Since I had been in the top 3 of the 10 pack for several keywords and after the substitution had fallen out completely I got busy working to correct the situation and that’s where it went from bad to worse.  After I successfully claimed the listing and changed the number I had to do some editing.  The new listing had no categories, no description etc.

To my surprise, after filling all of the information out I returned to the dashboard to see this:

I’ve created a lot of listings for clients and my own businesses and never run across this before, but my instinct was to adopt a wait and see attitude.  Since I knew there wasn’t anything wrong with the listing I figured it was in some sort of queue at Google that a human would come around and check it and see there wasn’t anything wrong with it and would lift the flagged status. When a few days had gone by and there had been no change I started looking to see who else had, had this problem.  Not surprisingly, I found that Mike Blumenthal had reported on the problem based on a post in the Google Support forums.

The solution posits that the listing has banned words and that this causes the problem and that removing these corrects the problem.  Mike had a slightly different theory.  He thought that listings which got flagged might be running into an issue with too many characters in a certain field as this has been a known problem. It turns out the problem may be neither.

I would suggest that the problem is a bug in the code.  That Google has not commented on it because they don’t know where in the code the bug is coming from and they therefore can’t fix it.  Non programmers find it hard to believe that this kind of thing can occur but ask a programmer, it happens all the time.

So how did I come to my conclusion?  I tried removing the majority of the text in the description of my listing leaving just the line “We’re a small business search engine marketing company.”  I returned to the dashboard to a changed notice.  My listing was no longer flagged it was now awaiting an update.  I should mention at this point that even before I removed anything from the description I was under the allowed 200 characters having used only 189, so it wasn’t a problem of too many characters in this field.

The next thing I did leads me to my theory that this is a bug which Google may know exists but hasn’t been able to find.  I put the exact same text that had originally been there back in and submitted the listing yet again.  And the result.

My recommendation is that you try removing all but a line of your description.  Then, assuming you were happy with your listing as it was you put your original text back and submit again.

What does this mean? Well among other things the paid keyword research tools out there may see a flood of cancellations. But what it really means is that you have one of the most powerful keyword tools out there at your finger tips and for free (the link above leads you to the free version for which you don’t even need an Adwords account).

Among the great things about the improved Google Keyword Tool is that they give you the numbers for how often the keyword or keyword phrase shows up in general searches, but you can also narrow this down to how often the word or term is searched on as an exact match as seen in this image:

Combine the data you get from the new and improved google keyword tool with Google Trends and you have a great strategy for keyword research.

Recently I recommended one of my favorite hosting companies to a client who I am teaching the ins and outs of blogging and WordPress. I did this because the client’s original host wasn’t working well with WordPress.

Wouldn’t you know it, the hosting company put the client on a new server and that server went down after it had only been online for a few days. Here is the message they sent:

Due to a problem with the /var partition, all db’s were erased on gator481 last week. Due to the server only having been put into production 3-4 days ago, there are no backups. If you do not have a database on the server as of right now, we will need you to reupload your database from your most recent backup. If you transferred from a
different host, you may be able to download your database from your old host and upload it here again.

Thanks,
Joshua Moncrief

I’ve been using HostGator for over 2 years and I will continue to recommend them as I’ve never had a problem in those two years.  So the above is to say nothing about their dependability.  It is however a serious warning.  What follows is a brief explanation about many of today’s Web sites and a little tutorial on what you need to do.

I write this blog mostly for people who need to do their own Web site work, but may have little understanding of the inner workings of their site.  They simply need it to work.  Like a lot of SEO professionals I have found that WordPress is an excellent content management system / blogging platform and I regularly recommend it .  In fact, if I am building a site for a client I don’t even consider any other platform.  However, my guess is that most of my clients don’t know that their “pages” aren’t actual html files, but live in a database.  What this means is that if the database gets wiped out as it did in the above situation it really doesn’t matter that they have their theme files.  All their “pages” will be gone.

How do you back up your database?

The procedure is pretty simple as long as your host uses cPanel.  Simply login to your cPanel which will be mydomain.com/cpanel/ and look for the word “Backups” and its icon.  Click this and you’ll be taken to a page where you’ll see back up home directory and back up mysql.  The home directory is a full back up of everything.  You may only want to back up your mysql databases if you use a database driven site.  I would suggest you back up your database weekly and your home site monthly, or whenever you make changes.

One of the improvements will better title tags.  In case you’re unfamiliar with title tags they are what show up as the first  line of text in the search results pages of any search engine page.  One of the factors for many search engines is in terms of how they rank your site is known to be how and where the keywords in title tags are placed.  Up until version 2.5 of word press if you did a standard install and either didn’t use a plugin that changed these for you, or didn’t manipulate the code (this is what I do) your blog/site name would always appear first followed by the title of your page /post.  Now that will be reversed.

This will be a good thing and it will help WordPress be better optimized right from the get go assuming you are smart about the names you give your titles.  I personally will continue to change the code for my WordPress installs because there is more that one can do with the title to improve search engine optimization, but if you don’t have the know how and can’t afford to pay someone to do it for you – what WordPress is offering is much better than what they’ve had before.

Go to the Presentation tab in your WordPress admin area and click on it.  Now from the sub menu click the tab that says “Discussion”  scroll down this page and at the bottom where there is a field to block any comments from IP addresses or with certain words in them add the following.  You can just cut and paste my list:

xanax
Lexapro
tramadol
Lipitor
Phentermine
soma

Hit the update button.  Blamo!  98% of your spam is gone.  The rest is a minor annoyance.

Web Analytics: An Hour a Day (Paperback)
Written by an in-the-trenches practitioner, this step-by-step guide shows you how to implement a successful Web analytics strategy. Web analytics expert Avinash Kaushik, in his thought-provoking style, debunks leading myths and leads you on a path to gaining actionable insights from your analytics efforts.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly (Hardcover)
Scott provides the technical novice a thoughtful and accessible guide to cutting-edge media arenas and formats such as RSS, vodcasts and viral marketing, without neglecting the fact that technological wizardry can’t substitute for a well-thought out marketing program.

Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day (Paperback)
Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin is written for anyone who has a web site and has yet to embark on the time-consuming process of optimizing the site for search engines. Both authors are experienced SEOs, and the book reflects the systematic approach they’ve developed whenever working with a new client.

Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords (Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords) (Paperback)
Never before in the history of advertising has it been possible to spend five bucks, write a couple of ads and get instant access to more than 100 million people in 10 minutes. But that’s exactly what Google AdWords does. It’s an awesome concept-but you can lose a bundle if you don’t know how it works.

I am thankful for great clients who provide me with interesting work. When I quit my job as a crisis line director, I left 17 years of helping people in nonprofit settings. I thought I might miss that work, that after a while I might find my new profession less than meaningful. My work in nonprofits often paid little but it always fed the soul.

What I’ve discovered thanks to the wonderful people who hire me, is that I am still in a helping profession. I get to help people realize their dreams of having their own businesses, feed and shelter their families with their incomes – I am a part of all that and it makes me thankful for the work I do and the clients who I get to help.