August 3, 2007
Search Headlines & Links: August 3, 2007
Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected today's top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:
From the SEW Blog:
- Google Algo Change Hurting Larger Sites
Seems recent changes at Google have impacted some of the larger established players on the web. - Bye Bye Supplemental
Predictably, the Google post announcing that the supplemental label is gone has predictable resulted in a firestorm of commentary. - Congress To Investigate Yahoo's Role In China Arrest
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Tom Lantos ordered an investigation after documents were released that raised questions about what Yahoo knew when it shared information with authorities about a Chinese journalist. - SEW Experts: Travel Search: Up Close and Personal
SES Travel Edition organizer Elisabeth Osmeloski gives you an update on trends in the travel search industry. - SEW Experts: SEM Support Tools for Enterprise-Level Projects
Chris Boggs tells you about the latest SEO tools for enterprise-level projects and diagnostic tools that provide site-specific SEO recommendations.
Headlines & News from Elsewhere:
- Are You Overlooking Optimization Opportunities?, Search Engine Guide
- Bruce Clay Inc. Sounds Off On Supplemental, Bruce Clay Blog
- It's Not Just Google That Treats Underscores Like Dashes, Search Engine Land
- 9 Wishes For a Better Yahoo, Online Marketing Blog
- Vintage Search Engine Strategies San Jose, Online Marketing Blog
- 5 Ways an SEO Can Make More Money (That Have Nothing to Do with Google), Tropical SEO
Posted by Kevin Newcomb on August 3, 2007, 5:00 PM | Permalink
Congress To Investigate Yahoo's Role In China Arrest
The Associated Press reported House Foreign Affairs Chairman Tom Lantos ordered an investigation after documents were released that raised questions about what Yahoo knew when it shared information with authorities about a Chinese journalist.
Shi Tao, the journalist was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sending an email about Chinese media restrictions, the AP reported.
Lantos said that "covering up such a despicable practice when Congress seeks an explanation is a serious offense," the AP reported.
Jim Cullinan, a Yahoo spokesman, expressed disappointment to the AP that Lantos "is rushing to judgment on this issue, because the facts will support Yahoo's testimony to Congress."
"To do business with China's more than 100 million Internet users, U.S. tech companies must satisfy a government that fiercely polices Internet content. Filters block objectionable foreign Web sites; regulations ban what the Chinese consider subversive and pornographic content and require service providers to enforce censorship," the AP noted.
Posted by Frank Watson on August 3, 2007, 4:31 PM | Permalink
Google Algo Change Hurting Larger Sites
Seems recent changes at Google have impacted some of the larger established players on the web. Answers.com have said they have seen a 28% drop in traffic following the update over the past week, according to a number of sources.
Some forum posts and blogs suggest this is a downplay of big content sites, as well as a downgrade of sites for keyword density. It will be interesting to see if sites such as Wikipedia are swept up by this.
Posted by Frank Watson on August 3, 2007, 4:20 PM | Permalink
Bye Bye Supplemental
Sometimes I wonder if we obsess too much about things like the supplemental index. Predictably, the Google post announcing that the supplemental label is gone has predictable resulted in a firestorm of commentary. Here are some posts on the topic from Danny, Barry, and Lisa Barone.
Actually, I do understand the reason why people liked having the information. It was a way of measuring where a site was in Google's eyes. If the work you are doing as an SEO was making the number go down, you knew you were making progress. Having a form of measurement is very useful.
But, you really don't need a supplemental label to identify a poor quality page. It's a page that's thin on original content, and/or without a lot in the way of link juice (note that you should scale this latter factor in relationship to the overall authority of the site on which the page resides). When you are an SEO, and you encounter these types of pages, you then need to determine how large a percentage of the site is made up of these poor quality pages. If the percentage is large - 10% or more (perhaps even 5%), then Houston, we have a problem.
You are going to need to work on the problem, regardless of how it's labelled. A large number of poor quality pages is always a problem. However, if you want some ideas on how to see if a page is in supplemental, check out Jim Boykin's post on the topic.
In the meantime, my suggestion to Google is that the Webmaster Tools team look at implementing some way for webmasters to see within Webmaster Tools those pages that they are assigning a low quality score to. That way SEOs get the kind of tool that they crave, and Google doesn't have to carry around the supplemental index bogey any more too. Better still, this will help SEOs focus on reducing the number of poor quality pages on the web, something I suspect that Google wants. Sounds like a win-win, doesn't it?
Posted by on August 3, 2007, 1:05 PM | Permalink
SEW Experts: Travel Search: Up Close and Personal
In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Travel Search: Up Close and Personal," SES Travel Edition organizer Elisabeth Osmeloski gives you an update on trends in the travel search industry.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb on August 3, 2007, 12:00 AM | Permalink
SEW Experts: SEM Support Tools for Enterprise-Level Projects
In today's Outsourced column, "SEM Support Tools for Enterprise-Level Projects," Chris Boggs tells you about the latest SEO tools for enterprise-level projects and diagnostic tools that provide site-specific SEO recommendations.
Posted by Kevin Newcomb on August 3, 2007, 12:00 AM | Permalink
