150 Questions answered by Google Webmaster Central Team

Google Answers 150 questions in today's live chat session between Google's webmaster central search quality team and webmasters around the world.
Google panelists had celebrity Googlers like MattCutts, Adam Lasik other panelists are Evan , Jessica, John Mueller, Jonathan Simon, Liza, Maile Oye, Mariya, MattD
Ramya, Ried, Susan, Wynz.

Text Based Question and Answer session happened between Google's expert panelists and
Webmasters, This is a raw unedited conversation to make it more accurate. There
are some casual conversations please ignore them.

UPDATE: Raw Live casual chat Log Posted here
Update: Raw Unedited version of Full Audio transcript posted here

Document Prepared by Search Engine Genie Team

1. Webmaster (Rahul Doshi ): what is the process?


2. Google Expert (MattD) : :
   Rahul, You will want to log out completely
   and back in. If you end up not getting onto the call, you should still be
   able to follow along in the chat windows.


3. Webmaster (Gabe) :
   What is the criteria for getting the 'more results' for the 1st search result?
   It's not just appearing first and having a sitemap recognized by Google because
   I've seen both for a given site with no 'more results', so what is it?


4. Google Expert (MattD) : : Gabe, are
   you talking about Sitelinks?


5. Webmaster (Laurent):
   About SiteLinks, what would be your advice to get results appear. I see them
   in the GWC, but not in SERPS


6. Google Expert (Susan Moskwa) : : https://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=47334


7. Webmaster (Gabe):
   The first result returning specific sitelinks below just after 'more results'.


8. Google Expert (MattD) : : Gabe, Sitelinks
   are purely algorithmic, you can find some more information here: https://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=47334


9. Webmaster (Linda Farm):
   Is Website Tools verifying site not working? i've tried verifying my site
   and it just doesn't work


10. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : Linda, the
    team is working on something with verification, it seems to be affecting some
    sites.


11. Webmaster (Cassiano Travareli):
    I wanna know about social media optimization! what is the Google opinion about
    that?


12. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : Social media
    is a great way of attracting relevant visitors!


13. Webmaster (Mark Kaufman):
    Would you recommend no following the sorting links?


14. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : Mark, if those
    links lead to duplicate content, you can either add a nofollow to the links
    or block indexing through meta tags or a robots.txt entry.


15. Webmaster (erik) : One of my clients has a thumbnail next to their serp result instead of the
    sitelinks that were there before....what gives?


16. Google Expert (MattD) : : erik, Sitelinks
    and Universal Search results are query-specific.


17. Webmaster (Terence):
    If RSS feeds have near identical content as HTML pages, might that cause duplicate
    content penalties?


18. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : RSS feeds
    do not need to be indexed, you can block indexing through your robots.txt


19. Webmaster (ali merchant):
    how does the search engine treat an https (secure) page versus an http


20. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : Ali, we treat
    https the same as http -- however, https puts a bigger load on your server,
    so you might want to check that it can handle it on your side.


21. Webmaster (Mark Kaufman) :
    Kind of depends on what duplicate content means -- if the sort is different
    on a results screen, different products/items will appear on a given page...but
    overall it's the same set of products as the default sort.


22. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : Mark, if the
    content is generally the same but just in a different order, I don't think
    it would provide much original value in the search results for the user.


23. Webmaster (Carlos) :
    We are a comparison shopping website, healthpricer.com, and we power the ecommerce
    section of 4 different sites, i.e. marketplace.healthcentral.com those sites
    have identical content to our main site, can this get me penalized?


24. Google Expert (Susan Moskwa) : : Unfortunately
    we can't do individual reviews for every site, but you could start here: https://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66359


25. Webmaster (Terence) :
    Confusion about robots.txt vs rel=nofollow. I don't want to pass PageRank
    to my Privacy Policy. Suppose I already blocked /privacy/ in my robots.txt.
    Do I also have to use rel=nofollow when linking internally to /privacy/ to
    prevent the pass of PageRank?


26. Google Expert (Susan Moskwa) : : Pages that
    are blocked by robots.txt can still have and pass PageRank, so if you don't
    want that page to get PageRank from your Privacy Policy page, you should nofollow
    that link.


27. Webmaster (Terence):
    Confusion about robots.txt vs rel=nofollow. I don't want to pass PageRank
    to my Privacy Policy. Suppose I already blocked /privacy/ in my robots.txt.
    Do I also have to use rel=nofollow when linking internally to /privacy/ to
    prevent the pass of PageRank?


28. Google Expert (Susan Moskwa) : : Pages that
    are blocked by robots.txt can still have and pass PageRank, so if you don't
    want that page to get PageRank from your Privacy Policy page, you should nofollow
    that link.


29. Webmaster (dockarl) :
    Why's he using ALT TEXT on text at the bottom of his site - is that wrong?
    LearningGuitars.com


30. Google Expert (Evan) : : Hi Dockarl,
    the site Wysz was talking about was learningguitarnow.com


31. Webmaster (erik) :
    my client has the same issue as this: search for buzznet.com in google and
    you'll see the same thing


32. Google Expert (MattD) : : Thanks for
    the example erik. This site is triggering an image as a Universal result.
    Both Universal and Sitelinks are determined algorithmically, so you can't
    opt-in to either. You can opt out of Sitelinks in Webmaster Tools if that
    helps the situation.


33. Webmaster (Andrew) :
    What are your views on image replacement versus using alt= on an image. Is
    it a bad thing if used legitimately?


34. Google Expert (Susan Moskwa) : : There are
    many high-quality sites that use image replacement techniques (such as Fahrner
    image replacement) to provide a better user experience. If you're using this
    technique in a legitimate way to benefit your users, you shouldn't have problems.


35. Webmaster (Nancy) :
    Any chance that Google will develop its own directory that folks can directly
    submit their website to?


36. Google Expert (Evan) : : Hi Nancy,
    we use the ODP (open directory project), to learn more go to dmoz.org


37. Webmaster (Mark Kaufman) :
    Can I ask a video sitemap question? We submitted a video sitemap back on Feb
    19th. In Webmaster Tools, total URL is 11k, but Indexed URLs are 0. Of the
    115 sitemaps off the index, 2 have warnings. Do video sitemaps just take a
    long time to get indexed?


38. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : Video sitemaps
    take some time to get approved -- it can take up to 2-3 months.


39. Webmaster (Jaan Kanellis) :
    So duplicate content can cause page rank issues? I thought you were able to
    filter duplicate content?


40. Google Expert (JonathanSimon) : : If you have
    multiple URLs for the same content within your site, each URL could be attracting
    it's own links. It would be better to instead have one page for everyone to
    link to thus consolidating the value of all the external links.


41. Webmaster (Gary Carpenter) :
    I setup a webmaster account an submitted my url. I also setup a Sitemap.xml
    file. Google reports that the url is indexed and the Sitemap file is OK yet
    when I google search my url the result is "No Documents Found".
    What have I done wrong???


42. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : It can take
    a bit for sites to get indexed, you might want to post in the webmaster help
    groups for detailed suggestions.


43. Webmaster (Korpis, LLC) :
    Would there be a problem with doing a large number of 301 redirects at once?


44. Google Expert (Susan Moskwa) : : I would recommend
    against doing "chained" redirects (a page redirects multiple times).


45. Webmaster (Kevin Rogers) :
    For the Guitar lesson site, should they 301 the learnguitarnow.com/index.shtml
    page to learnguitarnow.com?


46. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : If that URL
    is not linked, it should not need to be redirected. If it's linked, it would
    be best to remove the links, a 301 could help to speed up the removal.


47. Webmaster (Laurent) :
    I see nofollow links in my GWC. Why is that ?


48. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : That's by
    design.


49. Webmaster (Hasit Ruparel) :
    I have alread reviewed that, however I have problems in which my websites
    are not considered for higher ranking, ever after following all the steps
    on https://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769


50. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : You might
    want to post about it in detail in the help groups.


51. Webmaster (Terence) :
    Thanks Susan, but I'm actually asking about internal links pointing *to* /privacy/,
    not links from /privacy/. Will internal links pass PR to /privacy/ even if
    /privacy/ is blocked by robots.txt?


52. Google Expert (Susan Moskwa) : : Yes.


53. Webmaster (Scott) :
    what site is he talking about now?


54. Google Expert (Jessica) : : Hi, Thanks
    for your question. We're now discussing images in Google Search results


55. Webmaster (Jaan Kanellis) :
    Also can we get any comments on paid link re-inclusion process? Once the paid
    links are removed is the next step Google re-inclusion through Google Webmaster
    Tools?


56. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : Yes, a reconsideration
    request is the next logical step once everything is cleaned up. Please include
    all details in your request so that we can handle it appropriately.


57. Webmaster (Allison Kulage) :
    Related to the robots.txt issue - if you've placed a no robots tag on every
    page of a site and a disallow for all in the robots.txt file, but the home
    page still shows up in the top 10 for a competitive keyword, how else can
    you get the site removed?


58. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : If you are
    blocking crawling with robots.txt, we won't be able to see the robots meta
    tag. If you want the URL removed, it would be better to allow crawling (not
    block it in a robots.txt) so that the meta tag can be read.


59. Webmaster (Raffi) :
    would you suggest subdomains or folders for state specific content for a US
    site? i.e. az.domain.com or www.domain.com/az ?


60. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : Both work.


61. Webmaster (Cassiano Travareli) :
    i wanna know about duplicate content inside blogs. about categories, archives,
    authors, have the same content of the article. in my web pages i am blocking
    using robots txt, i blocked categories and archives. is it good?


62. Google expert (MattD) : : Cassiano, If your content is the original, I wouldn't recommend
    blocking it. If you have content fed in from another site, it might be smart
    to use robots.txt as you've said. I'd recommend taking your site to the Webmaster
    Help Group as well.


63. Webmaster (Terence) :
    What are the benefits of submitting a sitemap if our site is already crawled
    well by Google? In other words, what are we missing out if we don't submit
    a sitemap?


64. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : By submitting
    a Sitemap we see which URLs have been added and changed. We can crawl those
    earlier than if we had to accidentally "stumble" upon them.


65. Webmaster (Jaan Kanellis) :
    Lastly can we download this cat log?


66. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : You should
    be able to use File - Save to save this log.


67. Webmaster (Rob) :
    Is there any major issue with using CMS, e.g. Joomla?


68. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : If the CMS
    is compliant with the normal web standard it should be no problem. However,
    each tool is only as strong as the person using it -- all CMS can create great
    sites and they can create bad sites.


69. Google Expert 2 (MattD) : : Rob, from personal experience, CMS packages are great, though
    you will want to make sure you customize the templates and page titles so
    your snippets are unique.


70. Webmaster (Phil Peterman) :
    I was hoping y'all would address the use of display:none and some basic guidelines
    for it's use


71. Google Expert (JonathanSimon) : : As long as
    the use of display:none is not abused to selectively hide content from site
    visitors while at the same time showing it to search engine crawlers, it should
    fine to use this.


72. Webmaster (Gijs Nelissen) :
    are you recording this conference for later reference ? i missed some of the
    advice on my website (digitalbase.eu).


73. Google Expert (Adam Lasnik) : : Hi Gijs, we
    weren't able to record the audio, unfortunately, but I believe at least one
    blogger was doing a transcript :) ( Ofcourse we did :-) )


74. Webmaster (Jonatas Leonel) :
    So, how google see websites what receive a lot of good links, by natural way
    but use rel="nofollow" in all of its external links?


75. Google Expert (Evan) : : Hi Jonatas,
    could you clarify? Good Site A links to Good Site B, and Good Site B has rel="nofollow"
    links?


76. Webmaster (Ian M) :
    Will Google provide audio and text of this chat after?


77. Google Expert (Susan Moskwa) : : We'll do our
    best to put this content online, though I'm not yet sure in what format.


78. Webmaster (Leslie Ding) :
    Regarding subdomains, I understand google can determine country codes from
    the URL, e.g. jp.mysite.com. What about japan.mysite.com?


79. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : No those are
    not recognized automatically. You can however use Webmaster Tools to set geotargeting
    for it.


80. Webmaster (Hasit Ruparel) :
    Thanks for the reply John, do you know which is the BEST place to post any
    problem?


81. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : https://groups.google.com/group/Google_Webmaster_Help/topics?start=
    is where the official Webmaster Help group is located.


82. Webmaster (Raffi) :
    John, I work for a site where I think a competitor is trying to buy links
    "for us" to try and get your google bomb algo to kick in...what
    can I do about this?


83. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : That's generally
    no problem as we always look at the bigger picture and try to assess the intent.


84. Webmaster (John) :
    One or two panelist mentioned they were part of the google health team, but
    I did not catch their names?


85. Google Expert (Adam Lasnik) : : Hi John, nope,
    sorry, we must not have spoken clearly... -- we're all in Search Quality,
    not Health


86. Webmaster (ParksC) :
    With regards to the paid links question above about asking for inclusion,
    would it be the same to nofollow the paid links instead of just having them
    removed?


87. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : Yes, if you
    had paid links and added rel=nofollow to them, you can explain that in your
    reconsideration request.


88. Webmaster (Nancy) :
    Yes, I've been trying for 2 years to get a listing, but there is no editor
    for my category... so things have been slow. I guess I thought that Google
    might be a bit quicker in adding entries. That said, I've had good luck in
    getting my site listed.


89. Google Expert (Susan Moskwa) : : It sounds
    like you're talking about Google Directory, which our team doesn't really
    work with. If you're referring to Google search results, there isn't an "editor"
    process to get in. Check out our Webmaster Guidelines for help getting into
    search results.


90. Webmaster (Terence) :
    We have a regional sudomain, canada.domain.com (we don't have domain.ca).
    We set the geo location to Canada in Google Webmaster Tools a few weeks ago,
    but site is still not indexed as a Canadian site. How long does it take? Any
    other steps we should take?


91. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : This can take
    some time to take affect. If the setting is set, you should be fine in the
    long run.


92. Webmaster (Terence) :
    Does Google rank "static" URLs better than dynamic URLs? Ex. /q-digital-camera.html
    vs /search?q=digital+camera


93. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : There's no
    preference.


94. Webmaster (paavan) :
    When can available option pay per call in India


95. Google Expert (ramya) : : You can post
    your question with respect to Pay per call on http://groups.google.com/group/adwords-help,they
    should be able to help you better


96. Webmaster (Jeremy Rivera) :
    Will Universal Image search results REPLACE links to sites? I.e. Instead of
    10 sites plus images, will we see 1 image, 1 video and 8 sites?


97. Google Expert (Susan Moskwa) : : We're constantly
    testing what works well in our search results, including whether differently
    types of universal results are "additive" or will replace one of
    the 10 web results. For now I'd say, stay tuned. :)


98. Webmaster (Richard Hearne) :
    Is there any process for confirming a TBPR penalty? Working with authority
    site which recently went PR7 -> PR3


99. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : If you know
    that the site did not comply with the webmaster guidelines, you can clean
    that up and file a reconsideration request.


100. Webmaster (webado - Christina) :
     I don't know where I can ask my question if I may even - down here or up there
     or nowhere ?


101. Google expert (Susan Moskwa) : : Down here!


102. Webmaster (paavan) :
     thanks


103. Google Expert (ramya) : : Thanks for
     the question Paavan :)


104. Webmaster (jtbandes) :
     How about <meta name="keywords">? Worth it? Or just let the
     search engines get it from the content?


105. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : We do not
     read the keywords meta tag -- but if you want to use it for yourself, feel
     free to keep them.


106. Webmaster (Amit Agarwal) :
     One of my sites was severely penalized in Google though it respects all the
     guidelines. I filed a reconsideration request and it was quicklrestored though
     I didn't change anything at my end. The problem has happened thrice in 3 months..
     Can I prevent this ?


107. Google Expert (MattD) : : Amit, reconsideration
     requests are the right path. You may want to set up a Webmaster Tools account
     to check the message center if you haven't already.


108. Webmaster (Tom Smith) :
     Our site is CSS based, content pages are hierarchy based, using 2 <h1>
     tags, 2 <h2> tags and then <h3> tags for additional content sections
     to organize content sections. Will we be penalized using this approach?


109. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : That's a great
     way to provide context to your content. Keep it up!


110. Webmaster (Andrew Delamarter) :
     Is it possible sap.com is being penalized on Google.com by the geo-relevancy
     component due to the site being hosted on servers in germany, japan, and the
     US? Load balancing determines which data center handles the session.


111. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : By setting
     the geotargeting in webmaster tools the server location will be less of an
     impact. We understand the need for load sharing across locations.


112. Webmaster (ali merchant ) :
     Concerned about div tags. Any harm if they are used as a space saving technique
     and used completely legitmately


113. Google Expert (MattD) : : ali, There
     should be no harm in extra div tags if they are being used legitimately. Let
     me know if this doesn't answer the question.


114. Webmaster (webado - Christina) :
     OK here goes. This site melinas-music.com - starts out with an optional flash
     splash page which redirects (in flash) to the proper homepage which with js
     on is a /home/. With js off you dont' get the splash flash and the page displayed
     at the root url


115. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : That should
     not be a problem :-).


116. Webmaster (webado - Christina) :
     is the same as would be at /hom/ which is not accessible except though js.


117. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : If users can
     link to it, they probably will sooner or later. In general it's no problem
     if it's just a duplicate.


118. Webmaster (Christi) :
     Should we use alt and title tags, or just alt tags, on images?


119. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : You can use
     both, since the title tag is shown as a tool tip in Firefox, but the alt text
     is more of a replacement for the image -- they're two different things, which
     can be used at the same time.


120. Webmaster (Jaan Kanellis) :
     John can you confirm that www.websitehostdirectory.com has been hit with a
     paid link penalty? So I can remove them and do a re-inclusion?


121. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : Hi Jaan, we
     can't discuss individual sites here, but you may try the experts in the Google
     Webmaster Help groups.


122. Webmaster (Alan Rothstein) :
     What about the image enhancement function in Google Webmaster Tools, how does
     this help?


123. Google Expert (MattD) : : Maile is answering
     you right now. No automatic boost, but a program to help us understand images
     better. :)


124. Webmaster (Gary Campbell) :
     For top menus displayed on all pages, we load the CSS menu at the end of the
     page in a hidden div and set to the proper div after loading for help search
     engines not see the common content first. Is this OK ?


125. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : That's fine,
     if it works for the users and if the content shown / hidden is not misleading
     to search engines.


126. Webmaster (Gary Carpenter) :
     where do I access webmaster help groups


127. Google Expert (Adam Lasnik) : : These are
     linked from www.google.com/webmasters


128. Webmaster (Allison Kulage):
     Should you only submit for re-inclusion if your site has been completely banned
     from the index? or can you submit if you've seen a huge drop in rankings but
     you're still in the index? What if only a few pages got dropped?


129. Google Expert (Susan Moskwa) : : You can request
     reconsideration at any time, if you've seen a sudden and significant change
     in your site's performance.


130. Webmaster (Mark Kaufman) :
     Does using an image caching/delivery network, like Akamaii, where the host
     domain of the image is different than the web page, a problem for Google image
     search?


131. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : The host domain
     does not have to be the same as the web page - it'll still be indexed in the
     context of the web page.


132. Webmaster (Korpis, LLC) :
     Does google better understand a page if the url contains the major keywords
     the page is about?


133. Google Expert (Evan) : : If the subject
     of the page is already adequately covered, then search engines will understand.
     Having the keywords in the URL will help your users understand what to expect
     on the page.


134. Webmaster (Leslie Ding) :
     I noticed that in Google News, the thumbnail is from a different site to the
     news content. How does Google determine what image thumbnail is paired with
     a google news entry?


135. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : Google News
     has a completely different setup than normal web search. The help center has
     more information on Google news and News Sitemap files.


136. Webmaster (Mark) :
     Our site has a number of categories and within each category products are
     shown 9 thumbnails at a time. It seems that our category names come up great
     in the search results, but products below the first nine in a category do
     not appear well.


137. Google Expert (JonathanSimon) : : I've seen
     similar situations as this where the problem turned out to be how the product
     pages were linked using a Javascript method instead of a standard HREF link.
     Another thing to consider is if the product pages have unique content..check
     web for dups


138. Webmaster (Gary Campbell) :
     I mean, we load menus at end of page, move to top of page via script. Is this
     OK ?


139. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : Should be
     ok, if it's not misleading.


140. Webmaster (Charlie) :
     Should I rather have HTML drop downs to all the 50 categories on my website,
     or should i rather have the top 5 category links on my front page


141. Google Expert (Susan Moskwa) : : I'd recommend
     thinking about it from a user perspective. If you were a new visitor to your
     site, which method of organization would be easier for you to use?


142. Webmaster (webado - Christina) :
     the page at /home/ is kept out of the index


143. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : that should
     be ok.


144. Webmaster (Brian Harnish) :
     Does Google have plans to include programming algorithms that provide higher
     results for W3C standards-compliant sites as well as great content?


145. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : If your site
     has compliant code then that could increase your number of happy visitors
     -- which could in turn help your site across the board.


146. Webmaster (Gijs Nelissen) :
     are we able to listen to a recording of this conference ?


147. Google Expert (Evan) : : Unfortunately
     we do not have an audio recording of this chat. There should be some people
     blogging about it ;).


148. Webmaster (ali merchant) :
     can subdomains increase my visibility


149. Google Expert (MattD): : ali, pages
     on subdomains should not increase visibility any more than pages on subdirectories.
     It's more of an organization (and sometimes navigation) preference.


150. Webmaster (Felipe Miyata) :
     does a noindex, follow page pass pagerank?


151. Google Expert (Evan) : : Noindex pages
     accrue Google PR, and can pass Google PR - even though as a page in its own
     right, it does not exist in the SERP's
     
     - a good use for this would be pages such as sitemaps that you don't want
     to appear in the SERP's, but that you want to accrue


152. Webmaster (Allison Kulage) :
     If there's a paid links penalty, what's to stop my competition from buying
     paid links to get my site penalized? And, many of the top rankings sites for
     a client of mine are breaking all the paid link rules. How are they ranking
     and my site isn't?


153. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : If you feel
     that a different site is buying / selling links, you can report that in WEbmaster
     Tools. This helps us fine-tune our algorithms. In the end, we will take a
     look at the broader picture.


154. Webmaster (Terence) :
     We have a very large site with tons of dynamically created pages (like user
     generated content). We notice that Googlebot's crawl rate fluctuates a lot.
     Any tips on increasing Googlebot's crawl rate? Crawl rate is already set to
     Fast in Webmaster Tools


155. Google Expert (Susan Moskwa) : : One thing
     I'd recommend is to try to limit any duplicate URLs on your site. E.g. if
     we're crawling the same content under more than one URL, we're "wasting"
     some of our bandwidth on that when we could instead be crawling new and unique
     content on your site


156. Webmaster (Andrew Shell) :
     Is there an difference in indexation for http vs https pages?


157. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : No - both
     are fine.


158. Webmaster (webado - Christina) :
     i have been scrambling my brains to find a better way to transition without
     visible query string parameters


159. Google Expert (JonathanSimon) : : You might
     want to consider using hidden HTML input fields


160. Webmaster (Richard Hearne) :
     Follow-up. We haven't made a full analysis, but we want to confirm the penalty
     first. No lnown contravention od TOS, but initial thoughts are that some external
     linking may have been viewed as paid while they are not.


161. Google Expert (MattD) : : Richard,
     doesn't look like we have time to do any more individual site analyses, but
     if you suspect a penalty, I'd recommend submitting a reconsideration request
     or visiting our Webmsater Help Group.


162. Webmaster (Charlie) :
     Should I rather have HTML drop downs to all the 50 categories on my website,
     or should i rather have the top 5 category links on my front page


163. Google Expert (John Mueller): : I would try
     to limit the number of links to less than 100 per page -- if you can make
     50 links more usable to your user than 5, it can be good for your site in
     general.


164. Webmaster (Alan Rothstein) :
     Do domains (with a 7 year history but has been redirected for 2 years) keep
     bad neighborhood links and ip penalties when they switch owners?


165. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : If you buy
     a domain which you suspect has a bad history, you can file a reconsideration
     request detailing the new ownership.


166. Webmaster (Aaron Chronister) :
     Site penalized, not ranking for company name. Buying links I was the only
     thing I did b/c everyone else was. Not anymore. How do I fix??


167. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : If you can
     get those links removed or if you can add a rel=nofollow to them that would
     be a good idea. Once you have cleaned up as much as possible, filing a reconsideration
     request would be a good next step.


168. Webmaster (Anderson):
     Site A has a link with nofollow to site B, will google visit site B by this
     link?


169. Google Expert (JonathanSimon) : : No, but keep
     in mind there may be other links out there pointing to site B


170. Webmaster (Mark) :
     If multiple keywords are used in a url is it better to separate with an underscore,
     dash or does it matter?


171. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : It doesn't
     really matter.


172. Webmaster (Amit Agarwal) :
     Thanks MattD - I have a Webmaster account and I use that for sending reconsideration
     request. I am worried because the site gets penalized too frequently (once
     per month) - There are no warnings or messages in the Webmaster Message center.


173. Google Expert (MattD) : : Amit, since
     we're getting toward the end, I'd recommend taking your site to the Webmaster
     Help Group. The community there is awesome. It seems like this may just be
     normal algorithmic fluctuations as opposed to penalties.


174. Webmaster (Swaroop) :
     Can you tell us about the pro's & con's if we use the shortened URL's
     using TinyUrl or some other similar service.?


175. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : Shortened
     URLs are often not as descriptive, which might make it harder for users to
     recognize the content that is behind them. For us it's generally not a problem,
     as long as the content is available normally.


176. Webmaster (Jacob Weiss) :
     I wouldn't feel comfortable posting my url in a public chatroom so all my
     competitors can see the issues we have, is there a way to disguise the url
     so only Gogglers can see it?


177. Google Expert (JonathanSimon) : : You can send
     me the question directly...:)


178. Webmaster (Nagaraju) :
     what is the typical google index rate for urls in sitemap. If I introduce
     about 30000 new urls today, when can I reasonably expect those to be indexed
     ( assuming I'm at medium crawl rate and the site performance is good)


179. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : There's no
     guarantee for crawling and indexing of Sitemap URLs. There are many factors
     that play a role in that.


180. Webmaster (erik) :
     when is google going to get better at finding good videos that are not in
     youtube


181. Google Expert (Evan) : : Google is
     constantly working on improving search.


182. Webmaster (Gary Campbell) :
     webtrain.com/solutions-business-meetings.asp - it uses the move approach to
     help SEO focus on the unique content.


183. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : Hi Gary,
     we can't comment on individual sites here, but you can post about it in the
     groups.


184. Webmaster (Gary Campbell) :
     also, we compete against webex - wish you could use us


185. Google Expert (Susan Moskwa) : : Send us your
     info! We're open to looking into WebEx alternatives.


186. Webmaster (John Jones) :
     Question on links: Many competitors in the real estate industry by far out
     rank some of my clients because they've been around for years and have hundreds
     or thousands of agent to agent links. Any chance of flushing Google's aged
     in bound links?


187. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : Even giant
     sites can be suppassed by creative webmasters!


188. Webmaster (jordans) :
     Are there any detriments to 'hot-linking' videos on youtube?


189. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : No, that's
     fine.


190. Webmaster (Nelu Lazar) :
     If I provide good keyworks within Title and Description tags, will I need
     additional Keywords tag in meta information?


191. Google Expert (Susan Moskwa): : First and
     foremost you should make sure that the relevant words are included in your
     site's content. Title and meta tags can supplement that, but they're not a
     replacement for highly relevant content.


192. Webmaster (webado) :
     The page uses at /hopme/ "noindex,follow" whereas the regular homepage
     has no block


193. Google Expert (John Mueller): : That's a
     great way to control the indexing of it.


194. Webmaster (Gary Campbell) :
     My suggestion to Google is to detail issues in webmaster tools, especially
     if there's a site problem, or penalty. we have to guess. You could save millions
     of hours of effort.


195. Google Expert (John Mueller): : We are considering
     & working on that, thanks!


196. Webmaster (Richard Hearne) :
     @Susan - I cant see you in the participants list?


197. Google Expert (Susan Moskwa): : I'm in the
     'Panelists' section Ha, I can't type :)


198. Webmaster (Ian M) :
     What meta data so we use for geolocation, and what tags do you not use?


199. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : We don't
     use meta tags for geolocation -- you can use the Webmaster Tools settings
     though.


200. Webmaster (Mark) :
     Our products can be accessed by different url's (e.g. ex.com/catalog.asp?P=1234
     or ex.com/catalog/keyword.asp). Is that considered duplicate content?


201. Google Expert (Evan) : : Hi Mark,
     as far as SERPs go, Google will show the most appropriate URL of the two to
     the user if they're they same.


202. Webmaster (Alan Rothstein) :
     If we have two websites one .ca and one .com, how would Google.com or Google.ca
     handle these?


203. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : Google can
     use that information to determine which one would be most relevant to the
     users (especially those in Canada who use "sites in this country"
     as a search setting).


204. Webmaster (gaurav doshi) :
     now u can see the vide?


205. Google Expert (Evan) : : We have turned
     off the cam chat. The audio is still on though.


206. Webmaster (Amy Balliett) :
     What is your take on image replacement?


207. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : It's great!
     But you need to make sure that it's a correct replacement (do not replace
     lots of keywords with a simple image). Also, those images are usually not
     indexed with image search.


208. Webmaster (Alan Rothstein) :
     how does Google deal with syndicated articles or duplicated content. How do
     the original content providers get the original value?


209. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : If content
     is syndicated, you might want to make sure that you have a link back to your
     site (if your site is the original).


210. Webmaster (Swaroop) :
     How about getting us first into the next round of really secret beta invites
     list ?


211. Google Expert (JonathanSimon) : : How did you
     find out about the "really secret beta invites list? [:)


212. Webmaster (Mark) :
     Thanks Evan. So it's ok to have two url's to the same page?


213. Google Expert (Evan) : :As long as
     they follow Google Webmaster Guidelines, everything is up to you :)


214. Webmaster (Charlie) :
     There are many high-quality sites that use image replacement techniques (such
     as Fahrner image replacement) to provide a better user experience. If you're
     using this technique in a legitimate way to benefit your users, you shouldn't
     have problems.


215. Google Expert (John Mueller): : That's correct.


216. Webmaster (Doug) :
     Susan how long does it usually take to get a post to show in the webmaster
     google group


217. Google Expert (Susan Moskwa) : : It should
     show up almost immediately, but sometimes Google Groups has problems that
     delay posts. Check their "alerts and updates" section here to see
     if they're having problems: https://www.google.com/support/groups/


218. Webmaster (David Gomel) :
     Are we safe with 302ing paid links?


219. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : if you have
     paid links, you need to make sure that they do not pass pagerank. If you can
     redirect them, make sure that the redirecting URL cannot be indexed (blocked
     with a robots.txt).


220. Webmaster (ParksC) :
     Just wanted to point out while I laugh that I am a HE and not a she, ha ha.


221. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : Hi!


222. Webmaster (ali merchant) :
     Matt, if a site is hosted internationally, its preferred to use a top level
     domain extension such as .co.uk, however wont that affect traffic within the
     US though.


223. Google Expert (MattD) : : ali, Ah,
     I see. If you have a country-specific TLD, you are inherently already targeting
     a region. If you have a generic TLD, you can use the geolocation feature in
     Webmaster Tools to specify either a subdomain or subdirectory as targeted
     to a country.


224. Webmaster (Amit Agarwal) :
     I have seen aggregators like megite.com, social sites like Digg and even splogs
     rank above in Google than the actual webpage. Can we prevent this ?


225. Google Expert (Reid) : : Hi Amit -
     if you see a splog rank above the actual webpage that owns the original content,
     feel free to file a spam report to let Google know: https://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html


226. Webmaster (Alan Rothstein) :
     how often do take action on paid text link (or spam reports) reports in google
     webmaster tools


227. Google Expert (Mariya) : : Alan, be
     assured that all spam reports which are submitted are reviewed.


228. Webmaster (Bob Shirilla) :
     Please provide opinion on Hackersafe and Authorize.net, Should a retail store
     use these services?


229. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : if those
     services provide value to your visitors without breaking any of our webmaster
     guidelines, then that can be a good thing for your site.


230. Webmaster (ali merchant) :
     any pros cons around using h1 tags. I like to add them from a usability perspective
     (for instance on a product detail page)


231. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : If you can
     provide context to your content by using headers, by all means use them.


232. Webmaster (Gary Carpenter) :
     where do I access webmaster help groups


233. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : https://groups.google.com/group/Google_Webmaster_Help/topics?start=


234. Webmaster (ParksC) :
     My site dropped out of the rankings for any term with a date in it (2009 widgets)
     but didn't lose any ground for main non-dated keywords. A lot of our title
     tags have dates in them, could this be an over-optimization penalty?


235. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : There are
     many factors involved in ranking -- for details, you may want to ask the experts
     in the Webmaster Help groups.


236. Webmaster (Dictina) :
     I want to make some case conversion of my URLs in order to have all them in
     minor case and avoid duplicates, , but I am afraid of overloading the server
     with 301 redirection. Any idea to make efficient redirects?


237. Google Expert (John Mueller): : In general
     even a large number of 301 redirects will not be a problem in the long run.
     One way you can help that is by using a Sitemap file.


238. Webmaster (webado - Christina) :
     I think it does. All it is js on, you get splash and redirect to /hom/; js
     off you stay on root but see what would have been at /home/


239. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : If you have
     cleaned up the links to your site as much as possible, make sure that you
     detail what you did and file a reconsideration request. However, make sure
     that all of your site complies with all of the guidelines beforehand.


240. Webmaster (Doug) :
     What would be the process if you feel google thinks you have paid links but
     you do not


241. Google Expert (Wysz) : : If you feel
     that your site may have been detected as being in violation of the Webmaster
     Guidelines and it is not (or is no longer), then submitting a reconsideration
     request in Webmaster Tools is the way to go.


242. Webmaster (ParksC) :
     again with asking for inclusion, would you need to wait until Google has recrawled
     any/all sites you have had paid links changed on before asking? And how long
     would you expect to wait to see results from asking for inclusion?


243. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : If you have
     cleaned up the links to your site as much as possible, make sure that you
     detail what you did and file a reconsideration request. However, make sure
     that all of your site complies with all of the guidelines beforehand.


244. Webmaster (Amy Balliett) :
     I have reported a competitor for spam multiple times (they use CSS to push
     about 50 repeated keywords off the screen on load). I've seen nothing happen
     as a result of my spam report, is there a better way to report this?


245. Google Expert (Susan Moskwa) : : The spam
     report is the best way to do this. FYI we do take all spam reports into account,
     but we don't take immediate manual action on all of them (we use many of them
     to improve our algorithms in the long term), so you may not see immediate
     changes.


246. Webmaster (Gabe) :
     It sounds like you are big on blogs. How would you rank the blog software
     out there (wordpress, blogge, etc.) in terms of which has the most SEO friendly
     coding so that we can best succeed in search results?


247. Google Expert (MattD) : : Hey Gabe,
     covering this over voice right now.


248. Webmaster (Jacque) :
     Could you go into more detailed of the links? what does "float"
     PR mean?


249. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : I'm not aware
     of "float" PR.


250. Webmaster (webado - Christina) :
     I guess the usual "an image is with 1000 words" doesn't quite apply
     ;)


251. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : Only if you
     do not use keyword stuffing in your alt tags.


252. Webmaster (Eric) :
     can you explain rel=nofollow tags on links? When and where should we use these
     tags?


253. Google Expert (JonathanSimon) : : If you want
     to link to a site that you either don't trust or can't vouch for use rel nofollow.
     For user generated content like the comments section of a blog, user added
     URLs can be auto nofollowed if you don't have time to monitor these Links


254. Webmaster (David Gomel) :
     So in certain cases, 302s could be passing PR?


255. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : You should
     make sure that the redirecting URLs cannot be crawled, then you should be
     ok.


256. Webmaster (Phil Peterman) :
     Thank you Jonathan, I ask because we are doing a redseign now and are using
     it in our navs rather heavily


257. Google Expert (JonathanSimon) : : sure np


258. Webmaster (Manish) :
     Are .com domains better placed in SERPs than say .in domains ?


259. Google Expert (Mariya) : : Manish, the
     .com domain is a generic top-level domain, while .in is a country-specific
     domain. While they could appear mixed in the serps, the .in domains would
     be naturally better targeted for India-specific local queries


260. Webmaster (Manish) :
     Does the country where your .in domain is hosted makes any difference in SERPs


261. Google Expert (Evan) : : Hi Manish,
     this may affect different geographical google domains, such as google.co.uk
     or google.com. I would suggest using WM Tools to set geolocation preferences.


262. Webmaster (Doug) :
     Spam reports are good but i think that some type of reputation should be given
     to them based on how man someone does maybe


263. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : If you file
     spam reports, make sure that you do that from within your webmaster Tools
     account. Those reports are treated with higher priority.


264. Webmaster (Jaan Kanellis) :
     Can you say that PR Sculpting is important for most all websites to use?


265. Google Expert (Susan Moskwa) : : Personally
     I think that the majority of sites would benefit more from spending their
     time and energy on other things (making sure the site's content is accessible,
     unique and compelling, promoting their site, building community, etc.).


266. Webmaster (webado - Christina) :
     Evan, the geolocation preference only works for generic tld's, isn't that
     true? If your tld is already a country tld then that's the geolocaiton already


267. Google Expert (Susan Moskwa) : : True.


268. Webmaster (Doug) :
     What if a link is not paid but google thinks its paid and treats it like one.


269. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : We take a
     look at the bigger picture.


270. Webmaster (Mark) :
     We recently added a favicon to our site. When I view source it appears above
     the <title> tag. Will that affect our rankings since the title and meta
     description are further from the <head> tag?


271. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : No


272. Webmaster (Mark Kaufman) :
     Thanks. It was strange that after years of pagerank of 7 or so, to have it
     drop off to 0, but since traffic was unaffected we didn't completely freak
     out. ;)


273. Google Expert (Evan) : : Awesome,
     its always best not to freak out. We have a great blog post about housekeeping
     items at https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/03/good-housekeeping.html


274. Webmaster (John Jones) :
     Is it better to clean up / remove / update in bound links even if those links
     probably don't pass ANY value?


275. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : If those
     links cannot pass any value then you should be fine. However, you should also
     make sure that there are not other items which are problematic with your linking.


276. Webmaster (Manish) :
     How can I know which page on my site is leaking PR. Some of my blogs are penalized
     for paid links. I have nofollowed or roboted out whatever I could find. I have
     requested reconsideration requests too. but still no PR.


277. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : There's generally
     no need to worry about "leaking PR".


278. Webmaster (Ian M) :
     Seeing as you're going to look through this Q&A - can you please go over
     (ina post) about which meta language data you will look at, specifically which
     out of these: html lang=, meta name=language, meta http-equiv=content-language


279. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : We do not
     look at the language meta tags -- we've discovered that they are often incorrect
     and that it is better to recognize the language through the content.


280. Webmaster (Rob) :
     Is subdomain considered a "separate" domain that will come up in
     search results as "competing" with the main domain?


281. Google Expert (Evan) : : Hi Rob, there
     is usually some level of connection among subdomains and root domains.


282. Webmaster (John Jones) :
     @ John Mueller: biggest indicator that a link isn't passing value would be
     what in your opinion? If Webmaster Tools knows of the link wouldn't that go
     to say that it is passing something?


283. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : To prevent
     passing of pagerank from a link you can apply a rel=nofollow or make sure
     that they redirect through URLs which cannot be crawled.


284. Webmaster (webado) :
     so ya mean I've been wasting my time setting the language properly? lol


285. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : No, it shows
     that you take your content seriously, which is probably reflected in the rest
     of your content!


286. Webmaster (John Jones) :
     @ John Mueller: biggest indicator that a link isn't passing value would be
     what in your opinion? If Webmaster Tools knows of the link wouldn't that go
     to say that it is passing something?


287. Google Expert (John Mueller): : To prevent
     passing of pagerank from a link you can apply a rel=nofollow or make sure
     that they redirect through URLs which cannot be crawled.


288. Webmaster (webado):
     so ya mean I've been wasting my time setting the language properly? lol


289. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : No, it shows
     that you take your content seriously, which is probably reflected in the rest
     of your content! a


290. Webmaster (Doug) :
     Is it better to have a site with a different tld for different languages or
     to point someone to a language based on their IP a


291. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : both can
     work, or you can use a geeric tld and use webmaster tools to assign geotargeting.


292. Google Expert (Susan Moskwa): Again: I'd
     recommend always allowing the user to make a choice about what language to
     see; some people may prefer a different language than you would automatically
     assign to them based on their IP.


293. Webmaster (dockarl) :
     You said that words in the url are good for users Adam, but what about for
     search engines?


294. Google Expert (MattD) : : dockarl,
     I'll try to cover this while Adam talks. :) If you think about this in the
     same way as images, a descriptive file name can be more helpful than a non-descriptive
     filename for users and search engines.


295. Webmaster (John Jones) :
     would including the img url in the site map help?


296. Google Expert (John Mueller) : : Yes, but
     it will not pass as much context for image search as an image that is embedded
     in a HTML page.


297. Webmaster (Dictina) :
     Tags vs categories navigation or pagination: which is best? which should <I
     nofollow?


298. Google Expert (Evan) : : It is up
     to you how you want to have users navigate your pages, both can work well.
     I would suggest using nofollow on links that you do not want to pass PageRank
     (links that are unrelated to your website, etc)


299. Webmaster:
     How would you rate the importance of <title> tags?


300. Google Expert: : Title tags
     are important for users to understand what to expect on your website. Google
     will serve your title tag in the results page, and you want your users to
     have a clear understanding of where they are going.


301. Webmaster:
     Wanting to serve mobile content at mobile.example.com using the same db and
     some of the same content on the main site. How do I get ranked on mobile devices
     and still avoid duplicate content filters on the mobile content?


302. Google Expert: : That should
     be fine -- don't forget mobile sitemaps
     
     
     
     Document Prepared by Search Engine
     Genie Team
     
     
     References: https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/03/join-us-for-online-live-chat-this.html