Monthly Archives: November 2007

The Battle of the Champs…or is it the Leagues?

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Europe and America, the developed among geographies have already seen it in the form of ‘the beautiful game’ and NBA & Superbowl. But now, its the turn of the Sub-continent to cash in on the biggest sport of the region. Indian Cricket League or the ICL as it is fondly referred to, is a brainchild of one of the biggest media power houses in India and it is all set to roll this Friday. With the highest cash prize of abour $4 million, the league has enticed 36 international stars along with promising, but lesser known Indian players who have an opportunity to leave a mark in the cricket world.

Much has been already said and written about this forthcoming cricketing spectacle, but when my good friend Anul, fresh from his recent India sojourn sent me link to an advert promoting a participating team, Chennai Superstars, I found it rather amusing. In fact, the ICL organisers have done a commendable job along with the agency which produced these adverts. They are tastefully creative and upholds the regional ethos of each participating team. Being a South Indian, the advert closer to my heart is of course Chennai Superstars. In true super stardom, the captain comes on turf for the toss along with Umpire and the captain of the opposing team and…well, watch it yourself.

If the videos aren’t funny enough, try Raja Bharadwaj’s list of incredibly funny ideas for BCCI to crush the league, which is being touted as a battle between cricket administrators and a rebel businessman.

To Pay or Not to Pay – Five Tips to Identify a Valuable Paid Backlink

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PageRankA couple of days back, I got an email from a friend of my colleague at work enquiring if I was interested in buying a link for from their site. The site in question is an old domain (about 9 years) and has a good PageRank on the homepage and even ranks well for some of the keywords in their area and has good consistent traffic. Moreover, it is a directory providing information on an area not particularly related to ours, although there are some similarities. The good people behind the site have put in some great effort in the recent days to redesign and to develop the site to make it more search friendly and appealing to the user. For a monthly payment, we will get a link back from a page which is two clicks away from the homepage and easily navigable for the user and it looks like we will be the first ones (and probably the only one) to get a link back from that page. Although the page has a PR0, I am aware of a previous page which had a good PR and it has been 301ed to redirect to this page. I am tempted to discuss our link with them and will do so in the next couple of days. However, the issue of buying a link, especially when Google has penalised link buyers and link sellers raises a thought.

Time and again Google has come down hard against paid linking which a majority of websites rely on to improve the quality of incoming links. Undoubtedly, organic links are more valuable to websites than paid links, but it is often difficult to get a quality organic link as Google discounts many of the proven tactics in sourcing such links. For example, reciprocal linking which used to be quite a huge hit among webmasters a few years ago is no longer a dependable strategy to build a quality backlink profile. The same applies to three way linking and many such techniques which were invented to circumvent Google’s crackdown. In fact, subsequent to the recent update, link exchange pages on many websites have been hit and they no longer have a good PageRank which used to be an indicator to the quality of links you could probably trade for.

Another way of sourcing one way links was through directory submissions. But the quality of links from directories has always been questionable as many of these directory sites link to spammy/low quality neighborhoods. Little wonder that Google penalised a good number of general directories due to low quality of filters for a website to be listed along with many other attributes including a bad backlink profile for the directory itself. However, there are a few recommended high quality directories which rank well with search engines. But the lists of these quality directories are few and the category pages where you can have your listing from don’t necessarily have a good PageRank. True, for quality directories, the PageRank of the home page funnels some power to the category pages, but the numbers of links on these pages mean you get a tiny benefit of such listings. Moreover, listing in such high quality directories are often paid (BOTW, About, Business etc) or the time frames for listing are extremely high (DMOZ).

Search Engines & Directories

Of course, there are many other ways to build links naturally by adding quality content to your site, blogging regularly, using articles as a link bait, press release, building cool tools related to your site, building applications and generating content for the Social Media, creating and distributing templates for blogs, directories etc. The number of opportunities the Web 2.0 (user generated web medium or social media as it is referred to) offers is infinite and deserves a post on its own (I will surely blog this in the coming weeks). But it definitely involves a certain level of creativity and persistence to generate high quality of links.

BacklinkIn many ways, the Search industry has evolved to adopt better ways to source that golden link which adds value to the website’s link profile. While building natural links is dominant strategy, acquiring quality paid links remains a focus for SEO Marketers. From link farms and paid directory listings to link brokers, every SEO marketer has explored one or all of these options to gather backlinks. However, are these paid links always valuable? How do you determine how much benefit a link adds to your search marketing efforts? Although in the beginning, I would rate anything with a good PageRank as a good backlink, over the last few weeks I have learnt to judge what page offers a better value for a website. Based on my experience, I have a defined five point criteria for link buying which am sure works for many industries.

1. The quality and authority of the domain.

  • The age of the domain (Whois lookup) and the traffic it generates (Alexa, Compete or from the site administrators).
  • The Authority for the domain among Search Engines. (I have always found Google’s Sitelinks to be useful in judging this)

2. The Quality of Backlinks to the Domain and the page

  • Using link:www.domain.com and link:www.domain.com/backlinkpage on Yahoo Site Explorer and Google
  • Although Google lists the links randomly with no particular order, Yahoo seems to show Quality/new links higher

3. Does the site and the page have information for users and is it related to your industry?

  • Do users benefit from the content? If they are looking for something in particular will they seek information from the pages?

4. Are there any other links on the Page? If there are, what is the quality of these links?

  • If there are far too many links on the page, it is unlikely that it will appeal to users and this is true in case of Search Engines too. Also, the quality of the outgoing links also matter to a great deal as too many spammy sites can turn off the users as well as Search Engines.

5. Will we benefit in terms of traffic generation from the page?

  • If a link doesn’t direct traffic to a website, then it’s probably a low quality page similar to those thousands of directories developed mainly for SEO purposes. I personally feel that a quality link always has a potential to generate and direct traffic.

My personal opinion is that if the linking page and domain satisfies these qualities, then it is definitely worth a link back and merits a small payment to leverage benefits. Although Google discounts paid links, if a link qualifies the aforementioned criteria, it is sure to escape the Google scanner.

Please feel free to post comments.

Chronicles of a SEO Marketer – The Beginning

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Digital WorldInternet is a perceptual paradigm of constant change. Although the origins of internet dates back to the late 1950s, it is the last two decades that this medium has gathered momentum. Since the public acceptance in early 1990s, internet has grown imperiously to be a part of every day life. Not only has it depreciated the need for complex channels of information, entertainment and communication, it has also created a new knowledge economy in many nations. It has helped companies acquire vast knowledge and wealth while gaining a dominating lead in many markets. One such market is the search engines.

Bangalore - Vidhana SoudhaIt is ironical that I never had the belief myself about the phenomenal potential search engines had to change people’s lives. I still remember back in 2001 when I we were busy setting up a small business process outsourcing company in Bangalore, we never had access to Internet for almost 2 years and we still had a fully functional company. We would venture out to check emails once a day to communicate with clients. One of our neighbours, who is not as computer literate as a group of individuals trying to run a company remarked about how we managed without having access to Google. He believed that without access to update information, our knowledge in the industry was shunted. He was much ahead than us in adapting technology…

Many things have changed since then. The most important of all is Google’s rise to significance, which has also spawned the growth of many online businesses. These businesses are dependent on Google to achieve growth and profitability. The dependence of these entities on Google is two dimensional. While paid search forms the first dimension, the other dimension focuses on organic search. Online businesses are heavily reliant on adapting and fine tuning both these dimensions to stay profitable. Although, paid search stimulates the economic benefits of a business, it is the organic search which is the cynosure of SEO marketers, as generating organic traffic is as complex as running a successful paid search campaign.

I realise there is a repository of information available on how we could organise SEO activities. But being in the industry for the last six months with no prior experience, I have picked up a few useful lessons myself through experience which I wish to archive here for future references. You never know, you might discover a few new tips!

Watch this space for a week on week (Well…hopefully!) SEO update!

SWISS-tastic – Episode II

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Chivas RegalMy travel to Switzerland was some time end of July and Episode I of my post detailing the Trip was on the 30th of September. Memory, for some unfortunate reason, doesn’t present itself well in the same way as aged wine or whisky. So, it is quite obvious that much of the charm of our Swiss trip is already lost. Having just Part I of a post, with a promise to conclude it in the following post doesn’t seem quite appealing. So will try to fill this space.

The train services to Zurich from Zurich International Airport are quite frequent with two trains running on the hour and half the hour. Most of the trains are Geneva bound via Zurich and Bern, and we were quite tempted to head straight to Geneva before checking into the hotel. Since we had reached Zurich at around half ten and we were done with the formalities of buying currency and rail passes, we managed to take the 11.00 AM train to Zurich, which is only 10 minutes from the Airport by Train. And with the luggage we had, especially Anul and Mansa’s, who had large backpacks and a massive hold all big enough to tour the whole continent for a month, we decided against it.

Zurich Train StationOnce we got off the Zurich Train Station, Hotel Walhalla wasn’t difficult to find, although we were kind of skeptical about it due to language issues we had. With a combination of broken German and French, we enquired with the information desk, and a very pleasant lady gave us directions in English…hehe. We were quite stupid to assume that the Swiss don’t speak English, until the end of our trip. This continued to be a hallmark of all our attempts to find information/directions during our trip. However, the hotel is just a couple of minutes away from the station, and once we reached the hotel, a friendly receptionist advised us that the check in times at the hotel was at 2.00 PM, however, she was willing to let us take the keys if we waited for about half an hour as they were still cleaning the rooms from the previous night. We decided against it and left the luggage in the luggage room as we had to make the most of our three day trip.

The previous night, Mansa had come up with a brilliant plan to buy some ready food from Sainsbury for our trip, which explains the extremely large hold all. We stuffed some food into the backpacks and rushed back to the train station as we were planning to take the 12.00 PM train to Geneva. We were late by a couple of seconds and by the time we got to the station, we saw the last car of the Geneva-bound train leave the platform as we ran towards it. However, it did give us some time to buy some beer for the journey. We loafed and lazed on the platform for 15 minutes before the next train to Geneva slowly ground to a halt on the platform.

Scenic SwitzerlandNever in my life had I seen double decker trains and was quite kicked about traveling in one. With childlike excitement I briskly trudged along the stairs on to the empty upper deck and every one followed. We settled down to begin our two and a half hour scenic journey to Geneva and the journey itself was quite enjoyable. We downed a few beers and played some nonsense games to kill time.

Anul & Mansa in front of the United NationsWe reached Geneva at half two and according to plan we had exactly five and half hours in Geneva as we had planned to get back to Zurich by half ten. Geneva is one of the important cities in the world due to the presence of many international organisations. And these international organisations form a part of a majority of the tourist attractions, apart from the picturesque Lake Geneva, the breathtaking surrounding of Alps and Jura mountain range, a few museums, art galleries, and churches. As soon as we got off the station, hurriedly found our way to the UN to discover that it is a massive complex which would take no less than a day to comprehend its beauty and importance. We breezed through the lush green parks within the campus, and decided to cut short our visit to the UN and headed towards Red Cross, which is right across the road to the UN.

As I had mentioned in the previous post, entry is free to most of the museums and art galleries in Switzerland with a rail pass which encouraged us to visit the museum for a short time. However, the museum is incredibly enticing and has some captivating pictures of people wounded from the war across different geographic regions. We were totally moved by the pictorial depiction and we ended up spending most of our planned time in the museum. By the time we got out, it was already five and there was no way we could have made it to the Regional Head Office of the International Labour Organsation.

Rolex Office in Geneva

We changed plans and decided to spend more time at the Geneva Lake front and the City Centre. We took a cruise around the lake and had a sumptuous Italian dinner at the city centre and took a train to Bern at 8.00 PM as there were no direct trains to Zurich. The journey back was same as before, we loaded ourselves with some beer for the way and indulged in some mindless but entertaining games. We changed trains at Bern and arrived in Zurich at 11.00 PM. We had a few more rounds of drinks in our rooms, before hitting our beds at 2.00 PM, exhausted with a busy schedule for the next day.

We woke up early next day, got ready and impulsively ran to the station to take the 8.00 AM train to Interlaken – the Gateway to Mount Jungfrau – Top of Europe at 3800 odd metres above sea level. To get to Interlaken from Zurich, you have to change trains at Bern, and the information is clearly announced and marked every where in English, French and German. Bern is about 50 minutes from Zurich and Interlaken is about a hour from Bern. We reached Interlaken by 10 and we bought our mountain rail tickets valid for a day at 50 % discount – remember from the previous post about the discounts for Swiss Rail Pass Holders.

Joyous JourneyMountain rail and cable cars are the highlight of Swiss Transport system and it is an extremely enjoyable mode of transport for tourists. I envy the swiss for they use a cable car as a necessity rather than for leisure. Nevertheless, we began our joyous journey to the Top of Europe – Mount Jungfrau on one of the most panoramic journeys of my life. Again, to get to Jungfrau, you have to change train midway at Grindelwald and it’s a slow journey to the top, with three stops along the way to enjoy the beauty of the Jungfrau mountain from various altitudes.

Jungfrau has various activities on offer. From skiing to snowboarding, to husky driven sledge rides to hiking it has a range of adventure activities to enthrall every visitor. But the main attraction is the spectular Ice Palace with exquisitely sculpted ice models. But at -5 during peak summer, I can only imagine how cold it could get during winter. Warm clothing is a must. My ears were ringing and almost everyone felt sick as soon as we got out for a bit of fun in the alluring snow capped mountains. We hurried back to the warm confines of the restaurants on top of Europe. They have quite a few restaurants to suit every palate, including an uniquely themed Bollywood restaurant.

Bollywood Restaurant - Top of Europe

Mountain Deer in MurrenAfter a quick lunch, we seemed to recover from the nausea and we went back to fathom the elegance of the white mountain ranges. We also did a bit of snow (well, disc) boarding. We left the mountain top at around 4.30 PM and took a train to Grindelwald. Instead of boarding a connecting train from Grindelwald to Interlaken, we decided to make the most of our unlimited rail pass and aimlessly, we took a 10 minute cable car and a connecting train from Grindelwald to up the hills to a place called Mürren. Mürren is a hidden gem in the Interlaken area. With only 200 homes and few local residents, you would expect it to be unheard of among the tourists. Ostensibly, the place has about 2000 beds to cater to tourists. It has only one pub and a couple of obscure restaurants. But, the unspoiled beauty of nature is truly captured in Mürren.

After a tiring, but delightful day, we returned to Interlaken and we retraced our route back to Zurich via Bern. We dined our way back at the famed Swiss Rail restaurants. Although, the food is nothing great, it is soothing to dine while you look out of the window to some majestic sights of Lake Geneva and Lake Zurich.

Once we reached Zurich, we got together again for a few drinks we had picked up on our way back. We retired late in the night, with no plans to wake up early for the following day, as we had decided to spend it locally in Zurich, although we were slightly convinced to travel to Rhine Falls, which apparently is only a hour away from Zurich on the German border, by a Bangladeshi couple, who we had met on our way to Jungfrau.

The following day, we woke up late, checked out of our hotel, left our luggage in the luggage room and made our way to the train station to find most of Zurich shut for holiday. Even the popular Lindt Chocolate Factory was shut on Sundays, so we had nothing much to do in Zurich. We took a tram to the waterfront and we lazed the whole day on a short cruise, and then a long cruise. We were quite excited to find that we could hire a motor boat to sail on our own without a license. But we were told that there would be no boats available for the next couple of hours. We feasted on a scrumptious selection of ice creams for lunch in Switzerland’s iconic Movenpick restaurant and got back in time to rent the boat.

Anul - The SailorBy the end of our one hour boat ride we were completely exhausted and by then, it was time for us to make our way back to the Airport to fly back to our depressing Monday mornings. But overall, we had an exciting time in one most fascinating places on earth. We lived every moment of our trip and would definitely not hesitate going back to visit the place again. There is something about the place which not only appeals to Bollywood movie makers, but for every tourist visiting Switzerland. It is sheer magic…

That’s the end of a long and excruciating post about our trip to a real dreamy place. If you have got to the end of the post, then you got some real spunk and deserve a pat. Try a taste of Swiss advertising to check if it makes you smile!!!

Cow Yoga!

War of the Words!?

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Board of Cricket Control in IndiaFor a blog with a name borrowed from cricket, you would find it extremely surprising not to find one single post dedicated to the sport so far. Not that I didn’t have opportunities to write about, there was India’s fairly successful tour to England, their incredible feat of winning the first edition of Twenty20 World Cup and of course cricket games between other countries. I had, on several occasions thought about blogging on cricket. But the recent Australian tour of India had some interesting sides to it other than the post itself, which makes an inspirational post. Not for the on field performances of both the teams, but for their off field antics.

Cricket AustaliaAustralia, for long have been the champions of World Cricket and this is reflective in their attitudes. They have an incredible team of immensely talented players. They have always had. But cricketers from the 90s and beyond are exemplary. Who could ever forget the grace of Mark Waugh, the perseverance of his twin brother Steve Waugh, the leadership of Mark Taylor, the exuberance of Shane Warne, accuracy of Glen McGrath, the sweet timing of Adam Gilchrist? The list goes on. I have been fortunate to watch some exciting sportsmanship of not only their top level players, but also players like Justin Langer, Michael Bevan, Damien Fleming, Jason Gillespie etc. Justin Langer’s awesome innings while chasing a 350+ score in the second innings of a test match against Pakistan along with Adam Gilchrist a few years ago is still fresh in my memory. What about Ricky Ponting’s ferocious hitting in the finals of 2003 World Cup against India? And Mathew Hayden and Andrew Symonds…tormentors in chief not just for the Indian team, but for every cricket playing team around the world. No wonder, they are the crowning glory of the world of cricket for the last decade. But has their continued success lead the team to be a bit arrogant?

We have seen instances of the Australian arrogance over the years. Behind the wicket sledging, bowlers’ mouthful to the batsmen, batsmen coming hard at the opposition bowlers, we have seen it all. But when Ricky Ponting with an eagerness to get his hands on to the coveted champions trophy, tapped Sharad Pawar, the president of the board of cricket control in India, and Damien Martyn nudged him out of the podium for a group picture, the bad boy image of the Australian Cricket Team had clearly arrived.

Andrew SymondsBut we got to watch the real ugly side of cricket only during the recently concluded Australia’s tour of India and India’s victorious 20Twenty world cup campaign, where they easily defeated the champion Australian side to sail into the finals. The tour emphasized how bad losers the Australians were. Personally, I think if you experience continued success, you have high levels of confidence and you feel invincible. When you suddenly realise that you are vulnerable. Symond’s outburst against the Indians for their celebrations of winning the World cup was really surprising. What a nation we have in Australia, they can tap and nudge dignitaries to celebrate their success, but they cannot tolerate another team, albeit in a much humble way.

Sreesanth SymondsNevertheless, there is something about the current crop of Indian players, they show a good deal of aggression. But you need to back the aggression with consistent success. There’s no point being aggressive when you are not winning. We saw plenty of verbatim between the Australians, especially Hayden and Symonds and the Indian team’s poster boy, Sreesanth. But Hayden and Symonds backed up their aggression with magnificent stroke play and were pivotal in Australia’s series victory. On the other hand, Sreesanth failed to impress with his bowling and did nothing to push India towards the brink of success. So are Australian’s justified in their aggression? Probably!?!