Author: Ash Nallawalla

About Ash Nallawalla

Ash Nallawalla is a consultant enterprise SEO with a long background in large companies with complex websites. He is a published author of several books and thousands of magazine articles.

Solution: unable to save 100 results in Google search?

Google Search No Comments
Reading Time: < 1 minute

I prefer to get the maximum number of results in a Google Search, namely, 100 results. For the past few days I noticed that I was getting only 10 results even after I went to the Search Settings (Preferences) and changed the number from 10 to 100. My preference was not sticking.

Default search preferences
Default search preferences

Why was this happening? The likely cause is that the Google Instant feature generates a lot of data traffic (more so for Google than you) as you type the search term, so Google nobbled it. This is not so likely when you realise that Google could have simply taken away the option to see more than 100 results. Anyway, the solution was easy.
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WhereIs Maps now powers Google Maps

SEO 1 Comment
Reading Time: 2 minutes

You probably know the streets in your neighbourhood better than other suburbs, so what better way to test your new GPS than to plot a route from your home to some known destination. I have evaluated a few car GPS units and own a couple of Garmin units. The most recent one is a Garmin nuvi 1390T, which is powered by Sensis® WhereIs® Maps. But this post isn’t about the GPS — it’s about the maps.

Have you tried to plot a route in Bing lately? Here is what one of my local routes looks like. I live a couple of streets off Wattle Avenue in Werribee in an area that was a market garden eight years ago. Wattle Avenue borders the dairy and agricultural technology training colleges, in other words, we have green paddocks and sheep along Wattle Avenue.

Impossible route in Bing
Impossible route in Bing (click to enlarge)

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Edimax AR-7284WnA wireless modem router firmware upgrade without confusion

Hardware 6 Comments
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Whenever I have an issue with my Netspace ISP ADSL1 connection, I dread the conversation with the tech support person, as it takes a while to establish that I have half a clue about ISP operations and connectivity. Long story short — I bought an Edimax AR-7284WnA wireless modem router to replace a Billion BiPAC 7300G device that was getting flaky. I am at the extremity of the ADSL coverage from my exchange and the ISP tech support implied that nothing was wrong with the line. I was leaving for an overseas trip and my family was getting fed up with the constant drop-outs, so I bought the cheapest device I could get in my suburb. Billion has a good reputation but none to be found near me over the counter on a Saturday. Hence the Edimax, cheap at $77. (Later I read that OzBargain had it for $60 some weeks ago)

Edimax AR-7284WnA

AR-7284WnA routerIt was a major pain in the bum to set up for wireless security, mainly because of the Taiwanese English instructions. The Setup wizard always reverts to a default time zone of Beijing/HK and some default NTP IP addresses. My hurdle was the VPI/VCI values and I had no time to look up the acronyms. This is not a product for the non-techy consumer.

I managed to get past this step and had to choose WPA2-PSK as the strongest available security, but this meant that several gaming devices such as the Xbox couldn’t access it, since they only have WPA-TKIP. Hence the Auto mode was eventually chosen.
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Unhappy with Cheetah Wireless Internet in Las Vegas

Wireless Internet 2 Comments
Reading Time: 2 minutes

I was one of many who signed up for the special pricing for a Clear 4G/3G USB modem during Pubcon. Cheetah Wireless Technologies Inc (CWTI) has offered this during a few events in the past and they also offer wireless coverage to Las Vegas residents and businesses.

Clear USB modem
Clear USB modem rented by CWTI

I used it at the official Pubcon hotel, the Wynn, mostly in my room (number 3365), which faced the Strip. I didn’t need it much at the LVCC, since the conference provided WiFi as well. Reception at best was poor, about two dots on the special login tool that you install on the PC. However, last Wednesday evening (Nov 10, 2010), I could simply not hold the connection and couldn’t check my email.
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Search terminology – some customers call a spade a bloody shovel

Local Search SEO 1 Comment
Reading Time: 3 minutes

In my work as an in-house SEO consultant I sometimes see the client using industry terminology on the website rather than the words you or I might type into a search engine.

Case in point — should it be mortgage or home loan?

I live in Australia and during casual conversations I hear more people saying home loan than mortgage. Should I go with this for a lending institution’s website? As experienced search marketers, you might tell me to look up the good old Google Keywords Tool. Let’s see:

Google Keyword Tool search volumes for Australia
Google Keyword Tool search volumes for Australia

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Google Hotpot heats up the local search scene

Local Search No Comments
Reading Time: 2 minutes

As if the recent release of Place Search wasn’t enough, Google announced the launch of Hotpot in its LatLong blog post.

Signing up for Google Hotspot
Signing up for Google Hotspot

It is a new way to provide your ratings and reviews for any business that is listed in Place Pages.  You can get recommendations of nearby places and involve your friends in writing reviews as well. I signed up and picked a recognisable user name AshNallawalla.

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Do IYP speed tests mean anything?

Local Search SEO 1 Comment
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Having compiled the 2010 USA IYP Rankings a few days ago, I knew that their page load times were quite different. There are a few page speed test tools around but it was important to use one based in the US, so I used the one at Webpagetest.org.

As SEOs we have to consider the page load time, because Google told us so. The page load time is now a Google ranking factor, but how much bearing does it have on search result ranking? The AdWords Quality Score also considers the page load time, so there is more pressure to speed up the site.

Results

The detailed results are linked from the list of IYP names below, but the tool has an impressive way to show the load times in a video, which can only show nine sites at a time, so the videos have been split into sets. You can also see the snapshots graphed into a large image, where the fastest loading site has the shortest horizontal bar. The site fell over during my testing, so I wasn’t able to grab that image.
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Superpages.com tops 2010 USA IYP Rankings

Local Search 15 Comments
Reading Time: 9 minutes

Just over a year ago I published SEO ranking of US IYPs across 274 cities. Exactly a month ago I took the same ranking measurements, but did not publish them owing to a lack of time. A couple of days ago, Google announced the deployment of Place Search, (a new layout of the results page) which is not yet firmed up (in my opinion) but which has caused consternation among some observers in the popular Webmasterworld forum. I also blogged about it yesterday.

Place Search

Now when you search for something that is explicitly local, e.g. “Amarillo pizza” or implicit, e.g. “pizza”, Google shows you a new layout of the search results page, previously containing the “onebox” or “7-pack”.

onebox
Onebox or 7-Pack

The new layout looks like this:

New Place Search layout
New Place Search layout

One of the comments in that Webmasterworld thread said that directories were affected, which prompted me to revisit the IYP SEO rankings project.

2010 USA IYP Rankings

I have been conducting a <service> <city> search of the top 274 US cities with a population of 100,000 or greater for the following phrases:

  • dentist
  • divorce attorney
  • divorce lawyer
  • doctor
  • physician
  • pizza
  • plumber
  • real estate

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How to transfer a domain name to GoDaddy

Other 1 Comment
Reading Time: 4 minutes

I had an unused domain at Yahoo! Domains (the mechanics of which are operated by Melbourne IT). I had bought it when the price was ridiculously cheap – $0.99 or $1.99. I think I tried to move it to GoDaddy some years ago, which has most of my domains, but gave up. I tried it again last week, but I was determined to finish the job this time.

So I hope that anyone else who has difficulty in transferring a domain to GoDaddy will have less trouble. You start the process by logging in and hovering on the Domains drop-down, which will reveal Transfer Domain.

Choose Transfer Domain

What happens next

An email is sent to the holder of the domain at the email address on record in the whois system. That’s you.

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Place Search – local search results on Google will never be the same again

Local Search 1 Comment
Reading Time: 2 minutes

The official Google blog has just announced the rolling out of the new-look local search results, known as Place Search. Here is an example:

LA pizza
LA pizza as seen by the new Google Place Search (click to enlarge)

URL for above search: http://www.google.com.au/search?num=20&hl=en&newwindow=1&esrch=LocalMergeImpl%3A%3AExperiment&q=los+angeles+pizza&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

The Google blog says:

Today we’re introducing Place Search, a new kind of local search result that organizes the world’s information around places. We’ve clustered search results around specific locations so you can more easily make comparisons and decide where to go. Continue reading →

Will doxo set the world on fire?

Ecommerce SEO No Comments
Reading Time: 3 minutes

A new Seattle company doxo has launched, offering to help companies that presently send paper bills to their customers.

doxo paperless billing solution
doxo home page

doxo has set up a WordPress-based website and blog but it hasn’t spent much time thinking of SEO or online reputation hygiene factors. Quite understandable for a startup with better things to think about, but they need to fix the latter ASAP, if not sooner (doxo peeps, contact me — it’s not something to put in a blog post). Continue reading →

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