facesærch blog

URL shorteners are in (thx to http://twitter.com/), not all url shorteners are nice to websites, a lot of them use frames (which are not cool for SEO) oh yeah, and in some cases the frames even break google analytics tracking code in IE6 (yeah, stupid IE6). that’s why it is a viable option to use so called framebusters.

i.e.: searchengine land uses this simple code

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
if (top.location!= self.location) {
top.location = self.location.href
}
//-->
</script>

ok, the challenge with this approch is: if you get a lot of refereed inframe traffic you suddenly get a lot direct traffic as this javascript mumbo jumbo looses the original referrer.

how to fix this

there is an undocumented GA function
( thx to http://www.prusak.com/google-ananlytics-initial-referrer-update/ )

pageTracker._setReferrerOverride()

we adapt this framebuster script

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
if (top.location!= self.location) {
document.cookie = "realreferrer="
+encodeURIComponent(document.referrer)+"; path=/";
top.location = self.location.href
}
else
{
function readCookie(name) {
var nameEQ = name + "=";
var ca = document.cookie.split(";");
for(var i=0;i < ca.length;i++) {
var c = ca[i];
while (c.charAt(0)==” “) c = c.substring(1,c.length);
if (c.indexOf(nameEQ) == 0)
   return c.substring(nameEQ.length,c.length);
}
return “”;
}

var realreferrer = decodeURIComponent(readCookie(”realreferrer”));
document.cookie = “realreferrer=; path=/”;
–>
</script>

oh yeah, and you adapt your tracking code to something like this

<script type="text/javascript">
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-XXXXXX-Y");
if (realreferrer.length > 0) {
pageTracker._setReferrerOverride(realreferrer);
}
pageTracker._trackPageview();
</script>

now the real referrer is submited (and then deleted) via cookie to frameless page. where it is submitted to the holy google analytics. job done, traffic referrer stats rule again.

I normally don’t blog about web-trending topics (or do i?) but well, amazon.com, a beloved and very powerful bookseller, just went full time homophobic. i respect successful companies, but it seems there is really a point when a big company becomes

• evil
• stupid

Some links: You can read more about the topic here and here, and a great open letter to amazon and you can follow a livestream of amazonfail at all140.com real time news.

Oh yeah, and Amazon Rank!

On Feb. 12 2009 Google announced the support of the new Canonical-Tag. Basically you can now specify the preferred URL you want Google to associate with a specific webpage.

<link rel=”canonical” href=”http://www.example.com/url/here” />

So cool.

After implementing it on various properties and checking the use of it on other websites there are a few findings:

• It’s immense powerful!
• For Google it’s basically a HTTP 301 permanent redirect.
• Without the actual redirect.
• It’s easy to implement.
• No design or function change for human users.

After implementation you see first effects about 10 to 14 days later, depending on your indexing speed. If you have a grown, messy site it will give you a big plus SEO wise.

Now the downside:

powerful + easy + lack of feedback  = source of possible devastating errors

The minor errors i have seen:

Wrong markup

• <link  rel=”canonical” content=”http://www.example.org/url/here”>

As SEOs are used to deal with meta tags, we write a lot of stuff in meta-tags (robots, description, …). The canonical element is not an meta-tag, it’s a link-tag (like external CSS or RSS referrers).

The consequence is quite harmless: you implemented something without effect. It only becomes an issue if your implement logic on top of it, or look for a reaction and see none. A popular wordpress theme made this mistake, and i got caught up in a serious twitterfigth by pointing it - impolite (sorry) - out.

Typo that leads to an HTTP 404

• <link rel=”canonical” href=”http://www.example.com/urlh/ere” />

The typo (/urlh/ere instead of /url/here) leads to an error (most common HTTP 404 file not found) page.

Google follows this lead, sees that something is wrong, keeps on continuing his work without any consequences. Again not a biggy until you implement something on top of it or wait for a reaction.

Major errors

Typo that leads to an HTTP 200 or HTTP 301 / HTTP 302

• <link rel=”canonical” href=”http://www.example.com/url/hier” />

If /url/hier exists (HTTP 200) or instead of an HTTP 404 triggers a redirect to somewhere else (i.e. the startpage) you communicated to Google that the page the canonical tag is on placed on is not valid, and another page is the right one. Google does not hesitate to kick the original URL out of the index, and goes to the ‘canonical’ one instead.

If the error is systematically (on a lot of pages) you will butcher your search engine traffic in no time (10 days). The shit thing is: mistakes happen, and especially if you don’t see any real time feedback.

Also if you update your URL structure or your redirect logic, but forget to update your canonical you will run into major issues.

Conclusion: The canonical tag is a present from god Google. Due to the lack of direct feedback also a source of possible devasting errors.

Help: A simple JS Greasemonkey script which shows the canonical tag in the upper right corner (if it is sepcified).

everybody knows HTML, the stuff websites are made of. HTML - as intended by sir tim berners lee - was a simple construction to makes text a little bit more useful (he called it “hypertext”). It was simple, cool and a disruptive innovation. And for a time, it was good.

Then came the modern - graphical user interface - browsers. And suddenly simple was not good enough and design as added. And simple HTML was misused to create something like tagsoup. An ugly mishmash of tags that fought a never ending war against each other. It was ugly and a crime against technology.

The thing with “never ending war” is, that the war is still ongoing. Startups with HTML sites as ugly as if your grandfather would suddenly have a second puberty. Sites that have HTML so misused that tim berners lee rotates in his grave (actually, he is still alive and i hope he stays so for a long long time, but he would rotate anyway). Believe me, it’s an ugly HTML world out there.

But - where there is darkness there must be light - there is a small PSD2HTML company called psdslicing.com which produces the most beautiful HTML i have ever seen in my whole career. Pure semantic XHTML, CSS, WAI conform code that just makes me (and probably tim) more than happy.

They cost 159$ per PSD (PSD = photoshop image you want to get sliced into beautiful HTML), you get 5 revisions free, and they usually deliver in just 2 working days.

CC Maco Gomes via flickr

I have worked with webdesign companies which charged for a similar work 1000% more, and delivered a much, much, much, much lower quality work after 20 times the time. (I’m in the business for more than 10 years, i have seen everything….).

So if you need you PSD sliced, just send them your design - pay - and make me, the internet and your users happy.

Their HTML is a thing of beauty!

nofollow bookmarklet - just drag and drop into the bookmarks bar.

First of all:i coded this for me, not for you! Because i deem it useful. Basically i came to realize that in my job of checking and optimizing websites and their brand visibility i came to use twitter search more and more often. So saving a few seconds per search i integrated Twitter in Google.

This script was recommended by Matt Cutts! Cool!

So now after you install

• Greasemonkey and the
• Google Twitter integration script

you get

yeah, look, there is a new unobtrusive twitter link in the blue bar (next to Groups in this case). Click it and …ta da…

the last ten tweets about the topic (via twitter search)
Oh yeah, of course the twitter link only shows up if there was something found via twitter.

Why is it important: After thinking about Twitter and using it for a while i realize it will become an underlying communication layer of coming real time web (and the mobile web). Google hasn’t realized it yet to it’s full extend. Information in twitter is faster available because it does not need to be indexed by Google to get found, it has it’s own search - It’s Google independent and has a speed advantage. On the other side Google is my One-Stop-Shop for information. So either i would have to leave my beloved one-stop-shop to get this valueable information or i fix it. Thx to Greasmonkey it’s only about an hour worth of work to fix a website. Have fun.

Oh yeah, the script is in an CC do whatever you want LGPL license.

time to spread the word about some personal blogs I’m currently reading

dr. lukas zinnagl (yeah, he is a real doctor - the one who helps people) blogger and networking (so people to people and the business behind them) genius

and vanileah - social media PR professional - who starts a worldwide travel adventure in a few days - and blogs about it. the perfect blog for all people stuck in the office.

There is a newer version of the script - check it out!

can you spot the little difference on this Google search result page?

yeah, there is a little, nice “Twitter” link in the blue bar, next to the fat “Web“, a click on it jumps the search result page down to:

yeah, the top 10 tweets (via the twitter search).

basically i have been using twitter a lot in the last time - both active as a tweet-tweeter and passive for research. Googles coverage of twitter can be seen as quite pore (seems instead of organizing the worlds information they seem to be more busy to force half baked wiki functions down our throat) so this

firefox greasemonkey script “google twitter”

fixes this.

hope you like it, oh and if you don’t have greasemonkey installed, you can get it here. if you want to follow me on twitter just check out my feed.

the perfect song for jobinterviews and problem solving meetings. problems in project managment don’t exit a prioir, people create them. most of the time a change in perspective helps.

and i know it’s cliche, but it works: call them “challenges”, “ventures” or just “things we fix now” but not the big bad P word.

SEO instead of URLs. I love it.

via Cable