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Posts tagged Google
The Importance of Canonical Link Element
Oct 11th
In sometime mid February this year, the three big search engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN/Live) gang up to announce a coordinated effort and it is wise for us to take this matter seriously. It is about the canonical page and canonical link element.
Many people might not heard of this canonical page and canonical link element. So I just briefly explain what is it:
Due to the use of dynamic URLs, one single web page can have more than 1 valid urls (address) pointing to it. For example:
www.yoursite.com
yoursite.com
www.yoursite.com/
yoursite.com/
www.yoursite.com/index.html
yoursite.com/index.html
www.yoursite.com/Home.aspx
yoursite.com/Home.aspx
http://www.yoursite.com
http://yoursite.com
http://www.yoursite.com/index.html
http://yoursite.com/index.html
http://www.yoursite.com/Home.aspx
http://yoursite.com/Home.aspx
https://www.yoursite.com
Of which the official one (or your most preferred version) is www.yoursite.com. So the page at www.yoursite.com is call the canonical page. A canonical page is the preferred version of a set of pages with highly similar content.
However, if you don’t tell the search engines which one is your canonical page, they might not know which one it is, as such, they will just select one of the URL and flagged others as DUPLICATE CONTENTS!
That’s why now with the introduction of this canonical link element, you have to add the line of code in all your other non-canonical pages to identify your canonical page. Your problem can be solved by adding a <link> element with the attribute rel=”canonical” to the <head> section of the non-canonical version of the page. Adding this link and attribute lets site owners identify sets of identical content and suggest to Search Engines: “Of all these pages with identical content, this page is the most useful. Please prioritize it in search results.”
From the above example, this is how you specify your canonical link element in one of the non-canonical page e.g. https://www.yoursite.com:
<link rel=”canonical” href=”http://www.yoursite.com”/>
Add this line of code to the <head> section of the non-canonical page.
If you are using CMS, you can just hardcode the canonical URL into the section (please make sure you test and confirm) so that any duplicate variants of that URL should still contain the correct canonical URL inside.
One more important point to take note is Google currently will take canonicalization suggestions into account across subdomains (or within a domain), but not across domains. So site owners can specify a canonical page on www.yoursite.com from a set of pages on yoursite.com or help.yoursite.com, but not on yoursite-blog.com.
Take a look at this video from Matt Cutts on the details on Canonical Link Element:
For those of you who use WordPress, there is a plugin by Joost de Valk – Canonical URL’s that you can install, very useful.
Matt Cutts Revealed a Secret Feature of Google Reader
Oct 10th
I found this video on Youtube where Matt Cutts revealed the hidden gems of Google.
It is call Google Reader – The Ninja Mode:
Got it? Can you see the Ninja?
If can’t, please try the following steps in sequence:
Press the “up” arrow twice
Press the “down” arrow twice
Press the “left” arrow once
Press the “right” arrow once
Press the “Left” arrow once
Press the “right” arrow once
Press the “b” key
Press the “a” key
Ok, now I hope you can see the Ninja!
It is actually the Konami code.
By the way, you can just enter the code again to make them invisible.
Have fun!
Search Engines Optimization Expectations
Mar 20th
10 search engine optimization expectations you need to understand when trying to rank well on the major search engines like Google.
Internet Marketing – Search Engine Optimization – Google
Mar 17th
PPC SEM SEO Search Engine Optimization Internet Marketing Website Prime Visibility Design Web Analytics Google Yahoo MSN
Internet Marketing – Search Engine Optimization – Google
Mar 10th
Google Boys. Andrew Hazen, President of Prime Visibility speaks with Google Boys regarding Search Engine Optimization and Marketing. PPC SEM SEO Search Engine Optimization Internet Marketing Website Prime Visibility Design Web Analytics Google Yahoo MSN
Google Zeitgeist 2008 – Malaysiakini on No.1 Fastest Rising!
Feb 14th
Google Zeitgeist is an exercise that studying the aggregation of the billions of search queries that people type into the Google search box. Below are the lists for Malaysia, I’m not sure if it is the latest, but it is on Google Zeitgeist site right now.
Each of these lists shows the fastest rising searches, meaning these were the search terms that saw the largest increase in searches during 2008, as compared to 2007. Take a look below to get sense of the zeitgeist, or spirit of the times, in Malaysia for 2008!
Fastest Rising
- malaysiakini
- harakah
- tv3
- malaysia today
- rapidshare
- blogspot
- youtube
- malaysian insider
- beijing 2008
Most Popular
- youtube
- yahoo
- friendster
- utusan
- mp3
- games
- map
- lyrics
- myspace
Google News local searches
- ibiden asia
- anwar ibrahim
- datuk seri
- olympic badminton results
- chua soi lek
- malaysian election results
- malaysia budget 2009
- malaysia new cabinet
- permatang pauh election
- gamuda bhd
Local celebrities
- anwar ibrahim
- barack obama
- lim kit siang
- chua soi lek
- mahathir mohamad
- miley cyrus
- lee chong wei
- tony pua
- hannah montana
- siti nurhaliza
Local travel destinations
- terengganu
- pulau tioman
- genting highland
- port dickson
- melaka
- penang
- pulau perhentian
- bukit tinggi
- sunway lagoon
- selangor
Car brands
- perodua nautica
- toyota rush
- proton mpv
- proton blm
- honda city
- proton saga
- grand livina
- honda accord
- myvi
- honda civic
Source : Google Zeitgeist 2008
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
-- Aldous Huxley
-- Aldous Huxley