The Search Engines & Web Server Issues was a session I wanted to attend at SES Chicago but did not. So here I am.
Shari Thurow: - Pay your hosting bill - Renew domain name - Do not password protect key pages - Check your robot.txt file - Add a site map - URL structure, simpler is better. She said that the domain extension (i.e. cfm, php, asp) do make a difference. She knows the Search Engines say they do not treat them differently, but she believes they do. I am on the side of the search engines here. - Use 301 and 302 redirects when you redo your URL structure - When moving a site to a new server, keep both servers up and running - Get a quick server
Went into Q&A for the board, see the speakers at the above link.
Greg Boser is "a huge fan of mod_rewrite".
For those of you really into PR, stop it! PR is old, outdated and doesn't even update when there is a back link update.
We had a little discussion on cloaking, the people on the board do it to "help the search engines". Do it when you need to, but do not abuse it.
Bruce Clay makes sure all his clients have their own IP address. He said its worth the $2/month.
Domain names with more than 2 hyphens in it, you are considered skeptical. They are not sure about the file extensions, its only the domain name parts. They expect the new Google to consider underscores the same as hyphens.
Many basic SEO and server related questions...
