Dispelling Fears About The GoogleBomb Algorithm Update

Copyright © 2007 Bill Platt


Google algorithm updates always bring the fears of webmasters to a boiling point. In the aftermath of an algorithm update, some people come out swinging, making claims that Google is trying to put them out of business. Others look at their Google rankings and pat themselves on the back for having survived another "algo" update.

It has been known in search engine optimization (SEO) circles for quite some time that one could successfully implement what is referred to as a GoogleBomb. The best example was a search on the phrase "miserable failure". A search on those words within Google would show George W. Bush's biography at the White House website, in the top three or four results of the search results. This would occur, despite the fact that neither word in the search criteria resides on the White House website. At one time, Bush's biography had been in the #1 spot, but counter-bombing campaigns moved Bush's listing down the page a bit.

Many people have written about this phenomenon in time's past. I have even written about it myself. When I wrote about it, my point was to show the importance of anchor text in a link to build the value of a web page in the Google search engine result pages (SERPS).

The "miserable failure" GoogleBomb came to exist within a loophole within the Google algorithms. Google puts a lot of value on the anchor text that point to a particular web page. It is part of their "one link – one vote" philosophy as to the value of a web page.

Bloggers joined forces to create thousands of links pointing to the White House website with the words "miserable failure" in the anchor text. The shenanigans of the George W. Bush bashers were eventually countered by their fellow bloggers on the other side of the political aisle. Eventually, the search phrase "miserable failure" would also bring up the Michael Moore and Jimmy Carter websites in the top few results for that search phrase.

The average person who did not understand the nature of the SEO game would occasionally stumble across these esoteric search phrases and get him or herself into a huff, because they thought that Google was stating their own political views. Of course, Google really does not have an opinion, at least not one that would ever appear in their search results.


The GB Update...

In this case, the GB Update is not so-named because "George Bush" disappeared from the "miserable failure" search results. Instead, it is so-named because it is the "GoogleBomb" update, which Google implemented in January of 2007.

Once the update was implemented, the "miserable failure" search began to only return pages that talked about GoogleBombs from a technical standpoint.

With the GB update officially rolled out (googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/01/ quick-word-about-googlebombs.html), people began the standard Google-update panic process.

Hundreds of posts began appearing on forums concerning the GB updates and the fear that link-building efforts undertaken by search engine marketing (SEM) companies and webmasters would be hurt as well.

So, I did a bit of research. I have run several linking campaigns on my own behalf, and on the behalf of clients. Those campaigns were put together with a mix of keyword phrases nestled in the anchor text of links to our websites. I checked the status of all of the websites I represent, and without fail, our linking campaigns had not been hurt by the GB update.


Interesting Changes From The GoogleBomb Update

According to Matt Cutts of Google, the changes in the GB update were all completed within the Google algorithm. Cutts has always said that Google does not like to manually rearrange the search engine results, so an algorithmic solution to the GoogleBomb was in order. A few of the Google engineers worked together to find a solution to the GoogleBomb issue.

In an attempt to understand what had changed, I looked at a few of the more notorious GoogleBombs of past and discovered some interesting facts.

Broken Google Bombs:

"Miserable failure" no longer returns George W. Bush, Michael Moore, or Jimmy Carter websites.

"Worst president ever" now only returns pages that make the claim the GW Bush has earned that title.

"Waffles" no longer returns results that point to the John Kerry website.

Tony Blair's homepage no longer comes up under the search term "liar".

Unchanged Google Bombs:

A search for "Scientology" still has the "Operation Clambake" listing in the #2 spot (2007-01-31). Operation Clambake is a website that is critical of Scientology.

"Click here" still points to the Adobe website (although this was not actually a GoogleBomb).

"French military victories" still goes to the same page on Albino Black Sheep when you hit "I feel lucky" on Google's search page. (I still get a kick out of this one.)

The "great president" GoogleBomb survived. It still points to Bush's bio on the White House website.

The Question On Everyone's Mind

Everyone seems to be asking the same question. How does Google defuse Google Bombs?

Well, Google isn't saying, so we are left to figure it out on our own. Based on what I was able to uncover in my study of Google Bombs, I came up with a theory.

What I have been able to take from the results shown above is that Google may have targeted only "negative links". If you want to review what is shown above, all of the Google Bombs that are now gone had negative connotations to them. All of the Google Bombs that survived can be construed as having positive, or at least non-negative, connotations to them.

If my assertion is correct, then average, ordinary webmasters will have nothing to fear from the Google Bomb update. My sites and my client's websites also reflect that the Google Bomb update did not have any affect on us.

Maybe I am just grasping at straws, but I don't think so. You be the judge... "Worst president" is gone, and "great president" survived. To me, that says a lot.


The Google Bombing Legacy Continues...

Following my logic, Google Bombing is still a possibility for those who Google Bomb with a positive set of anchor text keywords. So, some Google Bombs will continue to live well into the future.

In 2004, Search Engine Watch suggested that Google Bombs are better defined as Link Bombs, since they can affect all of the major search engines, including Yahoo and MSN.

Google has finally addressed link bombing in a positive way, but Yahoo and MSN are still prone to link bombing attacks. For example, as of this writing, MSN still has George in the top spot for "miserable failure" in the MSN Live results.

About The Author:

Bill Platt has been involved in article marketing and link building since 1999. If you are in the market to have someone build keyworded anchor text links to your site, using unique and interesting content as the foundation, then Bill's team can help you: http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com - If you would prefer to talk to Bill by phone, he can be reached at 405-780-7745 between 9am-6pm CST, Monday thru Friday. Platt Services, Inc.

Article Source: thePhantomWriters Article Submission Service

How-To Make Your Ezine Stand Out From The Masses

sky melting on the news
Originally uploaded by Ashenzil the solemn monkey.

Copyright © 2007 Bill Platt


This morning, I was contemplating the question of how many ezines (electronic magazines) were currently in circulation. So, I tried to do a bit of detective work.

Newsletter Access (http://www.newsletteraccess.com/) has nearly 10,000 ezines listed in their database.

PubList.com shows 150k in their database.

The ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) database has so far registered more than one million periodicals, many of those being in the electronic format. (http://www.issn.org/)


No matter which set of numbers you follow, there are a lot of ezines competing with your ezine for the same set of readers.

With so much competition in the marketplace for ezine subscribers, it is imperative for us to learn how to develop a loyal following among our own subscribers. In this article, I examine a three ezines that are excelling in the marketplace and building a large and loyal following of readers. I will also look at three reasons why these three e-zines are doing so well.


The Electronic Newsletters That We Will Review...

1. Travel by Vasrue Weekly E-Magazine (http://travel.vasrue.com/newsletter/index.html)

2. Your Membership (http://www.yourmembership.net/)

3. SiteProNews (http://www.sitepronews.com/)


Original And Exclusive Content

All three of these electronic newsletters utilize original content at one level or another.

Travel by Vasrue uses only exclusive, original, travel content in their E-Magazine.

The Your Membership newsletter, owned by AEO Publishing, Inc., provides a section of their newsletter for webmasters to submit websites for review, and then they print some of those reviews for their readers to consider. They also allow individuals to submit questions, and then they print the best answers submitted by their readers.

SiteProNews, owned by Jayde Online, Inc., utilizes a lot of first-run, original content written by members of their staff, including articles written by Jim Hedger and Mel Strocen. Some of this content can be seen in other publications later, but you will always see it in SiteProNews first.


Exclusive content allows your ezine to stand far above all of your competitors. While free reprint articles (like this one) are a good source of information, most of your competitors rely solely on other people to create the content for their newsletters.

For most readers, this is not a big deal, except when the particular article used may have been read in competing ezines previously.

Readers tend to favor ezines that utilize exclusive or first-run content in their issues.


A Winning Formula

Successful ezines always have a specific format and formula for their publications.

Travel by Vasrue focuses on giving their readers specific information that they can use to make good travel decisions. They also provide specific information regarding a choice of vacation options within the context of their currently discussed travel destination.

The Your Membership newsletter focuses on offering their readers an opportunity to ask questions and to have those questions answered by other readers who have the knowledge to share.

SiteProNews prefers to provide content that will point you to third-party resources that are related to the current topic.


Once an ezine has found their winning formula, that formula will become their trademark.


They Understand Their Readers

If you do not understand what your readers want from your newsletter, you will never be able to develop a profitable mailing list.

Travel by Vasrue doesn't leave it to chance. They ask their readers what destinations they would be interested to find specific information. Then they deliver exactly what their readers have asked to receive.

The Your Membership newsletter is offered on a dozen or so websites that cater specifically to the needs of webmasters who are looking to develop a commercially viable website. While the source of the subscription pretty much defines what their readers want to see in the newsletter, the fact that they rely on the Q&A process to fill their issues helps them to select articles that would be of real interest to their readers.

SiteProNews is offered to the people who use Jayde Online's many free webmaster tools. Their newsletter caters to the needs of those commercial webmasters who are already utilizing their free tools.


In Conclusion...

Successful ezines are those that are willing to cater to the specific needs of their readers, and then they deliver their information in a consistent format. Successful ezines are also those that are willing to invest the extra time, effort and money into creating one-of-a-kind, original content for their readers to voraciously consume.

While those reprint articles are often very informative, I am sure that you hate it when you see the same article appear in a number of the ezines that you read. A once-in-a-while repeat article is all well and good, but if one ezine is consistently following in the footsteps of another ezine you read, then why would you want to keep reading the second?

The Your Membership newsletter has shown us that utilizing mostly reprint articles can prove successful, when you are willing to mix some other kinds of exclusive content with the free reprint articles. SiteProNews has shown us that you can be successful when you are willing to mix original, first-run articles with reprint articles.

By following the lead of those who have been successful before you, you might just find that you can build your mailing list to be a very profitable aspect of your overall enterprise. It is my hope that this free reprint article has given you some food for thought as to how to follow in the steps of those before you.

About The Author:

Bill Platt owns http://thePhantomWriters.com, which specializes in distributing free-reprint articles to ezine publishers and webmasters. He has been providing his services since 2001. You can reach Bill by phone at 405-780-7745 between the hours of 9am and 6pm CST, Monday through Friday. To learn about some of Bill's other services, please visit http://www.PlattServicesInc.com

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Three Building Blocks To A Successful Business Website

Copyright © 2007 Rick Sloboda


Are you planning to build or update a business website? The following three questions will save you time, money and frustration, and help you get the results you want.

1. What is your website's objective?
2. Who is your target market?
3. What's your position?

On several occasions, my colleagues and I have come across business owners who spent upwards of $20,000 on website design and development, with literally nothing to show for it.

The reason? They didn't invest time and effort to establish their specific needs.

They rushed ahead. And as they went along, plans changed, different ideas evolved and costly experiments ensued. The targets shifted month after month, right up until funds were finally depleted.

So how do you avoid this pitfall when it's time to launch your business website?

Figure out what you actually need before you start sending out any requests for quotes.

Here are three crucial questions you need to answer before you build a business website:

What is your website's objective?

The objective of your website is to support your business and its goals.

For example, do you want to sell products online, generate leads, build a brand and awareness, attract members, generate feedback or reduce call centre volume?

Here are the most basic business website categories and their purposes:

e-commerce – sell merchandise, increase sales, decrease expenses

Content sales – sell subscription services, generate revenue via ads or subscriptions

Lead-generation – generate sales possibilities, usually for high-priced products or services

Self-service – improve customer service and decrease costs, i.e. online help centre

When you're considering your business website needs, recognize not only your requirements, but what your customer needs or expects.

Base your website around building relationships and loyalty, which will help you achieve consistent, persistent growth over the long term. A short-sighted mindset will limit that growth success. In fact, it could harm your very existence.

Thousands of business websites disappear daily, replaced by thousands more of the same ilk. Industry Canada reports 50 per cent of businesses do not survive beyond the third year.

A carefully planned and executed website can help your business achieve sustained growth and stand out above the rest.

Who is your target market?

Before building a business website, you need to define your target market and understand their needs and wants.

This is essential to appeal to and connect with those you choose to serve. Before your website can sell anything to your target market, you need to be able to answer their questions and put their fears to rest.

Where do you begin? Groundwork. Go where your target audience socializes. Go where they work. Go where they shop. Observe their behaviors, and conduct informal and formal surveys. As well, study how your direct competition caters to them.

What does your target market value? What makes them feel good? And, quite frankly, what makes them reach for their wallets?

Your observations and research data will gain you a sound understanding of your target market's trigger points – what's truly important to them. By focusing on these key areas, you'll have an opportunity to make them noticeably better than the competition.

Moreover, if you take the time to understand your customer, you'll be better versed to provide customized and personalized service. While conducting business in cyberspace, many traditional business practices still apply.

What's your position?

You need to determine what market position you want to establish for your brand. How do you want potential clients to view you? What sets you apart from the competition?

Your business website can significantly influence how you are perceived, especially considering it's a common first point of contact between you and your potential customer.

What's your image of choice? Trendy or practical. High end or affordable. Swift or steady.

Your image will evolve -- for better or worse -- regardless whether you take a proactive, reactive or passive role.

So be proactive and shape how the market views you. Ensure your business website conveys clear messages that reflect who you are or strive to be.

You'll make a good first and lasting impression.

About The Author:

Rick Sloboda is a Senior Web Copywriter at http://www.webcopyplus.com Free web site tool: http://www.webcopyplus.com/tools More web site tips: http://www.webcopyplus.com/faqs

Read More Articles from Rick Sloboda:
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