I know when Google announced Knol, people were not very happy and suggesting that Google would most likely add the Knol pages into the search indexes and outrank all other sites in no time.  I’m here to say as of six months after writing my knols, they get zero traffic and are not ranked in the search engines anywhere.  Of all the searches I do on a daily basis, I have never seen even one Knol page as a returned result. 

I have to admit, I’m pretty sad about that. I was hoping the pges would index and become almost like Wikipedia, dominating almost every search you could think of, because finally I was not on the tail end of the launch, but I was one of the first. I’m not sure if Google is holding back because they dont want the negative feedback when the Knol pages start dominating so they are holding off indexing the pages or what, but it’s time to see some Knols in the SERPS. 

Google Knol is a million times easier to use than Wikipedia, you dont have to learn some crazy coding syntax to use the freaking thing, pretty much anyone, even I can author articles on Knol. 

Hey Google!  Start indexing you Knol pages!

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This is a link to the search:
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=spyware+protection&FORM=MSNH

Here is a screen shot:

I have never seen anything like this before. I did a search for spyware-protection.org on Google and Yahoo and the domain was all lowercase. The only other thing I can think is the site was registered with Live Webmaster Center with the domain in all caps. To test this hypothesis, I submitted Sweet Rock Media like so: http://www.SWEETrockMEDIA.com. I seriously doubt that it will have any effect, but its worth a try.

I think having the domain listed in all caps can result in a huge benefit for online marketers when it comes to organic traffic. This adds the opportunity to make your organic listing stand out, it won’t just be a matter of creative writing anymore, in MSN anyway.

Have you ever seen anything like this before?

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I seriously can’t bring myself to make the purchase without a warranty. Any other phone I purchase from AT&T I have the option of a warranty plan, which I have had used many times in the past.

I have a warranty on my Blackjack, whatever phone I had before that had a warranty. It’s some silly sense of security I really need when dropping $300 on a phone.

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As reported on SEOMoz today, many webmasters are experiencing having pages within their sites removed from Google for having copyright material on their websites. Google will remove pages of your site from their indexes after someone files a DMCA Complaint.

To avoid having your website removed from Google, do us all a favor and always have unique content on your site. Remember the saying, “Unique Content is King”.

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I’ll be completely honest, a year ago when I heard that a friend’s wife had breast cancer, I wasn’t worried. She is a young girl and they found the cancer early, she is so full of life there is no way cancer would claim her life. My grandmother is in her seventies and battled cancer in the 1980’s and lives today, my friends wife should have nothing to worry about. Sadly I was so wrong.

I feel guilt that I wasn’t concerned a year ago. I feel anger that a person so young can still be claimed by a disease that so many in this nation overcome. I feel so much pain for my friend and his children, how can a mother with two small babies die? I feel so deeply about this horrible tragedy that my life feels like it’s flipped upside down.

When I stop and think about the events over the past few weeks, I just start crying, I get extremely emotional and upset. I picture myself in the shoes of my friend’s wife and think what would I do if I only had a few weeks to live? That answer is so obvious; I would spend every second with my children. When I’m home from work I spend as much time with my children as I can, I can’t waste one second working on freelance work or keeping up with Sweet Rock Media. I find myself writing little love notes to my children in their coloring books, working on scrapbooks and taking more photos. My husband and I have invested in life insurance policies in case something should happen to either of us. I’ve even started running on a regular basis, eating more healthy foods and taking a multi vitamin daily.

I know that in a few weeks when the initial shock and numbness of this tragedy start to fade I’ll be back to writing more frequently about SEO and internet marketing news. I’ll be back to working on freelance jobs and starting more personal projects.

In the mean time, I urge everyone to stay healthy and follow this link and Click to Give!
http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=2

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Aside from coming out and bluntly saying, “This website is horrid!” I will usually stumble onto the topic with something simple and respectful like, “SEO will increase the number of visitors on your site, you may want to take into consideration the user experience and possibly upgrade the design of the site.” or “Updating your website and making it more modern may help to increase conversions by giving it a more official and authoritative look.”

Unfortunately for cyberspace most clients don’t take my advise or put off a quality redesign adding to what I refer to as “Cyber Smog” or “Pollution of the Internet”. Oddly enough, the paycheck at the end of the day does make me feel a little better

Recently a Google Designer actually stepped forward saying that the Google Logo is ugly and looks childish. See the whole story here: http://valleywag.com/365568/google-designer-company-logo-ugly-childish.

I guess if Google doesn’t care about the “Cyber Smog” they create, why should anybody else?? (Unless you actually care about the image of your business, capturing the most conversions possible and your not the largest search engine on the planet!)

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I worked on this particular project while working at Fathom SEO; the examples were going into a power point presentation to show at a SEO conference of what not to do when optimizing your website or something along those lines. I never realized how hard it was to find sites using spam techniques like white text on white background, spam in alt text or spam in div tags because it’s been a pretty well known fact these techniques will clearly get you banned from major search engines. Typically we run and hide from sites that do this type of stuff let alone grab the URL and dig around in the source code.

Seeking sites using spam techniques like doorway pages and hidden text was like searching for the ghetto of the internet and taking a stroll downtown. I couldn’t help but feel completely venerable while pills, porn and poker popped up constantly, somehow unable to be blocked by Explorer and the Google toolbar.

Since that project I have a hard time just ignoring good example of spam. Here are a few sites that I’ve run across lately that I took note of, enjoy!

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