June 23, 2005
Search Engine Optimisation
Google's Secrets
Some of Google's secrets are out -- and some of them are very interesting reading. For example, the relative high ranking of my Optimising Movable Type for Google post could be in some part thanks to my five year registration of www.adamboddington.com. Who would have thunk it? I didn't expect that, but I suppose it makes sense if the majority of search engine spammers take up one year registrations.
(Did I mention that my Optimising Movable Type for Google post is back in the rankings? Probably not, since I decided I wouldn't blog about that stuff anymore. I don't know what's changed, but it's up there.)
The full analysis is interesting reading, but in the end it mostly confirms what we already know about search engine optimisation. Organic growth of good content will lead to high quality links, which in turn will lead to a handy search engine ranking. The optimisation tips help, but good content is much more important.
The article points out a couple of pitfalls though. One is the length of the domain name registration as already mentioned. The other (well known one) is knowing who is sharing your hosting server. If you neighbour is engaged in dodgy search engine spam tactics, your shared IP address might be banned. Could be a case for getting your own IP block whether you're sharing a server or not.
Thanks to Craig for sending me this link.
Update: 23 June, 2005
There is some interesting discussion on the Google patent here. The actual patent application can be found here.
Posted by Adam Boddington at 02:48 PM | Comments (0)
May 26, 2005
Blogging | Movable Type | Search Engine Optimisation
Trackbacks Killed My Google Rank
I initially thought someone had finally dobbed me in to Google and let them know my blog was of no redeemable value whatsoever. It seemed my one post that was doing okay in the Google rankings, Optimising Movable Type for Google, had disappeared altogether from the optimising movable type google search. After some investigation though it turns out those damn trackbacks have come back to haunt me.
Posted by Adam Boddington at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)
May 20, 2005
Blogging | Movable Type | Search Engine Optimisation
Google Pain
Damn trackbacks. I went back to my previous post Optimising Movable Type for Google and put in trackbacks for all the blog entries that I referenced (those that would accept trackbacks anyway). Most blogs use rel="nofollow" on their comment and trackback links now (standard in Movable Type 3.16), so I wasn't expecting this to help the Google rank of my post at all. 'Twas more of a courtesy thing to let those folks know I had referenced them...
Well it turns out the trackbacks hurt my post's Google rank somewhat. Here are the before and after snapshots. You can see the title of my post has pushed one of Ander's posts up one slot (not a big deal since that post was already ahead of mine). Cre8asite has come out of no where, but that's the nature of the web. The other change is the Six Apart post on Cal's Dashify plugin. It has nothing to do with Google optimisation at all -- it simply has a trackback from my post. Google doesn't know that though, it just knows Six Apart's post is more important than mine and (now) has the right keywords. Argh! I suppose it's some consolation that anyone that goes there looking for information on Google optimisation will eventually click through to me.
Posted by Adam Boddington at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)
May 12, 2005
Blogging | Movable Type | Search Engine Optimisation
Google Optimisation Works!
Google has found my site! I'm not sure how, probably through a comment that I left on another blog. I wasn't quite ready for it as the CSS design isn't complete, but oh well, the HTML itself is fine.
Anyway, I searched for optimising movable type google and this is what I found.
It looks like the optimisation tips worked! For a brand new site that no one is referencing this has got to be an amazing result. Interesting that the US spelling of optimising, optimizing, doesn't work so well. Probably because I only have that spelling in the entry once, and in the URL itself. I might display my keywords under the posting information and see if that helps. It's also interesting that optimise, optimize, optimisation and optimization don't work at all.
Posted by Adam Boddington at 07:24 PM | Comments (0)
Keywords: Google Optimisation Optimization Works
April 14, 2005
Blogging | Movable Type | Search Engine Optimisation
Optimising Movable Type for Google
For those that like to tinker, I found this enlightening post on optimising Movable Type for Google while looking for something else. A quick search found quite a bit on the topic (see links below). I decided to implement some of the suggested changes while my blog still has that new blog smell and also before it gets <cough /> referenced. For those interested in doing the same, here are some of the suggestions that I thought worthwhile.
Posted by Adam Boddington at 12:06 AM | Comments (0)
Keywords: Optimising Optimizing Movable Type for Google