SEO

We all know some of the more popular sites can draw hundreds of comments. Sites like CNN, MSN, and Yahoo news might even get a couple of thousand comments on a hot topic. But, I think most sites would be happy with something in the 10 to 50 range.

The other day I was reading up on backlinks from .edu and .gov sites. It almost seems like there are some people that regard them as the holy grail of backlinks. Others would disagree, and claim that there is no major benefit to getting these types of backlinks over any other high quality or authority site. I guess the thinking is .edu and .gov sites tend to have pretty decent pagerank so they value a backlink from them more. I have read that they tend to have more pagerank because a lot of important or other authority sites link to them. I do know that generally these types of sites, especially if they are blogs tend to be nofollow links.

I know what you are thinking not another quality vs. quantity posts. I hear you there, but at least it’s not another Pinterest or Facebook Timeline article! I swear I have seen more of them in the past couple of weeks than I can count. “How to set up your timeline,” or “You should do this with your timeline,” and “Are you using the timeline,” etc., etc., etc. I am just not so tuned into Facebook as much as I used to be.

Anyway, getting back on track…

We often hear things like quality trumps quantity, but this isn’t always the case and it may depend on what you are comparing. I mean I probably wouldn’t spend my last dollar on an expensive meal, even though the quality might be great. I would rather spend my last dollar sparingly and get as much as I could for it.

Just about every day I hear things like: I want to be first in Google, or I want to be number one in Google, and that kind of thing. You get the idea. I think we would all like to claim the top spot in Google for every keyword, key phrase, and combination we can think of.

I don’t know if people just don’t read up and research SEO or they just think that somehow Google will say: Wow this is a really great site…BAM! Number 1 spot.

Matter of fact if someone gave me a penny every time this was asked, I swear I would be rich, and I am not joking!

Apparently there was a Google Pagerank Update on Monday Februrary 6th, 2012 give or take where in the world you happen to live. I haven’t come across an official confirmation or post, but a number of webmaster forums seem to be buzzing about it. One thing about these types of sites, they are usually the first to notice and post something to let everyone know. Sometimes they are false alarms and someone just got excited about something without checking more thoroughly. However, I did do some basic checks on a number of sites and pages around the web and there were some noticeable changes.

If you follow Google Pagerank or have an interest in it you might do some exploring and checking. Keep in mind it is Pagerank not site rank, which means not only your homepage, but your inner/internal pages could have gone up or down.

The hot topic surrounding Google this past week or so is a change they made that they are calling a layout algorithm Googleimprovement. Whether it is truly an improvement has yet to be proven accepted. I guess it depends on who you ask.

Page layout algorithm improvement by Matt Cutts:
http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2012/01/page-layout-algorithm-improvement.html

Cross post with tons of comments:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2012/01/page-layout-algorithm-improvement.html

The ever-popular Yahoo Site Explorer is finally retired and no more. It was one of my favorite backlink checkers. I don’t visit too many Yahoo based services or features, but I did frequent Site Explorer. At one point I read that Yahoo Site Explorer was supposed to be shut down in September, but every time I would go there it still worked. That is until on or around November 21st/22nd, 2011.

Now I am officially bummed out a bit. It wasn’t a spectacular service, but it was fast and easy. It did what it was supposed to do, and rarely was it down or unavailable.

This is a follow-up to the article I wrote a few days ago about the Google Pagerank Update that happened on November 7th, 2011. It was basically meant as a notification that Google did update Pagerank and if you are a little tuned into it you might want to check your site and pages.

Initially I didn’t spend a lot of time checking a bunch of websites myself. I really don’t have the time to analyze all kinds of sites for Pagerank just for the fun of it. I took a quick peek at my own and a few others, but that was about it.

Now that several days have passed since the update I did get a chance to at least check a couple of popular sites more thoroughly. A few sites stood out as kind of unusual, which is why I would expect another update within a couple of weeks time.

Google appears to have update Pagerank on Monday November 7th, 2011 (11-7-2011). A number of webmaster forums have been buzzing about it all day. One thing about active webmaster types of forums they seem to be the first to pick up and post about it.

If you follow Pagerank you might have a look at your websites and pages if interested. Most of what I have seen based on what others are talking about are the usual ups and downs. Some people seem to be happy, and others are a little disappointed or ticked off.

Some sites clearly point out and state that they are dofollow. Other sites are not so clear, but if you do a little exploring you might find a page indicating that they are. If a site doesn’t say whether they are or not most likely it’s nofollow.

There are many cases where a site will abruptly switch from dofollow to nofollow without warning, and sometimes without informing their regular loyal visitors or members. Oftentimes they also neglect or forget to remove the statement that says they are dofollow. Not that this should discourage you from visiting the site or commenting, but it is nice to know for sure.