Disqus - Latest Comments for cmeinck

Re: Analysis and Findings From The September 2015 Google Algorithm Updates (9/2 and 9/16): Panda 4.2 Tremors, Manual Updates, The Methode Philosophy, and More

Christopher Meinck — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 08:41:48 -0000

If a site did not show any signs of recovery, is it possible that Panda 4.2 hasn't yet processed that site? At least with the old Panda updates, you knew where you stood. With this latest iteration, Google has once again succeeded in confusing site owners.

Re: You May Be Too Late To Save Your Site With The Next Google Panda Refresh

Christopher Meinck — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 13:05:20 -0000

If they did a large scale crawl of a website in early July and removed pages with noindex, wouldn't that factor into the calculation? I assume some factors would be difficult to change - specifically any user experience factors. That data and relative scores are likely achieved over time. I would think that when it runs, it would draw on the latest and most current indexation of a website. Thanks for all you do for the webmaster community.

Re: Apple Watch users plagued by heart rate monitor failures after updating

Christopher Meinck — Fri, 22 May 2015 10:10:53 -0000

Sorry, Luke. We submitted a tip and reported on the issue on Wednesday. http://www.everythingicafe....

Re: Apple Watch users plagued by heart rate monitor failures after updating

Christopher Meinck — Fri, 22 May 2015 10:02:09 -0000

That's not the source, but fine. Noted.

Re: Apple Watch users plagued by heart rate monitor failures after updating

Christopher Meinck — Fri, 22 May 2015 09:43:08 -0000

You should credit the source of this story.

Re: Google: Panda Has Not Updated Since October 2014

Christopher Meinck — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 11:52:30 -0000

It's been years since Google introduced Panda and for many site owners, it's an incredibly difficult challenge to recover. It would help immeasurably if they would announce when it is being run. It's not as if that's going to allow sites to game the algorithm. Panda is about quality. If people "game" Panda, so be it. Better content and websites helps everyone involved. It would help small business owners who are desperately trying to recover to better understand problems Google may have with their sites.

Re: Best Email Apps for iPhone

Christopher Meinck — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 12:05:48 -0000

They are all very good. I've used Boxer quite a bit. Might be a honeymoon period, but I really like the new Outlook.

Re: I’m Not Buying The Apple Watch

Christopher Meinck — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 17:19:32 -0000

The headline and story reference the members who aren't buying, along with what I see as the reasons for their decision. As for me, I'm buying and keeping an open mind.

Re: Roomie Remote Turns Your iPhone or iPad Into Ultimate Universal Remote

Christopher Meinck — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 13:05:19 -0000

You can probably get by with an HDMI, if you are looking at only 45 feet. My issues were with a cable that was 150 feet. I didn't test before it went in the wall. The box that works for me is this:
http://www.monoprice.com/Pr...

It allowed me to use my CAT6 cabling to extend my HDMI connection. They are expensive, but work. If you do go with a long HDMI cable, invest in the highest quality. Monoprice is the best place for cables.

The HDMI switcher would be controlled via IR.

When you have Sonos, all of the devices on that WiFi network can connect and use how every many speakers you have setup.

Re: What the iPhone 5c looks like with a white front panel

Christopher Meinck — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 18:04:24 -0000

Not sure if it's possible. If it were, it wouldn't be worth the cost. If you must have a white iPhone, look for a white iPhone 5. It's basically the same phone.

Re: 10 photo composition tips to improve your iPhone photography

Christopher Meinck — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 20:30:53 -0000

Thanks Jack!

Re: Chinese Smuggler Had 94 iPhones Strapped To Body

Christopher Meinck — Tue, 13 Jan 2015 14:00:32 -0000

The story here is that someone used packing tape and attached 94 iPhones to their body. Comedy, pure and simple. Thanks for your comment and the heads up on the numbers.

Re: Belkin WeMo Light Switch Review

Christopher Meinck — Mon, 12 Jan 2015 20:16:23 -0000

Thanks and updated. I used IFTTT to turn on my lights at sunset. The WeMo app has a similar feature within the app.

I think you'll like them. The hardest part was the wiring and that wasn't too tough. They've been incredibly dependable.

Re: Zagg InvisibleShield Glass for iPhone 6 Review

Christopher Meinck — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 16:57:31 -0000

Wow, I'm surprised to hear that. I've installed two on different phones. Both protectors look great. No signs of chipping, at all. Have your reached out to Zagg? Is there a specific area that's chipping?

Re: How to send an iTunes Gift

Christopher Meinck — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 10:49:47 -0000

I completely agree. It's always been a hassle when we try to do an iTunes giveaway and have to exclude international members.

Re: Apple Releases iOS 8.0.2 With Fix For Cell Service, Touch ID

Christopher Meinck — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 20:33:44 -0000

I've installed the update over-the-air on my iPhone 6 Plus. Touch ID and cell service both work. No problems, at all, as it should be.

Re: Apple Considering $400 Starting Price For Range Of Wearable Devices

Christopher Meinck — Sat, 30 Aug 2014 22:09:18 -0000

Thanks for your comment! It depends on what it'll offer. We have a pretty good idea of what's offered by Samsung, Motorola, LG, etc. Those are all priced at $250 plus. If Apple can offer a more expansive feature set, they can easily justify the premium. I agree, it's not cheap. I'm interested to see Apple's take on wearables and their selling proposition.

Re: Panda 4.0 Help: Google Clarifies Tremors, 3 Analogies for Diagnosing Hits

Christopher Meinck — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 09:58:39 -0000

Great write-up as always. In your experience, will sites seeing positive increases during the tremors experience a more impactful recovery during the next data refresh? Has there been a full data refresh since May 20th?

Re: Apple Releases iOS 8 Beta 2

Christopher Meinck — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 13:54:19 -0000

iOS 8 was one of the more buggier developer releases we've seen.

Re: 18 iOS 8 Features That Were Not Announced During WWDC

Christopher Meinck — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 17:23:11 -0000

Not sure, but someone posted this image on Twitter.

Re: SEO: I Got Comfortable & It Resulted In Being Hit By Google's Panda Filter

Christopher Meinck — Fri, 23 May 2014 10:39:44 -0000

Yes and no. I'm using two perfect sitemaps and also using one to 'advise' Google to visit the pages I want removed. That's a 'dirty' sitemap, but seems to help. Considering these are indexed pages from a forum I ran in 2010, there are no links to them from my site.

It is satisfying to watch these dead URLs fall out of the index. Like so many webmasters dealing with Panda, I can only hope this *was* the issue. At least we got an official confirmation this time around. Not knowing when this runs each month leaves folks like myself in a constant state of wondering if steps being taken are making a difference.

I greatly appreciate your willingness to help.

Re: SEO: I Got Comfortable & It Resulted In Being Hit By Google's Panda Filter

Christopher Meinck — Fri, 23 May 2014 10:24:35 -0000

I appreciate the advice! No insult taken. This was a vBulletin forum which migrated to XenForo in 2011. I'd regularly check redirects to make sure things were working. They would require 3 hops to the actual URL. Google kept thousands of the old vB URLs indexed and the new XenForo URLs. These are completely different URLs. If you searched a snippet of text, both pages would show up in the SERPS. If you looked at the cache for the vBulletin page, it would show the XenForo page.

The technical issues were a large amount of broken links, common to most forums and plenty of internal links pointing to vB pages. I ended up editing all of the links to remove any vB references and using 410 gone for VB pages. My index has shrunk in GWT, but apparently not fast enough. I had initially used the URL removal tool for directories, but felt this wasn't an organic cleansing. I'm not sure if removing from SERPs via URL removal tool helps with Panda indexation issues.

It's a maddening process and the stress of a slow spiral is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

Re: SEO: I Got Comfortable & It Resulted In Being Hit By Google's Panda Filter

Christopher Meinck — Fri, 23 May 2014 09:48:48 -0000

Not all of us benefited. I've been on a steady decline since late 2012. I've made significant improvements, fixing broken links and removing 'thin content'. In March of this year, I found that Google had incorrectly indexed URLs from my previous board software, despite years of 301s to new URLs. It would show the old URL with a cached page of the new board software. Despite dropping thousands of URLs via 410, I saw yet another dip. Oddly enough, traffic was up Sunday and Monday – only to decline after the announcement by roughly 5 percent. I'm wondering if the instability of the clean up process adversely affected my chances.

Re: On MetaFilter Being Penalized By Google: An Explainer

Christopher Meinck — Thu, 22 May 2014 11:59:29 -0000

As a forum owner who has seen a continued decline since 2012, I've been chasing my tail trying to fix issues. Did we have too many ads? By allowing indexation of member profiles, was that deemed thin content? Recent site audits appear to be technical (broken links), duplicate content being the issue, but I can't be sure. It seems Google continued to index URLs from our previous software, while indexing the new URLs as well (despite proper 301s). None of this showed up in GWT. Those clean up efforts continue, but I was hopeful we'd see a bump for the massive changes made over the past year. We saw yet another 5% decline as a result of Panda 4.0.

I don't see Google's reasoning for not disclosing when Panda refreshes? Additionally, if they were interested in helping webmasters, the two suggestions you outlined would go a long way. It seems they are more interested in confusing folks then helping legitimate site owners.

It seems to me, that if Google were to provide this information to webmasters, we'd be able to improve our websites. "We've detected a problem, here's a sample URL."

I don't see this happening and my hopes for a reversal wanes with each passing update.

Re: Google's Matt Cutts: We've Been Discussing The MetaFilter Google Penalty

Christopher Meinck — Thu, 22 May 2014 09:34:21 -0000

Google seems to have a difficult time assessing the quality of forums, many of which continue to get pounded by well intentioned algorithm updates.