pagerank -- Industry guru Dave Taylor answers questions about a wide variety of technical topics, including HTML, online advertising, Cascading Style Sheets, Web design, Unix, Linux, search engine optimization, Mac OS X, shell script programming and Microsoft Windows.

"pagerank" Help and Information



How do you figure out the value of a domain name?

I'm thinking about buying a domain from someone else and have no idea how to figure out what it's worth. Do you have any tips on whether $1000 is ridiculously expensive or a reasonable deal for it?...

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How do I "sculpt pagerank" on my site?

I've been learning about how to write Web pages with HTML and recently had a friend ask me if I was paying attention to sculpting pagerank once my site went online. I have no idea what that means. Help!...

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Dave's Guide to Critical Mac Software

I just got a MacBook Air and have been enjoying having the world's lightest laptop. It's an amazing piece of engineering and while it appears to have some critical features missing (like a DVD drive or Ethernet port) the fact is that I never used those features on my older MacBook Pro laptop either so it's not anything I miss. Frankly, with my Corsair 8GB flash drive, it's just a super-modern version of "sneakernet" and...

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How do I price banner ads on my photography site?

I have a small photography website J Layes Photography.com that has galleries and allows visitors to buy prints of my photographs. I have been approached by a company asking whether I'd allow them to post their advertising banner on my site and how much I would charge. Now, I don't have any idea about online advertising and the costs and what I could charge for it. Could you please advise?...

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I was turned down for Google AdSense. Now what?

My request for Adsense membership was turned down -- rejected! -- twice. Please suggest me what should I do? Should I remove some content?...

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Can I use nofollow links internally to channel PageRank?

This is a rather geeky SEO question, but I have heard that Google considers internal site links as relevant as external links and that it's smart to "nofollow" links that go to pages you don't want or need ranked in the search engine. Is that true? More importantly, is it safe?...

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Should I buy links from sites with higher PageRank?

I have rebuilt my website using the advice in your great book Growing Your Business with Google. I hope that I understood everything correctly! And, of course, I have a question for you: I understand that there are companies that will add you to a site with a higher PageRank for a fee. Do you recommend doing this, if the site is related to your line of work? If so, are there any sites that...

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Can a blog boost my pagerank and search engine placement?

Hi Dave. I work at a small, new company and I've been hounding the CEO to start a corporate blog. He mainly interested in increasing Pagerank and I've explained that a corp-blog will help with Pagerank, page views, branding, et al. (That is correct, isn't it?) Well, he's warming up to the idea and I want to give a roll out plan, but my tech knowledge only goes so far. Ideally I'd like propose something...

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What's a Google Supplemental Result?

I was doing a Google search earlier today and noticed that some of the matching results were labeled as "Supplemental Results". What the heck is a supplemental result?...

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What is the effect of a domain name change on Google page rank?

We are considering changing our company name but do not want to lose our natural search ranking in Google. Is there is sytem by which we can transfer rank or a step by step process that we can go through so as to make for the smoothest domain name change without losing eveything the existing site has acheived?...

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Jargon question: URLs, blogs, spillover pagerank, etc.?

I'm pretty clued into computing, but when I read your weblog, I have to admit that I'm a bit baffled by some of the things you talk about. Specifically, can you please tell me two basic things: what's a URL and what's a blog, and then explain to me both what "spillover pagerank" is and what a subdomain is too? Thanks!!...

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How do I add a 301 redirect to my Apache httpd.conf?

I just checked and apparently both the "domain.com" and "www.domain.com" work for my site, bringing up the same page with different URLs. According to an SEO buddy of mine, that's a bad thing. Is it? And if so, how can I tweak my web server configuration to fix it?...

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Does Blogitive really pay you for links in your blog entries?

Dave, I've bumped into a new service that claims to pay you for simply adding specific links to your weblog entries, which seems like a darn easy way to make some money as a blogger. The service is called Blogitive and I'm just wondering if it's legit or not?...

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Is this a legit blog comment, or comment spam?

I'm a bit baffled, to be honest. I'm getting comments left on my weblog that kinda/sorta seem like they're relevant, but don't entirely make sense and aren't relevant to the actual discussion, though they're more or less on topic. Is it the work of some semi-incoherent blogosphere denizen, or is it actually some sort of subtle comment spam?...

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Stuck in the Google Sandbox or Delisted?

I've been running my new weblog -- blog.getyouhealthy.com -- for a few months now and as far as I can tell Google still hasn't stopped by to visit my site or index me. I've heard about something called a "sandbox" but I don't know what that is and whether I'm in it. If I am, how do I get out of it? If not, why else might I be missing from Google?...

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Do I need approval for each site on which I include Google AdSense?

I have one site that is currently running Google Adsense. If I start another different site do I have to submit it to Google for approval? Or once you are in the program is that good enough?...

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What does Google PageRank really mean?

Dave, maybe you can explain something for me: my Web site Freedom For Animals.org apparently has a PageRank of two out of ten (2/10), and I don't really understand what that means. Does it mean, for example, that my organization's site is #2 out of 10 hits?...

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What's a blogroll?

I've been trying to figure out all the mysterious jargon of the blogosphere, and one that's got me stumped is blogroll. Dave, what's a blogroll?...

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Does Google Consider My Site a Link Farm?

Just finished your new Google book and I'm dismayed to discover that my web site may be a link farm not a portal. The goal of this now updated site is to have students talk to other students via reviews of the handout links by doing "reviews", like Amazon.com My Google rank is currently 7, so I must be doing something right, but a link: report only shows 70 links to the site. Yet I...

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Why does "link:" followed by a space give me more results on Google?

When I use the Google link: feature and I type a URL immediately after the colon (no space), I get far fewer results than when I separate the colon and the URL with one space or multiple spaces. I also seem to get many more relevant results on the first set of page results when I type a space after the colon. I just was curious as to why their is a discrepancy....

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