The Google Watchdog is back in the saddle with a juicy tidbit of Google info

After almost two weeks of working 18-20 hour days, I'm back in the Watchdog's saddle. I had a large booth at a business expo important to my company, and unfortunately, the GWD took a back seat to that for a while. The good news is I'm back with a vengeance, and I have a juicy tidbit to share (okay, it's only slightly juicy, but what's a blogger gonna do?)

There have been several issues of note to report on since my last post (10 ten days ago!).

First, there was another backlink update in the webmaster tools. This isn't a huge surprise; it's almost certain to be a 2 or 3 times per month deal from now on. Webmasters who have long complained about the horrid nature of the backlinks section in the webmaster tools can rejoice. While not completely up to date, the Google Gods are getting better at keeping the backlinks section updated and (at least partially) fresh. Webmasters who complain about Google not listening to their complaints should look at this as a refreshing reminder that Google DOES listen and sometimes even implements the changes we want.

{Semi-Juicy Tidbit}: Second, there has been some sort of algo shift since the beginning of the month regarding paid links. This is only a guess, but it's based on keyword performance on several websites that have used paid links to gain SERP rankings. The SERP values for the keywords that have used paid links are being pushed down the rankings quite dramatically. In one case, the ranking position dropped from #1 to #29. I've also seen some SERP increases for keywords based on paid links that are pretty well disguised (included in an entire paragraph of text with lots of juicy, related content surrounding the anchor text). I'm supposing that Google is testing their new paid link algorithm changes, but who knows, maybe this is a complete roll-out of the new algo updates. Or, I could be completely off base and the SERP changes have been caused by something entirely unrelated.

Third, regarding the brouhaha over my post about DMOZ. I received several nasty emails from ODP Editors about my post. On the flip-side, I also received a couple nice emails from ODP Editors who agree with me that the system is not working as well as it could and gave me some encouragement. There were several editors who posted comments on the story, and I appreciate the feedback. I'm still steaming mad, but I'm retracting my threat of applying to be an editor under a false identity. Instead, I'll wait a couple of weeks, and re-apply for a separate category, noting that I had been rejected before and linking to this blog. I'll keep everyone posted about how that goes. I did get personal confirmation of why my application was rejected, and while I still think that DMOZ was wrong to reject me, I at least understand the limitations placed on me, and should have a successful application this time around. If anyone has any suggestions about becoming an editor, feel free to leave a comment, or email me at fastweb73 {{at}} gmail {{dot}} com.

Here are a list of posts to look forward to over the next week:

1. My take on Google as a monopoly
2. I'll finally post about the whole paid link thing, with some thoughts on why Google has screwed the pooch on this issue.
3. My weekly "Search Relevance Test" pitting the three major search engines against one another will finally become a regular part of my blog routine. The results from my first search engine relevance test were surprising, but hardly scientific. I'll be changing the ranking formula quite a bit and the scores will probably be a bit more balanced. (for those not wanting to read the entire post, Yahoo kicked Google and MSN's fannies in the test).
4. I'm going to have a semi-regular feature written by a guest blogger that will deal with some of the issues surrounding Google's patents and how they effect webmasters, SEOers, and regular users. I hope to have the first post on this issue on the upcoming week. (Note: unless you have a rare specialty, I'm not going to offer just anyone the chance to guest post. If you do have rare information to share or a specialized topic to write about that is related to Google, you can email me at the address given above).
5. My "Google Week In Review" feature - this will be a post every Sunday night or Monday morning listing the top 5 Google-related stories of the week.

A welcome and a plea for leniency from the Google gods

As a webmaster, I have a love hate relationship with Google. On the one hand, I get a lot of traffic to my websites from Google, and that helps me make money. On the other, darker hand, I spend hundreds of hours every year jumping through Google's hoops (Goops) to build and optimize websites that meet an ever-changing miasma of Google guidelines. I stick to a White-Hat-Only philosophy when optimizing, which makes my job even more difficult. I'm a "stick to the rules" kind of guy but my problem, and the reason for this blog, is that the rules are murky and seem to change on a continual basis.

I want to start by highlighting some of the positive things I see from Google. I'll be plenty critical in future posts, and I don't want to anger the Google Gods before I even get started.

1. Pagerank - From a webmaster's point of view, pagerank is a wonderful tool. Seeing an increase in pagerank after months of hard work is a very satisfying feeling and is a great way to provide a preliminary and ongoing analysis of the website's strength. Pagerank isn't the be-all-end-all in my Search Engine Optimization process (the actual search results being far more important), but is a fairly consistent judge of the progression up the internet food chain. Read a more comprehensive explanation about pagerank from the guys at www.webworkshop.com.
   
   More importantly to me, pagerank is an invaluable tool when deciding how important or powerful a website is when I'm visiting. A website with a pagerank of 8 has more authority in my mind that one with a pagerank of zero or 1. I trust Google when it gives a site that much credence, and I value those authority sites for their content. Many of my favorite websites, message boards, and blogs have healthy pagerank, and I don't consider it a coincident.
   
   
2. Search Results - Google provides the best and most relevant search results. I use Yahoo occasionally, but it comes in a very distant second place to Google when it comes to delivering relevant search results. My one complaint here is that too many search terms have Wikipedia or Directory entries in the top 2 or 3 spots. If I want to search Wikipedia, or look for a website on a Directory, I'll go to those specific sites myself. When searching for information on chess, I don't want a Wikipedia entry describing the history of the game. I want serious, chess-oriented sites that can provide how-to guides, tips, or even online game play.
   
   
3. Webmaster Tools - Google's webmaster tools are second to none. There is not a more comprehensive set of tools available to track the websites I manage and to find errors in my sites that I wouldn't have otherwise been able to see, let alone resolve. There are, however, some better tools for certain SEO tasks, and I'll probably go over those in the future, with a suggestion to Google to implement some of these tools themselves to push their own webmaster tools from a utilitarian devise to a true killer app.

Watchdog?
I don't aim to be a true watchdog, but my goal is to provide my opinions on Google's actions, and to challenge them when they do things that hurt the webmaster community at large. Many of my posts will be negative, but my aim is to provide constructive criticism rather than using this as a forum to complain about everything Google. I hope to turn this into a blog that Google can "spy" on for useful advice from the little guy, and to see the repercussions of some of their actions.

I'm hoping for a little leniency from the Google Gods when it comes to my rants. Take it or leave it, these are my thoughts, and I hope that they aren't taken lightly. I'm an educated and successful businessman that can hopefully provide some perspective from the position of the "little guy".

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If you have a problem with, need clarification on, or have a question about this post, visit my web design site at www.fastwebsitesolutions.com to contact me.