� How to rename or move files without loosing your search engine ranking: the 301 redirect
� How to rename or move files without loosing your search engine ranking: the 301 redirect: "How to rename or move files without loosing your search engine ranking: the 301 redirect
On page redirection techniques, what works and what to avoid"
Not recommended solution 1: Duplicate content.
Not recommended solution 2: Custom error message.
Not recommended solution 3: An HTML Meta redirect.
The recommended redirect strategy - 301 RedirectA 301 redirect is the most efficient, visitor friendly, robot (spider, crawler) friendly and search engine friendly solution around for web sites that are hosted on servers running Apache. If you are not sure, check with your hosting provider.
The code “301″ is interpreted as “moved permanently”. After the code, the URL of the missing or renamed page is noted, followed by a space, then followed by the new location or file name.
First of all, you’ll need to find the .htaccess file in the root directory of where all your web pages are stored. If there is no .htaccess file there, you can create one with Notepad or a similar application.
Make sure when you name the file that you remember to put the “.” at the beginning of the file name. This file has no tail extension.
If there is a .htaccess file already in existence with lines of code present, be very careful not to change any existing line unless you are familiar with the functions of the file.
Scroll down past all the existing code, leave a line space, then create a new line that follows this example:
redirect 301 /folder/page1.htm http://www.you.com/folder/custom_usb_drives.htm
It’s as easy as that. Save the file, upload it back into your web and test it out by typing in the old address to the page you’ve changed. You should be instantly and seamlessly transported to the new location.
Notes: Be sure not to add “http://www” to the first part of the statement - just put the path from the top level of your site to the page. Also ensure that you leave a single space between these elements:
redirect 301 (the instruction that the page has moved)
/folder/page1.htm (the original folder path and file name)
http://www.you.com/folder/custom_usb_drives.htm (new path and file name)
The same format applies not only to renamed files, but also to files moved to a different location.
How the search engines treat the 301
The 301 redirect is the safest way to preserve your rankings.
On the next indexing (crawling, spidering), the search engine robot will obey the rule indicated in your .htaccess file and index the new page name every time a link or its internal database tries to access the old page.
In the next update (again, this could take months), the old file name and path will be dropped and replaced with the new one.
Sometimes you may see alternating old/new file names during the transition period, along with some possible fluctuations in rankings as things settle. Don’t panic, this is normal.
Microsoft IIS serversIf you have access to the server, do this: In internet services manager, right click on the file or folder you wish to redirect. Select the radio titled “a redirection to a URL”. Enter the redirection page, check “The exact url entered above” and the “A permanent redirection for this resource”. Click “Apply”.
Redefining the Search Scenery
Redefining the Search Scenery: "Google dominates today�s versions of search and both Yahoo and MSN are prepared to admit it. In short, the recent past and the persistent present belong to Google. For its formal rivals, the only place to look is the future. Time is accelerated, often to the point of pointlessness in the tech world and that future is already functioning online. It is just waiting mass user adoption...
Google’s dominance of today’s version of search is absolute, a big problem for Yahoo and MSN even as they look forward to an expanded search environment. Search is the primary way to access information on the web and in order to stay in business, Google’s rivals need to segment the concepts of search and find ways to excel in specific areas while Google overshadows general search."
Hedger concludes "Yahoo is thinking outside the box by inviting users to create their own media environments in order to facilitate distribution of pay-per-use content (TV, music, movies) and pay-per-click advertising.
MSN is again looking inside the box with its newly revised focus on Vista. It hopes to erase the lines between the user, their computing device and the Internet by integrating search and search related products into commonly used software packages.
Google will continue being Google. As long as it continues to build on its membership driven services and produce better than adequate search results, the general public is likely to continue using it more than any other search engine."
Securing a Marketing-Rich Domain Name
Securing a Marketing-Rich Domain Name: "The most obvious thing to do is to get your business name as your URL, however if you're late getting into the game you may find that your business name is already taken by another similarly named business or by a domain name squatter, or possibly a future competitor. Purchasing a business name domain name isn't always the right way to go, and when left without that option, a keyword domain name might work just as well, if not better...
The best possible domain name is one that is both a keyword domain and your business name such as outdoorsportinggoods.com."
Yahoo! DOES Want to Rule Search
Yahoo square up to Google
Take Two: Yahoo! DOES Want to Rule Search: "a Yahoo! exec that said the company was fine with playing second fiddle to search king Google. Today, Yahoo! is backpeddling from that statement and trying to make it clear that they are in this game to win and that they do intend to build a project good enough to topple Google from their throne.
In a blog post titled 'Are you kidding?!' two Yahoo! VPs made it clear that Yahoo! is all about catching up and passing Google when it comes to the search wars...
The execs concluded: "This commitment to being the best should be crystal clear from our investments in talented people, research, innovation and new products. Believe it or not, we are still in the early days of search. As all of us at Yahoo! agree, we're in it for the long haul, and we're in it to win."
ROI key not ranking
How the Search Marketing Industry Shot Itself in the Foot: "the search marketing industry finds itself facing a challenge. They need to educate businesses to help them toss out the old 'top ten rankings' philosophy in exchange for the more realistic and sustainable 'positive return on investment' philosophy. Otherwise, the entire industry runs the risk of imploding sometime in the next several years.
This isn't a new idea, many within the industry have been championing it for quite some time. Nonetheless, it still falls far behind 'I want top rankings' as the reason companies want to hire search marketing firms. In fact, the biggest challenge many search marketers face these days is not talking clients into hiring them, but explaining that the true value of search marketing lies in customer acquisition, not ranking and traffic acquisition...
Concepts like the power of the keyword long tail are helping businesses realize that some of the best customers often come from phrases that they never even dreamed of optimizing for. The time is coming where the inability to gain top ten rankings for a keyword phrase won't be associated with a lack of search marketing skill. Search marketers and the companies that hire them will start focusing on the number of customers that a campaign produces. Ranking reports will be but a distant memory.
That's why the industry as a whole needs to start working on their presentation of search marketing. We need to go into client meetings talking about overall strategies that will help drive quality traffic from links on both search engine results and on other web sites. We need to talk about achieving a positive return on investment. We need to talk about the skill required to create sites that are both search engine friendly and customer friendly. We need to stop talking about rankings.
The companies that are already embracing these changes are finding it much easier to sell and to sustain accounts with happy clients. The companies that are still focusing on rankings are going to find their customer bases slowly shifting over to those living by the new SEM philosophy. The industry did shoot itself in the collective foot by setting up expectations based on rankings, but a positive ROI can act as a powerful remedy to help get things moving again."
Linking Trends For 2006 Article Distribution
View topic - Linking Trends For 2006 :: WebProWorld: "predictions for 2006 so no one can ask who thought of it first :)
Link Pyramids
This will be the new world of link exchange directories until the major search engines catch on and figure out a way to stop them. One site joins the program and places a page on their site containing a link to the first site to join. Then another site joins and places a page on their site that has links to the two sites. Then a third and a fourth...so on..
Content Directories
This will be the temporary solution to Google's new found love of in content links. Advertisers and Exchanges will start placing directories containing whole pages of content written by the link providers for publishers and/or other members to place on their sites
Article Directories
Boy that phrase Content Is King is really getting pounded into people's brains. Lets face facts: article directories are exploding all over the net. The problem you ask? There's not a single GOOD article submitter
Google Will Surprise Us
Google will develop a set of algorithms that look at each individual pages on a site. If that page contains over a certain ratio of outbound links to content(pages that are inherantly link exchange pages) the page's ability to give “votes” will be greatly devalued with certain exceptions for authority sites like DMOZ of course
Celebrity Blogs
Com'n...admit I'm right. Small brained, big egoed celebs mesh with technology to allow themselves the power to express to the world what they think about stupid sh*t"
Article Distribution Service - Article Submission Service: "The Free Article Distribution Service
Article Submission / Article Distribution the easy way."
