Google’s April Search Quality Highlights: What Stands Out For You?

May 8th, 2012

What a month it’s been! Google has released 52 search quality updates over the past month and it’s felt like non-stop changes in search results.

While you can check out the entire list here, these are a few that stood out:

Smoother ranking changes for fresh results. This update is meant to help users easily find fresh, breaking news stories. For example, if you search “Google Panda Updates” you can expect stories about the latest update (Panda 3.6) to be at the top of the search results. This is slight factor plays a minor role in ranking changes and you can expect more to come as the algorithm is tweaked to be more sensitive to fresh stories.

Keyword stuffing classifier improvement. Google has designed a keyword stuffing detector so that they can better seek out sites that are participating in this outdated and ineffective practice. As we can assume, this was one of many signifiers used in the Penguin update, which solely targeted “webspam”.

Less snippet duplication in expanded sitelinks. It’s a well known fact that Google is averse to duplicate content and content that is used over again site wide. With this update, Google is working on reducing duplicate snippets of expanded sitelinks. This means that you’re less likely to see the same content summary of related topics that you’re searching for. In another related update, Google also worked on displaying the beginning of the content on each page for snippet results to give users a better idea of what they’re about to click on.

More authoritative results. This is a vague mention of an important update. Google has updated a signal that they use to find more authoritative content. Perhaps this is related to the PageRank update, although it technically occurred in May.

What do you think of last month’s search updates and do you think they’re helping you prepare for changes in the upcoming months?

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Policies, Personalized Search & Privacy Invasion

March 12th, 2012

big brother is watchingIt’s not even halfway through March of 2012 yet and backlash against Google seems to be at an all time high. Let’s take a look:

The New Privacy Policy
In January, Google announced an update to their privacy policy so that all your personal information (including most intimate search habits) are shared amongst their 60+ properties (Gmail, YouTube, Picasa and Google Maps). For those of you worried that all your personal information being spread so thin, the bad news is that you CAN’T opt out. The “good” thing is that Google assures that this information will be tailored to your preferences and enhance your search experience.

Screenwise – Get Paid to Get Spied On
Would you like Google to track your every move? How about if you could get a $25 gift card in return? Google’s next project, Screenwise, will let users do just that. Volunteers will be monitored via a browser extension and this research project is strictly an opt-in option. Anyone interested and willing to participate?

Majority of Users View Personalized Search Results as a “Bad Thing”
A survey by Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that 65% of users view personalized search results as a bad thing because it limits the information you get. Overall, 73% felt that it’s an invasion of privacy. The question is, will you continue to use? There are easy alternatives that include: search without being logged in, use non-personalized browsing (Chrome’s incognito or Internet Explorer’s InPrivate Browsing mode).

Obviously, the good still outweighs the bad by far in user experience, especially when compared with other search options out there. No one is being forced to use these free services. But what do you feel about all these new Google changes?

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How Do Google Freshness Updates Affect SEO?

January 31st, 2012

What Is It?
Since the end of last year, Google’s Freshness updates have been been affecting about 35% of searches. To get a better idea of how this works, take a look at Bruce Clay’s in depth illustration of exactly how freshness affects SERPs. Basically, as Google crawls pages to index them, it will also search for “fresh attributes” and assign them a score. This value is a contributing factor when search results are displayed. The general idea is that fresh content is more useful than old, stale content.

How to Optimize
Not surprisingly, Google has a variety of ways of determining the value of freshness including time spent on page, popular topics and changes in anchor text. In many ways, this algorithm update has changed online marketing priorities. Instead of pushing for addition of more content and more keywords, the focus should be on consistently updating the same relevant web pages with useful information. Since all these factors are available online, it’s best to review them regularly to see how you can utilize them when updating your web pages.

Why Freshness?
In the end, Google aims to improve the user experience. As internet marketing firms work with businesses to improve their strategies, users will surely benefit. These updates will help display more relevant and recent search results that will make for better searching!

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Looking at Google’s Evil Ways

January 5th, 2012

While “Don’t Be Evil” is Google’s official motto, there are many recent arguments that can be made showing how the internet giant is slowing descending into the realm of being not-so-good.

Earlier this week, Google got caught utilizing SEO spam to promote its Chrome browser. They hired a video marketing company and bought sponsored blog posts on questionable sites, which bloggers caught onto very quickly. Not to mention that the articles and content that was pushed out wasn’t well-written or relevant to the sites they were being featured on!

This is the exact type of behavior that Google punishes, so what happens when they’re the ones violating this “golden rule”. As punishment, Google has penalized itself for its “mistake” so that Chrome doesn’t show up for browser-related terms (for the time being). Yeah, that will show them… but for how long? You have to admit that it is hypocritical for Google to get caught doing the same thing that they penalized J.C. Penney for doing early in 2011. And in some ways, this argument can be extended to the small scale – how Google is constantly adding more Panda updates to penalize content they deem as spammy or evil. These updates have greatly affected traffic for legitimate small business sites, so why do they just keep coming?

If the issue of spam weren’t so blatantly offensive to SEOs, it’s more frustrating to see that Google isn’t very transparent with their search algorithm and other ranking methods. As far as we can see, they change this as often as they please and leave reputable website marketing firms to guess what is going to happen next.

The more you look into it, the more you’ll discover of the dark side of Google and why so many people question their motives. Do you think Google made a honest mistake with this ad campaign are or they just sorry because they got caught in such a public manner? Maybe it’s time to retire that motto and think of a more fitting one…

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Ranking for Other Keywords…

December 14th, 2011

question markKeyword advertising. Does it only apply to the phrases on your site?

Believe it or not, it’s possible to rank (and rank well) for keyword phrases that aren’t on your site! This has nothing to do for black hat methods or other so-called spam SEO tactics. The reason that some businesses or entities are able to rank for these keywords is that many people are using the phrases to search for them.

As Matt Cutts explains, if you search for “Cal”, UC Berkeley is likely to show up because many people associate the term with the college. Even though this word isn’t used predominately, or it might not be used at all on the main page, it can still rank well for the Cal term because so many relevant searches are pointing it from there.

How does this relate to organic optimization for your site? If your competitor is outranking your site and showing up for a term that’s not even on their page, it means that they have quality content that other people are finding useful. The best way to go about this is not to obsess over just one ranking. SERPs fluctuate all the time and this concentrated effort in outdoing a competitor can cause you to lose site of your overall SEO goals.

So, what exactly can you do? If you’ve ever heard the saying, “Success is the best revenge”, now is the time to apply it. This is a learning opportunity for your small business and you can expand your online goals by not copying your competitor’s strategy but by doing better. This means diversifying your link building strategies and gaining social momentum through Likes, +1′s and even press releases. Using these other methods of online marketing will amplify your content and make it more visible to your potential customers.

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Google + For Businesses: Will You Join?

November 8th, 2011

Yesterday, Google + business profiles have finally arrived. A short clip about new “branded” pages shows that a business owner cares about customer loyalty and personal interaction with different types of people.

And that’s what I’m seeing showcased more in social media services for small business solutions. The promo ends with this tagline, “Business don’t make people happy. People do.” Social media can help businesses hone that human side and showcase an inviting persona. After all, clicks, Likes and +1′s if businesses don’t see the end result with real people after all their efforts.

Here are some questions that you should really think about investing time and resources on yet another social networking site:

  • Are my customers (or customers within the industry) actively using Google +?
  • What is the point of the company profile and what message do we want to convey?
  • Why would customers be interested in connecting with my company/brand?
  • How else will I promote my content on Google+ and off?
  • How will I integrate this campaign with my other online marketing efforts?

After you answer these questions, it’s important to take a step back and ask yourself the final question: are you ready to create unique and relevant content for your Google+ profile? After all, that is the goal of an effective profile. Check out these popular profiles for more examples of how they’re being used: Toyota, Angry Birds, NPR and Macy’s,

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Google Fail?

October 20th, 2011

Google failJanuary 15, 2012 is officially Doomsday. More specifically for Google Buzz, Code Search, iGoogle social features, and Jaiku. In a post titled “A fall sweep”, Google officially announced that these services would no longer exist.

Have you taken a look at all the Google Products? Maybe it was just about time that they took  a look around and cleaned up shop on the products that weren’t doing so well. While many are anticipating more products to go (ahem Google Wave), I think it’s interesting how Google chose to announce this news – in a very nonchalant and informal manner.

But after all, maybe Google was trying to keep attention away from the online audience about the shutdown of Google Buzz. Remember early last year? Google was hit with a huge class action lawsuit claiming that they violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). Many people were also upset over privacy issues and other bugs that were initially present when Buzz first launched. Overall, I don’t think it’s a product that will missed very much.

Do you think the shutdown of these services means failure for Google or is it just paving way for new and better features?

After all, it was Albert Einstein who said, “You never fail until you stop trying.”

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Recap of 2011 Google Agency Summit

October 7th, 2011

Here’s the recap of our visit to the Google Agency Summit that we’ve been promising!

We’ll take a quick overview of marketing spending, display ads, mobile ads, and video in terms of small business use. The overall focus throughout the day was on small business (SMB) growth. Makes sense, doesn’t it? The small business segment is a promising category with big opportunities. Here are some key points that we learned:

SMB Spending and Growth

  • Total SMB digital ad spend is growing at 25% YoY (year on year)
  • Growth is happening within Google local services and beyond on platforms like: Facebook, Groupon and LivingSocial
  • According to Google’s (see graph), total US SMB marketing spending is expected to almost double by 2015. This is a self-proclaimed “conservative” forecast, so we could see numbers even higher than that!

Display Ads

With over 2 million sites, Google now has the largest ad network . What does this mean for the potential of display ads? The emphasis here was on the concept of remarketing. Remarketing allows you to target and show ads to users who have already visited your website. This is helpful to help them recall your products and services, something that they’ve obviously been interested in since they have already been to your site. This is an innovative new way to match the right customers to your message.

Mobile Ads and Video

Mobile ads are evolving and should be a different and more helpful experience for mobile users. There is less space on a mobile screen, which means that functions like “Store Locator” take priority over plain old text. People searching on their phone aren’t going to have the time or space to read text. Learn how you can build a basic mobile site with this free Google tool.

As for video, the big push is for small businesses to come on board, given the massive potential and size of YouTube. Small businesses could utilize video marketing by using banners, pre-roll commercials and even encourage user created content. With so much up and coming news, you can always stay updated with Google’s latest ad products here.

Marketing Goals

At the end of the day, it’s clear that Google is trying to make things easier for everyone – small business owners and their customers. This is why Google is so intent on integration and working closely with with agencies like Emarketed… so that we can help our customers!

It looks like there’s a lot in store in the future for small businesses. As a small business owner, it’s important to stay informed so that you don’t get left behind. Here’s a list of some helpful information on topics related to what we just talked about:

Mobile Web Sites
Video Marketing
Website Marketing
Landing Page Optimization

You can also comment, or find us on Facebook or Twitter if you have any questions!

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Google Miscellaneous

September 27th, 2011

In preparation for the 2011 Google Agency Summit tomorrow, we thought it would be fun to compile a list of 5 miscellaneous things about Google that we think you’d find interesting:

Google Lego
Image via Flickr

  1. A Lego Connection: In 1996, the first storage case made to “contain” Google was made of legos. Check it out!
  2. A Google a Day. If a game that allows the use of Googling is your kindof game, it exists! This game is also available in print, above the crossword puzzle in the New York Times. Take that, Sodoku.
  3. Hardcore Interview Questions. How many golf balls can fit in a school bus? Explain a database in three sentences to your eight-year-old nephew. These are a few examples of questions that will get thrown your way if you’re lucky enough to interview with Google. You can find out more about their interview process here.
  4. Google Hoaxes. Every year that April Fool’s Day comes around, Google has a new hoax lined up. This year’s Google Motion was beyond ridiculous and I’m looking forward to what they have in store for 2012.
  5. Google’s Most Expensive Keyword… is insurance! Loans, mortgage and attorney are close behind. Take a look at the rest of the list here.

Let us know if you have a favorite Google tidbit and stay tuned for an upcoming post to learn about our trip to Mountain View!

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Google +1 Button: To Do or Not to Do? (Part Deux)

September 23rd, 2011

Will you be implementing Google’s +1 button on your site? Although there are many benefits of using a the button, it’s crucial to see the downsides and how it can affect your current site:

Speed is a factor: More social media buttons means more load time. Slower load time and site speed will hurt your rankings, since it is a factor in how Google ranks your site… not to mention that impatient customers may bounce away.
Too many distractions: Adding a Google +1 button can be a distraction from your site content, especially if you already have multiple buttons. This can clutter your site and draw attention in a negative manner and away from your business.
Harm your professional image: Sometimes, when I see a site overloaded with social media buttons, it gives me the impression of being spammy or not very credible. If you focus on a few social media sites and integrate them into a clean design, it will help your site feel and look more reliable.
Right target audience?: First of all, do you even plan to devote time to your Google + profile? For now, business profiles don’t exist so if you have the button but don’t plan on being social on Google +, it may not help your site in the long run to add more clutter. For the most part, I see that many internet marketers are utilizing Google + and +1s. Like LinkedIn, this can be a good method to learn about your industry and network. But for getting retail customers for your small retail business? Maybe not so much…

Do you think Google’s +1 button is right for your business? Remember, it doesn’t hurt to experiment and see what works out. Feel free to let us know why you will or won’t be using this social media button (or any others for that matter!)

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