We attempted to run a Facebook Application on a dynamic server through GoDaddy. Bad call. There was a delay when the application was updated and, more often than not, failed to update user changes to the app. In an attempt to economize, life was made more difficult. In the end, we switched from a GoDaddy dynamic IP back to a static IP. To sum up, if you run an application that requires external access (like Facebook), use a static IP.

Time to dust off the dirt on your URLs. When writing content, replication is something you should try to avoid. When you have hundreds of pages, its difficult to make every page unique.

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Especially if you have an ecommerce site where pages also look very similar to other merchant sites with the same products. Other merchants tend to use the same descriptions provided by vendors. Different URLS with Similar Text or DUST is the new buzzword. We’ve been checking out some abstracts and white papers to help bury this problem.

US Patent 6,658,423

DUST

The nicest Froogle feature is the product search results you find before the Google organic results. I’ve found that the fastest way to number one for a product keyphrase is with a Froogle feed uploaded through Google Base. Type in “white hat seo” and you will find ecommerce seller Café Press ranking nicely. What exactly triggers a product search result is hard to say.

Maybe people don’t search for “black hat seo” but instead “black cap seo”. Is it possible to optimize for Froogle results?

Yes. In much the same way as optimizing for organic Google results, the Froogle algorithm behaves in much the same way.

Froogle results are returned in three ways:
Relevance
Price
Rating

The only category selection that can be optimized is Relevance which is the default when you first go into Froogle.
You will need to upload the following attributes in to Google base:

link
title
description
price
image link

I recommend using the “label” and “brand” attributes as well.
What’s important to Google is what is important to Froogle too. To optimize:

1. * The title attribute is the most important. Results attempt to return an exact keyphrase match.
2. * To help appear at the top of the search results for a keyphrase, the product description attribute must have the same keywords as the title attribute.
3. * The product landing page must have that keyphrase prominent in the page title and in H1 or H2 header tags. Price has to match on the landing page.
   
4. * Place the keyphrase for the attributes and landing page title/headers at the front of the text.
5. * Use the “brand” and “label” attribute if you can and use an image always.

Again, like Google results, the less competitive keyphrases can return a broader match. The more competitive, the less likely you will rank in the top three of the product search results and the greater the necessity to shoot for a niche phrase with an exact match. Or, try increasing the quality of your landing page. Increasing the quality of landing page entails increasing the keyword density and matching titles and headers. In other words, just use plain ole seo.

Other dirt on Google Base:
Will the Google Base Beta that is anticipated to replace Froogle behave in the same way? Time will tell. The Google Base product results seem to be still in development and Froogle is still providing the product search results within Google.

Google Base lets you upload and run Adwords ads through Google Base!
 

Is Google Base susceptible to spam? You better believe it. Those People profiles in Google Base are the some of the spammiest on the web.

In case you missed it, Danny Sullivan was in USA Today back on August 2. He mentions the importance of links and getting some easy ones like from the Better Business Bureau. Today, he announced his departure from the website Search Engine Watch which he founded.