A recent application from the Google Lab’s, is a website creation tool. (register here)
Its a simple online application which will allow you to create and publish a simple website. Its not going to be much good for anyone wanting anything more than a basic presence, but hey, its free right?
I was lucky enough to get access to the service yesterday and created a very simple page. We’ve dropped in some content to test the page’s ability to get listed on Googles search engine. I’ll update with the results as they happen.
The application is extremely easy to use, with no technical understanding required and there is no need to download any software. Google will host the site and provide 100 MB of space.
If you want to take a look at the test page (which took minutes to setup and publish), you can find it here online marketing page
Ask.com, formerly known as Ask Jeeves has today offically dropped its Butler.
The search engine ranked 5th most popular, has also made a number of improvements to try and gain some ground on its competitors. All in all, i’m very impressed with the way it is progressing and it is now a useful alternative to Google.
Here is a brief list of some of the recent features:
- Related Search – Get to exactly what you want. Narrow your search. Or expand it. It’s the quickest way to get what you’re after.
- Binoculars – Save time by previewing sites before you get there – no clicking required
- Smart Answers – Skip the links and get right to the result for all sorts of topics like sports, movies, and the weather
- MyStuff – An easy way to save your search results and images all in one place
- Improved maps, including a walking directions tool
- Encycolpedia search, with Wikipedia results
Add to that some simple branding and Ask seem to be taking themselves quite seriously, and rightly so!
In our business, we often get asked to set up domain names on behalf of our clients. Usually, the name will be the organisations company name, or products / services. Occassionally, we will be asked for advice on which domain name. Whichever way, we always make a few recommendations.
Here’s a few things to consider when choosing a domain name;
1. Make it easy to spell
2. Keep it as short as possible
3. Try and include search engine search terms in your domain name
4. If using more than one word, also get the domain to include hyphens (i.e www.ceramicmugs.co.uk & www.ceramic-mugs.co.uk)
5. If budget permits and its available, also register the .com version for a global audience
There are other considerations to make, but taking these tips into account will certainly improve on www.ceramicmugscorporationlimited.co.uk
Post by Maurice Walshe – Head of SEO at TH UK
As a follow up to the post a few days ago about Google Banning BMW.
In the past Google usually have been unwilling to directly confirm if sites have been banned or not, although a “reasonable” person might well have assumed this from hints dropped by Google insiders.
Now Google, formally via Matt Cutts speaking in his capacity as “head of the webspam group”, have confirmed that customers of SEO Company Traffic Power have been dropped from Google.
Matt says in a post on his Blog.
“I can confirm that Google has removed traffic-power.com and domains promoted by Traffic Power from our index because of search engine optimisation techniques that violated our webmaster guidelines“
Traffic Power is an SEO Company based in Nevada, that Google and others have said, violated Google and other search engines guidelines – for using tactics designed to artificially inflate a site’s ranking.
The ‘moral of the story’ is to make sure that you use a SEO company that uses ethical techniques, as the penalties can be severe and it may take six months or more to get a site fully back in the search engines index, if it has been banned.
We of course only use ethical techniques for our SEO clients. 
Post by Maurice Walshe – Head of SEO at TH UK
Google is making changes to the way it works which could have implication’s for many websites;
A major change to the way Google works is under way codenamed “Big Daddy” Started at the start of February and is now beginning to effect searches on Google.
The new Big Daddy is a major hardware and software update and contains new code for examining and sorting the Web, and once it has been tested fully, will become the default source for Web results, according to Google search engineer Matt Cutts. In a recent post on his blog, Cutts said that the secret project might be launched early in February or March of this year.
According to Rob Sullivan, head organic search strategist at search marketing firm Enquiro, “an algorithm update is like putting new tyres on a car this Big Daddy is like putting in a whole new turbo charged motor. They’re totally revamping how Google works and resolving some long-standing issues with getting sites indexed properly.”
Google is as ever very tight lipped about what they are changing rumoured updates are fixes for the problem of site hijacking and improvements to the way sites are blacklisted in the way BMW was recently.
More information here as it becomes available
For advice or consutation on optimising your website for search engines, contact Maurice on 01234 219119, or enquire online.
Maurice
BMW.de were struck off of Google last week for using search engine promotion techniques that do not adhere to the Google Code of Conduct! ricoh.de soon folllowed.
Its all part of Google’s promise to look at websites which are trying to spam their search engine by using underhand methods of inflating their sites within the search engine.
No doubt these two ‘power companies’ will soon be relisted, but what a PR stunt by Google. What better way is there for them to put out a statement saying “OK, enough is enough”?
Personally, I don’t think its going to have a massive impact on web spammers, but hey every little counts….
View The Times article here.
