Bharati Ahuja

Google Introduces A Special Search Blog And A New Preview Tool In Webmaster Tools

A Special Search Blog By Google:Google today announced an official search blog http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/. Google says that search is as old as humanity and they keep on upgrading their search algorithms for quality search results.

This blog ‘Inside Search’ will be focused on search and Google will be sharing regular updates on our algorithms and features, as well as stories from the people who work to improve Google every day. According to Google this blog is a place where you can find regular updates on the intricacies of search and our team. We have more engineers working on search than any other product, and each one of us has stories to tell.

A glimpse inside the weekly search "quality launches" meeting

You can find the total list of Google Blogs on their blog directory link here:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/blog-directory.html#tab0

A blog focused on search is good news for all involved with search marketing and the search industry as such. As an SEO I think this is an indication of further importance being given to organic search by Google. Search has been as old as humanity and SEO is as old as search engines and as search will continue till there is existence of humankind , SEO will live as long as there are search engines. A special blog for Search is one more step ahead to prove this and facilitate this.

Google Adds The Option of Instant Preview Under Labs in Webmaster Tools

Image representing Google Labs as depicted in ...

Image via CrunchBase

For example as below:

When the search results are displayed the search listing has a magnifying glass icon on the RHS which when clicked shows the preview of the site as below:

Once you’ve enabled Instant Preview mode, you can also use your arrow key to move down through the other results. As you select one, it will be highlighted with a blue background. The preview will change to show the highlighted page:

You can go to http://www.google.com/landing/instantpreviews/#a and try it now.

Once you’ve enabled Instant Preview mode, you can also use your arrow key to move down through the other results.

Instant Previews are page snapshots that are displayed in search results. In general, Google generates these preview images at crawl time. If the Instant Preview looks different from what users see, it could indicate Google is having difficulty crawling your page.

SEO - 05/19/2011

Bing Incorporates Facebook Data Into Search Results - Tapping The Collective IQ Of The Web

Search + Social Media = Search , Discuss & Decide

Bing says that they know that decision matter and they just made search more social by incorporating the Facebook data in search results. Bing will now pull Facebook likes—from news, celebs, and movies to bands, brands, and burgers to inform you about the opinions of the people whom you are connected to so that it helps you to decide i.e Bing & Decide.

Search, shortlist products and websites, see what your friends have to say about it and then decide. If you have activated Facebook results, you will see which pages, products and websites your friends like and recommend. Its like bringing the IQ of the web to you so that you can decide.

View the video released by Bing in this regard.

Bing had made a similar announcement on their official blog in October last year

http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2010/10/13/bing-gets-more-social-with-facebook.aspx

Google too has been working on the social signals for search and had made a similar announcement on 17/02/2011 on their official blog

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/update-to-google-social-search.html

View Google's stand on the Search And Social Integration

As you can clearly see that Bing is incorporating the Facebook ‘Likes’ and Google is focusing on Twitter for the social media integration, the presence on Twitter and Facebook both are equally important.

SEMPO reports a decline of SEO spending in 2011 but an increase in social media spending in 2011. This is in future is going t have a very positive aspect to SEO as the Social Media spending are actually supplementing search only.

Now SEO companies have to educate their clients on how to use social media effectively in addition to educating them about how search works and the importance of quality web presence.

An article based on the SEMPO study can be read on:

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/sempo-decline-in-seo-spendings-2011-good-news-for-seos/29817/

Bing / SEO / Social Media - 05/17/2011

SEO Is Much Beyond SERPs But The Importance Of SERPs Cannot Be Ruled Out - Old Wine In A New Bottle.

Author : Bharati Ahuja

SEO has evolved and it has come a long way since the Search Engine Submission times of the last decade. Search Engine Algorithms too have evolved become more intelligent, robust and sophisticated to penalize low quality content and reward overall high quality websites.

Hence, securing high rankings in SERPs is more challenging and requires an in-depth knowledge of the working of the web and also a lot of co-operation from the website owner to develop an online brand, have a good word and world of mouth on social media for the brand and create positive and quality footprints on the web to ensure and future-proof the search engine presence.

The SEO blogosphere today focuses on quality web presence and SERPs as a performance parameter is losing the focus but that is very misleading which in the long run can again tarnish the reputation of the SEO Industry further from a different perspective.

With the quality evolution of the search engine algorithms the approach and methodology of achieving high rankings has changed but ranking high has always been important as only when you rank high your website can get the targeted search traffic which is the major marketing goal of the online marketing campaigns.

High Rankings lead to a high CTR (Click Thru Rate) which leads to increased traffic with a potential for good conversions.

Hence, SEO is beyond rankings does not mean that high SERPs are no longer a long term goal of an SEO campaign but it means that the website has to reach out and branch out and gain quality web presence before it is ensured of a good high ranking search presence.

This is proved from the following study :

The detailed article can be read on

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2049695/Top-Google-Result-Gets-36.4-of-Clicks-Study and

http://dejanseo.com.au/position-ctr/

The majority of the objectives of PPC and SEO are the same the way you achieve them is different .

Yes, SEOs cannot guarantee rankings as the ranking factors are many and the search engine algo. undergo continuous upgrdations and tweaking which makes the SERPs also fluctuate but as SEOs working on quality web presence to gain good web visibility for the site and in the long run good assured search presence on search engines despite the SERP shattering algoquakes and constant hiccups in the algorithms is a major responsibility hence the approach to high SERPs is more like an old wine being served in a new bottle which infact increases the value rather than decreasing it.Related article also can be read on :

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/the-discussion-about-serps-as-one-of-the-factors-for-measuring-the-success-of-the-seo-campaign-in-the-long-run/29533/

SEO - 05/16/2011

About Music , Mobile And Android At Google I/O 2011

The two day Google I/O event in San Francisco on the 10th and 11th of May 2011 at the Moscone West Convention Center started off yesterday and has a focus on the web, mobile, and enterprise developers building applications in the cloud with Google and open web technologies attend Google I/O. Products and technologies to be featured at I/O include App Engine, Android, Google Web Toolkit, Google Chrome, HTML5, AJAX and Data APIs, Google TV, and more.

On Tuesday at Google I/O, Google Music Beta Google was unveiled by which Currently is invite-only, and the product is free for a limited time.

Music Beta by Google, a new service that lets you upload your personal music collection to the cloud for streaming to your computer and Android devices. With the new service, your music and playlists are automatically kept in sync, so if you create a new playlist on your phone, it’s instantly available on your computer or tablet.

The Android the platform has grown exponentially. There are now:

100 million activated Android devices
400,000 new Android devices activated every day
200,000 free and paid applications available in Android Market
4.5 billion applications installed from Android Market

The Android ecosystem has been moving really fast over the last two and a half years and the founding partners are Verizon, HTC, Samsung, Sprint, Sony Ericsson, LG, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Motorola and AT&T.

http://searchengineland.com/where-are-they-now-products-announced-during-past-google-io-keynotes-76121

http://mashable.com/2011/05/10/google-music-android-gallery/

Google - 05/11/2011

The Quality Content Site Guidelines and Parameters By Google

Image by welovepandas via Flickr

The latest highly charged buzz on the algorthmic updates of Google especially the Panda Update is truly an indicator that the search and as an offshoot the whole web is going through a transition which is evolutionary in nature.

I personally am in favor of this and am very happy about the changes which are taking place as I believe these steps are surely going to bring a social wave on search which only sites with high quality standards on all fronts will be able to surf on with their website itself as their surfing board .

Google says :

Our goal is simple: to give people the most relevant answers to their queries as quickly as possible. This requires constant tuning of our algorithms, as new content—both good and bad—comes online all the time.

Our site quality algorithms are aimed at helping people find "high-quality" sites by reducing the rankings of low-quality content. The recent "Panda" change tackles the difficult task of algorithmically assessing website quality.

Panda algorithm change was just one of roughly 500 search improvements we expect to roll out to search this year. In fact, since we launched Panda, we've rolled out over a dozen additional tweaks to our ranking algorithms, and some sites have incorrectly assumed that changes in their rankings were related to Panda. Search is a complicated and evolving art and science, so rather than focusing on specific algorithmic tweaks, we encourage you to focus on delivering the best possible experience for users.

With so many algo updates expected this year and with Google practically monopolizing the search market Amit Singhal’s guidance on how to determine if your site is a quality site or not throws light on many issues and queries and also makes us think if your read in between the lines (the 23 questions).

Amit Singhal writes:

Below are some questions that one could use to assess the "quality" of a page or an article. These are the kinds of questions we ask ourselves as we write algorithms that attempt to assess site quality. Think of it as our take at encoding what we think our users want.

Of course, we aren't disclosing the actual ranking signals used in our algorithms because we don't want folks to game our search results; but if you want to step into Google's mindset, the questions below provide some guidance on how we've been looking at the issue:

Would you trust the information presented in this article?
Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
How much quality control is done on content?
Does the article describe both sides of a story?
Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?
Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?
Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?
Would users complain when they see pages from this site?

Let us focus on the essence of each question to come to a conclusion to what is the definition of a quality site as per Google if these are the questions asked in the decision boxes of the flowchart when the Panda Algorithm was coded.

If the content is :

1. Trust worthy

2. Written by an expert

3. Not duplicated with other variations on the same site

4. The site can be trusted for credit card payments

5. Does not have spelling and style errors

6. The topic is in sync with what the readers want to read about

7. Is original

8. Adds value to the topic

9. Checked for quality standards to provide good UX

10. Unbiased and give both sides of the story

11. Hosted on Domain Authority

12. Is not mass produced

13. Is edited well

14. Trust worthiness related to important matters like health

15. Reflects brand authority

16. Is complete and offers an overall view about the topic

17. Stating facts or discussing the topic with insights

18. Is it worth sharing

19. Having a lot of Ads. Loses the true essence of information and knowledge

20. Is the content worth being printed

21. Is it long enough to be informative

22. Is attention given to detail

23. Is published with good UX

Then
Google considers it as quality content and has the potential of ranking high.

Now again how many permutations and combinations will work in favor of rankings and how the trust authority, social authority , domain authority will be decided upon only Google will know but these points will surely define the quality of the content of your blog post and webpage.

All Google posts on SEO are guidelines and once these posts are live all SEOs and website owners start following their norms.

How Google will follow these points to rank websites only time will tell, but if the website owners follow them then the web is surely going to get rid of a lot of junk content and ensure quality content in future which shall shift the focus of search from information to knowledge. This is surely going to be a healthy step forward for the world wide web.

Related Links On This Topic:

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-high-quality.html

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/finding-more-high-quality-sites-in.html

http://seogadget.co.uk/high-quality-web-sites-the-new-google-ranking-factor/

http://www.seobook.com/questioning-questions

http://searchengineland.com/impacted-by-googles-panda-update-google-asks-you-to-consider-this-76050

Google / SEO - 05/09/2011

The Mobile Web And The Mobile Apps.

We all know that the future is mobile and this is proved by the escalation in the sales of the smart phones and the boom in the mobile apps. Market. At the same time the internet connectivity, wi-fi accessability and the internet speeds are also improving on an increasing scale so the mobile web is also showing a trend of easy access and usability.

With this scenario the question arises - Should one go for a mobile website or a mobile app.?

There are some critical differences between the two which need to be considered before taking a final decision:

Mobile Apps:

They are like the software packages designed with a specific purpose and which need to be downloaded and installed for a particular brand smartphone.
They need to be made portable for the requisite platform like – Blackberry, iPhone, Android, etc.
The apps. In order to be successful and have increased usability it needs to be developed very well keeping the user and the small screen of the handset in mind.
You need to come up with improved versions of apps. Regularly keeping in mind the advancements of the handsets being regularly launched in the market.
As the browsing technologies improve it is imperative to improve upon the apps. too.

Mobile Website:

A website especially designed for mobile devices.
This mainly has links to other pages which provide text information about your products and services and the contact details.
Unlike the Apps. It does not need any installation and it can be accessed by anyone having an internet connection but the only difference is that it is designed to suit the browsers and screen sizes of mobile devices.
Your mobile website can be found on search engines by users once you optimize it.

But, with the mobile web getting better and better it makes sense to have an optimized website which can have a larger access easily but again there are situations when apps. may be more viable like for example where downloads and easy payments are the main feature for the users for example like if you have an iTunes like product which you want users to buy and download on mobile devices.

Identify your need weigh the pros and cons and then decide. But, again to sum it up all sooner or later with the advancements and improvements in technology on both the hardware and software side there will be an integration resuting to websites suiting all devices desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones .

Mobile / SEO - 05/03/2011

The Etiquette Of Co.ordinating With Guest Post Submissions.

If you accept guest posts for your blog then I am sure you know that a guest post benefits both the blog and the person who writes the post. It is a mutually beneficial exchange of resources .

But, if you frequently publish guest posts and you keep on getting regular posts which you need to moderate and queue them for publishing then having a system to communicate with the guest bloggers is of utmost important. As people need to kept informed about the progress and status of the post submitted by them.

The guest who has submitted the post for the blog has spared time and effort to write the post and in this times of Twitter and social media many times the posts lose their significance and importance if they get delayed in getting published which is shear injustice to the writer.

If the post has to be rejected due to some reason then it should be done right away so that it can be published else where by the blogger. If it has been read and accepted then it should be immediately be scheduled and the date should be informed to the person who has submitted the post so that he is clear and go ahead planning for the next post.

Ideally the person should be informed within 24 – 48 hrs about the status as later than that is considered as being very inconsiderate of the other person’s time and effort.

Points The Guest Bloggers Should Keep In Mind:

Follow the blog guidelines.
Submit the post as per the procedure on the site.
Submit original and useful content.
Interact with the commenters on the blog .
Do not make the blog post or the comments a cheap link building avenue.
Promote the post.

Points The Host Needs to Keep In Mind:

Make it simple to submit the post.
Have a page to explain the guidelines for guest post submissions.
Be quick in responding to the guest regarding your decision after moderation.
Give a reason if the post is rejected .
Respond to emails by the guest poster. Answer their questions and clear their doubts.
Promote and share the post giving due acknowledgement and credit to the guest blogger as they are giving you content for the blog.

Guest blogging is a team effort if it is managed and coordinated well it can be very helpful for the blog as this is like your online team that you have which is contributing to the content and marketing of the blog.

Content marketing. / SEO - 05/01/2011

Entrepreneurship : Many Times All is Not well At the Very First Go

Today I just came across this video and hence thought of sharing some past nuances about WebPro Technologies

Every entrepreneur starts a business venture with a dream of being successful but many times all is not well at the very first go. When you decide to take up a job you learn on the job and try to be better with every passing day gaining experience and knowledge and also you are assured of a pay packet at the end of the month.

But, when you venture out to invest in business you do get experience with every decision you take but you may not always end up with monetary gain at the very first go. So that is the difference one needs to take risks and also be prepared for unforeseen situations or vagaries of the market despite taking wise and careful decisions. Always have a backup plan ready for such situations.

I am not writing all this hypothetically, I have gone through these situations and experienced it . I have been on both the sides . I started my career in 1987 working as a faculty at DataPro (Mumbai –Bandra) , Placement Head at NIIT (New Delhi ) and then finally as Centre Manager at TuLec (A division Of Tata Infotech – Ahmedabad) . After that planned to take up a franchise of DataPro for Ahmedabad but after a good start due to the changing market conditions as we are all familiar with the dot com bubble burst period of early 2000 it became very difficult to survive and meet the salary expenses of the SCJPs and MCSEs and the huge infrastructure cost of running a training institute.

But we had to continue even at a loss as we had enrolled students for 3 year Diploma courses and had to keep up to our commitments . The final blow came when DataPro – the Parent Company announced its closure and we had to now create an identity of our own. We had to remove the DataPro Sign Board and decided to start under the name of WebPro Technologies. Designing our own courses and setting marketing plans.

We started with Web Designing and Web Development courses and also got projects for web development.After the initial hiccups and teething problems we managed to get out of the loss and actually reached a decent profit margin with the web development and web designing courses we started for B.E’s (Engineers) only and we tiled the course as 'The eEngineer' . The first few batches were the saving grace and we came out of the difficult times.

The website owners whose website we had developed wanted to know how they can rank on Altavista, Lycos, Yahoo, Hotbot,etc. the search engines which were widely used. I started working on that and since then I have never looked back . I personally got so interested in optimizing sites that SEO services became the focus of our company.

Once you are out of the difficult times then it is in your hands to restructure, reorganize and rework the entire set up to narrow down or expand and go ahead more confidently.

Hence, every business venture will have its ups and downs but only during these times the entrepreneur has to prove his/her mettle and integrity as these are the true testing times and many times you are left alone to face these situations or the most faithful few of your team may help you.

Entrepreneurship - 04/30/2011

Connect To Yourself First then To The Rest Of The World

Twitter the micro blogging conversation tool has entered our lives and has been successful in creating a virtual life for most of the people on twittervile. That virtual life is so full of conversations and updates which need to be followed real time.

Twitter started as a conversation platform which seemed to be an excellent replacement for SMS or texting but with millions of people joining it and the integration of tweets being featured on search, it has become a real time information tool which updates you even before the news channels can have the breaking news headlines.

Moreover the use of social media as an online marketing tool has a certain compelling factor which may give the feeling of missing out on something important if you are not connected 24 X 7. This brings havoc in the real life schedules .This infact can be considered as an occupational hazard for the people working in the online industry.

After the regular use of Twitter, usually people get habituated to check on the tweets the moment they are out of bed but this is a dangerous habit which no doubt keeps you updated but surely creates a state of turmoil for your family and health.

First connect to yourself then to the rest of the world. Your Gym, Yoga, Walk or exercise routine and spending time with your family on the breakfast table are the most important things in the morning which cannot be replaced by any other professional assignment. Once you start the day with this positivity you have already taken the first step to face the day ahead with zeal and energy as more than the caffeine it is the oxygen which is needed early in the morning.

We do work with different time zones and mornings do not always co-relate to the break of dawn to many but if we choose to work this way then we need to decide our own body clock and see that we follow the schedules which go according to our timing schedules.

But unless you connect to yourself and give importance to yourself then you can never give it to anyone else. Everything boils down to discipline and efficient management, just because we have access to the broadband 24 X 7 that does not mean we add life to our GRAVATAR and become lifeless in real time.

The following video explains the efficient use of managing and monitoring social media:

Others - 04/21/2011

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