WebProNews

Tag: SEO

  • Overstock.com Hit with Google Penalty

    Overstock.com Hit with Google Penalty

    There is an interesting trend of big brand sites getting busted for gaming Google, and gaining mainstream media attention lately. A couple weeks ago, JCPenney was busted for paid links, then Forbes attracted some similar attention.

    Now, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google has penalized overstock.com on somewhat similar, but different grounds. WSJ’s Amir Efrati reports:

    Overstock’s pages had recently ranked near the top of results for dozens of common searches, including "vacuum cleaners" and "laptop computers." But links to Overstock on Tuesday dropped to the fifth or sixth pages of Google results for many of those categories, greatly reducing the chances that a user would click on its links.

    The incident, according to Overstock, stemmed in part from its practice of encouraging websites of colleges and universities to post links to Overstock pages so that students and faculty could receive discounts on the shopping site. Overstock said it discontinued the program on Feb. 10, before hearing from Google, but said some university webmasters have been slow to remove the links.

    Overstock Search Results take a hit in Google

    Overstock’s CEO Patrick Byrne is quoted as saying, "Google has made clear they believe these links should not factor into their search algorithm. We understand Google’s position and have made the appropriate changes to remain within Google’s guidelines." Google, of course, would not comment on any specific site. 

    It’s quite interesting to see big brands taking a hit from the search giant. Google appears to have a renewed focus on search quality in recent weeks, probably due to the large amount of criticism the company has received lately. A recent algorithm change was implemented to further crack down on spam, and Google has said it is shifting its focus to content farms. 

    Google has since released a Chrome extension searchers can use to block certain sites from their own search experience, while sending signals to Google that could be used in its algorithm down the road.

  • Let’s Talk about Keyword Density

    Recently, I received an email question wanting to know about keyword density, asking questions like how do I deal with it, is it still a factor, and how important is it. As with most things in SEO, the answer is … it depends…

    Sherman, set the Wayback Machine to the Interwebz circa 2001 …

    Page rank was the big magilla in the ranking algorithm. It didn’t matter how crappy your website was–with enough links from anywhere, you could get a page to rank. Trust and authority where unknown concepts in SEO. If you had a moderate to low competition KWD, you could rank without the word being on the page. If your KWD was moderate or harder you did need some on page SEO, and keyword density WAS a factor. At the peak of this zaniness I remember reading posts about the optimal keyword density being between 4.9% and 12.2%. The word had to be in the first sentence, had to be in italics once on the page, in bold once on the page, and in bold and italics once on the page. While not entirely true, there was a kernel of truth to be had somewhere in there.

    Then in the fall of 2003 the shoe dropped. Google pushed out the Florida Update on a Saturday morning, and all hell broke loose. Trust and authority became leading indicators, and all those crazy keyword density formulas became the stuff talked about on the porch at the SEO old folks home. In short, the right anchor text from a trusted source could make a page rank even if the word wasn’t on the page. Copywriters who loved superfluous wordy adjectives reveled around the bonfire with high value link sellers. Of course things changed over the next few years, but people cling to old ideas, especially if they love them or if they make their lives easier or more enjoyable.

    Back to the question: does keyword density matter … kinda. If you want to rank for the phrase [fuzzy blue widgets], you had better have the phrase [fuzzy blue widgets] on your page. In fact, it should probably be the keyword on your page with the highest density (excluding stop words).That said, you shouldn’t stuff the words [fuzzy blue widgets] on your page to the point where it becomes awkward to read. While I hesitate to give a number, if you have a keyword density that approaches or goes over 10% you should probably give it to a non SEO to make sure it reads like natural language. That’s not to say you should never do it but, if you do, have a damn good reason and make sure it passes the sniff test.

    How do I check keyword density? I use the Scribe SEO plugin (see Scribe SEO Review). Scribe SEO is paid tool that does a few things, and one of them is checking keyword density right from the WordPress post panel. It’s incredibly easy to use. Before I publish a post, I run Scribe and check that the word/terms that I want to optimize for are the ones that have the highest density. I’ve been using it for several months now and am very happy with it. Here’s a screen shot of what it thinks of this post:

    Keyword density via scribe seo

    No discussion of keyword density would be complete without touching on LSI (latent semantic indexing). You can read about LSI in lots of places on the web but, simply put, it’s Google ability to understand synonyms–i.e., that [cars] and [automobiles] are the same thing. While Google says they aren’t using LSI and I agree, I do have to say that something similar to LSI is definitely at work. My proof? Do a keyword search for [mike gray]. The word [mike] never appears on my website, but Google ranks me for the term and highlights the word [michael], so they have some some idea the words are connected. However, in actual practice, I don’t see this all that often in the wild.

    LSI or something else … [mike gray

    So what are the takeaways from this post:

    • While keyword density isn’t a primary factor, it isn’t something to be ignored
    • Make sure you are emphasizing the keywords you want with a KWD density tool
    • Scribe SEO provides keyword density inside the WordPress post screen
    • If you have a high density, make sure you are doing it while still sounding natural
    • Don’t depend on Google to use LSI or understand synonyms, even though they may be trying to

    Originally published on Graywolf’s SEO Blog

  • Google Lets Evil People Block Your Domain

    Google Lets Evil People Block Your Domain

    Yeah, I thought that title would grab you.  Google announced a new extension to its Chrome browser, an extension that could truly rock the SEO World.  The extension does two things:

    1. It enables searchers to block domains from search results.
    2. It tells Google what domains have just been blocked.

    Says Google anti-spam spokesman Matt Cutts, " If installed, the extension also sends blocked site information to Google, and we will study the resulting feedback and explore using it as a potential ranking signal for our search results."

    This blog post will tell you exactly how to preserve and enhance your search engine rankings in a world where users can send explicit feedback (this Chrome extension is neither the first tool for explicit feedback, nor will it be the last; but it might just be the most powerful, so far).

    I should make it clear that I was always a big believer is both explicit and implicit user feedback.  The search engines would be fools not to pay attention to which sites please their visitors when serving up sites to new searchers.

    It was just over two years ago that I released Sticky SEO, essentially detailing how you can keep more visitors longer on your website, going deeper into the site.  For the most part, this means pleasing more visitors even more than you already do, since that is what Google looks for.

    So what do you do with this Chrome extension?  Well, you want to please your visitors so that they don’t swear, curse and block your domain.

    PROBLEM # 1: FREE LOADERS

    Searching for free tattoos? Probably not.

    Searching for free tattoos?
    Probably not.

    There are a lot of people searching for free stuff on the Internet.  You don’t give your stuff away free, but the "free loaders" show up at your website.  "What?  They want a million bucks to dig a hole to China?  I want someone to do it for free.  Bloody rip-off scammers.  Block, block, block."

    There are probably not too many people searching for "dig a hole to China" and expecting free service.  Nor are there many people expecting to get new shoes for free.  Nor gourmet coffee or gift baskets.  Nor metal buildings or intercontinental pipeline installation.  Not even free tattoos or body piercing. But there many niches that include freebie searchers,  for example…

    • website templates
    • resume help
    • music downloads
    • ringtones
    • online games
    • learn Spanish

    How do you make sure that people searching for freebies don’t block your website when they discover that you are one of those evil profit-seeking cannibals who wants to feed your family?  You give them what they want, of course.  You add something free to your site.  You give them a free option, or you link to a free option.  Somehow, you make sure you please them.  Remember what your mother said?  "You can never go wrong being nice to someone."  Well, she should have said that.

    PROBLEM # 2: GENERALISTS

    Let’s say you sell a very specific item or service that is part of a bigger niche, but people don’t search all that specifically.  In Sticky SEO, on page 14 (until I eventually get around to updating it), I tell the tale of a client who wanted to revamp its website back in 2006.  They sold commercial fitness equipment, but their clients would search just for "fitness equipment".  The problem was that ten times as many people looking for home gyms also searched for "fitness equipment".

    Life would be easy if people searched for "home fitness equipment"  or "commercial fitness equipment", but life wasn’t meant to be easy.  What would they do about all this traffic from generalist searchers?

    Please them, of course.  Remember what your mother said?  "You can never go wrong being nice to someone."  Like I said, she should have said that…especially if she knew Google was going to give all those people an easy way to block your domain and tell Google your site sucks.

    How to please those generalists?  No point in reprinting page 14 here.  You can read it for yourself.  (Hey, it’s a free download.  Did you think this was a sneaky sales pitch or something?)

    Your evil competition wants to eat you.

    Evil competitors want Google to eat you.

    PROBLEM # 3: EVILDOERS

    Yes, the world is an evil place if you look at it right.  Google’s motto is "Do no evil" (or something like that.  But they never said anything about not arming your competition to do evil, did they?  How much do you want to bet that across the Internet’s freelancer markets there will be an SEO arms trade: "100 domain blocks for $15 – from separate IPs in over 20 countries"?  Maybe for $25, who knows?

    So how do you deal with that?  No inbound link is supposed to hurt your rankings, so that your competition can’t spam you out of the search results.  But what if a coordinated group of offshore outsourcing in China and India and Greenland gang up on you?

    Sorry, I don’t have an answer for you on this one.  But I am sure Matt Cutts will be asked about it sooner or later, and maybe he will have an answer.  Hopefully.

    Originally published at SEO-Writer.com

  • How Google Uses Twitter, SafeSearch – Matt Cutts Changes Advice

    Matt Cutts posted a new Webmaster Help video in which he answers his own question rather than a user-submitted one (like usual). Specifically, he asks if there’s any advice that he’d like to change from what he’s said in the past. 

    "I did a video back in May of 2010, that said we don’t use, for example, Twitter at all in our rankings other than as a normal web page, and the links are treated completely like normal web pages," he says.

    He then references a recent Danny Sullivan article which breaks down how both Google and Bing use Twitter. He notes that Google worked with him to ensure its accuracy. "It says that in some cases we do look at, for example, how reputable a particular person on Twitter might be, and we can use that in our rankings in some ways."

    And another thing that Cutts wanted to update…

    "SafeSearch, when I wrote the very first version, years and years and years ago – whenever you’re not able to crawl something – so for example, if it’s blocked by robots.txt, since people have deliberately said, ‘I would like a safe version – a family-safe version of Google, we would say, ‘oh, if we haven’t been able to crawl it, then we don’t know whether it’s porn or not, so we’re not going to be able to return it to users," says Cutts.

    "So, the Library of Congress or WhiteHouse.gov or Metallica at one point…Nissan, had blocked various pages from being crawled in the search engines, and so to be safe, we said, ‘you know what? We don’t know whether that’s family-safe or not, so we won’t return it’,"  he adds.

    "Luckily, the SafeSearch team has gotten much more sophisticated, and better, and more robust since I wrote the original version, so now that’s something that we might change. If something is forbidden from being crawled, but for whatever reason we think that it might be safe, now we’ll start to return it in our search results."

    It’s always good to set the record straight.

  • JCPenney Gets Caught Gaming Google

    JCPenney Gets Caught Gaming Google

    The New York Times did a little undercover work in the world of search and discovered that JCPenney was benefiting enormously from paid links. They ranked number one or close to it for some very prominent search queries including “skinny jeans,” “home decor,” “comforter sets,” “furniture", “tablecloths” and many other highly searched for terms.

    (Note: Tweets regarding this from Google’s Matt Cutts can be viewed below.)

    The JCPenney links take consumers directly to the appropriate sections of their site. This lasted for month including the Christmas holidays according to the article.

    A spokeswoman for JCPenney, Darcie Brossart, told the New York Times, “JCPenney did not authorize, and we were not involved with or aware of, the posting of the links that you sent to us, as it is against our natural search policies,” She added, “We are working to have the links taken down.” Apparently the actual blackhat SEO work was done by the company’s SEO consultant firm SearchDex which it has since terminated. 

    The New York Times secretly contacted Google with their information about JCPenney and also arranged an interview with none other than Google’s Matt Cutts who is famous in the search world and well known to the readers of WebProNews. Cutts told them, “I can confirm that this violates our guidelines". He added, "Am I happy this happened? Absolutely not. Is Google going to take strong corrective action? We absolutely will.”

    WebProNewsOnce caught by Google, JCPenney moved from an average search position of 1.3 to a rather low 52. What are your thoughts?30 minutes ago 5 likes Comment

    According to the article JCPenney dropped from an average search result position of 1.3 on Feb. 1 to an average postion of 52 on Feb. 10. Unlike what happened to BMW.de a while back, Google did not remove them from their search index but with an average search result position of 52 they might as well have. 

    Update: Since this article was published, Matt Cutts posted some tweets as seen below:

    @arrington left a comment: I really wish that our algorithms or other processes had caught this much faster–I’m definitely not celebrating.less than a minute ago via webMatt Cutts
    mattcutts

    @arrington the newer/most recent spate of links happened in the last 3-4 months; not over a year. JCP still ranking on [dresses] on eg Bing.less than a minute ago via webMatt Cutts
    mattcutts

    Vanessa Fox covers the tech aspect of SEO story in NYT: http://goo.gl/x4XHd A must-read for companies thinking about SEO.less than a minute ago via webMatt Cutts
    mattcutts

    David Segal of the NYT discusses some blackhat SEO: http://goo.gl/RdnTi Google’s algorithms had started to work; manual action also taken.less than a minute ago via webMatt Cutts
    mattcutts

     

  • 9 Questions To Ask After A Site Links To You

    Inbound links increase the value of your website in the eyes of Google and the other search engines. And, they help more people find your website and all you have to offer. Each inbound link is like your website just got another vote of confidence.

    So, once the link has been set up, your job is done. Or is it?

    Getting links to point to your site is one of the most challenging parts of search engine optimization, but link building doesn’t end once a link has been set up.

    In fact, getting that link should only be the first step in a long-term link building strategy.

    Do you follow up on links? Let us know.

    Let’s talk about this for a minute. Someone received your link request, and went to the trouble of responding. Or, they heard about you, researched you, and maybe even purchased something from you, and then decided to link to you . However it started, he thought it was a good idea to create a link to your site and took the time to make it happen. 

    Do you just congratulate yourself and move on? 

    No! The person who helped you deserves a little bit more of your time and attention.

    Not only should you send them a thank you for the link, you should treat this like the opportunity it really is. By establishing a relationship with them, you could not only boost your search engine rankings, you could be opening the door to rich collaboration and business opportunities.

    Consider these nine important questions for sites that already link to you.

    1. How popular is their site?

    The more popular the site, the more beneficial it can be for you. Start by checking out the number of inbound links the site is getting, they are a good measure of the popularity of the site. Then you can sort in order of priority and start with the most popular.

    2. Which of the sites that link to you are bringing you real traffic?

    Review your log files or investigate Google Analytics to find out which of your links are actually bringing you traffic. When sites bring you traffic, it can be for a combination of reasons, for example:

    – You share the same target market and their visitors are interested in what you provide

    – They’ve talked warmly about your products and given you a good review

    – They’ve placed your link in a prominent spot on their site 

    – They get high traffic themselves

    For whatever reason, getting traffic is only part of what you need. The next part is … 

    3. Does the traffic from the sites convert to sales?

    As important as it is to get traffic to your site, if none of the visitors DO anything when they arrive, you aren’t really too far ahead. The critical question is ‘does the traffic they bring convert for my benefit?’ Set up Google Analytics to help you find out the answer. And, if you find out that they link to you, they bring you traffic and the traffic they bring converts, then stop reading this article IMMEDIATELY and get in touch with them.

    Start by thanking them, and then initiate a dialogue to explore what else you can do together.

    4. Have you done them a favor in return?

    No? Do so, right away.

    Yes? Do so again.

    It’s very easy to do a favor for someone and being helpful and willing is a great way to build relationships – and relationships are at the heart of successful link building. It might be as simple as sending them an email thank you and asking them to keep in touch.

    5. Do you know how the link got to be there and can you put a name to the person behind the site?

    It’s really important to remember that it’s people who make links, not websites. Visualize a network of people linking to you, not just a network of websites linking to you.

    Do a bit of research to find out who they are and what they do. What do you have in common? Why did they link to you in the first place? Is there more business you could be doing together? And, as we talked about in question four, what favor could you be doing for them?

    6. What social media sites are they active on and have you linked up with them?

    With the escalating popularity of social networking, contact through social media is critical today. Because these people have linked to your website, they’re relevant to you – and they bring with them a network of friends and followers who are also likely to be interested in what you have to offer.

    Follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin or whatever, and respond to their posts, re-tweets or comments. Do that and just watch your network – and your inbound links – grow.

    7. Can you say at least one thing that is great about their site?

    Make sure you do.

    Write a complimentary blog post, add a kudos when you re-tweet, make a positive comment, agree with them, elaborate on their ideas. You’ll be getting yourself an even bigger fan.

    We all love a bit of flattery and it can be a powerful tool when you are building relationships. Dale Carnegie put it very well when he said, “Flattery is telling the other person precisely what he thinks about himself”.

    8. What linking text do they use when they link to you?

    The linking text that people use when creating the inbound link to you is very important for your search engine rankings. Therefore, you need to know if they are using a really basic ‘click here’ or if they incorporate more keyword-rich text in the link. If necessary, it is worth the time to make a quick approach to them and suggest they use one of your important keywords or phrases in the linking text. It will strengthen the value of the inbound link for you.

    9. Are there any ways you can collaborate, either in content or in business?

    If there’s really a good business fit between you and a site that links to you, then they’re likely to respond positively to any business proposition you may make. Time to start brainstorming. Is there more you could be doing to help each other or generate more business?

    In summary, don’t view getting an inbound link as the end of the story. If you see links as simply a way to boost your search engine rankings, then you’ll miss out on some tremendous opportunities. 

    Instead, remember that link building is really about building relationships with people and generating opportunity. It is about being part of community, providing useful content to your readers and the people who link to you. Who knows where it could all lead you?

    What is the most important element of link-building to you? Comment here.

  • Twitter Profile “PageRank” and the Search Engines

    I’ve been writing about how Social Media links are impacting Search Engine results lately.  It’s really an area we have consciously tried to stay ahead on because we think that Social Media link sharing is going to have an even greater impact on search in the future.

    See:  "Twitter and Facebook Links Worthless for SEO? I Wouldn’t Be Too Sure About That" and "The Role of Social Influence on SEO Ranking Signals".

    The gist of both posts being that Social Media shared links matter, but the Influence of the link author and the influence of the people that share the link have a great bearing on the actual ranking signals that could get a page a little extra "juice" in the search engine rankings.  The second post about Social Influence gets into the details of how that might work.

    But this post is about where the search engines are finding those those shared links, specifically the links shared on Twitter.  Some people think that since search engines are somehow counting Twitter links that their actual Twitter profile page is the place where that magic synergy takes place.

    With that kind of "logic", the PageRank of the actual Twitter profile page would also be a major contributing factor in determining the value of those links.  Under that same "logic" one might think that influence factors like the number of Twitter followers, number of times listed on Twitter and the number of times Re-Tweeted could influence a Profile Page’s PageRank or that simply building up the PageRank of your profile page could increase the power of your shared links as ranking signals.  All of these assumptions are NOT TRUE.

    The reality is:

    • Links on a Twitter Profile Page are still no-follow links and do not pass on PageRank
    • There is no correlation between Twitter metrics like, Follower Counts, List Counts, Re-tweets and PageRank
    • PageRank of a Twitter Profile page is really only a determining factor in getting that Twitter Profile found in search results for searches on profile names like @Jstatad.
    • Shortened links on Twitter profiles are just anchor text links of nonsense code – try looking for even a portion on a shortened URL in search – because the no-follow attribute is keeping them from being indexed
    • The real time nature of the links shared on Twitter is important – search engines don’t have time to go indexing a profile page for links – they need that shared link data as soon as it is shared and the indexing schedule of a Twitter profile page is likely infrequent at best
    • The links are actually being indexed in the "Data Fire Hose" that Google is reportedly paying Twitter $15 Million for and MSN is reportedly paying Twitter $10 million dollars for

    Why I’m Right

    Well Danny Sullivan said for in the first story confirming that Search Engines were counting these links:

    So, while Bing and Google do have a human signal they can assess from Twitter, supposedly they have no link signal that they can also count. But as it turns out, both of them get what’s called the "firehose" of data from Twitter. This is a constant stream of what people are tweeting.

    In that firehose, links do not carry nofollow attributes — so there is some link credit that counts, in some cases.

    Google’s Matt Cutts also specifically said that Page Rank on Twitter pages doesn’t matter (albeit this was said well before the Search Engines admitted they were using Tweets as a ranking signal) because those links tend to be No-Followed:

    There are big disparities between Twitter metrics and PageRank – because they are mutually exclusive of each other

    Stephen Colbert had the most Retweeted Tweet of 2010, has well over 2,000,000 Twitter followers, is on over 33,000 Twitter lists and has a PageRank of 0 on his profile page.  Lady Gaga is the most followed person on Twitter and has a Page Rank on her profile page of 7, while USAgov has 7.9 Million fewer followers than Gaga and a Page Rank of 9 on it’s profile page.

    Real Anchor Text is Coming Out of the Fire Hose

    As we reported in November, Google expands shortened URLs in the Fire Hose for Real Time Search and uses the Title Tag of the Page shared as the anchor text.  This gives the search engine some hopefully keyword rich anchor text to possibly use as a ranking factor as opposed to the gobbledy-gook of a shortened URL.

    These are the same Tweet.  Google Real Time Expands the Short URL to the Title Tag as illustrated below.

    URL Expansion in Real Time1 Twitters Influence and Authority Comes Out The End of a Hose

    Shortened URL on Twitter Twitters Influence and Authority Comes Out The End of a Hose

    Twitter Profile Page Rank is Fun – But it Doesn’t Mean Anything

    I actually had some fun comparing and contrasting celebrity Twitter Page Ranks, but all it really proved is that Twitter metrics aren’t really correlated to it and as usual the best correlation to PageRank is the link counts found on Google’s Link operator queries like Link:www.twitter.com/jstatad.

    Originally published at Search-Mojo.com

  • Does Your Keyword Strategy Take Mobile Into Account?

    Does Your Keyword Strategy Take Mobile Into Account?

    Google mobile search and Google search are two different animals and understanding more about both has become a necessary evil. Currently, the results returned when doing a search on a mobile device can vary greatly from those done on a desktop (SEORoundtable)

    The biggest difference being that Google figures if you’re on a mobile it’s likely your intent is more local focused – plus it’s easier to know exactly where the search is being conducted.

    The other issue is that people turning to the mobile browser tend to search on that device a little differently, think more abbreviated, than they do on the desktop and that’s something we all need to understand a little better.

    The Google Keyword Tool is a tool that every marketer must have in the toolbox as a quick way to understand some data on the kinds of things people are actually searching for – or at least the actual words and phrases they use most when looking for what you offer.

    Google Keyeword Tool

    You access mobile data through the "Advanced options" link

    The tool recently received a nice little update with the addition of mobile search data. Using this tool is the first step to understanding the keyword differences inherent in mobile search. The reason I think this is such an important topic is that at some point mobile search will be the dominant form of search – it’s already there for some industries. (BIA Kelsey Report)

    It’s time to start thinking about blending some of your keyword strategies to make them more mobile centric – and of course getting serious about local optimization. (5 Ways to Make Your Website Scream Local)

    Some observation’s from playing with the tool:

    • If you sell something that is mobile related or found primarily via a phone you’ll get far better keyword ideas
    • You can now have a much fuller picture of the search volume for phrases – mobile is doubling and tripling volume estimates
    • This is a pretty significant piece in the local search optimization game

    Here’s Google’s official help page for using the Keyword Tool.

    Originally published at DuctTapeMarketing.com

     

  • 5 Tips for Making Your Site More Local-Friendly

    Search engines have become one of the primary ways that people find products and services right in their hometown. This growing reality significantly increases the need for small local business owners to master this thing called local search.

    There are many ways to make your website pages much more localized. This is one of the underlying elements that tell the search engines that yours is indeed a local business.

    There are a number of things that website owners can do offsite, such as social media participation, that help them come up when people look for local goods and services, but the first step is to make sure that the content on your own site is local focused.

    Below are five ways to make your website more local friendly.

    Geo content

    Simply adding geographic content to your web pages is one of the fist steps. This can include your physical address, directions with street and town names, maps, suburb names and names of communities or neighborhoods where you do work..

    It’s also a great idea to do keyword research with local terms to find the best phrases to localized phrases to add to your pages. Google Keyword Tool or Wordtracker.

    Geo meta tags are also something worth investigating. Google continues to ignore them. Bing has admitted they do use them to help determine business location. These tags go in the head section of a page and list the latitude and longitude of a business as well as city, state and country.

    The tags for my business are:

    meta name=”geo.region” content=”US-MO” /
    meta name=”geo.placename” content=”Kansas City” /
    meta name=”geo.position” content=”39.040409;-94.598657″ /
    meta name=”ICBM” content=”39.040409, -94.598657″ /

    Here’s a great Geo Meta Tag tool that will create these for your business address.

    Internal Links and External Anchor Text

    One of the ways that you can enhance the local nature of your onsite and offsite content is to add local keywords in the internal links on your pages (Links that send people to another pages on within you site). So a remodeling contractor that is showcasing kitchen and bath projects located in San Diego would have links to the project pages that would read San Diego Kitchens and San Diego Baths rather than simply Baths or Kitchens.

    You also want to add local keywords to the text used to link back to your site from places like LinkedIn or in article directories. So if you’re an attorney in Texas rather than using your URL or firm name in a link you might use Dallas Texas Bankruptcy Attorney as the words or anchor text for a link to your site.

    Rich Snippets

    Google is busy creating some of its own HTML coding to help it find and display local content and by using what are known as rich snippets you can help Google find geographic information, information about people in your business and reviews of products and services.

    Beyond improving the presentation of your pages in search results, rich snippets also help users find your website when it references a local place. By using structured markup to describe a business or organization mentioned on your page, you not only improve the Web by making it easier to recognize references to specific places but also help Google surface your site in local search results.

    Here’s a good tutorial for Rich Snippets and Google’s explanation of Rich Snippets for Local Search.

    Community Resource

    It’s become an extremely good idea to add a blog or even use blog software to run you entire site. This format gives more flexibility when it comes to adding pages and content.

    Many businesses can create tremendous local content by adding features such as an events calendar or coverage of local happenings around town. It’s not too hard to find an angle that is relevant to your business, interests or industry and then use it as a vehicle for producing local content.

    If you partner with local non-profits you might consider giving them coverage on your site.

    Local Contributors

    One great marketing strategy is to develop a team of local strategic partners – other businesses that serve your same market. These partners should be looked at as a great source of potential potent local content.

    Invite each member of your team to contribute content to your blog.  Create video interviews with team members and add directory pages with full local descriptions and ask that they link to these pages with local anchor text.

    Find relevant local bloggers using a tool like placeblogger to exchange links and content with.

    Don’t forget to get your customers in the act too. Create video success stories and describe the local nature of these customers.

    Take a little time over each week to knock out one of these tips and in a little over month your local site overhaul will be paying dividends.

    * Originally published at Duct Tape Marketing.

  • Google Says Bing is Stealing Their Results

    We all know that Bing is now powering Yahoo’s search results, but a very interesting finding from Danny Sullivan indicates that Google may be powering Bing’s search results, at least to some extent. No, this is not in any partnership kind of way like Bing’s relationship with Yahoo. 

    Google has apparently busted Bing copying their search results. Entirely? No, but Google ran a "sting operation" as Sullivan calls it, that seems to show Bing stealing at least top results from Google, by monitoring how Internet Explorer and Bing toolbar users use Google.

    Google created some test search results pages returning results for queries that nobody would ever search for, and results that wouldn’t make sense for such queries. For example, a query for "hiybbprqag" would return a top result from TeamOneTickets. A query for "mbzrxpgjys" would return RIM’s homepage. A query for " indoswiftjobinproduction" would return a result for Sandra Lee Recipes at FoodNetwork.com. 

    "The only reason these pages appeared on Google was because Google forced them to be there," explains Sullivan. "There was nothing that made them naturally relevant for these searches. If they started to appear at Bing after Google, that would mean that Bing took Google’s bait and copied its results."

    And that appears to be what happened, as Sullivan points to Bing’s results mirroring each of these examples. It’s worth noting that Google found that only a handful of the pages tested proved the point but the ones that did seem to prove a pretty big one. 

    The whole thing is pretty interesting, considering the amount of criticism Google’s own search results have received in recent months – some regarding content farms, and some not. Bing does still rank eHow as the top authority for a "level 4 brain cancer" query (like Google).

    Bing Brain Cancer result

    What’s even more interesting, is that Bing hasn’t come out and denied any of this, and depending on how you interpret their response, it could even be seen as a near confirmation. Here’s what Bing Director Stefan Weitz told WebPronews (essentially the same thing he told Sullivan):

    "We use multiple signals and approaches in ranking search results.  The overarching goal is to do a better job determining the intent of the search so we can provide the most relevant answer to a given query.  Opt-in programs like the toolbar help us with clickstream data, one of many input signals we and other search engines use to help rank sites." 

    So yeah, I guess what people are clicking on in Google results is a pretty good indication of how people interact with search, given that Google holds such a dominant share of the search market. However, as a competitor, this wouldn’t seem to be the most helpful strategy for providing better results.  

    To be fair, we don’t know all of Google’s own ranking signals (because they won’t reveal them), so who’s to say Google isn’t looking at search activity in Bing? Well, Google says they’re not, flat out, if Google’s word is good enough for you.

    Bing isn’t copying Google’s search results entirely…just the ones they think users want the most for such queries, which is apparently the results Google is providing.  Sullivan offers a great deal more analysis of the situation, and looks at more in depth into how Microsoft may be obtaining the Google ranking signals.

    Sidenote: Internet Explorer owns 56% of the web browser market, according to a new report from Net Applications.

     

    It was clear from the beginning of Bing’s existence that it was a direct competitor to Google, but as much of the conversation has turned to Facebook and Apple has Google’s arch rivals, Google has continued to maintain that Bing is indeed its main competitor. Bing getting the Yahoo deal that was almost Google’s no doubt left a bitter taste in Google’s mouth, and Bing recently joined the FairSearch coaltion to try and block the company’s proposed acquisition of ITA software. 

    At the time, Adam Kovacevich, Google Sr. Manager, Global Communications and Public Affairs told WebProNews, "I’m not sure there are any surprises here. Microsoft is our largest competitor and lobbies regulators against every acquisition we make."

    Bing may be copying Google search results, but Google has certainly done its share of Bing copying (see design changes that have occurred since Bing’s launch, including the addition of the left panel, homepage photos, and image search scrolling features). 

  • Social Validation Critical to SEO

    You probably have heard me preach it before: if at all possible, for search engine optimization purposes, your web site should include a blog or other section of your web site that includes articles. To rank well in the search engines, your web site needs new, fresh, topical content added on a regular basis. But to fully take advantage of the search engines and social media, you need to socialize your website’s content. Here is why any good search engine optimization effort must include a social validation program in order to be successful.

    Back about two years, I wrote a blog post about social media and search and how “success in social media means that you’ll get noticed in the organic search results. The search engines love fresh, unique content–and they love to find new URLs and links. If your site gets a link on a social media site, it will get noticed and crawled.”

    For over two years now (actually a lot longer than that), I continue to combine search engine optimization efforts (both on-page SEO factors as well as off-page factors like a linking campaign) with a very specific targeted social media marketing or what I now call “social validation”.

    In order for an article on your web site or even a blog post on your blog to rank well in the search engines, the search engines (Bing and Google) are looking for social validation. They see your new URL and index it, but will rank it higher in the search results if they can find some reason to: and one of those reasons includes social validation.

    What is Social Validation?
    When you create a new article, blog post, or a new page on your web site (a new URL), the search engine will crawl that URL. They might even see some links form other web sites to that new URL. But if the search engines see real people mentioning the URL and interacting with it, they consider that the URL is validated, socially. The URL is “accepted”. And it’s that human interaction that the search engines are looking for. If the search engines can figure out some form of social validation of a URL, then most likely it is going to be a page that they will want to show in their search results. Social validation is that human SEO factor that the search engines have been looking to include in their algorithm for a very long time.

    Social Validation is now a search engine optimization factor. Just like all of the other Search Engine Optimization Ranking Factors out there, anchor text, keyword use in the title tag, diversity of link sources, and trustworthiness of the domain, I am now adding a new search engine optimization factor to my list, social validation.

    Social validation is really a dream come true for the search engines. Rather than hire hundreds or even thousands of employees or contractors to review web sites, social validation is a factor that the search engines can rely on in order to do that job. Sure, it’s not as good as hiring real people to review web sites. But it might be even better: the users who use search engines are the same people who frequently participate on social media and social networking web sites. So, it’s only logical that if a URL is liked on a social networking or social media web site, it’s also going to be liked if it shows up in the search results.

    If you would like to take a look at social validation more in depth, take a look at this December 2010 article at Search Engine Land. Below some of the questions that Danny Sullivan got answered, along with responses. (For the full list of questions and answers, see the article I just referenced):

    1) If an article is retweeted or referenced much in Twitter, do you count that as a signal outside of finding any non-nofollowed links that may naturally result from it?

    Bing:

    We do look at the social authority of a user. We look at how many people you follow, how many follow you, and this can add a little weight to a listing in regular search results. It carries much more weight in Bing Social Search, where tweets from more authoritative people will flow to the top when best match relevancy is used.

    Google:

    Yes, we do use it as a signal. It is used as a signal in our organic and news rankings. We also use it to enhance our news universal by marking how many people shared an article [NOTE: see the end of this article for more about that].

    I believe now, more than ever, is a time that you need to start implementing social validation as a part of your overall search engine optimization strategy. Perhaps in a future post I will tell you about some of the actual techniques you can use in order to implement true social validation campaign. So for now, I am including a social validation campaign as a critical part of an overall search engine optimization strategy, just like a link building campaign.

    Originally published on BillHartzer.com

  • Should ‘Write To Rank’ Articles Be Punished by Google?

    Google has stated many times that content should be written for the reader of the content and not to rank in search engines. I assume this would go for YouTube videos as well. It is an excellent approach for search engines to take in my opinion because theoretically if every content producer follows this standard, search results would be filled with high quality relevant links.

    Unfortunately, every blogger or content publisher doesn’t follow this ‘write for the user’ approach. Many spammy content mills working with black hat SEO companies have been creating this content for years. It often includes paid links to sites and is created to raise the search ranking of the SEO’s customers site in Google and other search engines. Google is aware of this and has been rather effective in keeping these articles out of top search results.

    However, Google’s principal of rewarding publishers with top search results who create content for users rather than a high search result is now suspect. Google is clearly rewarding content that is produced by SEO’d content powerhouse Demand Media with top results in its search engine. They are major Adsense partners of Google as well which I delineated in my recent article, "Google: Are You Really Serious About Web Spam?".

    Has Google’s search result philosophy changed? Is Google now encouraging all of us content makers to write for search results rather than the reader? If so, has Google jumped the shark as the greatest search engine by not favoring the best content over SEO’d content?

    Demand Media which just had a highly successful IPO valuing the company at over $1.5 billion is openly running an SEO’d content mill.  They are producing content for the sole purpose of ranking for thousands of keywords in Google. They have article topic request for submitters that are based on titles that are designed specifically to rank for certain keywords in Google. They have search engine specialist employed to direct programmers to write sophisticated algorithms that give them data on what subjects to write about and how to structure articles to appear in top results for a search term.

    Demand Media’s entire business model is built around creating content that will rank high in millions of long-tail search results which contain Google ads that will be clicked on over a number of years. Google is obviously aware of Demand’s SEO’d content and their Adwords revenue strategy which makes Google’s perceived stance of encouraging bloggers and publishers to write ‘content for users, not their search engine’ a joke.

    The problem with content produced for search results is that it competes with content produced for users. It comes down to what makes the best search results, articles written with passion and experience and for the reader or articles written to rank high for a search term by someone paid ten bucks? 

    Google, it’s time to revisit whether you want to remain the best in search or just the best in getting ad clicks.

    And Google, in order to remain the best … you must punish with lower search results ‘write to rank’ articles!

    More on the topic here: Demand Media CEO: Google Not Talking About Us

  • YouTube

    While YouTube has featured the iFrame embed capability for about six months now, they’ve quietly promoted this method to be the primary embed format, all in an effort to further the transition to HTML 5 protocols.

    Until recently, the standard embed format used the object tag, like so:

    <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wsZ8h9_X-A4?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wsZ8h9_X-A4?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

    But now, when a user depresses the embed button, they are greeted with this:

    <iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UcnEIgmq8iw" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe>

    As indicated, the ability to use iFrame embeds has been around since July of 2010, but the change in default embed format reveals YouTube’s preference for an HTML 5 world.  Users can still use the orginal <object>-based embeds by selecting the “Use old embed code” selection if desired.

    In terms of compatibility, at least one WordPress blogger — the author of this post — indicates their blog’s backend stripped the iFrame tag out, making the new style unusable.  Granted, the iFrame removal could be because of any number of WordPress plugins — the SEO plugin is one suspect — nevertheless, there are some compatibility issues with YouTube’s new format.

    Considering iFrames aren’t necessarily SEO-friendly to begin with, something the ReelSEO blog discusses here, perhaps the WordPress bloggers of the world should continue using the old embed style, or perhaps disable their SEO plugins.

    More from ReelSEO:

    iFrames are, generally speaking, not a good thing for SEO. They are, by definition, displaying content on a page that belongs to an entirely different webpage.  So your site won’t typically get any of the ranking benefits you might expect if the content was directly on your page… If you embed videos frequently, and care about ranking for terms related to those videos, I’d say it’s probably time for a major round of rank testing.

    And with that, YouTube is firmly in the HTML 5 corner, although, they are kind enough to throw a bone to those who prefer the old embed format. 

    I’m looking at you, WordPress bloggers.

  • If You’re Not Local, How Can You Compete in an Increasingly Local Google?

    Update: Looks like there is likely to be a lot more local action coming Google’s way soon. 

    Original Article: There’s no question that Google has been putting a lot of focus on local results lately – from the release of products like Google Places and Hotpot (the company’s personalized and social recommendation engine) to an increasing amount of queries simply retrieving local results – often above other organic listings. 

    We had an extensive conversation about this with industry veteran Bruce Clay at PubCon a couple months ago, and webmasters and SEOs have been stressing about it all over the web. In fact, just today, one consulting firm ran a press release talking about the competitive advantages local business owners have as a result of recent changes with Google. 

    Do local businesses have the upper hand in Google? Tell us what you think. 

    Consultant (and founder of the firm, LocalMarketingProfitFaucet says there’s a new type of Google Gold Rush. He’s referring to getting the prime listings from Google Places, which Google will often place at the top of the SERPs. 

    "This change is having an immediate and positive impact on the local businesses shown in these Page 1 listings," says Adams. "The Internet-savvy business owners who understand how to take advantage of this are generating new customers for next-to-nothing. Meanwhile, a surprising number are still oblivious to the significance of this change. In fact, Google has revealed that only a tiny percentage of local businesses have even claimed their Google Places listing, let alone optimize it."

    "From our experience," Adams continues, "Google has always given preferential treatment to unique, multimedia content that is kept fresh and up to date. And of course, stay away from any black hat tactics that try to game the system. Google always catches up to these shenanigans. When they do, your listing could be banned with no warning and no second chances."

    If local businesses have the competitive advantage now, then some non-local businesses are wondering how they’re supposed to compete with that. After all, the far reach of the web has historically been an attractive reason to start a business in the first place. 

    In a new video uploaded to Google’s Webmaster YouTube channel, Matt Cutts (head of the company’s webspam team) addressed a user-submitted question: "In a search environment where local is becoming increasingly important (and more full on the SERP), how can an out of town company compete with the local based (and locally housed) competition without lying to show up in these results?"

    Cutts responded by saying, "The entire page of web rankings is there that out of town people can compete on, so the idea of the local universal results is to show local businesses, so in some sense, there’s not really a way where if you’re out of town, you can sort of show up (within our guidelines), and show up as a local business."

    "Now, if you are a mobile business – so for example, maybe you’re a plumber, and you get into your pickup truck, and you drive around in a particular area – so if you’re a mobile business, then in Google Places you can specify a service area, which is roughly 50 miles around where you’re based, but that’s only if you actually have some base of operations there," he continues. "You can’t be based in Topeka and claim that you have a service area in Wyoming if you have no physical presence there."

    "I think that that’s a good idea. You do want to have local businesses show up, and I know that the team has really been paying a lot of attention to try and improve Maps quality, make it more robust, check on the authenticity of businesses, and that will only continue," adds Cutts.  

    In other words, if you’re not a local business, there’s nothing much you can do about getting the kind of visibility the local businesses are getting, should Google deem the user’s query worthy of the local results. I might suggest finding queries related to your business that aren’t returning local results and giving these some more attention, and of course there’s always AdWords. 

    If there’s a particular geographic market that you’re after, but you’re not based there, you may want to consider setting up shop. In the end, Google is just going to do what it thinks will help users. Whether or not you buy that is up to you, but they’re not going to deviate from that stance, and if it encourages more people to buy AdWords ads, then so be it.   

    You can expect there to be a great amount of focus continued to be placed on local. The company even moved former VP of Search products, Marissa Mayer, to this area of focus, and with mobile becoming such a big part of the way people search, local is by default going to be a bigger part of what people are actually looking for. 

    Has Google’s increased focus on local hurt your search rankings and visibility? Let us know in the comments.

  • Econsultancy: UK SEO Market Grew By 16 Percent Last Year

    The term "austerity" was almost omnipresent in British culture last year, with budget cutbacks being discussed on a regular basis by just about everyone.  Only it seems the search industry came out more than okay, as a new report from Econsultancy indicates the UK marketplace for SEO came to be worth roughly $680 million.

    Indeed, Econsultancy’s 2011 SEO Agencies Buyer’s Guide in part stated, "Econsultancy estimates that the UK marketplace for SEO was worth 376m [$587 million] in 2009 and that it grew by 16% during 2010 to a value of 436m [$680 million]."

    That’d represent an impressive increase almost any year, well ahead of the rate of inflation.  That it occurred during the middle of an international recession is all the more significant for the SEO industry.

    As for where things might head in 2011, it’s hard to imagine a decrease in spending will occur as the economy recovers.  Jake Hird, Senior Research Analyst at Econsultancy, observed in a statement, "[T]he SEO market continues to flourish, as it is a proven and highly effective method of delivering return on investment by successfully driving traffic and increasing sales."

    And with regards to how the standard SEO process might change, Econsultancy created the chart below to act as a guide of sorts.

    Let’s hope 2011 turns out well for everyone in the industry.

  • Don’t Invest in SEO Without Committing To What it Takes

    Don’t Invest in SEO Without Committing To What it Takes

    Companies that seek to expand their market reach to growing populations of customers spending time online have turned in significant numbers to search and social media as marketing channels. The world of search and social as an intersection with content marketing is quickly emerging as well.

    The pro of all that attention and budget is that companies are finding increasingly effective ways to engage with customers and grow business revenue. The con is that many companies categorize half-hearted or incomplete search and social efforts as ineffective or irrelevant.

    Marketers are tasked with finding technologies and communication platforms that will grow the business and keep the brand ahead of the competition. The tendency for industry media to idolize the latest digital marketing tactics creates unrealistic expectations or worse, tentative investments in tactics like SEO without actually being committed to what it takes to be successful.

    If you’re an online marketer, you might have heard requests like: “Our competitors and several smaller companies that we don’t even consider big enough to be competition are all over Google and we’re not. This month, you need to find a way to optimize our site to increase our Google rankings.”

    Another example: “We need to engage a consultant, but there’s not a lot of budget. So let’s test it (SEO or Social Media Marketing) out and if they can shows results, we can increase the budget.”

    Yet another example: “We’re launching a new website and we need to optimize it to drive traffic. Forecast how many sales we’ll get from the SEO starting from month one and through the  year.”

    It’s reasonable to expect a return on a marketing investment, but tactics like SEO require a commitment to content, links and continued attention to web analytics and conversion optimization for improved performance. If an online marketer within a company is tasked with engaging outside help from a SEO consultant or digital marketer, it’s important to understand that commitment so expectations with business leaders can be managed.

    As a consultant, nothing is worse than seeing a SEO program just start to gain momentum (especially after the client side marketer has overcome the hurdles of getting internal buy-in) only to have someone from the C-Suite look at a balance sheet and say: “We’ve invested $X on SEO over the past 3 months on the new website and we’ve only had 2 leads?  We’re wasting our time and money on SEO, since it doesn’t work.”

    Experienced marketers from B2B to online ecommerce sites understand that with a new website, it can take quite a few months to build up the content and links required to get Google’s attention in the search results. Even after persistent SEO efforts with content and link acquisition deliver traffic to the site, the content and lead gen or product offers must be compelling enough to convert those visitors to leads or sales.

    Launching a new website in a competitive category means even more time to see the same kind of search visibility as competitors that have been actively engaging SEO tactics for 3, 5 or even 10 years.  In fact, SEO alone on a new website to drive traffic makes little sense. Consultants should inform client side marketers of that and provide other marketing options for what will drive traffic to the site and how SEO efforts can work in concert with Social Media, Online PR, Email, PPC and other Online Advertising.

    I’ve often told business owners and marketers that if they want to reap the rewards of dominant search visibility, they need to commit to content and links indefinitely. Otherwise, don’t bother and drive site traffic through other means. SEO is an investment and the way we consult, works holistically with how a business publishes and promotes content online. Expectations should be managed with proper competitive analysis, benchmark reporting, forecasting and ongoing analysis of performance.  A tentative approach always results in tentative results.

    Of course I am an advocate of SEO since we’ve helped numerous companies generate significant revenue over the past 10 years, but I can empathize with business managers that only look at spreadsheets without understanding timeframes. I can also understand the pressures marketers have at generating new business with slim budgets and not necessarily understanding the specific mechanics of what goes into a competitive SEO effort.  It’s only through education and raising awareness that these barriers can be overcome.

    If you’re a corporate marketer that has invested in SEO and not see the results you’d been promised or expected, how did you handle it? How have you overcome internal disconnects about how SEO can work with your company? How have you managed expectations?

    Originally published on Top Rank Online Marketing Blog

  • Think Google PageRank Doesn’t Matter? Think Again.

    Think Google PageRank Doesn’t Matter? Think Again.

    It looks like Google wants you to think PR doesn’t matter, but don’t let them fool you! For more than a decade now, Google has been trying to retrieve this metric from the radar of webmasters. That Google has stopped pushing regular updates to their toolbar is one more step in the strategy to convince you that PageRank doesn’t matter anymore.

    (more…)

  • A Look at Social Signals in Search

    Late last year both Google and Bing announced they are both using social signals as part of the ranking algorithm. Those of us who have been in the game a while have long suspected this, but it’s nice to see it come from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. So, as a search marketer, what signals might they be looking at and what are some ways we can leverage to our advantage?

    Probably the number one place you should be involved in is Twitter. It’s extremely likely that search engines are looking at who is tweeting and retweeting links that go to your website or are about your keyword. In fact you can already see this at work in the SERP’s right now.

    Google SERPs with shared by link

    Google SERPs with shared by link

    A tweet from an authoritative account will carry more weight than yours …

    The one thing we know, however, is that Google tries to give things credit using trust and authority metrics not just sheer numbers. So a tweet from a trusted account like say CNN carries more weight than yours. A tweet from an authoritative account like Kim Kardashian will carry more weight than yours (remember trust and authority are two different things). This is a similar concept to pagerank, and I mean internal pagerank not toolbar pagerank.

    As a marketer, how can you go about assessing the trust and authority of an account, since Google and Bing aren’t sharing their metrics with us? One of the best tools right now is Klout. Before we go any further I’ll clarify there is no evidence that Google is using Klout’s data or that Google’s ranking for Twitter profiles is in way similar to Klout’s. What I am saying is Klout has fairly reliable method of assessing how “important” a Twitter account is. I’d also say that it pretty unlikely that you could have an account that is doing well in Klout but is given no value in Google. For example, let’s compare my Klout Score (screen shot) with Kim Kardashian’s (screen shot).

     

    Michael Gray Klout Score (click to enlarge)

     

    Kim Kardashian Klout Score (click to enlarge)

    Her score is higher than mine, with the most dramatic difference in the reach, amplification, and network values. Next look at how Klout classifies our accounts and who we influence and are influenced by.

    The people who I interact with fall in the middle right, lower left and lower right areas. The people who she interacts with are upper left and upper right, and are probably more trusted and authoritative (this isn’t meant to make anyone look/feel bad–I am using it simply as an example to illustrate the dramatic difference between accounts) . So, if you are looking to make the most of Twitter, concentrate on building trusted authoritative accounts and interacting with trusted authoritative people.

    Where are some other places that search engines might look for signals? … Facebook. Yes, I get that a lot of Facebook is behind privacy walls and that, in Google’s case, there is almost an adversarial relationship to keep Google from the data. However, if something is popular on Facebook, it’s unlikely that it will stay on Facebook. It will leak over into other social spaces, like Twitter,  Stumbleupon, gmail, or at least pass through browsers with the Google toolbar. The more points of data that search engines see that tell them people are using, visiting, and sharing your website, the better.

    This brings up the hobgoblin of paid/sponsored social media activity. Currently, all of the links are no followed on the outside, but the search engines are cagey about handling it if those tags are applied to the data they get straight from Twitter. Most sponsored tweets are required to have a hashtag to meet with FCC disclosure compliance, and Google has even said they consider hashtags a signal of low quality. That said, back room deals, friend networks, and non disclosed sponsored tweets do happen. Right now it’s probably small enough that the search engines don’t have to worry, but I expect this to change in the future, as engines become more sophisticated about interpreting social signals.

    So what are the takeaways from this post:

    • Claim your names/brands/products on all the search services with a service like Knowem.
    • Choose the ones where your customers are and that you have the time to maintain–Twitter and Facebook are probably the best choices for most people
    • Strive to build up as much trust, authority, and reach as possible with your accounts
    • Use them to send signals to the search engines about your own quality content and to the content of people associated with you or who interact with you
    • If you engage in sponsored social activity, beware of algorithm changes that may devalue this tactic

    Originally published at Graywolf’s SEO Blog

  • Sort Google Results By Reading Level

    A Google Web Search product manager announced a new Google search filter for reading level on the Google Web Search Help Forum. 

    "Sometimes you may want to limit your search results to a specific reading level," the company explains. "For instance, a junior high school teacher looking for content for her students or a second-language learner might want web pages written at a basic reading level. A scientist searching for the latest findings from the experts may want to limit results to those at advanced reading levels."

    The filter can be accessed under Google’s "advanced search" link below the search box. If you go to "Reading Level" you will get options for "no reading level displayed," "annotate results with reading levels," "show only basic results," "show only intermediate results," and "show only advanced results." 

    Google Advanced Search Reading Level Filter

    Barry Schwartz, who happened upon this announcement, had the good idea to perform a site search to what percentages of your content Google has deemed basic, advanced, and intermediate. This could provide a good guideline for addressing how well your content is written for your target audience. For example, are you trying to be an expert that other experts and those aspiring to be experts turn to or are you trying to keep things basic? 

    I don’t know how often users break out Google’s advanced search options, especially now that there are so many options on the left panel, but the feature could definitely be useful in research, and for educational purposes as Google described. 

  • Making The Most Of The Holidays

    Making The Most Of The Holidays

    The holidays are fast approaching and with them the short window of vast opportunity for many online retailers. As an SEO we get inundated with panicked requests for rankings before the holidays. Of course that’s not going to happen at this point (at least – I wouldn’t start organic SEO campaigns now for the holiday season) so what can you do to make the most of what you’ve got this holiday season? Improve your conversions.

    There are of course ways you can increase your traffic flow using PPC and other, more instant traffic strategies (eBay, shopping engine inclusion and placement, etc.) but in this article I’m going to touch on a few very simple resources and tools to help you make the most of your current traffic. Some will cost you – some are free but all these strategies, tools and resources are ones I’ve used myself or on client sites with great success. So let’s begin with the conversion-enhancing tools first and then we’ll get into resources:

    Trust Symbols & Testimonials

    Everyone from conversion expert Tim Ash to your aunt will tell you one of the things they base a buying decision on is trust. Would you buy your new iPhone from the guy standing on the corner? Why not? Trust – that’s why. The web is the same – only more-so as the assumption is generally that you are the guy on the corner and it’s up to you to prove otherwise. Trust symbols and testimonials can go a long way to helping people feel comfortable with giving you their credit card number, sight unseen.

    A common mistake is to place the trust symbols and testimonials below the fold. Let’s face facts – you have about 5 seconds to grab somebody’s attention when they first visit your site. You have 5 seconds to gain enough trust that they’re willing to spend time looking through your site. We’re all busy – if you don’t have my trust quickly – I’m gone. Place your trust symbols and testimonials where they can be quickly seen. Trust symbols can range from the logos of major brands who’ve used your services or shopped at your store to the symbols of your security certificate provider, organizations or security seals. Here are some of my favorite trust symbols:

    McAfee Secure

    I started using the seal back when it was HackerSafe (who was purchased by McAfee) and I, along with a number of clients, have seen double digit percentage increases in conversions after adding it to our sites. The interesting part is that it’s even useful with non-ecommerce sites. Our site for example is not an ecommerce site but our forms filled goes up when the seal is there and the phone rings more often. It’s just a matter of trust. Our ecommerce clients have more dramatic results obviously.

    Organizational Seals

    If you’re a member of the Chamber of Commerce, Better Business Bureau or other well-known organization why not show the world? These seals imply an ethics and commitment to certain standards and also give the visitor a feeling that there is a recourse if you treat them incorrectly.

    Payment-related Seals

    We all recognize the major credit cards, we all recognize Verisign and the other major security certificate providers and we all recognize PayPal. People may not know why these things matter – but they know they do. People may not know what encryption is but they know they don’t want to enter their credit card without it. Make sure that at the very least you have these seals clearly on the purchase pages.

    Testimonials

    Hearing about experiences from past clients can go a long way towards bridging the gap between you as a website and you as a client-conscious human-run business that happens to have a website. So much of the online world is faceless and cold – let your visitors read about the experience of people “just like them” and how you helped those people.

    Just Some Other Tips From The Water Cooler

    Before we move into some helpful tools and resources you can use to help increase your conversions here are a few other very simple steps I’ve found can instantly improve conversion rates:

    • Put your phone number in your header. Call volumes will increase your sales significantly but your non-call in sales will increase too. Your phone number is a sign of trust. It is a sign that people CAN call you – even if they don’t. Even when I’m building affiliate sites I’ll often put in the product manufacturers phone number. Yes I’m losing sales from direct call-in orders but I gain more in online sales than I lose. At the end of the day I’m ahead – imagine what happens with sites where you’re answering the phone.
    • Make it a toll-free number. At Beanstalk we used to have a standard telephone number and had it up on the site. The week we switched to a toll free number the call volumes increased significantly. It’s funny as people were about to spend hundreds and thousands on our services and a long distance call these days would have cost them a whopping 50 cents or some such thing but the switch made a sizable impact on inquiries.
    • Put links in your copy and draw the eye to them. If you’re talking about blue widgets on your site, link to your blue widgets page where they can enter the buying cycle. Sure it’s an SEO strategy as well (2 birds, 1 stone … excellent) but more to the point here is to help your visitors get into the buying cycle before they realize they can look elsewhere. “Oh heck, I’m already here and how much could I save looking around really?”
    • Don’t put up barriers. I’ve been on a number of sites (and even had a client with one) that have a warning on their shopping pages to the affect, “If you don’t trust online shopping give us a call!” Well, they probably trusted online shopping until you told them not to.
    • Build information into your site. One of the worst things that can happen is that you have an excellent site, you’ve displayed your products wonderfully and got the person ready to buy. Unfortunately they just don’t know what some term or another means or what they might need to go with it and since you don’t have the info on your site – well they’re just going to quickly Google it. Oh, there’s the info – oh, and that site offers free shipping !!! Ouch.

    I don’t want to give you too much to work with. Do that and of course one runs the risk of becoming paralyzed with information. If you get through this set and are looking for more little tweaks I recommend reading Tim Ash’s “Landing Page Optimization”. To reinforce my earlier point – notice the McAfee logo to the top right of their site. 🙂

    Widgets & Tools

    As with virtually every area of Internet Marketing – developers have built tons of widgets and tools – many free – to help you. Generally they’re to show you what they can do (sort of a “if we’ll give you this free imagine what you can pay for” kind of angle. And sometimes it’s just for links (which, since I’ll link to them from this article – is working well for them). 🙂

    Here are some of my favorites that can help you over a very short period of time:

    Attention Wizard

    Most of us can’t afford to have full eyetracking studies done for our sites. To help us out the SiteTuners folks have created a heatmap system that will scan an image of your page and show you a heatmap version of it tracing what they believe the eye will do (based on an algorithm – not human interaction so it’s not 100% accurate but it can give you a good idea of where some failing points may well be. They offer a free account so hey – can’t beat the price.

    As a note – the first time I used it I wasn’t thinking and fed in an image of my whole page. The eye was drawn to the footer according to the heatmap. Make sure you only input an image of the portion visible on the most common resolutions of your visitors. If you don’t know how make an image of your site – the easiest way is with the Firefox extension Screen Capture Elite.

    ClickHeat

    ClickHeat is a very cool heatmap generator that uses Javascript to track visitor clicks and then will allow you to view your page with a heatmap overlay of the clicks to see what people are REALLY doing on your site and how they’re navigating from one place to another. We’ve found this invaluable in maximizing our real estate but it required high traffic levels to be effective quickly.

    Website Optimizer

    A lot of people like to make changes to their website in hopes of increasing conversions but do they test the new pages? Google created Website Optimizer to allow webmasters to test 2 landing pages and get statistics on which page converts better. We tested a new services page and the one I liked most …. lost. Know what I like better than the losing services page? Conversions. If you’re planning on applying any of the changes noted above (or others you find elsewhere or just dream up yourself) be sure to do some A/B testing. Website Optimizer is a simple way to do this.

    Conclusion:

    There are tons more tools and resources out there but there isn’t much time left before the holidays. Start now and get to work. And of course – once the holidays are over keep going, no matter how optimized your site is for conversions there’s always a weakest point. Keep watching your stats and keep thinking about conversions.

    Oh – and happy holidays. 🙂

  • Google Talks Local Search Relevance Factors

    Google is placing a great deal of emphasis on local in its search results these days. In fact in many cases, it would appear to significantly reduce the importance of ranking in the regular organic results. 

    Google talked a little about how local search ranking works today in a blog post on its Lat Long Blog, which included the below video of Google Product Manager Jeremy Sussman discussing the basics. 

    "Say you’re in Union Square in New York City, and you want to find a nearby coffee shop, so you go to Google and type in ‘coffee shops in Union Square, NYC’. You’ll find a list of just what you typed in – local coffee shops near Union Square with all the basic information you would expect to find, such as name, address, and phone number, and if they exist, you’ll also find reviews, ratings, and links to other relevant resources," he explains. "These organic listings are free to both the user and the business. We give you the best results we can find."

    "Now, there are a variety of relevance factors Google uses to match or answer your search query, in this case, locating coffee shops near Union Square. Three of the key factors are: relevance, prominence, and distance," he continues. "Relevance is showing you only coffee shops and not unrelated businesses such as retailers, dry cleaners, and so on. Prominence is determined by how well known or prominent certain coffee shops are, based on sources across the web. Distance is easy. We calculate how far each coffee shop is from Union Square. And if you don’t specify Union Square in your search, we’ll show you coffee shops based on your general location."

    Google recently launched Hotp

    ot, a social recommendation engine for local search. You can read more about that here. Hotpot listings can show up anywhere business listings show up in Google search results. 

    "Do the Hotpot ratings and review impact order and ranking of the local businesses you see on Google? Absolutely," says Sussman. "That’s the whole point…if you signed in to post ratings and reviews and to receive personalized recommendations in your search results. We do this to deliver more relevant search results and provide a more tailored experience based on your preferences."

    Using Hotpot to rate places and get recommendations

    In case you were wondering whether or not claiming a page will influence ranking, Sussman says, "A business claiming a Place Page does not result in preferential treatment. Of course more detailed information about your business helps us do a better job connecting people to the businesses they’re searching for."

    Finally, he makes it clear that neither Tags nor Boost (a couple of Google’s local advertising options) influence local search ranking or where listings appear in Google or Google Maps results. Google does say, however, that the ranking of Boost ads in the ‘Ads’ section of the Google.com and Google Maps results pages is based on relevance and quality factors.