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SearchReturn Discussion List
"Understanding Internet Search Technology"
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Moderator: Published by:
Detlef Johnson SearchReturn
http://www.searchreturn.com
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November 01, 2005 Issue #011
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.....IN THIS DIGEST.....
// -- NEW DISCUSSION -- //
"Doorway Pages"
~ SearchReturn Digest
// -- CONTINUING DISCUSSION -- //
"Search Engine Optimization"
~ Kelly Blazes
~ Stacy Williams
~ Moderator Comment
// -- ESSENTIAL NEWS -- //
"Alibaba Acquires Yahoo! China"
"Suspicion About Google"
"LookSmart Turnaround Strategy"
"Holiday Shopping Stats (US)"
"B2B Growth Expected"
"Rising Ad Costs"
"IBM Teams With Google"
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// -- NEW DISCUSSION -- //
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==> TOPIC: DOORWAY PAGES
From: SearchReturn Digest
In her post titled: Google's Dirty Little Secret, Spam Huntress
calls Matt Cutts (Google) out about AdWords allowing unsavory
advertisers. Matt responds: "This is tough, because an AdWords
person looking just at the ad would think that this sounds valid.
The ad doesn't talk about what the site does."
http://spamhuntress.com/2005/10/23/googles-dirty-little-secret/
She goes on to ask Matt to take action:
http://spamhuntress.com/2005/10/31/prstorm-still-on-adwords/
In case it isn't clear, one of Matt's responsibilities at Google
is keeping spam at bay. Matt and other spam fighters out there need to
closely monitor the pulse of the industry. Here's one: A new word
describes an age-old problem, only twisted with a new angle that
would seem hard to smash. We don't like the word: "trampoline" to
describe what is, (for all intents and purposes), just a doorway
page. The twist here is the spammer isn't hosting it themselves.
If you are a hardcore spammer, and your domains are no longer
working, just find a free host that isn't being penalized. Post
your "doorway" page that can now easily rank your spam to earn
you click revenue or referrals, whichever you prefer. The word
"trampoline" is used to desciribe these. These pages are no more
clever than doorways.
http://www.searchreturn.com/digest/refs011.shtml
Doorway pages are low-quality, (often misleading), pages that are
only intended to rank and lead visiting users to some other page.
That definition works for these pages.
Take care.
-d
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// -- CONTINUING DISCUSSION -- //
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==> TOPIC: SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
From: Kelly Blazes
Thank you Chris, Ron and Detlef for responding to my post about
SEO and Meta data. That is fascinating to hear about your
experience Chris, and only confirms my own, which is that short,
concise tags work great and avoid spam penalities. But I figured
I would put it out to the forum to see if maybe I was missing
some great secret; but as we all know, there are no magic
bullets, and sometimes less actually is more.
Very best to everyone,
Kelly Blazes
www.kumainteractive.com
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==> SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
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"I am very interested in what other I-Searchers [SearchReturn
readers] have found and follow re: char length in Meta
description and optimizing 'other' tags."
From: Stacy Williams
I feel a bit like I'm in a time warp seeing this discussion about
Meta tags... we have found that including search terms in the
page's copy (HTML text) to be more effective than anything else
(with the possible exception of the title tag). We focus
everything we do for a particular web page around one (or
possibly two at the most) search terms. No need to stuff anything
else anywhere else, in my opinion.
Stacy Williams
Moderator Comment: Stacy makes a good point. Meta tags were hotly
discussed several years ago. We are glad to get the topic out of
the way in an early SearchReturn digest so we can refer to it in
the future. As for text on the page, it sure can be powerful.
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// -- ESSENTIAL NEWS -- //
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==> Alibaba Acquires Yahoo! China
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-10/26/content_3687238.htm
Essentials: "The largest merger-acquisition deal in China's
Internet business. The two companies will work together in an
exclusive partnership to grow the 'Yahoo!' brand in China."
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==> Suspicion About Google
http://news.com.com/2061-11199_3-5923727.html
Essentials: A pair of stories last weekend about Google treading
on the turf that belongs to traditional marketers.
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==> LookSmart Turnaround Strategy
http://directmag.com/news/10-31-05-LookSmart-verticals-launch/
Essentials: Coming after warnings about NASDAQ delisting, a new
approach by LookSmart with vertical search being key to its
strategy. With a CEO formerly from About, the direction may be a
familiar tack for the leader. Will this new course work out for
the veteran search company?
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==> Holiday Shopping Stats (US)
http://www.the-dma.org/cgi/dispnewsstand?article=4142
Essentials: Americans to spend nearly $300 billion this season.
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==> B2B Growth Expected
http://www.netb2b.com/article.cms?articleId=25896
Essentials: B2B growth in online marketing from 49% who reported
participating this year, to 55% who expect to participate by
2008.
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==> Rising Ad Costs
http://www.searchreturn.com/digest/refs011.shtml
Essentials: Search ad costs are up by 18%, so savvy marketers
make the shift towards natural search listings.
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==> IBM Teams With Google
http://www.searchreturn.com/digest/refs011.shtml
Essentials: Unstructured data can be difficult to locate, and is
particularly hard to rank. The typical hypertext analysis will
not work with information that is unhinged from a Web of
hypertext. The data may consist of no known format, compounding
troubles. "There's a lot of raw data inside an organization -- as
much as 80% is unstructured, and something has to happen to make
it into information."
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Copyright 2005 Detlef Johnson. All Rights Reserved.
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