Webmasters in online forums have discovered a new Google filter that Google uses to downrank web sites in its result pages. Has this filter been applied to your web site? How can you avoid that Google applies that filter to your site?

Disclaimer: The photo which accompanies this article is being used under the Fair Use review and criticism clause. Substantial portions of the picture have been blocked out and the name of the product being advertised has been removed in order to comply with the review and criticism clause. This article and the use of this photo should be considered “educational” for copyright purposes.

This picture has been screen shot taken from an advertisement which has recently appeared on the internet for a skin treatment product. The product makes no claims (within this advertisement) concerning benefits to the eye.

I am not questioning whether or not the pictures have been post-production altered. I suspect that the discrepancies observable within these two photos are due to pre-production work.

Notice that in the lower photo the model’s eye is open wider and the white of the eyes is clear and much whiter than the top photo. Notice also that the green of the iris is more pleasing in the lower photo. Thirdly, notice that both the coloring and the condition of the eyebrow in the lower picture is more groomed and it is possible that the hairs of the eyebrow have been enhanced by makeup.

As a graphic oriented person and as a website coder, I have observed for a long time that the general public is oblivious to details which seem blatantly obvious to me. If you say to the average person who has little experience in the graphic’s world ?”Traditionally American newspaper and periodical publication tended to use San-serif fonts for headlines and serif fonts for body text, while traditional European print publication tended to reverse this usage. But in recent years, quite a few of the more trendy and design conscious American publications have been adopting the European approach to font usage.” — most would react by either indicating that they have no idea what a serif is or by stating that they had never noticed this.

However, if you show an American newspaper reader two pieces of paper with Serif and San-serif styling used throughout in both the American and European styles and with three column formatting below the masthead — and ask which of the two looks more like an American newspaper, the majority of newspaper readers would point to the paper which uses San-serif headlines and serif body text.

I usually refer to this as the Gestalt Effect.

The graphic which accompanies this article shows two photos of a model’s eye. The lower photo is definitely more pleasing to the market audience. Yet what about the Gestalt Effect of these two photos.

The general public may not immediately see the three details which I have singled out, but will still have a Gestalt reaction to these two photos. Although many people may not immediately realize why these two photos seem incongruous they probably will feel a lack of confidence in the reliability of this comparison.

It is comparable to using a font which is intended for use in advertisements which promote the industrial strength of steel to sell silk handkerchiefs. The public does not always know why it looks wrong, but they definitely react negatively to the mismatched font.

Google’s Sandbox and Google’s TrustRank are often discussed in webmaster forums. How do these factors influence your web site rankings on Google and what can you do to get out of the sandbox or to get a high TrustRank?

For the 3-year period ending Sept. 2006, the AlphaProfit Focus and Core model portfolios have gained at annualized rates of 23.8% and 17.2%, respectively.
The sector fund-based AlphaProfit model portfolios have outperformed the average mutual fund in all of the nine investment style and market capitalization-based categories.

Just another thought on using traffic exchanges: They are promoted in a very clever way.  The concept is: You’re going to surf the web anyway, so why not earn hits to…

Click distance is another factor that shows how important it is that search engines can find and parse your web pages quickly and easily. Read this article to learn more about click distance and its influence on your search engine rankings.

Reprinted with Permission. This article was originally published in “Derivatives: Financial Products Report” an RIA publication, September 2005, as ‘Hedge Funds - Do’s and Don’ts for Crafting Hedge Fund Performance Allocations’ by Hannah Terhune, Esq. and Roger Lorence, Esq.

Just a thought or two on using traffic exchanges: Many marketers don’t like them because they say they are only for people who are sellers, not buyers; that they…

The October Report of AlphaProfit Sector Investors’ Newsletter is now available. With 3 years of uninterrupted
publication now complete, the Core and Focus model portfolios are up 60.9% and 89.9%, respectively while the DJW 5000 benchmark has
gained 45.4%. The AlphaProfit Newsletter ranks #1 in return among all mutual fund newsletters tracked by Hulbert Financial Digest for
the 33-month period from Jan. 2004 to Sep. 2006.

Google has updated the PageRank display in its toolbar again. How does this change affect your web site and your rankings on Google?