German Search Study

I found this study on the habits of German search users. It's not that long of a read but not overly entertaining. Some of the data is a bit dated, but likely does indicate overall differences in how Germans search. There are some noteworthy hiighlights(compared to US searchers):

• Germans use fewer words, avg 1.66 terms
• Boolean operators are seldom used
• Germans tend to stick to one Search Engine
• Germans search for Porn less freqently
  

Pulling Keywords From Content

Aaron Wall lists a number of great gems in his latest post about tools that pull the best keywords from content. These tools actually look at the text and pull out the top traffic keywords to target.

Coolest Google Query String

This is probably the coolest Google query string I've seen. Awesome way to check rankings.

• http://www.google.com/ie?num=100&hl=en&safe=off&q=minimalist
  

Google Changes Supplemental Query

Google dropped the standard supplemental query, but this simple site search seems to replace it and return supplementals:

• site:http://www.yoursite.com/&
  

Live Search Now Supporting Sitemap Discovery

MSN Live Search is now supporting sitemap autodiscovery via Robots.txt.

Local Search Terms

I was surprised by the results of this quick study. Small Business SEM assembled a list of top search queries in cities throughout the States and Craigslist related terms do very well, typically in the top 2.

Post Labels Added To OnceadaySEO

hdouble commented that subject tags for posts would be a good addition to this blog. Occasionally searching back through posts to find some gem of information or tool that I want to use also shed some light on this problem. So, I've added labels and they will be listed on the right sidebar. I'm not sure I can be bothered with going back through all my previous posts. One of the labels I will create will be a Tools label and all the Tools I've blogged on so far are fairly valuable, so I'll probably go back through those.

Tidbits From Matt Cutts Talk

Matt Cutts recently addressed WordPress bloggers at the WordCamp conference. Some of the items from his talk are notable. Here's a summary of the highlights:

• Google will now treat underscores separating words as a space. This is a big change as previously Google ignored them and a Title or URL like 'online_poker' would be viewed as 'onlinepoker'.
• Google treats URLs with query strings the same as a static URL as long as there aren't more than a few parameters
• Google does not treat deep pages in a site any differently than pages with fewer slashes ie,
  /seo/seo/seo/seo.html would be the same as /seo/seo.html. This dispels another big myth in the SEO community.
  
• File extensions in URLs do not affect rankings, except .EXE that is
• He also mentions that an important guideline for inclusion to Google News is that the site must have more than one author
  

Aaron Wall Addresses Google Ranking Factors

SEOBook discusses some reasons why your Google rankings might take a sudden dip. Most of the items deal with over optimization.

Good List Of SEM Books

SEOMoz put together a nice list of 5 good books on some SEM fundamentals, the history of search engines, site usability, and SEM strategies.

Where To Go Forward With This Bl;og

I've been posting to this blog now for a couple of months. The intention originally was primarily a summary of the items going on in the world of SEO. When I read through other blogs and news bits there is typically a bunch of fluff, stories created to make a diggable item(we are SEO's after all), industry conjecture, or just a waste of time reading. Also, I don't have the time nor do I want to waste the time spending a few hours a day writing posts. I have used this platform along side of time I spend daily reading industry news then just marking what I think is worth while.

I wanted to try to make at least one post a day and this blog started as a bit more of an experiment. My thought was to glean a few items a day, items that matter to the industry, cut through all the BS, and are truly valuable to the small group(anyone out there) of readers of this blog or its feed. As you likely have noticed if you've been reading this blog for a bit, there are occasional lapses in posts. This really isn't because I have been slacking, it's for want of solid items that are either valuable or shed a bit of light. So, rather than just post garbage, I decided to not post at all.

Though the title of this blog, Once a day SEO, really meant nothing in the beginning, I suppose it does sum up the idea of the blog; check it out once a day and you should get a few good SEO related tidbits without the crap surrounding it.

What to do here going forward? I spent a bit looking back over some of my posts and the layout. Again, I'm not going to devote a bunch of time to this, but here are a few thoughts:

• Provide a bit more detail with each post to be certain that there is enough info there so that the reader can value whether or not to click a link and read further on the item.
• Continue to put in items that also provide a bit of a chuckle, even if they are a bit off topic.
• Start to generate a bit of my own content rather than just summarizing existing items. I'm going to try to write one of my own posts once a week.

Keeping in mind that this is not an overly serious endeavor, if anyone has any comments or suggestions, please provide them.

Google Maps - Live Time DART Train Map

Google Maps is now allowing users to develop gadgets/mapplets to be developed for personal maps. Mackers created this really cool map showing real time locations of the trains running on the regional train service in Dublin, Ireland the DART.

Great Rankings Tool

With Rankmon you can compare biggest organic traffic generating sites in the world and check a specific Domain for their top 200 SERPs and keywords. Worth taking a look at.

More From Google On Use Of Flash

Search Engine Roundtable has a good summary on some more Googler comments regarding hidden text related to the use of Flash. Once again pointing to intent.

Jerry Yang, 2007 World Series of Poker Champion

Congrats to Jerry Yang, winner of the 2007 WSOP Main Event. Jerry gets to take home a cool $8 million and change. You can read more about Jerry Yang's Bio at his page at Full Tilt Poker.

SEO Page Info Checker, Xinu

Xinu is a free tool gives a bunch of info about a given page.

If You Haven't Checked This Out You Should.

Sphinn is the newest site launched by Danny Sullivan and Search Engine Land. It is Digg and a forum all wrapped into one and focusing on news in the SEM industry. Looks like it will make a great replacement for Threadwatch. Looks like Sphinn has been very well received so far and the content is pretty good as well.

60 Min SEO Site Overview

This is a good way to briefly get an SEO overview of a site. SEO in less than an hour by Small Business SEM.

Adam Lansik Dishes Out Some Tough Love

This was pulled from a thread on Google Groups and posted by SEO Buzz Box. Basically, a guy had a thin site, it got deindexed, he posed a question as to why, then got a very direct response from Adam himself. Adam made it very clear that Google takes a very hard stance with sites that are solely monetized.

Adam's response:

I think it's time for some tough love here, Alan.

Imagine this scenario. You walk into a store and some guy --
surprisingly the owner -- grabs you by the shoulder.

"How'd you like some beer? Oh, hey, we also sell coffee. Hmm... you
don't want something to drink? We specialize in air purifiers, too!
And you know what... after you drink some beer next to your new air
purifier, I bet you could use a date, right? No, no, not the eating
kind... I'm talking a really nice lady! And if she ends up stealing
your identity, well, no problem! I sell Identity Theft protection
services... and... wait! Wait...come back!!!"

How much would you trust that guy? Or his store? Sure, he may have
small leaflets on a zillion topics, but he's not an expert in any.

If you, as an independent observer, came across such a store online,
would you trust it anymore? If not, why should Google see this as an
important and relevant site?

The reductions in rankings you've experienced are not going to be
reversed by simple technical or structural changes. You may wish to
focus your efforts, add compelling, original, and substantive content
or tools, and *then* file a reconsideration request.

Jack Ury, Oldest Man Ever At The World Series Of Poker

At 94, Jack Ury is the oldest player ever to have played in the World Series of Poker. Apparently Jack, also known as Jack 'Jeffery' Ury, 'Old Man Jack', or even 'One Eyed Jack' in some circles, has become quite the celebrity at the WSOP.

Early photos of him in action at the tournament poker tables show him surrounded by adoring female fans. Jack Ury is also a big fan of the online poker room Full Tilt Poker and is no pushover at the poker table. Deflty using his age to maximum benefit, he is known to misread hands, play slowly, and mistakenly check when he should call, somehow always ending in his favor.

Securing the title of Oldest Player Ever at the World Series of Poker is no small feat, requiring a long trip from the far away land of Terre Haute, Indiana(yes, its a long way from Las Vegas). I am lucky to say that I have sat across the table from Jack many times. Cheers, Jack and please keep the dentures in.

Update, Jack Ury in World Series of Poker 2008:

I will just keep updating this post as I find new info. Old Man Jack is back into the WSOP this year and made it past day 1. There have been a couple mentions of Jack in the media already. His Grandson is also playing in the tournament and made it past day one as well, doubling through 4 times.

SEOmoz Addresses Paid Links

SEOmoz has a long post giving paid link examples. He lists SERPs for a number of highly competitive terms with examples of actual websites pointing out sites that are int the top 10 that purchase links. How he knows that they are truly paying for those links is beyond me other than speculation. Seems as if hes treading in dangerous waters.

My question to him is what is his intention for placing such a post? Moz is the biggest G.A.K.(Google Ass Kisser) on the SEO circuit, no offense Moz. He does come across as the sword carrying knight of the white hats and certianly his reputation in the business is built on that. He cannot be pleased to see purchased links in areas in which his is either consulting or in which his own site is ranking.

Google And Human Evaluators

Googler Marissa Mayer admitted in a session at a recent Seattle conference that Google uses 10,000 humans to check SERP relevancy. Dare Obasanjo mentions it in his blog.

Nice Domain Search Tool

This looks easy and quick to use. Simply type in a list of words and Bustaname pulls available domain name combinations.

Using Google As A Free Proxy

Cool Google hack for getting to sites with limited access.

Handy Notepad Tip

Ran across this tip for using Notepad and creating dated journal entries. Automatically pulls up and new date and time whenever you reopen the Notepad file.

Way Of Estimating Keyword Traffic From A Domainer

Heres a domainer that offers a way to estimate traffic. He uses Adwords, then backs out a simple calculation to estimate global traffic.

Visual Map Of The Google Empire

Google Map

Advanced Advice from SMX

There was an advanced session at SMX(heres a summary) a month ago where top SEOs gave away less known tidbits. Cutts sat on the panel, who knows why, and one of the speakers showed how to enter a search parameter to just search supplemental results. Cutts commented that he wasnt away it existed and they didnt want that to be accessible. The option is now mysteriously unavailable.

Google Search Parameters

Here is a great list of Advanced Google Search Parameters from a few sources:

Joostdevalk.nl

Google Blogoscoped

jwebnet.net

Text Link Ads Penalty?

I noticed this last week and ran across this post at blogstorm today. Everyone is conjecturing but no one knows whether its an actual penalty of not.

Explanation Of How Indented Google Listings Work

SearchEngineLand explains indented listings and how to determine the actual position of an indentation.

Make Millions And Make Change

This new book was recommended by Aaron Wall. Its a free read and is published by grassroots.org. Though I havent read it yet, looks like it a good overall view of how to approach online entrepreneurship successfully.

Buy Your Own On Ebay

Entertaining Search Ads

Broad matching in search ads pulls up some hilarious results. And, you can buy virtually anything at Ebay.

How To Get A PR 7 Link From Google

Spend $1,995 and here you go.