Where on Earth is your Website?

Written by Robert McCourty


Where on Earth is your Web Site? by Robert K. McCourty

You've just finished congratulating your marketing team. After six months of concentrated effort you can now actually find your own company web site withinrepparttar search engines. Everyone is busy handshaking and back patting when a voice fromrepparttar 127982 back ofrepparttar 127983 room rises aboverepparttar 127984 din. "Yeah this is great! Can't wait until we can find ourselves on wireless devices." All conversation comes to an abrupt halt. Eyes widen. Everyone turns torepparttar 127985 fresh-faced intern standing inrepparttar 127986 corner with a can of V8 juice in one hand and a PALM device inrepparttar 127987 other. You, beingrepparttar 127988 Department Manager, barely managing to control your voice not to mention your temper, askrepparttar 127989 now nearly frozen with panic intern, "What do you mean find ourselves on wireless? We just spent thousands on our web site visibility campaign!" "Well... Explainsrepparttar 127990 sheepish intern, "There is no GPS or GIS locational data within our source code. Without it, most wireless appliances won't be able to access our site."

Guess what? The intern is absolutely correct. Anyone interested in selling goods and services viarepparttar 127991 Internet will soon be required to have some form Geographic Location data coded into your web pages. There are approximately 200 satellites currently orbitingrepparttar 127992 Earth. (even Nasa won't confirmrepparttar 127993 exact number) Some are in geosynchronous or geostationary orbit 27,000 miles above your head. The Global Positioning System (GPS) isrepparttar 127994 name given torepparttar 127995 mechanism of providing satellite ephemerides ("orbits") data torepparttar 127996 general public, underrepparttar 127997 auspices ofrepparttar 127998 International Earth Rotation Service Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF). Sounds like Star Wars doesn't it? It's pretty close. The NAVSTAR GPS system is a satellite-based radio-navigation system developed and operated byrepparttar 127999 U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). The NAVSTAR system permits land, sea, and airborne users to determine their three-dimensional position, velocity, 24 hours a day, in all weather, anywhere inrepparttar 128000 world, with amazing precision. http://igscb.jpl.nasa.gov/

Wireless devices, WAP, Cellular, SATphones and a whole host of newly emerging appliances and indeed, new software applications, will all utilize some form of GPS or more likely GIS data retrieval. GIS stand for Geographic Information System and relies on exact Latitude and Longitude coordinates for location purposes. Several car manufacturers currently utilize GPS for on-board driver assistance andrepparttar 128001 Marine and Trucking Industries have been using it for years. Obviously your web site is a stable beast. It sits on a server somewhere and doesn't move much, so at first glance it seems quite unplausible you'll need GIS Locational Data within your source code. Onrepparttar 128002 contrary. One aspect your web site represents is your business's physical location(s) and if people are going to try to find your services and products, shouldn't you atrepparttar 128003 very least, tell them where it is and how to get there?

Google’s Shake Up: A View From the Beginning - Part One

Written by Jim Hedger


Monday, December 16, 2003

It has been exactly one month since Google introduced its infamous Florida Update. Asrepparttar Florida Update has brought aboutrepparttar 127981 largest and most comprehensive shake-up of Google’s listings ever, it has generated a great deal of interest aroundrepparttar 127982 world and genuine panic forrepparttar 127983 literally millions of webmasters who’s sites have been adversely affected byrepparttar 127984 change. The following article is a compilation of our writings aboutrepparttar 127985 Florida Update since November 17th,repparttar 127986 first Monday afterrepparttar 127987 shift.

Monday November 17, 2003 - Happy Monday Morning Folks... DON'T PANIC!

Have you taken a look at Google today? Yes, what you are seeing is real. Google is showing totally different listings onrepparttar 127988 search engine returns pages today. Actually, this weirdness started sometime on Friday night or Saturday morning. Most of our clients have not been affected andrepparttar 127989 only one we have seen effected has had his rankings rise dramatically. Our site has been affected though, rather badly at that. Fromrepparttar 127990 #6 spot underrepparttar 127991 phrase "Search Engine Placement",repparttar 127992 happy-go-lucky StepForth site has dropped pastrepparttar 127993 fifth page of returns.

I think this is a temporary thing. We last saw such a massive shake-up six months ago andrepparttar 127994 listings went back to normal after a few days. This sort of shake-up generally indicates that Google is re-ordering their entire database of spidered sites. Something big is happening at Google but we're not sure what it is. What we do know is that since a major update of Google's database started on Friday night,repparttar 127995 search returns have been extremely buggy with long-term Top10 pages dropping from existence, recorded back links decreasing or disappearing for many sites, and more thanrepparttar 127996 usual amount of spam appearing inrepparttar 127997 Top10. We have also notedrepparttar 127998 disappearance of one of their major servers (www-sj.google.com).

Google has been delivering questionable returns for several months now with spam and duplicate listings often making it intorepparttar 127999 Top10. The last time their listings have been this upset was in October 2002 when Google tried introducing Blog entries and news releases into its general listings. Within two weeks,repparttar 128000 listings had been restored to a shakey state of "normal" but that markedrepparttar 128001 beginning of strange and often spammy entries intorepparttar 128002 Top10. This month's update is being referred to inrepparttar 128003 SEO community asrepparttar 128004 "Florida Update" and has a lot of SEO practitioners scratching their heads. Our current advice is to wait it out for at least two weeks and see what Google does next.

December 3, 2003 - Google’s Florida Update

The impact of Google's Florida Update has not been fully realized yet, but it appearsrepparttar 128005 damage will be extensive consideringrepparttar 128006 reports we are getting from some clients. Literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions of websites have seemingly disappeared from Google's listings, most of whom enjoyed a Top10 placement beforerepparttar 128007 massive update which started on November 16th. Like most retailers, ecommerce sites that have faded fromrepparttar 128008 listings needed a good Christmas season to remain viable intorepparttar 128009 next year and many of them staked their sales plans on a their previously strong placements at Google. The fallout will be noticeable, particularly among small businesses where advertising options are limited by small business budgets. Small businesses, however, will not berepparttar 128010 only companies facing an uncertain future because ofrepparttar 128011 Florida Update. Whenrepparttar 128012 SEO community starts receiving calls fromrepparttar 128013 mainstream media and people who are not clients, asking what is wrong with Google; one knows that Google itself has a problem that goes far beyond their data centers. As one ofrepparttar 128014 pioneers ofrepparttar 128015 web, Lee Roberts of The Web Doctor points out, "It was word-of-mouth that generated their popularity because people could find what they were looking for. Now, we only find sites with less quality content and less sites that offer what we want." The Florida Update encompassesrepparttar 128016 most substantial changes to Google's famed ranking algorithm inrepparttar 128017 young company's history. There are several theories as to why Google forced this update. Some say that Google is trying to force small businesses to join their highly profitable AdWords program by making such a comprehensive update just beforerepparttar 128018 Christmas shopping season. Others say that Google has always usedrepparttar 128019 weeks aroundrepparttar 128020 US Thanksgiving holiday to make changes inrepparttar 128021 hopes thatrepparttar 128022 sudden decrease in traffic over what is often a 4-day weekend will give their engineers enough time to introduce a new algorithm, (and fix any minor errors), without causing massive disruptions to their normal users. A third theory, (the one I lean towards), states that Google was simply tired of being gamed byrepparttar 128023 growing cadre of less ethical players inrepparttar 128024 SEO sector and has simply changedrepparttar 128025 rules overnight by applying this new algorithm. Whateverrepparttar 128026 reason,repparttar 128027 damage is being done and now advertisers and web-users want to know what to expect next. Unfortunately, that is not an easy question to answer as Google does not comment on any changes to their algorithm, thereforerepparttar 128028 only thing we can do is offer experienced and educated guesses.

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