For example, ICANN has already launched regional extensions, such as .eu and .asia. Unfortunately these domains have not been supported by Google. There is no Google.eu or Google.asia portal. That has left these domains with little advantage over other available TLDs such as .com, .net or .org.

At the moment Google ties domains, subdomains or site sections to one particular country. This is done with key indicators such as extension, hosting location, link profile, webmaster portal settings or language. While you can search in Google.it for Italian language pages you can not determine if those sites are geographically based within Europe. The SERPs include Italian language pages from businesses around the world or those from within Italy. This reality for .eu seems to run contrary to the branding on the EuroID site, as seen here on the right. An .eu domain does not give access to all European countries anymore than a .com would.

As a European address is required for .eu registration the searcher could find regional businesses by adding the site:*.eu parameter to their query, but this is unlikely to enter mainstream use. But again, without the search space being supported by the search engines there will be less movement towards the .eu in the first place. Orders now are largely due to cheap .eu prices compared to local country extensions or defensive registrations against cyber-squatting.

There are good reasons for searchers to shop by region, rather than ordering internationally. Europeans don’t have to pay import tax on their items and would benefit from the European Union’s consumer protections laws. There are environmental benefits in reducing transit times. In fact, launching creating a virtual search engine based limited by .eu domains may have been a better brand idea for the Europeans than their dubious Quaero project.

You can see the conflict between Google and ICANN again on the matter of .us domains. ICANN envisioned General Top Level Domains (gTLDs) such as .com, .org and .net to be a shared space for all countries. However Americans have adopted .com as their own extension. This no doubt has an effect on the sales of the lesser branded .us domain. Google has certainly had their hand in this development by refusing to support the .us extension with its own portal (Google.us).

The question is, will Google support any of the new TLDs that ICANN is planning to launch on the market? Will we see Google.hotel or Google.shoes in the future? Without a search space, these extensions have less chance of becoming viable businesses. On the bright side, these new TLDs create exciting opportunities for virtual search. Hopefully ICANN and the companies backing these new domains will start taking these points into consideration.

Hosting infrastructure in the US is large-scale, reliable and often cheaper than local providers in developing countries. The Planet states that 42% of their customers are located in international markets. On the other hand local servers are often faster for local users and have less chance of network interruption.

Will Google’s move towards site speed as a ranking factor push international SEOs to ask for local hosting? Patricio Robles over at eConsultancy seems to agree,

The location of your host could also be a consideration. An offshore host, for instance, might be at a disadvantage here, especially if it doesn’t have good peering.

However Richard Hearne at RedCardinal makes some good points against this argument on Twitter.

RedCardinal: @nickwilsdon You’re assuming they’ll test locally, but that’s not how this will work from my understanding. (status link)

RedCardinal: @nickwilsdon I think 2 things worth looking at: Page Speed (likely they’ll use these metrics), and Adwords QS page speed. (status link)

RedCardinal: @nickwilsdon server location will probably be normalised – otherwise this would never work (status link)

I think Richard’s right and he’s backed up by the notes Google has released on how site speed is tested in regard to Adwords Quality Score.

We evaluate your load time relative to the average in your server’s geographic region. If your website is hosted on a server in India, for example, your landing page load time will be compared to the average load time in that region of India. This is true even if your website is intended for an audience in the United States.

There is still an advantage in good local hosting if you can get hold of this, especially if it out-performs the average in the region. As Matt Cutts suggests, users don’t want slow websites. However the emphasis for this new ranking factor will likely be on the page speed metric rather than loading time and the physical location of the server.

** High Speed train by lrargerich one of the artists who make their work under a Creative Commons license at Flickr – thank you!

[Search for "wp_list_pages" - one of the functions of WordPress]

[Search for "limitations of google analytics" - spotted by TalentGurus]

[Search for "html anchors" brings up w3.org]

In all cases Google is picking up the internal in-page navigation (HTML anchors) and pulling it into the SERPs. All site examples here are large, popular sites so this feature, as with site search box, maybe reserved for such cases. However this is definitely something to experiment with. In-page navigation is a bonus for usability so this could be a win-win tactic.

Also worth noting that Google has recently been experimenting with Breadcrumb navigation in their SERPs too.

Update: This new feature is explained over at the Google WebmasterBlog by Raj Krishnan (Snippets Team).

There are a few things you can do to increase the chances that [these links] might appear on your pages. First, ensure that long, multi-topic pages on your site are well-structured and broken into distinct logical sections. Second, ensure that each section has an associated anchor with a descriptive name (i.e., not just “Section 2.1″), and that your page includes a “table of contents” which links to the individual anchors.

Technorati Tags: Google, SEO, SERPs, Snippets

1. Ensure Your Domains Have Accurate WHOIS records

Sounds simple but you wouldn’t believe how many domain registrations have been made using the wrong details. Too often the domain vendor would slip their own details into the owner or administrative details. The person who dealt with the “internet” would register company domains with their personal email then move onto a new job a few months later.

Incorrect records can cause a nightmare when you come to update or transfer the domain in the future. The owner/admin email holder can transfer the domain away.

Ensure that your details and email are on the administrative and owner contact fields of the domain. Running a WHOIS check will help but the contact email addresses can only be seen through the private panels of your domain provider.

2. Make Sure You Own Your Domains Legally

It may come as a surprise but WHOIS records are not proof of domain name ownership. Make sure you have access to the account with the domain registrar and have printed off invoice receipts for your registration.

3. Setup Your Own Domain Expiry Reminders

Don’t put all your trust in your domain provider. They may drop the ball or fail to contact you for the renewal. Registries have little sympathy once you have lost your domain, nor does the domain speculator who snapped it up.

Setup expiry reminders on your chosen calender application, use a birthday reminder service like HipCal or a dedicated domain tool like URLPad. Make sure you have reminders on 2 different email accounts, in case one fails.

4. Backup Your Sites – Regularly!

Again many rely 100% on their hosts for this. For WordPress sites you can backup the whole blog or just the database on regular periods and send it to a newly created Gmail account. Cpanel, Plesk and other control panel systems usually provide backup facilities for your whole site – use them. Software like SyncBackSE (Windows) or Filezilla (Windows, Mac and Linux) will help you maintain a synchronized copy of your files on your local computer.

Make sure you keep a few copies of your backup. An external Icy Box and a few old hard disks is an effective & low cost solution.

5. Invest In Decent DNS

Too many low grade hosts have their name servers placed on the same box as their hosted sites. If the server goes down, so do the name servers which can result in many hours of downtime, even after the server itself has come back online. That downtime is expensive for your business.

For a small fee you can buy a high quality DNS service or you may find the DNS at your registrar is sufficient. These name servers should update very fast across the internet, be backed up and have a fallover system.

This move will give your sites some security against long periods of downtime. In situations where your host has failed completely you can also switch the traffic to another provider.

6. Own Your RSS Feeds

Service at Feedburner has been rocky in recent months. Alternative services such as FeedBlitz and PostRank are waiting in the wings. Other services may come in the future. The lesson here is to make sure your RSS feed is delivered on a URL you control. That will let you change providers without loosing valuable subscribers.

Make sure you use a service which lets you create a CNAME record to point their branded URL towards your domain. Both FeedBurner and FeedBlitz allow you to use your own domain name.

7. Buy Your Vanity and Brand Domains

It makes sense to grab the COM/ORG/INFO/NET versions of your company domain name and any key brands you have developed. If you have plans internationally then also grab these extensions in your target countries. Domain registration fees are nothing compared to the legal fees you run up reclaiming these.

On a personal level, register your name domain (firstname+surname.com). Keyword domains have a natural advantage in ranking for these terms – ensure they are under your control.

8. Start Filling Your Vanity or Brand Results

Defend against online reputation attacks by filling these SERPs with your own entries. These results will defend you against low level ORM attacks and targeted link building can make them even more powerful.

Finding good sites for this is not hard, look for authority sites where you can place your profile. Here’s a couple of good site lists to start your efforts.

9. Control Your Short URLs

The recent death of the Zi.ma service was a wake up call for everyone using a shortening URLs service. If the service fails, then all those links fail, leaving you with no way to redirect that lost traffic. If you using short links in link building efforts or for affiliate marketing then you need to roll your own solution.

These are many URL shortening scripts on the market, for a small fee GentleSource ($29), PlusPHP Short URL Script ($59) or for free, e.g. Shorty

10. Use Your Own Domains For Email

Defensible email means using your own domain rather than a branded service. If you use Gmail then use your own domain name with them or sign up to Google Apps. Yahoo Mail and Microsoft Live Mail also offer services using your own domain.

Like your RSS feeds, this approach would allow you to switch providers without loosing your email address.

11. Keep Your Content On Your Own Domains

Always build content on your own domains, otherwise you’re at the mercy of the service provider. They may offer to export your data but that often means loosing links, traffic and historical trust that you’ve built up over the years.

So roll your own blog installation rather than using a hosted blog solution like WordPress.com or Blogger. Also keep it in mind when using third party sites like Squidoo, Google Knol or Twitter. These sites are useful but never forget that this material is most strongly defended on your own domains.

12. Set Up Malware Alerts

If Google, Firefox or IE flags your site as containing malware they will stop their users viewing your site. This can be as devastating as a hosting failure. The sooner you know about this the better.

Make sure you get early alerts on Google’s blacklist from Google Webmaster Center or SerpGuard.com. You can also set up Google Alerts for known malware keywords, as detailed here by Patrick Altoft.

** Hurricane Ike Prep by Cayobo one of the artists who make their work under a Creative Commons license at Flickr – thank you!

What is the current listing status for www.davidnaylor.co.uk/?

This site is not currently listed as suspicious.

What happened when Google visited this site?

Of the 29 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 0 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 09/18/2008, and suspicious content was never found on this site within the past 90 days.

Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?

Over the past 90 days, www.davidnaylor.co.uk/ did not appear to function as an intermediary for the infection of any sites.

Has this site hosted malware?

No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.

OK, so we assume Google did not see Dave’s site as compromised. This would explain why Dave did not get any warning messages from Webmaster Central. Both that system and SERPGuard work on the Google Safe Browsing API and without a positive listing of DaveNaylor.co.uk – neither would have reason to send out an alert.

According to Dave Naylor’s latest blog post, his site appears to have suffered a text-book hack.

While I was in the meeting Becky texted me to say they had found something Patrick at Blogstorm ( I’m not linking out just in case I pass bad karma) and Josh from JaeWeb, had spotted an issue. It was spot on, the server had been comprised and the site was cloaking links to google of antidepressant drugs and we had a fake adsense code injected into the blog.

Patrick Altoft discovered a useful way of detecting compromises in your blog, by setting up Google Alerts on key terms. I imagine one of these searches revealed the cloaked pages that Dave had unknowingly served to Google.

The real advantage of Patrick’s technique, is that it might be able to catch this kind of compromise before the site makes it onto Google’s blacklists. I’ve always assumed that SERP penalties would only be applied after the site is listed by Google as being compromised.

So the real question here is why would Google apply a penalty without first listing DaveNaylor.co.uk? Is this a case of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing? ie. are malware/phishing penalties applied irrespective of the Safe Browsing list? Or does Google not consider this incident malware/phishing related?

There are still a lot of unanswered questions for me with this incident. I look forward to Dave revealing more about the hack and any feedback Google can give on why he was penalised but not listed? If the Safe Browsing project is to have any use to webmasters, we should know it accurately reflects Google’s opinion of the site.

Technorati Tags: Dave Naylor, Google, Hacking, malware, phishing, Safe Browsing API, Security

1. Non Disclosure Contract (NDA)

An NDA is an essential tool for a search marketer, or anyone in a consultancy role. This contract creates a confidential relationship between two parties and prevents either side discussing sensitive information to third parties. This obviously comes in handy when quoting on a project but I have also used an NDA with industry peers when asking for advice. You can read more on NDAs here.

2. Presentation Backgrounds

Giving talks and presentations are an essential part of marketing yourself or your company in the search world. It may not be SMX, SES or PubCon but sooner or later your going to find yourself knee-deep in PowerPoint. Larger client contracts often require you to make a presentation to their team.

3. Company Newsletters

These templates can give you or your client the push they need to start email marketing to their customer base. Not only is the R.O.I. higher when marketing to existing clients but as Garrett French writes email marketing can form part of your linking strategy.

4. Basic Google Adwords Proposal

Google’s released two templates to help you with their Adwords system. This one is a basic proposal document for a new Adwords client. You can show trends to clients, sample keywords/creative and give estimated costs for the campaign.

5. Adwords Creative Generator

This template will help you create adverts for your Adwords campaigns. I’m not well versed in PPC but it looks like the aim of this sheet is to auto-generate advert headlines based on your Ad Groups. It will mix custom terms with Ad Group keywords and highlight adverts that exceed the character limit. Once you have finished here, you paste into Adwords Editor or a bulksheet.

6. Travel Expenses and Itinerary Templates

Going to conferences is an essential part of the search industry. It’s a great way to get a beer pick up clients. These templates can help you keep track of your travel details and expenses. Having them on Google Docs is perfect when you’re on the move.

7. Video Christmas Template

It’s depressing to think about Christmas already but for many of us involved in e-commerce the planning starts soon. Assemble your mailing list and send out this card at the start of the season, with a reminder of the month’s best deals.

The template wording needs tweaking but it comes in 5 colours and the embedded video is an interesting angle. Alternatively use it for your own marketing clients or just to give your designer some inspiration.

Technorati Tags: Adwords Templates, Google, Google Adwords, Google Docs, NDA, Powerpoint Templates, templates

In summary, Lyndon Antcliff posted a satirical story on a client’s site, which ended up being quoted on several mainstream news channels. Critics have claimed that Lyndon manipulated these sources by not labeling the material as fake, in order to gain links for his client. In his defense, none of these news channels or reporters seem to have tried to check the legitimacy of the story.

This is hardly the first time news channels have carried fake news. For example, FoxNews, the main channel to carry Lyndon’s story was reprimanded in 2004 for placing fabricated quotes attributed to John Kerry on their website.

In this thread at Sphinn, Matt Cutts has now suggested that such behavior comes under the jurisdiction of Google.

My quick take is that Google’s webmaster guidelines allow for cases such as this:

“Google may respond negatively to other misleading practices not listed here (e.g. tricking users by registering misspellings of well-known websites). It’s not safe to assume that just because a specific deceptive technique isn’t included on this page, Google approves of it.”

There’s not much more deceptive or misleading than a fake story without any disclosure that the story is hoax.

Does this mean penalties for misleading information on websites? This certainly opens the doors to a whole host of issues, from fake reviews to less than honest product marketing. Also, can we expect to see the FoxNews website suffering any penalties in the near future?

Technorati Tags: Fox News, Google, Matt Cutts

As you can see, there are several references to articles on this blog, NickWilsdon.com. The data from the two sites seems to be merged. I’ve tried in other browsers and refreshed cookies but the problem remains. Anyone else got this issue?

Technorati Tags: Analytics, Google, Google Analytics