Useful advice from Google on Google

Wednesday, June 4, 2008, 12:12 PM
Website Design by John

From Matt Cutts's website.

It is a video, and it is a good rundown of everything your website should be doing to fight web spamming (fake links, fake sites, etc.).

By far his most useful advice: make spammers spend more time on each spam.

I'm still not a big fan of CAPTCHA (those dumb little images with a word in them). In my experience, a disabled submit button + a JavaScript to enable it it alongside the user agreement works better. Especially when integrated with requiring registration.

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Now, the one thing I'll say on the subject is that what people often call web spam is often just being bitchy about marketing tactics. I only sweat certifiable spam. If a local advertiser uses the free classifieds page to push some obvious multi-level marketing mojo, I actually don't get uppity about deleting that as long as the guy pimps the thing out there as straight MLM.

One of the big take aways for the Matt Cutts video is the one thing I love about Google. Google is one of the few companies that gets you have to go out to your user base and just plain lay out what it is you are asking of them. Skip the BS and just say, "Hey, we need you guys gunning for web spam, too. If your sites are filtering this crap, it makes our job easier."

Google, when it is well integrated with sites and users, is an ecosystem. Sites provide good content that allows users to find what they're looking for and come back to the sites.

It's a good thing to be more inclusive.

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Welcome!

Wonder where to start with your web design business?

This blog follows along with my efforts to build and grow a website design business, Pro Content and Design.

The goal of this blog is to fill in blanks that may be empty as you get your business rolling.

This blog, particularly the source code section, is not intended for beginners. If you are not comfortable with databases, Ajax, DOM objects and other advanced methods, I strongly suggest you go take a look over at W3 Schools before even reading -- let alone tinkering with -- any of the code here.

I hope this blog has some value to web designers as they attempt to get their businesses going.

Good luck, and happy reading.

Thank you,
John Crawford
Pro Content and Design