Of This and That
Posted On: 2013-07-19
It's a wet and miserable morning here where I live and it's definitely one of those days when you just want to stay inside and get a heap of work done.
Of course that's not how this day is going to go for me ... I've already been out to see one client and I've got a couple of other appointments through the day so it's a case of suck it up princess and get on with it so let's jump into this week's column.
Not Another Panda update?
I can't do much about the weather and we can't do much about these continual updates that Google insists on rolling out either. So be warned ... there's a Panda loose again ... and all we can really do is just sit back and hope for the best.
However this time it may just be possible that this update will be a little softer and more gentle than the others have been. I have seen some suggestions that websites that have really been whacked by Panda in the past are beginning to come back up through the listings since the latest update appeared.
If that's what is happening for you then that's great news but if some sites are coming back then it obviously means that others are going away and if your sites are among that lot then you do have my sympathy.
Of course some people will say that if you're getting hit by Google then it's obviously your own fault because you're not abiding by Google's guidelines ... but then if you've been around for a while you'll know that any update brings collateral damage with it no matter how hard you try to do the right thing.
20 sites linked together
You've got to love it when people with no clue of what it's like to be a webmaster and who have even less experience at marketing are in a position where they can call the shots. The latest little announcement from the pulpit at the Church of the Google Web Spam Team is a perfect example of what I mean.
Now there are plenty of dodgy linking schemes out there that are designed to boost the rankings of those who are participating in those schemes and Google has caught quite a few of them but it still doesn't have a perfect track record ... so how do they improve their figures?
Well it's a no-brainer really ... you just make a blanket ruling that whenever you find 20 or more websites that are linked together you declare them to be part of a linking scheme that is against Google's guidelines. Don't look too hard ... just go on the numbers.
What a perfect way to look as though you're a white knight slaying all those nasty linking dragons when all you're really doing is taking the easy way out and whacking a bunch of good guys at the same time.
Relying on people
We've had an interesting week in our office this week and we've been working to some insane deadlines. Unfortunately while we met four of them we failed miserably on the fifth.
Everything was done to meet that deadline at our end but we were relying on two third parties connected to the client to provide us with a considerable amount of content. The client had the deadline ... we had the deadline ... but the other guys ... well the deadline wasn't important to them.
One forgot to send what we needed and the other took a day off and now the client isn't happy and nor are we.
So the lesson to be learned there was that if you've got a deadline to meet ... and meeting that deadline depends on someone who is not really involved in the project ... then the chances of meeting that deadline are a lot less than you think they are.
Just don't rely on other people if there is any way that you can possibly avoid it.
Compelling content
And before I go here's something to exercise your mind over this coming weekend. Google ... via their muppets ... are always going on about providing compelling content if you want to get a good ranking in the search results. But what is compelling content?
Would it be reasonable to presume that Google would know what constituted compelling content? Well ... they're always going on about it so it would be reasonable to presume that Google does know what compelling content is.
Of course to see whether that's true or not all you should have to do is go and do some searches using Google. But what do the search results show you? Is that really compelling content that Google is showing you?
Oh well ...