Friday, November 29, 2013

Machine Learning for improved Content & SEO outcome

 We've all heard the terms "machine learning" and "learning algorithms", it'll be useful to any SEO or content writer to know... because they're the ones that'll be doing a lot of the teaching.

First, it's important to remember that an algorithm is simply a mathematical procedure. Don't expect to see true artificial intelligence emerge anytime soon. However, a mathematical algorithm can notice patterns and those patterns can be analyzed for probabilities. That, you've been seeing online for some time. Think patterns.

Types of Machine Learning Processes

Depending upon what the programmer is focusing upon, different approaches can be taken. Even in search, there can be unusual focuses.
The most common approaches are statistical reasoning and inductive reasoning.

Arithmetical analysis

Statistical reasoning simply gathers data and analyzes the probabilities of potential occurrences following prior observed results.
For example, if an algorithm observes that in 80 percent of observed instances, ravens are black, it will extrapolate from that the chance that 80 percent of future observed ravens will also be black.

Inductive analysis

Inductive analysis is somewhat similar, in that it also involves extrapolating probabilities, but it's geared toward proving or disproving a exact theory. For example, if the theory is that a startled dog will snap at a threat, it will gather results from tests and either confirm or disgrace that theory, based upon the preponderance of experiential results.

Neither arithmetical nor inductive reasoning models allow for the inclusion of random results, until they represent a significant percentage of the observed results. At that point, the patterns they define can become a factor in a arithmetical model, whereas in an inductive model, they will only effect findings ultimately.

How This Plays Into Search Engine Algorithms

Suppose, for instance, that a given algorithm is designed to determine how valid the SERPs are to an inquiry. It might look at a factor such as bounce rate as an pointer of validity. If users don't split the bounce threshold, the result could be deemed relevant to the query, indicating that the ranking algorithm was exact. That would be utilizing statistical reasoning.

On the other hand, an algorithm designed to detect purchased links could look at such things as other pages which are linked to from a source page, where those other purpose pages have been found to be buying links, which could establish some level of probability that your page had also purchased a link from that site. It would then look at other signals which would corroborate that probability or discredit it.

Do we know whether any of the search engines really use these models in those scenarios? No, of course not. It's just one of many possibilities. What is more important in our context is, what might a machine learning algorithm be able to learn, in either case?

The statistical model is quite obvious. Once the algorithm decides that 80 percent of ravens are likely to be black, it can simply weight its predictions accordingly; a purely probabilistic weighting, based upon statistics.

In inductive models, the process is a little more subtle. naturally, there would be a number of other signals, each with their own weighting, which can vary, depending upon their prevalence. That implies a very non-linear probability curve which may be considerably more complex.

In the example above, such things as how many other target sites linked to from the source page are suspected of buying links, the chance weighting of those suspicions, the past history of all sites involved in the analysis and a host of other signals. Combined in a mathematical formula, a probability factor can be here at which could put the site over a preset threshold, triggering a dampening or a punishment.

Machine Learning Applied to Search Queries and Ranking

For instance, a simple willpower of whether a query or an on-page phrase is negative or positive can often be reached. More complex characteristics like sarcasm, satire or humor, however, are still largely beyond a machine's understanding. But a search query for [bad example of customer service] will render first page results with the terms "bad", "poor" and "worst" in the content, title and/or URL.

This may seem to be a simple example of recognizing synonyms for the search query, but remember that synonym recognition was just one of the early baby steps in search. Looking at a subtly different search query of  yields such pages as:

So "not good" is equated with "bad" by the algorithm. A baby step, perhaps, but a step, however. Rest assured that Google didn't physically enter all such possible relationships - there are far too many. This is much better accomplished by developing an algorithm that will continuously adjust its lexicon as it detects patterns.

Machine Learning & Your Content

The algorithms learn from the patterns they notice, both in queries and documents, as well as the relationships they find out between them. That's why writing content using a broader selection of terms .

•    It provides new syntax in an exact context, which can aid the algorithms' learning process.

•    It also enables you to write content that is more theoretical – directed to the reader, rather than to the search engines.

One end result is a more rapid development of complex sympathetic by machines – the heart of semantics. It also helps you provide content that is more informative, amusing, and engaging for your readers.


Link Building Things To Be appreciative For 2013


After all, with the surge of updates, algorithm shifts, and keyword reporting changes that include happened in the past year, it’s easy to get caught up in being livid with Google.

However, as search evolves and link building becomes more and more about content, relationships, and authority… we, too, must evolve. On that note, here are ten things to be thankful for this Links giving:


While Penguin rolled out in 2012, updates continued to happen all over 2013 — and I, for one, am grateful. Not only am I a big fan of penguins, with their built-in tuxedos and hilarious walk, but also, I like that these updates are driving out spammy link plans.

As a celebrity who loves my clients, I work really hard to build great content and solid links for them. Nothing is more frustrating than seeing a bad site outrank a client’s because they are doing mass article directory submissions with keyword-specific anchor text or publishing press releases for no reason other than obtaining a keyword-focused link.

While I’m not against using keyword-specific anchor text I don’t disagree with Google that mass link handling is a bad strategy. I also know that Penguin is not perfect, but as link builders, it should compel us to think more about getting those good links versus mass quantities of links.


For link builders, this is actually valuable. Users are more likely to click on a search result with an author photo, and I think it’s fair to say they are more likely to share a post from a person they hope. Authorship also allows us to show that there are real people behind company sites and blogs. This is pretty fantastic in the new world of “relationship building” (see #7) and something I am reasonably thankful for.

Be sure to give AJ Kohn’s latest post on authorship a read for more details on anecdotal authorship and entities.


Guest blogging gives you an opportunity to reach a new audience, write about something you adore about, and establish yourself beyond your personal or company blog.
Despite the fact guest blogging has gotten a bad rap lately, it’s still precious when done right. Make sure to choose sites relevant to your business, look for sites with authorship enabled, and, per Matt Cutts, do it in moderation.

4. Transparency

One of the big things happening in link building, and marketing in general, is the move toward greater simplicity. No one wants to be the person or company that gets caught buying links (*cough*) and surely no one wants to be the SEO company that gets thrown under the bus when said company gets caught.


Putting your [not provided] anger aside, Google Analytics really is a wonderful platform. It offers so much in the way of website data and visitor information — and on top of that, it’s Free!
Analytics can help you recognize content themes for your link building strategy, tell you what type of links send traffic your way, confirm whether or not a campaign worked and much more.

6. Relationships

The whole idea of “relationship building” is maybe one of my favorite things to come out of the link penalties and something I’m absolutely thankful for — not just because I’m a PR wannabe, but also because I’m a big believer that the goal of any online marketing campaign should be to enlarge conversions and drive revenue. Crappy links on non-relevant sites no longer help with that.

7. Social Media & WOM

 Along the same lines as “relationship building” comes word-of-mouth marketing and the control of social media. Customers have a bigger voice than ever before, and businesses have an chance to reach these customers and get them talking.


Content is Queen. Content is King. make content. More content. Ahhh! Look, I know that content is the backbone of any successful online marketing or link building strategy, but what I’m most thankful for is more people are realizing that content isn’t marketing without a strategy.
It’s significant that before you even begin writing, you have a goal in mind, understand your audience, and understand the idea of that piece. For link builders, this is just as important as you have to understand what people are interested in and will want to share.

You might also like : SEO For 2014

Google rolled out a major modification to AdWords

Google rolled out a major alteration to AdWords this week by introducing CPM request by viewable impressions. This change was first noticed by Kim Clinkunbroomer of Philly Marketing Labs.

Rather than charging advertisers on the conventional model of served impressions, this change to CPM bidding means that advertisers will be charged based on ad imitation that can actually be viewed in-screen by users. All campaigns running on the Google Display Network will now have this choice.

Ads are deemed viewable by Google’s Active View reporting. formerly advertisers were charged based on whether or not their ad was “served,” which wouldn’t necessarily indicate it was viewed by the end user.This is huge for advertisers, as comScore recently reported that 31 percent of online ads go unseen by users.

Google’s Active View technology will now also contain metrics reporting for advertisers which will track viewable imitation, viewable click-through rate and Active View average CPM.

Surprisingly, Google has made little talk about of this change them. The move by Google towards having advertisers pay by viewable impressions will finally become standard industry-wide.

In June it was reported by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) that marketers should be ready to buy digital media based on viewability by the end of this year:

The Media Rating Council (MRC) expects to lift its Viewable idea Advisory by the end of this year, and at that time marketers will eagerly start buying digital media on viewable metrics. Publishers and agencies, we hope you’re ready.


You might also like : Facebook Ads or Google AdWords Which Is Better

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Social Media Marketing mythology

 There is no lack of advice about the role social media marketing should play in a company’s overall marketing plan. Sadly, that advice is often all over the map.

While a number of years have passed since companies first began venturing out into the unexplored country of social media, mixed messages continue to flourish, leaving business owners wondering where to focus marketing resources.

One end of the spectrum proclaims there is no arrival on investment for a business tapping into social media. The other great school of thought dictates your business has no future if it doesn’t have an engaging profile on every obtainable social media network.

The result is that both over-inflating and underestimating social media’s prospective impact on your business means you are not as likely to make a sound investment of resources to gain a reasonable return on your investment.

Your customer demographic isn’t using social media.

This myth should be simple to bust, yet it persists. According to digital marketing resource Digital Marketing Ramblings, best arithmetical estimates as of November 2013 find Facebook with 1.19 billion active users, YouTube boasting its own 1 billion users, Twitter with 215 million active users, and Google+ garnering 300 million active users. In addition, Instagram has concerned about 150 million users while Pinterest claims 70 million.

Digital media research company eMarketer estimates that in total, social media reaches almost one in four people around the globe. perhaps you could have made the argument back in 1993 that your customers weren’t on social media, but this is one easy myth to bust 20 years later.

Approach: Social media marketing should be one out of several components of your company’s general marketing plan. That means even if you are still concerned that your customers aren’t on social media, you can continue to reach them by phone, direct mail, print advertising or other means. 

Fretting that your targeted demographics are not tweeting, posting, or uploading is time and energy wasted. Remember, too, that your existing customer base should not be your only worry. If you are convinced your current clients are eternally offline, consider the chance to target a brand new demographic.

 A staff member needs to be devoted to social media to get results.

Instead, use aggregators like Hootsuite to make posting simpler on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites. Then, with the time you save, use Twitter as part of a more concerted marketing effort by hosting a tweet chat. A tweet chat is a kind of live Twitter event, moderated to focus on a number of aspects of one general topic. A hashtag is used to filter all the chatter. Hosting a tweet chat provides your company with the opportunity to build its brand in ways that can’t be accomplished through posts alone.

Social media can take the place of your website.

Because use of social media is a newer marketing tool than beginning a website, there is some confusion over whether social media marketing can take the place of a company website. The answer is, no. The longer answer is, social media may be reasonably new, but email still remains a very powerful tool in your arsenal.

There is no way to measure a social media campaign’s return on investment (ROI).
This is perhaps the myth that seems to outlive and outlast all others. Part of the problem is that there are a lot of social media experts and consultants who may be extremely knowledgeable about social media networks, but they know very little about marketing or measuring return on investment for businesses.

Strategy: In reality, there are a number of ways to track social media’s impact on your business. The metrics for your social media program are not much different from the metrics of other marketing efforts. There are quantitative metrics, which are the many data-driven capacity, such as page views, unique visits, demographics and the like. Then there are qualitative metrics. Unlike quantitative metrics, qualitative metrics have an moving element. If you are serious about the impact, there are several companies competent in providing an in-depth analysis of these metrics.

While your ROI metric is very helpful, it still provides only a snapshot of social media’s true influence on your company’s bottom line. Even more important is your customer lifetime value or CLV. This is the amount of revenue a customer from your social media marketing program will bring to your business over the whole course of their time with your company’s brand. Typically, companies budget about 10 percent of CLV as the amount they are willing to invest to acquire their next customer. In this way, you can compare the CLV of your social media marketing efforts to other marketing efforts in validating your social media investment.

Engage, Drive, and Convert
 
When it comes to social media, the phrase “engage your customer” always seems to be at the head. However, just engaging prospective customers is only part of the story. It does not mean you have successfully driven them back to your site and converted them to paying customers. Treat your social media marketing efforts as you would other marketing programs. Plan carefully, budget adequately, and analyze your results.

you might also like: How Social Media Monitoring influence Reputation Management

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

The actual Future of Social is Search

Future of Social is Search
 I’m sure a lot of people would disagree that it’s the other way about – that search’s future is social. Either way, the two fields are converging, and with billions of dollars riding on them, it’s going to be significant to address the two as a vibrant duo.

To understand why the future of social is search, let’s look at why search has been spinning its eye toward social. Search is all about fundability. Whether paid or organic, the real aim of search is to be found by your target audience, and hopefully have them take a secondary feat. That action may be as simple as a share or like, or as complex as moving down the funnel into a lead and then to a purchase. Social has provided an excellent way for people, ideas and content to be found.

That said, social is a busy place. Numerous channels, millions of users, and a deluge of content mean the days of simple social fundability are over. While networks rush to create filters, surface content they think you’ll find attractive, and make more relevant connections, marketers need to focus on being found from other angles. You can’t change the algorithms that Facebook, Google, or other organizations put in place – so what can you do?

You can make the content that is ever-present when people search for it.

2. Look for Concepts, Not physical Terminology
 
While this may sound like a repeat of number one, you should focus on discussions applicable to your brand. Here you will find a wealth of information to attach with existing audiences and recognize new audiences. This means you can be creating content that touches on current topics. While many people think they’re previously doing this, I’ll point out an example of what this looks like in practice.

A traditional approach will include monitoring conversations for: Nike, run (and variations like running and runner), shoes, and cross training; as well as competitors like Asics, Reebok, etc. In the past few years we’ve evolved to monitoring for things such as: Marathon, trails, and road race.

The next evolution should focus on the conversations that are happening around running and running shoes on social, and expand Nike’s awareness on things like: Carbohydrates, personal trainer, joint pain, weather predictions, etc. These come from tweets, Instagram photos and Facebook posts like this one.
For example, Nike could do marathon-inspired recipes and content, along with shoe suggestions for users that are searching for pre-run meals. The company could also display store information alongside searches for local personal trainers. Another great way to engage would be to serve up content for cushioning running shoes when people mention runner-related injuries.

3. Generate Content That is Socially Searchable & Consumable

Knowing people are going to be on social channels and busy with lots of “stuff” is only half the clash. Now you need to make sure you’re creating content that works well for those mediums and is also easily found when users search.
The Hangout is conducted live, giving the audience a chance to tweet questions to FOUNDFriday. It is then posted to:

•    YouTube

•    SlideShare

•    Our Blog

The Google Hangout is publicized on Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook to the GinzaMetrics audience, as well as the audience of whomever is guest talking.
The YouTube video provides an chance for increased visibility on Google as well as transcription.

SlideShare is great because you can pull key points and turn them into an illustrated, easily consumable format. SlideShare also has great SEO value with a full transcript built-in below that is findable by search engines.

The blog post includes links to the SlideShare, YouTube video, and notes from previous FOUND Friday efforts, as well as links to other referencing sources – garnering even more findability. Each of these items are not only shared socially, but findable via social media as well. 

  you might also like: Well-Planned Content For enhanced Marketing Results

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Google added reviews tab to the Places for Businesses


Google has added a latest reviews tab to the Places for Businesses interface so users can analysis reviews from within Google as well as other web sources in one place. Users will not only be capable to see all reviews but can also respond to them directly right from the new Reviews tab.

The new feature will make Google more interesting to business owners and will also support customers to leave reviews. The service also has a basic analytics characteristic that business owners can use to track the reputation of their businesses over time. The tab pulls in data from Google properties as well as other web sources building it one of the most comprehensive free tool available for online reputation management at the moment.

Senior product manager Qasar Younis states, “Now you can learn what your customers are saying about your business on Google and across the web, in one place,” “If you have a established business listing, you will now see your customer ratings and reviews in the easy-to-use review inbox.”

“Reviews also allows you to start a conversation with your customers by directly responding to comments left by users on Google,” adds Young. “Are your customers pleased with your service? Thank them for the kind words so they recommend you to their friends. Do they mention some areas for development? Ask them for suggestions so they visit you again.”

Google has rolled out a Offers self service tool for businesses freshly. The update allows businesses to create posts and publish them to customers directly. The service improves the speed of ad creation and gets support from Google maps that allows businesses to reach customers searching for local businesses or places nearby.

 you might also like: Google begins Indexing App Content

How Social Media Monitoring influence Reputation Management


It’s remarkable, bearing in mind that most of bloggers in which the financial company isn’t even offering a product. But this company is doing something really modern: It’s using social media  monitoring in order to decide a user’s credit scores. This could signal a huge change in the way reputation management, and social media attack, works in the future. Here’s what’s happening.

The crash of Friends 

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Usually, banks rely on a few key indicators in order to calculate a person’s creditworthiness. The amount of money a person makes, the amount of money a person owes, and the person’s previous history of attending to financial obligations were the three key points banks took into thought when choosing to give or withhold money to a needy person.

A company like Lenddo, on the other hand, computes praise scores based on social media factors. The theory is that people who socialize together tend to have the same income and spending habits, so finding people who have friends who are responsible means finding people who are likely to pay back their loans on time.

In order to determine this social credit score, Lenddo asks applicants to offer information regarding their social media accounts, such as their screen names on:

•    LinkedIn

 •    Facebook

•    Twitter

•    Google+

The higher the social media presence, and the more high-quality friends a person has, the advanced score the person might receive. In addition, applicants are also asked to designate a few choice people as their “Trusted Connections.” Linking up with people who have already borrowed from Lenddo and paid back the loans on time is just one way to game the system and make sure that the loan is approved.

Broader Applications for Reputation Management

On the surface, it seems gratuitous to understand how a small bank works. After all, few Americans or Europeans will travel to the Philippines just to take out a loan, and those who do might want to work with a reputable bank rather than an online startup. But for those of us who 
 work in reputation management, this is a bit of an alarming trend.

Naturally, when clients ask for help with reputation management, experts look at the events that person has performed online. Snarky news articles, raunchy blog posts, nasty photographs, and unlucky press releases are typically the focus of the effort, and SEO techniques are used to either remove these disgusting items or drive them down in search results.

However, if the online industry as a whole is moving toward a more comprehensive view of a person’s reputation, this traditional method may not be effective. Specifically, if a person’s status is dependent, in part, on the other people a person knows, comprehensive reputation management might mean digging into the details of the connections a person makes in the online world.

At this point, ethics become a little sketchy. While clients might provide acquiescence for technicians to delve into their lives and amend details that aren’t quite ready for prime time, random friends may not be grateful for the added attention. It might also be difficult to determine how truthful or helpful a friend is without really digging too deep into that person’s life and crossing privacy lines.

Moreover, people with reputation difficulties might be astonished to find out how long such a cleanup might take, and the costs might be far too extensive for them to bear. People with hundreds of connections might need hundreds of hours of help, and that could be prohibitive for some.

Takeaway Points

As mentioned, there doesn’t seem to be a need for widespread panic at this point. The company given that  service only operates in a few choice countries, and the methods they use may never catch on in the wider world.

But, anyone who works with reputation issues should keep in mind that client connections may very well play a role in cleanup efforts in the future. It’s a message we can, and should, be 
 sharing widely, so our customers can make good choices now.

And we can also lead by example, by ensuring that our own social media associates are with real people we’ve met in real time in a real place. We should also feel free to split ties with people who are acting up (and acting out) in ways that might cast us in an unfavorable light. Just keeping tabs, and ensuring that our friends make us look good, could help us get ready to the next wave of social media monitoring that sites like Lenddo seem to be ushering in.

you might also like: FREE Tools for Measuring Social Media achievement

Monday, November 25, 2013

FREE Tools for Measuring Social Media achievement


One of the most demanding tasks in selling digital marketing to the C-Suite is defining the return on investment (ROI). It can be mainly challenging when justifying the budget for social media marketing (SMM).

Marketing ROI has usually been measured like this:
Return on Investment (%) = (Net profit / Marketing Costs) × 100.

Sometimes, cost per customer gaining is the measure. As recently as 2010, the dawn of social media marketing, those in the C-Suite attempted to apply the tried and true transactional ROI model to SMM. The CMO review, as reported by Forbes, lists the most common metrics used to measure social media investment.
 
 1. HootSuite
 
HootSuite is a good all around tool to use for management and metrics tracking. You can plan posts from multiple social media channels as well as create over 30 individual reports. The free metrics are somewhat limited, but for basic it's all you will need.
 
2. SocialMention

SocialMention is an collective tool similar to Google Alerts, but for social media, only. This will give you insight into not only what is being said, but who is saying it and what the universal sentiment is.
You can set an RSS feed, email alerts, or even add a real-time widget to your website. You can also download a CSV/Excel file for further assessment.
 
3. Klout
 
Monitoring influence isn't an accurate science, but having a tool that helps you begin to gage someone's online existence can be useful. Klout is a free tool that will allow you to measure influence on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and several other channels.
 
4. Facebook Insights

The Facebook insights control panel gives you all of the analytics data for your Facebook page. The insights allow you to understand your audience, what they are reacting to, and adjust your content to meet their needs.
 
5. Twitter Analytics
 
Twitter now has its own analytics control panel. With Twitter Analytics you can track timeline activity, including tweets that were favorited, retweeted, and replied to. The tool also tracks number of mentions, new followers and newly followed. For more information, see "Twitter Analytics: A Beginner's Guide".
 
With Google Analytics Campaign Tracking, you can set up links for campaigns with UTM parameters to track the movement. Go here to create the link using Google link shortener for campaigns.
This is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to track success of a specific link within a movement. It's also one of the most overlooked methods of tracking.
 
7. Custom Social Media Reports
 
Google Analytics does a nice job tracking the number of visitors to visit a website from different social channels. These custom reports give you extra insights as to how traffic is being driven to your website.
 
If you aren't blogging or creating new and helpful content to draw people to your website, don't expect these numbers to be high. It requires a content strategy to really work people toward your website. These easy to install one-click reports are invaluable.
 
8. Bitly
 
This link shortener allows you track all you share. This is a great way to see what your audience is interacting with and decide if the content you share is precious.
Bitly also integrates into many third-party software packages, making it a great umbrella tool, as you can track within numerous platforms. For example, you may use Social Sprout, a paid management platform and Buffer both with Bitly then review data in individual platforms or as a whole through Bitly.
 
9. Buffer
 
Buffer is a vast tool for scheduling content. You simply fill up your Buffer account each day and it will automatically post the content to the channels you select.
For metrics, you're able to look at a dashboard inside Buffer to see what posts are receiving the most interaction, or attach it to Bitly to include in your general tracking. You can also join UTM parameters to track traffic in Google Analytics.
 
10. TweetReach
 
TweetReach is a huge tool for tracking a campaign or conversation on Twitter. Simply enter your search term or hashtag and allow TweetReach to search for the tweets to tell you reach, exposure, activity, top contributors, and more. You can look at the past 50 mentions for free.
 
11. Keyhole
 
Keyhole is similar to TweetReach apart from that it also tracks Facebook and Instagram as well as Twitter. This is a vast way to track a hashtag or keyword for a campaign or event.
The free social tracker gives you a example of what the tracker can do. If you signup you can get a three-day free trial, which may be adequate for an event or snapshot view of a campaign. To get a long-term view you can sign up for a monthly paid plan.
 
Summary

Measuring social media ROI isn't always easy. Building a brand and improving your customer service may not show up openly in your analytics, but these "soft" metrics can have a major impact on the bottom line.

you might also like: The genuine Social Media ROI principle


Friday, November 22, 2013

Pinterest launches Place Pins Feature


Pinterest  launched a innovative category of pins for members to save places within its online scrapbooks.

The startup, based here, showed the new feature that will allow people to pin images of bars, cafes, restaurants and other destinations.

Place pins from Pinterest were shown as a way to plan vacations, outings and find where others are dining. Pinterest users can build these new place boards based on place of businesses or sights around them and visit other members boards to add to their own collections. Maps will give directions to these destination collections.

Pinterest's move into photo pinning and mapping of destinations marks a attack into businesses served by Yelp and Google, among others. Last week, a duo of developers launched Skedadel, an app that allows people to set aside favorite restaurants, bars, cafes and other spots where images are taken from Instagram and locations are provided with maps.

Last month, Pinterest landed $225 million in support from investors in a deal that valued the company at $3.8 billion.


Matt Cutts wants your opinion about Webmaster Tools

seo tips
Matt Cutts, has taken to his personal blog to inquire people what they would like to see Google Webmaster Tools recommend in 2014. 

So here’s your time to have your voice heard. 

Matt Cutts lists fourteen items himself as things he could “imagine people wanting,” but notes that he’s just brainstorming, and that there’s no promise any of these will actually be workeon. 

Among his ideas are: making authorship easier, improving spam/bug/error/issue exposure, a choice to download pages from your site that Google has crawled,checklists for new businesses, reports with advice for improving mobile/page speed, the skill to let Google know about “fat pings” of content ahead of publishing it to the web.

 Google knows where it first appeared, better duplicate content/scraper reporting tools, showing pages that don’t validate, showing pages that link to your 404 pages, show pages on your site that lead to 404s and broken links, better bulk URL elimination, refreshing data faster, improving the robots.txt checker, and ways for site owners to tell Google about their site. 

Even if we don’t see all of these things come to Webmaster Tools in the near future, it’s attractive to see the things Cutts is openly thinking about. 
The post is quickly accumulating comments from Webmasters, so Google will certainly have plenty of ideas to work with.

you might also like: Google Webmaster- Great collection of free tools

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Bing Webmaster Tools Offers latest Social Networking Support

Bing made an announcement on their blog about the beginning of a new feature to their Webmaster Tools called Connected Pages.

Bing Webmaster Tools is extremely similar to Google Webmaster Tools in that it allows you to validate websites you own and track a multitude of data gathered from search activity.

However, both of these sets of tools have a bound. You can only track data on sites you personally own or control. Bing’s new Connected Pages now allows you to take it a step added.

In addition to claiming websites, you can now claim social media pages and connect them to your account. This will allow you to track similar data related to those connected pages. For example, if you want to know what keywords people are using to find your social media pages, you will now be able to do that.

You can attach a full range of social media pages as long as those pages have a link back to your established website. You won’t have to give Bing with any special permissions for your social media accounts, so your privacy is still fully in tact.

Here is a complete list of social media pages that are presently supported:


Twitter

LinkedIn

Google+

Windows Store

Google Play

Apple Store


Windows Phone Store

YouTube

Instagram

MySpace

You can begin connecting any of these pages to your Bing Webmaster Tools early today.


Inbound Links That Should Be Avoided

seo tips
Link building has changed radically in just the last few years. Some of the major changes are outlined in my article, “10 Differences Between Old and New Link Building Techniques.” So, what types of links should be avoided to trim down the risk of being caught by Google’s animal hit squad

Inbound Links to evade

Google has been saying for a while that there are certain types of links that should be avoided. Some great examples of bad links are:

Paid Links

It doesn’t matter whether you are buying or promotion paid links. In the post-Penguin era, Google has obviously stated to stay away from these types of links. Even if you have paid links from 2 years ago that Google has not yet establish, get rid of them as quickly as possible.

Article Directory Links

Just a couple years ago, article directory links were easy to acquire, and, most prominently, they worked. Sadly, low-quality spun content and distribution software caused them to become severely injured. Google has penalized many article directories as a result, and this approach is no longer useful for SEO purposes.

Link Exchanges 

Link exchanges were admired for years. The whole concept of “you link to me and I’ll link back to you” was a general practice among webmasters. However, it became abused, and no longer provides any SEO value..

Low-quality Press Releases

Because of their cheap content and lack of editorial guidelines, many of the free press release obedience websites are now probably completely disregarded by Google.

Low-Quality Directory Links and Bad Neighborhoods in General

Many of the old, free directory sites have been de-indexed by Google. Even for the ones that are at rest indexed, it’s not a good idea to get links from them. While there are still some industry-specific directories that are good for links (and traffic), low-quality general directory links should be avoided.

Link Pyramids, Wheels, and Other Artificial Link Building Schemes

In the May 2013 video update, Matt Cutts, head of the Google Webspam team, referenced how Penguin 2.0 enhanced their algorithm to thwart link spammers and better measure link quality. Many SEOs believe that link pyramids, link wheels, and other ways of artificially passing page rank through several layers of links is exactly what Cutts and his team are referring to in this video. Google is hunting for other methods similar to these, meaning they have a tiny lifespan.

How to Clean Up Those Bad Links

unluckily, getting rid of these bad links can be luxurious. This is particularly difficult if your site has previously been hit by the Google Penguin and your rankings (and a portion of your income) have left. At this point, an SEO audit is needed to audit your whole list of links and decide which ones need to be detached. There are professional services to help with this.
After getting the list of bad links, work with website owners to take away the links. If this seems like a daunting task, it is. For sites that don’t react to your request for removal, you can use the Google disavow tool to disavow the links.

Why Do Companies Still Buy inexpensive Links?

Many businesses get themselves into problem with the search engines by purchasing cheap links or working with SEO companies or agencies that build them. It’s not hard to know why. Most companies want to believe they’re getting a huge deal and saving money. Many of the blackhat backlink services offer inexpensive prices. They also have slick advertising and sales pages where they show proof and talk about the grand success of their techniques.

Many of these vendors sell their services on public forums and other places claiming that their backlinks are “penguin proof”. However, in order to cut costs, they are required to use low-quality content in order to create their backlinks. Because of the quality of their content, they have to post to places that are considered to be questionable  because of their lack of editorial review.

These scam “SEO agencies” are still prowling the Web and selling terrible links that are causing their clients to tank in the search rankings.

This brings us back to that old saying, “If it’s too good to be true, then it perhaps is.” This is mainly true for post-Penguin SEO. Any company that claims to have some secret formula that they’re not willing to share and they guarantee you it will work, should absolutely be considered suspicious. Most reputable SEO firms will explain to you exactly what they are setting up to do and work with you to create a plan that incorporates the goals of your company.

The real answer to the problem of the pervasiveness of cheap links involves education. After businesses understand they’ve made a bad decision, it’s too late. At that point, they will perhaps stop conducting a link building campaign altogether, which may hurt their rankings even more.

Conclusion

Businesses need to understand that SEO is another cost of doing business, just like any other type of advertising. In the next article, I’ll discuss the types of links you should be getting as well as how to help your business thrive in this post-Penguin age.