Facilitating a Search Engine in Spidering a Popup

From the previous post, it becomes clear that a search engine may spider a page only refered to via javascript; but what if want just the opposite -- you explicitly want it to be indexed?

It's pretty simple; change this:

<a href="javascript:myPopupFunction()" html="">Click here.</a>

To This:

<a href="page.html" onclick="javascript:myPopupFunction(this.href); return false;">Click here.</a>

Alternatively, you can link using something like this:

<a href="page.html">Click here.</a>

And then use Javascript included on that page that is automatically run to resize the window. Technically, it's not a popup. It's a new window that automatically resizes, but the effect is similar.

It is worth noting that since these pages will be indexed, some sort of navigation should be present to allow the user to get back to the parent page. Otherwise the user will be completely lost and proceed to the back button.

Don't Count on Javascript Links

This may be common sense, but javascript links shouldn't be used as a sort of third exclusion protocol. This is for 2 reasons.

1) People still could theoretically look at the properties on the page, grab the URL, and link it externally. This may result in the page getting indexed.

2) It is been reported that Google at least does, in fact, index links embedded in javascript sometimes, or at least understand them for the purposes of spam detection.

The bottom line: Make sure that you also exclude the popup URL in robots.txt, or exclude it using meta exclusions.

Using Redirects to Change File Names

The following is a simple way to redirect a page A to a page B with a few lines.

In .htaccess using mod_rewrite:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^foo\.php$ bar.php [R=301,L]

In PHP (place in foo.php):
$base_url = 'http://www.foo.com';
header('Location: ' . $base_url . 'bar.php';

Hope this helps!

JiffyCounter

So I admit it, I started yet another web counter site. But mine is different, really! Mine isn't for the sake of link-building, it's for the starving children in Zimbabwe. Ok </sarcasm>.

It is for link-building, but it is also different. The principle difference is that the counter comes pre-fabbed and ready to go. All you have to do is cut and paste the code -- no forms to fill, etc. It even has a nifty button you hit to copy the code to the clipboard in the interest of:

a) Providing a clear call to action
b) Make it even easier to use

You can configure it later on by using the customize page. This is backwards, but it gives the user less to do inititally. It's actually more powerful than most of the ones out there since it tracks both uniques and totals, gives you various fonts, colors (any in hex), etc. Of course I'm not up against much, but I'm anal retentive and need to create something high-quality regardless.

Let me know what you think. The site is called "Jiffy Counter" -- http://www.jiffycounter.com

If you had bunker busting bombs at your disposal ...

Yes, this is a hypothetical question:

If you had bunker buster bombs at your disposal, and you could choose to bomb Iran or all the editors at DMOZ at a meeting conspiring how to be the worst, blatantly biased editors possible, which would you pick?

Let me know.

Press Releases

Many of us may know that press-releases for the most part, at least in Google, do not bring about much in the realm of "link juice." But, like any good "whitehat" SEO, I would tell you that it's not all about link juice. Press releases can be a great way to get business when news comes out. I call this "riding on the coattails." I'm sure it's not a new idea, but it's a valid technique that can get results.

Here is the press release:
http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/news.html?d=97335

Users were then directed to:
http://www.lawyerseek.com/Practice/Pharmaceutical-Injury-C1/Fosamax-P76/

And besides, press releases do still yield "link juice" in MSN and Yahoo.

Site Downtime and SEO

It's common sense that if your site is down that it cannot get spidered. But I'll reiterate it anyway.

"When a site is down, it cannot get spidered."

And when DNS is down, your site cannot get spidered even if your webserver is up. And many people use managed DNS these days because it's easy and hosting agnostic.

Today, for about 1 hour 9AM-10AM EST, Network Solutions was entirely down. Yes, even their homepage (networksolutions.com) wouldn't load. I believe it was as a result of a DNS outage, since some of my customers use them for managed DNS.

You would think that Network Solutions, the company that, I believe, even manages the root servers as the result of the privatization of Internic, would be able to manage a standard DNS. I guess not. The root servers were fine, but isn't that a bit scary?

I'd accept periods of slow resolution when, for example, a few of their NSes go down for whatever reason, but all of their DNSes going 100% down? That took down a small part of the internet.

Scary.

DMOZ is dead

Let's face it. The internet is a very big place. Long ago in a place called "1996," directories attempted to organize the resources of the WWW into a directory structure. It worked, kind of. That was then. This is now.

The problem is that they're still used as authoratative resources for search engines, and many of them are volunteer-driven. DMOZ.org is one of these. There are thousands of people complaining daily that their submissions never get evaluated. I'm one of them.

Furthermore, DMOZ.org makes things even harder by disabling your account as an editor after 90 days of inactivity. This is volunteering. If you log in more than that, I question your motives.

And therein lies the the last problem. DMOZ attempts to make you claim your affiliations. I'm sure most editors do not. And I'm sure that in the most competitive areas (law, casinos, etc.). the majority of the editors are editing the categories, at least subtly, in a bad way. I've even heard stories of sites getting deleted by competitors.

So what makes you think that's not why your site isn't getting added?

So DMOZ is busy disabling the accounts of the volunteers, while more and more cronies are controlling the most influential directory around. Oh yeah, and Zeal.com just closed shop. Bye-bye Zeal. There goes another quality directory.

I'm just another SEM waiting for a site to get added for the company I'm working for: http://www.seegerweiss.com.

Personally, I think directories are so 1996 ...