We’ve talked about tips, tools and various types of optimization issues.  There’s a sort of basic first step that falls before everything else, though - appearing in Google’s search results at all.

Whether you’ve got a new site that seems to have escaped Google’s notice or an old one that appears to have been ignored (or even an old one that’s unexpectedly lost a lot of ground), you’ll eventually want to resort to a reconsideration request.  But before you do that, a post on Google’s Webmaster Central Blog recommends, “You may want to check if there are any access issues with your site - you can do this by logging in to your Webmaster Tools account.”

Look for messages from Google as long as you’re accessing the account, and revisit Google’s Webmaster Guidelines to make sure you haven’t missed some important detail.  Then, after fixing anything that looks incorrect, go ahead with the reconsideration request.

“Make sure to explain what you think was wrong with your site and what steps you have taken to fix it,” writes Mariya Moeva.  “Once you’ve submitted your request, you’ll see a message from us in the Message Center confirming that we’ve received it.  We’ll then review your site for compliance with the Webmaster Guidelines.”

Then, assuming you receive Google’s approval, you can get back to all the general search engine optimization stuff.  And hopefully not ever again have to worry about reconsideration requests.

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A walkthrough discussing a single one of these products would probably be worth your time; an official webinar on all three is impossible not to recommend.  So if you want, learn about Google Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics, and Google Website Optimizer on July 8th.

Around 9 AM PT (these things tend to start a little late), the free cross-product webinar will begin.  You only need to fill out six fields beforehand to take care of the required registration form.  Then it’s possible to suggest topics for the presenters to discuss.

Or, if you’re busy that Tuesday morning or need to skip out early (the webinar’s end time hasn’t been mentioned), Google’s got you covered.  Jon Stona, a member of the company’s product marketing team, notes, “[Y]ou’ll be able to access an archived version of the presentation via the same registration URL.  And lest you forget, you can always visit Google Webmaster Central to see everything we offer to help you build and maintain your best site.”

Finally, if you’re still wondering why this webinar on Google Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics, and Google Website Optimizer is supposed to be a good deal, know that “[b]y using all three of these tools together, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of your pages’ visibility on Google, how your visitors interact with your site, and what content will most effectively get them to take the desired action.”

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There are CliffsNotes for books, strategy guides for games, and even interpretations for strange art.  When it comes to site-building, though, there just aren’t a lot of shortcuts, and so Google’s giving its Website Optimizer a nudge.

Google’s “website testing and optimization tool” is free in the beginning, and that’s fine.  It might be better than fine, really, since there’s a sort of implication that the search giant is giving away the key to its own castle.  What better than Google to tell you how to charm search engines?

Then there are the opportunities for you to spend some money.  Pay $250 for an hour of technical phone support, $600 for three, or $1,200 for eight hours.  Wince, if you want, or run away screaming - the Dow’s going down again, and nobody’s stopping you.

Yet for whatever it’s worth, Garett Rogers writes, “The Website Optimizer service plans cost a bit of money, but it’s better than having no real support at all.”  And the tool is worth checking out even if you don’t plan to ever hand over any cash.

Heck, maybe with all the time you’ll save from not needing to constantly work on your site, you’ll be able to reread some full novels and enjoy some unusual paintings.

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Two Google-related issues that could pose problems for you cropped up this week. The solution to one of them is known. An answer to the other one (which appears to have affected many more people) is not.

We’ll start with the quicker-to-cover topic: an SEOmoz page seems to have been severely penalized because its URL ended in “.0″ (dot-zero). This may be an anomaly, but since there’s not much to gain from displaying “.0,” try not to allow any similar URL endings to appear within your site.

As for the other matter, all sorts of webmasters are reporting that their rankings and traffic levels have dropped in the last few days. Not a lot of patterns are apparent, and Google’s taken no (publicly discussed) steps that would explain the development.

Most people aren’t panicking just yet, as these sorts of dips have been known to occur from time to time. Still, given the state of the economy, the timing of the event is rather unfortunate.

It might be worth contacting Google or at least joining in the WebmasterWorld discussion thread if you’ve been affected.

UPDATE: Okay, never mind the “.0″ stuff.  Google’s Matt Cutts now writes, “So just in the last day or so, we switched it so that Google is willing to crawl pages that end . . . in ‘.0.’”

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Google has released the latest version of AdWords Editor, and the upgrades sound rather enticing.  We’ll get into those in a moment, but first, a warning: some people have been experiencing show-stopping problems, too.

Out of seven comments in a WebmasterWorld discussion thread, four speak of annoying issues with AdWords Editor 6.0.  Google’s working on the matter, so it’ll probably be fixed within a few hours.  Just didn’t want to send you guys straight into a known minefield.

Back to the good things, then.  On the Inside AdWords Blog, Christian Yee writes, “[T]his version includes new bulk editing tools, better downloading for account statistics, and a new option for updating minimum CPC bids.  We’ve also listened to users’ requests for support within AdWords Editor for CPC placement targeting and the Conversion Optimizer, so version 6.0 includes support for both of these features.”

Upgrading should be as simple as ever, and there’s nothing else new about the program that’ll require retraining.

Finally, as a separate issue, don’t be worried when the AdWords system becomes unavailable tomorrow - scheduled maintenance will be taking place.

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If you haven’t embedded any YouTube videos in your site, it may be time to do so.  One individual found that Google seems to greatly favor pages featuring these clips.

One individual’s observations do not an SEO rule make, of course.  If you decide to embed clips, you’ll want to keep an eye on traffic statistics, and even if the numbers rise, users’ reactions should be taken into account, too.

That said, the case of “travelin cat” is quite interesting.  Earlier this month, the WebmasterWorld Forum member wrote, “We looked at the urls that had the most hits and decided to find out why they have been more successful then other urls. . . .  The only factor that we could find that boosted ranking was that 7 of the top 10 traffic urls had a youtube video embedded in them.  These were just random videos related to the destination page and were not created by us.”

So there’s a small-scale example.  This week, travelin cat posted again, writing, “Update: We added YouTube videos to 10 more random pages, none of which had good serp positioning.  After 15 days, the average Google visit went up just over 200% compared to the previous 15 day period on those 10 pages.”

Barry Schwartz isn’t ready to believe in a cause and effect relationship, and this does seem a little overly simplistic.  But if the presence of YouTube videos won’t in any way harm your site, embedding them could be worth a try.

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Earlier this week, a story titled “13 Year Old Steals Dad’s Credit Card to Buy Hookers” gained national attention.  People poured towards a certain site, but as it turned out, the story wasn’t true, and was instead serving as extremely effective linkbait.  Google doesn’t seem to like this idea.

In a Sphinn thread, the company’s own Matt Cutts wrote, “My quick take is that Google’s webmaster guidelines allow for cases such as this: ‘Google may respond negatively to other misleading practices not listed here (e.g. tricking users by registering misspellings of well-known websites).  It’s not safe to assume that just because a specific deceptive technique isn’t included on this page, Google approves of it.’”

Cutts then continued, “There’s not much more deceptive or misleading than a fake story without any disclosure that the story is hoax.”

So, although an official ruling has yet to occur, it looks like fake stories are a way to hurt, rather than help, a site.  This seemed worth mentioning after such a high-profile case, even if it’s unlikely that any of you were going to make something up.  If you’re going in another direction - think The Onion rather than outright trickery - at least be clear from the beginning.

One last note: certain law enforcement officials might recommend that, even if you’re truthful about it, you also steer clear from actually giving 13-year-olds credit cards and hookers.

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If you don’t use MySpace, Twitter, and other forms of social media, that’s fine.  Time and money can be tight, interests can lie elsewhere - no problem.  Go ahead and stake out your name(s), though, to prepare for the future and/or protect yourself.

Remember the early days of instant messaging?  A few people managed to establish just their first names as their screen names.  The next wave set up their first and last names.  Then, as the scene became so full of folks, you’d wind up having to remember 1984NYJoanLikesDogCatsBirdsNotMice1995 - for just one friend.

As far as MySpace is concerned, this advice is probably coming far too late.  Twitter is an up-and-coming service, however, and respectable entities like the BBC have already set up shop there.

Stoney deGeyter writes, “The last thing you want is someone out there twittering in your business’ name.  Maybe they are a fan with good intentions, but maybe not.  In either case, an ‘unauthorized’ individual is out there actively engaging with the community in your name.  They could be saying things that appear to be official company communications, but aren’t.”

Establishing a Twitter account takes less than five minutes and is completely free.  Even if you think people discussing their dull days in 140-character lumps is idiotic, do yourself a favor and check it out.

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You might be selling a business or changing marriage statuses.  Or trying to cheat the IRS or hide from the mob.  Whatever.  But if, for any reason, you need to change a Google AdSense payee name, there are a few things to take into account.

First, the idea of giving an account to someone else is a no-no.  “AdSense accounts cannot be transferred or sold per our Program Policies,” according to Google.  “We will not be able to update your payee name if this is the case.”

Also, “We start processing payments on the 16th of each month.  If you’re scheduled to receive a payment this month and your account is updated after the 16th, your payment will be issued to your old name.”

Those are pretty much the only sticking points, though.  Otherwise, there’s just a relatively simple form to fill out and a couple of clicks to make.  Google appears to be keeping the process both safe and easy.

Trina Sonnenberg and Barry Schwartz, who were doing completely aboveboard things, get credit for first addressing the subject.

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More than once in my life, I’ve had to turn in an assignment or send an email at a very inconvenient time.  The sort of time that makes you take a day off or wake up in the middle of the night.  Anyone who’s been in the same position should be happy to hear that Blogger now allows future-dated posts.

Yes, just write your post, click on “post options” and a little fiddling in the “post date and time” field should allow you to schedule publishings weeks in advance.

Here’s how it’ll affect you: forget the whole inconvenient time or loss of sleep thing.  Then, readers of personal blogs won’t have to go without their regular intake of whatever, and readers of business blogs won’t have to wonder what horrible things are going on behind the scenes when a blogger’s really just taken a few days off.

Schedule product release announcements, birthday wishes, or anything else you please.  This should be a time-saver, as it’ll allow people to spend fewer days writing stuff (so long as they create more than one post after finally sitting down).

Of course, other blog platforms have offered this feature for a while, so Blogger doesn’t deserve too much praise for simply catching up.  Still, for people who have stuck by Blogger, the development should be fairly exciting.

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