Introducing G+ Business Pages

Up until this point, Google+ users have had only the ability to connect with other people. This Monday, however, Google announced the introduction of Google+ Pages, a service that allows you to connect with organizations and brands you care about. 

As Google describes it, “Google+ has always been a place for real-life sharing, and Google+ Pages is no exception. After all: behind every page (or storefront, or four-door sedan) is a passionate group of individuals, and we think you should able to connect with them too. For you and me, this means we can now hang out live with the local bike shop, or discuss our wardrobe with a favorite clothing line, or follow a band on tour. Google+ pages give life to everything we find in the real world.”

It’s likely that Google+ Pages will have a high level of visibility thanks to their integration with basic Google search.  Pages places will generally turn up in the regular search results below an organization’s own website.  Google also plans to enable a feature they call Direct Connect. Limited pages have this feature at the moment, but Google states many more are coming in the future. You will be able to go direct to pages that have Direct Connect enabled simply by adding the '+' in a search query followed by the name of a page.

Although the service is promising, a few hangups still exist.  Currently, only one user can be registered to any given page, making management of a page difficult for a larger organization or department.  Some early users have also noticed that it is far too easy to accidentally publish information to an account  unintentionally.  Finally, a Google+ pages steer users away from companies’ actual websites in favor of their G+ Page.  This may be a drawback to some users, however, owning a space on Google+ is yet another web presence that no business will want to miss out on.

Ready to get your business set up on Google+ Pages?  Head to the Google+ registration page to get started. Businesses are asked to classify under one of the following categories:

• Local Business or Place
• Product or Brand
• Company, Institution or Organization
• Arts, Entertainment or Sports
• Other

Businesses are allowed to create as many pages as they like, providing you the ability to have a separate page for a particular product, product line, or event.  Your Google+ page will have a +1 button, similar to those now found around the web.  As a page however, you won’t have the ability to +1 other pages. 

Local business pages have additional functionality which allows you to provide a phone number and address that will add a map and local contact information to your page.  Although similar to the already existing Google Places service, they presently remain two separate services that must be managed individually. 

We’re excited about the new ability to connect with our audience on G+.  Check out the SEO.com G+ page and let us know what you think.

Google’s Latest “Freshness” Algorithm To Affect 35% of Searches

Google announced the freshness algorithm update this morning. It’s intended purpose is to provide the best results for the most recent information you’re seeking.


This algorithm update follows several Panda updates and last year’s caffeine update, which focused on the speed of indexing new content.


    If I search for [olympics], I probably want information about next summer’s upcoming Olympics, not the 1900 Summer Olympics (the only time my favorite sport, cricket, was played). Google Search uses a freshness algorithm, designed to give you the most up-to-date results, so even when I just type [olympics] without specifying 2012, I still find what I’m looking for.


Las Vegas Freshness SERPSSeveral searches appear as normal, in my quick review. One that stands out is a search for Las Vegas (We’re attending Pubcon next week). It shows a few more universal search components (maps, images, news, etc.). One another unrelated search, I noticed that Google+ Circle information is beginning to appear next to a picture of those in my circles.

TOP 5 Steps to Killer Keyword Research For SEO

Without keywords you have nothing in SEO. You can consider the keywords the vehicle of your campaign and inbound links, your fuel. Much of your success and results will be driven through each of the phrases targeted.
In this initial process of keyword research, it can be easy to go one of two ways—just barely scratching the surface or going overboard and wasting time. With a process set in place, you will do much better at achieving quick, quality results.
Quality keyword research includes 5 phases:

1. Baseline Keywords

To begin your keywords research you will need a starting point. This will usually be a smaller list of phrases that define what products, services, or pages you would most like to promote. Here are a few great ways to get your baseline keywords:

Keyword Rankings or Top Referring Keywords

Knowing what kind of ground your website has already gained in the search engines is a great way to determine how your are viewed by them. Whether your are assessing rankings manually or through a ranking tool this should be a fairly quick snapshot of potential opportunities that should not be passed up. Take those keywords and add them to your preliminary list.
This step is very similar to checking which keywords you are ranking for. Naturally, those that rank well (or rank at all) are going to be those that drive traffic to the website. Typically I would not recommend pulling both rankings and top referring keywords to get your baseline. Go ahead and choose one or the other and you should be good to go.

2. Keyword Expansion

Let Search Volume Set Priority

While keyword research is not determined solely upon search volume it certainly is a major playing factor in the final selection of target keywords. Not only this but—as one of the only few ways we can clearly communicate the potential value of targeting a certain phrase—this can be a great motivator to clients. The process of compiling a list of keywords to filter through and discover your trophies should be fairly easy and quick when using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool.  Knowing how to use this nifty tool correctly is important.  Check this post out for the best practices for the Adwords Keyword Tool.

3. Keyword Filtering

There are a few questions to ask yourself as you begin eliminating keywords from the list. For example, how quickly you would like to rank? What type of keywords from the list support one another? Which keywords  and phrases here represent the biggest money makers of the website in question?
With these questions answers will come best in the following processes:

Use Your Client

If you haven’t already done this in the “baseline” process make sure to speak with your client about what keywords you are looking at.  Determine which of these represent their best money makers. Having this bit of knowledge in mind could hugely change the end result of what is selected. A lower search volume phrase with the potential to drive only 10% or even less in traffic as compared to another could earn much more.

Clustering

This should be a process familiar to most—the idea of bringing supportive and similar phrases together to target one page.  The idea is to spread the value of link building and on page optimization across multiple phrases while keeping the content natural and not forced. For instance, when you are writing an article on “link building” it is likely you will use the phrases:

• link acquisition
• link bait
• building links

What we have here are 4 different phrases that can be used almost interchangeably to support one another.
When beginning your clusters, first choose what you would consider your “trophy” keywords.  These will typically be those that are super competitive, have a high potential for traffic or are the big money makers. From these phrases start breaking your list out into iterations following them.

What Does The Competition Look Like?

When asking yourself how quickly you need to achieve a quality rank, and the answer is “NOW!” then stop doing keyword research for SEO and start building out lists for a great PPC campaign. If your answer is “soon” you will want to make sure the keyword has less established competitors. Typically I like to fan out the time frame possibilities for ranking and competitiveness in the final target keywords—classing them into 3 different levels of difficulty and estimated time of performance. To evaluate your competitors for a certain phrase consider these processes:
First, run a search for your phrase. Then take your top 4-5 results URLs. These are your main competitors.

Open Site Explorer

For a quick, in-depth analysis of your competitors link portfolio, the SEOmoz Open Site Explorer is your source. While this tool can be used for a plethora of different purposes, for our intent here you will want to pay attention to the following:

• Linking Pages – take a quick look at what type of pages the website has gained links from.  Is there only one or two with a super high authority or is the entire first page of linking pages high in authority. If you have a wide spread of authority in linking pages you can assume this is a more competitive website and will take more time to overcome. (At this point you should also be asking yourself if the acquisition of these same links is possible for the website in question. If so, how difficult will they be to acquire?)
• Full Metrics - once you the snapshot of linking pages in mind go to the Full List of Metrics. In a spreadsheet gather the data found here to compare to the other competitors and your website too. This will be a great determinant of what you are up against.

Page Rank

The page rank provided to your competing URLs will also help you gauge the difficulty level. Use a toolbar or extension to grab those digits quickly and throw them into the spreadsheet as well. These will give you a comprehensive enough snapshot to know your difficulty level relative to other keywords in question.

4. Keyword Selection

What Are The Trends?

At this point your list should begin looking narrowed and nearly final. For quality assurance, you will want to check the trends of your keywords. The trending graph you see above is from Google Trends. This is a good way to get a snapshot for a Year-over-Year (YOY) comparison in the demand of key phrases.
Search Optimization is a long term approach to your online success. With that in mind even search volume, as it stands today, should not entirely determine your selection of keywords. I will usually implement Google Trends at two different points of my keyword research: First, when I am selecting my “head keywords” or those I will then select iterations from to build a cluster of supportive phrases as explained above. And second, at the final quality assurance check of the target keyword clusters selected.

5. Keyword Mapping

What Are You Targeting?

Throughout the entire process of keyword research, we as SEO’s have link building in the back of our mind.  This is the end goal and the very reason we are choosing key phrases to target. But just as important as the selection of phrases is where you are going to be pointing them to: the target page.
Choosing which URLs to target can be part of the process throughout or at the end. The poignant matter to be aware of is whether or not building new pages is in the realm of possibility. It is likely you will complete your research and determine that one or two of your ideal keyword clusters may not have sufficient, relevant content to link to. At that point a new URL and webpage is essential.

How to Increase Google Page Rank

We are accustomed with the word “RANK” from the very first day we enter into competition, be it in the school exams, a sprint in college sports, or to get a good job. Now to get a rank in the top you need to work hard in the particular subject, know the nuts-bolts of the matter, and follow the proper way to accomplish the job in a better way.To be No. 1 ranked you need to be the best among all. Google as a search engine have a ranking for web sites, which all web masters around the globe knows. And as “Google” has the highest popularity for searching in the web, Google follows some well defined ways to rank a page. And to get the No. 1 spot in the listing a web site should follow all the perspectives which Google stresses for its ranking. There are many processes to increase the page rank like SEO, SEM, SMO etc.

Content of Page

The reason for which Google is the best search engine is because, it focuses on the content of the page, which is the most important part for describing a product/services. The quality of the content should be clear enough for all to understand. For good quality contents there are some techniques to follow.

• I. Searching keyword density should be between 3 to 7 per cent. It would be best to keep 3.77% which is Google criteria.
• II. The content should be distinguished from other related pages. The content should not be copied, with proper use of keywords.
• III. The content length should be between 100 to 1500 words. Formidable word limit should be between 300-700 words.

Building Back Links

Back links are incoming links, that is how many others is following you and they are how much relevant. If the incoming links comes with better Page Rank than yours then surely the Page Rank is going to increase. There is various procedure of building back links like directory submission, article submission, social bookmarking, link exchange, blog comment, forum posting etc. There are various websites for doing these tasks. It simply increases the popularity of the web site. All these tasks are done providing your page link in some other web sites. This is best implemented if done in relevant web sites. Like if you have a health site and you are commenting on a health blog then it works fine.

Article Writing

As stated earlier Google search technique is mainly content based. Thus articles with good content comes under the Google scanner, it helps to increase the page rank. So while writing articles key should be the quality of the writing with proper usage of keywords, providing the link of your page and use of words that is simple, understandable and clear.

Webpage Updating

The webpage should be updated in regular intervals. The content of the pages should be changed with upcoming ideas and views. The link building task should be continued, with increased number of back links. Google crawls a web site depending upon the popularity, and while crawling it looks upon the changes made, and depending on that the page rank increases.

Google+ Introduces Open Signups

It was only a matter of time but in less than 90 days Google+ has gone from being invite-only to available to everyone! The announcement made today on the Google blog also includes announcements for expanded Hangout features and search options.

In nearly 3 months, the Google+ project has seen 91 different improvements, which according to Google’s Vic Gundotra is a result of user feedback. “For the past 12 weeks we’ve been in field trial, and during that time we’ve listened and learned a great deal,” wrote Gundotra.

The changes, which include Hangouts on your phone and live broadcasts for Hangouts, brings the total number of improvements to Google+ to 100 and will roll out over the next day. But they are not stopping there. Get a sneak peak of what’s next for Google+. And if there’s something you missed, previous updates can be found here.

SEO and PR — Getting the Best of Both Worlds

Search engine optimization and public relations need to become best friends. Why? Because SEO as we knew it two years ago is dead. As our approaches to link building are constantly evolving, a stronger tie between these two marketing fronts is being seen.

With that said, let’s examine just how these two audience-building genres can play nice. First off, just what is public relations?

Public relations is the process of building or maintaining a company’s reputation and image through positive offline and online coverage. Link building, on the other hand, builds the site’s “popularity” by acquiring a large amount of diverse links from various domains in an effort to establish top ranking positions in search engines. Where I see SEO and PR butt heads is in the work rather than the perspective. SEOs think, “how can I gain rankings, traffic and ROI,” where public relations experts think, “what coverage will provide us with the most prestigious image to engage in positive events and conversations both on and offline.”

In the end, both thought processes will achieve similar results. But here’s the good news—there is a way to get the best of both worlds. We can achieve top rankings, as well as a solid reputation through a cohesive approach and understanding. Here are some pointers for the best approaches to killing two birds with one stone:

1. Optimize press releases for SEO

When crafting press releases, be sure to do so with keywords in mind. Most companies have a specific SEO campaign underway. Within that campaign will be a designated list of phrases designed to increase search rankings and relevant traffic. Narrow the list according to relevancy to your subject matter. Also, be strategic in adding these keywords to your content. Place focus keywords in the headline and beginning of the body of your content.
Outside of keyword optimization, remember that links and branding are HUGE ranking factors. Be sure your website is linked to the company name. Within the release you should also include other branding signals search engines use to identify a business:

• Address
• Phone Number
• Email

Ensure identical information is used in press releases and other content online.

Finally, don’t forget that getting your press release seen by pushing it out through the correct distribution channels is essential.

2. Host “SEO friendly” contests

No doubt about it, social is now a big part of SEO. Whether affecting it directly or indirectly it plays a role in the success of organic rankings. Hosting contests on various social mediums like Facebook and Twitter will benefit your site by achieving brand awareness as well as driving social signals to your site. It is also important to keep in mind that often times those who are finding your site through social media, are typically those who are most likely to link to your site. Contests and giveaways via social networks are a great way to generate interest and conversation. Get your target market involved in your organization, and acquire links along the way.

Newbie Guide about On-page and Off-page Optimization

The search engine optimization is of two types basically

• On-page Optimization
• Off-page Optimization

On-page Optimization

This is the rules and processes of changing and making of the contents on your website so that this particular website is found by the search engine for knowing and picking of some specific keyword or keywords. The on-page contents or the factors which you are going to change are responsible or important for the improvement of your website ranking in order of picking of some good search engines should include, tags, title, alt tags, meta key words tags, meta description tags, header tags, and page contents.

The on-page factors or elements that you may need to change to improve your website’s positions in search engines like header tags, title Tag, page content, meta description tag, alt tag and meta keywords tag.

Off-page Optimization

That means what can be done by you with your website to optimize its utility for the search engine to pick that website to improve its ranking all together. Following are the things you should keep in mind to improve your web page offline.

• The link anchor text should be used in the key words
• You should start with the selection of keywords with testing and research.
• You should not use the growth spikes which actually kill the changes of your ranking higher in the search engine optimization.
• You should try to get linked with the sites which are already higher in rankings of the publishers
• After doing off-page optimization, you shouldn’t hope things to start immediately. That doesn’t happen; you should wait from 1 to 9 months to see some results coming in your way.
• There should be no reciprocal links in your website or there should be no link exchange at all if you really want to improve the ranking of your beloved website.

SEO Tips for Unavoidable Errors

One of the most common habits of Internet users is to use search engines, often when we are stuck on any random topic we open a search engine and type what we want to search. The results that will flash on your screens within seconds are enormous. Although no one ever reads how many results that particular search engine has found in fraction of seconds all that we, care is about the first page results and often for almost we select the first 3-5 results. We use Interne to search for the latest recipe to make Italian Omelets, to search interesting blogs and to search for the companies that are related to our business.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a technique, which integrates your websites in such a manner that it gets higher rank and found easily in all the other websites having same product and feature line. In short we can also say that a tool which helps to generate increasing traffic to your website by effective use of search engine.
Search Engine Optimization Tips to nullify common errors:

• Graphic Header: Using company logo, which occupies most of the width on front page, never does it. Search engine are not able to make use of images so the prime position to place your keywords and text is wasted. Use hybrid forms, place logo in one corner and use remaining space for text header.
• Graphic navigation Menu: Same situation like above and avoidable error. SEO ranking is achieved by keywords that have internal links. If it is impossible to remove this, option then at least specify correct ALT attributes to all images.
• Script Navigation: Never use scripts for site navigation as search engine robots cannot read and execute scripts. Rather if you want to use scripts then provide duplicate HTML so that they can be visible to robots and human visitors.
• Session Identifier: Search engines have algorithms to identify mirrors and pages with some content. Correct recognition and indexing of Session ID’s is necessary. If possible, best to avoid Session Identifiers.
• Redirects: As these will hamper your SEO, results if possible avoid using Redirects in your site.
• Hidden Text: Sometimes use of hidden text which is invisible to human eyes but visible to robots is used for optimization. This is a deceptive method of SEO, which may result in banning of sites. Worse, it will be excluded from the database of the search engines.
• One Pixel Link: Search engines are programmed to consider the use of tiny, very small graphic image links up to only 1pixel wide, which is also unethical in SEO. Avoid using these practices which will together lead to banning of sites.

A New Way To Submit URLs to Google

Google has announced one more way to help site owners request that a specific web page is crawled. The Fetch as Googlebot feature in Webmaster Tools has been around for a while but now makes it possible for site owners to submit a new or updated URL for indexing. The process is simple and doesn’t require users to start at the beginning of the crawling process. After you fetch a URL, and if the fetch is successful, you will now see the option to submit the URL to the Google index.

A URL will typically be indexed within a day, but this doesn’t mean that every URL submitted will be indexed. Once a page has been crawled Google will evaluate whether or not a URL belongs in their index. As with any type of discovery, ie: XML sitemap, internal and external links, RSS feeds, etc; Google goes through another process to determine whether to keep the page in their index.

This is a great function to use if you’ve just launched a new site, added new pages to a site, or updated important or time sensitive content on an existing page. You will no longer have to wait for Google to discover the page naturally. Keep in mind you will be limited to 50 single URL submissions per week. And submissions are limited to 10 per month when submitting a URL along with the links on that page going to other pages.

In addition to this update, Google has also updated the public “Add your URL to Google” form. It is now called the “Crawl URL form” and doesn’t require owner verification, but does still limit you to submitting 50 URLs per week.

The Value of Deep Linking

he question I would like to answer today is: ‘How valuable is it to build links to your sites deep pages?’
The whole issue could be summed up with 1 one sentence: It is VERY valuable to build links to deep pages on your site. Let’s explore why.
Think of your site as a large dam with many tributaries feeding water into it constantly. The tributaries represent all the links pointing to your home page, whether from internal or external links. Your home page is the dam. It is the largest and most popular place for people to link to your site, and therefore usually holds the most weight in the search engines. For the purposes of this analogy, let’s say that when the dam releases some water each month, that water then filters out into the surrounding country, eventually making its way back into the tributaries that feed the dam itself (internal links). It’s a big circle. That is how page rank gets distributed on your site. Your home page has a lot of ‘link juice’ pointing at it. That link juice eventually finds it’s way to some of the inner pages on your site, but probably won’t get to all the pages on your site unless you’ve only got just a few pages one level from the home page.