Site Optimization After Google Panda Update

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Sometimes, just figuring out what you want to accomplish is the real task

Since the Panda update to the Google search algorithm, most websites are scrambling to get back to where they were with placement, popularity, relevance and pageviews. Cancer Answers, a site that runs on my server, was hit particularly hard and I have been looking into how to fix it.

One key incident that I didn’t even know about until my research discovered it occurred within my host environment. They made some big changes to their PHP and cgi-bin practices that caused parts of the site to simply quit working. It was easy enough to change the permissions to my get.cgi script and get the homepage pulldown menu to work again.

So fine, pageviews could have been down because the site was broken. But, since the repair, traffic has not bounced back and still hovers at around 30% of where we were this time last year. My strategy to clear this up is pretty radical. I am going to give away all my content.

When the site was built, the idea was to sell cancer treatment information to end users. In 1997, that idea was viable since content was slim and the need was great. Since then, information is much more available and reputable while ours has become stale. Thus, transcript pricing was reduced again and again. Now, a full transcript is only $3. If I put all that content onto the public site, that will probably go a long ways toward freshening the site and increasing traffic.

Since the site is static html, that is going to be a huge GAK. I’ll keep you posted on that.

Parsha Chaye Sara: Matriarchal Succession

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We saw in this week’s parsha that when Sara died, the blessings over her tent ended. What were these blessings? A light would burn within from one Shabbos to the next, her dough would be blessed with freshness and abundance, and a cloud signifying the Divine Presence would hang over it at all times. In her absence, the mood was forlorn.

Yitzchak loved his mother and relied on her and never really got over her loss, so it was decided to find him a wife from the family of his father, Abraham. Eliezer, the trusted leader of the household, was dispatched to find a suitable partner and enroute he devised criteria that would reveal to him a proper match. She would need to be kind, generous and energetic to step into the role of a matriarch.

Immediately upon his arrival in town, Rifcah was there and she satisfied every wish he had for a mate. She kindly offered him a drink of water and generously watered his camels as well, running back and forth from the well to the trough with 140 gallons of water! He was struck with the indelible impression that this girl was everything he desired and rushed to seal the deal with gifts and the permission of her family.

Since she was Yitzchak’s true besheret, the deal sailed right through and she jumped onto the camel and accompanied Eliezer to her awaiting husband. When she first saw him davening in the field, she was modest and shy. When he brought her into his mother’s tent, the blessings resumed! That’s all it took. When he saw that she possessed the proper characteristics, it was plain to see that a worthy successor was found.

And such is the way of Hashem. If we are open to it, we will find that he will bring us everything we need in the proper time. All we need to do is our part, and we will be rewarded for our faith and efforts. And as for our happy ending? It will be even better that anything we could ever imagine.

Mac & HP – Can’t We All Be Friends?

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Try as I may, I can't get my HP PSC-1510 to scan...

I remember when I bought my iMac years ago, an HP PSC 1510 was purchased along with it and I wrestled with the config to make the two hardware pieces see each other and play nice. Since then, the hard drive crashed and now it’s the whole thing all over again.

Like most things these days, the troubleshooting began with a Google search and there was a wealth of information from others with the same problem. Turns out that HP and my iMac simply don’t play real well together.

There was lots of funky advice about unplug, power off, uninstall, reinstall, blah, blah, blah… What finally worked was to download much older drivers than the ones on the HP website and install those. Turns out that the manufacturers improvements to the drivers broke them.