Google Search Algorithm Change For Freshness

November 4th, 2011 posted by Saurav Rimal 12:08PM | View Full Story

Google introduced a “freshness” algorithm update to its search results yesterday. This change will help users find pages relating to recent events, news and products much easier and more accurately.  This algorithmic update is based off of their caffeine infrastructure. Google claims this change will make results more relevant for its users, which they believe is what truly sets their company apart from that of their rivals.

The last big update to the Google algorithm, known as Panda, affected only 12% of searches, while this update is will affect 35% of search queries (what users typed in the search bar in Google).

At the moment, you can see these changes taking affect when you search for items involving Basketball, Microsoft and the Wall Street Journal, but eventually this will spread across the board.

Read more about it:

Here is a White Board Friday video from SEOMoz I recommend watching:

Steps You Can Take:

  • Add a blog, news and/or articles section to your website (if you haven’t already).
  • Have an effective presence on Social Media channels. Communicate with your followers/fans directly rather than automating your Tweets/messages.
  • Facilitate product reviews from the general public on your website. Take Amazon for example. With millions of reviews from real people who have actually used the products, not only do more users trust the products they purchase from Amazon, Google trusts their content more. There is no other particular type of content that has the same impact on the search results; and with the freshness update to Google’s algorithm, this content is a great way to ensure your website is updated on a regular basis.

Note: When you bring together your Twitter followers, blog followers and Facebook fans, you create a community. It is important to enhance that community and continually provide fresh content through reviews, debates, chats, etc.

An example of creating a community:

  • Pick a product – (i.e. ceramic cookware)
  • Create a target audience – Moms (target blogs made specifically for moms)
  • Get in touch with the bloggers of said blogs about your product
  • Offer free products to the bloggers in return for a blog post dedicated to a review surrounding your product

Return you will experience:

  • Links from each blog
  • User generated content
  • Word of mouth to other mothers and their followers
  • “Domino effect” links
  • Tweets and Facebook “Likes”, translated: social signals, (read: even more links)
  • Example: Type in “ceramic cookware” in Google and you will see “Xtrema” as a result of doing just this!

How to create dynamic content with the tactics outlined above

Blogs:

Let’s say I write a blog post on SEO for the WebpageFX blog. I then make sure to tag the blog post for ‘SEO’. This subsequently creates a snippet on the SEO category page, which brings in the top 3 latest blog posts written for SEO. This in turn not only keeps the blog fresh, but also the SEO category page fresh.

Social Media:

Like Blogs, you can create snippets and ensure continual fresh content in this way. In fact, this will even add to the conversation you are currently having with your followers. All the better, is it not?

Links:

I am not certain whether Google considers brand new links coming into a website to be “fresh content”, but I don’t see why they wouldn’t either. Links have always been an important factor for SEO and will most likely remain one of the most important factors in the future.

Reviews:

Once again you can create a snippet for this type of content. For example, if someone writes a review about WebpageFX’s SEO services, the snippet would automatically pull the review and subsequently place it on the SEO page.

Actual car review:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snippet:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s as simple as that, well for the developers I mean :) .

Google is certainly rolling these changes sooner than later. Let me know what your thoughts are about this change.

Tags: google, google seo
Posted in Google, Search Engine

Comment!

An Open Letter To College Students: How to Study SEO in School

November 3rd, 2011 posted by Trevin Shirey 12:08PM | View Full Story

photo by david gandy

 

Dear College Student,

There is no such thing as an SEO degree. You can Google it and see some mostly shady results, but — as far as I know — nobody is walking around with a B.A. in SEO.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t go to college and study SEO, though. You just have to get a little creative. My degree reads “B.A. Communication Arts with a focus in journalism,” but I studied and learned Internet marketing during my 4 years in school.

How did I do it? I hustled. I was curious. I tried a bunch of different things and usually failed spectacularly. But I learned a ton.

It’s been a few years since I graduated school and the SEO/Internet marketing fields are bigger than ever. If you want to study SEO in college, this is my advice to you.

Use the Internet as often as you can. Sure, you can read books and learn some about marketing offline, but the web is it’s own world and you’ve got to master the territory if you want to become a great online marketer. Sitting around on Facebook or simply spending time online isn’t enough, though. You have to become a power user of the web. How? Participate in forums, join Reddit or HN, actively comment on blogs, subscribe to online newspapers, meet photographers on Flickr, beta test new websites, play WoW or Minecraft and be an early adopter of everything. The more stuff you consume online, the better you understand how the web works. You learn how people interact with each other and what drives people to do certain things.

Without even knowing it, you’ll learn a bunch of key SEO and Internet marketing principles by becoming a power user. You’ll witness and help create viral content. You’ll pick up on new trends and see the future of the web before anybody else. You’ll see how bloggers encourage engagement and attract readers. All of these things will give you a huge advantage once you enter the SEO world.

It’s important to do more than consume though…you’ve got to create. Start your own websites (yes, that is plural). Definitely start at least one blog because you will have to know how to write for the web if you want to be a great SEO someday. Write about something you are passionate about and see how much traffic you can drive to the blog. Install Google Analytics and monitor how much traffic is generated by referrals, search engines, etc. Be sure to email and interact with other bloggers in your niche. Let them know how much you loved one of their recent posts or that they were an inspiration to you.

I emailed the author of the first blog I ever read way back in 2006 when I decided to start blogging on my own. It’s funny to look back on it now and realize that is what got me started down this career path. I started three sports blogs, one tech blog and one photography blog when I was in college. All but one failed miserably. The one that survived, though, helped me build connections and get links from major newspapers, appear on TV and radio shows, meet a bunch of awesome people and even made enough money for me to afford NFL Sunday Ticket every year. Definitely start a blog!

While you are setting up your blog(s), you would be wise to learn how to code at least a little bit too. I learned a bit of MySQL and PHP while I was in school, but not a day has gone by since I graduated where I haven’t wished I knew more code. Take several CS classes while you are in school. The more code you know, the better. This will give you a huge advantage and make you standout when you are applying for jobs. SEOs who know code are much more well-rounded than those who are clueless when talking with developers. Don’t make the same mistakes that I did.

Read this, this and this.

Most importantly, don’t let your classes get in the way of your learning. Your professors will hate me for saying it, but if you are going to a liberal arts school, there’s a good chance that you will forget what you ‘learned’ in many of your non-major classes anyway. I had classes in British literature, foreign language, calculus and religion. I remember very little of what I learned in any of them. I thoroughly enjoyed and learned lifelong lessons in my communication and business classes, though, because that is where my passion lied. I spent more than a few nights slacking off on my liberal arts classes while I was blogging, attempting to code or reading new things online. As I’ve written before, I probably learned more in college from anonymous strangers online than I did from many of my tenured professors.

If you are lucky enough to have a few classes at your school about SEO or online marketing, take them. My school’s computer science department is about 10 years behind the curve, but I was fortunate to have a brilliant professor in the business department who taught both an eCommerce and eMarketing class. In eCommerce, we had a competition to see who could rank their page the highest for a made up keyword. I got my butt kicked. We talked about what makes one eBay listing superior from another. Without even knowing it, I had done my first conversion analysis study.

Speaking of conversion analysis, you’ve got to take at least one design class too. I was and still am incompetent when it comes to design, but CSS knowledge and the psychological impact of design is great for an SEO to have in their toolbox. Also, sign up for several marketing and advertising classes. Everything you learn in those classes ties back into SEO.

Instead of mowing grass or relaxing over the summer, get an internship. Remember those cool companies you stumbled across while you were browsing the web for hours on end? Apply for an internship at all of them. Email the CEO directly. Stand out. Hustle. I spent two summers doing a couple of unglamorous internships: managing the website for a local radio station and writing for a newspaper. Both were awesome experiences though. I learned a couple new CMSs, saw the (lack of) value many decision makers placed in the web and got to see how small businesses operated from the ground floor.

Regardless of whether or not your passion is in SEO, follow where it leads you. If you love staying up all night just to hack together an awful piece of PHP code, and it makes you sleep through a British literature lecture at 8am, do it. The skills you are passionate about enough to explore and learn by yourself are going to be the same ones you pursue and excel at during your career–not the ones that higher education forces you to study.

If you want to learn SEO in college, stay curious. Don’t let a college curriculum dictate what you can and can’t learn during your years at school. Fail often, learn often. Hustle.

Your friend,

-Trevin

Posted in Search Engine Optimization

18 Comments

Is Google A Search Engine or A Sales Engine?

October 26th, 2011 posted by Saurav Rimal 12:08PM | View Full Story

There’s a disturbing trend forming in the Internet marketing world. For the last few years, Google has been building a path to help big brands and to crush medium to small businesses out of the search results.

February 2009 saw the Vince update – Big brands started getting a boost in search results. Vince helped big brands to rank very well, which no doubt improved their revenue while small to medium businesses lost a lot of business. Could this update have been the start of the job losses or did this change just increase the jobs for big brands? Well, we will never know.

September 2010 saw the Brand Update – Google allowed the same domain to appear multiple times on a SERP. Meaning if you want to target your competitor’s brand name as a keyword, using Adwords would be far more successful than doing it organically. Google = money making machine, I tell ya!

These changes meant medium to small businesses needed to build their brand name in Google to be able to challenge the big brands.

How would someone do that?

Here are some examples:

  • Link Building (brand terms)
  • Social Buzz
  • Link Bait Activities
  • Building A Community
  • User Generated Content/Product Reviews
  • Google Adwords? Trust me it works well and you don’t even require a big budget. Eventually you pay Google (I am not saying they had it all planned…well, yes, actually I am!)

October 2011 Google announced the SSL encryption.

What does this mean?

In simple terms it means that SEOs won’t be provided with any encrypted analytical data and maybe PPC experts will be provided with everything they wish!

So it will look something like this:

Google SSL SEO Data

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first 7 keywords generated through PPC and at 8 we have traffic generated through SEO but no idea which keyword was used.

Maybe Google is saying if an SEO company desires to view that data, they will need to sign up for Google Analytics premium, which will cost around $150,000 (USD), £90,000 (UK) or $150,000 (CAN) per year.

Another option would be that an SEO company changes their focus from just being an SEO company to a full-service Internet marketing company and offer PPC to help Google make more money!

Image: Google’s stock share price

Google's Stock Share Price

All SEOs rely on the organic keyword data to evaluate which keywords are performing against the keywords that aren’t. If you take that away from them, the campaign won’t be an effective one as they won’t know which keyword will bring the greatest ROI for the client.

Tags: google
Posted in Google, Search Engine

Comment!

SPAM: More than an Annoyance? [Infographic]

October 17th, 2011 posted by WebpageFX Team 12:08PM | View Full Story

Spam: An Environmental Dilemma Infographic

…View Full Story

Posted in Internet

16 Comments

Using Motion Charts to Improve Your SEO Keyword Targeting

September 29th, 2011 posted by Doug Anderson 12:08PM | View Full Story

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I love to look at visual representations of my analytics data whenever possible. Line graphs, pie charts, scatter charts…they all do a pretty good job of presenting data in a relational way. But wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to visualize your data and then interact directly with the results over time to dynamically discover unique patterns and trends? Well, you’re in luck because there is! It’s a powerful feature within Google Analytics called motion charts.

Google Analytics - Motion Chart

Motion Chart plotting Visits, Bounce Rate, E-commerce Conversion Rate & Revenue

Motion charts allow for the analysis of large amounts of data across several parameters and provide a powerful way to visualize that data in five dimensions (x-axis, y-axis, size and color of dots representing data points, and time). In fact, technically, it’s even possible to increase the chart to deal with eight dimensions if you select combination metrics (e.g., conversion rate, bounce rate, and pages per visit).

Now for those of you who have some advanced experience using Google Analytics, the value of motion charts may not be that big of a revelation…after all, it’s been an available feature of Google Analytics for some time now. But for the rest of you, motion charts can be a valuable tool in search marketing as it helps to point out some critical data patterns and relationships you might otherwise have overlooked.

What metrics to use on the motion chart?

You’ll want to first understand the objectives as it relates to your website and thereby the metrics that should be used to measure and improve upon these objectives. The other area to determine is whether your site is an e-commerce site or not. E-commerce sites make interpreting the data a little bit more intuitive because you’re dealing with metrics such as e-commerce conversion rate and revenue as it relates back to keywords that are either paid, non-paid (organic) or both.

Below, we’ll look at an e-commerce scenario where we may want to observe traffic-driving keywords which have the best conversion rates along with pointing out areas to improve on regarding keyword optimization.

We’ll start by navigating to the Keywords report under the Traffic Sources of Google Analytics. From there, we have the option of setting some parameters such as the keyword medium (whether or not we want to view paid keywords, non-paid (organic) keywords, or both), time range, the number of keywords to include (defined here as rows – the more rows you include the greater number of points on your motion chart), and any filtering options (useful when you want to analyze branded keywords exclusive from non-branded keywords).

Once you’re ready, simply click on the “Visualize” button in the upper left area of the report. Google Analytics will then generate the motion chart accordingly. It’s important to keep in mind that the motion chart data is defined from the report where it was initiated…in the case of our example, that’s the Keywords report.

Click the Visualize button to access the motion charts

Click the Visualize button to access the motion charts

Next, we’ll set the x-axis to show us Bounce Rate and the y-axis to show us Visits. The size of the dot should represent Revenue while the color of the dot should be set to represent the E-commerce Conversion Rate.

NOTE: If e-commerce tracking is not enabled for your site, you won’t see related metrics such as E-commerce Conversion Rate and Revenue. Instead you may want to set the size of the dot to be Per Visit Goal Value and the color of the dot to be Goal Conversion Rate.

What can our metrics show us?

The Visits metric simply shows the amount of visits for each keyword.

Bounce Rate shows the percentage of bounces for each keyword. This is very helpful since it can help demonstrate whether or not a keyword matches the expectation a user might have when they arrive on your landing page. In addition, by analyzing bounce rate trends for keywords, we get a feel for landing pages that may be under-performing.

  • WHAT TO LOOK FOR: Here you’ll want to look for dots that are plotted farther along the x-axis…especially ones that are large or red.
  • WHAT TO IMPROVE: You’ll want to optimize the landing pages for these particular keywords.

E-commerce/Goal Conversion Rate shows your keyword conversion rate and this is important to plot because it can point out keywords that are highly converting but that aren’t receiving a high level of traffic.

  • WHAT TO LOOK FOR: Look for small, red dots located close to the x-axis as these are the keywords which should get the most attention from any optimization efforts.
  • WHAT TO IMPROVE: Increase these keywords’ exposure on your website and focus on these within any of your PPC campaigns.

Revenue/Per Visit Goal Value shows the amount of money each keyword drives to your website.

  • WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The large, blue dots are the ones to focus on here as that indicates that while the keyword brings a decent level of revenue to your site, if converting better, it could bring even more.
  • WHAT TO IMPROVE: Optimize the pages related to these keywords in order to improve the conversion.

TIP: Check the boxes next to any of the keywords on the right side of the chart to enable Google Analytics to tag their respective dots for a quick and easy way to pick them out of the crowd.

Earlier, I mentioned there was a fifth dimension, “Time.” Well, here’s the cool part of the motion chart (as if motion charts weren’t already cool) and how it gets its name. Below the chart is a slider that allows you to view the data interactively as it relates to time (based on the date range you set for your report). Move this slider from left to right and you’ll begin to see how your keywords do over the data range you’ve set. This adds some very interesting layers to the patterns and trends you’ll be able to discern. For example, if you notice the conversion rate for a certain keyword goes up during a particular time of the year, you may want to consider investing more PPC dollars for that keyword during that time period.

TIP: Check the “Trails” checkbox in the lower-right corner of the chart to maintain a visual path of each selected dot as it moves through your timeline.

For those of you who hadn’t yet discovered the power of utilizing motion charts to better analyze data and reveal previously unnoticed patterns and trends, I hope this has helped convince you of their value as another go-to tool in your ongoing SEO improvement efforts. And keep in mind that motion charts are available for most reports within Google Analytics that show tables. So now get out there and improve your SEO keyword targeting…Happy charting!

Posted in Analytics

Comment!

10 things users need to know about Facebook Timeline

September 28th, 2011 posted by Trevin Shirey 12:08PM | View Full Story

(Note: September 29, 2011 is no longer Facebook Timeline day. A lawsuit involving the name “Timeline” has delayed the full launch. – ts)

September 29, 2011 is Facebook Timeline day. The new layout for the social networking giant will be pushed live to all users and the Internet as we know it is probably going to change forever.

Timeline marks the biggest update to Facebook’s design ever and considering the backlash the Facebook team receives for even the smallest of changes, I won’t be surprised if the reaction to Timeline reaches never-before-seen levels of vitriol. Already, their blog post announcing Timeline has been trolled to oblivion and the introduction video already has over 2,000 dislikes on YouTube.

Despite the predictable hoopla, Facebook users with the developer app enabled have had the new profile for around a week now and got a jumpstart on other users. I have 240 friends on Facebook. Only 9 have started using Timeline. I’ve been using it for almost a week now and have come away mostly impressed with the changes.

For the sake of my 231 friends and millions of other Facebook users who have no clue what Timeline is, here’s a list of 10 things you need to know about Facebook Timeline before Facebook’s D-Day on September 29.

1. Cover photos are breathtaking

 

One of the drawbacks to Facebook’s old designs was the lack of personalization. Giving all profiles the same basic look was a big upgrade from the eyesore that Myspace turned into, but letting users make their profiles their own was a needed upgrade. Cover photos add an emotional and personal touch to each profile without letting things get out of control.

As mentioned in their F8 Conference, one of Facebook’s main goals now is to increase user engagement with the site. Huge, personal photos on prominent areas of the site are going to increase the emotional ties and nostalgia that Facebook offers. It’s one of the best additions that Timeline offers.

2. You can jam with your friends

Despite a gigantic user base with millions of music fans, Facebook has never really taken of advantage of their reach in the music realm. Timeline changes that. Facebook now integrates with dozens of the most popular music apps including Rdio, Spotify and Soundcloud. Apps have the ability to publish which songs you are listening to onto your feed in real-time. If 10 of your friends are listening to the new Blink 182 album, for example, Facebook will let you know about it. There’s also a music page that tracks your most played albums, songs and artists each month and all-time.

Facebook Music is Last.FM meets music streaming sites. And it’s awesome.

3. About those crazy college photos…

photo by andres rodriguez

One of the keys to the Timeline design is a year-by-year breakdown of your posts to Facebook and easy access to historical data. Facebook gave a sneak peek of this feature by beginning to integrate “On this day” posts several months ago. It only takes a click to look at every single one of someone’s posts from 2009, for example, which can be good and bad. It’s interesting to see what I was posting in college and a lot of awesome memories came flooding back when I scrolled through my old posts. There are, however, a lot of things that people will regret posting. Even seeing photos of of you and an ex from a few years ago can be pretty awkward. One of the nice things about the old Facebook design is that it was easy to forget about what you posted a year or even a month ago. Timeline brings all of that back in a major way. Be prepared to spend some time tidying up your Timeline.

4. Add important ‘life events’ to your Timeline

There is a new series of built-in updates tailored specifically to major life events. Instead of posting a status update about a new job, a graduation or a new pet, you can use one of Facebook’s integrated options. This is a cool way to track and graph out major events, but some of the options are definitely a little creepy. Facebook has integrated updates for “Lost a loved one” and “Had a surgery.” I’m sure some people will make use of these, but, for me, some major life events are a little too personal to highlight on Facebook.

5. Some sharing is now done automatically


This is one of the biggest changes to Facebook. In the past, if users listened to a song or read an article that they enjoyed, they would have to browse over to Facebook and manually share the link. Not anymore. Facebook integrates with a lot of web apps and news sites to automatically share what you are listening or reading, for example. Yahoo! News has already integrated this feature and you can expect to see it on most major content sites. Music apps like Rdio and Spotify have the automatic sharing live, as well.

It’s important to note that you have to give the application permission to publish automatically. You won’t see posts on your profile if you simply head to news.yahoo.com and start reading. It’s a feature that users have control over. If you and several of your friends have it enabled, however, it adds a social layer to online media consumption that no one has seen before.

6. Facebook wants to see your baby picture.

Yes, the Timeline goes the whole way back to your day of birth and Facebook even prompts you to upload your baby picture. This is great for those people who say, “Oh, if only I had Facebook as a one year old!” Be prepared to see a bunch of baby photos of your friends. It’s not just baby photos you can publish though. You can add posts instead to any date. Everybody can look back and see you hitting that big home run in Little League or watch your first dance recital.

7. “Old Facebook” is back…sort of

photo by soleio cuervo

A lot of the concepts in Facebook Timeline are similar to a project Facebook’s team worked on in 2004/2005 called Social Timeline. The yearbook-like organization and highlighting of important events are present in both designs. Maybe now everybody will stop clamoring for the “old Facebook?” Hey, a guy can dream!

8. ‘Feature’ your important updates

The new Timeline design features 2-columns to show all of your updates. But Facebook lets you click the “star” to feature the updates that are most important to you. This causes them to span both columns and is a great way to share your most memorable events and photographs. Older designs of Facebook didn’t offer a way to designate more important updates or photos. Timeline allows you to separate these must-see updates from the pack.

9. Location, location, location

Remember all of the check-ins you made on Facebook places? They now have a prominent place right on the top of your Facebook profile. The new Bing-integrated maps show all of your location check-ins, geo-tagged photos and any other updates with a location attached to them. By featuring maps alongside friends, tagged photos and likes, Facebook is encouraging users to not only “check in” but to add the location of a status update, a photo, a video or an event.

10. Facebook is always going to push the envelope

The safe move for Facebook would be to limit major design changes and, in general, steer clear of anything that could ruffle the feathers of their 800 million active users. Their strategy is the opposite of this. Regardless of whether you agree with it or not, Mark Zuckerberg has a grander vision of the social web and he’s not afraid to make enormous changes to further his cause.

The 2004 Tampa Bay Lightning won a Stanley Cup by following the motto “safe is death.” They won a championship by being aggressive on the ice, taking risks at every turn and creating organized every night. Facebook seems to be following the same strategy. If they get complacent and fail to update their concept and product, they risk being caught by Google or an up-and-coming social startup with a brand new way to socialize online. While I don’t agree with Facebook’s constant tracking of data and am not comfortable with some of their data mining, it is refreshing to see a large and already successful company continue to aggressively press forward and try new things.

 

What are your thoughts on Facebook Timeline and the new features?

 

Posted in Social Networking

2 Comments
Older Entries
Newer Entries