Gronox

Great Motorcycle Rides in Mexico

Queretaro

A beautiful ride across cities and places named World Heritage by the Unesco, through a splendid protected natural area and ending in a surrealistic garden by artist Sir Edward James. Just keep reading…

The ride starts in Queretaro City at 5,970 ft above sea level.

Queretaro is a colonial city founded more than 500 years ago and named World Heritage by the Unesco in 1996 . It’s located in the center of the country two hours North Mexico City. Nowadays it has become one of the most dynamic cities in Mexico due to the surrounding industrial parks where many international companies are located.

The first stop is just 45 minutes away: “La Pea de Bernal” (The “Rock of Bernal”). We are talking about the third biggest rock in the world and the highest in Mexico. At its feet a quaint little town were you can stop for a soda, lunch or spend the night. You can also find nice little souvenirs. Whatever you decide to do, this place is a must.

If you like rock climbing, you are in the right place too!

The road to Bernal doesn’t present any major challenge, most of the road is straight with just a few extended curves… but just after passing Bernal it starts to get fun!

Surrounded by an arid landscape due the high content of lime in the soil, you start with a very interesting section of twisties, one after another, up and down, a technical road between the mountains for about 30 miles. The landscape changes a bit as you advance and a few miles later you are in the middle of a semidesert.

After this twisty section you then continue on a straight part of the road. A few more miles down the route and you find a military checkpoint… Don’t worry about it, they are normally courteous people just looking for arm and drug smugglers.

After the control point the curves and the fun start again. As you get to “Pea Blanca” (“White Rock” in English) – by the way if you need gas, this is the place to stop and fill it up – you start climbing the mountains twist after twist.

I love this part: most of the ride you can clearly see three or four turns in front of you, and as it is a low traffic road, you can enjoy yourself taking the best lines (always keeping it in the safe side if you know what I mean!).

After climbing for a while you notice how things start to change and suddenly what were rocks, sand and cactus are now pine trees. It’s beautiful.. You feel the change of temperature and then you reach “La Puerta del Cielo” (The Door of Heavens”) the highest point in this ride.

We are now at about 9200 feet above sea level… The turns continue but now you are going downhill. Remember to adjust your riding to that fact. Unfortunately I have seen more than one forgetting about it that and paying the consequences.

As you start descending you ride through a small town called Pinal the Amoles… descend, turn turn, descend turn turn, descend turn turn… I love it! About 10 miles after Pinal de Amoles, the weather starts to change again and gets warmer. The vegetation also suffers a sudden transformation.

You keep devouring the road and you cannot help but getting marveled of the landscape around you… Just remember to keep your eyes on the road! Turn, turn… You are in the middle of the Sierra Gorda protected area and home of multiple plants and animals.

You continue descending till you reach Jalpan de Serra the most important town in the Sierra Gorda and place where Father Junipero Serra built one of his most important missions in the area before heading north to build the Missions in California. These missions were also named World Heritage by the Unesco in 2003.

In Jalpan you can find a couple of simple but nice hotels and some restaurants. Another possibility to spend the night is to ride a few more miles west to a place called Conca where you ‘ll find a hotel with Spa to relax from the day’s ride and get ready for the rest of the trip.

After Jalpan our next stop and final destination is Xilitla, so you head north-east till you reach the state of San Luis Potosi.

A few miles after crossing the state limits in the middle of the mountains, at about 3,300 ft asl, in a rain forest of incredible vegetation you get to Xilitla.

This town was chosen by Sir Edward James, a surrealistic British artist – also noble and rich -, to spend the rest of his life. It is in this place he built a huge garden, a private zoo and a meditation place in the middle of the jungle. Its very difficult to describe it with words… Maybe the photos in this site can help: http://www.junglegossip.com/.

In Xilitla you can stay in the Castillo “The Castle” the house of former Sir Edward James’ right hand and friend: Plutarco Gastelum. This exclusive Bed and Breakfast is unique in its kind and you can see, feel and breath the influence of the artist everywhere.

Another possibility to spend the night is to ride a bit more to the north and stay in Ciudad Valles an important city of San Luis Potosi state where you will find all kind of hotels and restaurants, night life etc.

My recommendation… stay at the Castillo, forget about your ride and enjoy for a whole day this Mexican Shangri La.

After spending the whole day in Xilitla prepare for a long ride back to Queretaro. For this one I like to leave early in the morning and keep, if possible, a fast pace. Turn, turn…

We are talking about many miles and literally hundreds of twisties… Once my wife counted them… She stopped when she was at the 500th and we hadn’t arrived back to Queretaro City yet!

It’s so fun that the time flies and suddenly you realize it’s all over and you would like to turn around and do it again…

You know the feeling right?

Another possibility from Xilitla is to head to the famous Huasteca Potosina a zone of exuberant rivers, waterfalls and springs… But that area deserves a whole article by itself. I will be writing it in the future.

If you liked the trip I described and want more information about great motorcycle rides in Mexico and/or to contact me for any other issue please visit my site at www.japanese-motorcycles-only.com.

Enjoy the ride!

Daniel Levy

P.S. Below you will find a few facts about this ride.

Facts about the ride:

Difficulty: Intermediate-Advanced
Recommended time to enjoy the trip: 3-4 days
Total length of the ride: about 600 miles.
Checkpoints:
Queretaro-Bernal
Bernal-Military Checkpoint
Military Checkpoint-Pinal de Amoles
Pinal de Amoles-Jalpan de Serra
Jalpan de Serra-Xilitla

Weather: normally clear and dry with the exception of the rainy season from July to September where you can find some heavy rain.

Recommended Map: Guia Roji Mexico Tourist Road Atlas. You can find it at Amazon.

About the Author

Daniel Levy is the owner and contributing writer of www.Japanese-Motorcycles-Only.com. He loves motorcycles and Web development. For more great info visit http://www.japanese-motorcycles-only.com.

If you’ve got the travel bug but don’t have the funds, you may feel like a destination vacation is a distant dream. Not so! Traveling on a budget has never been easier, and if you think budget means dirty communal hostels, think again. Don’t put off your dream vacation for another year. There are plenty of options for the cash-conscious traveler, and if you know how to plan the sky is the limit.

If you dream of a tropical vacation complete with turquoise waters and gently swaying palm trees, your dream can come true sooner than you think. All-inclusive vacation packages in sunny locals such as Mexico, Dominican Republic, and Barbados are surprisingly affordable. All-inlcusives are great since your flight, hotel, food, and drink are all included for one surprisingly reasonable price. Many resorts also offer fun activities that are included as well. Book last minute and you could be staying at a five star hotel for the price of a three star. Another tropical option is right in your own backyard. Florida, Hawaii, and California are all home to gorgeous beaches that will make you wonder if you are still actually in the US.

If Europe is where you want to be, fret not about the expensive Euro. If you plan on staying in one city for the duration of your vacation, consider renting an apartment. Just like a bed-and-breakfast without the food, apartment rentals offer an inexpensive option for the budget-minded traveler. Staying in a unique apartment also give you an opportunity to check out less touristy areas of major European cities. Many also include kitchenettes so you can enjoy fresh meals from local grocery stores. Truly a one-of-a-kind experience. You may also want to consider traveling in the off-season since prices usually take a considerable dip.

Booking with a travel agent has become somewhat passé, and the deals you can get online just can’t be beat. Hotels and flights can be booked at significant savings, and you can check back as often as you like for updated prices. Many travel websites will even email you when prices change on flight details. Anyone with a computer and Internet connection can book their entire vacation and save a bundle.

Dream vacations are within your reach if you simply spend some time making plans and finding the right price for you. No matter what your budget, you can have the perfect vacation and see the world.

Cynthia Bates is an Internet specialist, and periodically writes travel discussions articles for SuperBigWorld.com.

SuperBigWorld.com is dedicated to providing quality travel related discussions.

Orlando’s most familiar landmark is undoubtedly the turreted Cinderella Castle that stands in the centre of the original Disney Florida theme park, the Magic Kingdom at Lake Buena Vista. A beach condo, a beach home or a cozy vacation rental home from alwaysonvacation.com lets you to experience thrilling roller coaster rides, enjoy the signature Disney parade; dine with the Disney characters and of course shop in the World of Disney, the largest Disney character shop.

Rent out a beach vacation home in Orlando and expect the unexpected in its many theme parks as you come face-to-face with wild animals, dinosaurs, loveable characters, spectacular shows and attractions at Animal Kingdom. After a day with the wild creatures, cool down with some splashing water rides at Blizzard Beach and Sea World or bask in the porch of your beach condo from alwaysonvacation.com while the sun sets down in the horizon.

From cozy beach condos to luxurious apartments to large vacation homes, we provide all kinds of rental homes to ensure you have a great holiday in Orlando. Dine in the privacy of your cozy vacation rental home or experience some unique ways of dining and entertaining in Orlando’s numerous glittering sights. A cozy vacation rental home in Orlando gives you the opportunity to start your day with a lavish breakfast in the company of your favorite characters at Universal’s Islands of Adventure. In the afternoon step out of your vacation home to have lunch with Mickey, Minnie, Winnie the Pooh or Goofy at any one of Disney’s restaurants. In the night enjoy cozy meal in the comforts of your vacation rental home or paint the town red with a visit to any one of the fine dining restaurants.

Grownups can have an equally entertaining dining experience, whether it is a romantic dinner in the cozy ambience of your vacation rental home provided by alwaysonvacation.com or allow the celebrity chefs to cook up a storm for you at any one of the elegant restaurants.

A vacation rental home from a1floridarentalvacations.com gives you the luxury of choosing your kind of vacation without compromising on your comforts and privacy. With a vacation rental home in Orlando shoppers can have a field day as they get to shop at Central Florida’s largest and most popular shopping destination the Florida Mall, which is home to more than 250 stores. The fun doesn’t stop when the sun goes down at Disney; step out from your cozy vacation rental home to be part of the action as you will find loads of entertainment to keep you engaged throughout the night.

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Submitted on behalf of http://www.alwaysonvacation.com

Vacation rentals in Italy, whether an apartment in central Rome, a villa in Tuscany, a lovely apartment in historic Florence, or a palace overlooking a canal in Venice, are so appealing and romantic. The photos are beautiful; you can picture yourself sipping Chianti Classico as the sun sets behind the Tuscan hills. But vacation rentals are not for everyone. Our experience with sending vacationers to Italy for a number of years has resulted in this set of questions which you can use to help determine whether you would enjoy a rental vacation in Italy.

Are you staying less than five nights?

Most vacation rental apartments in Italy require a one week stay, a few will accept less. Typically, you need to stock your kitchen and buy essentials such as toilet paper. If you will be spending just a few nights in one place, stay in a hotel and spend your time enjoying your destination rather than buying supplies. Short stays may make sense if you are renting in several spots because you’ll be able to carry your supplies from one to the next.

Do you like experiencing the local lifestyle?

You can gain new perspectives on the daily lives led by Italians because you will shop where they shop, experience the same views, and walk the same streets. If you consider it interesting to experience Italian culture while learning to make your own telephone calls and choosing your own fresh bread at the bakery, then a vacation apartment or villa in Italy may be for you.

Are you traveling with children?

When traveling with children, your pace needs adapt to theirs. If the children aren’t happy, no one is happy! They need their meals according to their own clocks, not restaurants’. With a vacation rental in Italy, they can breakfast in their pajamas, and, evenings, they don’t have to wait till restaurants open around 7:30pm to have their evening meal. You can prepare meals for them according to their tastes; a quiet plate of “pasta al burro” (pasta with butter) and a glass of milk may be just the thing.

In an apartment or villa, children can nap in one room and you can be in another, no tip toeing around a confining hotel room. Small children, in my experience, never really shift time zones, so may be awake at odd hours. When you are in an apartment or villa, you can close the door to the bedroom and take care of them in the living room without waking the whole family.

If you choose a vacation rental with an outdoor area, kids can get their “ya yas” out in the garden rather than in a hotel lobby. Even a small vacation rental can give you several spaces for people to hang out; the children can color on one table, while parents spread guidebooks and maps out on another — not usually possible in a hotel room.

When two or more families travel together, one set of adults can go out sightseeing, shopping, or for a nice meal while the children stay at “home” with the other adults, totally happy and able to play, swim, eat, and nap with rather than going stir crazy in a hotel room. Or bring a nanny with you and find a vacation rental that will accommodate your whole crew.

Are you independent?

The owner or manager of your vacation rental may not be close at hand to help you. Once they have walked you through your apartment, you are on your own, except for emergencies, to apply their instructions to operate the washer or the heat or the phone. Nor is there a front desk or concierge to help you with reservations or directions.

Are you resourceful?

Will you enjoy shopping in local markets for your food and supplies? Things may be packaged differently and you may have to puzzle out labels. You may find no familiar brands. If you need something at the pharmacy, will you be able to communicate the ailment in sign language? The television set controls and the coffee pot will be unfamiliar, so will you be able to experiment with them without frustration? If you don’t mind coping with unfamiliar processes and locations; if you can adapt when you can’t find just what you have in mind, then you will do well in a vacation rental in Italy.

Can you do it better?

Italy is an especially challenging country for “Type A”, hard driving personalities. Ancient bureaucracies rule the country with inefficiencies evident at every turn. Italian drivers can be maddening. And there is no such thing as a line or queue for anything; it’s all push and shove. For transactions at places such as post offices, you may have to stand in a mob only to be directed to the end of another mob. You probably could devise a system to do many things more efficiently, but it doesn’t work to try to reorganize Italy! If you can cope with evident inefficiencies with humor and grace even, perhaps, with the help of a little glass of wine, then you will do just fine in a holiday apartment or villa in Italy.

Will you want to cook?

A real advantage of a vacation rental is the ability to prepare your own meals. You can eat when you want and what you want. There is nothing like having your coffee on the terrace of your villa in Tuscany as the sun rises over the vineyards! And if you have dietary restrictions, you can really take advantage of your own kitchen.

You can also save money. Eating all meals in restaurants can become expensive as well as time consuming. Buying and preparing beautiful fresh foods from the countryside can be a joyful experience and a highpoint in the day.

But, someone has to cook! A typical vacation rental may have all the cooking essentials, but not the labor saving appliances you are used to. No food processor, no mixer, or electric can opener, so more complex meal preparation may take longer than you are used to. It is sometimes fun to experience how grandma used to do it, but whipping egg whites by hand may be more than your arm can stand. So, consider whether that is how your cook wants to spend his or her time.

There are strategies to reduce the effort, of course. You will find pre-prepared entrees in the freezers and take out counters of larger grocery stores, and Italy has a wonderful type of restaurant, the tavola calda (hot table) which has take out meals elements, and the rosticceria which will sell you a roasted chicken or other piece of nicely prepared meat to take home. The classic meal of pasta, a veal cutlet, and a salad is not a lot of effort, so keeping it simple may be important. When we have rented places with a larger group, we have taken a student-chef with us to prepare meals and do dishes (did I mention that dishwashers are not common), giving everyone a break. Some rentals properties have a cook who will come to you to prepare a lovely meal while you relax.

Do you need a daily housekeeper?

Most vacation rentals change sheets and towels weekly. Some offer a washing machine, but almost never a dryer for you to wash your own clothes and linens. If you need a daily change of towels and housekeeping services you should make sure they are available (at an extra charge) from your rental or consider a hotel.

Do you have time to prepare?

A little additional travel preparation may be required for a vacation rental. For example, there is no front desk where you may leave a wakeup call, so you should bring a portable alarm clock. No taxi queue out front, so you may need to think ahead to make arrangements for airport transportation.

Importantly, you also need to allow the time for some advance reading. For example, you need to carefully read instructions on how to meet the owner, where to go, when to call.

In summary, if you need the services of a hotel at all hours to help you interact with Italy, to figure out where to go and how to get there, a hotel may be best for you. If you are interested in experiencing Italian culture up close, look forward to slowing down and experiencing a new take on daily life, or if you are traveling with children, a vacation rental in Italy will be a wonderful experience. On a budget, have special food requirements, or love to cook? The kitchen is a real boon. Whatever you decide, enjoy your vacation in Italy!

Pat Byrne is the president of Excellent Europe (http://www.ExcellentEurope.com) a company that selects exceptional vacation rentals in Italy. She is also the author of the Kids Europe Italy Discovery Journal (http://www.KidsEurope.com) a resource book, journal, and guide just for kids traveling in Italy that has over 500 ideas for free and fun activities in Italy.

One of the biggest frustrations for both newbie webmasters and web host tech support staff is the learning curve new webmasters go through. Many of them come to us wanting to create a website, but having no comprehension of how it all works. I can’t tell you how many times we have users create a trouble ticket because they don’t understand what FTP is, how it works, or why they need it. And that is just one example.

We found that, even though we provide pretty comprehensive information in the e-mail we send out to all new customers, they tend not to read, (or maybe just not remember), what is contained in them. While we have not yet found a way to stop some of them from asking questions in trouble tickets that are either broad scope such as “what is FTP?” or “how do I make a web page”, we have significantly reduced our frustration, (and I am sure theirs as well), by being able to give them quick links to answers to their questions. We have an entire page devoted to support links for all 45 of the ‘add-on’ packages we offer. In addition, we have links to free online HTML classes, FTP for beginners etc.

Not only does this save us time, (and money), in technical support, but we have had more than one customer tell us that they purchased their web hosting from us because of this very page!

There are other tools available for you to purchase “movies” of the “how do I do _______” for CPanel, etc. But many people don’t use their speakers, others don’t have quicktime installed and hesitate to ever install anything that pops up asking them to install it – I don’t blame them. Plus, a hand reference of links makes it easy for you to cut and paste relevant ones as answers to trouble tickets.

This article may freely be reprinted on your web site or BLOG as long as all links and author information are not altered or disabled.

Registering a domain name is one of the two tasks that you will have to undertake before even building your website. The other process is obtaining hosting for your site.

A domain name makes up part of the address of your site and can have many endings, such as .com, .net, .co.uk, .info, .org and many many more.

Choosing a Domain Name

Obviously the type of name you wish to register will depend largely upon the purpose of your site. For example if you are publishing a slideshow of photos for your relatives to view oversees then a domain name something like “yourname.com” or “yourname.co.uk” will work well for you.

On the other hand, if you are designing a site to attract anonymous visitors either as a hobby or because you a running a business then something more catchy and descriptive will be needed.

This is because your average surfer, viewing many hundreds of web pages, will only search you out and then remember you from your keywords (more on this later).

For example, dollshouse-tips.com would be a much better choice than janesdollshousehomepage.com. The first example is more memorable and may benefit from better traffic due to the keywords in the title. The hyphens between words also make the name far more readable.

When registering your domain name you have the option of using up to 63 characters. However just because you CAN do something does not mean you HAVE to. In most cases a shorter name will be more easily remembered by your visitors.

If your website is to be used for commercial activity and you are, or will be, generating a vast amount of traffic to your site then you will become greatly recognised – well done, but be aware that this may well generate copycats who will try and cash in on your traffic. These people will attempt to “steal” your customers by using domain names that are very similar to yours. For example you own we-are-millionaires.com and the copycats will take we-are-millionaires.net, .co.uk, .org, etc. Therefore, if you are making good money, I would suggest investing some of this in registering all the extensions that are available (.net, .org, etc) in order to protect your interests. You can then redirect these other domains to your main one so you do not need to upload your site to each.

One of the best tools you have as a webmaster is your website
statistics. The most popular site stats programs are Awstats,
Webalizer, and Analog. Usually, they come free of charge and are
accessible through your website’s control panel provided by your
web host. Awstats gives you valuable information like which file
types on your server are getting hit the most, what page is
getting the most hits, the number of hits you get from each
search engine, search key phrases people are using to find you,
and which sites are sending you the most traffic. All of this
information is extremely valuable if you are going to have long
term success with your website. Analyzing which keywords are
bringing in visitors from search engines tells you what’s
working and what’s not. You can then search Google and Yahoo
using the key words to find out what your position is for those
key words, which is a lot faster than doing random searches
looking for your site.You can see how many times visitors are
pulling up 404 Document Not Found Pages. This might show you
that it’s time to customize your 404 page with links back to
your site. No sense in losing visitors. You may be interested in
knowing what type of browser your visitors are using. Awstats
also tells you that. Another great thing about looking at your
stats is that you realize which linking partners are the most
valuable. This can help you decide which sites to try and obtain
links from in the future. A well placed link can bring you a few
hundred extra hits a month.One of the most important things you
should be able to see from any statistics program is the amount
of pages that the search engine spiders are traveling down your
website. If they’ve stopped visiting your site, it may be an
indication that something is very wrong. You don’t want to get
caught off guard one day and find out your site has completely
disappeared from the search engines.

Looking back in time, I could still remember standing in awe and reading the exploits of one adsense publisher who was starting a membership service for people keen to maximise their earnings as a google adsense publisher. He claimed to be making over $40K a month from his google adsense revenue and an almost equal amount from affiliate products.

In my mind,I could not help but believe that if he could be so successful, I could also be successful…and everyone can also be equally successful in developing content websites and allowing google adsense to be published on these websites.

Months followed later where I carried out research on Google Adsense, talked to people who were successful publishers, joined a couple of memberships sites myself, read a few ebooks on the subject, spent hundreds of dollars on tools and webpage generating software…the whole works.

My aim was simple – uncover the successful methods and make at least one of these techniques as mine and be equally successful , if not better.

What were my results? Briefly, there were 3 models that could lead to success. There might be more, but these 3 models figured prominently as I carried out my personal private research.

The Content Model ———————————-

In the content model, a mini site is developed for a niche project. Generally, you would find the keywords for niche topics with a low R/S value, build a theme around these keywords and work out a mini website of around 20 to 50 pages. The key to such a website is written content. In many cases, I found reprint rights articles were also used and these were also sites that were successful in bringing in consistent traffic and revenue. Each page is normally written around just one keyword and the entire webpage is tightly SEOed (search engine optimized).

THE SINGLE-PAGE MODEL ————————————–

In the second model, a one page article forms the website with google adsense on that article.In order to feature prominently, website promotion is necessary for this model. This is effected by submitting articles using automated softwares and gathering links in return. There were reports that this model is successful, however I did not receive figures to substantiate this claim nor have seen any figures.

THE NUMBERS GAME MODEL —————————————

This is by far the model that was reported to be widely successful. This model is based on the concept of ” Build, Build and Build!”. In other words, an incessant non-stop drive to keep on building websites and treating the business as stricly one of providing workable content sites for publishing adsense. However, care must be exercised at all times to follow Google Adsense Terms of Service. A prominent feature of this model was to use some form of auto generating software such as softwares that can generate directories or portals, the use of RSS and blogging to maintain and update the sites on a daily basis or a series of rotating templates. Care must also be keenly exercised that the sites must have content, and not merely appear spammy with results scrapped from search engines. One piece of advice from a veteran adsense publisher was that he would run over his sites such that he was clearly satisfied that the web pages were actually pleasing to a visitor and that the webpages were designed for humans. Often quoted by proponents of Model 3 is that the key to maximizing google adsense revenue and indeed affiliate revenue was to engage in a “numbers game”. The more websites you build and commission, the higher is the revenue provided your keyword research is well done. In one case, one publisher claimed that his 65 years old mother could also work on this model by using a RSS system and was earning a good income just a few weeks into the model.

Which of the three models is applicable and useful to you? Are you in for the long term as a serious adsense publisher?

Above all these, you will need a compilation of good resources to assist you in your business as an adsense publisher. Gather the correct resources, personalize the good information and keep working on your model until you reach a good measure of success. Be of good faith, do not falter and you will reach success.

There are countless ways of predicting the future like tarot cards and now astonishing psychic Anne Jirsch has discovered future life progression. This technique is comparably unheard of. The spectacular technique is achievable to everyone who can be hypnotised. You can expect to go into a light trance state and this will happen through hypnosis and you can be directed to go forward into your future like five tens years.

Future life progression is the opposite of past life regression, you might go directly to a therapist or you will probably acquire an FLP mp3 from the worldwide web and do it yourself. Future life sessions allow you to see the future with your very own eyes and help you create a magnificent destiny. You might often use this marvellous technique to see your partner or find out future destiny trends in the workplace. You can find resolutions to lifes problems with PLR at http://www.annejirsch.com/past-life-regression.php.

Anne Jirsch started her phenomenal career as a tarot card psychic in England and has a career spanning over 19 years. The fantastic details that Anne obtains for her clients has made Anne one of the most beloved tarot readers in the United Kingdom. Psychic Anne has worked with famous people for lots of years and has a substantial client base in London and America.

Have you noticed anything different with Google lately? The Webmaster community certainly has, and if recent talk on several search engine optimization (SEO) forums is an indicator, Webmasters are very frustrated. For approximately two years Google has introduced a series of algorithm and filter changes that have led to unpredictable search engine results, and many clean (non-spam) websites have been dropped from the rankings. Google updates used to be monthly, and then quarterly. Now with so many servers, there seems to be several different search engine results rolling through the servers at any time during a quarter. Part of this is the recent Big Daddy update, which is a Google infrastructure update as much as an algorithm update. We believe Big Daddy is using a 64 bit architecture. Pages seem to go from a first page ranking to a spot on the 100th page, or worse yet to the Supplemental index. Google algorithm changes started in November 2003 with the Florida update, which now ranks as a legendary event in the Webmaster community. Then came updates named Austin, Brandy, Bourbon, and Jagger. Now we are dealing with the BigDaddy!

The algorithm problems seem to fall into 4 categories. There are canonical issues, duplicate content issues, the Sandbox, and supplemental page issues.

1. Canonical Issues: these occur when a search engine treats www.yourdomain.com, yourdomain.com, and yourdomain.com/index.html all as different websites. When Google does this, it then flags the different copies as duplicate content and penalizes them. Also, if the site not penalized is http://yourdomain.com, but all of the websites link to your website using www.yourdomain.com, then the version left in the index will have no ranking. These are basic issues that other major search engines, such as Yahoo and MSN, have no problem dealing with. Google is possibly the greatest search engine in the world (ranking themselves as a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10). They provide tremendous results for a wide range of topics, and yet they cannot get some basic indexing issues resolved.

2. The Sandbox: this has become one of the legends of the search engine world. It appears that websites, or links to them, are “sandboxed” for a period before they are given full rank in the index, kind of like a maturing time. Some even think it is only applied to a set of competitive keywords, because they were the ones being manipulated the most. The Sandbox existence is debated, and Google has never officially confirmed it. The hypothesis behind the Sandbox is that Google knows that someone cannot create a 100,000 page website overnight, so they have implemented a type of time penalty for new links and sites before fully making the index.

3. Duplicate Content Issues: these have become a major issue on the Internet. Because web pages drive search engine rankings, black hat SEOs (search engine optimizers) started duplicating entire sites’ content under their own domain name, thereby instantly producing a ton of web pages instantly (an example of this would be to download an Encyclopedia onto your website). Due to this abuse, Google aggressively attacked duplicate content abusers with their algorithm updates. But in the process they knocked out many legitimate sites as collateral damage. One example occurs when someone scraps your website. Google sees both sites and may determine the legitimate one to be the duplicate. About the only thing a Webmaster can do is track down these sites as they are scrapped, and submit a spam report to Google. Another big issue with duplicate content is that there are a lot of legitimate uses of duplicate content. News feeds are the most obvious example. A news story is covered by many websites because it is content the viewers want. Any filter will inevitably catch some legitimate uses.

4. Supplemental Page Issues: Webmasters fondly refer to this as Supplemental Hell. This issue has been reported on places like Webmasterworld for over a year, but a major shake up around February 23rd has led to a huge outcry from the Webmaster community. This recent shakeup was part of the ongoing BigDaddy rollout that should finish this month. This issue is still unclear, but here is what we know. Google has 2 indexes: the Main index that you get when you search, and the Supplemental index that contains pages that are old, no longer active, have received errors, etc. The Supplemental index is a type of graveyard where web pages go when they are no longer deemed active. No one disputes the need for a Supplemental index. The problem, though, is that active, recent, and clean pages have been showing up in the Supplemental index. Like a dungeon, once they go in they rarely come out. This issue has been reported with a low noise level for over a year, but the recent February upset has led to a lot of discussion around it. There is not a lot we know about this issue, and no one can seem to find a common cause leading to it.

Google updates were once fairly predictable, with monthly updates that Webmasters anticipated with both joy and angst. Google followed a well published algorithm that gives each website a Page Rank, which is a number given to each webpage based on the number and rank of other web pages pointing to it. When someone searches on a term, all of the web pages deemed relevant are then ordered by their Page Rank. Google uses a number of factors such as keyword density, page titles, meta tags, and header tags to determine which pages are relevant. This original algorithm favored incoming links and the anchor text of them. The more links you got with an anchor text, the better you ranked for that keyword.

As Google gained the bulk of internet searches in the early part of the decade, ranking well in their engine became highly coveted. Add to this the release of Google’s Adsense program, and it became very lucrative. If a website could rank high for a popular keyword, they could run Google ads under Adsense and split the revenue with Google! This combination led to an avalanche of SEO’ing like the Webmaster world had never seen. The whole nature of links between websites changed. Websites used to link to one another because it was good information for their visitors. But now that link to another website could reduce your search engine rankings, and if it is a link to a competitor, it might boost his.

In Google’s algorithm, links coming into your website boost the site’s Page Rank (PR), while links from your web pages to other sites reduce your PR. People started creating link farms, doing reciprocal link partnerships, and buying/selling links. Webmasters started linking to each other for mutual ranking help or money, instead of quality content for their visitors. This also led to the wholesale Scraping of websites. Black hat SEO’s will take the whole content of a website, put Google’s ad on it, get a few high powered incoming links, and the next thing you know they are ranking high in Google and generating revenue from Google’s adsense without providing any unique website content. Worse yet, as Google tries to go after this duplicate content, they sometimes get the real company instead of the scraper.

This is all part of the cat and mouse game that has become the Google algorithm. Once Google realized the manipulation that was happening, they decided to aggressively alter their algorithms to prevent it. After all, their goal is to find the most relevant results for their searchers. At the same time, they also faced huge growth with the internet explosion. This has led to a period of unstable updates, causing many top ranking websites to disappear while many spam and scrapped websites remain. In spite of Google’s efforts, every change seems to catch more quality websites. Many spam sites and websites that violate Google’s guidelines are caught, but there is an endless tide of more spam websites taking their place.

Some people might believe that this is not a problem. Google is there to provide the best relevant listings for what people are searching on, and for the most part the end user has not noticed an issue with Google’s listings. If they only drop thousands of listings out of millions, then the results are still very good. These problems may not be affecting Google’s bottom line now, but having a search engine that cannot be evolved without producing unintended results will hurt them over time in several ways. First, as the competition from MSN and Yahoo grows, having the best results will no longer be a given, and these drops in quality listings will hurt them.

Next, to stay competitive Google will need to continue to change their algorithms. This will be harder if they cannot make changes without producing unintended results. Finally, having the Webmaster community lose faith in them will make them vulnerable to competition. Webmasters provide Google with two things. They are the word of mouth experts. Also, they run the websites that use Google’s Adsense program. Unlike other monopolies, it is easy to switch search engines. People might also criticize Webmasters for relying on a business model that requires free search engine traffic. Fluctuations in ranking are part of the internet business, and most Webmasters realize this. Webmasters are simply asking Google to fix bugs that cause unintended issues with their sites.

Most Webmasters may blame ranking losses on Google and their bugs. But the truth is that many Webmasters do violate some of the guidelines that Google lays out. Most consider it harmless to bend the rules a little, and assume this is not the reason their websites have issues. In some cases, though, Google is right and has just tweaked its algorithm in the right direction. Here is an example: Google seems to be watching the incoming links to your site to make sure they don’t have the same anchor text (this is the text used in the link on the website linking to you). If too many links use the same anchor text, Google discounts these links. This was originally done by some people to inflate their rankings. Other people did it because one anchor text usually makes sense. This is not really a black hat SEO trick, and it is not called out in Google’s guidelines, but it has caused some websites to lose rank.

Webmasters realize that Google needs to fight spam and black hat SEO manipulation. And to their credit, there is a Google Engineer named Matt Cutts who has a Blog site and participates in SEO forums to assist Webmasters. But given the revenue impact that Google rankings have on companies, Webmasters would like to see even more communication around the known issues, and help with identifying future algorithm issues. No one expects Google to reveal their algorithm or what changes they are making. Rumor on the forum boards speculates that Google is currently looking at items like the age of the domain name, websites on the same ip, and frequency of fresh content. It would be nice from a Webmaster standpoint to be able to report potential bugs to Google, and get a response. It is in Google’s best interest to have a bug free algorithm. This will in turn will provide the best search engine results for everyone.

About the Author: Rachel Ringler is Vice President of Advantage1 Web Services, Inc., which owns a network of Web Hosting Informational Websites including Hostchart.com, Resellerconnection.com, and Foundhost.com.