Archive For April, 2006

Hello everyone,

The vBHackers staff is proud to present some of the features recently added to this board.

Firstly, I’d like to mention that LiveWire has installed a system to send update emails for hacks. What this basicly does, is allow the hack author or a staff member to send an email out to…

PhotoPost vBGallery 1.0.2

04/18/06 - Patch and bug…

Our affiliate program has been launched and is now accepting applicants.

For more information, see the full announcement here:
http://www.vbseo.com/f153/vbseo-affiliate-program-launched-4716/

Our affiliate program has been launched and is now accepting applicants.

For more information, see the full announcement here:
http://www.vbseo.com/f153/vbseo-affiliate-program-launched-4716/

SEO Help Direct from the Google Webspam Team

Matt Cutts says if you get a message in your sitemaps account similar to the following, you’re a part of an experiment by the Google Webspam team to alert legitimate websites to problems with sites (re: Google’s quality guidelines).

No pages from your site are currently included in Google’s index due to violations of the webmaster guidelines. Please review our webmaster guidelines and modify your site so that it meets those guidelines. Once your site meets our guidelines, you can request reinclusion and we’ll evaluate your site.
Submit a reinclusion request

Not receiving an error message doesn’t necessarily mean you are safe. Google does not want to help tip off spammers. They’d prefer to let them quietly waste their time working on new doorway and cloaked pages - as their indexed pages either disappear without a trace or get overlooked by the bots.

Notes on vBSEO

Since most forums will be considered legitimated sites (i.e. content is generated from members, not spam or automation), this feedback could be very useful. Being alerted to some small problem on a forum, would be very beneficial to admins.
vBSEO will always remain 100% whitehat.For Discussion

Is Google getting better at flagging and blacklisting doorway and cloaked pages?Source:
Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO » Notifying webmasters of penalties

How big of a role is your microphone going to play in the future of Google search accuracy?

Google received a patent for a voice search interface. Why does that mean? Speak into the microphone rather than just typing the query? Great news for touch typists. Let’s hope that voice recognition technologies are continuing to improve.

What are the Larger Implications?

There are definitely larger implications here than just searching without the keyboard.

Google and all of the major engines are working hard to make their search index more accurate for each search query submitted. They download billions of pages, apply their algorithms, and stick the data into their massive datastores. However, the accuracy of search results from this perspective is a "back end" approach.

The other way to look at the scenario is from the "front end", i.e. the user interface:

Q1. Is the average user capable of choosing accurate keywords to describe what they are looking for? Think in terms of more complex queries and less "Charlie Sheen Denise Richards" pop-culture-type queries.
Q2. Is the average user able and/or willing to use Google’s additional syntax for specifying more advanced search queries (phrases, negative terms, exclusions, synonym search, number range, etc) OR to fill in the advanced search form and configure all options?Advanced Google Searching:
Google Help : Advanced Search

The answer to Q1 and Q2 is that some may, but certainly not the majority. I think that is a fair assessment unless Google has usage statistics to prove otherwise.

The "front end" approach involves creating an interface that allows users to more easily specify precisely what they are looking for, before submitting the query to the back end to take over.

With voice, an advanced speech recognition algorithm may very well be able to determine how to format more advanced queries without any additional effort required from the user.

Right now, for a multiple keyword search query, it is hard to determine priority (or weight) to give to the terms except by using the word order. However, users cannot be expected to always input the query in the way most likely to result in highly accurate search results for the information they seek.

With a "verbal" multiple keyword search query however, Google can use advanced algorithms to determine how to weight the terms more appropriately… possibly resulting in more accurate search results.

Notes on vBSEO

Since this is a front end usability issue, it should not have significant impact on SEO strategies by forum admins or other webmasters. But it does emphasize the need for us to continue to improve on onpage optimizations.For Discussion

Imagine "regional accent detection" to pull content from local searches. Example: an Aussie searching from the US - and search results pulling content from Downunder related sites.
Imagine "age detection by voice" to make search content contain age appropriate results (for children or other identifiable demographics).
Is the next step a webcam search interface that lip-reads and monitors the level of joy or frustration that results on our faces when the SERPs appear? :)Source:
Google Granted Voice Search Patent

vBulletin 3.0.14 with Fix Available: Full Upgrade or Patch

vBulletin 3.0.14 fixes an important issue related to "cross site scripting" in vBulletin 3.0.x versions.
vBulletin 2.3.x and 3.5.x versions are NOT affected.
They recommend a full upgrade, but also have a patch available.Notes on vBSEO

vBSEO-enabled forums running vBulletin 3.0.x versions, should not cause any problems with vBSEO by performing the upgrade.
vBSEO performs best for vBulletin versions 3.5.xFor Discussion

Why not take this opportunity to upgrade to vBulletin 3.5.4?Source:
vBulletin.org - The Ultimate vBulletin Resource!

This release of vBulletin fixes an unpleasant cross-site scripting flaw in the 3.0.x branch. We recommend all customers running previous versions of vBulletin 3.0.x to upgrade or patch to 3.0.14 as soon as possible.

Read More Here

Hello all my vB friends! We have released our latest design, OnlyDev, for purchase today. This is the next design in line that follows the vBSkinworks tradition of quality design and creativity. We hope you like it as much as we do!

Cheers,
John

Google’s Live Usability Tests – Another Explanation of Why Patience is a Virtue in SEO – Insights for SEO Newbies

The Google Blog provides information about Google’s commitment to enhancing the user experience.

To do so, they run live tests on random test groups. We all have the opportunity to become Google Guinee Pigs (GGPs).
They are currently testing:

how to improve job searches,
how to improve site navigation, and
a “Remove Results” featureTesting the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages)

Obviously returning highly quality SERPs is the biggest part of the user experience that any search engine wants to improve upon.

SEO newbies often see fluctuations in their SERPs and wonder why Google is specifically “attacking” them. Remember – Google has a massive search index containing billions of webpages, images and other file formats… with multiple data centers that are NOT 100% synchronized.
Depending on which data center your search retrieves the results from, you are going to see different results. Refresh your search results & you may see immediate changes.
This includes the number of pages indexed, as well as the position or rank of the pages within the SERPs themselves.
On top of that, Google uses specific data centers to test changes to their algorithms and may then revise them and re-test before it becomes a permanent part of the indexing and/or ranking algorithms.Therefore, you must be prepared to see and understand significant changes in the number of your pages indexed as well as the ranking of those pages for various search terms. This is a normal part of the process.

SEO is definitively a long-term process. So what you must look for is improvement over time, regardless of the up-and-downs that might occur on a daily/weekly basis.

Remember, patience is a virtue especially in the world of SEO.

Quick Notes

Google recently completed the roll out of their BigDaddy update that caused massive fluctuations in the SERPs and raises concerns for all webmasters.Notes on vBSEO

Most vBSEO users monitor their indexed page count closely using the google search query for site:mydomain.com. While many users are concerned when they see temporary decreases in their indexed page count – they are very happily surprised to find that it soon corrects itself and increases the overall number even further.
vBSEO strives for a 1-URL-Per-Resource system for vBulletin forums that reduces redundant URLs and (likewise) duplicate content issues. New vBSEO customers should be aware that their indexed page count will drop upon installation. But… this is a VERY GOOD step in the right direction for their SEO. vBSEO is helping Google and other engines to purge duplicate content – making indexing of your forum far more efficient than what could be achieved with a standard vBulletin installation.
Many vBSEO users report significant increases in their Google referrals, even after their indexed page count drops. This goes to show that redundant URLs to the same content was NOT helping them & that vBSEO is increasing your search term relevancy on a page-by-page basis.For Discussion

Have you been concerned with fluctuations in Google’s SERPs, especially during a major update?
How do you rate Google’s current SERP accuracy? Better or worse than in the past and by what degree?
Are you vBulletin archive pages clouding your search results & reducing usability for users that find those pages?Source:
Official Google Blog: This is a test. This is only a test.

FYI Did you notice that Google is choosing to use CRUs (Content Relevant URLs) ending in .html and containing keywords from the pages title for their URL?
http:// googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/this-is-test-this-is-only-test.html