How long does a Google reinclusion request take?
If you’ve made a mistake (or been burned by your SEO, web designer, etc.) and you’ve been kicked out of the index you will probably need to file a reinclusion request to let them know you took care of the problem. You can do this through Google’s Webmaster Central.
The last time I did one of these was several months ago and it took at least a month until an engineer reviewed/approved reinclusion. Two weeks ago, however, I submitted another request (for a different site) and it is now appearing in the index.
I am impressed at this relatively quick turnaround time. One thing Google does well is manage expectations - they made it clear that it could take several months. I was pleasantly surprised that it was just a couple weeks. That is an important lesson for internet retailers to learn when considering return policies, shipping deadlines, etc.
Vista Bug - sucking up bandwidth
We have a test machine here running Windows Vista. Anybody who knows me will tell you that I personally am a huge fan of Microsoft stuff. It’s probably just because I’ve been using Windows for so long… I don’t know, I’m just not ready to go down the Mac road.
This morning, however, our Vista machine was retrieving some updates - no problem, that’s what it’s supposed to do, right? Apparently, however, the default setting for downloading updates (all 2GB!) was to utilize all available bandwidth.
What was the result? Pretty predictably the internet slowed to a crawl and eventually everything was timing out for all of our employees over here. When we finally figured out who the bandwidth hog was (an unattended test machine) I was shocked.
I am guessing that this is a bug - surely Microsoft doesn’t mean to suck all available bandwidth for an update. As Mark said, though, this is why businesses are waiting to adopt the new OS… but I’ll definitely give Vista a shot sometime soon.
I’m hoping that if everybody keeps leaving the PC in search of stability and a more intuitive interface then I may be one of the last Windows guy’s standing… and Microsoft will be forced to give me one of those awesome Ferrari laptops. Hey, I gotta have a dream.
Redirecting non-www to www
One of the most common problems I see with even some big brand websites is the lack of a null host file on the server - you can type www.<bigbrand>.com in but if you just try <bigbrand>.com it doesn’t work - there is no real excuse for this.
But the truth is that even if you do have the null host file pointing to the right directory you should still consider redirecting people from the non-www site to your www - type prestonwily.com in your address bar and you will see it redirect to www.prestonwily.com. To see an example of the opposite type in www.sewelldirect.com and you will be redirected to sewelldirect.com.
So why is this important? Because Google (and other engines) frequently can’t distinguish between your non-www and www versions of your site. This in and of itself wouldn’t be a big problem, but all those inbound links that you spend so much time and effort building can effectively be split between your “two” sites.
Here is the easiest way to implement the redirect (assuming you are using Apache and have mod rewrite enabled - if you don’t know what this means just try this technique and if it doesn’t work you probably don’t have mod rewrite enabled - contact your web host):
1) Check your ftp folder for your website for a file called .htaccess. If you already have one just add the code from step 3 to it.
2) Create a new file (locally) called htaccess.txt. (Note: if you are using a windows machine you may or may not be able to see and edit .htaccess files. This is why I recommend calling it htaccess.txt until you upload it to your server).
3) Open htaccess.txt and add the following code (replacing domain with your domain name):
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
rewritecond %{http_host} ^domain.com [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [r=301,nc]4) Upload htaccess.txt to your server (in the directory holding your website files).
5) Rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess.
That’s all you have to do - pretty easy and you’ll thank me down the road.
Invisible Shield
Update: The company claims that the bubbles come out of the shield within 2-3 days. While they are correct that the bubbles come out, it took about 10 days for mine. I didn’t mind waiting, I just thought the bubbles wouldn’t come out since after 5 days they were still pretty bad but now they’re basically all gone. My warning to Treo users is that the shield will, over time, creep around a little bit. This isn’t a problem anywhere except on the back of the phone - removing the back to replace the battery becomes a bit of a chore, but it’s really not too bad and this isn’t something I do very often.
I love my Treo (700p) - sometimes I love it too much and it gets overused (scratched, beat up). I have always thought about getting some type of covering for it but I don’t want to make it bulkier than it already is.
Enter the Invisible Shield from ShieldZone. I’m trying it out to see if it will stay or go. Here is my analysis:
Pro’s:
1) Adds no bulk to an already chunky phone.
2) Doesn’t stick to my pocket - a big problem with the silicone iPod cases.
3) Doesn’t interfere with typing since this part of the phone isn’t covered.
4) Seems to be really good at resisting scratches.
Con’s:
1) For some people the pricetag may be high - $25 for a treo jacket and most video iPods. If it delays having to buy a new one for a few months, though, it’s probably worth it.
2) Application was very difficult - I couldn’t get all the airbubbles out. For this reason alone I would suggest getting it done in a mall where they will install it for you. It costs a few dollars more but would definitely be worth it. (Update: all the bubbles were gone within 10 days)
3) It doesn’t really protect your device from falls, crashes, etc. It is more for protection against scratching, spilling something on it, etc.
Audit your web designer
Our Utah internet marketing company saw something interesting last week when we signed up a new client - they had a PageRank but were not included in Google’s index - nowhere. Not even a site:<domain>.com would bring up their site.
I haven’t dealt with this particular problem in the past - I have dealt with banned sites but they have never actually shown an external PR. After adding their site to Webmaster Central I saw this message:
No pages from your site are currently included in Google’s index due to violations of the webmaster guidelines.
Upon closer inspection I saw that they had hidden text on their page. What really worried me was what the hidden text was - links to competitors!
At this point I put everything together - their web designer had a link at the bottom of each page to contact the webmaster. The emails went to only him and he was renting links to competitors. The links were hidden in the CSS file so the client had no idea they were linking to competitors. Yahoo and MSN (the two engines that didn’t bother kicking them out) were showing these links.
I learned two good lessons from this:
1) Whenever you have a contact us link make sure you are also receiving those emails - not just your web designer or SEO.
2) Hire another company to audit your SEO or web designer. Most will probably do this for pretty cheap. Make it clear that you have no intentions to switch (so they don’t do the used car salesman thing), but just to check up on what their current SEO is doing. If you pay a few hundred bucks they will probably give you a really honest opinion that could potentially save you thousands.
Never buy from 2Checkout.com
I decided to place a purchase for some software and they use 2Checkout.com. I figured no problem, made the purchase and expected an immediate download link. They fail to tell you that it takes several hours to get the software if you even get it the same day (of course it was an “outsourced” call center).
My advice to any software company - take a few minutes to install your own shopping cart and don’t waste time with these guys. We wrote our own software to provide customers with downloads immediately upon payment and it was not difficult at all - you will save a ton of money in the long run from people like me who will cancel their purchases. Also, most out of the box ecommerce shopping carts offer this option.
BlueOrb
Sam and I have finally solved our ongoing debate of which OS is superior (to recap, he is a Mac, I am a PC) - the answer is BlueOrb. If you’re down for a good laugh read the requirements and be sure to check out the comments.
Internet Retail Sourcing: The Chicken and the Egg
When sourcing products for internet retail most people are faced with a chicken and egg problem: initially they don’t do enough volume to get good pricing, but they are competing with retailers who do have better pricing and hence can’t compete on price.
What’s a retailer to do? One creative way I have found around this is to call your supplier directly - distributors, by the way, are much less likely to work with you on pricing than the manufacturer’s themselves, but most large manufacturers go through distributors. It still doesn’t hurt to ask.
Explain your problem and your strategy for growth over the next year. If you have impressive historical growth patterns share these with the supplier.
Here is the trick - ask them for volume pricing and a reasonable time-frame to hit the required volume. For instance, you can say “I know I will get a significant discount if I buy 1K pieces of this product, but I can only purchase 100 today. If you give me the volume 1K pricing, however, and give me six months I will meet your volume requirements.”
Not everybody will respond to this request, but you will be pleasantly surprised to find that a few suppliers actually will. In most cases the supplier wants to find a way to sell to you at a lower price point - they are constrained by distribution agreements with larger customers, however, and have a hard time around these. Limited-time discounts are a great way for them to work within their distribution agreements without risking a large account.