If you have to do things over and over again, it’s a good idea to use a tool to make things easier. Windows is a bit limited (or very - when compared to Linux) when it comes to batch file scripts and “wget” is limited to what it can do right out the box, so I sat down and wrote a few command line tools to help me with some of the website checks that I like to do.

The tools I included in this set can do the following:

• Check the result codes for a URL (and follow in the case of a redirect) - or for a list of URLs
• Create a list of the links found on a URL (or just particular ones)
• Create a list of the links and anchor texts found on a URL (or just particular ones)
• Create a simple keyword analysis of the indexable content on a URL

Continue reading ‘A set of command-line Windows website tools’ »

Hi Craig, welcome to my blog ! Craig is, for those that haven’t noticed, an alien from some solar system far away. At least that’s the conclusion I came to after reading his introduction, the overview page on his site and his “my first computer” posts. I’m pretty sure that he’s either alien or very, very creative (as in creative writing), I mean seriously, “I built my own computer when I was 12.“?! Craig has been a frequent contributor in the Google Groups, bringing in a lot of background knowledge, helping with stylesheets, javascript and all sorts of other issues that arrive on a regular schedule.

I know that wasn’t a question but I would like to comment anyway. Although you are not the first to suggest I am not of this world, serious or not, I feel it is not so much a question of identifying the “where”, but identifying the “when”.

I think had I lived 150 to 200 years ago, I wouldn’t seem as much an alien as I do to so many people. More often than not, people who I communicate with over a period of time before ever meeting in person say something similar, I seem odd to them because they try to identify me with a place and fail but after meeting me in person, understand it is not a matter of identifying a place, but a place in time.

Many people are still put off after realizing that but a few people are able to take it in stride. You can tell a lot about a person by how they react to extreme situations and I guess I can be a bit extreme at times.

Someone once called me an “anachronistic anomaly”. That seems to describe me as well as any other description I have heard, at least descriptions appropriate for mixed company.
Continue reading ‘Interview with Craig “cass-hacks”’ »

Warning: do not try the URLs here unless your system is locked down properly. I suggest using a "virual machine" (I use VMware) to test things like this. The hack itself is complicated, the system is simple - skip the complicated part if you're in a hurry.

It all started with a posting like this:

When I do a google search for [hide]Jonathan Wentworth Associates[/hide] the first result is:

[hide]Jonathan Wentworth Associates, LTD[/hide]
[hide]Welcome to Jonathan Wentworth Associates, a respected resource for world-class orchestral soloists,
conductors, opera, chamber music, chamber orchestras, ...[/hide]
[hide]www.jwentworth.com/[/hide] - 19k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

The: [hide]Jonathan Wentworth Associates, LTD[/hide] is highlighted and is a link to the web site. If you place the mouse over the link, it shows [hide]http://www.jwentworth.com[/hide]. However, if you click the link it immeately attempts to download the trojan. My McAfee immediatly blocked it.

Looking at the page in question, it doesn't appear to be hacked, it doesn't appear to have any kind of scripts injected, etc. However, using LiveHTTPHeaders with Firefox, while doing the same steps (search, click on the top result) you see the following:
Continue reading ‘The website hack you’d never find’ »

Hi "Doc", it's cool to have you here! It's great that the web removes barriers like the physical distance from here in Switzerland to Australia. Matt has been one of the regular contributors to the Google Webmaster Help Groups since January 2007. He has a diverse background: Agriculture and Computers, an interesting mixture, or how he puts it in his profile: "I know about cows and computers" :-).

Looking at your first posts, I see a desperate webmaster, someone even screaming for "HELP!!!" in the thread titles. How did you find the Google Webmaster Help groups and what made you decide to originally post about your problems there?

Hmm.. how did I find the groups - I think I might have searched "How to contact Google" and came across the webmaster help groups there. I had to - I'd come across a problem that I just couldn't get an answer to by doing a regular Google search, I knew it was an unusual problem and, like many other webmasters, I figured I might be able to find a real, living, breathing Googler somewhere to talk about the problem.

Did you get a satisfactory answer to your original questions in the groups? What elements were vital to that outcome?

Well, for some reason the answers to that post (it was back in 2006) have been 'lost in the system' but I did get a lot of hypotheticals from the regular group members - but nothing that helped, unfortunately.
Continue reading ‘Interview with Matt / “Dockarl”’ »

The last couple years I've spent a lot of time in the Google Webmaster Help groups. Most of that time I've tried to help people with problems with their websites and Google. Together with the webmaster (every site is unique) and the other active members in the groups we've tried to work out where things are going wrong, what needs to be changed and often we've been able to fix things so that the website is back in the index, the content is getting found and hopefully, the webmaster has learned a thing or two. The best part for me is when a webmaster not only changes a few technicalities but is also able to take in and implement changes in strategy, changes that make the site even better for his visitors and in the end gets his unique content easily found. I love it when that works out!

I really enjoy these kinds of problems - finding a source of trouble in a giant heap of pages, using experience, guesses and estimations based on a "black box" that we know as Google. These puzzles keep your mind sharp and force you to think in a connected way. Sometimes you have to take a few steps back and look at the overall picture to find the real issues - and that's something which is hard to do when you're directly involved. Taking a look at the larger picture is something that takes a bit of practice, and thankfully it's something that is done often in another place I love to be, cre8asite forums.

There's a reason why I even got involved with all these puzzles in the first place: I know there is a lot of really important information out there that just can't be found, and if it's not findable, it will get lost. Perhaps forever. It might not be the solution to life, the universe and everything, but there is so much out there, online, on the web, that just can't be found because of some technicality that the webmaster never thought about. On the one had, I want to help the webmaster to get found, on the other hand, I'd love to help the search engines to find his content, regardless of what technicalities he has forgotten.
Continue reading ‘Moving to a new office in September’ »

Websites have become popular targets for hackers, who either try to add elements that automatically download "malware" (viruses, etc) or try to add hidden links (SEO hacking) to other websites. Quite often, these kinds of changes are not recognized by the webmaster or website owner. You could wait until a visitor complains to you or you receive a mail from Google for spreading malware (or having hidden links to "bad places"), but that is slow, unreliable and usually too late.

There are services available that can track changes on your web pages automatically, but sometimes it is good to have something like that within your own control (or perhaps as a backup to an online service). To keep a record of changes on web pages I have put together a small Windows batch-file that checks a list of pages and emails you with any changes found. Additionally, it will also email you when the server is not reachable. You could use the same tool to keep track of changes on third-party web pages.
Continue reading ‘Check your web pages for hacks and unauthorized changes’ »

This post has one main reason: popular sites don't always get it right. You can also turn that around: you don't have to get everything right in order to be popular. Never do something on your site just because a large site does it like that.

Combine web 2.0 with a search engines, what do you get? Lots of rel=nofollow links :), heh. You'd assume that they could get a few things right with regards to search engine optimization though.

Think again.

I hope you're listening, Twitter and all of you who aren't.
Continue reading ‘Twitter indexing peculiarities’ »

Hello Sebastian! You're one of the more elusive people in the Google Groups, helping webmasters regularly and often with run-of-the-day problems and providing insight into things that are not so common. Your "no-BS" policy sometimes seems a bit tough on new users - but by "telling it like it is" you can get straight to the point and help where it hurts. It's good to have your help in the groups and I'm glad you take the time to help no matter what problems a webmaster is fighting with.

Nobody knows who you really are - Aaron Pratt goes so far as to say "Sebastian is either running from the law or a bookie, I never could get his name" :-). How would you introduce yourself to someone who doesn't know you?

Howdy John, thanks for asking a dad working at home bookie running from the law for an interview. Actually, a few people do know who I am, for example my monsters, my dad, my laywer, my accountant and tax advisor, and last but not least all the nice folks at Google I had the pleasure to rescue my banned stuff chat with. *wink*
Continue reading ‘A bookie’s life - interview with Sebastian’ »

In response to the other statistics regarding the Google Webmaster Help groups, JLH asks:

I always wonder about a statistic, I call them Drive-by-posters. Those who come in and make a post, only to be never heard of again, even though their questions may be answered.

Let's take a quick look at who posts in the groups (how long they've been active), who starts new threads and a short dissection of what first-time posters do on the group and how they evolve from there.
Continue reading ‘After the first post: should I stay or should I go now?’ »

Hi John, it's great to have you here for a virtual interview! John is one of the strong posters who make up the backbone of the Google Webmaster Help forums. His blog at http://www.jlh-design.com/ is strong on all things SEO, is quite popular and dares to ask uncomfortable questions that need to be asked. His detailed knowledge of the Google Webmaster Guidelines and the penalties resulting from abuse of them has helped many webmasters to improve their sites and to get them back into the Google index.

John, why do you spend so much time helping people who's sites deserve to be penalized?

Google does a great job finding spamming attempts and deindexing / penalizing offending sites, however the algorithm doesn't take into account the human element. Sometimes well intentioned honest webmasters stray into trouble, perhaps the rules have changed and they were busy working on their sites to notice, or even they just took some wrong advice they saw on another forum or blog. I'm not interested in helping spammers succeed but those who may have done something and not known any better. Google's penalty system seems to treat everyone as criminals with no recourse to the law except through this Webmaster Help Group. There are so many requests that one has to pick and choose which ones to spend any real time on. I generally first make sure they are giving us the right information such as including the URL, some past history, what they've done or haven't done, etc. I always look for some contriteness in their questions and actions. I try to avoid helping anyone that is trying to push the line to the brink of banning just for ranking purposes.
Continue reading ‘Interview with John Honeck / JLH’ »