juust ~ php oddities » seo http://www.juust.org Link theory and search engine optimization Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:39:32 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 how to get bing api search results in MsOffice VBA http://www.juust.org/index.php/how-to-get-bing-api-search-results-in-msoffice-vba/2011/12/ http://www.juust.org/index.php/how-to-get-bing-api-search-results-in-msoffice-vba/2011/12/#comments Sun, 25 Dec 2011 23:27:21 +0000 admin http://www.juust.org/?p=1946 Continue reading →]]> For the loyal VBA fans a quick snippet to grab search results from Bing in Access or Excel. There are few articles on the web about that, and that is a shame. So lets add some content on it to the web : first in MsAccess VBA and then in Excel, with a sample workbook added.

Working with the BING API requires an Application Id you can get at the Bing website.

Accessing the Bing Api in MsAccess VBA

In the the VBA Ide, through the menu Tools References I add a reference to the XML object library that contains the XMLHTTPRequest object, enabling me to make HTTP requests from VBA in the MsAccess database.

The simple part is the http request string :

  1.  
  2.         Dim MyKeyword As String
  3.         MyKeyword = "seo"
  4.        
  5.         Dim requestString As String
  6.         requestString = "http://api.bing.net/xml.aspx?"
  7.  
  8.         Dim AppId As String
  9.         AppId = "(get one at the bing website)"
  10.  
  11.        ' Common request fields (required)
  12.         requestString = requestString & _
  13.         "AppId=" & AppId & "&Query=" & MyKeyword & "&Sources=Web"
  14.  
  15.         ' Common request fields (optional)
  16.         requestString = requestString & _
  17.               "&Version=2.0" _
  18.             & "&Market=en-us" _
  19.             & "&Adult=Moderate" _
  20.             & "&Options="
  21.  
  22.         ' Web-specific request fields (optional)
  23.         requestString = requestString & _
  24.               "&Web.Count=10" _
  25.             & "&Web.Offset=0" _
  26.             & "&Web.Options=DisableHostCollapsing+DisableQueryAlterations"

Then comes the working part, sending the actual request and receiving the XML response (objSvrHTTP.responseText) containing the search data. I use a DomDocument object and XPath to get at the XML data.

First sending the request

  1.     objSvrHTTP.Open "GET", requestString, False
  2.     objSvrHTTP.send requestString

then creating a domdocument and receiving the response in it

  1.     'Create the DomDocument Object
  2.     Dim oDoc As MSXML2.DOMDocument
  3.     Set oDoc = CreateObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument")
  4.     oDoc.async = False
  5.     oDoc.validateOnParse = False
  6.      
  7.     'Load the response in the DomDocument Object
  8.     Dim fSuccess As Boolean
  9.     fSuccess = oDoc.loadXML(objSvrHTTP.responseText)
  10.     If Not fSuccess Then
  11.         MsgBox "failed"
  12.         Exit Sub
  13.     End If

The response uses two namespaces and the data we actually want is in the “web” namespace, so before we start selecting nodes in the xml-tree we first indicate what namespace we want to access :

  1.     oDoc.SetProperty "SelectionNamespaces", "xmlns:web='http://schemas.microsoft.com/LiveSearch/2008/04/XML/web'"

The total search result pages is a top level node in the namespace :

  1.     Set xmlnode = oDoc.selectSingleNode("//web:Total")
  2.     Debug.Print xmlnode.Text

…but the good stuff is in the “WebResult” nodes in the xml tree, I can use an XPath reference //web:Webresult to access that node-collection and with a simple for-next iterate through the collection, selecting the single nodes containing the actual data.

  1.     Set oChildren = oDoc.selectNodes("//web:WebResult")
  2.     For Each oResult In oChildren
  3.         Debug.Print oResult.selectSingleNode("./web:Title").Text
  4.         Debug.Print oResult.selectSingleNode("./web:Description").Text
  5.         Debug.Print oResult.selectSingleNode("./web:Url").Text
  6.         Debug.Print oResult.selectSingleNode("./web:DisplayUrl").Text
  7.         Debug.Print vbCrLf
  8.     Next

I output to the Immediate window aka Debug (under View, Immediate Window or Ctrl+G)

What can we do with it ? Let’s make a table for date, keyword, url, title, description, position

and add some code to store the results we retrieve

  1.     Dim table1 As DAO.Recordset
  2.     Set table1 = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset("Table1", dbOpenTable)
  3.     'counter for position    
  4.     i = 0
  5.    
  6.     Set oChildren = oDoc.selectNodes("//web:WebResult")
  7.     For Each oStruct In oChildren
  8.  
  9.        i = i + 1
  10.        With table1
  11.             .AddNew
  12.             'data from bing
  13.             !TITLE = oStruct.selectSingleNode("./web:Title").Text
  14.             !Description = oStruct.selectSingleNode("./web:Description").Text
  15.             !url = oStruct.selectSingleNode("./web:Url").Text
  16.             'and some additional data
  17.             !MYDATE = Now()
  18.             !POSITION = i
  19.             !KEYWORD = MyKeyword
  20.             'store the record
  21.             .Update
  22.         End With
  23.  
  24.     Next
  25.  
  26.     table1.Close

There now that scratches the seo itch :

MsAccess stuff is a bit hard to put on the web as sample, so I’ll make a quick one in Excel and put it up for download.

Accessing the Bing Api in Excel VBA

there you go : on sheet 1 you can fill in your AppID and keyword, click the butt(on…

…and on sheet 2 you get the top 10 search results

It uses the cells B1 and B2 as named ranges for MyKeyword and AppID, and has the code in the enclosed module. It also contains one of my AppId’s so no querying nasty shit, please.

]]> http://www.juust.org/index.php/how-to-get-bing-api-search-results-in-msoffice-vba/2011/12/feed/ 1 One billion SEO pages http://www.juust.org/index.php/one-billion-seo-pages/2011/12/ http://www.juust.org/index.php/one-billion-seo-pages/2011/12/#comments Sun, 25 Dec 2011 03:37:11 +0000 admin http://www.juust.org/?p=1936

I just noticed Google have a billion result pages indexed for the keyword SEO. Incredible. Merry Christmas, Frankenstein.

]]> http://www.juust.org/index.php/one-billion-seo-pages/2011/12/feed/ 3 QuickGlossary wordpress plugin http://www.juust.org/index.php/quickglossary-wordpress-plugin/2011/12/ http://www.juust.org/index.php/quickglossary-wordpress-plugin/2011/12/#comments Sat, 24 Dec 2011 12:41:54 +0000 admin http://www.juust.org/?p=1911 Continue reading →]]> I am curious with the ongoing discussion on LSI in search, how Googlebot responds to using the Datalist and it’s DFN definition element on page. Maybe it helps if we provide the search engines with more on page context. So I built a Quick Glossary WordPress plugin. It puts the single post tags with description as a Glossary in the sidebar and uses jQuery to shorten the displayed text and add a [more] link, so visitors can choose to read a full description but it does not dominate the page, whilst Googlebot and Slurp get the full context of the content according to my tag definitions.

  1. <dl>
  2.   <dt>
  3.      <dfn>PIYF</dfn>
  4.   </dt>
  5.   <dd>
  6.       Acronym : Panda Is Your Friend
  7.   </dd>
  8. </dl>

First the basic widget code, I’ll call it Quick Glossary :

  1.  
  2. function widget_QuickGlossary($args) {
  3.         extract($args);
  4.  
  5.         //preparation : scope, css, javascript
  6.        
  7.         echo $before_widget;
  8.         echo $before_title . 'Quick Glossary' . $after_title;
  9.  
  10.         //output  
  11.  
  12.         echo $after_widget;
  13. }
  14.  
  15. register_sidebar_widget('Quick Glossary', 'widget_QuickGlossary');

the preparation

scope

I want my widget to only show on single posts, and only if the post has tags :

  1.     if(!is_single()) return
  2.     global $post;
  3.     $tags = get_the_tags($post->ID);
  4.     if(!$tags) return;

layout

I want a double column layout with the term (tag) linking to the tag page, and the definition itself only part visible, with a fancy [more] link like on Facebook.

First some css for a double column data list :

  1. <style>
  2. dl {
  3.  width:100%;
  4.  overflow:hidden;
  5. }
  6. dt {
  7.  float:left;
  8.  width:50%; /* adjust the width; make sure the total of both is 100% */
  9. }
  10. dd {
  11.  float:left;
  12.  width:50%; /* adjust the width; make sure the total of both is 100% */
  13. }
  14. </style>

and then some jQuery : I want the whole definition on the page but only part visible to the reader. Viralpatel list a nice cut and paste jQuery snippet. That requires I add a class “more” to the DD element, and add some css for it and for the link :

  1. <style>
  2. .morecontent span {
  3.     display: none;
  4. }
  5. a.morelink {
  6.     text-decoration:none;
  7.     outline: none;
  8. }
  9. </style>

I put the extra CSS script in it’s own function :

  1. function quickGlossary_scripts() {
  2. //css for doyble column
  3. //css hooks for jquery
  4. }

…and make sur the jquery script only loads when thr query is loaded :

  1. add_action('init', 'register_QuickGlossary_script');
  2. add_action('wp_footer', 'print_QuickGlossary_script');
  3.  
  4. function register_QuickGlossary_script() {
  5.  wp_register_script('QuickGlossary', plugins_url('QuickGlossary.js', __FILE__), array('jquery'), '1.0', true);
  6. }
  7.  
  8. function print_QuickGlossary_script() {
  9.  global $add_QuickGlossary_script;
  10.   if ( ! $add_QuickGlossary_script ) return;
  11.   wp_print_scripts('QuickGlossary');
  12. }
  13.  
  14. //nb.: requires setting the global var to true in the widget function
  15. …
  16.     global $add_QuickGlossary_script;
  17.     $add_QuickGlossary_script = true;
  18. …

…and proceed to generating the output, the data list :

the output

Straight forward, using DL as list container, tagname and description as list of DT DD elements, with an added class=”more” to the DD description as hook for jQuery.

  1. function QuickGlossary_datalist($tags) {
  2.    $html = '<dl class="post_tags">';
  3.    foreach ($tags as $tag){
  4.  $tag_link = get_tag_link($tag->term_id);
  5.  $html .=
  6.        "<dt><dfn><a href='{$tag_link}' title='more articles on {$tag->name}' class='{$tag->slug}'>{$tag->name}</a></dfn></dt>
  7.        <dd class='more'>{$tag->description}</dd>";
  8.    }
  9.    $html .= '</dl>';
  10.    return $html;
  11. }

You can edit your tag description under Admin-Posts-Post Tags menu.

Now my main widget function is :

  1. function widget_QuickGlossary($args) {
  2.     extract($args);
  3.  
  4.     if(!is_single()) return;
  5.  
  6.     global $post;
  7.     $tags = get_the_tags($post->ID);
  8.     if(!$tags) return;
  9.  
  10.     global $add_QuickGlossary_script;
  11.     $add_QuickGlossary_script = true;
  12.  
  13.     quickGlossary_scripts();
  14.  
  15.     echo $before_widget;
  16.     echo $before_title . 'Glossary' . $after_title;
  17.  
  18.     echo QuickGlossary_datalist($tags);
  19.  
  20.     echo $after_widget;
  21. }

Activate the widget, drag and drop it from Admin-Appearance-Widgets menu and it is a Quick Glossary, if you want to play with it, code is overhere as zip.

]]> http://www.juust.org/index.php/quickglossary-wordpress-plugin/2011/12/feed/ 0 Google Panda Latent Semantic Indexing Test http://www.juust.org/index.php/google-panda-lsi-test/2011/12/ http://www.juust.org/index.php/google-panda-lsi-test/2011/12/#comments Sat, 03 Dec 2011 03:16:54 +0000 admin http://www.juust.org/?p=1674 Continue reading →]]>

Panda’s…

Latent Semantic Indexing

Queries, or concept searches, against a set of documents that have undergone LSI will return results that are conceptually similar in meaning to the search criteria even if the results don’t share a specific word or words with the search criteria.

 

LSI Test

O my friend, Panda is something that has to be surpassed. In {speculation|guess|supposition|surmise|surmisal|possibility|hypothesis} and keeping silence shall the friend be a master: you should not wish to see everything. (Nietzsche, Also Sprach Zarathustra)

 

Id the_term the_type the_value
156875 c0njecture (noun) speculation
156876 ———- (noun) hypothesis (generic term)
156877 ———- (noun) possibility
156878 ———- (noun) theory (generic term)
156879 ———- (noun) guess
156880 ———- (noun) supposition
156881 ———- (noun) surmise
156882 ———- (noun) surmisal
156883 ———- (noun) speculation
156884 ———- (noun) hypothesis
156885 ———- (noun) opinion (generic term)
156886 ———- (noun) view (generic term)
156887 ———- (noun) reasoning (generic term)
156888 ———- (noun) logical thinking (generic term)
156889 ———- (noun) abstract thought (generic term)
156890 ———- (verb) speculate
156891 ———- (verb) theorize
156892 ———- (verb) theorise
156893 ———- (verb) hypothesize
156894 ———- (verb) hypothesise
156895 ———- (verb) hypothecate
156896 ———- (verb) suppose
156897 ———- (verb) expect (generic term)
156898 ———- (verb) anticipate (generic term)

 (source : semanthesaurus)

 

Let’s see if the Panda gets it.

 

 

]]> http://www.juust.org/index.php/google-panda-lsi-test/2011/12/feed/ 0 what is the forum doing there http://www.juust.org/index.php/what-is-the-forum-doing-there/2010/11/ http://www.juust.org/index.php/what-is-the-forum-doing-there/2010/11/#comments Sun, 28 Nov 2010 22:14:26 +0000 admin http://www.juust.org/?p=1434 Continue reading →]]> A forum out of nowhere, I noticed that no one posts on an empty forum. So I made a new plugin that gets Yahoo Answers and stuffs them in Simplepress. I grabbed a php yahoo answers class from HungryCoder’s blog and hacked a backend together, mapping yahoo categories with a keyword to a forum, retrieving topics and either use cron or direct publishing. It takes 2 minutes to have a forum full of free content. I am going to debug it. Maybe in spring I’ll put it on wordpress.org.

]]> http://www.juust.org/index.php/what-is-the-forum-doing-there/2010/11/feed/ 2 Does a PDF file drain linkjuice ? http://www.juust.org/index.php/does-a-pdf-file-drain-linkjuice/2010/11/ http://www.juust.org/index.php/does-a-pdf-file-drain-linkjuice/2010/11/#comments Sun, 14 Nov 2010 19:18:22 +0000 juust http://www.juust.org/?p=1368 Continue reading →]]> Is a pdf file an importance sink ? In backrub (the basic pagerank calculation) an importance sink is a page that is linked to but does not link back to the site itself and thus drains the ‘juice’ in the site, much like broken links.

Here’s an excerpt from Eric Enge interviewing Matt Cutts. In the entire interview Eric Enge focusses on linkjuice. When he mentions the PDF, Matt Cutts indicates he does not want to talk about pdf and pagerank. He does encourage us to prefer html versions over pdf’s.

Eric Enge: What about PDF files?

Matt Cutts: We absolutely do process PDF files. I am not going to talk about whether links in PDF files pass PageRank. But, a good way to think about PDFs is that they are kind of like Flash in that they aren’t a file format that’s inherent and native to the web, but they can be very useful. In the same way that we try to find useful content within a Flash file, we try to find the useful content within a PDF file. At the same time, users don’t always like being sent to a PDF. If you can make your content in a Web-Native format, such as pure HTML, that’s often a little more useful to users than just a pure PDF file.

Let’s look at Google Search : if you type inurl:.pdf in Google Search (something Pat Marcello also mentions on his seo news blog article on pdf links) you get a list with pdf-documents, for instance The Not So Short Introduction to LATEX2ε which has PR6 assigned.

pdf with pagerank in google

It shows PDF files are indexed (as Matt Cutts indicates), but more important, they have a pagerank. If so, the pdf document receives linkjuice. Experience of other seo’s shows GoogleBot does not follow or index links in pdf documents (V7N). If the links in the document are not indexed or followed, it does not pass on the linkjuice, it forms an importance sink and you loose linkjuice.

That makes me wonder how Google handled these PDF’s and how that affects the assignment of importance and indexing of the content.

]]> http://www.juust.org/index.php/does-a-pdf-file-drain-linkjuice/2010/11/feed/ 0 interesting : seo panel http://www.juust.org/index.php/interesting-seo-panel/2010/07/ http://www.juust.org/index.php/interesting-seo-panel/2010/07/#comments Fri, 02 Jul 2010 01:19:24 +0000 juust http://www.juust.org/?p=1278 Continue reading →]]> That seems fun, an open source seo toolkit. It is a five second install multi-user package offering simple stats, but more interesting, a semi automated website directory submitter in a clean interface, and could be a valuable service offer if you run an seo community site.

It is PHP MVC and, what sparked my interest, it has a plugin interface.
I love that, It could be going somewhere over the next few years.

]]> http://www.juust.org/index.php/interesting-seo-panel/2010/07/feed/ 1