We all look at our competitor’s websites.  We have to.  That’s just the way business goes.  But what’s the ethical way to do this research in the days of pay per click advertising?  It’s simple: you have to go out of your way to avoid clicking on their pay per click ads.

Why? Two reasons.

First, the only way to conduct ethical research into competitors you find via AdWords is to type their site address into your browser manually.  Yes, it takes more effort, but it doesn’t cost them any money which also means you’re not committing click fraud.

Second, and this is where the your best interest part comes in, when you click on their AdWords link, you make their site appear more relevant for the search criteria.  Essentially, in the world of Google, the clickthrough rate is one component of the ad’s quality score which is partially responsible for determining ad postion.  When you click on your competitor’s ad, you’re voting it ad as the most appropriate match to you query.  If you’re advertising under the same set of keywords, you’re voting for your competitor’s site as being a better fit than your own.

Isn’t that nice?  Your best interest and the ethical way of doing research are perfectly aligned.

Read about it in Google’s AdWords Help Center.

Just got a fax today from the Official Internet Registry & Optimazation Bureau touting their SEO services.  Now, the company may in fact provide SEO services, but there are several factors that lead me to believe they are just a scam.

1. Their name.  There is no official Internet website registration or oprtimation bureau.

2. They’re faxing blind, which I never trust in businesses, politicians or charities.

3. They offer no specific statement about what they provide.

4. They operate from a Panamanian registered website (.com.pa) and offer only a Private Mailbox Style address.

5. They offer a once annually service.  SEO is a constant requirement, not a once a year event.

The sad part is that someone out there will probably sign up for the service hoping for a magic cure to their Internet woes.  When they do, they’ll be out $600+.  A quick search around the web will find multiple reports of these shysters.

If you’re looking for SEO, talk to your web developer first.  Chances are they can help.

One of the many frustrations of operating a website is that stuff you don’t necessarily want people to find is often still available in one cache or another.  Google operates one of these.  So here’s the question:  how do you delete data from the Google cache?

Simple: instead of just deleting the page, delete most — not all — of the content on it.  Let the Google bot come around and index the new, empty content.  Once you have verified that Google has cached the empty content, you can safely delete the page.

That’s it!

“Google Dance” was what we called it-that monthly-ish shuffling of search engine rank based on their every whim. So what I saw this last weekend can only be called the “Google Dance, Dance, Dance.”*

First, some background. I blog and, if you’ve talked to me about your site, you know I think you should, too. One of the things that sparked a blog entry was an error message in the new version of Apple’s iTunes. “iTunes is unable browse album covers on this computer.” It’s a terrible error message. There’s no possible cause and no explanation. So I complained.

And, two days later, my complaint was the number 2 result on Google for that error phrase. So I figured I’d go back, find out what the problem was and fix it. Over the weekend, my various posts when from position 2 to 4 to 6 and then, late Sunday night, to the sweet spot: #1. Hundreds of people are hitting the site. Hopefully the page is useful. No, I’m not making any money off of these visitors. Not yet, anyway.

I found three things about this process really interesting.