Don't Get Caught in the Google Penalty

In a recent panel at a SXSW 2012, Matt Cutts of Google talked to the changes that are coming to Google search. He noted that the search engine giant will be rolling out a penalty for over-optimized websites as it deploys its updated search algorithm. But what did he mean by “over-optimized”, what does that mean to your website and why would Google make this type of change?

 

 

Flag on the play! Too much optimization on the field.

As a search engine, Google’s job is to provide the best results possible for any search query. One analogy that I have heard that is extremely apt is to think of Google as a Real Estate agent. Like any good Real Estate agent, their job is to show you the best properties for your needs. And, under most situations, Google can do just that because it uses its database to find the right Web properties.

The issue of false positives – poor results and nonsense listings – comes up when a website portrays itself differently than it is. This means that they use keyword stuffing, buy links and essentially try to pass off a mediocre or deceptive piece of Web property as stellar. This makes Google look bad and keeps it from doing its job. Search consumers get frustrated with hundreds of thousands of useless listings that clutter up their search results and blame the “messenger”.

So, as a way to mediate this issue, they will be rolling out a penalty for websites that are heavy on the optimization, while skimping on the good stuff (content, relevancy, contextual tags, etc.). Google is presenting this new move as leveling the playing field for big and small Web properties alike.

You only need to be concerned about this change if your basics aren’t solid, if your website is mediocre and your content relevancy is an ongoing issue. This new direction for Google means that in the future it will be harder to get subpar, deceptive or broadly based content indexed.

You no longer will be able to “cast a broad net” to try and capture web traffic. It will be more difficult to prove relevance to Google for your phrases, and it will take more work in general to get sites optimized and ranked.

The best advice for anyone concerned about this change is to make certain that your website provides ongoing, fresh, and content that is directly relevant to your product, service, brand and message and – above all, you will need a deeper understanding of your website visitors.

Search engine optimization continues to matter—now more than ever. It’s just that now the basics matter a whole lot more too.

How Does Google Work

This morning as I sat down to my computer, it occurred to me that searching on the web has become such an integral part of life today that even the name of the leading search engine has become a verb for finding information – Google. The web has been a great innovation and has served – whether by design or by accident – as one of the fastest and most reliable means of distributing knowledge and information.

 

It is fast and fairly efficient. Well, for the most part anyway.

But have you ever wondered what takes place after you enter your search words into your favorite search bar and hit enter? It is something that we all take for granted today. You type in your query and in a couple of seconds, an over whelming list of possibilities is displayed – on the magnitude of millions – “there are 33,800,000 results for your search”.

 
But how does it all work? What happens? What are the steps that take place? And where does it all happen? Google Works

Here, then, is a guide to what happens during a typical Google search — now, of course, with automatic spell-check.

Query Box: It all starts with somebody typing in a request for information about the safest dog food, what time the D.M.V. closes, or what the prime rate is in China.

Domain-Name Servers: The software for Google’s domain-name servers runs on computers in leased or company-owned data centers all over the world, including one sitting in a small town in Eastern Washington. Their sole purpose is to shepherd searches into one of Google’s clusters as efficiently as possible, taking into account which clusters are nearest to the searcher and which are least busy at that instant.

The Cluster: The request ­continues into one of at least 200 clusters, which sit in Google-owned data centers worldwide.

Google Web Server: This program splits a query among hundreds or thousands of machines so that they can all work on it at the same time. It’s the difference between doing your grocery shopping all by yourself and having 100 people simultaneously find one item and toss it into your cart.

Index Server: Everything Google knows is stored in a massive database. But rather than waiting for one computer to sift through those gigabytes of data, Google has hundreds of computers scan its “card catalog” at the same time to find every relevant entry. Popular searches are cached—held in memory—for a few hours rather than run all over again. That means you, Britney.

Document Server: After the index server compiles its results, the document server pulls all the relevant documents—the links and snippets of text from its massive database. How does Google search the Web so quickly? It doesn’t. It keeps three copies of all the information from the internet that it has indexed in its own document servers, and all those data have already been prepped and sorted.

Spelling Server: Google doesn’t read words; it looks for ­patterns of characters, whether English, German or Sanskrit. If it sees your requested pattern a thousand times but finds a million hits for a similar pattern that’s off by one character, it connects the dots and politely suggests what you probably meant, even while it provides you the results, if any, for your fat-fingered query for “hwedge funds.”

Ad Server: Each query is simultaneously run through an ad database, and matches are fed to the Web server so that they’re placed on the results page. The ad team is in a race with the search team. Google vows to deliver all searches as quickly as possible; if ad results take longer to pull up than search results, they won’t make it onto the page—and Google won’t make money on that search.

Page Builder: The Google Web server collects the results of the thousands of operations it runs for a query, organizes all the data, and draws Google’s cunningly simple results page on your browser window, all in less time than it took to read this sentence.

Results ­Displayed: Often in 0.25 ­seconds or less.

So, the next time you hit your search box, remember that while we may take it all for granted, it is a rather awe inspiring process that takes place at a mind numbing speed. Not something to take for granted.

Make Certain You are Ready for Google's New Algorithm

There are three simple steps to ensure the new Google algorithm doesn't throw a wrench in your company's search engine results

In the next few weeks Google and their much vaunted search engine are changing and you will want to be ready – or be left behind. They are making serious change to the base search algorithm that drives results for search queries and even though you may not remember – or for that matter you may have never even known - how to write an algorithm, you better know how to adjust to those changes or your business could face some seriously bad search marketing results.

According to Kenneth Wisnefski, online marketing expert, founder and CEO of WebiMax, a search engine optimization firm “Companies that are looking at this news and not being reactive are going to see steep declines in traffic. Google’s change could push high-ranking sites down and reshuffle the index for sites that no longer meet their criteria.”

This change is expected to be the most substantial one in the history of Google search. But the question remains, how to best prepare for the new algorithm. The answer is pretty straightforward and there is no algebra required, according to Wisnefski. In a recent interview with Portfolio.com he laid out three simple ideas.

Step 1: Break from the old keyword mentality, embrace synonyms
Since Google is changing their dependency on keyword ranking to include comparable “like” words, webmasters should evaluate their website copy and brand message. Webmasters can now use similar words in context, pulling dependency away from using the same keyword throughout the page.

Step 2: Build up your FAQ page

Google admits they will place more relevance on definitions and direct answers. This move is an attempt to return to the end user highly authoritative responses to questions they are searching for. Businesses can leverage this by increasing their FAQ or “Ask an Expert” page on their website by answering direct questions related to their products, services, company, and industry. Doing this important step will help their page get indexed for a wide variety of keywords.

Step 3: Don’t sell, educate

Treat your website as much as an opportunity to educate users as an opportunity to sell your product. If you sell seeds for flowers, educate the reader about how to pick the best seeds for your garden, don’t just offer them tulips.

Wisnefski also said that the changes Google are implementing are intended to make the algorithm more human based and provide more “human relevance” in results. Right now there is such a thing as a bad Google search. Moving important words later in the query sequence and the results will change, or if you use a less popular synonym and the “better” result may not even come up, or ask a direct question and you’re likely to end up at WikiAnswers or Ask.com, and end up sifting through dozens "best guess" answers from amatures.

“Google is really looking to standardize search outcomes regardless of the semantic choices of the user,” he said. “It won’t be about the term as much as the terminology.”

In theory, according to Wisnefki, with the new algorithm, the heart of the searcher's interest will more readily and universally rise to the surface, though he remains skeptical that Google may still favor some of its own content.

"Google could be proving their power as the dominant leader in online search by completely rewriting the rules," he said in a statement prior to the interview. "This move could also be an attempt to further distance them from rival Microsoft (Bing) and illustrate their strength in relation to Facebook in the online community."

Regardless, effective SEO and website optimization can take anywhere from one to three months, so there’s not much time to prepare.

“Google gave us a three-month warning of these changes," said Wisnefski. "Thus the call to action is now to evaluate and improve your webpage to make sure you can remain highly ranked or even surpass those that are well-ranked above you that are not going to make changes.”

CreateYour Own Facebook Timeline Cover

If you were wondering how to build out a real cool looking facebook timeline cover, well our friends at HyperArts have let the cat out of the bag.  Here is their new tutorial with template and examples that I thought was well worth sharing.

http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/how-to-create-a-cool-facebook-timeline-cover-photo-and-profile-picture-combo/

Social Ads are 55% More Memorable [Study]

by Pam Dyer on March 13, 2012  

Social Ads are 55% More Memorable [new study]

One of the main pitches social networks make to brands is that placing ads on these platforms gives marketers the ability to leverage the power of users’ networks to share content, creating brand awareness and improving sales. There have been a number of studies on this topic, including one from Nielsen in 2011 which found that 76% of U.S. consumers trust recommendations from personal acquaintances more than other forms of advertising. Facebook rolled out some new premium advertising products at the end of February that emphasize harnessing these friend connections to make advertising innately more social and help brands accomplish this goal — Facebook advertisers will now be able to distribute ads to fans of companies in news feeds, the right-hand column, and in a log-out message; these ads will also be in the news feed of its mobile app.



On the heels of this introduction, Nielsen has released the results of a new study showing that social ads are recalled 55% more than those that don’t allow people to share ad content with friends. “Social ads are those served to users who have friends that are fans of or have interacted with the advertised brand and prominently call the relationship out,” Nielsen says, “while non-social ads are served to the remainder of the Facebook population”. It should be noted that Nielsen is a Facebook partner, and has created the online system that enables Facebook advertisers to improve their campaign measurement effectiveness and online reach.

To measure how well social ads gain audience traction, Nielsen analyzed 79 Facebook campaigns over six months to see what, if any, advantages social ads offer vs. traditional ads. Prior Nielson research showed that online ads in general tend to be noticed and remembered overall, so the new data shouldn’t come as a surprise:



The current campaign analysis further demonstrates that social ads offer an advantage. Based on this data, marketers should consider leveraging ads with social content as a means to better utilize the power of the consumer networks that engage with their brands. It also serves as a reality check for marketers’ efforts to create more social connection points with their consumers, demonstrating that a well-executed social campaign better positions their brands to reach a larger group of prospective customers.

Here is a great piece by Deb Ford on Linked Local Network.

Many small business owners are faced with similar issues when tackling the subject of internet marketing. What actual value and ROI can I expect for my business? Do I use it alone or as a complement to my existing marketing plan? It’s likely that the company has a static website managed by the two person marketing department or your college nephew. Then recently you met with business friends and someone mentioned using Facebook and Twitter, along with some other sites to drive business. The good news is you are not alone. Statistics indicate that small businesses still are wrestling with understanding the benefit to the social media equation. Yet, social media can be a huge boost to your customer base with minimal expense and can be incorporated into an existing traditional media campaign.

To develop your presence, you have to think about your customers. The same thought should be given to creating a social media campaign as to your traditional marketing campaign. . . .

Read entire post . . .
http://linkedlocalnetwork.com/archives/802

Marketing QR Codes

There has been significant chatter over the past year about the impact, potential and pit falls of using QR [Quick Response] Codes as a marketing tool. This is one tool set that I have personally seen both work and fail on monumental scale.

With very little effort you can find hundreds of case studies, promotional pieces and informatics about QR Codes. But after having read and reviewed most of these I have seen a definite pattern that has developed and there is much that can be learned from both the successes and failures in their applications.

The first thing that needs to be taken into consideration is that this is a unique type of marketing vehicle unlike any other. It can only be applied through the use of a QR Code reader on a smart phone. This is where most marketers tend to lose their way. By the very nature of the ‘beast’ this is a mobile marketing tool, it is limited in adoption and a very small portion of the market is fully aware of what QR Codes are and how they can be ‘scanned’ or what they are for. In the broad market, they still have a very low value perception.

A bit of background

QR Codes have struggled for recognition and adoption within U.S. consumers since its development. The code was originally developed in 1994 as a two-dimensional bar code by Denso Wave Company for use in tracking automotive parts in manufacturing.

The code held a number of unique properties compared to the traditional bar coding of that era. First, it was not limited to a single position scan, meaning that it could be read from a variety of angles – high speed reading was now an option. It could also carry up to four-times the data as traditional bar codes.

What caught the attention of early adoption marketers was the capability of this code to encode and carry alphanumeric information, you know like web addresses, v-card information, and map locations. In fact anything that could be packed into 4,296 characters [letters and numbers].

How’s that working for you?

Today the global market for mobile marketing and advertising is booming, with QR codes experiences bringing brand messaging to a level of direct consumer interaction and (dare we say) fun and immediacy not experienced before. But what are the best practices that are emerging — and how are they clicking with consumers?

QR Codes seem to be popping up everywhere in advertising and marketing, but there is little evidence that the general public — even in the most likely demographics — is using them. Recently CNN reported about the codes that take users to websites without having to bother with typing in long Web addresses.

The story cites a recent study of how college students view QR codes. The study found that while 81 percent of college students surveyed owned a smartphone and 80 percent said they had seen a QR code, only 21 percent said they had successfully scanned one. About 75 percent said they weren't likely to scan a QR code in the future, either.

In a recent interview by Sheila Shayon, for Brand Channel magazine, SpyderLynk CMO Jane McPherson noted, the challenge is getting consumers to use them, and benefit from the experience: "If everyone throws QR codes on everything without offering consumers value beyond a web connection, will it turn consumers off? Right now there’s still a novelty factor, but marketers are going to have think more carefully about the best times, places and ways to use mobile activation codes.”

In addition, according to an article on Bizjournals.com by Cromwell Schubarth, ComScore      reported this past summer that only 6.2 percent of the total mobile audience scanned QR or bar codes on their mobile phones. Of those most were young, upper-income men.

"Why the discrepancy?" wrote DonAguirre, brand manager at Archrival, which did the original study. "Students simply struggled with the process. Some didn't know a third-party app was needed [to scan the QR code]. Many mistakenly assumed it could be activated with their camera. And others just lost interest, saying the activity took too long."

CNN reported that for many, QR codes "seem like a crude hack that just replaces one mobile hassle with another." It also cites uncertainty about whether the code will truly take a user to a site that would interest them. For some there are also concerns about some code found in the public taking users to phishing sites or exposing their devices to malware.

But the creative innovation never ends – Application Examples

The squares of bar code are showing up in advertisements and promotional materials for businesses in almost every type of print media and unique application.

• One Seattle company even offers codes affixed to gravestones that can be scanned with a smartphone to give more information about the deceased
• One Real Estate company posts virtual home tour codes on the posted for sale sign in the front yard
• A non-profit shop selling donated celebraty clothes, located in London, England used QR Codes on garment hang-tags that directed scanners to brief video spost by the celebrities who had donated the specific piece of clothing being sold

So what should we take from this?
There are a number of lessons that marketing can take from the success and failures of QR Codes to date. This may seem a bit simplistic, however . . .

First: Know your audience.
Does your target audience use the technology and have it in hand? Do they know how to use it or do they need supplemental ‘education’ in order for your promotion to work? Remember this is inherently a mobile experience – adjust accordingly.

Second: Know the value.
It is no longer sufficient to simply provide a static link to a website or only provide “more information”. You need to provide a unique virtual experience in order to fully engage members of your target.

Third: Does the brand message get lost?
Does the medium match your brand message and does the application of the technology enhance your brand experience? Does it fit for you?