January 2008

Google’s supplemental index is still biting your ass

Posted by Michael Martinez on January 30, 2008 in Seo Myths

The latest myth sweeping across the SEO community is that Google’s Supplemental Results Index no longer matters — in fact, many people are even saying it no longer exists, that it was merged with Google’s main index.
Of course, many people in the SEO community wrongly believe that the old “site:domain -gobbledy gook” method no longer [...]

We Have A Critical Need for SEO Standards

Posted by Michael Martinez on January 29, 2008 in SEO Theory

I don’t speak for Dirk Johnson, a partner in the reciprocal link management firm Domain Drivers. Nor does he speak for me. In the January 29, 2008 LED Digest, Dirk shared the following comments as part of an ongoing discussion about the SEO industry:
…99% of this is not rocket science, by any means. [...]

Managing crawl versus managing link flow

Posted by Michael Martinez on January 28, 2008 in Advanced SEO

As I have said before, Link flow is the pathway that links forge throughout your Web site or network. People confuse link flow with PageRank because PageRank is determined (in part) by link flow. But there is another factor that determines PageRank: crawl.
Crawl is both what a search engine does when it fetches [...]

When Web sites vanish

Posted by Michael Martinez on January 25, 2008 in General

Do you ever check The Internet Traffic Report? I’ve been using this resource for years to solve mysterious Web site outages.
I’ve had more than one discussion with people who said they could not reach a site that I could reach, or vice versa. Whenever that situation arises usually one of two things is [...]

Google doesn’t know what doorway pages are

Posted by Michael Martinez on January 24, 2008 in General

June 4, 2008 update: Google fixed its doorway definition and Matt Cutts graciously acknowledged that this post helped persuade them to make the change.
Well, you’d think that with all their interaction and shoulder-to-shoulder partying with SEOs, spammers, and other low-life scum of the Web Googlers would have picked up by now what doorway pages are.
Instead, [...]

The Infallible SEO Option

Posted by Michael Martinez on January 24, 2008 in SEO Theory

When all else fails you, create more content.
If you want more search visibility, create more content.
If you want more links, create more content.
If you want to change the “theme” of your Web site, create more content.
If you want to rank better for more queries, create more content.
If you want more links, create more content.
If you [...]

Managing the SEO transition to HTML 5

Posted by Michael Martinez on January 23, 2008 in Advanced SEO

The W3C has published an early draft of the proposed HTML 5 specification. Now is the time for search engine optimizers to start looking at how to manage the transition to HTML 5. The implementation of the standard may be 1-2 years away but the SEO community does not handle standards well at [...]

The only constant in search optimization

Posted by Michael Martinez on January 22, 2008 in SEO Theory

Search engine algorithms are not perfect. Their flaws help distinguish them from each other, but they share similar limitations. As searchers we want to find the most relevant, complete, and accurate information available on a topic. Search engine technology today is not really equipped to provide us with those kinds of results. [...]

Patterns of Use

Posted by Michael Martinez on January 21, 2008 in Intermediate SEO

“You can never go back.” My grandmother said that to me once when I was feeling regret over the way I had handled some situation as a kid. That expression mirrors the philosophy I have tried to shape my career around: keep moving forward.
As a programmer and as a search optimizer I have [...]

The Bias Factor of Search Optimization

Posted by Michael Martinez on January 18, 2008 in SEO Theory

The Theory of Search Engine Optimization tells us that people use or apply “algorithms to influence the predictable content and quality of search engine results according to the chosen criteria of the optimizer”. Search engines optimize, searchers optimize, and Web content providers optimize.
You cannot NOT optimize search, although some people do it better than [...]

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