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Issue #016: Google Sitemaps

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                    SearchReturn Discussion List
             "Understanding Internet Search Technology"
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Moderator:                                          Published by:
Detlev Johnson                                       SearchReturn
               http://www.searchreturn.com
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November 17, 2005                                      Issue #016
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                   .....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"

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// -- NEW DISCUSSION -- //

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==> 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

 

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// -- CONTINUING DISCUSSION -- //

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==> 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

 


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// -- ESSENTIAL NEWS -- //

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==> 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.

 

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==> 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.

 

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==> 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.

 
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