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
- Questions You Should Ask at an SEO Interview
Aaron aka TheMadHat wrote a post about SEO interview questions. If you're hiring an SEO, you might want these questions to be on your interview list. Some of them include talking about your general experience or search conferences that you've attended, your familiarity with black-hat techniques, thoughts on competitive analysis, and more. The post is definitely a good place to start if you're seeking to hire some SEO professionals, and the forum discussion at Sphinn - Is it Worth it to Build Links for Bad Websites?
Wiep Knol wrote an interesting post on how to build links for crappy websites. I'm sure many of you have been there: your client has a website that has no real value and you want to build links to it. How do you politely tell them that you can't? Some just won't give in. Then you'll have to build links with other bad websites and eventually someone will realize that the rankings are manipulated and - Google Maps Now Featuring Content from The Weather Channel
Want to know the weather in a variety of locations with ease? What about cloud patterns or weather radar information? You now can from a new feature in Google Maps. Simply go to My Maps, click on "The Weather Channel" under Featured Content, and start customizing your views. Here's what I got: It's not a bad start and it looks pretty cool. Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld. - Google Stops Serving AdSense Ads on IncrediMail
On Friday, news leaked that Google has discontinued its AdSense partnership with IncrediMail, a publicly-traded Internet content and media company that has over 10 million members. This is baffling and quite sad. We can imagine that Google AdSense was a good chunk of the company's revenue, and now that option cannot be pursued. So why did this happen? And why wasn't IncrediMail given adequate warning about any abuse (if that is the case?) Numerous forum - How to Create a Customized Google News Page
Do you hate Britney Spears? You might if you find that she literally is highlighted in Google News everyday. With all her recent insanity problems and the endless custody battle, you might get sick of seeing the same story again and again and again. At least you're not alone. A Google Groups member can't stand it! How do I eliminate stories about Britany Spears without deleting Entertainment? It doesn't seem to be possible.... help! So - The Big Top-Level-Domain Debate: Are .com's Better for SEO Purposes?
A very ordinary question was promoted to the WebmasterWorld home page, making for a great discussion on TLD, top level domains. The question is, does Google prefer a .com over a .biz, or a .org over a .edu, or .de over a .co.il and so on? The thread first points to examples of all TLDs ranking well. For example, a search on the keyword germany has the top ten listings in Google as ,org, .de, - Microsoft Live Search Continues Referral Spam Tests With MSLIVSOP?
I noticed an update to the WebmasterWorld thread with the discussion of the weird referrals in the form of spam-like referrals coming from Live Search as cloaking tests. It appears a webmaster is now noticing a bot named MSLIVSOP serving up fake, site-specific keyword referers, as reported earlier. The bot logs the referrer in the form of: http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=KEYWORD&mrt=en-us&FORM=LIVSOP Plus they come from Microsoft IP addresses, the webmaster reports. Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld. - Google Reimburses Australian and New Zealand Publishers
On December 31st, I reported Google short-changed Australian publishers due to a currency conversion issue. After about ten days, it seems like these Australian and New Zealand publishers were now reimbursed for the difference. AdSensePro Jordan said: I've gotten word that publishers affected by this issue have received any payments due, so I'm going to go ahead and unpin this thread. Please feel free to post or contact AdSense support if you have any further - Google Directory Updated: Penalized PageRank Scores Not Visible
A DigitalPoint Forums thread reports that Google Directory also noticed an update from DMOZ and new PageRank bars. We reported last week on the first PageRank update of 2008, and as Andy Beard points out also, the Google Directory is showing new data. What is interesting is that the data is from January 8, 2008 and if you look at the Computers > Internet > Web Design and Development > Promotion > Weblogs category, you
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- 2007 Semmy Awards Nominations Announced, Cre8asite Forums
- Controlling Your Referer, and Hiding Your Traffic Sources : Slightly Shady SEO, Sphinn
- PlentyOffFish in today's New York Times, DigitalPoint Forums
- SEO when using CNAME redirection, Search Engine Watch Forums
- What does it take to get an AdSense rep?, Search Engine Watch Forums
- Will Google Buy Yell?, WebmasterWorld
- 3 strikes and your out, help manage feeds!, Google Groups
- Can Blogs Rank In The Top 10?, HighRankings Forums
- Problem with generating Structure Report, Google Groups
- Product Sorting Pages - Price/Manu/Other, Google Groups
