Google's Webmaster Central Blog

If you want to dig deeper into the whys and hows of web crawling and indexing – those obscure yet important processes that determine where your site ranks in search engines – go straight to the source at Google's Webmaster Central Blog. If you aren't already familiar with Google's Tools for Webmasters, it's a great way to view all the information Google has on your site, including really important stuff like inbound links.

Google's Webmaster Central Blog is a good spot to learn about changes in Google's policies and updates to Webmaster tools. Do like I do and subscribe to it with your favorite RSS reader - mine is Google Reader, but there are plenty of others out there, and your web browser itself may allow you to subscribe to RSS feeds.

GoDaddy's Questionable Tactics

An interesting (if long) investigative piece on how GoDaddy uses a second company to warehouse and profit from expired domains. Many registrars auction off their customers' expired domains, but this article alleges that GoDaddy jumps through some unusual hoops to cover their tracks.

I've discussed the domain name selling game in numerous classes, as well as some of the tactics of companies like (GoDaddy competitor) Network Solutions. It's an odd business, and the real money is no longer in the registrations themselves, but in all the add-on services, auctions and other fees that the registrars try to extract from you.

A recent trip into the Network Solutions site management console for a client of ours who needed a domain redirected revealed an innovative advertising strategy: As a paying customer, I could not even reach the management screen for the domains without first viewing and opting out of an account security upgrade. I was given the choice of either purchasing the service or I could "Continue Unprotected." Talk about tasteless, fear-based advertising!

Sadly, this is becoming standard practice as domain registrars turn over every cushion to find those last bits of change. Your best bet is to buy just the services you need and studiously avoid the barrage of upselling.

Inbound Links

A new series of pieces are going up at the eBlox blog over the next two weeks regarding inbound links. I explain in layman's terms what they are, how to measure them, and how to obtain at least a few of them to assist you in your own search engine optimization efforts. Check it out.