This and That on a Friday
Posted On: 2007-07-27
Woo Hoo it's Friday and this time we really are looking at a weekend that we might be able to spend away from the computer. For us it's been one of those crazy weeks where everything has just gone by in a blur and next week is shaping up to be more of the same ... but at least we'll have a couple of days' break in the middle.
Google
Underscores are in at Google; that's the word straight from the mouth of the Cuttlet's own God incarnate. Last weekend Matt Cutts stood up at WordCamp 2007 and announced that within a very short space of time Google would begin to recognize underscores as word separators in URLs. In the past that's not been the case and Google only recognized hyphens as word separators but we can use underscores and have no hassles.
There have also been some problems in the past with query strings appearing in the URLs but that now seems to have been overcome too. At the same conference Matt told the audience that as long as there are no more than three parameters in the URL there should be no negative impact on Google rankings for that page.
File extensions were another point that he covered and according to Matt it doesn't really matter what your file extension is because Google does not mark down a page because it's file extension is something other than .htm or .html. I find that one interesting because lately Steve and I have been looking at some of our competitors sites that use .php extensions on their index pages and they really don't rank well at all.
The pages we've looked at should be ranking very well for the terms that are being targeted but they just don't ... and the only difference between our page and their page is the file extension. But of course if Matt Cutts says it doesn't matter then he must be right ... after all he is the mouthpiece for Google isn't he?
I've also seen a few comments around the Net about keyword-rich file names. There are some who are claiming that, when it comes to ranking, it soon won't matter what appears in the file name ... all that will matter is the on-page optimisation. I think I'll believe that one when I've confirmed it with some of my own testing.
MySpace on the wane?
I mentioned some time ago that perhaps we might be seeing a move away from MySpace. When I did talk about it I mentioned some statistics from Hitwise that was suggesting that older people were beginning to drift away and find other social sites on the Web that were more in tune with their needs.
Now Hitwise is suggesting that the drift is increasing with other age groups beginning to wander and in the United Kingdom Facebook has overtaken MySpace in the number of searches conducted on the Internet. As I said the last time, now might be a good time to establish a presence on any site that could be a competitor for MySpace. Any marketer who relies on sites like MySpace needs to stay at least one step ahead of the crowd so that they can maintain their competitive advantage.
Looking after your equipment
Another way to maintain your competitive advantage is to look after the equipment that's vital to your continued success. With the weekend coming up maybe it's time to do a little more than just backing up your files.
Perhaps it's time to take off the access panels on your computer and spend a little time cleaning it out. A soft paint brush - the sort you would use for painting furniture etc. - is ideal for cleaning the dirt out of the fans and heat sink fins. Brush the dust out of the bottom of the case too.
While you're in there have a look at your motherboard. Even if you're not in anyway technically inclined you will still be able to spot a few of the major problems that could arise. Check for corrosion that might be starting to show on the fine metal tracks that you'll see crisscrossing the board because that could be the beginning of the end for your computer.
Also have a look at the capacitors on the motherboard. If you don't know what a capacitor is look for the small cylindrical things that stand up from the motherboard - they're usually black or perhaps blue and have a recessed bare metal cap on the top. Many have a cross cut into the top of the cap too.
As long as the bare metal cap remains flat you don't have a problem but if they are starting to bulge upwards then it's time to talk to your computer shop about a new motherboard. Sometimes bulging caps can continue to work for quite some time - Steve's been working with one on his main computer for several weeks while he finds some free time to install a new motherboard - but at other times the end can come very quickly. And even just one bulging cap can cause major problems.
If you do see a bulging cap then back everything up immediately and keep it backed up. At the same time make sure you know where all your program disks are because you may not be able to replace your old motherboard with the exact same model. If you can't then your computer repairman will need to do a full format and reload of everything on your hard drive.
Sometimes you might think that ignorance is bliss but in this business the more you know about the condition of your computer and the more time you spend keeping it in perfect operating condition the more money you're going to make.
Now I'm off to wind down for what looks like being a great weekend.