Tag Archives: pagerank

TLA Changes Code, Says Refrain From Paid Links Text

16 Nov

As the PageRank issue fights on, the changes are taking place to combat the “paid link” issue in one way or another. Just yesterday I received an email from TLA talking about their new code that I needed to install to update my TLA account to the latest version.

I only use TLA’s on one blog right now, and it is a very off topic personal site, but I still had to log into my account and make the changes. The screen shot below is from the code upgrade and specifically says not to use terms that would show Google what you are doing?

Text Links Ads Suggests Not Using Paid Links

New Terminology: Don’t Use the Term “Paid Links”

They are obviously trying to combat the Google paid link penalty in various ways, but still maintain their business plan and structure to keep paid links AND to still use the “do follow” principle.

The wording they are now using is quite clear. Use our product, but make it harder for Google to see what we are doing? The email I received (and I assume everyone else did as well) said:

By following the tips below you will make more money with our program.

  • Update your code today! Please login to your account and grab the newest version of our ad code and replace your current ad code. We have made improvements to our ad serving and updating your code will ensure top performance.
  • Our advertisers don’t like ad blocks that are titled “Sponsored Links” “Advertisements” “TLA” “Text Link Ads” etc. They prefer no heading but if you do use a heading please consider using an image not text and consider using something like “Recommended Sites”.
  • If you are using a “your link here” or “advertise here” “Text Link Ads” or “TLA Links”, link that links back to your listing at Text-Link-Ads.com remove it.
  • If you currently have zero ads sold please note that single page ads sell better than site wide ads.

This is an interesting list of do’s and don’ts. We are not to use “text link ads” or anything else that would make it obvious that this is a paid link? Well we know this from Google already, but I think they are going to have to overcome a lot more than that. My total revenue from TLA is $12.68 per month right now, not enough for me to tell Google to go stick it?

I emailed TLA a while back and asked why I couldn’t change the links to rel=nofollow and posted their response in, What is With the rel=nofollow Penalty, and they were very short and said NO, period.

Why Should We NOT Use These Terms?

My first reaction to reading this was… if they have to tell me NOT to do something to use their service because it is in direct conflict with what another company wants, is this wrong? Well, it depends I guess. It depends on what company you want to ultimately do business with on a regular basis, right? I don’t have a problem with optimizing something to work the best, but it sounds really close to gray hat, moving into black hat tactics.

This may be overstating the issue a little, but where do they stop? How far do they go to sell paid links without jeopardizing their entire business? I like TLA, but I have not been impressed with their ongoing tactics, and complete disregard for the current issue. Especially after receiving their response to my question about the rel=nofollow issue, I wonder how this is going to effect their business plan in the end.

Can We Not All Just Get Along (Google, TLA, and Bloggers)?

I would like to know why TLA can not come up with something that bloggers will readily accept for advertising on their site, and that didn’t tell Google, here I am with a big bulls-eye on my head, kill my PageRank now instead of later? I know why of course, TLA wants to sell ads, and their advertisers want the “do follow”.

Ultimately I think this is a loosing strategy for TLA and it will not win out in the end. If Google doesn’t want to play, it will eventually kill TLA business unless they can find another way to move forward. Perhaps I am looking at this wrong, but I see TLA on the Titanic using a spoon to throw water overboard in hopes to float the boat.

TLA Code Updated, Now What

So, I have updated the code on my wordpress plugins, although I still have no sold ads on any site other than a niche craft blog. I used the heading “of interest” myself since I started. I never wanted to bring attention to any paid links anyway, I didn’t need TLA to tell me that?

The bigger question to me is when do the bloggers start jumping ship. There are way more people than there are life boats, I wonder how many bloggers are going to want to risk their rankings in various ways by trying to circumvent Google by doing what TLA advocates? I guess there will be a balance mix of caution for now.

What about you or your company? Do you use TLA, and if you do, how have you changed your “text” for the ads you display?

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What Happened to My Google Page Rank, Another Goal Reached?

28 Oct

Scott Fillmer Page Rank UpdateAfter all the posts I read this week about the page rank update I told myself I wasn’t going to post anything about the topic. I thought it had all been said enough (and that is still probably true), until I noticed my page rank actually went up. [A little disclaimer here, before last week I had a PR0 and now I have a PR2. So, I had no place to go but up.]

There are other examples surfacing now that also show increases in PR’s like, PageRank update in process, this time for real, where AdesBlog talks about a few of his sites that have increased their page rank. Another recent post from ProBlogger also touches on several of these current topics in, The Google Page Rank Pendulum Swings…. Again, and if you are still interested, there are hundreds (if not more) of posts on the Page Rank update.

Some PR’s Are Going Up, Some Down

In a recent post I did on the goals of this blog, Reaching a Set Goal and Working on Others, a the Page Rank was not even listed as one of the top ten because I thought it was pretty much out of the question for the age of my domain, and the fact that I was still trying to build quality content on the site. Little did I know, all I needed was an update to Google’s Page Rank system.

Here it is only one week later and I have gone from a PR0 to a PR2 this weekend. I started looking at some of the other sites I own, and it was a mixed bag. Most of these domains are either new (mostly content based), or developed storefront pages (non-content based), and they are sites I either own or work extremely close with on a daily basis.

  • chipseo.com – PR0 to PR2 [content / blog based] | NET +2
  • islandzephyr.com – PR0 to PR1 [mixed info / content] | NET +1
  • ki4wlr.com – PR0 to PR2 [content / blog based] | NET +2
  • site 4 – PR0 to PR2 [content / blog based] | NET +2
  • site 5 – PR4 to PR3 [storefront / sales based] | NET -1
  • site 6 – PR3 to PR1 [storefront / sales based] | NET -2
  • site 6 – PR2 to PR1 [storefront / sales based] | NET -1

Have You Checked Your Storefront Pages?

I checked a few eCommerce / storefront sites and pages I am familiar with and it also seems to be a mixed bag. Two high traffic storefronts in the craft industry, Artbeads.com and Fire Mountain Gems, both had PR4′s and both maintained their PR4, at least to this point.

Both of these eCommerce stores are very established online businesses, and both have a good combination a product catalog sku’s and content for their customers in the way of guides and reviews. Both stores also have almost no online advertising to speak of since they are selling their own products (they probably wouldn’t promote someone else’s on their store), and one uses the Yahoo Store shopping cart system and one is independent.  If you have your own online storefront, check your PR and see what the results look like. Do you have a good combination of content to help your customers, and a SKU based catalog / shopping cart system? If you sell on multiple sales channels like many businesses, has one been effected over the other?

Is There Anything To Conclude From This

If you look at the list above you will notice a few things. One, none of these sites I mention are super high traffic ranking sites. Two, it is a mix of non-content informational, content based, and storefront based sites. Three, all of the content based site rankings went up, all of the storefront selling sites went down. I don’t really think there is anything to conclude from this information. I have seen just as many high quality, high ranking sites go down over the weekend as well. I am not going to touch on the link selling issue to much, there are enough blogs posting on that already, but I will say that none of the examples listed above are real high text link selling sites (most none at all), and I have tried as much as possible to maintain the Webmaster Guidelines that Google has put forth on their Webmaster Tools site.

Because buying and selling links is not to much of an issue among the examples put forth above, and some went up and some went down, you could say that Google is placing a higher emphasis on content, but all you have to do is read a few posts from the high traffic blogs to discount that, so, I just offer the information for what it is, a mixed bag of ups and downs.

Another Goal Reached Anyway

One of the milestone goals for this blog was to reach a PR1 in a certain amount of time and instead it reached a PR2 in less than 4 weeks. It does looks like there has just been a complete rearrangement of the PR system, so I am not sure what to think of my new found PR2, but it was one of the goals I had set for this site and I am glad to have reached it so quickly.  Have you had any sites move up in rank this weekend? If so, are they content, informational, or storefront based sites?

Update to Google Page Rank [September 2008]

Google updates their page rank system every so often, almost like a software update.  It will often be announced on Matt Cutts blog.  When the update is going to happen he will often say, there is a page rank update happening this weekend.  When you find this out, just make note of where you were and where you ended up.  It may tell you something about your traffic and how Google sees this traffic and its importance and you can improve your blog accordingly.

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Simple Steps to Increase Blog Traffic and Pagerank

4 Oct

Simple Steps to Increase Blog Traffic and Pagerank

That is the big question for most of us of course, but notice I said immediate future traffic, these are not quick and easy steps, but simple ones I think will make a difference for future traffic. One thing I have learned over the years is that nothing comes overnight, and it is generally the methodical approach that works the best in the long run.

Although I have been writing on websites and blogs now for several years, starting over on a newer topic, for me, got me thinking about some of the basic steps for increasing your blog traffic, and eventually your pagerank.

I have a few blogs and sites I started that have a PR4 (Google Pagerank 4), and several that have a PR3. Not super high I know, but these were very niche market sites and blogs so I didn’t really expect them to go much over a PR4, and I really felt anything around a PR3 or PR4 was still good for the subject matter.

Of course this topic has been blogged to death on so much I am sure you might be thinking there isn’t really anything new that can be said on the subject, and that may be true, but sometimes it just helps to write it down again to keep it fresh in our minds. What I am posting on here are simple steps that I can take when I create a new blog or site, nothing complicated.

I do find that as we become comfortable in a specific area, I can become complacent and I know when that happens I just forget about the little things. So… in no particular order:

  1. Write like you have an audience – when anything is new, you are basically talking to yourself and a few others you can con to view your site, but as soon as you think, no one is ever going to see this, you start writing that way. Funny thing about the Internet is success on one particular post or subject can go boom overnight if something weird happens, and you certainly don’t want to look at something you wrote and go, opps, didn’t think anyone would ever read that. So, write like your RSS feed subscription has 10,000 members and when it does you will be ready.
  2. Be professional – if you want people to treat your blog, business, products, customer service, employees, or you, like a professional you have to act like one yourself. You may operate out of your garage (nothing wrong with that) and you can earn the respect of your customers very quickly when you talk, write, and act like a professional. In the same way, you can work in an expensive office and have the opposite effect. When you are writing or corresponding with someone on your website or blog, be a professional.
    • Be courteous
    • Use good grammar
    • If you are a terrible speller like me, use spell check (2 or 3 times)
    • Don’t use offensive language of any kind
    • If you use images, use good looking images
  3. Know your target market – When you don’t have any traffic, knowing your target audience might be more difficult, but you know who you are intending on reaching at some point, so write what will interest your target market. Stay on topic, unless you specifically state otherwise, and don’t insult the market you are trying to reach.
  4. Don’t worry about your competition – at least not yet. If you are just getting started you should already have a good idea about how your topic, subject, products, etc., fare in the marketplace. Focus on what you do best to get things moving, there will be plenty of time to try to get that number one spot later. To start, be your own best competition. One of my most favorite single quotes is from Nehemiah who said “I consulted with myself and contended”. Consult with yourself, don’t worry about what everyone else is doing.
  5. Read and comment on other blogs – this is important. If you want to know what others are interested in within your topic, you need to read, a lot. This is good for several reasons. You don’t want to just post the same thing everyone else is posting, and you also want to be current and educated in your field. When commenting on others blogs or sites, be sure to do step number 2, be professional, don’t just post a comment for the sake of posting the comment, make it sincere and meaningful.
  6. Post – and often. I think I read only 20% of content sites have fresh, current content. Be one of the them if you want to increase your traffic.
  7. Interact with others on your blog – this includes responding to comments posted on your blog. Others want to know a real live person is over there behind the keyboard.
  8. Know your topic or subject matter – Be accurate. You don’t want to talk over the head of your readers, but you certainly don’t want to look like an idiot either. Know what you are talking about. If you don’t, people will know, and especially on the internet, you will be called on it. If you aren’t sure about a subject there is plenty of information on the Internet, just take the time to do your research. This isn’t always easy, and it isn’t an exact science. There will always be someone who knows more about a subject than you, and hopefully someone who knows less, but you don’t have to make it obvious. There are many many more people who know more about SEO and marketing than I do, but I always try to be as accurate as possible.
  9. Quote your sources – do not just paste text and show your readers where you got your information. You don’t have to disclose everything, just make sure you give credit where credit is due, it gives credit to you (kind of catchy too).
  10. Have fun and be positive – if you get as far as a top ten list, number ten for me is always have fun. No one likes to read or hear negatives all the time, it gets tiring, so try something new, have a contest, give something away, do something fun.

You may be thinking, we these aren’t really “blog” things and what do they have to do with increasing my traffic. Well, your traffic will come eventually, but taking some simple steps now will probably help more later than you think. The better your traffic, the higher your pagerank, alexa ranking, compete rank will be, the higher your ad rates will become. There are certainly other things that will help, steps that are not so simple, good SEO, design, and all that, but that is for another post, because one of them is also, be brief, which I can rarely seem to follow.

Alexa Ranking for chipseo.com

If you have read this far, you can see by now that you can also take off the part of the title that says Blog Traffic and Pagerank and replace it with business or customers and it should work the same. Good business sometimes starts with simple steps.

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