XML Sitemap Ping Application
First of all let me apologize for not posting a status update on the Hustle 2009 challenge.
I was at work today and had this grand idea of creating a XML Sitemap application that could ping multiple search engines at once.
Well I just completed it, then found out that Ask.com was also supporting XML sitemaps so it’s not 100% complete. It’s currently hosted on another site of mine, but I will be bringing a copy over to the Blog Joe Blog site also.
XML Sitemap Ping
This application is not very technical; But I did get a chance to add some validation routines but nothing fancy.
So here you go have fun with it.
This code is not yet available for download
XML Sitemap Ping
Tags: Ping, Sitemap, XML, XML Sitemap Ping
Google webmaster Tools
I don’t log into my webmaster tools account as much as I should. But every time I do I’m amazed at the changes they have made. Google has really put their foot into this application and it’s unbelievable that the upfront costs are free. I say upfront because I’m sure they are using this data in some way to benefit themselves.
I recently made some changes to a social website that I own. I knew after the changes where made that there would be some kind of repercussion, how severe was the question. Using Google’s webmaster Tools under the Diagnostics –> Content analysis section I’m able to see which pages where missing Title Tags, which pages had duplicate Title Tags, and which pages had duplicate meta descriptions. In the SEO industry this is considered valuable information.
If you’re unfamiliar with Google Webmaster Tools It maybe a good Idea to at least give it a try, I’m sure there’s some information about your site that you’ll find beneficial.
Tags: Google Webmaster Tools, SEO
Google’s a Site link Thief
Well I can’t really call them a thief, it’s their program after all. But over this past weekend I noticed several of my sites and friend sites no longer had Google Site Links attached. Which sucks, I was really growing a custom to seeing these extra links within the search results. I also thought they brought in a great deal of extra traffic.
If you’re unfamiliar with Google Site Links, these are the sub category links (usually 8 links) that are located underneath your website’s URL within a search results.
Google generates these site links dynamically, so this list can change from time to time. But they are great attention grabbers, and help increase traffic to your sites sub pages.
Well adios Google site links it was nice while it lasted.
Lesson learned never rely or grow a custom to any free 3rd party service, it’ll bite you in the ass
Tags: Google Sitelinks, SEO
IPPages.com – One of the Best API’s Ever
Ok, I’m putting it all on the table now. I’m revealing one of my long time secrets in this post here so listen up. I wish I had a dime for the amount of times I have been asked about retrieving geo type information from a IP or domain. Of course I would always respond with some smart tail remark. Well the truth is I have been using the API provided by IPPages.com for some time now. Incredible service these guys offer. For unregistered users you can get several API requests for free but even after so their prices are totally affordable so don’t be a buster and try and dupe the system.
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The kind of data you can lookup includes: CITY, STATE, LOGITUDE AND LATITUDE, TIMEZONES, COUNTRY, and etc. You can render this data in several different formats TXT, XML, or VXML. I usually push my data out into a XML format and parse out what I need but that’s because I’m a pimp like that.
But there you go, How’s that for showing some love, I expect you to do that same.
Try IPPages.com… all the cool kids are doing it.
I recommend ippages.com for your IP Address Lookup requirements.
Tags: API, GEO Location
Reverse IP – View domains on a single IP
Ok, So I have seen many tools on the web that will allow you to peep at the hosted domains on a single IP address. I have know idea on how some of these applications work. But I did find a very simple and easy way to extract this information.
Honestly I feel like I’m letting the cat out of the bag with this one, most of the applications I’ve seen on the web are paid for applications. But trust me there is nothing technical about getting this data, just techniques that most may not be aware of.
I’m appending this script to the bottom of this post but it will also be available in the tools section. And like the others it will take a LAMP environment to run. I’m sure if I set it up to run off my server then there would be some repercussions.
No databases needed, upload the file, add an IP address and BAM! You can increase the amount of pages you want to crawl, by increasing the number within the FOR LOOP.
Use your imagination; I’m sure you could really expand on the functionality of this script.
P.S. I wrote this script while the presidential debate was going on (10/07/2008) … I’m such a bad ass!
Tags: hosted domains, Reverse IP, SEO, Tools
MyBrand & FeedBurner, Don’t sleep on this.
Oct 7, 2008 SEO
There are probably zillions of blog circulating on the net today and most of them I bet are utilizing FeedBurner for their web analytic. Well most of you may already know but for the small few that do not, FeedBurner now offers a hosted RSS solution called MyBrand. MyBrand use to be one of FeedBurner’s paid solutions but now since Google has acquired the company it’s available to all. So instead of offering your users feeds.feedburner.com/feeds you now can give them feeds.yourdomain.com/feeds this is actually a beautiful thing in regards to Branding. The whole process will only take you 3 minutes to setup and 2 of those minutes are trying to find out where the My Brand service link is located at on the FeedBurner website. I had a hard time trying to find it my first time.
- Log into your FeedBurner Account
- See the MyAccount Icon a the top, click that.
- In the left side navigation you’ll see the MyBrand Link, follow through, its says PRO next to the MyBrand Links but settle down, it’s free of charge.
- You should now be at the MyBrand page just follow the directions provided. Don’t be scared, a one legged monkey with 3 fingers could follow these directions.
- Once you configure your CNAME with your host and clicked the active button in FeedBurner your set and don’t panic if your feed settings does not instantly start working. You have to give the new CNAME setting time to kick in. Mine took like 5 hours. So basically set and forget.
Don’t forget to subscribe to Blog Joe Blog
http://feeds.blogjoeblog.com/blogjoeblog
Do It, Do it now!
Tags: Feedburner, MyBrand, RSS, XML
How fast does Google index your pages?
Oct 3, 2008 SEO
From time to time I post comments on my twitter account (I tweet). I have my blog set up so that it will also download and convert my tweets into blog posts. Today I made a post before noon, somewhere in the ball park of 10:00 and 11:00 A.M. Right before lunch, 12:00 for shit and giggles I decided to do a vanity search on my blog. Low and behold the post that was just made to my twitter account was now being indexed. I’ve seen this before but only with video that has been loaded to Youtube. The video showed up within hours but after a day or two the video disappeared. So I’m wondering if this entry is working on the same type of principle.  For the next couple of days I’m going to keep a close eye on this post to see if it in fact disappears. The only real connection I can make is that Google owns YouTube and now owns Feedburner, so perhaps since they get the ping basically instantly they may temporary index the listing, sorta like a Digg effect. This is actually a good idea, supposing someone is blogging about a currently event, his or her information my be available to the public instantly… Kind of gives the term “Hot off the press” a new meaning
Here’s a screen shot of the search result
Blog Joe Blog Search Results
Tags: Feedburner, Google, Google Index, YouTube
PHP Mini SQL Admin is simply incredible
Oct 2, 2008 SEO
Hey I know I say this about almost every script or application I run across but this one tops the cake. Have you ever been in the need for phpMyAdmin functionally and did not have it, I have. Well I found one of the greatest applications on the net last night. PHP Mini SQL Admin, it’s an extremely lightweight alternative to phpMyAdmin, and phpMyAdmin totally rocks as you know. Instead of an 11mb install this applications comes in at around 10kb. Great for quick and easy MySQL database access and manipulation. In my honest opinion I think this is a great tool to keep in your arsenal. It’s good to have it and not need it, then to need it and not have it. I’m storing mine on a flash drive.
Check it out for yourself.
It’s free and takes less then 3 minutes to install.
http://phpminiadmin.sourceforge.net/
SimpleXML in PHP5 is simply incredible
Oct 1, 2008 SEO
I’m not 100% sure if it was version 5 of PHP where XMl support was added but it’s a beautiful thing. Now with a minimum amount of code I’m able to efficiently parse through a XML feed without any trouble. Before XML support was added I would have to write a few more lines of code using cURL. Will I abandon cURL, heck naw, cURL is like the Swiss army knife of functions, when all fails you can always rely on curl.
I’m adding a small snippet of code to the Blog Joe Blog Tools page, feel free to chop it up and use as needed. Use your imagination there’s probably a gang you can pull off using this function.
See the wiki page they have some good examples also.
http://wiki.dreamhost.com/CURL_PHP_tutorial
SEOToast is Toast.
Sep 23, 2008 SEO
As of September 23, 2008 @ 20:00 EST, I’m officially terminating Seotoast.com a blog I have authored for the past couple of months.
SEO Toast was no longer a good fit for the vast arrays of topics I found myself blogging about.
SEO is still a part of my everyday life and I will continue to post about topics I find interesting.
So stay tuned I believe it will be an interesting ride.
Thanks,
Joe Tinsley
Tags: SEO
