Can a Plugin Leave Tell Tale Footprints?
There has always been a bit of heat about whether leaving footprints behind can hurt your efforts to build and market a website. Some people like myself, go out of the way to remove them, and others swear its just a case of being paranoid or wearing a tin-foil hat (I have one of those!) and is a waste of time.
So the question is… Can a Plugin leave a trail that may hurt you? (I can’t resist)
My guess is that most people fall somewhere in the middle of the road… and prefer to spend their time adding value! :-)
Why Do I Remove Script & Plugin Footprints?
My stance has always been… the more you eliminate or remove the common trails of identification, (aka footprints) the less you look like everyone else! Another great reason I remove script or plugin footprints, is that it eliminates the questions or reasons a site may NOT do well.
Think about it… if 25,000 bloggers in the IM world figure out that having an orange background on your site helps SEO, exactly how long do you think it would take Daddy G, to algo out the benefit of an orange background? Minutes… hours… regardless, the benefit would not last long?
I was going to try and post a bunch of stuff in this single post, covering several popular plugins. Instead, I decided to break them into individual posts… Stay tuned for some rather enlightening content… Starting with a popular SEO Plugin that leaves a trail that screams pick me!
Tune in…
Previously Published Articles You May Like to Read:
- SEO Companion Plugin for WordPress
- New WordPress Plugin – WPBayAds – Developing
- Adding your First Plugin to WordPress
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I have been doing my part to "Build the Internet" since 1994, when I built my first website! Since then, I have built hundreds of niche websites for myself and many others, focused on design, applications, ecommerce, search optimization and internet marketing.
Oooh, good stuff! Can’t wait to see what you share on this topic.
Well like you said big G has been changing quite a bit and not in the webmasters favor. Beyond the usual list of reasons for being dropped here are some stranger/missed reasons….
redirects for affiliate programs that cause error logs.
fast link building or development and then nothing.
actually build some non seo’ed(is that a word?) pages along with those that get listed well, too much expertise(seo) seems to make you stand out.
Have your sites on more than one host.
Favoritism towards large companies, ask yourself why FFA sites were dropped but twitter is acceptable? both are the same things just 2.0!
Non changing or updating pages throughout your site, unless all pages are unique.
Placing any competitor to Big G as an advertisor, once you get good listings your site will be dropped, causes the human look quickly, must be high on Big G’s list.
So many sites use similar plug-ins and word-press today that alone doesn’t seem to mean anything…..YET!
keep up the great site Mark.
Cheers,
Greg
@Rochelle – Nothing real crazy Rochelle, just some VERY obvious things that are easily overlooked and may get you spotted easier.
@25 domain blowout – Greg… dude, you have some MAD domains in your list for $25 each! It makes me wish I was in a buying mode, versus selling & building!!
Why all this paranoia about one company (Google)? I can’t just get it.
I keep building my sites the way I want it and the way it pleases my visitors and NEVER care about Google – All has been well and will continue to be. Anyway, I think it depends on the quality of websites.
I care less about Google and always look for alternative ways to get traffic to my sites.
I have always wondered if the footprint made a different. Mark, how can you change the ones that are encrypted with ioncube? Or do you just skip that type all together?
@Richie – I hear what you mean Richie… the minute you start building TO PLEASE the search engines, you are asking for issues!
That said… if there are some simple things you can do to AVOID raising flags, its well worth the extra 15 minutes to do it IMO.
I drive a car that is capable of going very fast… but I never do so without having my radar detector on! Same thing to me…
MH
Mark,
I am looking forward to the series. I hope you give those of us, who are less skilled than you, pointers/direction on how exactly to “fix” these issues.
I have always been scared to rename folders, files, etc., because I don’t know where to find all of the locations where those folders, files, etc. are called. If you miss a call, your plugin fails.
Great Post Mark. I to am looking forward to radar detector for my site. Brent I am with you on being new but I can tell you that if Mark and this great band of merry men (people sorry Rochelle)tell you to do this or try that it is almost always a good suggestion and worth paying attention
Dave
Lol! I’m happy to be Maid Marion to the merry men here :)
@Mark Hansen – Thanks Mark, everyone once in a while i sell a lot of domains off real cheap, especially when affiliate programs start to get me mad lol. Economy is sooo bad right now i really don’t think most people realize how far behind there companies are just to stay afloat and clear paychecks … besides wal-mart lol.
By Christmas the strong will start to emerge and the weak will start to disappear . Goog is definitely one of those companies that may become the next aol…stars to nothing overnight. They need to remember that they actually do not own anything or produce anything, just ideas/traffic/ and some tools bars and email…so what! so does facebook/twiiter and some other new ones…don’t forget that chinese search engine they tried to attack Bidu or something like that.
I have to go out and buy some domains! peace!
@25 domain blowout – Can definitely realte… and the economy is killing ALL company’s, except the strongest! I have watched several local businesses here in Charlotte take a nose dive and close in the last 16 months. These were not weak companies either, and the reasons vary widely!
Google wields a very powerful wand right now and can make or break a business with a swing of it. (That link is chock full of some of the best affiliate advice you will find right now)
Mark
Mark,
I visited the link from your comment above. Although I didn’t read the entire thread (it turned into a bitch session in parts), I took away what we already know – unique content, unique content, unique content. Oh, and don’t forget to add some unique content!
Rochelle
@Rochelle – LOL – Yeah it did get kinda smarmish in parts… What I got from it:
- Don’t build a product review site, build a topical, unique, and interesting site, then sprinkle in some products.
- Google, and the team of reviewers, “HATE” (read as scathing hatred) affiliate sites. (And likely for good reason)
- Your sites are graded based on your own history with Google.
Oh, and in the end, his site is back in the index already as well.
Mark you may appreciate this or have a similar note to yourself. On my desk and on a corkboard are notes to myself dating years back “stop looking at Goog” “stop Pleasing Goog”, so I have been arguing about the big G algorithms for some time now with myself. As you know other search engines have traffic and getting listed on them is much easier so its a trade off. With the new changes this week it has to be making any seo service crazy. Like one of your commenter’s stated, build a decent unique site that follows standard seo practices, then of course rinse and repeat. But then again I have some BANS sites i never changed or updated, they get a lot of traffic and not from google.
[...] Footprint Removal 2 September 2010 No Comments YetTagged withEarlier this week I was talking about website footprints, and why I try to make sure I clean up after myself when using certain tools, plugins or themes. [...]
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