This is the End (of Yahoo Directory)

Yahoo Directory to Close

Yahoo announced on it Tumblr site that it is going to close the Yahoo Directory.

This is what the report says, "Yahoo was started nearly 20 years ago as a directory of websites that helped users explore the Internet. While we are still committed to connecting users with the information they’re passionate about, our business has evolved and at the end of 2014 (December 31), we will retire the Yahoo Directory. Advertisers will be upgraded to a new service; more details to be communicated directly."

Since I usually recommend to my clients that they buy a listing in Yahoo directory to help improve traffic and exposure to their web content, now I want to wait until December 31, 2014 and see what the new advertising will be like before recommending it.

In the meantime I still recommend Best of the Web and Dmoz directories. I met the Best of the Web directory representatives at Pubcon and they are a great company and reputable, effective directory.  I'm now a Dmoz editor, just learning the ropes and am really happy about that.

In the meantime if you want to get on the waiting list to be a Ducktoes internet marketing client, contact me.

Directories can be Problematic

Directories can be problematic in SEO.  You don't want to be listed in spammy, low-ranking ones. Even high ranking ones can be devalued or penalized by Google and end up being low ranking or toxic. Sometimes the directory owners, especially the owners of penalized directories, ignore your request for removal or make it impossible to request it, and then you have to disavow them.

Local directories are good to submit to.  They help you rank organically and on the local Google map for your search terms.  Woorank has an excellent list of local Canadian directories that I refer to as a resource all the time.  They also have local directories for the US and other countries.

As I have said in previous posts, Yahoo Directory, DMOZ, and Best of the Web directories are all high ranking and safe.  DMOZ is free but difficult to get into.  Yahoo Directory and Best of the Web are not free.  You can buy Best of the Web for half-price ($150 for life) the Monday after Thanksgiving, that is US Thanksgiving. Yahoo Directory is $300 for one year.

Hey, I Did It: Ducktoes Site makes Dmoz!!!

Hey, I did it.  I got my Ducktoes.com site listed on dmoz.org.  This is almost impossible these days, since it is ridiculously hard to get a listing there.  For those who don't know, it's the directory to get into, a goal worthy of achieving. Go to this page and you can see my site listed.  You can also see the listing itself on its own.  I must be doing something right. They spelled my company name a bit wrong (it should be one word instead of Duck Toes) but I'm over the moon or maybe I should say "Over the Rainbow." This is how I'm feeling:

This is a photo from my balcony in Calgary.

Now I'll try to list all my clients on dmoz.  If you want to get in on the action go to my website and check out my services.  Next month I'm going to stop taking clients for a bit so don't wait too long.  I'm getting too many. I mean SEO clients not computer repair or web design.  I don't have time for more SEO clients.

Here's another post about Dmoz Directory (and Yahoo.)

Squidoo to Go Away and Delete (or Transfer) All Your Content!

This is just in.  I went to my Squidoo site to work on my lenses and found out that Squidoo is closing.  What a shock. This is the message:

Squidoo is shutting down

You have a couple of weeks, almost, to move your content to Hubpages or it will all be transferred automatically.  All content will be deleted in October. Yikes.  I have several lenses that I've made for my clients and myself on Squidoo which has been an excellent site until now.  There's a lot of work however I stand to lose if I don't move it. Some of my lenses are great and others are still works in progress, soon to be greater.  They'll have to be greater Hubpages now.  Squidoo has been frustrating lately since some lenses would unpublish without any reason and then I'd have to spend time getting them republished. This was a minor inconvenience compared what this news means.  Now I have to move all the Squidoo content to Hubpages.

I tried the transfer button button as shown above but since I already have a Hubpages account it says my user name already in use. Of course it is.  There should be a way of moving to an existing account. Maybe I'll move them manually.  I hope I don't get flagged for duplicate content since the content is already on Squidoo, if only temporarily.

I wonder if some people who are not be paying attention to their lenses or are on summer vacation will try to log in and find all their content transferred automatically.  

I was planning on writing a blog post this weekend about using Squidoo or Hubpages as an SEO strategy. Creating Web 2.0 sites IS an acceptable white hat way of a creating a good link if you do it right. The Squidoo lens or Hubpage needs to be well-written original content.  No spinning or duplicate content is tolerated and will cause trouble for you.  Duplicate content isn't fair to the original writer.  Photos and other images spruce it up.  There shouldn't keyword stuffing or too many links to your site.  Creating Hubpages and other 2.0 sites is a lot of work for just a couple of links and some are "no followed" but it is great for traffic and an SEO boost. People link to your Hubpage and your Hubpage links to your site and it is all great organic natural linking happening for you.   

Here's a Hubpage I created:

I'm proud of this Hubpage.  I think it is gorgeous. 

If you would like Ducktoes to create Hubpages for your company's internet marketing, our web design team does content creation.  We can also help your transfer your Squidoo lenses.

Creating Video Content for your Clients

Filmmaking at Ducktoes Computer Services

A really good way to get more traffic and higher ranking is to create video content for your clients and yourself.  Google loves high-quality content created to help users find information.  This is potent seo for your website or sites.

You can do this a pretty low cost if you do the following:

What you need to do:

1. Find a filmmaker who specializes in videos for businesses and hire him or her for a morning or day.  This way you'll able to get a discount for your clients since the filmmaker doesn't have to move equipment or drive around and has instant business without advertising. 
2. Prepare your clients ahead of time. Ask the filmmaker for the questions, he or she will be asking. Email the clients the questions they will be asked so they can prepare their thoughts.  Don't let them memorize or read from notes because that will often provide a stilted conversation on the video. 
3. Bring in your clients by appointment and let the filmmaker film them.   
4. Put the videos on the clients' websites and on Youtube.  This makes great content, which Google loves. 

Video production of content is a win-win-win for everyone involved: for the clients, the filmmaker, and you.

If you would like a video for your website or business, click here.

How to Get Rid of Bad Links: Part Three

Step Three: Create the Disavow File

Step Three is creating the disavow file of the links you haven`t been able to remove.  You'll submit it to the disavow tool.  Don't worry, it's not hard.

What You'll Need

•  A simple text editor like Notepad or, for Macs, TextEdit with plain text selected. 
• The spreadsheet of the links you downloaded and imported into Excel or Google Docs and used in Parts One and Two 
• Access to the disavow tool within Google Webmaster Tools.  Don't use Word or other more elaborate word processing application since the documents they create won't be accepted by the disavow tool.   Find all the bad links you have identified as bad for your site's ranking but have been unsuccessful at removing. 

Open your Notepad and Type
Now that you have the links, type them into Notepad, one link or domain per line.

How to Format the Disavowel of a Page
It's better to disavow an entire domain instead of pages but if you want to disavow a single page you just format it like this:
http://www.badlink.com/index.html

How to Format the Disavowel of a Domain
If you have several links from one domain or if you are unsure how many you have and want to make sure you remove all of them, disavow the entire domain. Unless there are links from a domain you want to keep, disavowing the domain is the wisest choice. Disavowing the entire domain, looks like this:
domain:www.badlink.com

Making Comments
You don't have to make a comment for each link, as some experts claim, but if you want to make a comment for your own use, type the number sign ahead of the comment. This comments out your words by telling the tool to ignore the text that follows.  Here's how comments are formatted:

#I emailed the owner two times to ask for removal but haven't received a response.
domain://www.badlink.com

Example of Disavow File
Here's an example of one of my disavow texts for a client.  I've only disavowed domains here. There are no comments. Check out the formatting:

Now here`s one with comments and links as well as domains.  See how it's formatted:

What I've Learned

The above is how I used to format the disavow file in the past.  I wrote comments as if I was making an argument to some poor Googler, convincing him or her to disavow the links. Yet now I`ve learned that no human reads the comments, so since then I make it much easier on myself by not spending a lot of time on them.  Keeping the text uncluttered with comments also makes it easier for the the disavow tool to read the list of links to be disavowed and ensure greater accuracy.  Now when I disavow, I make all the pages into domains and leave out the comments.

The other posts in this series are:
How to Find Bad Links
How to Remove Bad Links Part One - Ask for Removal on the Site Itself
How to Remove Bad Links Part Two - Use Whois to Find the Owner
How to Remove Bad Links Part Three - Create the Disavow Tool Text

Ducktoes Search Engine Optimization can help you disavow your bad links and recover your ranking.  We are an SEO firm in Calgary.

How to Get Rid of Bad Links: Part Two

Step Two: Use Whois to Find the Owner

Link Removal can be Enjoyable like a Video Game

What if you try to remove a bad link using a comment form or email found on the site, but you receive no response? Or on the site there is no comment form or email or any way way of contacting the owner?  You need to move to Step Two.  Step Two is to try to find some alternate way of communicating with the owner of the site.

Removing Bad Links
Removing bad links is hard work. You have to be persistent.  It is not for the lazy or the feint of heart.  If you give up or get discouraged easily then you should not bother.  Start over with a new domain right now.

You can make link removal more enjoyable if you have the right attitude and like a good challenge.  Pretend it is a video game and the links are targets ( they are.)  There is a certain satisfaction in removing each link and the end goal of recovering your ranking is the sheer pleasure of winning.

Site with Bad Link
Here is a site with an article linking to my client. My client hired someone (not me) to do SEO for him in 2009, not knowing that low-ranking article sites might not be a good idea, or maybe the article site was not low-ranking at the time. Besides, it was before article spamming was even known to be harmful.  Certainly my client was not at fault, but last spring, several years later, his site went down in ranking.  The articles were still there on now low-ranking, spammy sites.  His site got hit with the second Penguin.



For over six months I have been removing his bad links. I have tried in vain to communicate with the owner of this article website via the comment form.

Comment Form Not Working
What you can't see above are my comments, asking the owners to remove the link and article, so I'll let you see them below. They make me laugh since I sound so pleading and pathetic.  Speaking of which, you can't let ego get in the way if you are doing link removal. Pathetic begging becomes routine. Think of that before you sign up for bad links.  Link removal ain't pretty.

I use the "we" in the comments, although neither my client or myself signed up for this article.  It was a previous SEO company who in 2009 thought that this was a good practice. I'm not judging them too much because it was standard then.  (Much like guest posting was thought a good practice until recently.)

The owner is either not seeing these comments or ignoring them.  It is obviously time for Step Two.

Step Two: Use a Whois Site

You need to fine a good Whois website.  I use whois.net.  You'll need to type in the domain of the site with the unwanted link.  This is what I find:

Still No Contact

If I want complete details, and the contact information, I have to go to the Godaddy Whois.  When I get to Goddaddy I find I have to enter in the verification code into the captcha to see the details. This is the result:

I find the site is listed as private.  The contact information is still not available. This is disappointing news but perhaps if I write to the Admin Email at bestarticlesdaily.com@domainsbyproxy.com of Godaddy, they will forward it to the owner. This is what I decide to do.  I email the admin contact and ask for the link removal.

Perhaps You'll Have Better Luck
Sometimes the contact info is available on Whois and you can write an email or even a letter.  I've even called an owner before when nothing else worked. Just because whois and emailing didn't work this time for me, it doesn't mean you won't find the information you need.

Time will Tell
Only time will tell if the owner will respond to my email.  Let's keep our fingers crossed.  And if not all is not lost.  There is still Step Three.

Update
It is more than a month later and I still no response from the website/article owner.  Definitely time for Part Three.

The other posts in this series are:
How to Find Bad Links
How to Remove Bad Links Part One - Ask for Removal on the Site Itself
How to Remove Bad Links Part Two - Use Whois to Find the Owner
How to Remove Bad Links Part Three - Create the Disavow Tool Text