Search Engine Optimization

Below are links to articles posted in Search Engine Optimization.

A Google Myth Busted

The Internet is full of myths about how Google ranks pages. One of my oldest articles written, originally for SitePoint before being published here, was about Google Myths. In this article I dispel the myth about Google giving special bonuses to DMOZ or Yahoo listed sites, outside of the normal bonus the page would get […]

Update on the NOODP Meta Tag

As I first reported here MSN launched a new meta tag for webmasters who did not want ODP (DMOZ.org) directory data to overwrite their normal abstract in the search results. Yesterday Google announced they would now support this tag as well, for both DMOZ titles & descriptions. Forum Discussion

DigitalPoint Co-op Ad Network adds Rel=”Nofollow”

As reported here DigitalPoint’s Co-op adnetwork has added the option for users to nofollow their link. The rel=”nofollow” link attribute was released by search engines to allow webmasters to indicate links that the search engines should not trust. Basically if you didn’t want to get banned or penalized for false link schemes you were to […]

Search Engines Borrowing Page Titles from Directories

I’ve heard this complaint dozens of times. Someone has a pretty nice search engine ranking except instead of using the webmaster’s carefully selected title tag as the title for the listing the search engine pulls one from a directory that was done by an editor who might not be the most gifted copywriter. Now sure, […]

PageRank or Your Page’s Rank?

I’m sure most of my readers already know this, but I mean honestly I cannot visit a popular webmaster forum and not see this mistake being made. So I’m going to blog about it in hopes of making a central place people can be sent to when they get this wrong. Your PageRank, or PR, […]

Amazon Switches from Google to MSN for Alexa, A9, and Amazon search.

CNET Reports that Amazon.com has dropped it’s Google partnership for it’s search features at it’s various web properties like A9.com and Alexa.com. People have speculated that this is in response to Google supposedly encroaching on Amazon’s turf with book search. Personally I doubt it. Amazon may have started as a book store but books aren’t […]

Optimizing for a Question

You do not need to dominate generic keywords to have a successful website. The website simply has to make more money than you put into it (or more than what your time is worth if all you put into it is time). A website that only makes $100 a month is successful if it requires […]

Zeal.com Closing Down

Zeal.com, a directory owned by Looksmart (see the review I wrote in 2003 here) is closing down as of March 28th as reported by the SE Roundtable. I never thought they’d actually close down, but Looksmart/Zeal was only ever important thanks to MSN, and MSN stopped using them quite a while ago, so this was […]

Boost Your Site with Business Listings

I just wrote a new article, Using Business Listings to Harness the Power of Local Search, it is about how you can implement a database of small businesses on your site to build traffic by getting listed in local searches. This trick is so easy and so powerful I really considered not sharing it. I […]

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