Important Tips from SMX East Panel of Search Engineers
During the last day of panel discussions at SMX East, search engineers from Google, Yahoo!, and MSN were asked questions from the audience. The panel was moderated by Danny Sullivan and provided several important and valuable information that every SEM professional should know.
The representatives were Nathan Buggia, Live Search Webmaster Central, Lead Program Manager, Microsoft; Aaron D’Souza, Software Engineer, Search Quality, Google Inc.; and Sean Suchter, VP of Engineering, Yahoo!.
Affiliate Links: When the panel was asked about the use of affiliate links, Sean Suchter of Yahoo! stated that if the affiliate links came from reliable, valuable and relevant sources, they should be counted in link algorithms. The representatives from Google and MSN agreed, and added that they thought that marking these affiliate links with a nofollow or any other method of blocking link values.
Mistaken Spam: Though it’s rare, there are some instances where there are false positives in spam. Aaron D’Souza stated that he is committed to working to eliminate spam and duplicate content. In cases where spam is a mistake, webmasters are encouraged to send feedback through Google: Webmaster Central; Microsoft: Webmaster Tools; Yahoo!: Site Explorer Suggestions forum.
The Importance of Links: The panel was asked if links were considered the main source for determining search engine rankings and all three generally agreed that it is. And though it might not be the most important signal in determining rankings, it is more important that a webpage’s title tags. No one indicated that the importance and impact of link building would fade away in the near future.
Pay Attention to Sitemaps: Sean Suchter from Yahoo! stated that websites should always submit their sitemaps, either in .txt or .xml format because it will help with inclusion. He also stressed that it is important to make sure that a sitemap is working correctly. Some examples of why sitemaps are important were discussed, including Yahoo!’s method of determining which pages are important on a site. Sean Suchter’s advice was to include only the important pages on a sitemap, not every page on a site. Nathan Buggia stated that URL structures on a Sitemap are crucial. All three members of the panel agreed that websites with sitemaps experience higher traffic than sites who do not have a sitemap in place.
The Use (or Overuse) of Session IDs: Typically, putting session id’s in a URL is strongly discouraged. Yahoo!, Google, and MSN all mentioned that they have measures in place that will de-dupe session id’s in URLs. The panel however did not clarify whether or not links that point to these URLs with session ids would be counted as part of an original page. To air on the side of caution, SEOs should not include session ids in URLs and use the 301 redirects to ensure and improve link equity.
Test Page Rank Sculpting: The panelists all agreed that Page Rank Sculpting, or “PR Sculpting” should be tested because some sites will receive value, but most will not. It’s generally not considered near the top of an SEO priority list when optimizing a website.
In the end, this panel discussion was extremely beneficial in answering some very important SEO questions.
