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:
- Search Engine Friendly Tracking With Hash Tags in URL
A WebmasterWorld thread has new discussion around using the hash tag, in the URL, instead of dynamic parameters such as questionmarks and the like for special tracking purposes. Typically, tracking URLs for ads and campaigns lead to URLs with questionmarks, ampersands and other dynamic variables, which can be seen as unique URLs to search engines. But when you use a hash or pound sign in the URL, search engines see anything beyond the hash mark - Google Maps Still Offering Old Business Listings Page?
A very active Google Maps user reported a bug in Google Maps at Google Maps Help forums. Recently Google Maps launched place pages for each business listing. It basically meant Google made a nice shiny page for each local business listed in Google Maps. I think what the bug is showing is that you can still access an old business listing page. For example, here is an old listing page of a Tekoe Tee Bern - Maybe a Minor Google Search Update (October 2009)?
Over the past day or so, I have been seeing and watching a small increase in the number of threads discussing either global changes to the Google index or people complaining (at a higher rate) that their site is no longer ranking as well in Google. Yes, Google is constantly changing, so this may just be that people are around more to notice? But the shift in the forum patterns that I watch on this - Fetch As Googlebot Might Have Issues With Some Non-ASCII Characters
A Google Webmaster Help thread has reports that the fetch as Googlebot feature might display weird characters for some pages that return non-ASCII characters. Specifically, if the pages are not encoded in UTF-8 and use these non-ASCII characters, the tool might show weird characters. This is a confirmed known issue with the tool, and has no impact and your real crawling and ranking in Google. Google said: Using the Google Webmaster Tools Labs feature "Fetch - Google Maps Helps Businesses Find Themselves
Linda from the Google Maps team posted a thread at the Google Maps Help forum announcing a new feature in the Google Local Business Center that helps businesses see their own listings on Google Maps. Linda said: Today, you'll see a Maps link for your every business listing in your Local Business Center account. We hope this new feature will help you easily find your business on Google Maps. Here is a screen capture of
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- Google Ranking Tactics that have Made You Envious, WebmasterWorld
- Google Voice Messages Now Removed From SERPs, WebmasterWorld
- Hackers Managed To Destroy Our Rankings, HighRankings Forums
- Porn in Google News, Google News Help
- Upcoming webinar: AdSense on your Education site, Google AdSense Help
- AdSense Limerick Contest Winner, WebmasterWorld
- H1 versus H2 tags - any ranking value difference?, WebmasterWorld
- Want Better Web Design? Watch Real Users, Sphinn
