aaron dalrymple dot com

I still use the Reporter function of WebPosition Gold (v. 2) to track keyword positions for myself and my clients. And, I know that several of my clients, who track their own SERPS, are also using this software. Because the Reporter tool is the only function that I use the software for, I’ve never felt the need to upgrade.

In April of 2004, First Place Software sold the WebPosition product to the company that produces the Web Trends analytics software. Back in November I received an email announcing that the company is discontinuing support and software updates for Web Position 2. Here is the text from their website:

“On November 1, 2005, WebPosition announced the end of life of engineering support for WebPosition Gold version 2 as of December 31, 2005. Please note that the WebPosition product line is not being discontinued, just that we will no longer be providing product updates, search engine updates, or support for WebPosition Gold version 2 after December 31, 2005. The WebPosition team encourages you to upgrade to WebPosition 4 before your product support for version 2 ends.”

I didn’t think much of it at first because I only use the reporting functionality and have never needed “support.” Well, that changed when I read the email that I received from them today, which reads:

“From time to time, search engines change the format of their result format, which can cause problems for WebPosition’s Reporter feature when it attempts to accurately report search engines rankings. In response to these changes, the WebPosition team regularly creates WebPosition product updates (sometimes as often as 20-25 times a month!) to ensure that WebPosition’s reports are accurately reporting search engine rankings. These updates are not part of the Page Critic service but rather a part of the normal product update process each day.

By no longer supporting WebPosition Gold 2, we will no longer provide these updates for WebPosition Gold 2 after December 31, 2005. After that date, inaccuracies will be introduced into WebPosition 2 reports and we highly recommend that you cease using that version and upgrade to WebPosition 4.”

So, now I guess I will be forced to update. I’ll check it out and decide if it’s worth recommending that my clients do the same. I really wish you could just purchase the Reporter separately, especially since I don’t use Web Trends either…

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Tagged as: SEO, SEO Tools

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Happy Holidays! A lot has been circulating concerning Google’s latest update (nicknamed “Jagger”) that they began launching back around October. The update seems to be complete now and people are either feeling like a kid at Christmas of felling like Google gave them a lump of coal.. Here are my tips for dealing with the update, mostly concerned with Google’s attempt to cut back on linking schemes:

• After the most recent Google update, it may be more important than ever to check your multiple sites for duplicate content and shared IP addresses. Google is trying to further cut down on spam in their index, and these two factors may be more heavily penalized than before.

• If you are using CSS in your pages make sure you are not using any hidden DIVs on your pages. Although a hidden DIV can have legitimate purposes, just like a lot of other innocent practices in web design, they have been abused by webmasters and search engine optimizers to hide text and links on pages. If you can, you should remove any hidden DIVs from your pages.

• If you do experience a drop in rankings in Google, check to make sure you’’re not buying links from or linking out to someone who may be operating outside of Google’s quality guidelines. See Google’’s quality guidelines here: http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html

• Make sure you use varying text in your internal links and that you site has a strong theme. Sites (not just pages) with a clear theme may rank better than sites without, even if all other elements on that individual page are the same. If your site has a lot of different themes, it may be beneficial to have a different URL (without any duplicated content!) for each of your themes. For example, a separate site for European tours and Asian tours may help your rankings for each set of keywords.

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Tagged as: Google, Search Engines, SEO

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Google recently released its year end Google Zeitgeist (”Search patterns, trends, and surprises according to Google“) - Top Google searches and search trends for 2005.

Although on the surface this seems like nothing more than a curious pursuit, looking at searches over time, keyword trends and popular search terms can help your business. If you’re in the travel business, you know all about seasonality… By watching trends and knowing what to expect, and when it’s coming, you can gain an edge over your competition in the online marketplace.

While Google’s snapshot isn’t complete enough for this type of analysis (unless maybe you’re selling mp3 players). There are companies that can provide you with trend data for your particular product or niche. This can be extremely valuable in deciding when to launch products, discounts, promotions, etc. Besides the faithful WordTracker Keyword Generator, companies like Trellian and HitWise can give you trend data as well as competitive research so that you can get an idea of where your competitors are getting their traffic from and from which keywords.

Just remember to also consider the buying cycle when looking at the trend data. In other words, remember that travel consumers tend to shop the internet for several weeks before they actually buy. According to a comScore study released on October, “only 20 percent of all travel transactions linked to search engine activity occurred directly following the initial search referral, while the remaining 80 percent took place in the days and weeks following the initial search session.” So you really need to be ahead of the traditional seasonal trends when buying and optimizing for keywords, that’s where this type of data can be invaluable.

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Tagged as: Search Engines, SEM, SEO, Online Marketing

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I meant to say link building, BUILDING, not schemes - oh no, not you. Anyhow, here is a great article on Google’s last update (nicknamed “Jagger”) and how it may affect your inbound and outbound links. Google is trying to make sure your link building is relevant and more “natural.” There are so many people out there selling link building “programs” right now that it was only a matter of time before Google tried to get control of the spam situation.

The article from Search Engine Journal is about a month old, but I just ran across it today and it’s still worth a read:

Google’’s Jagger Update Completing Cycles

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Tagged as: Google, SEO, Link Building

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Wow, do we love our celebrities… It always amazes me how obsessed people are with celebrities and their lives. The internet seems like it should be so much more useful than looking for nude pics of Paris Hilton or finding out if Britney Spears is happy with her new beau. But, if you take a look at Yahoo’s top searches of 2005, you’ll see what people really care about… I guess.

Yahoo! 2005 Top Searches

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Tagged as: Search Engines, Yahoo, SEM, SEO

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Since I’m in the middle of relocating to Minneapolis, I wasn’t able to attend the SES conference in Chicago this week. It’s cold here too though, so I feel like I’m there anyhow… well that and the fact that I’m keeping up with the conference via Barry Schwartz over at Search Engine Roundtable. You can keep up with most of the search related conferences at his site.

SES Chicago Coverage at Search Engine Roundtable

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Tagged as: Search Engines, SEM, SEO

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