Shopping in the Plaza with Olivia on my shoulders.
The Holidays are always such a fun, and frantic time. I usually get so busy looking for that special gift that I have little time to post. Today I spent the day here in Madrid’s Plaza Mayor, shopping for my dear friend and fellow blogger Dean Hunt. I was here with a friend and his small daughter Olivia. For the ultimate Madrid experience, you simply must take a trip to the Plaza. This public square is full of shops, cafes, and alfresco artists. Watch your wallet from buying too much or lingering pick pockets.
Dean and I first met at a search engine conference in London where I was giving a speech on topic based link building. After a few scotches, Dean and I exchanged email addresses and promised to keep in touch.

I got a short note from Dean a few weeks ago regarding a strange email he received. It seems that someone was unhappy that Dean’s blog was ranking higher in Google than the letter writer, and the letter writer wanted Dean to do something about it.

An excerpt:

“On Thursday morning I checked our google positions and your site is now above us for this term. I have checked your blog and it has nothing to do with [edited], so I think it would be best all round if you remove your blog from google for this search term.”

I almost covered the entire wall of my study with red wine when I read the note from Dean. Certain that this was some kind of joke, I called up Dean for a shared laugh. We both laughed, but then he said it wasn’t a joke at all. He forwarded the thread to me for further chuckles.

Here is an excerpt of Dean’s reply
“I had to re-read your e-mail three times to make sure my eyes were not playing tricks on me!

Here is some more info that may help you understand my stance on this:

a) I have never attempted to rank for the search term [edited], I seem to rank fairly well for [edited], which I suppose is fairly similar. But if Google prefers my site to yours then perhaps you should be asking yourself why that is.”

The guy continued his rant in a note back to Dean

“You have to understand Dean that an online business should be higher in Google than a blog.

Don’t forget that Google is a business as well, they obviously make more money from other businesses than they do from blogs, so it is in their interest that I am higher than you for certain searches.

I have also contacted my lawyer about this issue, so you should expect a letter in the post very soon.”

To think of this another way, this is as if Restaurant A was taking legal action against Restaurant B because Zagat ranked Restaurant B higher.

Read each letter at Deans Blog.

Sure, there is legal action warranted if someone is trying to use your trademarked terms to boost their ranking (I was an expert witness in the famous Playboy Ent. Inc. v. Calvin Designer Label et al. case tried in California court a few years back), but this isn’t the case here.

Before everyone starts suing those above them in the rankings, lets review some fundamentals for search engine visibility:
1- Do Search Engines know your site exists?
2- Can they get through your site?
3- Do you have a wealth of up to date relevant content?
4- Do other similar sites in your field of expertise link to you as a resource?
Focus on these items, not costly calls to lawyers.

Back to shopping, I found Dean a wonderful gift (which I won't share here of course) All I will say is that the Plaza was full of merchants selling gifts for the upcoming Día de los Inocentes on December 28th. For those who don’t know, upcoming Día de los Inocentes is a Spanish version of April Fool’s Day!