ENB Web Optimization Seminar

Article published by the Entrepreneurs Network Barcelona

ENB Web Optimization Seminar

Thank you for all those who attended the Web Optimization Seminar at the last meeting. All but two people who had put their names down showed up, (please don’t put your name down for these events if you are unable to make them). The speakers definitely gave us all a real insight into the world of SEO. Unfortunately we were unable to have a full Q&A session afterwards but if you would like to contact any of the speakers Craig Mclaughlan, Daniel Lesser or Levien Eelman SEO specialist (Barcelona-webdesign.com), you will find them in the members look up section of the website. Photos of the last meeting can bee seen in the photo gallery section. We would also like to thank Marloes Damen who is the events and conventions manager of the Casanova Hotel for providing us with their facilities. Finaly, thanks to the speakers who gave the two minute presentations at the social. We hope that the standard of the presentations continues to improve as more people actually prepare their speeches and use it as a platform to promote themselves effectively. Please spread the word about ENB and visit the website regularly to keep up to date with what is going on. If anyone has any useful information about the world of entrepreneurship in Barcelona send us an email or make a comment on the site for others to read. The network aims to be a resource for the members but it can only work if the members help as well.

Thanks the Entrepreneurs Network Barcelona team

Craig Mclaughlan SEO Expert Levien Eelman SEO Expert (www.Barcelona-Webdesign.com)

Some Members of ENB

Google Quality Raters report leaked

A forty five page, up-to-date Google report has been leaked. It provides updated guidelines for Google’s Quality Raters.

Section four of the report, starting on page 32, discusses “spam”. Google says these are pages designed by webmasters to trick search engine robots and direct traffic to their websites.

Pages generally should NOT be marked Spam if they provide added value. Examples of content that provides added value include:

- Price comparison functionality.
- Product reviews.
- Recipes.
- Lyrics and quotes.
- Contact information, especially physical addresses and phone numbers.
- Coupon, discount and promotion codes.

The document can be found here

http://www.barcelona-webdesing.com/downloads/quality-rater-guidelines.pdf

The most interesting part starts at page 32.

Google gives several pages of examples of what it regards as Webspam. They include fake message boards, fake blogs, fake directories, parked domains, sneaky redirects, keyword stuffing, hidden text, and hidden links. Google explains how to switch off Javascript to see if it is being used to hide text. Horizontal lines or bars can also hide text. Google also knows that CSS can be used hide text.

Spam can also involve scraped content from such sources as Wikipedia, DMOZ and RSS news feeds, combined with PPC ads.

“The important thing to remember,” Google says, “is that if the scraped (copied) content is removed and all that remains is ads, it is Spam.”

Fortunately, if you’re sensible enough to be providing useful, original content, your pages should be regarded as OK.

Are you wondering if any of your pages qualify as “Webspam”? Here’s the test…

“If I remove the copied content, scraped news feeds, fake forums and blogs, thin affiliate links, parked/expired domain links, and all that is left are PPC ads and sponsored links, the page is probably spam.”

good luck!
Team Barcelona