quote:

Free Cursors

Hi Andy, been following your efforts here, think your doing the right things but minus one step. To get that new site indexed quickly you could have posted about it in your blog with links to it and then the site would have been indexed very quickly. And it wouldn't hurt to make some post with links to your main site of, Free Cursors .

I just checked http://freecursors.atspace.com/index.html and it isn't in the top 1,000 for Free Cursors but http://andysanimatedcursors.co.uk/ is showing at #72, on google.com. If your site is moving up and you've got it into the top 100, it's very normal to see some up and down movements.

I've a site that I did for a client and he paid to have some SEO work done to rank well for a main term. The site hung around #220 for a couple months then finally it budged and started moving through the top 100. I've seen it at #27 and currently is sitting in the mid 80's. Not to concerned, as I get more links I expect it to show into the low 20's and teens all the while going up and down. When the dust settles though I'm sure I'll end with a top ten.

BTW, according to Spacky.com , 'free cursors' gets 90,000+ searches a month on Google. Not bad...

Hi Wrr

quote:

you could have posted about it in your blog

Sorry not sure what you mean, I don't have a blog, I'm not the 'blogging' type, I dislike typing / writing far too much !

I don't know now what you checked my site with but their details are a bit out of date. My site ( andys cursors ) has been in position 23 on google for free cursors for the last couple of days and I just re checked when I got your post and it still is ! Your quite right about it going up and down though, it's like a roller coaster. My first ever website used to go up and down by about 500 places every other week, it used to drive me crackers.. even more so than normal

quote:

And it wouldn't hurt to make some post with links to your main site

I presume you mean from Andys Cursors to 'Free Cursors' yes? It is ! I have a 'hidden' link to it on the Index page, one of the key words at the bottom of the page is a link. I also have links to it on three other websites of mine so it should be picked up ok in a week or so I'm hoping

quote:

BTW, according to Spacky.com , 'free cursors' gets 90,000+ searches a month on Google. Not bad...

Hmmm some of that traffic would be nice

Thanks for the suggestions.

Regards
Andy

Don't worry about fluctuations ..... Google looks to be 'kind' to the best sites - and varies the position and notes the clicks.

The chances of always getting the same postion, whether in the search results or on Adwords are pretty remote for average users. What we have to accept is that on average we will get a good position. Just checked one of my sites and I was on the second page! Argggh! But 5 mins later I was top for exactly the same search keywords.

You can't 'beat' Google et al! Just do your best ... LOL!

mccifa

A word to the wise about ads on Yahoo and Google. I used to buy them for individual vehicle pages and did not see any results. The hits they reported were pretty high and costing me alot. So I started checking the hits on the Yahoo and Google daily stats with my Statcounter log and found out there were not any real hits!!!!!!!! Thus, I cancelled both accounts and will never waste mula on this scam again.

quote:

Originally posted by Captain Stevo:
A word to the wise about ads on Yahoo and Google. I used to buy them for individual vehicle pages and did not see any results. The hits they reported were pretty high and costing me alot. So I started checking the hits on the Yahoo and Google daily stats with my Statcounter log and found out there were not any real hits!!!!!!!! Thus, I cancelled both accounts and will never waste mula on this scam again.

StatCounter is brill ... but the recent MS setup auto-blocks StatCounter et al! Most users won't have a clue how to 'open' their systems to StatCounter reporting ... and probably won't want to. So, if things continue as the are MS will rule once again, and StatCounter et al will gradually disappear. So website owners will not be able to hone their sites suit the searchers.

Good old MS, eh?!!!! :-( :-(

mccifa

Not the case in the real word. I can verify Statcounter against the actual stat log for the website at Godaddy. They match within a couple of hits everywhere. Google and Yahoo were reporting hundreds of visits to one single page with an "Ad". Statcounter and Godaddy reports a handful. These ads are a total scam.

Well, in the real world that I'm working in, I can say that my newish laptop came with an auto block by MS on reporting. How do I know? Because all the sites I run have StatCounter on them and my visits to those sites were not 'collected'. I tested this (as StatCounter is in real time) and I could see that reporting was blocked.

Only after I changed the settings on my laptop were my visits recognised.

As more and more people replace their PCs etc and just accept the standard settings then the results on StatCounter, Google etc will become less accurate.

BTW, a company I work with has Google and StatCounter - and the results vary due to the old time zone being used on Google (pre selecting your own time zone). This month the Google ecomm results have plummeted and show no conversions at all after a few days, despite the fact that 99% of orders are over the internet and 6 figure sales occur each month.

This has happened before ... prior to a Google Adwords shutdown for maintenance. We are due another in a few days ..... I hope that the missing statistics are 'found' and appear, as I am paid by results on Google!!

Google is good, but it's not perfect!

Now MS is blocking tracking system results.

You can't rely on anything.

mccifa

Thanks for the update on this MS deal.

I know we are getting off topic about know but just to add to what mccifa is saying about 'nasties' being added to new pc's there is an 'ongoing' license scheme proposal that I believe ms is 'running' ( maybe incorect there though ) that will only allow you to run software on your new pc that has paid a 'subscription' etc to this scheme, and it'll be a large one.

In other words if 'fred blogs' makes a program ( maybe a brilliant one ) for it to actually work on an ms os he will have to pay a fee or it will not run on anyones computer. Obviously that will mean an instant end to Freeware ( the whole point of this ) and make everyone buy expensive software.

This is all being kept very quiet and very few people now that such a scheme is in existence and on going. If people think it's scare mongering then think again, apparently alot of large software developers are already signed up to it, why wouldn't they, it'll make them a fortune.

If this licensing software does start to get put into new pc's then we really are all screwed... the future looks really rosy !

Andy

Just so that people can see that what I'm saying is correct, I've uploaded a page with a copy of the graph:

Google graph

HTH

mccifa

Could we see some references for the above information please?

quote:

Originally posted by wrr:
Could we see some references for the above information please?

Sorry, wrr ... was your comment directed at me, or someone else? If at me, I'm not sure what you mean by 'references' - so could you please elucidate?

Thanks.

mccifa

BTW, having a 'testimonials' page seems to be highly rated by Google ... most of my sites produce a page listing plus the testimonials page on a Google search.

And knowing that Google is looking for content and superior sites, that makes good sense to me! :-)

mccifa

Yeah, I was curious about what you were saying mccifa, about the comments that MS has something new that is blocking stat counters. I'm aware that IE8 has a incognito mode but thought that just erased tracks on your own PC? Also FF has several addons that block any third party content, which would be the cookie that is set by Statcounter. Just saying, are you sure this is what is happening? After searching Statcounters 25,000+ post in their user forum, can't find mention of this problem. Would have thought it would be well discussed there.

Or the comment about MS requiring a pay to play method of being able to work with MS. Are you talking about the Digital Signing that you see in Vista?

Testimonials: very good for site, helpful for ranking in that SEs give it extra benefit for establishing credibility. Not to mention that testimonials are generally thought of as being one of the stronger selling points that a business can have.

Also consider a Glossary page, google likes them and Google likes a Links page where you link to other sites offering some kind of related content. ie, if you sell Blue widgets, link to sites that sell Blue widget accessories.

quote:

Are you talking about the Digital Signing that you see in Vista?

Hi wrr

I presume that was intended for me.

As I'm somewhat 'out of touch' with things I had a look into that and it seems that is the 'start' of what I was talking about but in a 'let's give it a little try without pushing our luck too much' kind of ploy from ms.

But within about 5 seconds on Google I found how you get 'around it' and MS are not charging for the service ( apparently ) So they are obviously just testing the waters !

Really don't see the point of going vista even If I had the money anyway, but that's another topic !

Andy

I'm considering buying SS Pro, but I have a question related to getting ranked.

How would I designate header tags, like <H1>...</H1>? Appropriate header tags are pretty important for Google, etc.

Also - the website's search function isn't working. Is this a permanent condition?

Thanks in advance for replies.

Hi HitBeast,
Adding header tags in SS and SS Pro is very easy. You'll use the code editor, just write the tag in a normal way.
<h1>My Title</h1>
Place it where you want and you're good to go. There is very little if anything that can't be done in SS Pro and you'll find that these forums are the best support in the business.
wrr

btw: Getting ranked in the search engines isn't any different for SS vs. any other site editor. A bit of knowledge about SEO, which it seems you already have some, will get you where you want to go. I've several sites built using SS Pro and and have literally hundreds of top ten positions and several #1 positions.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wrr,

[QUOTE]Originally posted by wrr:
Yeah, I was curious about what you were saying mccifa, about the comments that MS has something new that is blocking stat counters. I'm aware that IE8 has a incognito mode but thought that just erased tracks on your own PC? Also FF has several addons that block any third party content, which would be the cookie that is set by Statcounter. Just saying, are you sure this is what is happening? After searching Statcounters 25,000+ post in their user forum, can't find mention of this problem. Would have thought it would be well discussed there.

QUOTE]

Hi wrr

The first I knew of this problem was when I bought a new laptop. Since then my daughter has bought a new one and I've had to buy a new PC. In all 3 cases the MS settings block information being passed to the likes of StatCounter and Google Analytics.

Nothing told me I don't think, but I noticed that on StatCounter my own visits weren't being recorded.

On further investigation (and I'm pretty sure I had some correspondence with StatCounter about this, though perhaps it wasn't in their best interests to publish it) it emerged that the security settings in MS were defaulted to blocking such info.

Perhaps it's only in the UK? Perhaps only through the one PC supplier we use? I don't know .... but if anyone has recently purchased a new computer an uses StatCounter/Google Analytics etc perhaps they can test theirs? Then if they check their security settings they may find that a couple of boxes are defaulted with a tick.

My problem is that I can't remember everything these days ... and to think when I studied Law that I had a photographic memory and could instantly recall the page layout and text of all my English Law books, resulting in the highest pass mark ever known at my college! Lucky old me ..... but not now. I even call my daughter by my sister's name on occasions! That rather upsets her .... and I can understand why .... but the old grey matter doesn't function as it used to, even though many wouldn't regard me as old.

So, sorry I can't help any more, but if someone else can look into this it might help. I am positive that MS had defaulted to blocking reporting systems - at least around here.

mccifa