The Model Info Center

by Rick Hendershot, e_Marketing Blog

The Google patent application submitted in March, 2005 has generated a good deal of debate among search engine optimization experts. The patent document contains many general suggestions about the direction Google wants to move their search criteria and ranking techniques in the near future.

The document points out two areas in particular in which “there remains a need to improve the quality of results generated by search engines.” (0009) These two areas are

(a) artificially inflated rank due to spamming techniques, and (b) stale documents that rank higher than fresh ones, and therefore “degrade the search results”.

Google’s ingenious proposal is to deal with both of these problems by focusing on the history of web documents and web links. Assuming they have the technology to record such a massive amount of information, their objective seems to be to keep a detailed record of the pattern of changes within web pages.

This should address the spam issue by revealing unnatural patterns of change. Too many links too quickly suggests “unnatural” linking activity has been taking place. Significant links that come and go might suggest that expensive links are being purchased on a temporary basis and are not “natural”.

And it should address the “staleness” issue by looking at the way specific pages have been updated. If a page that has ranked high in specific searches has not been updated for a period of time, this will be seen as a reason to downgrade the importance of that page. Other pages with more activity, more up to date information, and more linking activity, all other things being equal, will rank higher.

History is more important than ever

This means Google either already gives, or intends to give the “history” of documents more significance. And not just the date when the document is created, or most recently changed. They also propose tracking the pattern of the changes in content, changes in anchor text of links, changes in numbers and quality of inbound links, changes in quality and number of outbound links, changes in other pages within the same associated group of documents, and even changes within the pages linking to a document.

On top of that, they propose tracking user habits and patterns over time. How users got to the page in question, how long they stayed there, how many times the particular page was clicked on when it was presented in a search…a very impressive (bewildering?) array of factors.

In fact this is an ingenious attempt to solve the “spam” and “staleness” problems at the same time. The major assumption is that up-to-date “relevant” content — the kind the search engines are supposed to be giving us — will be regularly updated, will be inter-connected by an ever-increasing (and regularly changing) group of inbound links. In other words, links will come and go, changes will happen gradually, and “spikes” in either traffic or increased link activity will be sure signs of spamming activity.

Conclusions

Whether all of these measures will ever be fully implemented or not is beside the point. These suggestions make sense, and will be adopted to some extent by all search engines. The future has been defined, and it is up to creators of websites and online marketers to make the most of it.

The most important conclusions we can take from the patent application is that the history of our pages matters. In practical terms, this means:

– Rapid and wholesale changes in content will be looked upon with suspicion — Rapid increases in numbers of inbound and outbound links will trigger red flags — Changes in anchor text that alter or remove its relationship to on-page content will be suspect — Lack of regular and steady (but not radical) changes will get your pages labelled “stale” — Links that were valuable last year (or month?) will not be as valuable this year (or month) because they are becoming “stale”.

In other words, webmasters and internet marketers must keep adding content, keep upgrading their pages, keep improving and adding new ones, continue to get new links, and freshen up their old ones if they can.

But they should not do any of it too quickly.

Think of this “history” component as a method of measuring change. It may seem ridiculously vague, but this is the reality we have to deal with.

In the new world order, change has three speeds: Too Slow, Too Fast, and Just Right.

Been traveling a lot lately. Here are the sites I found most useful lately! Let me show you some sites that impacted me recently. Look through these sites and my experiences and let me know what you think.

The Right Tent

I had a great time mountain biking for a week. Sometimes the mountains just dump a ton of rain on you when you least expect it. The type of camping tents we had wasn’t right for the occasion so we had to go shopping. It was a relief to open the door the afternoon we were driving in - and saw the tent. Ordering online was a great experience and everything arrived in mint condition. Shipping was expedited for 2 day delivery. I will enver get tired of hiking or biking into the back country for camping trips. Maybe next weekend!

Security

In planning for a week long camping trip, I thought it would be a good time now to get a security system for the house. As a family we started getting more electronics, photos, etc. Memories. You know it feels like such an invasion just to think about theft. So we sought out some good home security info online and found the right company to install a system. The installation was super duper fast. Never felt safer.

eFusjon Opportunity

Energy is required in large amounts for hiking, cooking, living in the wild. Lucky for us, we just jumped on the efusjon opportunity train and had some health energy drinks with us. With two kids running all over on top of hiking, camping and fishing - it was a relief to feel energized all day. Check out the ‘a’ team at efusjon. You will not regret it. It’s a young opportunity - jump in now. Get in on the opportunity now!

I’m climbing the hill to success. Did you like this format?

Native Americans had long known of Texas’ naturally occurring oil seeps. The substance was first known for its curative properties. When Spaniards explored Texas in 1543, they noticed oil along the shore and used it to caulk boats and waterproof boots. Centuries passed before Lyne Barret made his discovery at Nacogdoches County. In 1866, he was able to drill the first oil well here. Soon, Nacogdoches County hosted the state’s first commercial oil field. Still, oil was not that coveted a product; early drillers prized water, not oil. They discovered substantial oil deposits in 1894 at Corsicana, but disregarded them. In 1896, H.G.Damon, Ralph Beaton, and John Galey successfully extracted oil in Corsicana but passed on the chance to develop a business around it. Nevertheless, the Corsicana field produced huge quantities of oil and started Texas’ first refinery. On January 10, 1901, Captain Anthony Lucas and Patillo Higgins hit the fabled oil gusher at the Spindletop salt dome in Beaumont. It was the world’s largest, blowing oil more than 150 feet high. By 1902, Spindletop had yielded over 17 million oil barrels. A wildcatting frenzy ensued and small farming communities became boomtowns. Many American oil companies began their operations in the wake of the discovery including Humble Oil (presently Exxon), Gulf Oil, and the Texas Company (presently Texaco). More oil discoveries swept the state, particularly in North Central Texas. In 1921, drillers started extracting from the Panhandle. East Texas turned out to be the state’s biggest oil field when Columbus Marion Joiner hit the first of the field’s many gushers, Daisy Bradford, on October 3, 1930.

To learn more about famous Texans such as politician Ben Barnes, visit the De Leon, The Heart of Texas site.

Texas political memoirs, such as Barn Burning Barn Building, are explored on Texas political memoirs.

Distinguished Alumni such as Ben Barnes are profiled on The Distinguished Alumni of the University of Texas site.