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Robots Exclusion Protocol 101
Sebastian

Robots Exclusion Protocol 101

<p>The Robots Exclusion Protocol (REP) is a conglomerate of standards that regulate Web robot behavior and search engine indexing. Despite the "Exclusion" in its name, the REP covers mechanisms for inclusion too. The REP consists of</p><ol><li>The original REP from <a href="http://www.robotstxt.org/orig.html">1994</a>, extended <a href=&qu...

Why Initial Rankings Following Quick Reporting Are Key
L

Why Initial Rankings Following Quick Reporting Are Key

In recent years, the once-common weblog or online journal has morphed into the ubiquitous blog. However, this transition led to some changes - the new terminology somehow allowed anyone to start news publication from their breakfast table. Blogging gives Joe Public the chance to jump on news before any larger entity has the chance to aggressively p...

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Announcing the Social Media Directory
Jane Copland

Announcing the Social Media Directory

While this is not meant to count as our weekly social media post (Wasabi Wednesday, if you will), I'm pleased to set free our newest directory. Added to our Premium Content, the Social Directory is lists social media sites that can help you accomplish one of three things: allow direct outbound links, provide profiles that rank well in search engines, or serve as great places to promote link-worthy...

Designing to Make Customers
C

Designing to Make Customers

Consider one of the most compelling and confusing parts of online economies -- once someone finds your website, what exactly will they choose to do with it? With a little clever planning the answer is: whatever you want them to.Let's say you've have visitors flocking to your website. They're looking everywhere, at all your pages. Now what? You need to create a clear Action Pa...

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Four Ways to Enforce Your Copyright: What to Do When Your Online Content Is Being Stolen
Sarah Bird

Four Ways to Enforce Your Copyright: What to Do When Your Online Content Is Being Stolen

One of the most common problems facing anyone who publishes content online is copyright infringement. It's happened to me. It's happened to you. And it'll probably happen to this post too. (Oh, the irony!) What can you do when your copyright is being infringed? Don't get sad. Get letter-writing mad! There are four ways to stop someone from stealing your content. Before we dive into each of those methods, I want to preemptively address some caveats, complicating factors, and limitations of the "four methods" approach.

Kids, Plug Your Ears! I Am Going to Talk About SEO P_rn!
B

Kids, Plug Your Ears! I Am Going to Talk About SEO P_rn!

Okay . . . so I did a round of interviews this week with fairly decent success (though, if I am still unemployed in a month then I guess it wasn’t successful after all, lol). Who did I meet with? Sorry, not divulging that info because frankly most readers of this blog are outstanding SEOs and could turn into my competition for the positions. Note: For the handful that do kn...

Everything is Judged By its Cover: Classified Ads and &quot;Title Tags&quot;
Jane Copland

Everything is Judged By its Cover: Classified Ads and "Title Tags"

Every time I research something using classified sites, I'm surprised at two things: Firstly, very few people understand the first rule about writing online advertisements, which has to be getting people to click on the ad. Secondly, it surprises me that even thought I know some of the ads might contain great content, I rarely click on ads that are badly worded. Surely I've been doing this long en...

Thursday Roundup for the Week of 1/6/08
Rebecca Kelley

Thursday Roundup for the Week of 1/6/08

For our first roundup of the new year, I've decided to change the format a bit and present the links first. I've also included notable YOUmoz entries from the last week, so hopefully you folks will enjoy the weekly YOUmoz roundup in addition to the other stuff. Stories, news, and other notable items from the past week: Three star links: ...