One month

My site has now been live for about a month–I launched it during SES San Jose (I wrote a few test posts before that to get the hang of WordPress, but the site wasn’t visible until a month ago). I’ve learned that making new content is time-consuming. And I’ve got a better appreciation for the things that a site owner faces, like a server going down. It’s been a blast though. I’m delighted to see that over 440 people are subscribed to me on Bloglines. Jeremy Zawodny has about 4215 subscribers across his feeds. So I hit over 100 milli-Zawodnys in just a month–woohoo! πŸ™‚

I have a few topics I plan to talk about, but let me know what you’d like to see. More gadget posts? (“Matt: How do I install SlimServer on a Buffalo LinkStation?”) More SEO posts? (“Matt: what do you look for in a reinclusion request?”) More reviews? (“Matt: what did you think of Mike Moran’s and Bill Hunt’s new book about Search Engine Marketing? Either that, or the latest Harry Potter book. Your choice.”). More bloggy posts? (“Matt: where’s the pictures of your cat?”) Lemme know what you’d like to see.

76 Responses to One month (Leave a comment)

  1. You’re kidding, right?
    SEO.

  2. what say about more SE posts? something like..what are the reasons for blocking the sites and yes like you mentioned in your post “what do you look for in a reinclusion request?” these kind of questions can clear lot of doubts in the minds of the user..

    Regards
    Deep

  3. Stick to the insight on technology and business you can offer us that will actually be valuable. Frankly I don’t care about your personal life. Reading bloggers blab on about their personal life details, or talk shit about things they are not experts on really ‘Grinds My Gears.’

  4. Personally, I read your blog for the Google insights – half Google SEO insights, and half insights from a great Google mind, not necessarily about Google, but about the morphing web in general from a Google perspective.

  5. Hi Matt,
    I think everybody’s waiting for the definitive post “How to rank #1” πŸ˜‰
    I think it would be funny πŸ™‚

    Cheers

  6. Matt,

    I’ve been reading your blog for almost a month now and I’ve been enjoying it greatly. So congratulations on you success, you certainly deserve it.

    As far as posts go, I would love to see more SEO posts or just search engine news in general. When I’m blogging on SEO, your blog is among the first sources I refer to. Keep it up and congratulations again,

    Ignat

  7. Matt – please do a post on 301 redirects and best practices for moving a website. This has been a hot issue recently in other venues (wmw).

  8. Hi Matt,

    How about making some comments about using titles and descriptions from DMOZ and the on going rumour that Randfish reported where DMOZ editors are doing the following.

    This editor’s technique, as he controls some real estate categories at DMOZ, is to edit the titles and descriptions to be as bad as possible in terms of marketability

    There is a good thread over at Nick’s on it.
    http://www.threadwatch.org/node/3781

  9. Hi! I’m from Poland. What I would like to see on your blog is more SEO posts. I would even like to take a part in discussion about webpositioning. Hope to see more SEO posts. Keep it real!

  10. More SEO posts shall be highly appreciated πŸ˜‰

  11. Seo Posts.

  12. I would like more Google/SEO posts.

    Best regards,
    John

  13. definitely more SEO πŸ˜‰

  14. More SEO posts πŸ™‚

  15. I’m curious to know how much weight is given by .gov, .edu, .org links and what each is worth as opposed to a .com link and lets say I have a clean website, great content, everything unique and I’m hosted on a seperate IP but on a server that hosts 200 other domains which are mostly pornography related – how much influence does that play a role in a site’s rankings?

    Great blog Matt….good luck!

  16. Hey Matt –

    The SEO tips are tops for me…

    But…how about some Hawaii Pix or notes? We were there in March and I got some nice lava pix from a few miles past the end of chain of craters road. Hope you also had a great trip.

  17. Debunking SEO myths like two posts ago, and any inside into Google, even if it’s not directly related to the core technology. IE: What’s so great about the food, does everyone have herman miller chairs or what software/hardware do you use on your desktops?

  18. All of the above. But only if your cat is cute.
    Oh, and no cheese sandwiches, please.

  19. Matt: If you talk about ‘peanut butter’ sandwiches I’m sure everybody will be interested. πŸ™‚

    I would like to hear about how writing good credible content is going to out weight the billions of pages of crappy spam out there.

    I’ve committed to writing high quality – credible pages, however, I feel like I’m getting drowned out by spam.

    I’m really interested to hear about this.

    BTW… I’m not subscribed to Jeremy Jawodny!!

  20. I know that you started this blog as a result of someone saying that you don’t know what it’s like to have a website, or something along those lines, but you still don’t know what it’s like to have a website, Matt. This blog doesn’t compare at all to someone starting a website and trying to get it ranked reasonably well in Google, only to find that Google doesn’t want to treat it fairly and equally with similar websites for quite a long time (i.e. the sandbox). And it doesn’t give you any experience of having a website doing reasonably well, and then suddenly it does badly because some search enine changes its algorithm. This blog won’t help you to get a feel for the ‘other’ side, but it’s very interesting just the same, and it does give us a place to say what we think and know that we are being heard.

    Personally, I would like to see more entries about the way that Google does things. For instance, one of your engineers recently explained to someone how Google handles a site that has a sudden and very large increase of pages. His exaggerated example was, if a 2-page site suddenly adds 10,000 pages …. From what he said, we can assume that a sudden and large influx of IBLs is handled in the same sort of way. I think of it as profiling. I would like to hear more about things like that.

    The one thing that I think most people would like to know about is the so-called sandbox. There are many theories around as to whether or not something specific exists, and, if it does, what exactly it is. There are even theories stated in the comments in this blog. But they are all just theories/guesses. We would like some definitive statements about it, and about why Google doesn’t give new sites a fair shake.

  21. > More SEO posts?

    Yes, yes, and yes.

  22. I’d like to see:

    1) Some infos about your role in Google. Do you write code, sometimes?

    2) An explanation of that “pizza service”.

    3) Opinions about webmaster tools you use and like.

    4) Opinions about my Amazing SE Antispam Algorithms (TM).

    5) A weekly recipe of what you eat at Google. Pasta recipes, mainly.

    6) Clarifications about strange Google’s behaviours. Possibly with commented source code. πŸ˜€

  23. I would like to see more discussion on optimizing for google’s services. Obviously PageRank and AdSense (are those $100 AdSense Tips books worth it?) tips are always helpful. I’ve been reading you for a bit and loved the previous posts.

    Reviews are cool, if they are related to your interests, nothing worse than having to write about something you couldn’t care about – – though I don’t know if you want to spend your blog time with Google on your mind either.

    I don’t see too many being interested in pictures of your cat, though I’m not an animal owner so…

    But hey, one question, I’ve always wondered, who draws those great specialized google logos for like Halloween, Thanksgiving and Xmas? I love those.

    Alan Lastufka
    http://www.myspace.com/alanlastufka

  24. Hi Matt:
    I would be interested to hear about how to help good quality content outweigh spammy web page content.

    I have been writing high quality – credible content, and I’m afraid it’s getting outweighed by the sea of spam.

  25. More_SEO_posts++;

  26. SEO, SEO, SEO! OK, well maybe a gadget here and there – most of those go over my head. But I soak up all the SEO I can get…

    Which brings me to a question. If I write my menu in javascript, can the bots follow the internal links? Or do they not see them at all? I’m soooo tired of having to change hundreds of pages whenever I add or drop a product. Or plan B: if the index page has all the internal links, but the balance of the pages have the links in javascript?

  27. More SEO/Google posts.

    Please don’t use Zawodny as a role model.

  28. Okay, so I’m hearing votes for more SEO-related posts. πŸ™‚

    Alan, the guy that does the logos is Dennis Hwang. There was a good article about him 2-3 years ago. Ah, here it is:
    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2002/03/03/financial1431EST0028.DTL&type=tech

  29. Guess I’m with the majority this time, I’m definitely tuned in to learn about SEO, but would also like to know more about the history of Google, how they got to be #1, etc. BTW, I bought the book about Google after reading your review, and eagerly await it to arrive in the mail.

  30. Maybe just some blogs on the day to day activity at one of the worlds most successful companies? it would be great to get an insiders thoughts on what has made google great, what does G do differently and how does it think differently ? Im sure its not all technical advantages ? Cheers (burp)

  31. Matt,

    Obviously most would like you to spill you guts about everything Google. Obviously that isnt going to happen. I appreciate the myth buster info and any SEO stuff you care to offer. The more the better.

    philC makes an excellent point though about your blog not being a real fair test or taste of what webmasters tend to feel that they are up against. Just the fact that it is yours gives you a huge advantage with authority links.

    Why dont you start fresh and with a psuedonym. Register a new domain and build a website about whatever – cats, a directory of places to get good pasta in NorCal, SEO or whatever. But see for your self what its like to be Ma & Pa Kettle trying to put up a new site. Then gives us 3 month updates. That’s stuff I want to read.

  32. I’d like to hear more about Google’s infrastructure. Rob Pike gave a talk at the uni here in March on the language used to access the backend data store, and that was fascinating.

  33. Thanks Matt, not only for the link but for the interesting blog as well. I now have your RSS feeding into Opera to keep me updated. πŸ™‚

  34. The almost-promised post(s) about the differences between the approaches taken by Yahoo Search and Google–i.e. the idea that Yahoo is more open to human intervention as discussed in Battele’s book– would be appreciated. Also, how about a post about the significance (or lack thereof) of the remarkable lack of overlap in SERPs from Yahoo, MSN Search, and Google, as discussed in the papers by Dogpile.com, et al. Are the search results different in some consistent fashion or is it all random? For example, why does the Wikipedia article on “Web 2.0”–when searched for by article title–not show up as a Google SERP, as far as I can tell–looking at the first 700+ results, but is ranked third or fourth by Yahoo Search?

  35. Matt pleace !!! without SEO, only normal problem, new operators, new technology, for seo is too more blogs πŸ™‚

  36. Hi Matt

    Love your blog – every morning, it is the first thing I check (after I check my earnings for the night) πŸ˜‰

    I will like to take a peek in the Google Guy’s mind (not the WMW GoogleGuy, people like you).

    What’s a typical day like, how much argument you allow/disallow when discussing policies and algos?

    How do you stay calm and not react when there is a lot of bashing going on on various SE forums, specially after an algo update?

    Your take on the FAQs like reinclusion, site exclusion by hand, how to rank at #1 – not in officialese but a more pratical, webmaster type informal comment.

    Meanwhile, you are going great guns, keep it up πŸ™‚

    Arun

  37. I like how the SEO folks ask you not to use me as a role model. Classic! πŸ™‚

    If I didn’t know better, I’d think folks were trying to pigeon hole you here…

  38. > but let me know what you’d like to see.

    at first – no nofollow πŸ™‚

    a good mix of all topics. i like it as it is.

    and perhaps some more answers (it’s time consuming, i know)

  39. 1. Why does google continue to use DMOZ instead of starting your own directory ?

    2. How much vetting do you go through when you post more serious company stuff ? Do you bounce it of the PR department, Sergey, and the company cat ? Honestly why should I believe you, What’s google position on bloggers in the company ?

    3. I couldn’t think of a witty question. But netiquette demands the third one be the witty one liner. Sorry this is where it was to be.

  40. No, we’re saying don’t use Zawodny as a role model because his blog isn’t useful for anything except stroking his own ego.

  41. Hi Matt,

    I think that you are doing quite a good job if this is your first webmaster experience. Like PhilC said, it won’t, however give you the real feel of the business.

    As far as posts go, more technical issues which webmasters would be interested in. Yout weighing of links and so on.

  42. I read this blog purely for the NON google stuff, in fact I don’t even think you work for Google if you ask me. and that came from my mate GoogleGal on Webmasterworld.

    And if you are such a Google expert why dont you talk about Adwords eh, isnt that how Google make their money, these SEO folks never pay you a dime do they ?

    Huh, eh, laptop bags at dawn ?

  43. Definetely want to see picture of your cat ;).

    Also one love one day to have some more information on 301s and Canonical urls – please ? πŸ™‚

  44. pictures of your CAR.. and Diet tips πŸ˜‰

    DaveN

  45. Search Gadgets?

  46. SEO posts because i want to learn
    Google posts because i like to dream

    thanks for this blog

  47. I read your blog in the hope that when you talk about SEO I will fathom out where Im going wrong with my site!!! I don’t want to be no.1 for selling casinos or viagra, I simply would love to know about problems having my site refreshed like I did before.

    Mick

  48. Hi Matt,

    Do you know what? I quite like to read whatever you feel like posting about. It’s a great way to see what gets into your mind and the sort of concepts/angles/lateral thinking steps you might go through.

    I wouldn’t want you to become disenchanted with the blog (we all go through ‘blog burn out phases’ anyway) because of the public mantra of “seo, seo, seo”.

    If you’re searching for topics, though, what about; “What do you think will be important/interesting on the Net in 5 years time?”

  49. Congrats to the 1 month anniversary.

    How about some more gadgets? I love shopping tech stores in the US because there’s so much stuff we don’t have in Europe. Some cool ideas would definetly help me shopping for such stuff next time.

  50. I vote for gadget and book reviews and general ‘Life of Matt’ stuff.

  51. I would liek to hear what Google is doing to eliminate spam sites fron the Index. I work for FindLaw.com which has built 7,000 plus websites for attorneys. As a divison of Thomson we use very conservative SEO practices and have a team of content writes to help our attorney clients create useful information for potential clients. Our clients get upset when they see websites with zero useful content and spammy links and nothing but Google adwords show up in fornt of their carefully constructed 25 page sites with actual relevant content. I often find websites with hundreds of script generated semi nonsensical pages and crosslinked domains showing up in the first page of google. One example today is searching on “dui attorney seattle” and resultr # 9 is this badjocks.com/dui/ seattle-washington-dui-lawyer-resource-page.htm – I report bad sites in google spam report but new sites show up every week for common divorce attorney, criminal defense attorney type searches. The irony is many sites are set up solely to make money on Google Adsense and they are gaming Google search engine. Any comments or suggestions for those that follow Google suggested guidelines and see this constant flow of sites designed only to sell PPC beating sites with relevant content. thanks for any insight you can share.

  52. Just to make a change from the SEO demands … I’m a researcher and I’m interested in search. I’ve been fascinated to watch Google developing into multiple SEs for different content. Is this the way search is going? Will we reach a point where the general-purpose SE trying to index the entire Internet is obsolete?

  53. Posts I’d like to see…

    False positives — keeping legit web sites from being adversely affected by anti-spam measures.

    White-hat SEO — putting up something that people really want to read will get you more incoming links and make you come up higher in the long run. Right?

    Google’s current DMCA takedown/put back policy

    “FOG Camp”. The owners of the top 100 pages for a search on [ I want to go to FOG Camp ] will be invited to a weekend campout BBQ/SEO seminar.

    But basically if it’s something you really want to write about it’s more likely to be good to read.

  54. Matt,

    I’d really like to know more about how Google determines and reacts to trust. You’ve eluded to it many times and I know Google has trademarked “trustrank”. I’ve seen many forum posts and even read a whitepaper at Stanford that builds off the PR model. Is trust only related to spam, or does it effect the SERPs in other ways?

    Thank you!

  55. I am a librarian and I would love to hear more about Google/library collaborations. Where do you see Google heading in terms of making print collections accessible to patrons/searchers?

    SEO stuff is OK but don’t go overboard on addressing it. Most of Google users know nothing (and could care less) about SEO. However, lots of these same Google users would love to hear about Google plans and how Google is attempting to make the Web easier to search.

  56. More Google nuggets! I love the insider’s view of Google you give us, from both a technical and cultural standpoint. Google is a fascinating company that shapes a lot of worlds — it’s cool to hear about the human elements that drive it.

    This is a fascinating blog and I can’t wait to read more. Keep up the good work!

  57. I read mattcutts.com for the cat info

  58. Hi Matt, I see you’ve discovered (as I had) that people are nuts for any information about Google – especially the inner workings of the search engine algorithm. I didn’t even work on anything remotely close to the engine and I’ve got hundreds of unanswered e-mails from people asking me detailed questions about how the rankings work.

    Good luck blogging and of course, don’t follow my lead πŸ˜‰

  59. How about you tell us what you think are some of the coolest or most underutilized tools at Google or Google labs

  60. I’d love to see your kitty and the “LASER” – I’ve enjoyed all that you’ve sent along so far… πŸ™‚

  61. More seo guide lines and some more of your expiriance with SE spam web sites, google filtering etc.

  62. Thanks for your blog and your insight into Google.

    What I would like are more consturctive SEO tips, not to get ahead, but things that can add value to a site and also as a side effect help keep a clean SERP. The recent tests with the links below a SERPs listing, is a step in the right direction and I hope it eradicates 1000s of highly optomised pages from the same sites cluttering up the SERPs.

    Just to stay there or there abouts in Google is a nightmare, especially if your site is only small and I find myself having to resort more and more to borderline SPAM SEO to maintain a decent position. I hate having to do this and have tried to “de-optimising” a few times to see what happens, but SPAM especially ADSENSE no value sites, rise to the top again.

    As a webmaster who is also a web browser anything that I can do that helps keep the SERPs clean would be great recieved!!

  63. I would like to see more about the pitfalls of SEO and how to avoid and get out of them. Being a new site owner I really got a lot out of your notes regarding dupicate content and linking.

    I read your blog every morning while in Miami traffic on my Blackberry…call me addicted or crazy.

  64. More SEO!

  65. hi Matt,

    more seo posts and more seo posts πŸ™‚ our daily bread

  66. Hi Matt

    Great blogg… keep up the good work. The question I would like answering is whether a once banned web site is still penalised in some way once it is back in the Google index.

  67. Matt!

    Hey, how about posting some signals of quality on something for breakfast like
    where to get some downhome cooking out there in San Jose. Now I understand why everyone is so dang skinny. I couldn’t find fried ANYTHING.

    There were plenty of “bait shops,” (sushi) but I’m used to Mamaw’s cooking down here in Mississippi,!

    Oh, posting about SEO would be interesting, too.

    — Rob

  68. To those who don’t want to read anything besides Matt’s insights on Google, you don’t know jack, or Matt. He’s an incredibly amazing person who has a lot more to offer to the world than SEO tips, which many sites already cover.

    I want to see those cat photos… preferably a video with them chasing the laser lights. πŸ™‚

  69. Isn’t it obvious? more of cats! Cats date from egiptians, SEO dates from…err…wait…ok…more SEO!

  70. Hi Matt,

    I would like to read about Google adwords tips/trips

    Good read congratulations.From a Kiwi downunder.

    cheers from

    Grant
    New Zealand.

  71. Hi Matt,

    I have read your whole blog and study SEO the most I can. Please provide more in the field of SEO/Google, thanks.

  72. Matt,

    How does Google handle https vs. http links? For a site that has a SSL in place, typically the entire site works under https, but typically only those areas that need https are linked/referenced accordingly.

    For example, http://www.somesite.com is indexed, but https://www.somesite.com works too. How does Google determine to display the http or https version? Is there a way to specify which places you want Google to reference the https v. http page?

  73. Just curious why are you using WordPress instead of Blogger ?

    Maybe you could add an article about clean seo to this blog. I’m not talking about ‘how to push a new useless sites that are filled with adsense’ but a real good content site.
    I know you’re not going to publish details but I think their are enough honest people out there struggling against spammy seos.

  74. Explain why having a quality site that happens to get a DMOZ listing and thus a hundred dmoz-feed backlinks in the span of a month or so gets penalized. Considering DMOZ is supposed to only let the BEST of the BEST in, this would seem counterintuitive.

    Granted Google doesn’t care about the marginal individual, but rather the largest makeup of users, still this Sandbox (IBL filter) needs a little bit of work to stop hurting good sites.

  75. How about pics from all of those vacations at Bellagio Las Vegas? πŸ˜‰

    Missed ya in London!

    Joe

  76. How about you come visit in Italy? In Italy there are really lack of search engine experts. Just take a look to that lame virigilio.it …sad.

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