Buster Collings » Search Engines http://www.bustercollings.com/blog the official blog for Buster Collings (not Buster Collins) Wed, 19 Oct 2011 20:33:58 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= Google can crawl Javascript http://www.bustercollings.com/blog/2009/06/08/google-can-crawl-javascript/ http://www.bustercollings.com/blog/2009/06/08/google-can-crawl-javascript/#comments Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:21:41 +0000 Buster http://www.bustercollings.com/blog/?p=438 Micro$oft might be spending $100,000,000 dollars to convince you that they have developed a better search engine than Google, but Google’s I/O conference stirred up some conversations about the ability of Googlebot to crawl JavaScript. That’s a tremendous step forward for search engines. If it’s true it’s also a serious game changing feature; one that should shush those (like myself) who’ve been saying that Google has been neglecting it’s search engine and focusing too much on all the other stuff they’ve been building, buying and giving away. So, it seems that yes Google can and does crawl JavaScript.

Here are some articles that SEO experts should check out.. and you’ll get a whiff of how important JavaScript crawling is:

http://searchengineland.com/google-io-new-advances-in-the-searchability-of-javascript-and-flash-but-is-it-enough-19881

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/no-clarification-forthcoming-from-google-on-nofollow-pagerank-flow

http://searchengineland.com/google-loses-backwards-compatibility-on-paid-link-blocking-pagerank-sculpting-20408

]]> http://www.bustercollings.com/blog/2009/06/08/google-can-crawl-javascript/feed/ 0 Google Lengthens Snippets, But The Meta Description Still Important http://www.bustercollings.com/blog/2009/03/25/google-lengthens-snippets-but-the-meta-description-still-important/ http://www.bustercollings.com/blog/2009/03/25/google-lengthens-snippets-but-the-meta-description-still-important/#comments Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:33:54 +0000 Buster http://www.bustercollings.com/blog/?p=389 So recently Google officially released longer snippets on search results. There has been some chatter about this depreciating the value of the meta description. I have to play spoiler here and say I disagree.

The extended snippet stuff is great for long tail queries, like the many that I do when looking for programming information. Yet I don’t think it changes the importance of the meta description tag, especially for shorter search phrases.

Short snippets indicate tighter keyword proximity within the optimization of content; more precisely what the searcher is looking for. Longer snippets are only displayed when the keyword proximity is wider, therefore the content might not be precisely what the search is looking for, so that the searcher can better determine if the content on each page might have what they’re searching for.

Here’s some examples of tight keyword proximity within the content of the ranked pages, resulting in mostly short snippets:

“asp.net response.cookie expiration”

“Austin rodeo tickets”

Here’s some examples of loose keyword proximity within the content of the ranked pages, resulting in many long snippets:

“asp.net response.cookie expiration not working”

“can i watch the austin rodeo on tv”

So I stand by my opinion that body content and title tag are equally the best places to optimize for keywords and phrases to increase rankings, while the meta description is the best place to encourage a click through.

]]> http://www.bustercollings.com/blog/2009/03/25/google-lengthens-snippets-but-the-meta-description-still-important/feed/ 0 Unlcaimed Money in Texas http://www.bustercollings.com/blog/2007/10/23/unlcaimed-money-in-texas/ http://www.bustercollings.com/blog/2007/10/23/unlcaimed-money-in-texas/#comments Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:39:04 +0000 Buster http://www.bustercollings.com/blog/2007/10/23/unlcaimed-money-in-texas/ Texans, can you imagine being entitled to money or property that you aren’t even aware of… a friend, a family member or perhaps even you might have unclaimed money in Texas just waiting for you to claim it. it might be 2 dollars… or it might be 200 bucks or… well you can dream can’t you.. haha.

anyhow, i’ve never been one to scan through the long fine printed lists of names that the newspapers release from time to time… but my mom was telling me just yesterday that she got on to the Unclaimed Property Website of Texas and found money that cousin and stepfather owed. my cousins came from accounts her father had left behind, that nobody was aware of… and my stepdad had some money from an old job and some sort of credit account. nice! sadly nothing for me… sniffle sniffle. o yeah my mom also found a few hundred dollars that was owed to one of her friends… now that’s a good friend.

anyhow the website, unlike the unclaimed money lists that newspapers publish, is quick and easy to explore.

so, i suggest you at least spend a few minutes scanning cities and last names of your friends and family memebers and most importantly yourself :)

Find unclaimed money in Texas >> https://txcpa.cpa.state.tx.us/up/Search.jsp

]]> http://www.bustercollings.com/blog/2007/10/23/unlcaimed-money-in-texas/feed/ 0 Google Maps – My Maps http://www.bustercollings.com/blog/2007/04/05/google-maps-my-maps/ http://www.bustercollings.com/blog/2007/04/05/google-maps-my-maps/#comments Thu, 05 Apr 2007 20:39:20 +0000 Buster http://www.bustercollings.com/blog/2007/04/05/google-maps-my-maps/ google maps just got a lot cooler… imagine that. now you can create and share you’re own custom maps. this is going to be great for giving somebody custom directions. developers with the know-how should be able to integrate custom maps onto their site pretty easily. thanks again G!

take a test drive… here is a super cheesy map of >> my moring drive to work

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