Affichage des articles dont le libellé est Google. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est Google. Afficher tous les articles
samedi 12 novembre 2016
Google+ vs. Facebook: Comparative Review
The bitter lessons that the Internet giant learned in the social media space with Google Buzz and Google Wave may stand it in good stead, but in the modern open source age, lessons are really out there for all to learn. Facebook’s privacy controls debacle has not resulted in a significant drop in active users, following a concerted campaign to educate them about existing and new features.
Look at how the two social networking platforms stack up against each other when compared from an end-user perspective.
1. A suite of web services versus a standalone social network.
Facebook, a social network has become a part of our daily lives. While, the highest number of Google Plus adopters were existing users of other Google services, such as Gmail, Picasa, Google Reader, and Google Docs. The reason was the ease with which this social networking platform allowed all these services to be integrated into one place. In addition, for people not using the other web services, joining Google Plus gives instant and single log-in access not only to all of the services, but also allows users to use features of other services without actively using them. Google has also cleverly repackaged other services and built them into Google Plus in a similar way, such as multi-user text and video chat, and a feed reader in the form of the Sparks feature.
2. Multi-user real time video chat.
The “next big thing” was due in the realm of video chat for quite a while, but no one had really anticipated the top grade multi-user video chat that came with Google Plus. With surprising image and streaming quality even on middle of the road broadband line, Hangout really pushes the envelope as far as technical finesse is concerned. Even though, Facebook came out with a plain vanilla video chat option soon after, Google has gained the lead as far as this aspect is concerned.
3. Privacy features out in public.
Many observers ascribe the phenomenal early adoption rate of Google Plus to the privacy issues with the Facebook way of sharing everything with everyone by default. Google Plus circumvents this with the concept of independent Circles of contacts, letting you share specific content with particular sets of people. Facebook has a similar level of sharing control called lists, but this was something that many people were either unaware of or found complicated to access and utilize. Of late, though, Facebook has begun putting its privacy tweaks out in the open in an attempt to reassure its users.
4. A difficult to beat network in terms of numbers.
Facebook has the incredible advantage of 750 million users, something that Google Plus can only look at longingly for the near future. With this huge user base and a seven-year lead in the social networking field, Facebook is at a clear advantage.
5. Innovative users find hidden value in Google Plus.
The fact that Google is often seen as the lone voice in the wilderness against the evil empire of corporate monopoly has seen a greater adoption of its services by the creative, alternative-lifestyle population. One of the first trends that set Google Plus apart from Facebook was the innovative ways that people began using the features on it, from real time video blogging and collaborative writing, to using the streams as classrooms, life-hack tutorials and discussion centers.
Wrapping Up…
At the end of an unbiased pros and cons analysis, it is clear that for those wanting to get on to the social network to find and reconnect with long lost school friends and family members, Facebook is still the preferred destination with its sheer volume of users. To date, there has been little in terms of front page features that set the Stream of Google Plus apart from Facebook’s Wall. The privacy control offered by Circle is really just a tweak on the List feature, and with the new campaign to promote its privacy features, Facebook is fast shedding its risky image.
For those who migrated to Google Plus thinking it is a more serious platform, well, you might not have noticed the games tab that has shown up over the last month! However, the video chat feature in Google Plus is really cool, and it will take some effort to match it. For users already on other Google services, there is a lot of comfort in this Taco-Bell-meets-KFC application. But other than these two, there is little to write home about as far as Google Plus is concerned. For all purposes, both these giants are equally placed in the battle for the social media log-ins.
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Google Celebrates Jim Hansen's 75th Birthday
Today is my dad’s 62th birthday. I never knew he shared this special day with Muppets creator Jim Hansen. In case you are unaware, Google is celebrating
Jim Hansen 75th Birthday Google Doodle
And I have to say this is the B-E-S-T Google Doodle, ever! Hurry,
Happy birthday dad; happy birthday Jim!
Page 26 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed
Google, You Are Doing It All Wrong
No, I am not talking about the
But this is a little different from the usual.
I am talking about identifying and filtering obvious copycats and scrappers – the basics which Google should have figured it all out many years ago.
The truth is, Google is all messed up and the search engine now can’t even deal with the most-obvious scrapped content in its search results.
This post,
Google Can’t Even Differentiate Which Is Original Now And Rewarding Copycats In Its SERP
In normal cases, I never bother about these scrappers. In fact in the past I have never seen any of these scrapped pages outranked my work on the Google’s search results.
But not after this recent Penguin Updates. I knew many said Google’s search results are the crappiest ever in the history now but gosh, I have no idea it’s that bad.
This morning, briefly 24 hours after I published the post, to my surprise, a scrapped version of the article popped into my eyesight and it’s now ranking on the third page of the search term ‘iPage Review 2012’; with my original work nowhere to be found on the first 15 pages on Google!
Scrapped page ranking on #29 for popular search term “iPage Review 2012”
I was like, WTF?
Google is ranking a copied version of my article, which is hosted on a Made-For-Adsense blog with nothing but scrapped content, over my original version that is published on a 4 years old domain with hundreds pages of original content and thousands of legit incoming links.
Well done Julie, you win!
Oh Google, that’s ugly!
Google, if all you want is to reward junks and punish hardworking webmasters over some paid links, you have clearly made it! Congratulations.
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One Year Later: Post Penguin and Google Analysis
Update: A new round of Penguin filter is rolled out on May 22, read my
When Google first rolled out Penguin, this was published on
In the next few days, we’re launching an important algorithm change targeted at webspam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines. We’ve always targeted webspam in our rankings, and this algorithm represents another improvement in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content.
And that was almost one year ago.
How has Google changed since then? What does the search result look like today? Did Google walk the talk and kill off webspams? How do SEOs adapt and play along with Google’s new pet?
The idea of comparing Google’s before-and-after SERP popped up while I was doing my own SEO test recently. By looking into websites that got filtered and comparing them with those that remain in the top SERP, perhaps we can pick up a trend and come with a better SEO plan in 2013.
And So I Begin…
Designing My Case Study
Using
To give you a brief idea, here are 10 samples of the search terms I looked at.
I am aware that Google had released X number of Penguin Updates, Y number of Panda Updates, DMCA penalty, EMD updates, ad nauseum updates during the period. Websites that got penalized or kicked out from the top 10 may or may not be caused by Penguin. However, the main idea of this article is to see what works with Google today and what kind of websites that ranked well one year ago were dropped today.
Obtaining the Before and After SERPs
Then, I fired up SpyFu and check the top 10 results for each search term in March 2013 and April 2012, which are the search results before and one-year-after Penguin.
Just in case you were on SpyFu and have no idea how this is done – there’s a small icon in the Classic Search section named ‘Cached SERP Page’, clicking on it will lead you to the search results cached monthly by the system. By looking backward and rewinding back to April 2012, we get to see the difference between SERP today and SERP one year ago.
Analyzing the Results
After I got my before and after results, I analyze the websites using SEO Moz tool and Majestic SEO. The observations (details like link metrics, Moz’s Domain Authority and Page Authority measurements, number of websites dropped in each set of search results, domain age, link profiles, anchor text distribution, backlink citation flows, etc.) and personal comments were then recorded in a messy Excel file.
It was a lot easier to say than to get this done. It took me more than a week of hard work to look at more than 280 search result pages and 1,500 websites. I was forced to skip some of the sites in order to complete the job before Penguin’s 1st year anniversary, which is April 24th.
How the Landscape at Google Has Changed
Without revealing too many sensitive details, here are my key observations.
Observation 1: Minimum 30% Changes
At least 30% of the old top 10 websites were replaced in today’s result. In many cases, four to six websites that weren’t in the top 10 one year ago now rank in the top on Google.
Observation 2: Google A Better Place Today Compared To One Year Ago
Google updates – be it Penguin, Panda, Bourbon, or Florida – were meant to deliver a better search results to the users.
We want people doing white hat search engine optimization (or even no search engine optimization at all) to be free to focus on creating amazing, compelling web sites. As always, we’ll keep our ears open for feedback on ways to iterate and improve our ranking algorithms toward that goal.
Is Google providing a better result for the searchers – in terms of usefulness, relevance, and spam control?
Looking at the 280+ samples, I would say the current SERP is, surprisingly, much better than one year ago. Okay, my view does not represent billions of other searchers, but trust me, the differences between SERP now and SERP one year ago are very obvious.
For example, on a search term related to Internet faxing service (76.5+ million results), three affiliate sites filled with some mediocre articles were removed from the top 10. On a search term related to a very popular underwater gadget (11+ million results), two extremely famous but useless content farms were replaced by informative websites owned by the gadget manufacturers.
On another search for cheap flights to one of the popular European destinations, the old result page was dominated by five domains whereas the new result page now displays results from 10 different domains – giving the searchers more varieties and comparison choices. The same goes for a popular fashion search, there are nine, instead of six, different domains on the top 10 results.
In brief, Google’s search results today have fewer junk sites (those sites with very little meaningful content) and consist of more varieties of sites (hence, benefiting the searchers) – thanks to Google’s Panda Update.
Observation 3: Link Manipulations
Next, I took a closer look on some of the high ranking sites. Apparently, many high ranking sites are still using questionable (by Google’s guidelines) link building practices.
Has Google killed off link manipulations? The quick answer is no. But somehow, the search giant manages to sweep out many thin content sites from its search results.
Observation 4: Diverse Anchor Text
Sites that rank well are normally very diverse in terms of back link anchor texts. Below are some samples of sites that occupy the top spots in competitive markets – note that these high ranking sites are having at least 75% diversify anchor text.
Observation 5: Domain Authority
Google loves internal pages from a strong domain – I guess that is the ‘Brand Factor’ in play. I use SEO Moz’s Domain Authority (it’s not the best metric but that’s the best we have) to measure a domain strength and, in most cases, internal pages that rank top five in a competitive market are coming from websites with at least DA score 65.
Here’s five random samples I picked up from my messy Excel file.
Here’s data driven from a larger samples.
How To Adapt To Post-Penguin Google
Here are a few tips on how to adapt to the new Google one year after Penguin Updates.
Please bear in mind that these tips were drawn from my personal research and studies – which are limited to the data I can access and dependent on several uncontrolled variables such as the accuracy of the tools I am using (SpyFu, Majestic, etc.). I highly recommend you do your own research before making any important decision and strongly encourage you to post your comment here if you disagree with my findings.
Have Backup Plans For Your Life
At least 30% of Google’s top 10 positions changed hands in the past 12 months. SEO is a volatile game, you’ll need a plan B, plan C, and maybe a plan D. Having some savings and business running on the side is a must for the long run – just in case things don’t work out the way you wish, there’s still something to support you and your family.
Test And Diversify
Scale up; test and diversify everything you can. Study different ways to do web marketing, build different traffic sources to your sites, learn and use different SEO methods on multiple sites – should one or several of your sites under-perform or get penalized, you’ll still have others that should perform well enough.
Be ROI Focused
Try your best to balance your books. Your investments – be it a new link building method or social media marketing campaign – should be measured closely and fine-tuned from time to time.
Create Good Content
Google Panda is very good in catching websites with poor content. Furthermore,
Build A Domain That Google Trusts
Remember Eric Schmidt said “Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.” Unfortunately, in order to succeed in Google’s universe, we have to play by Google’s rules. It’s no coincidence that Google is favoring websites with higher DA scores in its ranking system. If you want to rank well across multiple competitive search result pages, you need to have a strong domain.
Be Really, Really Good In Playing Catch Up Game With Google
Google’s ranking factors today have changed drastically compared to one year ago. And it’s clear that
Can the system still be gamed? Yes, I believe it can be done.
In fact, many skilled SEOs are still able to beat Google algorithm with their secret recipe. But the window is closing fast and there’s a high risk of getting nothing back in return for your effort. To me, it seems almost pointless to game the system today as it is easier (and more rewarding in long term) to build valuable content and focus on the fundamentals (i.e. thorough keyword research, target on 1,000 long tail keywords instead of 10 short tail, basic on-page SEO, proper site navigation designs, etc.).
Starting Over Is One Of The Options
One last piece of advice, if all things failed, I want you to know that it is okay to start over. I have seen companies pour millions of dollars into trying to revive from a Google slap and get nothing in return. At the same time, I noticed that some new sites, with the right recipe, get to higher rankings easily. If you’re not too concerned with branding, making a new site and starting over again might be the better option.
Page 21 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed
[Infographic] Post-Penguin Google Analysis
I am currently experimenting a few design concepts with several different infographic tools online. Below is one of the graphics I made using Infogr.am using the data from
SEO Study: Penguin One Year Anniversary
Use This Infographic for FREE on Your Site
You may use the infographic above on your site provided that you properly attribute the work to us with a link back to WebRevenue.co by using the following embed code.
Embed Code
<h3>SEO Study: Penguin One Year Anniversary</h3>
<p><img alt="Google SEO Analysis Infographic" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/post-Penguin_0.png" width="600" height="3373" /></p>
<p>Data source and original article: <a href="http://www.webrevenue.co/search-engine-optimization/post-penguin-and-google-analysis/">One Year Later: Post Penguin and Google Analysis</a></p>
Some Quick Notes
So far, I think
Page 21 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed
Tips For Using Google Analytics
One of the most powerful (and free) web analytics tools available today, Google Analytics offers incredible insights for analyzing visitor behavior. Go beyond the pretty graphs by setting goals, measuring events or diving deeper with advanced segmentation. If Google Analytics is new to you, this beginner’s guide is a great way to get oriented with Google Analytics before using the advanced tools below.
Set up Website Goals
Goals are a high value action that you want customers to perform. Do you want visitors to subscribe, download a file, fill out a form or buy something? This is where you need to identify the purpose of your website. The goals you set up in Google Analytics should reflect your business objectives and will help you understand conversion rates as well as analyze visitors that convert. Once you have identified the purpose of your site, you can choose from the types of goals below:
URL Destination
This type of goal is defined as a visitor reaching a specific page. This could be a ‘Thank You’ page after subscribing to a newsletter or loading a contact information page. Note that when you fill in the Goal URL textbox, it’s easier to use the URI component instead of the full URL. If you want to take things to the next level, define
Time on Site
With this type of goal, set a length of time for Google Analytics to measure against each visitor. The goal is met when visitors spend more (or less) time than you define. Gaming, photography, or article based sites are a few examples that should utilize this metric to evaluate engagement.
Page per Visit
Similarly, set goals to track the amount of page views per visitor. Individuals on your page are monitored for the amount of pageviews per visit and complete the goal if they are greater or less than the number you set. Blogging sites are another example that may use this type of goal.
Event
Met when a pre-defined Event is triggered, Event goals are used in conjunction with event tracking (learn more on this below). Configure the conditions based on Category, Action, Label or Value – while you can use all of these options, only one is needed.
A few important notes
- You can attribute monetary value to each type of goal. Perfect for monetizing visitor interaction, any time a goal is met the amount is recorded and summed up in the goal reports.
- Goals cannot be deleted. However, you can turn a goal off or edit a goal to change the criteria.
- Up to 20 goals can be set. There are 4 goals sets that contain 5 goals each. There is no specific hierarchy required, but it does provide the option to organize goals in to different categories.
Event Tracking
Event Tracking is a great way to measure user interaction with your site. Calls to action, downloads, outbound clicks or video plays are examples you might want to track as events.
_trackEvent (category, action, label, value)
Category: This is the primary element you want to track and should function as a first way to sort events. You can think of it as the “What.”
Action: This is the definition of the interaction with your visitor. It can be clicked, played, stopped, or paused on the page of the URL.
Label: This is an optional descriptor field that can be used to provide additional information about the event. You can use it as a unique identifier, such as the placement of the URL.
Value: This is an optional numerical value that can be used when you set up goals for your event. You can use explicit values, like a price, or inferred values that are defined elsewhere, like Download Time.
Non-interaction: An optional boolean value that when set to true, the event hit will not be used in the bounce-rate calculation. This can be used to prevent a click on a video from being included in the bounce rate.
The example below is appdev.com selling Pro memberships. The event tracked would be the “Buy Pro” call to action (CTA) on the side bar on the front page. The value is defined as ‘FullPrice.’ If you were to run a promotion for 30% off membership, you can change the CTA to reflect that and all the other elements of the _trackEvent would stay the same except for the value, which could be changed to ’30discount’.
<a href=”http://www.appdev.com/” onclick=”_gaq.push([‘_trackEvent’, ‘GoPro’, ‘FrontPage’, ‘SideBar’,’FullPrice’]);”>
<a href=”http://www.appdev.com/” onclick=”_gaq.push([‘_trackEvent’, ‘GoPro’, ‘FrontPage’, ‘SideBar’,’30discount’]);”>
After time, you can compare the performance of the full price versus the 30% discount, the different pages, and different placements of the CTAs by drilling down in the Content>Overview>Event Category report.
Best practice tips
- Identify all the possible events that can occur on your pages. This will help you to build a consistent report structure that scales well.
- Identify how you want the report to look. This will direct the structure of your Event Tracking Implementation.
- Use a clear and consistent naming convention. Every name you supply will appear in your reports, which is why it is important to consider how you want the category/action pair calculated in report statistics.
Advanced Segmentation
Advanced segmentation is a capability that allows you to create custom reports that dive into statistics unique to your company. It is extremely valuable to track and compare visitors; you can find information regarding customer behavior that can be used to optimize customer experiences and improve conversion and/or engagement.
It is important to realize that not all visitors are the same. Google Analytics can produce reports that compare four segments at one time, which can be applied to most reports. Try segmenting your branded search keywords. What pages does this segment view? What products do they buy? Do they meet any of the defined goal targets? Now compare these metrics with non-branded search, all visits, or direct traffic. Depending on performance, you may be able to identify improvements to your site and the customer experience.
Advanced segments can even be
Analyze Traffic Sources
Where do your visitors come from? The Traffic Sources section can help you understand the effectiveness of referrals, direct traffic, organic search keywords and campaigns. Start with the Traffic Sources > Overview report to see the distribution. A high dependence on search could put traffic at risk if Google rolls out an update, thus a balanced portfolio is optimal.
When looking over the remaining reports, examine the bounce rate, pages per visit, and average visit duration to measure engagement.
Search
Is there a high bounce rate for paid or organic search traffic? That means you most likely aren’t targeting the right terms. Which keywords drive visitors to your site? Also click over to “Ecommerce” on the explorer bar. Of those keywords, which ones generate the most revenue? Knowing which keywords to focus on makes a big difference for investing time or money in optimizing your site.
Direct
See which pages are the most popular for direct traffic. Is there a page deep in your site that ranks high? Make sure visitors can navigate back to the home page easily. Look at the Ecommerce tab as well to see if there are any pages that have a low number of visits, but a high conversion rate and make those pages more visible.
Referrals
Knowing which websites that refer the most effective traffic is important because there is only so much time that can spent marketing your site. Examine how much traffic is referred, which landing pages are most popular and how visitors interact with your site. Can you think of any referral sources that are
Lastly, you should put your Advanced Segmentation skills to use when examining the Traffic Sources reports to figure out which customers make you successful.
Now you can track the areas of needed improvement and success on your website more thoroughly by setting goals, measuring events, or diving deeper with advanced segmentation. The amount of data that Analytics is able to yield can be overwhelming, so make sure you’re always tracking data that has a real impact on the health of your website.
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How to Use Google Webmaster Tools
You’ve read all the
Google describes the tools as having the ability to:
Get the data, tools, and diagnostics for a healthy, Google-friendly site. Check your site’s health for potential issues that Google has detected.
Powerhouse for Your Site
You may not realize what a powerhouse
The biggest advantage is that you can analyze your site the same way that Google analyzes your site. Signing up is simple. Go to
- Free tool
- Easily find site errors
- Discover backlinks you may not know are there
- Quicker sitemap indexing
- Learn site’s load time
- Find crawl errors
- See if there are missing meta tag descriptions
- Notifications if site is compromised
Initial Set-Up for a Site
Once you are logged in to webmaster tools, you will see a red box that says “Add a Site”. Click on this button and add the website you’d like to track. You will receive a file to download. Download the file, do not change the name of the file in any way, and upload to the main folder of your website.
Once the file is uploaded on your site, go back to GWT. The website should appear with the words “verify this site” next to it. Click on “verify this site”.
If the verification is successful, you will see a message that congratulates you and says that verification was successful. Do not remove the file from your site.
Using the Tools
You are now ready to use the tools to enhance your site and improve your SEO. Each tool has a different purpose and ability to help you improve your website.
Queries
On the left side of the page, under Traffic, you can choose “Search Queries”. This information can help you identify which keywords are effective for you and which pages are receiving the most traffic from those queries. You can see if a keyword is being recognized by Google for your site or if you need to make additional tweaks. The tool only identifies SERPs and not necessarily traffic, but it helpful in determining how to improve your site’s rank with Google for those search terms. You can also filter by which of your pages rank highest in the search engines and can see how many impressions the page receives versus the click-through rate (how many actually click on the link and come to your site).
Click-Through Rate
When you look at the “Clicks” or click-through rate, compare it to how many impressions you are getting. If your rate seems low compared to the number of views (under 40% is a good rule of thumb), it is time to improve your meta description. Your description should convince the browser that your page is the exact place she wants to be to learn about that search term. If you still feel a bit uncertain about how to best improve your description, go to Google.com and punch in the keyword term you are tracking. Look at the descriptions for the top three or four sites that pull up in the search.
What information are they providing that you are not? Is there a call to action in the description? Does the description entice the reader in another way to come and visit that page? Armed with this information, you can rewrite your description to make it have a better impact.
Crawl Errors
Improve your site’s overall health by finding out what crawl errors exist and fixing them. Do any of the searches link to a 404 page or another page that is inefficient? Look under “Health” and then “Crawl Errors” and you’ll get a report of these pages. If you want to see your site exactly the way Google sees your site, click on the “Fetch as Google” choice. This can help you identify content that Google can’t return correctly, such as rich media files. If Google can’t return the content without error, then Google can’t crawl that content either.
The “Fetch” tool is also helpful if your site was hacked. You can identify content that has been inserted without your knowledge and remove it. If you suspect your site might have malware, click on the link titled “Malware” and Google will try to detect if there is any on your site.
Disavow Backlinks
The feature in Google Webmaster Tools that allows you to disavow low quality backlinks is one that Google identifies as an advanced tool. “This is an advanced feature and should only be used with caution. If used incorrectly, this feature can potentially harm your site’s performance in Google’s search results.”
However, now that Google is looking at backlinks as part of the overall algorithm package, you may want to seek out what sites are backlinking to your pages and if any might be harming your overall ranking. Although it makes sense to only disavow those sites that are extremely poor (spammy, ads only, malicious or adult content), it is also important to know what sites link to yours and to recheck that information regularly.
Removing the backlinks is a two-part process. The first part is finding out who links to you. Under “Traffic”, click on “Links to Your Site”. Under “Who Links the Most”, choose “More”. Now, download the links. You can search this file and check out the sites linking to you to identify if any are the weakest link (pun intended).
Once you identify the sites you would like to remove, you may want to contact the site owner first as a courtesy. If there is no way to contact the site owner or they refuse to remove the link to your site, then you do the following:
Create a .txt file containing info on the domains you want to remove. The text in the file should look something like this:
domain: badlinkexample.com
You should stick to one domain per line. Once you’ve completed your file, upload it to
Sitemaps
Once you’ve cleaned up your site, you may want to begin optimizing it. While there are several different tools under “Optimization”, one exciting one is the sitemaps feature. Google recommends creating your sitemap in Sitemap protocol. This is a protocol used by members who belong to SiteMaps.org.
Although you can create the sitemap manually by coding it, this is confusing and time consuming for many. Fortunately, there are several third-party tools that are easy to use and will help you create a sitemap that Google will love.
Google requires that the sitemap be 50,000 URLs or less and the file be 50 MB or less.
Once your sitemap is created, return to Optimization/Sitemaps and click on the red button that says “Add/Test Sitemap”. Upload your file.
Other Resources on GWT
The features listed above are some of my personal favorites for improving your website and your website’s content. However, there are other tools that are available on GWT that you might find useful.
Some of the other things you can do:
- Change your website’s address when you move to a new domain.
- Study your internal links (this feature is under “Traffic”) to be sure you aren’t being obnoxious with the internal linking and that your links make sense as far as what the keywords are linking to.
- HTML Improvements will evaluate your site and see what problems Google encountered while crawling it. This can help you further improve the health of your site.
- Data Highlighter helps you indicate to Google that you have content that is a review or otherwise unusually in its markup.
- Author Stats is a feature that GWT offered, took way, and recently reintroduced. This tool helps you see your own ranking as an author It will show you sites where you’re the verified author of that content, click through rates, and number of impressions verses click-through.
- Under “Other Resources”, you’ll find features like Google Places, where you can list a business location, and the Structured Data Testing Tool to make sure Google is reading your markup correctly.
As you can see, Google Webmaster Tools has enough data and tools to keep you busy tweaking your website. If you use just a few of the tools to make sure your site is a strong contender for certain keywords, then the tools will benefit you. Since GWT is completely free to use, what do you have to lose by trying it out?
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Google Authorship: Why You Should Use it
You may have heard that search engine optimization is fading as a tool of choice for Google to rank and position websites. That is true, but in its place, a new tool, Google Authorship, used together with Google+, can help drive traffic to your blog – or at least, that was supposed to be the plan! Last year, Google developed the Authorship Project, which was supposed to be the new guidance for ranking websites. It’s hit a few snags along the way. This post will take you through the basics of what you need to know about Google Authorship and where it stands today.
What Is Google Authorship?
Google Authorship is a way that Google identifies and verifies you as the author (or contributing author) of a particular blog, website or of a piece of content. Rather than thinking of Authorship as a tool for your blog, think of it as a tool for your content. You can verify your authorship for any blog or website you own or write for (with permission of the owner). For example, when I was invited to write for WebHostingSecretRevealed, I was given permission (and required to) verify my authorship with them. Once linked, when your articles shows up in search engine results, your Google+ profile photo is posted alongside it, putting a friendly face right next to your content.
How To Set Up Google Authorship
First off, you will need a
Google+ is a must for bloggers now, as it can have a positive impact on search engine positioning. As an example from my own blog, I regularly get first page Google results for the term “gluten free,” which directly links back to my Google+ shares. I recommend you set a profile up right away. In addition, I’d make sure my profile photo is user-friendly – you want something that will entice people to click on you.Please use a photo of yourself, rather than a logo or other type of image.
Once done, the next step is to add your Google profile to your page or article.
On your own blog or site, simply add a link to your Google+ profile page. If you are a contributing author on other websites, you should add this link to your on-page bio. Once that’s done, go into your Google+ profile and go to your “About” page. On the right at the bottom, you’ll see “Links.” Click “Edit” at the bottom, then under “Contributor to,” click “Add custom link.” Add the blog or site name under “Label,” then add the URL and whether you are a current or past contributor. Save and you’re done!
What Are The Benefits of Google Authorship?
Once you verify and log into your Google+ page, your Google+ account with show up all the sites you write for under “Contributor to.” In addition, you now have “author stats.” Go to
Tip: For a comprehensive tutorial on these tools, check out
Here you are going to see a list of pages for which you are the verified, including impressions and clicks. “Impressions” indicate when a page has been viewed, “Clicks” show when ad on your site has been clicked, and “Click Through Rate” (CTR) is the average number of clicks to impressions. You can check your stats from when you set up authorship through to today. This is primarily going to be useful information when you run ads, but it also shows you success on any guest posts you do. Not only will this help you run ad campaigns, but you can gage your value at other sites that you write for, in terms of profit they have made from your article, as a way to gage your worth to them, or to monitor revenue sharing.
As mentioned, one of the nice things about authorship is that if your article gets picked up by the search engines, your photo comes alongside it – and this will likely increase your chances of getting clicked on.
The Down Side of Google Authorship
Now that you know how to set up and use authorship, you may be wondering if there are any downsides.
There are a few problems.
Some users have experienced Authorship pulling up the wrong image. Google has been working on this issue, but Mark Traphagen of The Moz Blog claims that part of the problem is that at times “
Some have complained that Authorship has contributed to a drop in traffic. Chuck Price of Search Engine Watch discusses the issue at “
What Can We Expect For The Future Of Google Authorship?
Last year,
You might be wondering, then, if adding Google Authorship is worth the effort. Because I believe that Google+ is a critical step in the future of ranking, I think that employing Google Authorship is a simple step to add and beneficial to all bloggers. It may give you a better chance of driving visitors and I’d say it’s a must if you run advertising. In the overpopulated blogosphere, any high quality and trustworthy tool that helps boost your blog ahead of the competition is worth adding to your list of tools that drive traffic, such as
P/S: If you like this post, you should also read my
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Backlinking May Backfire with Google Penguin and How to Combat This
You might think that penguins are cute little creatures that live in the southern hemisphere and play tag at the local zoo, but there is
If your site was ranking pretty well and you were getting steady traffic from Google, but the last update has you running for cover, there is hope to clean up your site and make positive changes going forward that will keep your backlinks clean and hopefully keep your rank higher in the results. Of course, with all the changes Google keeps implementing with their algorithm, you will also have to make adjustments regularly to keep your site up-to-date and excellent enough to catch the search engine’s eye.
May 2013 Update
In the last couple of weeks, this update has really caused some panic in some smaller sites who do their own SEO. Much of their ranking may have been from backlinks from guest blog posts. Unfortunately, Google now sees this as a potential black hat SEO tactic and is penalizing some sites, particularly if the backlinks come from a lower quality site. What might be hurting you:
- Anchor text backlinks. Google now frowns on this. I know, I know. This is the opposite of what we were told to do a couple of years ago and most of your links are already in this format.
- Too many backlinks from the same website.
- Backlinks from spammy sites.
- Forum posts where you shared your link or had a friend do so. (Really? This is just a bad practice anyway, because it is underhanded. Always stay above board in your advertising efforts)
- Out of context backlinks. The anchor text says “puppies” and your site is about kitchen chairs.
- Backlinks from sites with porn.
- Paid backlinks.
- Sites that are blacklisted by Google.
So, what on earth can you do about this problem if your site is suddenly ranking low? You may have thousands of backlinks, after all.
How to Fix Bad Backlinks
While you may not be able to fix every bad backlink pointing to your site, you likely already have an idea of some of the lower ranking or lower quality sites that may be hurting you. Start with those. Send a polite e-mail to the webmaster and ask if any backlinks to your site can be removed and one or two left only in your author bio. Please word this politely.
Wrong Way to Word This Letter
Dear Jack,
Your site ranks so low that it is hurting my site. Please remove all links to my site or else.
Sincerely,
Rude Guest Blogger
Right Way to Word This Letter
Dear Jack,
I am in the process of trying to reduce the number of backlinks to my site. I would appreciate it if you could remove all backlinks in my posts (list the actual posts or the links to them). If you could leave the link in my author bio on some of those pages, that would be great. As always, I appreciate you publishing my guest blog posts and hope we can work together again in the future. Thanks so much.
Sincerely,
Polite Guest Blogger
Just like mama used to say, you will catch more flies with honey than vinegar. I’m not sure, but penguins might like flies, at least this particular beast of a penguin.
For forum posts, you can go in and alter those on your own under your user profile. Simply go back and edit out any backlinks.
However, it is going to be impossible for you to remove every bad backlink or even to be certain which ones Google is counting against you as it is partly a guessing game what their exact algorithm formulation might be. Even if you do figure out the formula, it will be different tomorrow, so your effort will be wasted. Once you’ve fixed what you have the ability to easily fix, then it is time to look forward.
How to Combat the Google Police
Google is definitely the major player when it comes to search engine traffic. A low Google ranking, or worse yet a blacklisting, can truly break your business. Since you can’t possibly remove every single backlink that comes into your site, it might be better to move forward and focus on creating the strongest backlinks you can.
Natural Backlinks
Google Penguin likes “natural” backlinks. These are backlinks that make sense within the text that is being read. Let’s go back to the kitchen chair example. You sell kitchen chairs on your website. Someone writes a high quality article about choosing the best kitchen chair for a small kitchen and links to your site to a specific chair made for small kitchens. This is a natural backlink. Assuming the site linking to you is reputable, this should improve your SERP.
Avoid Spammy Sites at All Costs
It bears repeating – never, ever pay for a backlink. Google is onto this practice. It will hurt you and will not help you. By the same token, do not join a group that promises X number of backlinks in exchange for other links out from your site. You will get penalized for this type of behavior. If a site links to you and is spammy, send a polite note and request that the link be removed.
Final Straw Move
If a site keeps linking to you and is causing your own site harm, you may have to login to your Google Webmaster Tools and use the disavow tool to block that site from linking to you. You can also do this in your control panel on your domain. Personally, if they refuse to remove the link and are a porn or spam site, I would do both. You can’t allow someone to harm your business in this way. If a polite note is ignored or they refuse to remove the link, just handle it on your end. Google will take care of them.
What You Can Count On
If there is one think you can count on from Google, it is that the parameters that measure whether a backlink is of value can and will change in the future. With this in mind, keep your focus on creating valuable content and developing relationships with sites that have a good reputation and are also committed to producing quality content.
Avoid:
- The quick backlink to try to up your SEO unnaturally
- Paying for backlinks
- Sites with low quality content
- Brand new sites
- Sites with too many ads
- Sites with too many backlinks within the article or backlinks that seem unnatural
- Sites with porn or other questionable material, such as hate against a group of people
Use your common sense when choosing the sites you want to build backlinks from. Is it a site you’d want to visit as a reader? Is there anything about the site that turns you off? Check out the quality of the writing on the site. Are those writing articles and blog posts professionals in their field? Even a professional can be a poor writer, so also look at the grammar and if the writing makes sense.
Is the other site using keyword stuffing and is the site being updated regularly. Pay attention to those you develop a business relationship with. Like it or not, those you associate with do impact your own reputation. Google is starting to prove that more and more with each update of Penguin.
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Google SEO And The MyBlogGuest Case – Time To Revert The Roles!
Those who know me also know that I recently developed a strong stand against Google’s attempt to police the Web.
To “clean” it, as they say it.
Webmasters and bloggers have to face
But the fact that Google is a big company with big data at hands doesn’t make what it says (and does) right. They promote their own ‘quality guidelines’ as if they were civil or religious laws, and that’s not right. It’s fine, business-wise, to offer guidelines for inclusion in the search engine, and everybody will agree that Google has to market its own services somehow — but the Google we’ve known from 2011 to today is made of different stuff than the “Do No Evil” nice company of the pre-2011 ‘era’.
Here is a Google that gets aggressive about its goals.
Google’s Ban is Not End of World
Every day, you are putting up with the risk to incur in one or more penalties and I know you are scared of Google’s next move now that the search giant seems to be
There’s a lot to learn from Ann Smarty’s recent experience with
Google’s Penalty Hits MyBlogGuest
As a member of the MyBlogGuest community, I was shocked to learn that
On a personal level, I deem the penalty entirely unfounded and excessive in comparison with the accuse — if some blogs using the platform had been spamming, a downgrade in the SERPs for their pages only would have sufficed as a public example, right?
Not for Google, it seems.
On March 27th, Ann Smarty
Unsettling stuff, since
As
“The guest posting for SEO debacle just shows how Google increasingly hates proper hyperlinks that are open source and not effectively controlled by Google. Genuine guest bloggers will have to hurt themselves in search now by adding the crippling nofollow attribute to their posts”; so, for Google, “When somebody is using your infographics and credits your site as the source he’s not actively endorsing you but simply manipulating Google according to Google’s latest updates on acceptable link building.”
Perhaps Google doesn’t understand that this FUD campaign is going to hurt their search results in the long run, as more and more nofollow links (or lack of them therein) mean less nodes in the Web graph for Googlebot to take note of and index.
OR — Google might just be directed to a more elitist type of search results.
But more on this in the next section of the article — now, on with the real piece of cake. ;)
Q&A with Ann Smarty, Founder of MyBlogGuest
As an affectionate member of the MyBlogGuest community, I decided to ask Ann Smarty a few questions by email, to which she replied promptly and share a lot of good advice.
Here is the interview.
Me: Google banned MBG entirely from their search index, an action they usually perform on websites labeled as ‘pure spam’. How did you perceive this kind of manual action along with Matt Cutts’ Twitter comments related to it?
Ann: Well, to be absolutely honest… we used to be indexed after the penalty but then I actually removed the site from Google index using Google Webmaster Tools and blocked Google using Robots.txt, so I am not really sure what exactly contributed to the fact that we disappeared from the index. As for the penalty itself and Matt’s tweets, well, let them play :) We are not giving up!
“Webmaster”, or Google “Webslaves”?
Me: Bloggers, and webmasters in general, are more and more scared of Google’s next move and they seem to be no longer able to make choices for their own when it comes to the management of their content and links (no more webMASTERS, in a way, but webSLAVES). Do you have advice to share to help webmasters through this difficult time?
Ann: My advice is always the same: forget about Google. Yes, other types of traffic (social, community, word of mouth, local marketing, etc) are more time consuming and you are likely to work harder to achieve results, but in the long run, that results in more confident future! If you have many traffic sources and you lose one, well that sucks but you can still survive (that’s what happened to MyBlogGuest). Facing and accepting the fact – “Nobody is safe” – is easier than being constantly scared.
Google: “Do as we say, not as we do”
Me: Google seems to accept guest posts (without the rel=nofollow attribute) on its Analytics blog. What do you think about this when compared with the stress you and other MBG members have been undergoing lately?
Ann: I am in search industry for 8 years now. Nothing surprises me any more. Google’s policy has always been “Do as we say, NOT as we do.” They prove that point again and again. The bigger issue is that when it comes to guest contributors and author attributions, website owners don’t have any clear guidelines from Google. With paid links it has always been clear: You can sell links but keep them nofollow. How about guest posts moving forward? Only big guys are allowed to invite guests? What’s the actual rule? I think Google is very lost and desperate actually. Matt Cutts is trying to fix unfixable: the old outdated algorithm. I feel sorry for him!
Building successful site without Google
Me: I’d love it if you could share a few tips on how to help a website build traffic without Google. Having alternatives helps. :)
Ann: It all starts with the basics: Build some content that you can land traffic to via your multiple efforts. Now, when it’s done, things are getting much easier.
- Here are some
- Try
- While generating traffic through your sharing and networking tactics, build up your following and email list (here’s a
Me: This last question is more about a perception I have of Google’s behavior toward the Web in general: Google seems to be leading its ‘cleaning the Web’ mission to the restriction of its own SERPs to an elite of websites they consider helpful and ‘righteous’ (as in, ‘they follow our guidelines and keep up with us’). Did you have this perception, too? If you did, and based on your experience as an SEO, would you think such a restricted search model would work?
Ann: Well, try looking at that from the different perspective: Why would they do that? Ranking brands higher doesn’t mean more revenue for them (brands can actually invest more in the ads than us, small people).
The only reason why there are so many penalties is that Google algorithm is broken and Matt’s team, who have NOT developed the algorithm itself, are just trying hard and struggling to deliver good results.
Yes, this strategy is doomed. Yes, a lot of small businesses suffer from Google’s deficiency. But if they are actually evil or simply desperate – that’s something questionable.
Google is large enough to exist even with the broken algorithm. For how long? Well, other Google departments are smart enough to care about the future: Android, Google Glass, even Google Chrome, and many, many other products are geared towards the future of Google.
As for the search, it’s dying. People are switching to apps. Mobile and local search are gaining power. Google’s web search will die sooner or later. So we just need to adapt to the future and think about Google’s web traffic as “It was fun while it lasted; NOW, let’s move on!”
Thanks Ann! :)
Is Google’s Monopoly Tending Toward Elitist Web Search?
This past week MBG was not the only website to get a manual webspam penalty from Google.
No sense, indeed, unless Google is up with something else. You know, a hidden purpose.
While this part of the article is heavily based on speculation, as there were no official announcements from Google in this regard, I still invite you to read it – as is, a reflection over the big picture of the recent events.
An elite web search would help Google get rid of all mediocre to discrete results and only keep the best results. ‘Best’ in Google’s view is a website that abides by Google’s guidelines and keeps up with the algorithmic and manual changes of the search giant.
As
Makes me wonder if a web user really needs a search engine of this kind, though.
What Happens If We Default Nofollow Any Outgoing Links Out Of Google FUD
You know what FUD means (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) and the consequences of it — webmasters are becoming increasingly scared to link out ‘naturally’ because of Google’s recent actions against Doc Sheldon’s blog and Ann Smarty’s community, and so far nothing good has come out of that sentiment. If you stop by
Sounds scary, right? Yet, that’s what is happening.
When you default nofollow all outbound links…
- … your site doesn’t vouch for these links anymore — from an algorithmic viewpoint, you are switching to a neutral vote about everything and everyone you talk about and cite
- … your site doesn’t create any more relationships with other sites via links, which leads to less chances for the contents you link out to to get found by other visitors, as your ‘votes’ don’t count
- … you contribute to make the Web graph a disrupted graph were nodes (pages) become more and more isolated
- … you may end up getting paid with the same coin and stop earning ‘natural’ (dofollow) inbound links (if you don’t link out ‘naturally’ to others, why would others link out ‘naturally’ to you?)
To the very extreme, a situation where most of the Web becomes nofollowed becomes dangerous for the SERPs of every search engine that implements the use of nofollow of exclude webpages — so even if Google (as speculated) is really tending toward an elitist type of Web search where only a few survive, other search engines would be in trouble — and their users with them.
Nofollow Links And Google AdWords Ads
Google insists that AdWords links don’t pass PageRank and are akin to nofollowed links, so they’re within Google’s search engine guidelines.
However, think about it — why would AdWords links even need to pass PageRank when such paid ads already dominate the SERPs?
Google places them above organic results so they are already given all the possible Google boost, deeming PageRank useless.
The contradiction? You pay to take advantage of this implicit PageRank, exactly while Google insists that you shouldn’t pay for links that help you dominate the SERPs.
How, Then, Can I Build A Web-based Business Without Google?
I can hear you. It is already tough enough to keep a business or even a small niche blog running with Google’s ever-changing algorithms and penalty policies, how can I ever make it without Google?
Believe me — you can.
Web-based businesses used to thrive long before Google was even a thought in its founders’ mind, so there is nothing new here. It’s just a matter of re-discovering old and evergreen business strategies and make them work along with social media channels (not only networks).
Here are a few tips:
- Customer Relationships – When you take care of your customers, you are already on the way to success without Google. Satisfied customers love to spread the word with friends and family members and they may also endorse you on their social media profiles, blogs and forums. Be open to their feedback and help them solve their problems.
- Social Media Outreach – Create a Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest profiles. Even a Google+ account, if you wish. Then reach out to both customers and names in your niche — engage in the conversation, be helpful and ask for help when your business needs it — customers enjoy giving back, be it via polls or written opinion, and other business owners are most likely to network with a ‘colleague’ who knows how to provide value and innovation.
- Blogger Outreach – Try to make connections with other bloggers who will likely link back to you or promote you in other ways. Offer free banners for widget-loving bloggers to link to your site.
- Industry-specific Forums – Participate in forum discussions in your industry. To be helpful helps and it makes a nice asset for
- Directory Listings – They still work, especially if they are highly trafficked niche directory.
- Guest Posts AND Guest Talks – Guest write (yes! No matter what Google says) for blogs and publications in your industry, share valuable advice and be there when your readers leave comments (reply to them!). Guest talks offer even better chances to brand and buzz because you are physically there for anybody who has questions for you. Don’t forget to smile warmly!
- Get Interviewed – Be open to web-based, phone and in-person interviews and use them not only to get publicity for you and your business, but even as chances to put your know-how at the services of those who will read or listen to the interview.
- Sponsorships – As a business, you can sponsor an event, a charity or an educational institution and build a reputation through it. Don’t limit your presence to a mere link on a page or a bunch of brochures, though — make it a given to attend the event, visit the charity or the educational institution during the time of the sponsorship, and keep in touch afterward if you can.
- Partnerships – Partner with other businesses, so they can help and sponsor and help each other thrive. Last year, I offered to draw free illustrations to clients and colleagues who so kindly left me a LinkedIn testimonial; well, none of them was required to link back to me, but one of them still did and brought in some relevant traffic.
Market Your Website Like Google Doesn’t Exist
That’s right — it would be silly (and rude) to avoid SEO practices entirely, especially on-page SEO, because there are other search engines that like to display accessible, optimized, helpful results, not just Google. While you won’t focus on Google traffic, you would still benefit from traffic generated by other search engines. Also, on-page SEO combined with a bit of UX definitely helps users focus on the content and make it easier for them to read your content.
Just make sure you don’t fall into the trap of following Google’s guidelines word for word, or you will be back to step one — to find a way to get rid of Google’s heavy influence in your business and, consequently, in your life.
Focus on basic SEO that will make every search engine happy. Leave the remainder of the work under your ‘master’ part of the ‘webmaster’ word.
The Core Message Of This Article
Food for thought, that’s granted, but I also wrote this to ask you, fellow website owners, bloggers and content marketers, please—
Help bring linking and content creation back in the hands to the real ‘masters’ — webmasters!
This is the core quest of the current Google-dominated world where bloggers and website owners bent over ‘god’ Google’s mission to “clean up the Web”.
We would be fine and happy if Google only spoke of its own web search rules as service rules – we all agree that every company has rules for the use of its service. But Google didn’t stop to “this is how it works for my service” talks – no, Google made its rules into ‘ethics’, their articles speak of ‘penalties’ and ‘hunts’, the Webspam team talks about ‘cleaning the Web from spam’ (and NOT just cleaning their search results!).
Google’s mania of grandeur is dangerous and it actively fights every form of freedom of speech and expression on the Web. It’s dangerous because it gave life to a cult.
If you like Google and its guidelines, by all means follow them. But don’t make Google into a god and its guidelines into commandments. Don’t build a religion around a company!
The cult built around Google and what its spokesmen say is a real plague these days, much more than Google’s guidelines themselves.
You don’t like Google? Welcome in the club. To put it with
“Market your website and business like it’s 1997. (…) Pretend like your site has already been penalized or de-indexed by Google. Stop for a moment and ask yourself what you would do to continue running a thriving online business. Now… go do that.”.
Oh, and once you do, you may as well
Remember, Google is only as powerful as we — users and webmasters — make it.
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