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Issue #016: Google Sitemaps
----------------------------------------------------------------- SearchReturn Discussion List "Understanding Internet Search Technology" ----------------------------------------------------------------- Moderator: Published by: Disa Johnson SearchReturn http://www.searchreturn.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- November 17, 2005 Issue #016 ----------------------------------------------------------------- SEND POSTS: ----------------------------------------------------------------- Refer a friend: http://www.searchreturn.com/subscribe.shtml ----------------------------------------------------------------- .....IN THIS DIGEST..... // -- NEW DISCUSSION -- // "Google Sitemaps Adds Stats" ~ SearchReturn // -- CONTINUING DISCUSSION -- // "Local Search Tactics" ~ Stacy Williams "Google Base Launched" ~ SearchReturn // -- ESSENTIAL NEWS -- // "Mountain View WiFi" "Yahoo! Updates Shopping" "All Your Words" ----------------------------------------------------------------- // -- NEW DISCUSSION -- // ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==> TOPIC: GOOGLE SITEMAPS ADDS STATS From: SearchReturn Hello everyone, Most of the news this week regards Google. Matt Cutts is speaking at Webmasterworld in Vegas today, RustyBrick is there blogging the event away (http://www.seroundtable.com) with plenty from Matt. Google Sitemaps users are getting more crawler stats. We've posted a screenshot from our SearchReturn Sitemaps account. http://www.searchreturn.com/digest/refs016.shtml New information in the account interface include links to advanced queries for checking your indexing, backward linking, and other things of interest. Google checks for proper 404 server status codes, and will warn you if you don't supply these. The additions detail more of this kind of information than was available previously. You will need to publish a "verification page" before seeing any of this. It entails puting up a page with a filename supplied by Google that they can fetch to verify you are the physical webmaster. We experienced positive results from Google Sitemaps. Other folks we've talked with express mixed feelings about Google Sitemaps. On the message boards, there are comments including some negative ones, though little to none of it is worthy of much concern. We believe additional indexing ocurred as a result of our test. We began offering it to clients a while ago. What are your experiences? Have you witnessed changes of indexing that you attribute to using Google Sitemaps? Stay Tuned. -SR ----------------------------------------------------------------- // -- CONTINUING DISCUSSION -- // ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==> TOPIC: LOCAL SEARCH TACTICS "How many small businesses do you know with a telephone number, but no website... ? Have you ever considered offering local specific SEO services?" From: Stacy Williams Local search marketing is appropriate for just about all companies, even those who do business nationally or globally. As a matter of course, we get all our clients into local search engines. If nothing else, it helps grab another slot on the search engine results page (the local listings at the top). Here's an example - for a company who sells document scanning services nationally, when someone searches for "document scanning," we grab three slots (two organic listings plus a paid one). But when someone searches for "Atlanta document scanning," we're able to grab four slots - the two organic and one paid plus a local listing at the top of the organic results. We like to be greedy and take as much real estate as we are legitimately entitled to. Stacy Williams Prominent Placement Strategic Search Marketing http://www.prominentplacement.com ==> TOPIC: GOOGLE BASE LAUNCHED "The latest screenshots indicate upcoming categories may include: Course Schedules, Events & Activities, Housing Jobs, News & Articles, People Profiles, Products, Reference Articles, Reviews, Services, Travel, Vehicles, and Wanted Ads." From: SearchReturn Hello everyone, There is a lot going on with Google this week. Google Base is now finally available. After speculation that Google Base is some type of Ebay or Craigslist killer, the situation is that it needs a fair amount of use, additional features, and something in the way of great distribution before it truly resembles any threat to the entrenched sites. http://base.google.com The ways in which Google Base is different, makes it interesting. You can use common tags, and even make up your own. It isn't a revolution for tagging, but these fields may be important for sorting and search. Meta data isn't dead, it is only hibernating. And you can upload a bunch in batch..., woohoo! Representing data "items" in Web search that refer users to a Google Base listing can herald a whole new era for Google. The concept of pure Web search for Google would be gone. Google would discover itself in the distribution business. They are luring us to publish "items" by dangling their search audience in front of us. They are gambling big that this distribution mechanism will pay off. What then, if their search quality begins to erode? We all know what happens if Google SERPs get littered with spam. Search users are a fickle group, if enough junk is displayed for search users, they can easily abandon Google. The most important take away from this is that Google lives or dies by the sheer number of users that regularly visit Google. The revenue they earn from the extensive ad network served around the Web doesn't stack up to a hill of beans next to the revenue they earn from ads served directly at Google - where they don't have to share. Google will make money serving ads alongside Google Base pages. We might as well try it. If we add our wares to Google Base, we have yet another url to point people to for our stuff. When is this madness going to end? Google will be a great place to list our stuff if it ends up in the search engine. That's obvious. If Google detects their search quality erodes from adding Google Base listings, the listings won't last but a nanosecond. Then what is our motivation for listing our stuff on Google Base? There's all the other sites, like Craigslist - and Ebay. Too bad they wouldn't allow you to serve *your* AdSense on Google Base pages :) Anyone thinking Google Base strategy out there? Stay Tuned. -SR ----------------------------------------------------------------- // -- ESSENTIAL NEWS -- // ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==> Mountain View WiFi http://www.searchreturn.com/digest/refs016.shtml Essentials: Google wins city approval from Mountain View and the approximately 70,000 city dwellers who will use WiFi through the search giant to access the Web for free. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==> Yahoo! Updates Shopping http://www.ysearchblog.com/archives/000214.html Essentials: Social Search, as noted, is largely a part of Yahoo!'s strategy moving forward. This update includes a number of social enhancements in this regard. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==> All Your Words http://www.allyourwords.com Essentials: A RealNames knockoff, AllYourWords looks to be the next word association engine. The real strength behind the now defunct RealNames was when they had distribution through Internet Explorer and Altavista. The weakness lay in the fact that it is not true one site will be enough for search (or word) result. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Essential Headlines: http://www.searchreturn.com/newsworthy.shtml Archives: http://www.searchreturn.com/digest-archive.shtml Alternate formats: http://www.searchreturn.com/info-formats.shtml Manage Subscriptions: http://www.searchreturn.com/help/manage-subs.shtml Problems unsubscribing? Contact the postmaster: mailto:postmaster@searchreturn.com Information on how to sponsor this publication: http://www.searchreturn.com/help/advertise.shtml Published by SearchReturn http://www.searchreturn.com Website Membership: http://www.searchreturn.com/register.shtml The contents of the digest do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SearchReturn or Disa Johnson. SearchReturn and Disa Johnson make no warranties, either expressed or implied, about the truth or accuracy of the contents of the SearchReturn Digest. Copyright 2005 Disa Johnson. All Rights Reserved. -----------------------------------------------------------------