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Best of the Web (BOTW) is currently offering free listings in their new blog directory. This definitely a link worth getting, even though it is a directory listing. BOTW is one of, if not the oldest directories on the web, and all submitted websites are human reviewed. So it should pass on some link value along with extra traffic.

The only catch is that your blog must meet the following criteria before it will be accepted.

• The blog must be up and running 24/7
• The blog must contain unique content, as determined by a BOTW editor
• The blog must not contain any parts under construction
• All links on the blog must work
• The blog must have a history of 6 (six) months or longer
• The blog must be kept current, and have active participation
• The blog must be in the English language (or have an English version available)
• The blog must support multiple browsers and capabilities
• The blog must not contain any content, products, services or other information that may be illegal to sell under any applicable law, that may infringe or violate anyone’s rights, or that BOTW believes, in its sole discretion, is unacceptable.

This is yet another golden opportunity to get some FREE link love for your blog. I am not sure how long they intend to offer this, so it would be a good idea to sign up soon.

Once again search engines are giving in to the requests of governments, and this time Yahoo! is the turncoat (for the third time). Apparently, Yahoo! handed some email drafts (that’s right, DRAFTS) over to the Chinese government that led to another arrest.

Now I consider email to be about as secure as a post card, but a draft is more like an incomplete thought or a letter that hasn’t been written. The fact that Yahoo! turned over this information is just as disturbing as the thought of being arrested for a letter that never left your mailbox.

This whole situation is disturbing because more and more big corporations are jumping into bed with our communist allies. Even Bill Gates is now breaking bread with the president of China.

This news should serve as a warning for anyone who actually thinks that their email is truly private.

April is shaping up to be an extremely busy month for me and the Comit crew, and it looks like I will have to miss another conference. We are gearing up for a tradeshow and festival that will be happening at the same time as Pubcon Boston. I’m kinda bummed out about it but duty calls.

If you too are unable to attend, don’t fret, because there are guys out there who are doing a great job of sharing what they learn, at these conferences, with everyone else. Some even go as far as to post speaches and Q&A’s verbatum.

Search Engine Roundtable is usually the best place to start looking for a recap of the conference. This site always has good coverage of SEO events, and sometimes, Barry posts reviews during the conference rather than waiting till the end.

Jim and Todd also have nice recaps of the conferences that they attend. Then again, I’m sure everyone who goes to the conference will post something about it on their blog.

Even with all these people reporting, I’d still rather be there in person.

Most SEO advice tends to focus primarily on link building techniques, on-page factors, and search engine trends. This is all very good information, but what about Web Hosting? Every now and then neighborhoods are mentioned, but never with enough emphasis.

Not all servers are created equal and many are not search engine friendly. It would be pointless to waste time and money building links and refining code when your website is being hosted from a slow, unreliable server that is full of spammy neighbors (who you WILL be associated with by the search engines). Servers are one of the cheapest components of a website, but they are very important.

Here are a few things to consider before you choose a server.

• Does the web host have 301 Redirect capabilities? This is absolutely necessary to avoid the possibility of duplicate content penalties.
• The uptime of your server is vital. There are several providers that guarantee their servers to be up 99.9% of the time.
• Your IP Class can and will be used by search engines to determine the quality of your neighborhood. Your web host should be analyzed to determine if there are any spam sites associated with its IP Class.
• Does the web host have clean name servers? You want your website to be associated with others who have clean names.
• Look for a server that provides each reseller with their own IP addresses. Hosting on a server with large amounts of sites using one IP address will significantly increase your chances of being associated with spammers.
• Does the web host support the Date Modified attribute? Search engines like to know when your pages are being modified and the Date Modified attribute makes this possible.
• Choose a server with a fast response time. This will allow search engines to crawl further into your website because they are not spending time waiting for pages to load.

Services like SEO Certified Servers are available to help you determine if your server meets these criteria. They check and certify servers for the sole purpose of SEO.

I think that it would be wise to take a closer look at your web host before launching your SEO campaign.

Good Luck
Paul

By now everyone is probably familiar with Google’s battle against the Department of Justice to keep their search data private. While that issue has yet to be resolved it appears that a judge is now ordering Google to comply with a subpoena to hand over an individual’s entire Gmail account including all deleted messages. According to a recent news post on CNET News.com, the FTC intends to use the records to track down the defendant’s sizeable ($300 million) assets.

Cases of this nature continue to prove that there is a substantial amount of white collar crime taking place, and the criminals are not trying very hard to cover their tracks. With access to search data and email accounts, the Department of Justice has even more tools to track criminal activity. So, if you are using your Gmail account for criminal activity don’t bother deleting incriminating mail because it is still retrievable.