Coffee With Matt Cutts (and a few hundred other people)
By Ash Nallawalla, Trainsem.com At Webmasterworld, there was an early session with Matt Cutts which covered everything from his time at university to his present work as an anti-spam engineering at Google. For those of you who don’t know, Matt is something of a legend and his blog is avidly read by search marketers for clues into Google’s thinking on various ranking practices. To start the session, Matt told the audience when he was at university (in 1999) in North Carolina, he took a course on search engines and after applying to Google, he asked how much they would pay him. He thought he might not hear from them, but they did, and the rest is history (editor’s note – who cares about the pay, what about those early share options…). Not surprisingly, paid links was a hot topic. Someone asked what was the borderline? Matt replied if a paid link passes PageRank, it can come under suspicion. If a link manipulates search results, it is suspicious. But aren't AdWords paid links? No - they do not pass PageRank, so they are not. Matt gave the example of a site with an article about Alzheimer's Disease that linked to an organisation that wanted money from you instead of giving you information. To Google, this is a flag for a paid link that would not pass PageRank. whereas if would have been different if the link went to an information site. How about directories that charge for a link? There is a detailed Google Webmaster Central blog post about paid directories. Signs of a directory to avoid - no contact information, private registration, poor data in whois, expired domain redirected to the directory site, uncustomised phpLD script, requires a reciprocal list or takes only paid submissions, no quality links. Asked about sites sharing the same IP address, such as on a virtual private server (VPS), Mat said that spammers drop an IP address when it has been banned, but the new occupant need not worry. When a whole subnet in a C class is doing strange things, only then do innocent sites have something to worry about. What about ACAP (Automated Content Access Protocol) used by newspapers to make articles available only to subscribers after a certain period? This is a very recent initiative that extends the robots exclusion protocol, so Matt is still studying it and doesn't anticipate any issues for SEO. How many 301 redirects can a site have? There is no limit. You can change them after two weeks if you wish, with no harmful effect, but don't chain 301s in a loop. What is the best way to migrate a site to a new IP address? 1. Lower your DNS time-to-live (TTL) to something like 5 minutes and leave it like this for a day. 2. Bring up the site on the new IP address and wait a day or two. 3. Drop the files on the old IP address once you see Googlebot crawling the new address. How can we report a scraper? This happens with AdSense sites. You should use the link in "Ads by Google" to report such a publisher by filling out a spam report. Should you buy a site with existing (good) links? No, they will not help with ranking. Search Engine Room: February 28, 2008 Latest News
© Copyright 2008, Bluewater Press |
Events
Australia’s original search marketing and optimisation event, Search Engine Room, is returning to Sydney with a fresh theme and approach. Highlights include:
Search Engine Room an Australian-owned event that strives to reflect the market in which it operates while embracing international trends. It’s outward rather than inward looking, taking great care to incorporate consumer and marketing priorities into innovative and provocative programs. The program will be launched the week beginning July 21. Informative, educational, provocative and sometimes controversial, Search Engine Room is the leading event for Australasia's rapidly-growing search industry. It's held annually, attracting widespread industry support, and has a reputation for quality content, excellent event management and staging. The program focus is on respected, well-connected speakers delivering topical, relevant information. Search engine optimisation and marketing is well-covered, while broader industry issues are also addressed through interviews with leading search industry figures. There are case studies and debates, plus panels led by informed journos. Audience interaction is encouraged and Search Engine Room always makes an effort to be forward-looking, tracking the latest search and digital trends. Consumers are also given the once-over, enabling delegates to gain a better understanding of their customers. This format has great appeal and delegates come from around the country. Apart from search marketers, marketing managers, e-commerce managers, online business owners, senior management, digital media executives and agency types predominate. Companies large and small from diverse industries are represented. Some have been in the game for years, others are just starting out. A good way of keeping in touch is to subscribe to Search Engine Room News, which is packed with original content and comes out every five or so weeks. If you have any questions, please call Martin Kelly on 612-9882-1575. Meanwhile, here are some images from the 2007 event.
Bookings are now open for TRAVELtech 2008 - Australia's leading online travel marketing, distribution and tech event. This year's theme is the open-ended Year of Living Dangerously? It can be taken a couple of ways ... the obvious: oil, inflation, interest rates and marketing costs up - challenges ahead. But it's also a question, and the good news is there's increasing evidence the online channel may be the place consumers turn at times like these. Find out more at TRAVELtech 2008. Confirmed speakers are listed below, while the latest program has just been posted - it's packed with industry leaders and topical content.
TRAVELtech, founded in 1999, focusses on the latest online travel marketing and web-based innovations. It has a well-established reputation for delivering relevant, high-quality content and excellent networking - more than 300 delegates attended in 2007. If you have any questions, suggestions or would like to sponsor, please call Martin Kelly on (612) 9882-1575. Please visit the TRAVELtech photo gallery to see some photographs from the 2007 event. |
