B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®

Matt Cutts clarifies what SEOs are calling the “Gilligan” update that’s been happening with Google over the past few days on his blog.

What shows as Page Rank and back links now, is data that has already been factored into current rankings. He clarifies that a real update is when Google makes algorithm changes.

“Technically Update Gilligan is just backlink/PageRank data becoming visible once more, not a real update. There haven‚Äôt been any substantial algorithmic changes in our scoring in the last few days.”

Even with commentary like this from Google, lots of people will still spend lots of time analyzing every little change with Google. Just as fun as looking for Bigfoot, Elvis and Aliens from outer space. Or not.

Tags: Google, Google Update, Gilligan, Matt Cutts

Here I thought maybe Andy Beal was going to go with andybeal.com as his new blog. That’s not the case according to an email I just received from him. Andy has launched a new search engine marketing blog called Marketing Pilgrim, “your guide to search, interactive and new media”.

No hint as to what he’s up to though. I’m sure lots of people will be watching. Here’s the RSS feed. Nice to have you back Andy!

I had not noticed this until today so I am not sure how new it is. There is a new tab on Technorati called Blogs Beta for a new blog search tool called Blog Finder.

When you login you can now do several more things with your claimed blogs including: Edit the blog description, add or edit Blog Finder tags and edit the embeded display.

Blog finder tags are pre-populated once you login. but once you edit them, you can see the difference in the Blog Finder search results within minutes. I think Dave Sifry‘s Technorati development team might think about putting a timer on that, or at least limiting how often a blog can edit it’s tags. Seeing search results change this quickly harkens back to the days of old school SEO and Infoseek.

By now you’ve certainly read about the BS lawsuit Traffic Power has issued against Aaron Wall. The Wall Street Journal, Slashdot and many others have picked up this story.

Aaron has a Online Marketing Blog/2005/08/this-is-just-wrong-traffic-power-sues.html”>LOT of support. Looks like he’s standing up for principle and going to fight it. Threadwatch has a post about those details and about how you can contribute to this cause.

Somewhat Frank has posted some very useful links regarding what blogger rights. Also, I don’t want it misconstrued that my support for Aaoron means I think it’s ok to defame or libel companies on blogs, because I don’t. The issue here is that there is a big difference between explaining your personal opinion and experience and doing the things TP is alleging.

I know many of the people who read this blog (thank you!) also have their own web sites or blogs.

Please consider donating ad space on your site to help out Katrina victims via the Red Cross.

Thank you,

Lee Odden

Metroblogging New Orleans – Flickr Images – Clusty Blog Search

Barry at Search Engine Roundtable posts a Code of Ethics that prompted me to do some thinking.

Search Engine Roundtable Code of Ethics:
(1) We try to cover public forum threads and quote from public information within those threads.
(2) We will never quote anyone without explicit permission in the following cases:
— Phone conversations require explicit permission to quote
— Email conversations require explicit permission to quote
— IM chat conversations require explicit permission to quote
— In person conversations require explicit permission to quote
(3) We will quote any publicly posted and available content from forums, content sites, blogs and so on.
(4) Anything said during a public presentation at a conference (not at the bars or in the hall ways but rather, what is said on the podium) is quotable as well.

First there was Google
Earlier this summer Google announced their Google Sitemaps tool that allows web site owners to create an XML or plain text file listing all of the urls of a web site for inclusion in the Google index. At least up to 50,000 and if you’re over, you can just create another site map.

Google offers this tool as a compliment to what Googlebot, Google’s search engine spider, can find on it’s own by crawling from link to link on the web. In cases where a site might have some difficulty getting indexed, providing a sitemap to Google may assist in getting missing pages into Google’s search results.

Google does not charge for this beta service and it’s pretty easy to do. However, as a beta, there are no guarantees.

I am testing a feature from Talkr that automatically converts blog posts to machine generated audio. Look for the “Listen” link at the bottom of each post on this blog.

Does this qualify as a podcast? I’m sure there are many podcast purists that would say no. It should be a real person reading the post for that, which is what I’d like to change this over to. For now, I’ll see if there’s any feedback on the automatic audio.

As feedback to Talkr, it would be nice if there were different voice options you could pick. I can do that with my virtual fax/message service from j2. They should also drop the Flickr naming ripoff and add an “e”.

Amid lots of speculation this week, Google has launched a Jabber/XMPP based Instant Messaging/VOIP application called Google Talk. FAQ here.

For Windows only in this release, Google Talk works with several other IM clients so if you have a Mac or are on Linux, you can still connect. All you need is a headset, speaker and Gmail account. Conveniently, six Gmail invites are included when you download the software.

So far there are mostly accolades with one comment from Daily Rundown about the lack of file transfer, which is a feature that Skype offers. Also, you cannot make calls to land line or mobile phones.

In true Google fashion, the interface is very clean and intuitive. Also of note, it’s free of any advertisements. It seems Google’s intention is to use Google Talk to drive Gmail sign-ups.

It appears that Google, Yahoo and Ebay might be competing for a piece or all of Trade Classified Media which owns 575 print titles and 56 websites in 20 countries and is worth about $1.5 billion.

“Local search and listings are becoming increasingly profitable areas for internet companies, and are at the heart of new “pay-per-call” revenue models, which some see as potentially more profitable than pay-per-click advertising.”

The competition never ends. Via Revolution

Google is releasing an update to it’s desktop search program today that includes a tool called Sidebar, “a panel on your desktop which provides convenient, one-glance access to all sorts of personalized information.” Here are some screenshots.

Sidebar includes plugins for: Email, News, Weather, Photos, Stocks, Web Clips (RSS Feeds), Scratch Pad (note pad) and QuickView which shows frequently used items or recent items.

I guess this is sort of a MyYahoo but for the desktop rather than a web page.

Hat tip SE Blog

Anyone involved with organic search engine optimization knows the value of linking or connectivity and how it contributes to higher search engine placement.

This blog does well on some competitive phrases in part, due to links. For example, a quick check on Marketleap’s Link Popularity tool shows 90,927 links to Online Marketing Blog/”>Online Marketing blog.

The start of those links was the result of competitive research. Finding out where similar sites received links and gaining links from the most relevant sources over time can generate the necessary link popularity to start gaining momentum. Once a site gains content and link momentum, the increased awareness makes it easier to gain new links.