SEO Archives - Page 22 of 31

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/

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/

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

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 .

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.

The Art Of Commenting On Blogs

Blogs are usually created for sharing , expressing and voicing certain thoughts, opinions and information to reach out to more and more people , comments on the blog prove that this exercise has been fruitful and has a multiplier effect on the outreach.

Blog comments are the most valuable UGC (User Generated Content) which benefits the blog as well as the commenter. It works both ways , the blogger gets the opinions and view points of the readers which initiate a discussion, if the discussion has been meaningful and highlights the importance of the topic then it makes the blog post a valuable resource on the topic.

Such kind of regular value added comments from regular visitors which create interest in other visitors also help build a community. The success of any blog is based on the regular readers it has and how many additional visitors become regular readers on a regular basis.

No doubt the blog posts have to be interesting enough to generate that interest but to maintain that interest level the blogger too has to reply to every comment to make the person who wrote the comment feel that he was heard and what he shares regarding the topic is a value added content for the blog.

The back link you get from the comment thread may or may not pass on the link juice. I shall not mention the core SEO benefits derived from commenting as I think it is not ethical but when you share links in your comments do it from the perspective of adding content value to it or purely for the purpose of sharing the content on the link shared which according to you is correlated and will help the readers in some way or the other.

There are certain things to keep in mind while commenting on other blogs:

Never just post a comment for the sake of getting a link back. It is unethical and also resorts to comment spamming.

Share valuable info. related about the topic or share your opinion about it.

Reply to other people’s comments if you think have something to add to.

Do not make your comments too long so that they end up superseding the blog post itself.

If you think that your comment is worth being shared to other beyond the community of that blog tweet the link on Twitter or share it on social media. This again subtly benefits the blog too.

Comment only on topic for which you are passionate about or have knowledge about.

Incase you are posting a comment on a blog post about which you do not have Much knowledge, you can even ask a question in the comments section.

Be honest and authentic about who you are and if possible allow your logo or picture also to be displayed

By having such a commenting policy and approach your web presence can reap the benefits of promoting your brand, having a voice in the selected community, have indirect SEO and marketing benefits, reach out to new communities beyond your blog and search engine presence and also manage to get additional direct and referral traffic.

URL Shorteners And Anchor Text

We all know the importance of using URL Shorteners especially when we have to tweet a link on Twitter here there is a limitation of 140 characters. As we all know that social media signals are being integrated with search it is very important to find out if the shortened URL is passing on the SEO benefit behind it.

Yes we know that Twitter and other social media sites have a ‘No Follow’ attribute to links but that does not negate the importance of sharing links.Despite the No Follow attribute all the links shared on Twitter are being saved and recorded and there is also a twitter search by which these links can be found by people . Hence it is very important that the shorteners pass on the link juice to the destination URL.

So the question is which URL Shortener should be used?

In order to get all your links shared on Twitter be found in one place I suggest registering with www.trunk.ly which automagically collects links you share on Facebook, Twitter and Delicious, ... and makes them searchable.

According to me this is the most important spade work to be done by every SEO for each of their client Twitter accounts. As this will be the database or index of links shared on Social media which maybe and can be used by search engines in the coming future when their search algorithms are updated with the complete integration of search and social.

You can find our Trunk.ly presence on http://trunk.ly/Webprotech/

The Next Big Evolution Of The Web : The Data Explosion And Open Data

In one of our previous articles http://blog.webpro.in/2011/03/game-dynamics-and-influence-layer-of.html we spoke about the influence layer of the social scenario on the web. The next big concern is the volume of personal and general data which is being shared across the social media sites and other platforms on the web.

In the following videos Vivek Wadhwa (@wadhwa) speaks about the availability of data about each person on the web. Its pros and cons and how it can be used to make the web a better place and how it can be used efficiently and more effectively.

Today your personal records, health records, financial health,the personal choices you make on the web, which sites you visit, with whom you interact,etc. is all being recorded on the web. The questions who owns this data, who can use this data and how it can be used are all valid questions cropping up because of easy access to someone’s personal data and preferences.

He also adds that You may think that the U.S. leads in information collection. But the most ambitious project in the world is happening in India. Its government is gathering demographic data, fingerprints, and iris scans from of all its 1.2 billion residents. This will lead to the creation of the largest, most complex identity database in the world.

What To Do When Your Content is Being Copied ?

Google can do a fairly good job of knowing the origin of the content but incase your content has been uploaded by someone else by manipulating the time stamp then :

1. Send a warning email telling them to remove the content.

2. Send A DMCA Notice.

3. Do A Spam Report.

4. Write a blogpost and share it on Social Media.

What Is DMCA?
The DMCA is a United States copyright law which implements two 1996 WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) treaties. It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services that are used to circumvent measures that control access to copyrighted works (commonly known as DRM) and criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, even when there is no infringement of copyright itself. It also heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet.

What Is DRM ?
Digital rights management (DRM) is an umbrella term that refers to access control technologies used by publishers and copyright holders to limit usage of digital media or devices. It may also refer to restrictions associated with specific instances of digital works or devices. To some extent, DRM overlaps with copy protection, but DRM is usually applied to creative media (music, films, etc.) whereas copy protection typically refers to software.