No follow me? My feelings on rel="nofollow"

Every blog seems to have implemented the ol' rel="nofollow" on their comments' names elements by now. What that means is that the old Web marketing suggestion – post lots of comments around the Web using strategic keywords for your name – doesn't do anything anymore. For someone in Web marketing this is rather frustrating, but two years ago when I first saw this being implemented on a large scale it was obvious how necessary it was. That was also the time when Indian/Out-sourced SEO companies were really getting their footing and, well, the low hanging SEO fruit was to be had through blog comment backlinks I guess. On some of my properties I saw comments triple or more, at least 50% of which was all backlink spam disguised as thoughtful rhetoric like "I agree with the author."

I've been thinking about it all weekend as I have two clients that need to build traffic and Pagerank. When I tell them to post comments on other blogs I know that they won't be building PR, but they may get a few people clicking through to their URL if you write an interesting comment. That's a good thing, but is it proportional to the comparatively massive input? I'm not sure yet, but perhaps there is still opportunity in the content of the comment (if content is still king).

I have yet to do a comprehensive look at whether blog tools are implementing rel="nofollow" (also known as rank denial) on links within comment posts. Many blogs still don't tell you what HTML is and isn't okay, or if they're using abbreviated pseudo-code. In the process of guessing which, your comment (50% chance of double posting) ends up looking like backlink spam and we're back to where we started. Since most of these links are the deep-link kind that SEO-ers love and yet will struggle more and more to create, I can only hope Google provides more ranking weight to internal linking structure so that people can be a little more honest about their actual URLs (by posting to their homepage instead of a deep link).

I just found a new rel: rel="external nofollow", courtesy of Matt Cutts' blog comments whose blog I haven't looked at in a while (it used to guide my SEO practices quite heavily). Now I have to figure out what that is.

SEO is still a fast moving game. That said, by following some basic good practices and emphasizing great content, my most valuable Web properties have continued to increase readership despite a sagging topic and regional economy. My PR continues to go up on some of those pages. I guess I'm doing something right. I have yet to incorporate rel="nofollow" however, so either I'm missing out on hoarded PR or I'm just generous.

Back to my clients; they're writing great content, updating it often, yet the traffic just doesn't come. I think there's a great-content snowball effect on their traffic that they're missing out on because they don't have the initial Pagerank or traffic. Solutions? I'm guessing Digg, Reddit, non-spammy blog comments, cross-publishing, adwords... Anything definitive out there? Other ideas?

Finally!

Start celebrating the downfall of the suburbs, the truth is out!

Hot download speeds in the midwest

The fastest downloads I've experienced have been from a Cox connection in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Who'd have thought? How much faster would it have been in Springfield itself?

From speedtest.net:



By the way, their wifi technician said that the reason they need range extenders for the bungalow here at my gf's Uncle and Aunt's house is because of the lead plating in old mirrors. Have you heard of that before? I haven't.

Bad Google Ads

As an Adsense publisher, it concerns me when Google makes changes to their algorithms or their rules for ads.

This one concerns me on both those fronts:

style mob

I hate it when my good ideas show up on other people's sites.

For the gun lovers out there.

Detroit, Michigan: Population approx. 900,000. Homicides = 414 (2006)

Toronto, Ontario: Population approx. 2,500,000. Homicides = 99 (2006)

There were only 190 gun-related homicides (of a total of 605) in all of Canada in 2006.

Your state of Michigan alone had 643 homicides, 71% were gun-related.

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At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt

Funny McCain joke:
 
Did you hear the one about McCain and his wife? He was on the campaign trail with her during his first race for the U.S. Senate in 1992, with a nearby microphone, unbeknownst to him, turned on. Cindy ran her hand over top of her husband's hair and said: "You're getting a little thin up there." His response: "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt."

That is not a joke, though, it actually happened.


At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt

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