Today’s SEO News

March 21, 2011 by James
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Daily Search Forum Recap: March 21, 2011
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Coming Soon: Panda/Farmer Update At Google UK
  
  Many Webmasters and site owners are suffering with the Google Farmer / Panda update in the Google.com, Google U.S., results. But soon, the Farmer/Panda update will be rolling out more widely beyond the U.S. to the U.K. and other countries…
- The Google Dance Infographic
  
  You don’t often hear people talk about the Google Dance these days. Simply because both Google Dances are no longer active.
  
  (1) Google held Google Dance events annually to thank advertisers and webmasters for their support. Google stopped those events a few years back…
- Inclusion Into Bing News
  
  Being accepted into Bing News is no easy task. But with Bing growing in market share, it is likely worth trying to get your news site included in Bing News.
  
  Almost two years ago…
- NYC Schools Bans Google Images
  
  It appears that the New York City Department of Education has decided to completely ban the use of Google Images in the class rooms the department manages.
  NYC Department of Education Chief Information Security Officer, Oren Hamami, sent out an email to all teachers and administrators within the NYC Department of Education informing the teachers of this change.
- Google AdWords Study Guides Break Over Weekend
  
  There were several Google AdWords Help threads over the weekend complaining that the AdWords Learning Center practice materials are gone.
  
  They were indeed gone. I checked at about 8am (EST) and they were not showing up on the right hand side. Now, if you go there…
- Nice Google Mouse Map
  
  This may be one of the nicest Google mouse pads I have ever seen. Seems like a black stitched executive mouse pad with an arm rest.
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Do Multiple Sitemaps Damage Indexing?, WebmasterWorld
- Which fonts can Google crawlers read?, Google Webmaster Help
- Doodle Holi, Google Blogoscoped Forum
- Budget Conscious PPC Campaign Structure, Sphinn
- Discussion: Keyword Targeting Strategy, Sphinn
- How to Write Product Descriptions that Sell, Boost SEO Efforts, Sphinn
- Larry Page Wants to Return Google to Its Startup Roots, WebmasterWorld
- Restricting Robot Access for Improved SEO, Sphinn
- Decommissioning Solo cards for UK advertisers, Google AdWords Help
- Doodle Persian New Year, Google Blogoscoped Forum
- Long Titles, No Punctuation, WebmasterWorld
Coming Soon: Panda/Farmer Update At Google UK
Many Webmasters and site owners are suffering with the Google Farmer / Panda update in the Google.com, Google U.S., results. But soon, the Farmer/Panda update will be rolling out more widely beyond the U.S. to the U.K. and other countries.

But how soon?

Well, it was expected to have happened already. I’d be surprised if it did not happen this week. But at the same time, I’d be surprised if it did roll out more without the U.S. version getting updated.

Late last week, a WebmasterWorld thread had some webmasters who watch the UK Google results seeing signs of the Farmer / Panda update rolling out. A day later, the chatter around that discussion died out. I thought maybe there was a roll out but maybe Google seeded some tests and pulled it back early on? I am not sure.

Like I said, I suspect the U.K. to see the Farmer/Panda algorithm this week but I also suspect that this update not be released until Google releases an updated version in the U.S.

Our ongoing coverage and stories on the Content Farmer/Panda update:
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
The Google Dance Infographic

You don’t often hear people talk about the Google Dance these days. Simply because both Google Dances are no longer active.

(1) Google held Google Dance events annually to thank advertisers and webmasters for their support. Google stopped those events a few years back.

(2) But before even those events, Google Dances referred to the monthly or so updates Google pushed out to their web index. Webmasters lived and breathed those 30-day intervals between Google pushing out index updates. But eventually, Google did rolling or real-time index updates and the Google Dances went away.

That being said, there are still major Google algorithm updates and documenting those updates is something we have been doing since 2003. You can find all large and even small Google updates in our Google Updates category.

But that might be a bit overwhelming. Instead, Level343.com created a Google Dance infographic that illustrates some of the major Google updates dating back to 2002. Here it is:

Forum discussion at Sphinn.
Inclusion Into Bing News

Being accepted into Bing News is no easy task. But with Bing growing in market share, it is likely worth trying to get your news site included in Bing News.

Almost two years ago, we covered one way of requesting inclusion into Bing News. That method was basically sending them an email. I personally tried it and have not succeeded, but honestly, I haven’t tried all that hard.

A couple of months, Jian from Microsoft, posted a thread at Bing Support explaining the process of requesting inclusion into Bing News. Here is that process:

To submit your site to Bing News, please open a Bing support ticket at support.discoverbing.com/default.aspx.

When contacting support, please let the team know that you would like to be included in Bing News and include the following information:

1. Provide an introduction, historical background, and credentials of the site.

2. Credible ranking of the site in its field, if any.

3. Name the locale (or audience scope) the site’s stories cover for. Provide the state/city names + zip codes or describe the groups of users.

4. Provide statistics on the site.

5. Is the site mostly news related? Please explain.

6. Provide the URL of main news entry point as well as the entry points of major channels.

7. RSS link to the site.

8. Does the site comply with the technical requirements on the Webmaster Tool blog about “good” search engine optimization?

Hope this helps some good publishers out there!

Forum discussion at Bing Support.
NYC Schools Bans Google Images

It appears that the New York City Department of Education has decided to completely ban the use of Google Images in the class rooms the department manages.

NYC Department of Education Chief Information Security Officer, Oren Hamami, sent out an email to all teachers and administrators within the NYC Department of Education informing the teachers of this change.

According to one teacher who posted this email in a Google Web Search Help forum, Oren Hamami’s email read:

Dear Colleagues,

Beginning yesterday, you may have found that Google Image Search is being blocked for objectionable content. This blocking is occurring as a result of an unannounced change that Google has made to its image search tool that is preventing Google SafeSearch from functioning properly, and thus allowing inappropriate content to be viewed from within a classroom. In order to maintain a safe computing environment and meet our legal requirement to filter objectionable content, we must temporarily block the use of Google Images. In the interim, search engines such as Yahoo and Bing can be used to search images as they still maintain safe searching functionality. We are working aggressively with our filtering vendor to adjust to Googleâs changes, and we are attempting to engage Google as well. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope to have Google Image search, with SafeSearch in place, accessible as soon as possible. I will keep you advised as to our progress in resolving this. Thank you for your patience and cooperation.

Oren Hamami

Chief Information Security Officer
Division of Instructional and Information Technology
New York City Department of Education

He did not specifically state what changed with Google Images but clearly he said that something changed and that change can harm kids.

I was not able to verify this with the NYC Department of Education or Google as of yet. But Oren is indeed the Chief Information Security Officer at the NYC Department of Education.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
Google AdWords Study Guides Break Over Weekend

There were several Google AdWords Help threads over the weekend complaining that the AdWords Learning Center practice materials are gone.

They were indeed gone. I checked at about 8am (EST) and they were not showing up on the right hand side. Now, if you go there, they are now available. But they were down all weekend.

First reports I’ve seen were on Saturday, with complaints that people wanted to prep for the test and take the test over the weekend.

Google confirmed the issue this morning and a couple hours later the issue was resolved. Google’s Bindu said:

Yes, this is a known issue, one we’re working to fix, for the time being, I suggest everyone follows Calin’s workaround and I promise to update this thread once i have updates

By the way, Calin;s workaround was to use the Google Cache.

Anyway, I refreshed the page a minute ago and the exam materials are back. Here is a screen shot:

Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help.
Nice Google Mouse Map
Daily Search Forum Recap: March 18, 2011
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: March 18, 2011
  
  This week we covered a lot of interesting topics in search and SEO. We started off on Google and Bing admitting to having whitelists and exception lists for their algorithms. There are some sites saying they are freed from the Panda/Farmer update. If you want to be rescued…
- Being Rescued From The Google Panda / Farmer Update
  
  I feel like I have talked and written about the Google Farmer/Panda update way too much, but the truth is, about 40% of you were impacted by this update in a bad bad way and even though you are making changes none of you are really seeing any improvement in your rankings.
  Only two publishers that I know of claimed they are back after being hit by Google’s update. One is Cult Of Mac and the other is Digital Inspiration. But were they really rescued?
- Google Makes AdSense Faster Slowly
  
  Google has finally made AdSense faster.
  
  Google promised in December 2009 to make the popular ad serving platform faster. Especially after promising to incorporate site speed in rankings and then webmasters noticing that their site speed was being negatively impacted by Google…
- Google Webmaster Tools Site Performance Lag
  
  In 2009, site speed became a ranking factor and Google launched several tools for webmasters to track their site speed. One of those tools was launched in December 2009 and it was found within Google Webmaster Tools under the name site performance.
- Google Analytics Version 5
  
  Most of you who read this site daily are very active Google Analytics users, so you probably already heard the news that Google Analytics is rolling out a new version – version five.
- Google News Home Page Testing “Clusters” Design
  
  Google News representative, Inbal, posted a thread at the Google News Help forum stating that Google is testing yet another Google News home page design.
  She called this new design the “clusters” interface and is only being shown to a limited number of people.
- YouTube Tube Socks
  
  How great are these white YouTube socks! Can you imagine playing basketball with somewhere wearing these? How great!
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Google’s memory, WebmasterWorld
- How To Motivate An SEO, Sphinn
- Only 10 Percent of Your Friends See Your Facebook Posts, And Only 1 Percent Like It, Sphinn
- WHEN I SEARCH PREDICTION COMES BUT I CANT SELECT THEM IN IE9, Google Web Search Help
- YouTube Broadcast Newsletter – your feedback please!, YouTube Help
Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: March 18, 2011
This week we covered a lot of interesting topics in search and SEO. We started off on Google and Bing admitting to having whitelists and exception lists for their algorithms. There are some sites saying they are freed from the Panda/Farmer update. If you want to be rescued, then you need to look into using 404s, 301s and noindex. The next Google target are keyword rich domains. Google dropped starring results in Google, since blocked sites is now there. Google is sometimes showing word counts. What are the most overrated SEO tips? An SEO firm was held liable for his client who sold counterfeit goods. Google finally made AdSense faster. Google revamped their Google Mobile app, now Google Search app for iPhone. Google Analytics is up to version 5 and it is slick! We showed off some Pi Day logos, other Google logos and the St. Patrick’s Day logos, of which Google and Yahoo did not promote on their US home pages. That was this past week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. You can also watch this live and ask questions during the show, typically Friday mornings around 9:30 (EST) at seroundtable.com/live, follow @rustybrick to be notified when we air. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

For the original iTunes version, click here.

Search Topics of Discussion:
Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don’t forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!
Being Rescued From The Google Panda / Farmer Update
I feel like I have talked and written about the Google Farmer/Panda update way too much, but the truth is, about 40% of you were impacted by this update in a bad bad way and even though you are making changes none of you are really seeing any improvement in your rankings.

I have been monitoring the forums on a daily basis, looking for anyone claiming to have been rescued from the Farmer/Panda update. So far, not one person in the forums I track claimed they are back to seeing the same levels of traffic.

Only two publishers that I know of claimed they are back after being hit by Google’s update. One is Cult Of Mac and the other is Digital Inspiration. Google’s Matt Cutts specifically said Cult Of Mac was not impacted by the Farmer / Panda update because if they were, they would still not be ranking. So whatever hit Cult Of Mac, it was not this update and they are back in Google for other reasons.

But Digital Inspiration may be different. Amit Agarwal posted traffic data and what he did and when get started to see his rankings improve. It is just a bit shocking to see one site come out and no one else, especially since this is an algorithmic penalty.

But look at the stats he published:

As you can see, the site’s traffic is back to normal.

Why? Three possible reasons:

(1) Google updated the Farmer/Panda algorithm and other sites are coming out as well but just not reporting it yet.

(2) His site was not hit by the Farmer/Panda update but rather something else at the same time of this update. This is very possible.

(3) Google added a whitelist for the Farmer/Panda update and they were included.

I am not sure what to believe, but I am thinking it was number two – since I do not see any larger signs of other sites reporting being rescued yet.

Our ongoing coverage and stories on the Content Farmer/Panda update:
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help and WebmasterWorld.