SEO News Tip of the Day!

It’s been a long time since my last post, too much work and not enough time. Anyway, a short while ago the SEO forums were a blaze with the latest patent release from Google. The patent included loads of different techniques a search engine could use to determine relevancy and I say could because it would be very difficult to use all of the items covered in the patent. My own thoughts on the patent are many items have been included to dilute the true gems.

One part that really caught my eye was using domain registration information as part of a search engines algorithm. I remember several months ago reading a news story that Google had become a domain registrar and many were presuming domain registration would be one of Google’s many new adventures. This gossip was stopped as quickly as it started with Google announcing no domain registration service was on the cards. So why become a domain registrar?

Length of Domain Registration, logical ranking criteria

Well as mentioned above part of the patent focused on using domain information to determine the reliability of a website. In short, if a domain has only been registered for one year it may be more volatile than a domain that’s been registered for ten years. If you’re serious about your online venture, it makes sense to register your domain for a longer period of time. Google could use this fact as part of their ranking criteria and I suspect they have been doing so for some time.

So if you haven’t already done so, I would recommend contacting your domain registration Company to register your domain for at least five years. It may not affect your rankings at all, but on the other hand it may give you just enough of a boost to push some of those keywords onto the front pages. With domain registration costing as less as it does nowadays, it may turn out to be the most cost effective ranking boost you’ve ever paid out for.

If it doesn’t produce any results, no harm done and you may have just saved yourself a couple bucks on next year’s budget :)

Microsofts New Search Engine

I tried out Microsoft's new search engine (beta version) the other day. They have been working on it quite secretly now for almost a year. It has been rumored to be a Google killer once in full public release. They say its accuracy and ability to return relevant results will far surpass any other search engine on the Internet. That remains to be seen. I tried various combinations of single, double, and triple word/phrased searches to inspect the results.

To the casual observer I suppose a certain percentage of the results would seem to be accurate, but upon closer inspection and with a trained eye, the results for the most part ranged from poor to outright terrible.

I then attempted a series of searches on the same combination of words. "custom designed screen printed t-shirts" I was attempting to determine how much the results and rankings changed (or did not change) within the same set of query words. I searched with a variety of spellings on a particular keyword In this case, I selected the word "T shirts" then t-shirts (with a dash) and finally "tshirts" (no dash, all one word)

One web site had very consistent results across all three spelling methods. This intrigued me so I clicked on the link to analyze the site. i.e. Why was this one so well optimized or more specifically why did this new Microsoft beta search engine find this web site so tasty.

The site was completely broken. None of the graphics loaded properly. (in Internet Explorer) It was devoid of any contextual content on the home page and scarcely little throughout the rest of the pages. Some scrolling Java script overlapped the button for a drop down menu. No outside links. Nothing. Excuse the pun but this was not a pretty site. How then could Microsoft possibly rank this site one, two and three for completely different keyword phrasings and spellings on a soon to be major release for a search engine?

The answer revealed itself as soon as I took a look at the web site's HTML source code.

Guess what folks, meta tags are back! At least as far as the Beta version of Microsoft's new search engine is concerned, especially the keyword Meta Tag. Above all, this tag seemed to account for the heaviest weight in determining the aforementioned rankings. I will err on the side of caution here and assume that Microsoft has not finalized all their algorithm parameters yet, but the keyword tag was definitely what their spider had been eating.

The problem However, (beside the horrible site) was that this particular keyword tag, by all SEO standards, was an abomination! Nearly every rule and guideline we've come to know and love ALL thrown out the window! It looked like a tag from 1995. Multiple repetition. Too many characters, way too many words, broken lines, poorly weighted keywords, bad spacing, and completely useless keywords. What's a "rinsger" anyway?

Have a look for yourself. Here it is. (Without formatting changes)

KEYWORDS CONTENT="tshirts, tees, tee shirts, tee-shirts, printed t-shirts, blank t-shirts, eshirts, ishirts, short sleeves, sweatshirts, long sleeve, v-necks, tank tops, jerseys, screenprintings, screen-printings, custom t-shirts, custom designs, custom printing, custom embroidery, michigan, fraternitys, sororitys, sportswear, artwork, typesetting, imprints, engraves, emboss, stamps, pocket tís, ts, rinsger tiís, ringers, ladieís tís, designs, designing, apparel, clothing, clothes, screens, printers, silkscree embroidery, embroidered, customs, fraternities, sororities, golf, towels, logos, promotional, fundraisers, personalized, company, tailgates, formals, footballs, blocks, carnivals, circus, pledges, bid, day, rush, halloween, christmas, easter, thanksgiving, halloween t-shirts, christmas t-shirts, easter t-shirts, thanksgiving t-shirts, floors, dormitory, churches, clubs, sports, sport teams, choirs, schools, businesses, fundraisers, intramural, hanes, jerseys, fruit of the looms, universities, michigan state university, MSU, msu, university of michigan, U of M, UofM, u of m, eastern michigan university, EMU, emu, western michigan university, WMU, wmu, central michigan university, CMU, cmu, colleges, universitys, universities, shrits, tshrits, t-shrits, desings, te-shirts, teshirts, sirts, shits, shitts, custums, screan"

Yup, pretty darn ugly, but the Microsoft Beta search engine seems to be eating it up. Granted this engine is still in beta version but let's review. Broken, useless site. Broken useless tags. Number one ranking! What's wrong with this picture?

Most search engine users will try a new search engine only a few times. When they do not get the search result accuracy and relevance they expect, they will soon dismiss it and move along. Beta version or no beta version, one thing is for certain. The Microsoft coders have plenty of additional work to do before releasing this search engine to the general public. Google coders, take the weekend off.

About The Author

Robert McCourty is a founding partner and the Marketing Director of Metamend Software and Design Ltd., a cutting edge search engine optimization (SEO) and web site promotion and marketing company. http://www.metamend.com/