[AshSimmonds]

Notice Google have just changed the image search results, well, on the .com site, not .au

It's now cleaner and you can scroll through endless pages, however it no longer shows metadata about the image unless you hover over the thumbnail - not sure if I like it yet.

[dodger]

Notice Google have just changed the image search results, well, on the .com site, not .au

It's now cleaner and you can scroll through endless pages, however it no longer shows metadata about the image unless you hover over the thumbnail - not sure if I like it yet.

Change for change sake, if it works dont fix it but they do anyway , we'll get used to it.

[AshSimmonds]

Oh dear

TL;DR - $3-10k and this guy can deploy a bog-standard Wordpress site with your name on it.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/meet-the-man-who-promises-to-make-you-look-good-in-google-search-results/story-e6frfro0-1225998131677

Meet the man who promises to make you look good in Google search results

    * By Simon Black

    * Is SEO smart business or snake oil?
    * 'Most clients spend $3000 to $5000'
    * More: Technology news and reviews

WORRIED about what you look like on the web? You might be able to change it, for a price.

An Australian company claiming to have tamed Google's search system says it can tweak the material that appears when someone looks for your name — though critics say it's just smoke and mirrors.

David Cannell, the founder of Online Reputation Management Australia, said demand for his company's services had increased dramatically in the past 12 months.

"There is an avalanche of data on the net and people are adding to it every day, sometimes without realising what they put on the net about themselves sticks," he told news.com.au.

"People are only just starting to become aware that there are issues both on a personal level and on a corporate level."

The idea is to push negative material off the first page of Google results, and promote positive material onto it, using search engine optimisation (SEO).

But does it work? I put it to the test.

A personal challenge

My name is Simon Black. If you'd Googled it a few weeks ago, all you would have found is the "other" Simon Black.

You know, that Brownlow Medal-winning Brisbane Lions AFL player Simon Black.

Unless I added other words like "Simon Black canberra", I'd never managed to find my details on the first page of results.

Mr Cannell said he could change that.

"I Googled Simon Black and found that your namesake is a famous AFL footballer," he said.

"So we have created a site about Simon Black the journalist."

Mr Cannell said he had used SEO techniques to bring the ranking of the new site, about me, ahead of other pages about Simon Black the footballer.

"We have only been running it for a couple of weeks, and it’s already on position five of page one displacing some pre-existing ranking content," he said.

"If we promote it for a couple of weeks more it will take top spot."

Right now, if you search for "Simon Black journalist", the new site set up by Mr Cannell dominates the results.

If you search for just plain "Simon Black", it shows up as the sixth or seventh result.

Not too shabby — and I haven't even actually entered any personal details on the new site yet.

Mr Cannell said that by repeating the same process, his company was able to manipulate the entire first page of search results for a given name.

"Eventually, by using this process we can control the first page of the search for the client," he said.

"Negatives shifted to page two. Then page three."

Mr Cannell said the average client spent between $3000 and $5000 for these services, but some paid up to $10,000 to restore their digital reputation.

Smart thinking or snake oil?

SEO is becoming big business as individuals and companies strive to make the most of the web. However some experts say it lacks credibility.

"It's at least as much goat entrails as it is anything else," Electronic Frontiers Australia spokesperson Stephen Collins told news.com.au.

"Getting results high for search terms depends on a lot of factors... and is difficult.

"Especially in the face of changing algorithms."

Mr Collins said companies like Mr Cannell's were not well regarded in the web media and advertising industries.

"Mostly because what they are selling is snake oil," he said.

However Mr Cannell said the SEO industry was still emerging and was often misunderstood by IT experts.

"IT experts are not SEO experts," he said.

"It is like asking a construction engineer why ambient lighting has a positive effect."

Mr Cannell said the algorithms that drive SEO were changing all the time and companies had to work hard to keep up with the changes

"We spend thousands of dollars a month on research and development constantly testing and retesting to reverse engineer algorithm changes," he said.

"Any SEO or ORM (online reputation management) campaign has to be seen as an ongoing process.

"It is not a one fix solution. You need to be in a position to monitor and respond, and you need to constantly promote the positive content that you want exposure for.

"Of course it is difficult, that is why some of us are very good at it and others fail."

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/meet-the-man-who-promises-to-make-you-look-good-in-google-search-results/story-e6frfro0-1225998131677#ixzz1CgeM6Wq7

[AshSimmonds]

Google fed Bing some bogus search results to check if they were copying them:

http://www.news.com.au/technology/bings-a-search-cheat-whines-google/story-e6frfro0-1225998563653

Thing is I came across this one yesterday and it puzzled me, I searched for pretzel (don't ask) and one of the results on the first page was to http://www.303.com.au, but NOWHERE on any pages on their site is there the word or a pic or ANY mention of a pretzel.

WTF??

[allanuber]

Google fed Bing some bogus search results to check if they were copying them:

http://www.news.com.au/technology/bings-a-search-cheat-whines-google/story-e6frfro0-1225998563653

Thing is I came across this one yesterday and it puzzled me, I searched for pretzel (don't ask) and one of the results on the first page was to http://www.303.com.au, but NOWHERE on any pages on their site is there the word or a pic or ANY mention of a pretzel.

WTF??

Interactive agency - I'd bet they've done some kind of chippies or pretzel related clients or adverts in past ... likely the last time google crawled them for results.

[AshSimmonds]

Interactive agency - I'd bet they've done some kind of chippies or pretzel related clients or adverts in past ... likely the last time google crawled them for results.

Turns out the URL used to be owned by a company called The Pretzel Logic, they sold it but the SERPs still haven't updated - there's also probably some anchor text floating around the interwebs linking to it as such.

[AshSimmonds]

Man, Google's getting speedy at indexing forums now, this thread was started like half an hour ago and it's already #1.

[AshSimmonds]

[AshSimmonds]

Ouch...

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/04/google-panda-update/

[dodger]

Ouch...

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/04/google-panda-update/

Google will fix it , they always do but the scammers are getting smarter all the time.