Posted on Jan 30, 2008
If you searched the term dangerous cult on Google, the first result that you will see is a Scientology website.
The question is: Can this really be categorized as Google Bombing, getting a large amount of websites to link to a specific website with certain keywords, so that the linked website appears ranked first when the keyword or keywords are searched? The website does in fact have the word dangerous on it; however, the word cult only appears in links pointing at this website. This situation is remarkable similar to the Google Bombing of George Bush with the keywords failure or miserable failure. Ultimately, we can say that this Scientology website was Google Bombed. Although, recall that Google eventually did alter their algorithm to end this Google Bombing for George Bush – likely the end effect was pages including the keywords ranked higher than pages only linked without the keywords contained. So, how long with this Scientology Google Bombing last for?
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Posted on Jan 28, 2008
After a bit of searching around, I finally found a web host that specifically catered to proxy based websites. They are a relatively small web host, but that is due to the fact that they only accept proxy websites. Additionally, they only host php proxies because cgi proxy are simply just too intensive on servers. Cloak Host is an excellent web host that lets little proxy websites get into the larger market. Not many people can start off a proxy website or websites by simply paying for a dedicated server, so Cloak Host hosts only for small and middle sized proxy websites. There are a few other similar proxy web hosts as plausible options, but Cloak Host provided me with the best amount of bandwidth for my money. If you are considering attempting to run a proxy website on another web host (one that isn’t specifically for proxies), then you really ought to ask this host prior to signing up, if they will drop you because of your cpu use as proxies are quite resource intensive in this area. Make sure that you: research a variety of web hosts, ask questions, get the answers that you need, read the TOS (Terms of Service), and then sign up for a web host that meets your needs.
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Posted on Jan 21, 2008
Google has cracked down on link selling; this means that websites that do so, will have a lower PageRank and rankings within the Google search engine. Buying paid links is improper seo in the eyes of Google as these links can manipulate search engine rankings. For instance, Stanford Daily originally had a PageRank of 9; however, after Google’s recent update against paid link sellers, their PageRank dropped down 2 to a PageRank of 7 as of early October 2007. Currently, the Stanford Daily has a PageRank of 5; this drop in PageRank can be attributed to link selling. Over the period of 3-4 months, Stanford Daily has taken a large drop when it comes down to PageRank and rankings with Google.
At the time, Google has not automated the process of checking for paid links within a website, so this means that each site which is suspected of selling paid links, must be reviewed by a human. Also, this also means that a small (most likely none at all) amount of websites will be added to the list of paid link sellers, since this process is not automated. Additionally, Google will review a website upon request, so honest webmasters have nothing to worry about. It looks like Google really is trying to ensure that their search engine is truly optimized by penalizing websites with paid links.
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Posted on Jan 17, 2008
The question is: What do you color your ads within your webpage, so that you don’t drive your visitors crazy, but still earn enough revenue? Generally speaking the more ads you have the more money you will earn; however, there is a tipping point at which visitors will simply start leaving your site, if it becomes infested with ad units. A method of subtly adding ad units to a webpage is to have these ads blend into the content of the site. This means that you might color your Adsense unit to match the colors of the sidebar on your website. Additionally, you may consider placing the ad unit within a large section of text, so that the text simply flows around this ad. Color coordinating the ads properties (background, text, border, etc.) is very important, so that your ads do blend into the site. The other thing to remember is you don’t want your ads to blend in too well, if visitors are constantly clicking on ads accidentally because they are trying to navigate to another page on your website, this will cause your visitors to become irritated. Even though this might temporarily cause you to earn more money; in the long run, it is possible that this may be harmful to your traffic. Be attentive in how you color ad units, so that they are just right. You might have to toy around with this for a while, but getting user feedback or simply looking at your site from a visitors’ perspective can help you to achieve this.
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Posted on Jan 16, 2008
Google’s Pagerank system, also abbreviated as PR, is complex algorithm that ranks websites and webpages on a 0 to 10 logarithmic scale according to the number of incoming links to that particular page. A link from one webpage to another is in essence a vote for the linked site, however the importance of the webpage with the link scale this vote. This means that a page of greater importance, has a vote that counts more than a page of less importance. Using this and other factors, such as page content, a page’s importance is determined. A page could have 10,000 links pointing to it, yet still have a low Pagerank because the linking webpages have a low importance. Also, a page may only have 10 links directed to it, yet have a relatively high Pagerank because the linking webpages have a high level of importance. Factors influencing a websites Pagerank also include the visibility of a link, placement of the link within the webpage, outbound links from the webpage, and how up to date the linking page is. A useful site to find a website’s Pagerank, as well as, predict its future Pagerank can be found at iwebtool.com. Google combines both Pagerank and a pages content to ensure that searches provide relevant results.
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