In my last post I spoke a bit about Absolute Vs Relative URLs. In this post I will talk about the Windows Hosts file. If you have a site mock up that you want to put online and test out but the files are not yet ready to be deployed on the live site, you can test your site by using the Windows Hosts file.

Working on a new site? Testing code before it goes on a live server? Reading through Google Groups, John Mu talks about the pluses and minuses related to absolute vs. relative URLs. He says that as a negative absolute URLs "cannot be tested on a staging / testing server (e.g. locally) (unless you insert the links dynamically)". I disagree with his suggestion as I'm a fan of absolute URLs and believe that there is a way around this, by using the Windows Hosts file on your PC. This first post discusses absolute vs. relative URLs in case you are not familiar with the difference.

A bit more on the duplicate content vs. syndication idea...

I found a recent post on the popular Wolf Howl SEO blog where he gives his own take on how Google may be getting their duplicate content filters wrong. Wrong or right, he has a point. Not all original content creators will rank highly for their own content.

Should you syndicate your site's web content? If you were to start a new business you might not have a brand name that consumers and web searchers recognize. Even if you've been out in the market for years, maybe your local search market recognizes you, but a larger audience would not. In this post, I want to show you a quick example of duplicated content, how it's not necessarily penalized, and why it can be a smart move to syndicate your content.

Two of the most common questions that people ask about online marketing is, 'should I put a blog on my site?' and 'how do I get my site indexed quickly?'. The answer, in many cases, is yes and perhaps with your blog. If you want to be indexed by Google and other engines quickly, the answer is often "get a blog". While I won't get into all of the pitfalls of having a blog, I did want to show you one small indexing benefit that is related to having a blog...

An SEO firm in Washington state has been sued over it's practices and may face thousands in penalties and fees according to Search Engine Watch. The core issue had been that their services were not clear, that they made inaccurate guarantees, and if their competitor's post is true, called this service a "scam to avoid".

Often when you sign up for an email account, blog account, or other service, a "captcha" is used to verify that you are setting up a real account. In regards to blogs, it is often a great way to avoid getting tons of automated, spammy comments that do little to add to a conversation. However captchas can often be humorous in their own way.

The other day I was thinking about registering for a free email address. Of course, all of the names that I thought to register were taken. I tried to register a new domain, all of the names that I really wanted were long gone. I went to a couple of Web 2.0 social sites and thought about names that I didn't really want but might be interested to post under... it turns out WebTrends was already taken at Twitter. Was this a real or fake account?

There are a number of disagreements in the SEO industry about what is the most important thing in regards to improving search engine rankings. Some argue that content is the most important. Some argue that it is optimization that is the most important. Some think that links are the most important. While I think that all 3 are quite important, and while there are thousands of factors to consider, lets just look at links for a moment.

Has your site recently taken a nose dive in the rankings? Do you find that your site is no where to be found even if you use your domain name as the search term? Whether you have a Google WebMaster Tools account or not, you may now find a note from the WebMaster team waiting for you, after you've created an account and verify your site.

Ranking on your company name, product name, etc. just became that much more important. Perform a search on various brand and company names like Wikipedia, Best Buy, New York Times, and others and you'll find an extra search box just below the first result. By adding keywords to this search box, it will further refine a search so that results come only from the listed site.

I was reading an associated press piece this morning and it brought up a good point about names with dashes, apostrophes, and other characters that me non-standard to many English based web sites. Most customer relationship management apps (CRM), databases for credit card applications, hotel reservations systems, and more usually require name fields that allow only for a standard first and last name. Non-standard names may cause problems or even shut down your systems.

It is pretty likely that you've heard of the term "Web 2.0". It is basically a term coined around 2005 to signify that your web site has some type of interactivity with it's visitors. If you go to sites like Slashdot, Digg, MySpace, Twitter, Craigslist, Upcoming, YouTube, etc. the majority of content on these sites, has been created by site visitors rather than the companies that manage these sites. While many will focus on the interesting technology behind these sites, i.e. logins, automated notifications, managed lists, etc. as the "magic" behind the sites, it is truly the interaction that keeps these sites popular. In this post I want to highlight a blog called Daily Monster, it is an example of a site that is interacting with site visitors with out all of the hoopla or technological widgets that are often associated with Web 2.0 style interactivity. Hopefully it will also inspire you to interact with your own site visitors.