.

Will this happen again?
Our engineers have been working tirelessly to understand why this issue occurred and to ensure that the proper measures are in place so that this is not repeated in the future.

Does this issue reflect the upcoming Quality Score improvements?
No, this issue is not related to our upcoming Quality Score improvements, which remain scheduled for later this week.

We greatly apologize for this issue. Please let us know if you have additional questions that you'd like us to answer on the blog.

Posted by Sarah, Inside AdWords crew

Technorati Tags: Google, AdWords, Google AdWords, Paid Search, Search, Marketing, Search Marketing, PPC, Ironvine

GoDaddy Promo Codes - .US Sale!

2007-02-19T11:37:00.000-08:00

Show your spirit with a .US domain name for President’s Day!

Get 25% off a GoDaddy .US domain name today!

gdm0218c: $5.99 .US Domain Sale - GoDaddy - Expires 2/28/07

Find more GoDaddy Promo Codes at GoDaddy Promo Codes ( http://ironvine.com/GoDaddy )

Technorati Tags: GoDaddy, Promo Codes, Coupons, Domain Name, Domains, Ironvine

Merry Christmas

2006-12-22T14:00:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from Ironvine Search Marketing.

I wish everyone the best and a safe holiday with friends and family.

Cheers!

Steve

Technorati Tags: Ironvine, Christmas

ClearCube Thin Client Blade Products

2006-12-15T10:28:00.000-08:00

ClearCube's blade PC systems are basically a server rack of PC's running in a single location. They allow the user full functionality of a PC without taking up space in you office or cubicle. Basically you have a terminal connected to the Blade Server
which means no big box on a desk. This is especially good for small work spaces or open areas such as the purchase desks at Sears.
From a technology standpoint, using a Thin Client approach in a large business environment can cut down the cost of keeping a restrictive managed computer network. ClearCube has a good product and method for implementing such a network setup.

Ironvine and AjaxKnight

2006-12-15T10:15:00.000-08:00

Just wanting to let everyone know that I have decided to split off a different blog dedicated to strictly programming and web development. This was done in the interest of dedicating specific topics to a specific site and keeping the information relevant.

You can read about web design, programming, Ajax, and web development on the AjaxKnight blog. This should be updated once or twice a week.

For the main search engine marketing blog, Ironvine Search Marketing, you should still receive updates daily during the week.

Startup Locations for Windows XP

2006-12-05T08:27:00.000-08:00

Startup locations for Windows XP where programs can set startup values. You can check these places to see if there is any malware or unwanted items that start every time you boot your computer.

After you have cleaned off a couple malware programs and auto-run-after-you-install programs it gets to be pretty easy to get your computer back in working shape. It will also help your speed increase!

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServicesOnce
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\Run

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows
(In right-pane, Value named "Run" & "Load")

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServicesOnce
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\Run
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Userinit

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
C:\Documents and Settings\{Username}\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

For Search Marketing news visit Ironvine Search Marketing.

Overstock Coupons

2006-11-22T11:49:00.000-08:00

Just in time for the holiday gift buying spree, here is a link to some super deals.Overstock Coupon has many specials from Overstock.com that will meet the needs for just about anyone on your list.

Are you looking to find a certain special marketed item online? Search overstock and use the Overstock Coupons to sweeten the deals you should already be able to find. Happy shopping!

Search Engine Submission Sites

2006-11-21T14:29:00.000-08:00

Search Engine Submission Sites & Links

Most of these places have free web site submission, but some require that you register before you can complete the submission. Personally I create a dummy email address that all my junk mail can be sent to and use that as the registration address.

By submitting your site to lots of search engines you will get a greater chance of exposure and traffic to your site. The main engines are a "must" but to get your rankings higher it takes quite a few other varied aspects to be implemented.

1. Yahoo! Search

2. MSN

3. Google

4. Open Directory

5. ExactSeek

6. ScrubTheWeb

7. SearchSight

8. Buzzle

9. Accoona

10. EntireWeb

11. GigaBlast

12. AbiLogic

13. World Site Index

14. 01WebDirectory

15. Exalead

16. WebSquash

17. IllumiRate

18. SearchIt

19. What U Seek

20. AbiFind

21. Linketeria

22. NetInsert

23. Wikidweb

24. Pedsters Planet

25. Info Listings
26. AMRAY

27. Claymont

28. Qango

29. Info Tiger

30. TowerSearch

31. Sphericom

32. FyberSearch

33. Zeezo

34. Aeiwi

35. Burf

36. Amfibi

37. BigClique

38. Cipinet

39. Clickey

40. BusyBits

41. WebbieWorld

42. SgtSearch

43. SearchHippo

44. SplatSearch

45. TopSites

46. Arakne Links

47. AnyApex

48. AnooX

49. SeekZap

50. SearchWorth

PPP Love

2006-11-20T21:25:00.000-08:00

One of the new fads out there on the blogosphere is the system of "pay per post" or PPP. It is also referred to as viral marketing because of the way it spreads out marketing messages throught blogs worldwide. Generally posts are focused by topic and end up on relevant blogs, making them a valuable "plug" that people read about from trusted sources, like me!

Some marketers find these posts to be a alternative method of marketing but it really is the fact of real people telling their stories and sharing marketing messages versus some blind robot who just searches for you by keyword. If you blog try Pay Per Post for yourself!

script.aculo.us Javascripts

2006-11-20T21:23:00.000-08:00

There are some newer, free JScripts that can use to do some pretty spectacular effects for sites. Huddletogether.com has some great image viewing scripts, Lightbox JS & Lightbox JS v2.0, that have the look of flash, but are solely javascript. Scriptaculous also has some great effects to use for adding some slick effects to your sites.

Technorati Tags: javascript, html, programming, web design, website design, scripts, ironvine

Content is King... With Attention

2006-11-10T12:46:00.000-08:00

Content is King... With Attention

I recently read an article all about page optimization and what some of the important factors are in developing a search friendly web site. They described all the pieces from the domain name to the coding elements like meta tags, keywords, the description, alt tags, good linking structure, but touted that "Content is King."

Now, I am not disagreeing with that statement. Content is certainly the largest block of the building. But what I felt was missing from their article was the fact that content should not be implemented then forgotten. If you have a great website, but it stays the same for months or even years it grows stagnant and will start to die over time.

Think for a second about www.cnn.com. How well would the site perform if they left news up on their homepage for a year? Now that is a very dramatic example, but the principle is the same even if it is on a much smaller level. Am I saying that everyone has to update their content every day to stay on top? No!

What I am saying is keep updated information on your site. Do you have events, sales, specials, holiday giveaways, or anything that you can add, especially to a homepage, that will show search engines your web site is a living document? How about new products, or asking a question to get feedback from site visitors, anything to show that you are vested in keeping your web site active and informative.

You have to take into consideration your market, your competition, and your own web site focus. Are other sites adding or changing content every 3 days? If they are most likely they are going to beat out any site that has had no changes in a long period of time. Do you run an informative site or e-commerce? Then fresh content, on a regular - frequent - basis is your lifeblood.

One good way to keep fresh content is by starting a personal or corporate blog and making a post or two a week. I tend to post a lot and I have search engines picking up my site every couple hours. Link those post titles to your homepage with some server-side code and see a huge jump in those bot visits!

There is so much you can do, and most of it can be something quick and simple. One or two hours a month even can show that you care about your web site. Write some content, share your news, sell a new product. Trust me, by giving a little, you will be gaining a lot.

About: Ironvine Search Marketing (http://www.ironvine.com/blog/)

Author - Steve Terjeson - Online Marketing Specialist with over 10 years assorted programming, marketing, sales, and computer related experience.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Terjeson

Terjeson, Steve. (2006, November 02). Content is King... With Attention. EzineArticles. Retrieved November 10, 2006, from http://ezinearticles.com/?Content-is-King...-With-Attention&id=345745

Australia Proposed Copyright Rules » Ironvine Search Marketing

2006-11-09T07:51:00.000-08:00

Australia Proposed Copyright Rules » Ironvine Search Marketing

Australia's new proposed copyright laws seem like a very stupid idea and really hamper freedom of speech and freedom of information. I'm standing with Google on this point. However, I do also think that an opt-in method could also work. It would just be a huge strategic nightmare with updating servers on the search engine side and granting access. If you don't want your stuff indexed use robots.txt. Come on people if you're not able to add that you have no business having a web page or content online.

Maple Story Hacks

2006-11-09T07:33:00.000-08:00

Here's a post for those online gamers who need a little extra help. Maple Story Hacks and Game Hacks are resources for just those people. If you needs hacks, cheats, or hints for online gaming as well as specific information about Maple Story then these sites are for you. Take a look today.

Ironvine Search Marketing News - October 2006

2006-11-07T15:13:00.000-08:00

Ironvine Search Marketing News - October 2006

One of my published works. Yeah my search marketing newsletter isn't much but I thought it would be fun to submit it to a few article sites and see the response. It covers some of the happenings in the search engine marketing and optimization world in October 2006.

You can read the official location at http://www.ironvine.com/blog/

Send It On Organization Support » Ironvine Search Marketing

2006-11-04T16:41:00.000-08:00

Send It On Organization Support » Ironvine Search Marketing

One of my friends has started a free, no cost, donation or support international charity organizational web site. Send It On is a place where you can go and share good deeds with others.

The goal is to impact your awareness of just how important doing things for others is, or show that you recognize things that have been done for you.

By sending on your experiences you encourage others to do the same thing in their lives. Stop by today and write a quick post about something that has happened recently in your life, then send it on to others!

Send It On

MyEclipse Plugin

2006-10-30T17:26:00.000-08:00

MyEclipse is a software package for the Eclipse platform. They have a nice range of application and language bases. This includes Eclipse AJAX / Web 2.0 Tools. The tools themselves are very well done and offer a great plug in solution for the developer. The Eclipse Plugin can be reviewed and downloaded right away!

Several other comparable applications I have seen range in the hundreds to thousands of $$ but MyEclipse is only running at about$30.

Take a try for yourself with their free download trial of the Eclipse Plugin.

Unforgiving Domain Hosts

2006-10-30T17:16:00.000-08:00

One part of my job includes managing domain transfers. About half the time this is really a seemless process, people have the right passwords, the other host has a good web interface, and things go smoothly.

The other half of the time is usually a complete headache. There are several reasons for this. One, the domain owner usually is not a technically savvy person. Two, the email contact password and user id are generally missing, incorrect, or just MIA. Three, the other host has such a bad interface, customer service, or completely shady procedures.

DRoA (Domain registry of America -gag-) is one of the shadiest and most underhanded domain hosts I have ever encountered. All the time we get advertisements via fax, mail or email saying your domain is about to expire and you owe $99~ to renew. Of course they aren't the host of the domain, they just want you to pay, then they take your money and make you transfer to them after the fact.

Another example is hosts that like to do -some- of what you ask. They send you partial access, make partial or blatantly incorrect changes, turn off service, or forget to answer your 10 emails for a month or two.

Why cant you all just play nice! Try GoDaddy, cheap efficient and generally responsive!

RevenueSource.com

2006-10-30T17:01:00.000-08:00

RevenueSource.com is a multi-network forum that discusses affiliate networking in depth. Affiliate network catagories include Commission Junction, LinkShare, Performics, Shareasale, and Independent Programs.

You can find industry happenings, news, events and share your own experiences while marketing online.

Discuss SEO Strategies - RevenueSource.com

Take a look today to see what kind of information you are missing!

Affiliate Marketing Forums - Revenue Source

Ironvine Search Marketing News - October 2006

2006-10-30T15:33:00.000-08:00

Ironvine Search Marketing News - October 2006

Ironvine Search Marketing

2006-10-23T16:03:00.000-07:00

Hello Fellow Searchers!

Just a reminder to visit our new location and blog/weblog Ironvine Search Marketing here http://www.ironvine.com/blog/ to keep up to date with all the current news and information about search engine optimization, search engine marketing, online marketing, SEO tips, tricks and internet current events.

We strive to bring you up to date information daily with experienced commentary. Please feel free to contact us or leave your own feedback!

McKinney, TX Orthodontist Jennifer Buchanan

2006-10-16T15:29:00.000-07:00

McKinney, TX (Texas), Orthodontist Jennifer S. Buchanan, DDS, MS

Did a little SEO update on the index.html page of this site to support the flash intro. Will monitor the changes to this orthodontic web site by Sesame Design.

New Ironvine Search Marketing Blog

2006-10-02T08:44:00.000-07:00

New Blog Location!

For search engine marketing news, search engine optimization tips, code examples, Google information, Yahoo information, Microsoft information and other industry news please visit the Ironvine Search Marketing blog at http://www.ironvine.com/blog/

Thanks and see you there!

Invisalign To Own OrthoClear for $10M

2006-09-28T13:53:00.000-07:00

Read about the article here

Google: AdWords Editor (Beta) open to the Public

2006-09-18T14:11:00.000-07:00

AdWords Editor is Google's free, downloadable account management application. They have now released this to the public in beta form. Previously it was restricted to select AdWords clients.

read more | digg story

Webmaster Central Blog: Listen in - Matt Cutts and Vanessa Fox talk search

2006-09-13T15:25:00.000-07:00

Webmaster Central Blog: Listen in - Matt Cutts and Vanessa Fox talk search:

"And if you missed last week's show, check out the podcast. Danny Sullivan and I explained that everything you need to know about search marketing, you can learn by watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If you heard the show and are worried about Danny's favorite espresso machine shop, don't be. They're doing OK after all."

You know, Vanessa Fox kind of looks like Buffy. I can totally see the resemblance!

Search Bugs At Yahoo & Google

2006-09-13T12:29:00.000-07:00

Search Bugs At Yahoo & Google: "Search Bugs At Yahoo & Google

In the past twenty-four hours I have discovered and documented four different bugs or weird occurrences at both Yahoo and Google. I will cover the four bugs, include adult ads displaying in Google and Yahoo's contextual programs, Yahoo's contextual ads not displaying ads at all, Google's site operator not functioning properly and Google's AdWords statistics not showing the right data.

(1) The first I named Adult Ads Displayed Within Google's AdSense Program? but it actually affects Yahoo as well. Basically, some people found Google AdSense ads that displayed adult oriented content, something that should not happen on AdSense. But what was amusing, was that after I posted this article, people noticed that when the Yahoo Publisher Network ads showed up, they were showing adult ads as well.

(2) If you were not able to load the ads in example one, then it may be because the Yahoo Publisher Network Ads Still Have Accessibility Issues, even after I reported it last Friday. Basically, some ISPs are not able to resolve the DNS information that hosts those Yahoo ads. This was first documented on August 31st, then acknowledged by a Yahoo representative on September 7th and is still an issue today.

(3) The next issue is that Google's Site Operator Shows Sites Off Domain. It does, I have seen screen captures myself, showing someone searching using the site: command and Google returning results from sites off of that domain. I have pictures and more details at the Search Engine Roundtable.

(4) The final bug I found today was that AdWords Statistics Mixing the Search & Content Network. So you are an advertiser, you set a campaign to only run on Google's content network, but for some reason, your stats in AdWords shows impressions and clicks for that campaign in the search network. This bug is confirmed by Google but stated as a small tiny problem.

There you go, four bugs documented in the past twenty-four hours.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on Sep. 12, 2006 | Permalink"

GOODROI Internet Marketing » One reason why new sites have a hard time ranking

2006-09-13T09:42:00.000-07:00

GOODROI Internet Marketing » One reason why new sites have a hard time ranking:

"INCUMBENCY

The sites that currently are in the top rankings have the benefit of being the incumbents and it is a huge benefit. These incumbent sites gain hundreds of free links from scrapers.

Scrapers sites put up massive amounts of auto-generated content and wrap adsense around it. Where do these scraper sites get this content? They simply republish the serps for thousands of keywords. Thus the link and snippet for the top ranking sites gets republished on hundreds if not thousands of scraper sites.

I know what you are thinking, but Greg these scraper sites have very little link popularity. It is true that they only pass a little link popularity but a little link popularity from 500 or 1000 sites is some real nice link juice. And new sites do not have any of this link juice."

I have found a very similiar situation with the online directories, which pretty much do the same thing as the scrapers. My clients are in the medical field so the directories are just bought lists of doctors compiled into data directory lists with AdSense spread all over them.

It just complicates the seniority factor and the mass publication of a lot of data causes headaches when trying to do focused local SEO for dentists and orthodontists who are small one city shops. My client base is somewhere around 2000 and those directories get frustrating fast.

Trackback

Live Search Launch!

2006-09-13T07:46:00.000-07:00

Live Search Launch! » Ironvine Search Marketing

Microsoft AdCenter letter announcing the launch of Live Search and the migration of MSN Search to Live Search over the next couple of days.

GeoTargeted AdWords Preview Tool

2006-09-12T13:56:00.000-07:00

Inside AdWords blog has announced a new feature that allows advertisers to see how their ads appear locally or based on a specific set of geographic criteria.

Go to www.google.com/adpreview and type in your keyword phrase. If you want to add geo-specific criteria, use the following formulas.

To define the country enter &gl=[Two Letter Country Code Here]

To define the region enter &gr=[region code here]

You can also define city, latitude and longitude, postal code and DMA.

More details at the AdWords Help Center and further explained on the Inside AdWords Blog.

Live Goes Live

2006-09-12T13:52:00.000-07:00

Both Microsoft Windows Live Search and Live Local have dropped their "Beta" labels. According to Microsoft they are also migrating MSN users to the Live Search as well.

Personally I haven't been too impressed by Live.com. I tried it out initially when it was released at the alpha/beta signups. The Hotmail interface upgrade was decent, if not a poor replica of Gmail. It was an improvement at least.

I still find there are a lot of issues with Live.com. Examples: I just logged in on 2 machines to my account to test it out. I tried to Add Content > My Content and it locks the process at Loading... when trying to add. Oh and don't bother trying to use it with FireFox2 Beta, it wont even load your personalized page content. In general it is very slow as well. I feel for the MSN users on 56k dialup.

Google Cache Date

2006-09-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

The date and time stamp on the Google Cache page represents the last time Google "retrieved" data off the page. If it has not been updated, then Google will not retrieve any data and will not update the date displayed on the cache page.

Lesson #1: Update your pages!

Google Sitelinks

2006-09-11T15:12:00.000-07:00

Here is some further information posted today from the SEW Blog Highlights about Google Sitelinks:

Google Sitelinks: New Name For Those Links Under The Top Listings

Last year, people started to notice that Google began showing "subtopic" or "subcategory" links below their listing, if they were the first in a Google search. Now, Google's finally confirmed the change as a permanent feature and given it a name: sitelinks.

From: http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060424-100933
Social Patterns dug into this a bit more. He determines they are "likely determined by traffic patterns." His findings in short:

Google snippet links do not return links outside of the home domain.
Google snippet links do not have to be from a text link, it can be an image link or even a javascript link.
Google snippet link text can be determined from an image's alt text.
Google snippet links can be subdomains of the home domain.
Google snippet links are not determined by PageRank.
Google snippet links are displayed for the top result for a "brand" search or "domain" search. (For example, "zappos" and "zappos shoes")

Google Supplemental Search Link Display

2006-09-11T14:25:00.000-07:00

Recently I have noticed that Google results for some large/popular searches are displaying supplemental links below the description.

A couple quick search examples are "Sesame" and "WordPress"

Sesame Workshop
Sesame Workshop - The non-profit educational organization behind Sesame Street and so much more...
www.sesameworkshop.org/ - 16k - Sep 9, 2006 - Cached - Similar pages

Games & More - http://www.sesameworkshop.org/sesamestreet/
Games - http://www.sesameworkshop.org/sesamestreet/games/
Elmo's World - http://www.sesameworkshop.org/sesamestreet/elmosworld/
Stories - http://www.sesameworkshop.org/sesamestreet/stories/
More results from www.sesameworkshop.org »

WordPress
A semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability.
wordpress.org/ - 7k - Cached - Similar pages

Download - http://wordpress.org/download/
Support - http://wordpress.org/support/
Hosting - http://wordpress.org/hosting/
What is WordPress? - http://codex.wordpress.org/Getting_Started_with_Word...
More results from wordpress.org »

Going to do some more research and see if I can find out where these are created, or if it is only for a select group of "special" web sites. It seems similar to the Google Co-Op listing where you can have subscribed links like the one I created for Sesame Communications Co-Op here.

Here is a semi vague reference to Sitelinks on the Google Webmaster Help pages. It looks like this is what is happening, and it is currently all automated. Hm...

Microsoft Live Writer

2006-09-08T11:49:00.000-07:00

This is a test post from the Microsoft Live Writer Beta application. It is a stand alone program that seemingly connects with any weblog to create posts then upload them.

Apparently it has issues uploading to Blogger, and the FTP uploading of images doesn't work correctly either.

Google's Domain Apps

2006-09-08T09:35:00.000-07:00

It looks like my test with Google's Web Site creator tool worked. I came back from my vacation and the web site I created had been indexed within 5 days. Perhaps blogging the link helped as well, who knows! That will take a bit more research. I will experiment with adding more pages and see if they get indexed as well. Dentistry for Kids is the web site that I set up to test and play with. It explains all about Pediatric Dentistry. I will add some content with unindexed words as a sample and see how it works too.

Sesame Elite Search

2006-09-08T09:01:00.000-07:00

I am very happy to share a new page on the Sesame Design web site. This is my direct service and I enjoy every minute of it.

Sesame Elite Search is a specialized offering directly focused to online marketing. This service provides orthodontists and dentists with a direct way to move their practice beyond the competition to reach patients actively looking for their services.

Sesame Elite Search sends prospective patients directly to your web site from a custom ad on Google, Yahoo!, or MSN.

What you get with Sesame Elite Search:

-Complimentary initial consultation of your online marketing needs
-Free price quote and list of the HOT keywords for your region/specialization
-Custom ad creation and frequent monitoring of your ad’s results
-Increased online visibility — patients can find you easier
-Monthly performance reports

WordPress Plugins

2006-09-08T08:44:00.000-07:00

I have been playing with WordPress as the corporate directive is to have a password protected area to disucss within the design team. Also, we need to have the option to use CODE or PRE blocks which unfortunately Blogger does not have.

WordPress has the option to add the plugins needed, like the password protected site and the code blocks. Coffee2Code has some good plugins.

I set up a blog to test and experiment with on my parent domain http://www.ironvine.com/blog/.

WordPress uses PHP technology and a MySQL database, which I am not sure that I like. I would much rather prefer an XML file which is much more transportable. Something similar to the Sesame News RSS Feed.

For now I will most likely be keeping my main blog here and using that one as reference.

www.dentistkids.com - Dentistry for Kids

2006-08-31T14:12:00.000-07:00

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.

Adobe - Flex 2 Downloads

2006-08-30T11:03:00.000-07:00

Adobe - Adobe Trial Downloads

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

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

2006-08-29T15:43:00.000-07:00

"Build Your Own AJAX Web Applications"

Your free chapters in PDF format are available at:

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

Google, Yahoo, & MSN Update Search Results

2006-08-28T13:08:00.000-07:00

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.

Google Apps for Your Domain

2006-08-28T09:04:00.000-07:00

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.

PPC Campaign Success

2006-08-25T13:21:00.000-07:00

"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.

Internet Explorer 7 RC 1

2006-08-25T08:14:00.000-07:00

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.

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

2006-08-25T07:46:00.000-07:00

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

The Hello World of AJAX

2006-08-25T07:44:00.000-07:00

The Hello World of AJAX

AJAX Tutorial for Very Beginners

PageRank for Blogs?

2006-08-24T12:47:00.000-07:00

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.

Google Ranking Success

2006-08-24T08:13:00.000-07:00

#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/

How to Market Your Website With Free Publicity!

2006-08-22T09:12:00.000-07:00

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

Writely.com (beta) Open to the Public

2006-08-22T08:14:00.000-07:00

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.

Google Data API (Beta, Blogger API)

2006-08-18T11:26:00.000-07:00

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

PHP Image Manipulation

2006-08-18T11:22:00.000-07:00

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.

Comment Form with Image Verification

2006-08-16T09:23:00.000-07:00

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';

Open to Everyone! - Google Analytics

2006-08-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

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.

Search Rankings Have You Roasted? Try This!

2006-08-15T07:52:00.000-07:00

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? :)

Pointing Webmaster Queries to Site Explorer

2006-08-15T07:42:00.000-07:00

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.

Search News: Search Market Share & Keywords

2006-08-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

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.

Does Googlebot parse CSS?

2006-08-11T14:57:00.000-07:00

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.

Google Code - Project Hosting

2006-08-11T08:42:00.000-07:00

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.

Article Submission Sites #3 (Last)

2006-08-09T13:18:00.000-07:00

The last of 3 posts with links to article submission sites

Expert Articles
Ezine Articles
EzinePlug.com
Ezine-writer
EZine Publishers Database
Freesticky
Free Article Search Engine
Free Articles Directory & Articles Submissions
Free Articles Zone
Freezinesite
Freezine Articles
Fresh Articles
Healthy-Articles.com
Go Articles
Hot Business Articles 4 U
HowToAdvice
IdeaMarketers
Internet Articles
iSNARE
Jogena
LinkGeneral.com Authors
Lyons International
Mailbiz
Management Portal
Marketing-seek.com
My Summer Holidays
Net Promotion Marketing Center Article Directory
Netterweb
New Article Directory
Niche-Content-Articles.com
Opportunity Update
PowerHomeBiz
PromotionData.com
PurpleHelp.com
ReprintArticles.com
RLROUSE.COM
SimplySearch4It
Smallbiz Articles.com
SmallBusinessOutpost
Smartads
Sticky Sauce
Submit Your Article
the Article Warehouse
The All I Need
The Article Directory
The Articleshelf
The Ezine DOT Net
Top7Business
Ultimate Profits
upromote.com
Valuable Content
Vector Central
WebArticles
Webmaster Articles
WebHostsOnline.com
Webmasters' Library
WebProNews
WebReference Open Publishing Overview
Web Site Content
Web-source.net
Work At Home Mom Help
WorldWide Information Outlet
Zinos.com
Zongoo

Article Submission Sites #2

2006-08-09T13:14:00.000-07:00

More article submission links:

http://www.Linksnoop.com
http://www.mailbiz.com
http://www.makingprofit.com
http://www.marcommwise.com
http://www.marketing-seek.com
http://www.marketing-seek.com/articles/submit.shtml
http://www.mastersyndicator.com
http://www.maxebook.com
http://www.netterweb.com/articles
http://www.netterweb.com/articles/articlesubmit.htm
http://www.opportunityupdate.com/doorwaytosubmit.html
http://www.parentclicks.com
http://www.powerhomebiz.com/termsofuse/articlesubmission.htm
http://www.profitpage.com/articles.htm
http://www.readycontent.com
http://www.selfgrowth.com
http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/articledir.php
http://www.SubmitYourArticle.com
http://www.theallineed.com/submit-articles.htm
http://www.thePhantomWriters.com
http://www.top7business.com
http://www.topica.com/lists/freeezinecontent
http://www.upromote.com/newsletter/submit.html
http://www.vectorcentral.com
http://www.vectorcentral.com/articles-form.html
http://www.web-source.net/articlesub.htm
http://www.webmasterarticles.net
http://www.webmasterslibrary.com/submit.shtml
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free_eContent/
http://www.work911.com/cgi-bin/links/add.cgi
http://www.zinos.com/cool/zinos/submitarticle.html
http://www.zongoo.com
http://www.article99.com
http://www.TheBugleDirect.com
http://www.myfamilyliving.com
http://www.prarticle.com
Add Me Newsletter
Allnetarticles
Article Avenue
Alumbo
Article Central
Article99.com
Article City
Article Dashboard
Article Depot
Article Directory Pro
Article Emporium
Article Finders
Article Hub
ArticleStop.com
Articles4Content
Article Blast
Articles Factory
Articles Online
Article Pros
ArticleResponder
BOC Online
Boaze Publishing Affiliate Program
BPubs
Business Know-How
BusinessNation
Business Tool Chest
Bytesworth.com
ClickForContent.com
Connection Team
Content-Articles.com
Content Tycoon
Cumuli Content
Digital Women
Dime-co.
eBusiness-Articles.com
Ebooksnbytes
e-calc.net

Article Submission Sites #1

2006-08-09T12:58:00.000-07:00

Yahoo! Site Explorer

2006-08-09T11:08:00.001-07:00

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?

How to market your website - Free!

2006-08-08T19:56:00.000-07:00

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!

Yahoo! Search Builder

2006-08-08T08:47:00.000-07:00

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.

Is my site listed??

2006-08-08T08:23:00.000-07:00

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.

Google Sitemaps to Google Webmaster Tools

2006-08-07T12:49:00.000-07:00

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.

Living Arrangements

2006-08-04T14:51:00.000-07:00

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!

Hello, Dr. Sam Smiley!

2006-08-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

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.

Ajax Tutorial » Ajax Help » Ajax Resources

2006-08-02T10:04:00.000-07:00

Ajax Tutorial » Ajax Help » Ajax Resources

Some basic AJAX code snippits and links or AJAX resources.

Javascript: Back Button Navigation

2006-08-01T14:37:00.000-07:00

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)">

Website Submission Directory Lists

2006-08-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

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!

Yahoo! News

2006-08-01T07:30:00.000-07:00

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

Spry framework for Ajax

2006-07-28T12:57:00.000-07:00

Adobe Labs - Spry framework for Ajax

This framework seems very interesting. If it is as simple as it sounds to implement it may be a nice tool for simple coding integration of AJAX into web page designs. Being able to implement XML into HTML easily could be a handy trick. Something to look into.

Free PR

2006-07-27T13:46:00.000-07:00

Ask them and they will come. Share the wealth. Spread the word.

Get those free linkbacks! Press releases are a cheap and easy way to get public awareness of your site and promotions. Not all of them charge to send out your PR, although most have some sort of limitation to them unless you pay up (like active links in the article).

The SearchWrite newsletter had a nice list of free Press Release distribution sites. I added a few of my own to the list where you can submit articles and PRs for free.

PR Free [http://www.prfree.com/]
Press Zoom [http://presszoom.com/]
Press Base [http://www.press-base.com/]
Express Press Release Distribution [http://express-press-release.com/]
Press World [http://www.press-world.com/]
Open PR [http://openpr.com/]
Free Press Release [http://www.free-press-release.com/]
Free News Release [http://www.free-news-release.com/]
I Newswire [http://i-newswire.com/]
Newswire Today [http://www.newswiretoday.com/]
======
iSnare [http://www.isnare.com/]
ArticleBlast [http://www.articleblast.com/]
Ezine Articles [http://www.ezinearticles.com/]
GO Articles [http://www.goarticles.com/]
PR.com [http://www.pr.com]

# Word Search Queries

2006-07-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

OneStat.com has published a report covering the word count on search queries for multiple countries and search engines. Here are the stats for July 2005 and 2006. You can see a slight increase in the words used. I would guess that it is because people are having a harder time finding the quality results they are after with the shorter queries. This is even more true for the USA results. The multiple word searches are almost double what the single averages are worldwide.

    July 2006                   July 2005

1. 2 word phrases 28.91%      1. 2 word phrases 29.60%
2. 3 word phrases 27.85%      2. 3 word phrases 27.55%
3. 4 word phrases 17.11%      3. 4 word phrases 16.21%
4. 1 word phrases 11.43%      4. 1 word phrases 13.42%
5. 5 word phrases 8.25%        5. 5 word phrases 7.58%
6. 6 word phrases 3.68%        6. 6 word phrases 3.21%
7. 7 word phrases 1.59%        7. 7 word phrases 1.34%

    USA

1. 3 word phrases 28.83%
2. 4 word phrases 22.28%
3. 2 word phrases 20.43%
4. 5 word phrases 11.97%
5. 1 word phrases 6.19%
6. 6 word phrases 5.76%
7. 7 word phrases 2.59%

Custom 404 Error Pages

2006-07-25T14:28:00.000-07:00

Custom 404 Error pages can come in very handy, and also offer a kindness to your site's visitors. We all have those finger-fumbles and it is usually better to show a bad typer an actual page instead of a big old error that makes them feel stupid. Or having them think you are ;)

Simply in Apache add to VirtualHost:

ErrorDocument 404 /errordoc-404.shtml

Reminder! If your redirect page is less than 512 bytes it won't work in IE.

Printable Pages

2006-07-24T16:01:00.000-07:00

Want to let people print out a nice web page you have published? Try using the @media function in a CSS file. This will allow you to modify the layout of your page and remove the images when the page is printed.

Here is a sample CSS file with the screen display and print formatting.

Simply use these containers to define the output mode:

@media screen {

@media print {

}

SEO Pricing

2006-07-24T15:10:00.000-07:00

Rand at SEOmoz posted a nice work up on a couple different kind of contracts and services they provide clients and the costs that generally go along with them. It is very interesting to see some of the higher service margins. I doubt that too many of our private practice orthodontists and dentists would be willing to go for this type of price range however.

Still we are dedicated to providing them the best search engine optimization we can and take pride in the results we get from our members site performance.

http://www.seomoz.org/blogdetail.php?ID=1233

Gallery Update

2006-07-19T13:00:00.000-07:00

The Sesame web design gallery has been updated.

Take a look at some of the latest orthodontic and dental web site designs!

Some of the latest orthodontic and dental web sites are:

Dr. Alena Spielberg
http://www.spielberg-ortho.com/

Dr. Greg Valeriano
http://www.valerianoorthodontics.com/

Dr. Chong Yun Shin
http://www.mightymolar.com/

Dr. Brandon Wainwright
http://www.wainwrightortho.com/

Dr. Michael J. Cook
http://www.orthofamily.com/

Length of Registration

2006-07-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

Does it really matter how long you have a site? 1 year vs 5+ years for example. Google has their patent application put in (United States Patent Application 20050071741) from back in March '05 that mentioned using the length of registration/existance(?) time to help fight spam. Most portal pages have a short shelf life and most are only registered on a year to year basis.

How should that affect the public in general? Lets say you are starting out as perhaps a freelance web designer. You pick out a catchy domain and put up a really cool web site. Should you be punished if you only register a domain for 1 year?

*Thinks that the domain registration companies had some lobbying done on this*

My personal site has been up since around 2000. It is fairly established and just in the normal course of usage has gotten itself ranked and linked to over the years. I haven't put a lot of work into any kind of optimization because I have been working on too many other peoples sites. How would I feel if I had to start from scratch and face this?

Frankly, there hasn't seemed to be a lot of impact with this actually coming into play. I could have a site up and indexed in just a couple days if I really wanted to. The length of registration factor looks and acts like such a miniscule part of the ranking algorithms that I wouldn't worry about it if you have a ligitimate web site. Just do good optimization and publishing techniques to get those quality link backs.

Google You Can Say No To ODP

2006-07-15T10:32:00.000-07:00

Inside Google Sitemaps: More control over page snippets

Google has added the same ability to disallow ODP editors page descriptions. This follows MSN's release of the same option. You can now globally disallow all robots (at least the supporting ones) with the meta tag:

<meta name="ROBOTS" content="NOODP">

or use GoogleBot only (or MSNbot):

<META NAME="GOOGLEBOT" CONTENT="NOODP">

SEOmoz Page Strength

2006-07-14T13:18:00.000-07:00

After reviewing this tool from SEOmoz, I am fairly impressed with it's value. You can find quite a lot of useful information on how your site is being seen on a broad scale (or not being seen respectively).

Here is a sample list of the information that it will pull about any web site.

Links pointing to full URL: (Yahoo)
Links pointing to domain: (Yahoo)
Position at Google for first four words of title tag on target URL: (Google)
Age of Domain: (Wayback Machine)
Links from domains with .edu TLDs: (Yahoo)
Links from domains with .gov TLDs: (Yahoo)
Alexa Rank (Alexa)
Domain name visibility (A count of results at Google for a search for your domain, showing URL visibility rather than incoming link count.) (Google)
Internal Link Percent (The percentage of pages on the domain that link to the target url. If the target URL is the same as the domain name, this is usually 100%.) (Yahoo API )
Number of search results for URL search at del.icio.us (del.icio.us)
Listings in DMOZ (ODP) (Yahoo)
Links found in Wikipedia (Yahoo)
Google Pagerank of full URL and Domain (Google) Full URL: # Domain: #

Try Page Strength for yourself!

Build the Popularity

2006-07-14T08:17:00.000-07:00

I have noticed that my blog is not getting the attention I would like to have. Hopefully to spark more comments and discuss questions and best methods. So this morning I went and submitted my blog to about 20 blog directories. The next step is to start branching out and networking with others in the same field and hopefully receive some linkbacks! If you are so inclined I would greatly appreciate it.

I am endevoring to provide useful content and experience. Hopefully someone will find it usable and valuable.

Link back to me!

I will be working on our corporate dental directory and orthodontic directory today. Some minor tweaks and content updates.

Page Strength

2006-07-13T11:31:00.000-07:00

This new tool, simply called Page Strenth, was developed by the team at SEOmoz. It was designed to determine the importance of a web page, similar to PageRank from Google, depending on the many factors we normally take into account in SEO. This includes things like age of the site, link quantity, referring sources, and PageRank.

Unfortunately, I am unable to give it a test drive due to high call valume. Please hang up and dial your operator. (MATT HELP!)

The pagestrength tool is temporarily offline. We experienced an extremely
high volume of traffic to the tool this morning and it was causing our server to
go down. I'm currently at the airport and will be traveling until later this
afternoon at which point I can properly fix the tool.

Thanks for your patience and check back soon!
-Matt seomoz.org

MSN's Slow Indexing

2006-07-11T09:19:00.000-07:00

For the last couple months MSN has not been indexing new web sites very quickly from what I can tell. I have heard rumors that they put new indexing on hold for a couple weeks in June to do some quality control updates. They opened up the doors to the search marketers for experiences in making positive changes. I don't know why they are taking so long (over 4 months now for a couple sites) to index, even using manual submissions and frequest site updates. About the only thing left that isn't highly pushed on these sites are the link backs.

Some of these orthodontist's web sites have been tweaked multiple times and have increased greatly in rankings. For example Dr. Priscilla Denny, Orthodontist in Birmingham, AL and Dr. David Engen, Orthodontist and Periodontist in Spokane, WA. Both beautiful web sites with customized, extensive and relevant orthodontic content. They were created at the beginning of the year and rank well on Google and Yahoo, but are not even listed on MSN.

We have started a Sesame linktrade program for orthodontists and dentists to promote their websites by asking their referring doctors to add web sites links to each other. Depending on the external links coming in, and the quality of those sites, we will see what kind of result comes out of it. There is also the possibility of using NOFOLLOW attributes to keep the outbound links down.

Using RSS as a Flash Page Sitemap

2006-07-07T09:38:00.001-07:00

This is a simple way to add a little more content and link navigation for search engines for full flash web sites using a standard RSS formatted document.

If you have not worked with RSS or XML before here are some good introductory resources where you can learn more in-depth coding and information than what we will be covering here:

http://www.w3schools.com/rss/default.asp - RSS Coding
http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/2175281 - Information
http://rdf.mobrien.com/xml/rss/open/make-rss/ - RSS Generation Tool

To begin with this RSS file won't specifically be used as a "news feed" but more as meta data or sitemap file.

First let's take a look at a simple example, then we will pull it apart a little.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>Ironvine Design Information </title>
<link>http://www.ironvine.com</link>
<description>You could add descriptive content about the web site in general here.</description>
<language>en-us</language>

<item>
<title>Ironvine Design - Homepage</title>
<link>http://www.ironvine.com/index.html</link>
<description>Welcome to Ironvine Design. We provide web site design services, search engine optimization and programming support.</description>
</item>

<item>
<title>Ironvine Design - Sitemap</title>
<link>http://www.ironvine.com/sitemap.html</link>
<description>Add a description of your sitemap page, or the sections it contains. </description>
</item>

</channel>
</rss>

The first two lines are the standard XML/RSS opening tags. There shouldn't be anything that needs changed here.

The next 4 lines describe the channel or in other words, the file overview.
- I would suggest using the same title as your web site, or that this is an "Information" file as shown above.
- Use a link to the root of your website.
- Describe your website cleanly. In other words, don't just cut and paste a list of keywords. Make it relevant to what you web site really is.

Following the channel tags you will see a couple <item> example groups.

This is where you would add an <item> group for each page of your web site. (For larger sites it may be helpful to create multiple RSS files for each section and place them on the section overview page, assuming you have a decent structure in place.)
- Use the same procedures as you did for the channel tags for each of the item group tags.
- Describe your pages. Don't always cut and paste content. Write what your page is about in a descriptive way and you just created yourself more relevant content! Again, don't just cut and paste a list of keywords.

The last two lines are the closing tags. Don't forget them!

Save this file as "ironvine-information.rss"

So, now that we have the meta/RSS file created, how do we add it? Easy!

In the <head> section of your homepage just add the following line:

Remember to change the filename to match where you place it on your website.

That's all there is to it. I will do some more information and let you know the results of further testing!

GBuy to Google Checkout

2006-06-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

It has finally launched, the long pondered about financial payment service from Google. There has been quite a bit of speculation as to just who this will affect the most, Paypal, EBay, Amazon, Yahoo Shopping, MSN Shopping, etc.

From the quick look I took of it it seems to be an online credit card storage payment system. The first thing that happens when you sign in to an account is a big page asking for your credit card info. This then adds it to your Google account information. There are a few stores listed that you can buy from, but it does not seem to be a general tool for any kind of globally accepted payments, just stores with Google Checkout.

More to come as it develops.

Which Description on SERPs

2006-06-30T07:46:00.000-07:00

MSN has added a way to begin to manage the way your description displays on the SERPs. They have added a new tag readable by their MSNbot to disallow ODP descriptions and use only descriptions pulled from the actual page.

meta name="ROBOTS" content="NOODP"
meta name="msnbot" content="NOODP"

Currently, it is not able to function in a robots.txt file which would allow for a global change. It will be interesting to see how this will be adopted by the other engines that pull information from ODP.

Flashing

2006-06-27T13:01:00.000-07:00

Ever since Microsoft and IE updated the way flash and other similar apps are embeded things have been a pain on both the server and client side. That was the major starting point, breaking any and all interactive flash pieces on the web. Secondly, Macromedia (Adobe now) decided it would be a good time to release Flash version 8. It has a lot of cool new features, but results in the downside of most people still having version 7 and things not working properly.

There is a decent work around. There is for most programming issues I expect. You can read about it here:
http://blog.deconcept.com/swfobject/

Google Sitemaps Updated

2006-06-24T19:19:00.000-07:00

Inside Google Sitemaps post by Vanessa Fox let us in on some of the nice updates in the latest version of Google Sitemaps. If you can't tell I am a big proponent of this service and use it to great effect.

Currently I have just over 230 sitemaps set up for web sites that I manage. I am slowly adding them to the older sites, but they usually get added when I do edits or updates, resulting in a bit of slow retro additions. I just wanted to say thanks again to Vanessa and the Sitemaps team for manually adding my sitemaps when I got capped at the 200 limit, and thank you for the cap increase so I can do it myself!

Some of the new features include: (Click here for the original post)

Increased crawl errors
Expanded query stats
Increased number of common words
Increased limit of sites and Sitemaps that can be added to an account (my favorite as it refers to me!)
In response to requests, we’ve raised the number of sites and Sitemaps that site owners can add to a Google Sitemaps account from 200 to 500 — a direct result of a request from a Google Group member.
robots.txt analysis tool addition
We want to know what you think (feedback smilies to rank useful aspects of Google Sitemaps)

Special Characters in SEO

2006-06-20T07:29:00.001-07:00

I am trying to derive the best method of using (or not using) special characters in code such as {TITLE} or {META} tags, as well as the relevancy in link text.


{title}Orthodontists Christopher Cosse & amp; Jeff Silmon serving Bossier City & amp; Shreveport, LA (Louisiana){/title}

{a href="http://www.sesamewebdesign.com/"}Website by Sesame & #8482; {/a}

Question #1 is: Which is more beneficial? "&" "& amp;" or "and"

Question #2 is: Does this affect anything in a positive or negitive way? Character limits for the title tag as an example? Just purely asthetics?

RSS feed enhancement

2006-06-17T13:29:00.000-07:00

I was doing a little research on enhancing the look and feel of our corporate rss news feed, Sesame News , and found a nice article on how to utilize the XSL and CSS mix to format the XML look and feel. I have done this before but it was nice to get a sample to review. IE7 Beta has an automatic feed reader built into it that will format and sort an RSS feed. I sue that at work every day and it has been very handy, but most people do not have IE7 yet or a browser that will style format XML.

http://www.xefteri.com/articles/show.cfm?id=24

Duplicate Content

2006-06-14T13:56:00.000-07:00

There is a nice post about duplicate content that describes the levels, severity, and how not's for keeping a clean site. It has been getting a good bit of publicity via the SEW website. I won't bother to review it furter and just send you to the original.

http://www.stuntdubl.com/2006/06/12/dupe-content/

Google webmaster help center updates

2006-06-14T07:53:00.000-07:00

Vanessa Fox over at Google Sitemaps posted on the Sitemaps blog that they have updated the webmaster help center in regards to robots.txt files and HTTP status codes.

Using a robots.txt file
We've added a new section of help topics in the How Google crawls my site section. These topics include information on:

How to create a robots.txt file
Descriptions of each user-agent that Google uses
How to use pattern matching
How often we recrawl your robots.txt file (around once a day)

Understanding HTTP status codes
This section explains HTTP status codes that your server might return when we request a page of your site. We display HTTP status codes in several places in Google Sitemaps (such as on the robots.txt analysis page and on the crawl errors page) and some site owners have asked us to provide more information about what these mean.

Proper use of HTTP status codes can make or seriously penalize a website. Lots of 404 or File Not Found errors are a sure sign of a poorly maintained website. The use of 301 Redirect codes should be properly used to forward multiple domain names to a single main site. Having multiple copies of websites can hurt your rankings on SERPs. (A search engine will see www.sesame-webdesign.com as a separate web site from www.sesamewebdesign.com and see duplicate content unless properly forwarded to one place.)

Incorrect uses of th robots.txt file can be disasterous if improperly configured. You can accidentally block your whole web site from being indexed! Take time to review the proper format and usages of the robots.txt file. It can be extremely useful in blocking results you dont want others to end up finding on the web, such as scripting or internal documentation. (Always be careful of information you put out on the web. Even if you block it via a robots.txt file you still run the risk of having it seen by someone somewhere.)

SEO en español

2006-06-13T14:54:00.000-07:00

With the inception of our new Spanish websites the challenge of international linguistic SEO falls on my desk. Currently I am doing research on how patients would find an orthodontist in Spanish and what searches on which search engines would they be looking to.

So far we seem to be doing the right thing, although it looks like even more optimization is needed. For example searching for "ortodoncista northridge" on Google Español brings up one of ourSpanishh sites ranked #1 For Dr. Berrios.

How to find some good keywords en español:
Pop in some generic keywords (a lot of noun words don't translate easily) and do a translation at: http://babelfish.altavista.com/

Then see which ones are performing at:
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

I assume this procedure will work for most Latinin based languages, but once we hit some Cyrillic, Arabian, or Asian text things will become much more challenging, very quickly.

Spanish (en Español) Search Engines:
http://espanol.search.yahoo.com
http://www.google.com/intl/es/

Ideally you have split websites for each tranlation which allows you to update the keyword text and formatting. Doing a little bit of background research on the correct linguistics (especially if you are not fluent) is a huge help in planning the SEO on the page. It becomes tougher when you have to mix and match on a single page, or want a generic homepage to contain some translation keywords.

Google Spreadsheets?

2006-06-08T07:18:00.000-07:00

Google Spreadsheets isn't the most creative name they have come up with compared to say Froogle or Blogger. I am looking forward to giving it a try. If you are able to share a spreadsheet between multiple parties it could be even more advantageous. Now if they can come out with something like Access and Word we will be all set. Having an online database application would be really nice. Even if the Spreadsheet file can be stored and accessed remotely by say a web application, you could have a reliable data source. Just save your spreadsheet as xml and you would be able to do all kinds of neat things with it. Of course that is all assuming you can have some way to point to it... Hello Google! Gimmie read/write permissions to your server plz tnx!

It is still in the sign-up phase which you can plug your own email in to get in line for.
http://www.google.com/googlespreadsheets/try_out.html

I also checked out the AdWords Editor, seems to download the AdWords account files ok, and displays all the data. That's about it though. I did find it a little difficult to use when managing several individual accounts, not campaigns, because you have to switch and reopen each separate file. The best part I experienced was that you can fairly easily manage the keywords. I think a lot of the data would have been a lot more useful if it was split up into a tabbular display arrangement instead of so squished together you couldnt see the data, even spread across 2 19" monitors. You are also not able to create new accounts via the stand alone, and cannot edit the geolocation to anything more specific than the country level. Still needs a bit of work, but it's getting there. They have the right idea at least :)

Feel free to try the open download if you have an AdWords account:
http://services.google.com/adwordseditor/index.html

Domain Managment

2006-06-06T15:10:00.000-07:00

Note: Closed freeways make for 2 hour commutes to work. Have people shoot each other in a big field or something next time like a proper duel.

I have spent most of my day organizing and sorting through our over 1000 domains, and the rest working on doing SEO updates on a couple orthodontic sites. 2 new web sites launched today. Dr. Frank Andolino and Dr. Joel Gluck.

I signed up for the Google AJAX Search API yesterday and am looking forward to playing with that and seeing if there is any applicable usage I can take advantage of currently.

SEO Tip of the Day: Google AdWords Bot - This spider was recently launched and designed to check out Google AdWords' ads and their respective landing pages. The more compatible and valuable the landing page, it will now affect the ranking of the Ad.

Graduate Web Sites

2006-06-04T10:28:00.000-07:00

No rest for the weary. Welcome to Sunday at work.

I have a couple orthodontic graduate resume web sites to create today and many new Sesame members to process and get set up. Couple orthodontist sites need to have their search engine optimizationtweaked as well. Lots of projects to do.

Reading the Google Sitemap Group board I found a nice style sheet for sitemaps pages as well as an application that tracks and posts the pages automatically. This program looks very applicable to our corporate site management as well as the directories, but for the standard client site launches we do, I can still use the simpler one. Have a look at the output for the xml stylesheet here.

SEO Tip of the Day: RSS feeds and Blogs can be added to web pages. They are a great SEO boost because of the frequent updates, as long as you do not use javascript to display them. Use PHP, ASP or some other server side scripting instead to display the feed.

Music of the Moment: 99.9 KISW - The Rock of Seattle - Streaming Online