SearchEngineNews.com Experts Blog

SEN’s Mother of All Link Building Resources

2014-03-06T09:46:55Z

Google aggressively crushed the most popular link building vehicles in 2013 while updating their Webmaster Guidelines to include strong warnings against Article, Press Release, Advertorial and even Guest Blogging links. This may have left you wondering...Now What?!

Well, SearchEngineNews.com has answered your call by building this list of link building how-to guides to be sure that you get the most out of your efforts while not tripping any flags with Google.

Have you been thinking outside of the box and found a link building strategy that we haven't covered above? If so, send us a note and we'll be happy to feature your findings to their members within SearchEngineNews.com.

Video Tutorial: The Best Way to Roll Out Large Quantities of New Content

2013-05-13T12:28:29Z

Google has been releasing video tutorials less than 3min long, on some of the most basic of questions related to search and your Web site. We have decided to feature these quick questions and answers to be sure that ALL of your questions are answered!

In today's question, Matt Cutts (head of Google's Webspam team) gives his advice on rolling out large quantities of new content. The question asks,

"A newspaper company wants to add an archive with 200k pages. Should they add it all at once or in steps?" - John, Zurich

Cutts says either way is acceptable. But if this were for his site, he would roll out the archive in large blocks rather than all at once. Releasing huge blocks of content all at once can draw the attention of Google's Spam team, necessitating a manual review of your site. It is best not to attract the wary attentions of the Google Spam team.

View the video for yourself:

Brought to you by the experts at SearchEngineNews.com, who have had their finger on the pulse of the SEO industry for 16 years. Reading every mainstream blog, talking with industry insiders and separating what works from what doesn't - ALL so you don't have to. Learn more and signup for a 7 day trial for just $1!

Youtube to Put Some Channels Behind Membership Walls

2013-05-08T13:29:52Z

Netflix, Hulu and Amazon has proven without a doubt that people want to view their TV programs streaming online with a low monthly fee and NO contract to tie them in. This has put the cable companies up in arms and scrambling to shift programming to online platforms as they continue to lose viewers. Well, watch out cable because here comes trouble...

Rumor has it that YouTube is planning to roll out a paid membership system that will control the access of up to 50 YouTube channels. Memberships are said to start at $1.99/mo. and will include a commercial free option. This is all set to go live as soon as this month. However, upon further research we discovered that there was no official announcement made by YouTube as of yet.

The news has been trickling out since the beginning of the year and is back in full force. The most recent is a solid article published by Financial Times. Then when Mashable approached YouTube recently for confirmation of this move they were quoted saying...

"We have nothing to announce at this time, but we're looking into creating a subscription platform that could bring even more great content to YouTube for our users to enjoy and provide our creators with another vehicle to generate revenue from their content, beyond the rental and ad-supported models we offer."

So, what can we take away from all of this? YouTube will roll out a paid membership that will allow its users to take advantage of the premium content they've been shelling out millions of dollars to create. How do we know that? It's the next obvious move. Companies have already proven that the future of paid programming is online and nothing makes users happier than being able to pick and choose from various systems that fit within their budget and their schedule.

YouTube has also recently revamped their user interface to focus more on the promotion and organization of channels specifically and now we know why. Hey, maybe monetizing some of that content will also allow them to get the DCMA off their backs at the same time...

This shift will definitely push more users to YouTube than ever before, which makes growing your channel's audience that much more important. The channels that are set to be behind membership walls are not just big time Network TV content; they're being pulled from the top viewed channels within various topics. According to the Washington post:

"Executives at Google have said that they expect 75 percent of all video channels to start on the Internet within the next decade, and it has clearly done its part to push that trend along."

That's so important I want to say it again...

Google expects 75 percent of all video channels to start on the Internet within the next decade!

So, why am I telling you all of this? If done correctly, a solid YouTube channel could be the future of the right kind of business. People love video and a YouTube channel will have a low monetary entry fee with the potential of big payoffs long term. Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty sure no one is going to be paying to watch cat videos, but with the right on-air talent who says there isn't a cooking show or technology broadcast in someone's future...

Be sure to leverage these resources to boost your video knowledge today.

Brought to you by the experts at SearchEngineNews.com. Who have had their finger on the pulse of the SEO industry for 16 years. Reading every mainstream blog, talking with industry insiders and separating what works from what doesn't - ALL so you don't have to. Learn more and signup for a 7 day trial for just $1!

Increase Traffic, Sales & Social Signals by Adding Pinterest’s ‘Pin It’ Button To Your Photos Today!

2013-05-07T12:01:04Z

Photos tend to drive engagement on social networks—and that's especially true on Pinterest. The virtual pinboard (now at 40 million users and climbing) is being used by an increasing number of brands and businesses to boost their visibility and sales.

Images are a critical part of the Pinterest experience. And aside from creating visually compelling boards that help tell your company's story on Pinterest, you can further increase your Pinterest footprint by making your website and blog photos easy to pin with a Pin It mouse over button.

Image via WordPress Plugin Directory

You may have already installed a Pinterest sharing button on your site—but adding a Pin It mouse over button to each photo makes widespread sharing even easier. The tool is relatively easy to install—and if you like, you can customize the button's style. First, let's look at the basic Pinterest Pin It Button for Images plugin installation.

Installing the Pinterest Pin It Button for Images Plugin

If your blog is self-hosted on WordPress, you can install the Pin It plugin in just a few simple steps:

Download the zip file from the plugin link.
Sign into WordPress and, once you're at the dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New > Upload and choose the zip file.
To activate the plugin, go to Dashboard > Settings > Pinterest Pin It.
Under 'Show Pin It Button on Following Pages', select 'All Pages', which will apply the plug-in to all of your blog's images. Click 'Save' and you're done!

Customizing the Pinterest Pin It Button for Images Plugin

Feeling up to a more challenging project? You can customize the Pin It button's style to coordinate with your site's visual layout and your company's branding. Once you've chosen your button style (you can design it yourself or pick a free Pinterest button), follow these steps:

If you haven't already, download the Pinterest Pin It Button for Images plugin zip file.
Save your new Pin It button in the Pinterest-Pin-It-Button-For-Images folder.
While you're in the folder, open the PPIBFI_Pinterest.CSS file in Notepad or Text Edit (depending on your operating system) and look for this code at the top:

.pibfi_pinterest .xc_pin { width: 80px; height: 50px; background-image: url('ppibfi_button.png'); background-repeat: none;
If you want to use a smaller or larger Pinterest button than 80 pixels by 50 pixels, adjust those two numbers accordingly. And when you're finished, save the file and zip the entire folder. Then follow the installation instructions listed earlier in the post and you're all set!

Once you've installed the plugin, keep an eye on the photos you're publishing. The higher quality and more compelling they are, the more likely they are to be shared. And if you're able to take your own photos or have other photography resources at your disposal, consider using original images wherever possible, which will help you steer clear of any possible copyright issues.

What are you doing on Pinterest? Any success stories or thoughts you'd like to share? We always want to hear what's working (or not working) for you, so let's hear it!

Video Tutorial: How to Interlink Your Web Sites

2013-05-06T11:22:04Z

In today's question, Matt Cutts (head of Google's Webspam team) addresses the site linking in relation to Google's quality guidelines. The question asks,
"Suppose I have a site that covers fishing overall (A) & I make another fishing site that solely focuses on lure fishing (B). Does linking to A from B violate guidelines? I'll make sure both have high quality content & I disclose that they're both owned by me." -- Kenichi, Tokyo

Cutts explains linking two of your sites is not in violation of the guidelines, especially when site A or B has relevant content and the user could find both sites useful. The problems begin when you have 50 -- 100+ sites, and even more so of a problem when you have thousands of your sites link together. A link network of irrelevant sites is NOT something you want to have. On the other hand, you don't want to have hundreds of sites on the same topic.

Check out Cutts' response to the question of the day:

Microsoft Set to Rebrand Once Again

2013-05-03T10:54:08Z

At the Design Day conference in Norway, Microsoft's General Manager of Windows Phone Design, Albert Shum, and Wolff Olin's Executive Creative Director, Todd Simmons presented the process and story behind Microsoft's upcoming rebranding. It is a huge undertaking for a multi-faceted corporation with a billion-plus users to change their look and design. This is the type of move that can make or break a company.

Take a look at the old versus the new:

In Shum and Simmons' presentation, they showed this Bing logo concept ad:

With iOS and Google (devices and platforms) usage on the rise, Microsoft is attempting to stay relevant. Between Bing, Office, Windows, Xbox, and Skype - Is a rebranding going to do the trick? What do you think of the new logo? You can view the entire presentation here. As always, we welcome your thoughts in the comments.

What’s New in Local Search for May 2013

2013-05-02T10:40:11Z

Here is the May 2013 installment of 'What's New in Local Search'. It's been another busy month so I won't waste your time and am just going to dive right in.

Google announces a new integrated dashboard for managing Places and Plus together in one place. Unfortunately, most of us don't yet have access to it, yet. Read this post on Google+ Local-What's Really Changed to learn more.
Foursquare announces that it will set its data free to third parties that wish to use it for ad targeting. Foursquare seems to be like the guys who sold picks and shovels ...

This is a members-only post. If you're a member, read the full article here, or find out more about SEN.

Video Tutorial: Why Your Google Page Rank Drops Over Time

2013-04-25T15:17:27Z

Google has been releasing short 2-3min video tutorials on some of the most basic of questions related to search and your Web site. We have decided to feature these quick questions and answers to be sure that ALL of your questions are answered!

In today's question, Matt Cutts (head of Google's Webspam team) addresses the reasons why a new website may initially have high page rank, and why said page rank might drop over time.

The question asks:

"When we create a new landing page with quality content, Google ranks that page on the top 30-50 for targeted keywords. Then why does the rank get decreased for the next 2 to 3 weeks? If pages didn't have required quality, then why did it get ranked in the first week? - Sandeep, India"

Cutts explains, the new landing page may initially rank high because Google is figuring out where the content comes from, if it is high quality, and whether this page addresses the needs (or answers the question) of the keywords searched. When new pages rank high for a while, Cutts says this is because "we are taking our best guess and then as more information becomes available, we incorporate that" into how Google ranks your page. Cutts continues, "Eventually, typically, things (page rank) settle down into a steady state. We're typically able to better guess how relevant something is." Different queries bring up different search results. Some queries need stable content, and others need fresh content (read about QDF aka Queries Deserve Freshness here). Watch the video for more information.

Have you noticed this trend with some of your new pages? What did you do to maintain your high rankings?

Google Releases Spam Take Down Reports

2013-04-24T11:00:13Z

Google's site, How Search Works, features a prominent Fighting Spam section which features live spam takedowns and some other interesting details. For example, here is some gambling spam that Google has removed from their search results.

Within the Fighting Spam portion of Google's latest resource are statistics showing:

Manual takedowns
Type of spam taken down
Website notifications via Webmaster Tools
Reconsideration requests

Here is a screenshot of spam manually removed by Google, and the varying categories of spam.

While there are no clear definitions of what makes a high quality site. However, there are plenty of suggestions on what NOT to do (repetition, buying links, invisible text, etc). With technique and quality guideline links to Google Webmasters, the Fighting Spam page is yet another piece of the free Google resource puzzle.

Now, if you'd rather skip all the research and jump straight to knowing what Google considers spam and how not to get penalized then be sure to read our featured article:

The Ultimate Guide to Avoiding Google Penalties

WTF is a Co-Citation and a Co-Occurrence Anyway?!

2013-04-22T12:34:52Z

Face it - Search engine algorithms are logical. The people in charge of the changes to the formula have goals and they adjust the algorithm to help accomplish those goals. That makes predicting the changes to the formula ALL about trying to figure out the goals of the search engines and how they apply to rankings.

Sounds simple enough, but then why isn't it? In my 11 years of experience I've learned that it's complicated because people make it that way. For example, when a trusted authority on search figures out a new change and explains it to their readers, like all scientists, they tag the new concept with a name that leaves the average person confused.

I can sit here and name a dozen confusing industry terms without stopping for a breath (Canonical Tag, Citations, Meme, Favicon, Spam, Schema, and so on). Now, some of them may make sense to you, but I prefer things explained to a point where there is no room for error. Maybe I'm strange that way.

In this post I am going to do my best to clearly define the recently coined SEO terms: Co-Citations and Co-Occurrences.

For starters, these words are so new that no one has really even stopped to put a solid definition on them. To quote Search Engine Journal:

"As these terms are not officially confirmed yet, there is a significant amount of doubt in the proper definition and explanation about co-occurrence. Some SEO professionals have suggested that co-citation and co-occurrence basically refer to the same concept. On the other hand, however, other SEO analysts and professionals, who have a keen eye on every modern SEO development, claim that co-occurrence is a bit different than co-citation."

These terms started when Rand Fishkin did a video, describing how he was seeing sites rank for terms they weren't optimized for. He called the reason for this 'co-citations' and if you skip down to the comments below his post you can see that his new term was so broad that readers quickly picked it apart. He then clarified it with:

"...when I say "co-citation" I just mean any form of association of term+brand or term+website or term+URL. All the ones you mentioned are ways that this could be accomplished (and I probably should have included them in the video)."

And that's how 'co-citation' was born.

So, after that short history, here's a black and white definition of both - with the disclaimer, that this concept is still evolving.

Co-occurrence is when the search engines decide what a page is about in context and not by grabbing the keywords that it's optimized for. It works much the same as if you didn't understand a word on its own, but when used in a sentence and you could easily apply a rough definition. Done enough times and you have little to no doubt what the word is actually about and you even begin confidently using it yourself.

That same logic allows Google to see your site/business written about in context and categorize it. So, if your business is mentioned on a page and is surrounded by industry keywords then Google can begin to understand what your site is about. Done enough times and the potential to rank your site for those keywords grows. The science is actually getting so good that it's becoming more common to see sites ranking for searches that they have not been optimized for at all. Meaning, they have NO incoming links with that anchor text, no on-site keyword optimization - nothing. They're ranking for that keyword phrase by the weight of being mentioned by enough trusted sources in context alone.

As you can see, this leaves many people worried about the future power of anchor text for ranking. On that subject, I'll simply say that as long as you're being smart about your link building then those links will continue to count.

Co-citations - The first thing to understand is that a citation is a link. So this works the same as above, but it involves associating sites because they're linked to from the same page. See the example I created below for more info:

Possible excerpt from an HGTV.com article:

"We recently worked on a whole home renovation project that left our viewers in complete awe with the finished product. The kitchen was the most impressive. The brand new all wood oak cabinets were some of the finest available within the cabinet industry, donated by Foster's Cabinets. We then accented them with an oak bar that was refinished by our own Finest Wood Accents, which is a finish cabinet shop in the area."

The above is an example of a co-citation that puts Foster's Cabinets and Finest Wood Accents in the same rough category by Google. They're both mentioned by a trusted site (HGTV.com) and they're both surrounded by text full of industry keywords. If Foster's Cabinets happens to be a large international brand with a lot of trust, then being mentioned in context with them is a very good move for the overall trust of Finest Wood Accents.

Simply put, the more your site is linked to from the same page as other trusted industry brands the better off your brand looks to Google. If you're hanging out with industry leaders, then before long their authority rubs off on you a little. Trust, Authority and Branding are already ranking factors and they'll only become more important with time.

SEO can seem really complicated. I get that. However, I've discovered one of the MAIN reasons I'm left feeling dazed and confused is because one expert defines something new - slaps a name to it and then before you know it dozens of 'experts' are tossing it around in conversation and within posts with no real definition attached. It leaves those that understand it feeling in the 'know' and those that don't, too embarrassed to raise their hands and say - hey what is a 'meme' anyway?!

That is just the nature of our business. When that happens to you, shoot me a note and my team and I will be more than happy to shine some light on the topic.

Google+Local - What’s Really Changed?

2013-04-19T13:01:56Z

In early April, the big news in Local Search was the announcement from Google about the new dashboard upgrade. The buzz about it spread rapidly and we were all excited about it, but what has really changed?

The more I look at what you can do now compared to what you could do before April 2nd when the announcement was made, the more I'm inclined to say that for most of us the answer is not much.

Perhaps, we should have taken a clue from Google's announcement on blogspot:

"Today, we're introducing an upgrade to the look and feel of Google Places for Business th...

This is a members-only post. If you're a member, read the full article here, or find out more about SEN.

Page Authority: Link Building for Your Links

2013-04-10T11:00:14Z

The SEO world is always a-flutter with debate on one buzz-word topic or another. There is always talk of link building, search engine algorithm changes, and how to improve your PageRank, domain authority, traffic, and other website metrics. Most of the solutions come in the form of on-page optimization and getting links.

What isn't always considered is maintaining the links you already have. After all, though the Internet seems limitless, there are a finite number of quality sites, and while new blogs are popping up every day, the more links you acquire, the longer it will take you to find sites you haven't been on. This makes it imperative to spend some of that time improving the links you already have.

Along with SEOmoz's Domain Authority measurement comes a metric that is often overlooked. Page Authority measures the likelihood of a specific page on a website ranking well in the search engines. While this metric is just a tool, and only offers an indication of what may rank well, it is useful for site owners to keep track of their pages. But there's another way to utilize Page Authority; by keeping track of the page authority of the pages that link to you, you can improve the authority of your own pages.

It is obvious that you will be looking for high authority sites to place links. While a strong PageRank and Domain Authority are great things for your website to be associated with, you can extend the influence of those links by raising the Page Authority of the pages they are on.

It is widely accepted that the better the sites that are linking to you are, the more potential you have for high search engine rankings. Often, links are posted on resource pages that may not get too many visitors or guest posts that don't see a large audience. While this may not hurt your site, it is not the most efficient way to raise your rankings. Guest post links are a particular issue because once they cycle off the home page, they are most likely on a page of their own that won't see traffic unless directed from outside links or search engines. Resource links are usually on static pages, and so easier to find, if still not particularly traffic-heavy.

By drawing an audience to your links, you can increase the Page Authority of the page they reside on. How do you do this? You use the same methods you use to bring people to your own site.

Resource Links If you are getting links on quality resource pages, share those resources with other people. Directing your audience to resource pages that recommend your services provides them with information on similar services while showing off and increasing the authority that you've already gained. Share link to these research pages in your social media, your guest posts, or even your email correspondence.

Guest Posts

It might be easier to draw people to your guest posts, since they offer content that will be useful or entertaining to readers. You can do that by:

Linking back to your guest posts in articles on your own site and other guest posts.
Linking from your social media to your guest posts.
Encouraging people to comment and have discussions in the comment sections.

If you can get the community involved with the page your link is on, it shows that the content still has relevance. Try pushing for traffic about a month after an article is published. This can cause discussion to re-spark and revive interest in the topic. These are some of the many factors that search engines base their rankings on.

It is important to remember that when focusing on improving your metrics, your end goal is still to appeal to users. Focus on people rather than raw data and metrics. Using these techniques helps show off your previous writing experience, once again drawing attention to your authority and establishing you and your website as a trustworthy source of information.

Of course, Page Authority, Domain Authority, PageRank, and all of those other metrics are just tools to see if you're on the right track. They are not guaranteed to be one hundred percent accurate. This is why it's best to focus on methods that actively targeting actual people, rather than ambiguous algorithms and search engine spiders.

By maintaining the health of your already-obtained links, you are maximizing your efforts and efficiency. You already know that no one-time strategy is going to help your site in the long run. So apply that viewpoint to each link you obtain. Is the page you are targeting capable of earning and maintaining a decent Page Authority? If so, it might be more likely to rank well, which will increase the benefit to your site. If not, perhaps you should focus your efforts elsewhere.

Author Bio: Jeriann Watkins is a writer living in Boise, Idaho. She enjoys writing about many subjects, including white-hat SEO and new advances in Internet technology. She currently works for Page One Power, a relevancy first link building company.

What’s New In Local Search For April 2013

2013-04-09T12:17:08Z

Here is the April 2013 installment of 'What's New in Local Search'. It's been another busy month so I won't waste your time and am just going to dive right in.

There are some things that are good for those managing the new AdWords enhanced campaigns for local businesses even though there are plenty of things not to like about. The best of these is the ability to adjust your bids by geographic area, allowing you to pay more or less for a click depending on its value to you in each market where you sell. These campaign-level bidding adjustments may not give you as tight control as setting up individual campaigns for each region, it is a good way to get started if you have many ge...

This is a members-only post. If you're a member, read the full article here, or find out more about SEN.

How to Avoid Google’s Three Most Common Ranking Penalties and What to Do If You Get Slapped By Them

2013-04-08T17:15:40Z

How to Avoid Google's Three Most Common Ranking Penalties and What to Do If You Get Slapped By Them
—by Casey Markee

2012 was a roller coaster year for webmasters. Google took sites from gasping highs to gut churning lows! ...punctuated by episodes of anxious uncertainty. But you've been paying attention, right? And following our advice. So most of the drama passed you by. Chances are, you breezed through 2012 unaware of the panic by other sites owners and managers who felt helplessly victimized by Google's constantly evolving arsenal of penalties.

Regardless, we're passionate about keeping you on top of the arms race. With that in mind we've gone ahead and dissected Google's 3 most commonly applied penalties so you can avoid them, or even recover from them should you ever need to.

1. Panda Content Penalties: Google's search results ranking algorithm update known as Panda was first unleashed in February 2011. Panda's initial goal was to penalize sites that 'scrape' content from other sites resulting in duplicate content within Google's search results. In an effort to continually improve the efficiency of penalizing these offending sites, Google has since been updating Panda's algorithm at irregular intervals of approximately once a month. Sites that are effected by a Panda update typically experience a ranking drop anywhere from 10-50 spaces, with some pages disappearing from the search results entirely.

To date there have been 24 updates (aka, refreshes) of the algorithm, the most recent being January 17th, 2013. This penalty is almost uniformly on-site metric based with triggers including; low-quality or spun content, high bounce rates, low average site visits, keyword over-optimization, and excessive anchor-text-rich internal linking. As you know, we've been regularly updating you regarding the details of Panda via your SEN membership.

So, how do you avoid a Panda filter penalty?

Avoid strategies designed to 'trick' the search engines!
Add social sharing buttons and increase social signals.
Clean-up your internal linking, especially footer links and excessive anchor-text-rich optimization.
Finally, minimize cross-links from sites you control.

If your site has been negatively impacted by Panda you'll need to correct every single one of your on-site offenses, then wait for Google to re-run the algorithm against your site. Once Google sees you've made the corrections, your site logs will register a clear uptick in referral traffic and your rankings will improve coinciding with the recorded date of the new Panda update.

2. Penguin Webspam Penalty: Penguin is Panda's 800lb gorilla. Penguin is a harsher Web-spam level penalty, slapping sites that are guilty of any of the following infractions:

spun content,
low-quality content,
questionable linking practices — especially excessive anchor-text-rich links,
cross-domain link schemes,
keyword stuffing,
excessive on-page optimization,
or, in Google's eyes, just being evil.

Penguin can drop a site like a rock! ...and similar to Panda, can be page-specific, plummeting pages anywhere from 10-100+ spots. Since Google first announced Penguin in April 2012, there have been two updates; one in May, another in October 2012. The original purpose of Penguin was to reward higher quality sites while punishing those that, in Google's eyes, were spamming Google to achieve good rankings. Of course our previous Search Engine Strategy Updates have covered Penguin in detail and as a SEN member you have several in-depth resources available to you regarding Google's Penguin update that we suggest you take advantage of.

To recover from a Penguin slap you'll need to conduct a detailed site audit to correct and remove low-quality content, improve user engagement, and eliminate any spam triggers. You must also conduct a substantial backlink audit and then remove questionable links through a process called link pruning (we'll talk more about that below).

Penguin, like Panda, is considered an algorithmic update. As such, if your site is penalized or dropped, a reconsideration request will not work here. Instead, you must correct your on-site issues, conduct link pruning to remove questionable links, build in better and higher-quality links going forward, and wait for a new Penguin refresh to be run against your site. As is the case with Panda, when Google sees you've made the corrections your site logs will register a clear uptick in referral traffic and your rankings will improve coinciding with the recorded date of the new Penguin update.

3. Unnatural Links Penalty: Historically, site owners have always complained about Google's reluctance to communicate about penalties. But in January 2011 they loosened their lips with the emergence of unnatural links notices. And since April 2012 they've delivered well over a million of them to Webmaster Tools accounts.

Unnatural link notices are basically a statement from Google saying unnatural links to your site were detected and Google believes their purpose is to artificially influence rankings or PageRank. As such, your site has been manually assessed a penalty. Google has stopped the flow of PageRank passing through your 'suspicious' unnatural links and they've filtered out whatever specific anchor-text-rich keywords you're targeting. This type of penalty results in a significant drop in rankings.

To recover from this penalty you'll need to conduct a detailed link audit, remove any questionable links AND then build in new, better links! This link removal process is called link pruning, something we'll discuss more in detail in a moment.

Check List: How to Know if You've Actually Been Penalized

If you notice a sudden, significant drop in your overall Google traffic that persists for a period of several days...

and / or

...you notice your previous keyword rankings have been substantially reduced...

and

...these changes do not coincide with Google changing their algorithm recently...

then

...you may have a penalty weighing you down. (What? ...you think Google's going to make this simple?) Here are 2 quick tests that will reveal if you've been banned vs. penalized.

Enter site:yourdomain.com into Google (replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain, of course). If any of your site's pages appear in the listings then, good news, you have not been banned — though you may still be partially penalized.
Next, run a search for your domain name, i.e. yoursite.com. If your site isn't ranked #1 for your own domain name, you've likely been penalized.

To make it a little easier, look at the following flowchart (click the image to expand):

Below is a screenshot of the Panguin Tool which you should use to visually line up your Google Search Queries and Google Analytics traffic with recent Google algorithmic changes.

The Panguin Tool analyzes Google Analytics site traffic profiles and positions that data over a graphic that corresponds with recorded Google algorithmic updates. This highly useful visual shows whether you've been affected by a Panda / Penguin refresh, or a Top Heavy update (launched in January 2012), or some other data update. We strongly recommend the Panguin Tool as a suggested first step whenever you're conducting a penalty troubleshooting audit.

Conducting a Site Review and How to Get Help!

In the world of the Web, Google is a trusted brand, a household name and practically an institution. If you're to succeed online, you must stay on good terms with them. And, if you fall out of grace, then it's paramount you get back in their good graces as quickly as possible!

Should a penalty occur, start by fixing the problems on your site (duh!). Make a list of everything you think might be objectionable. Remember, Google is notoriously tight-lipped about communicating penalties to site owners — but they do notify you through your Google Webmaster Tools account once they get around to reviewing your request. Regardless, you shouldn't expect their help. They want you to figure out how to methodically and systematically unwind their penalty.

By the way, the best place to find help is the Google Webmaster Help Forums. This often overlooked resource is invaluable for diagnosing and unraveling penalties.

When you're ready to request a site review by both Google engineers and other SEOs you should use the Crawling, Indexing, and Ranking forum. Be prepared to provide your URL for review and to receive BLUNT criticism of what may be causing your problems. And because of their candor, here's where you can expect to get the solid advice that'll help you identify the penalty triggers that are handicapping your SEO efforts.

Link Pruning 101: What it is and When you Need it!

Link pruning, a relatively new term in the vernacular of SEO, involves the identification and removal of what Google thinks are superfluous links that exist to artifically improve rankings within a site's backlink profile. The necessity for link pruning is usually spurred by either a Google algorithmic update or an Unnatural Links notice

If you've experienced a Panda or Penguin slap, or received one of the million+ unnatural link notices that Google sent during 2012, then it's a good idea to re-evaluate your backlinks and perform some link pruning where appropriate in order to recover competitively in the rankings. As I am sure you're aware, an onsite search will reveal several resources on link pruning available to you as a SEN member.

Most would agree the task of link pruning can be challenging. And Google expects that offending sites should "strive to remove at least 85% of suspicious links." Obviously Google is looking for, at least, a good faith effort to remove as many of these links as possible. The problem is, of course, that oftentimes you can't remove certain offending links that, by definition, exist on sites outside your control. Fortunately, Google has a tool to assist you.

The Google Disavow Link Tool: Use With Caution!

Link pruning got a bit easier this past October with the advent of the Disavow Link Tool — first introduced at Pubcon Las Vegas then formally announced on the Webmaster Central Blog.

As we explained in a previous Search Engine Strategy Update, the goal of the Disavow Link Tool is to assist site owners who've been unsuccessful unwinding the penalty through multiple reconsideration requests.

In other words, the purpose of the Disavow Link tool is to provide guidance to Google on links you've tried REPEATEDLY to remove on your own. And here's the important part, pay close attention:

The Disavow Links tool is not a substitution for link pruning as it will not remove links.

Worth repeating: you should only use the Google Disavow Tool after you have tried to remove specific links on your own, several times, and been otherwise unsuccessful. And, remember, the links you enter are just suggestions. Google's under no obligation to honor your requests.

Most importantly, Google wants to see a clear BEST EFFORT on your part to negotiate the removal of these questionable links BEFORE you resort to using the tool. If you're unfamiliar with the Google Disavow Link Tool, we suggest you review our previous write-up in SEN and also watch Google's introductory How-To video on its proper use.

How To Ensure a Successful Reconsideration Request

Once you've identified and corrected your site's penalty issues — pruned your unnatural links, updated your page layout, cleaned-up your keywords and on-page content and complied with Google's Webmaster Guidelines in detail — you must petition Google to reconsider your site.

Here's where the site reconsideration request comes into play. Located within your Webmaster Tools account, the reconsideration request is your direct line back into Google's good graces. In completing this request, you're expected to disclose all possible Webmasters Guideline violations that may have triggered your penalties. Then you must list the actions you've taken to correct the problems.

Finally, be sure to include a statement that says something to the effect of: your site is now in compliance with Google Webmaster Guidelines, AND you promise never, ever, to repeat the offending action again.

And be sure to keep your promise! ...because Google considers the most important signal by a site recovering from a penalty to be a history of good behavior. If you've been subject to a penalty in the past, and then repeat as an offender, don't be surprised if Google hands down a death sentence. Remember, it is their search engine! ...and they can do almost anything they want in terms of ignoring future reconsideration requests.

As to timelines, Google previously made repenting site owners sweat for a month or two before considering their reconsideration request — probably to allow for time to see if the site established some history of good behavior. But now Google makes it clear that most reconsideration requests take no more than 2-3 weeks to process after which time you will ALWAYS receive one of the following four responses:

Google informs you there is no penalty that's been manually applied to your site's ranking. Instead, you just need to make your site better.
Your reconsideration request was successful and the manually applied penalty has been removed.
Your site still has issues and the manually applied penalty is still in place. In the case of unnatural link notices, Google may partially unpenalize your site but advise you to continue link pruning.
Google has processed your reconsideration request — Google-speak for we've received your request and are still mulling things over in regards to the penalty status of your site. We call this a "limbo" request.

The #4 response is NOT the one you want to receive. The problem with having your request in limbo is that you can't really know what to do next. Do you continue to make changes? Do you wait for more information? Do you keep looking and submit another reconsideration request? It's hard to even give advice on this, but our best recomendation is to do all of the above!

A limbo request may mean that you'll need to submit multiple reconsideration requests to get the penalty lifted. But be aware that Google has stated that submitting multiple reconsideration requests can actually slow down or even reset your review process. So our BEST advice is to get it right the first time! ...fix everything that could possibly cause a penalty prior to submitting any reconsideration request.

By the way, here's a sample reconsideration request to use as a template:

To Whom It May Concern:

I recently found that my site was no longer indexed in Google (or suppressed in the rankings) due to what appears to be an applied penalty. Upon further inspection by a consultant, I realized I was doing a few things that were questionable according to your Webmaster Guidelines.

In particular, I was doing the following (insert your reason here - buying links, hidden text, excessive cross-linking, etc.). I have corrected these issues and would humbly ask that if there still exist other issues I need to address that you will let me know so I can immediately correct them and reinclude my site into your index.

I will certainly read the Google Webmaster Guidelines in more detail from this point forward and can assure you that I will be much more discriminating in the future in how I market my site.

Please accept my sincere thanks in advance for your consideration of my request.

Regards,

Guilty Webmaster

Again, most reconsideration requests are reviewed within 2-3 weeks. So, if the proper corrective action is taken, your site should recover fairly quickly. However, if you don't receive a response within a month, we recommend asking for assistance in the Google Webmaster Help Forum for further insights into the penalties that might be affecting your site's rankings.

Heed these cautionary words from the man in charge: Google Engineer Matt Cutts:

Also be sure to watch this YouTube tips video provided by Google to assist you in covering all the bases when formulating your reconsideration request.

Some Final Thoughts...

We've focused this article on only three of the most common Google penalties, making no attempt to cover the other eight. So be sure to use your SEN membership to stay caught up on the rest of Google's penalties — especially if your site drops suddenly in the rankings and none of these penalties seem to apply.

Always bear in mind the best strategy for avoiding penalties is pre-emptive. By knowing the rules ahead of time, and following them, your chances of experiencing a Google-slap is small. That's assuming, of course, you design a content-rich site that brings true value to your target audience. When building links, go for quality over quantity. Ultimately, Google rewards such sites with top rankings that are sustainable, leading to the high traffic counts and the profits that naturally follow.

If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right!

Professional Search Engineer

Casey Markee is a SEN Google penalties expert who has successfully unwound penalties for dozens of our members. If you need help getting your site back up in the rankings after a suspected penalty then now is the time to schedule time with Casey before your rankings are gone permanently.

Edited by: Stephen Mahaney

Google Publishes New Site Explaining ‘How Search Works’

2013-03-29T11:00:42Z

Google has just released an animated and interactive Web site called 'How Search Works' that spells out the A -- Z of search, in three parts.

Crawling and Indexing
Algorithms
Fighting Spam

It's a beginner friendly site that feels like an infographic on steroids. It starts out explaining the crawling of a site and moves on from there. The idea is similar in style to last year's "Story of Send" -- the animated story of the journey of an email as it's a simple explanation, that has plenty of graphics and little tidbits of relevant information tucked away when clicked on. Both of these simple, almost cartoon-like explanations make us want to be sure they're teaching them at the local high schools.

So, if you prefer hard data instead of a warm and fluffy look at how things work then we suggest grabbing a cup of coffer (or a pot) and diving into the wealth of research papers that get into real detailed aspects of search.

In Part One: Crawling and Indexing, Google states they crawl each site by following site links. Site owners get to choose if they want their site crawled (as all you Google Webmasters know). With over 30 trillion pages and growing, search engines have their work cut out for them. Each page is cached in the index, a large database that holds over 100 million gigabytes of information!

In Part Two: Algorithms, Google explains a few of the programs they use to determine you get what you're looking for. Autocomplete, Spelling, Synonyms, and different Search Methods are a few of the ways Google wants to help you complete your thoughts. From there, Google pulls and ranks relevant sites from the index. There are over 200 Factors involved in ranking! Results are split into different categories: Links & Snippets, the Knowledge Graph, Images, Videos, News, Mobile and more.

In Part Three: Fighting Spam, the different types of spam are shown. Google points out that most spam fighting is done automatically. Included are spam notification and reconsideration request statistics.

Millions of searches were performed in the two minutes of my viewing of this site! This is a great site to review and learn. It's worth a look and if you feel it's far to beginner for you then grab your kid and have them play with it for a bit. It's never too early to start :)

Google Advertising VP Says ‘Print is Dying’

2013-03-28T11:00:28Z

In a recent Adweek interview Google's Senior Vice President of Advertising, Susan Wojcicki, spoke of the demise of print advertisements. As users switch from purchasing magazines and newspapers to reading said publications on their tablets or laptops, the need for print diminishes at an astonishing rate.

Publishing a print ad in the New York Times for one day will cost you upwards of $800. This has size restrictions and audience circulation restrictions. Ads online can be as simple as a few words, or compelling pictures. The sky is the limit to how you want to interest users on your Web site and your wares. Wojcicki described the advertising trend that is moving print to digital:

"Advertising is very simple in a lot of ways. Advertisers go where the users go, and users are choosing to spend a lot more time online. Look at the adoption of tablets. Tablets have beautiful screens and can be interactive, so I think a lot of traditional print is being moved to being read on tablets. And I think we're moving to much more [Internet]-enabled TV. And think about radio, there are a lot of great services like Spotify, Pandora, iTunes and [Google] Play. So the users are moving really, really fast, and the advertisers need to catch up and move to where the users are."

Wojcicki is running an empire with advertising profits soaring up to $43.7 billion dollars in 2012. One of her top concerns is ease of use for the customer (in line with Google's mantras and what should be all of our goals). Wojcicki says,

"Buying advertising right now is way too hard. In order to get more advertising [dollars to shift to digital], you need to make it be easier. People don't understand the logistics of advertising. To have the ads purchased and run, you need to have a series of products that work together."

Read more of Susan Wojcicki's interview at Adweek. Do you think print publications (and therefore print advertising) will survive in the digital age much longer?

Video Tutorial: Understanding Webmaster Tools Notifications

2013-03-27T11:00:51Z

Google has begun releasing short 2-3min video tutorials on some of the most basic of questions related to search and your Web site. We have decided to feature these quick tutorials to be sure that ALL of your questions are answered!

Today's question addresses the quantity and the different types of messages send out to Webmasters via Webmaster Tools. The head of Google's Webspam team, Matt Cutts, shares the statistics. Cutts says...

"hundreds of thousands of notifications are sent out each month."

In January and February of 2013, the message breakdowns are as follows:

90% relates to black hat, which Cutts defines as "pure egregious spam".
4% are sent because "the content had little or no added value"
3% are sent because of hacking.
2% relates to link buying.
1% relates to link selling.

View the video today to learn more about Webmaster Tools Notifications.

Successfully Building or Moving a Site Starts with Defining Your Goals

2013-03-26T11:00:34Z

When creating a new Web site or moving your content over to a new domain (aka "site migration), you need to be sure to construct it properly. Creating a list of the goals you're trying to accomplish will help you stay on track and not get bogged down with the details mid stride!

Important ground rules for building a new site.

Establish the existing problems or user-perspective experiences you'd like to improve.
Use statistics to track your progress on the old site versus the new. This way, you can see if your problems are getting resolved.
Be sure your goals and wish list items are realistic and achievable. Otherwise you are just setting yourself and your team up for failure and frustration.

How to Define & Communicate Your Goals

What is your desired end result? Do you want to sell more of your product online or draw people to your brick-and-mortar store? Include the smoothest user experience possible, unique content, and valuable information about your product.

In order to be a great team leader, you must be able to communicate in a way that everyone will understand. You want to paint a picture that will inform and inspire everyone from your site programmer to your social media expert, if you work with a number of people.

Story board: Tell a Story and Paint a Picture - Assess your wants and needs, by asking questions. How is your current site performing? What is or isn't working? How can you or your team members fix this?

Tell a story about your goals. In our case, we wanted to combine our three different sites into one site with multiple levels and functions of membership access. We told a story to our team of one easy site for all sorts of users. We described the ability to upgrade or downgrade the site at one page. After the whole story was completed, we were able to set out making the goals into reality.
Set Clear Goals That Can Be Measured - One of our clear goals was to increase conversions. This can apply to whatever sort of business you run. We wanted to increase membership. But conversion can be signups, downloads, likes, shares, or sales. We wanted to increase the conversion rate and this is something easily measured by analytics and sales.

Google Analytics is a great place to track your goals. For example: You can send in your ecommerce transactions to Google Analytics, to compare your conversion rates.
Set Realistic Goals - The goals for your site need to be vetted by each member of your team. Value the opinion of your team members, and explore each question or concern that may come up.

Be sure your wish list doesn't get out of control.

Streamline your goals; simple is good!
Make sure your goals can be accomplished and created by your team members in a reasonable amount of time.
If goals are nixed by yourself or team members, be sure there are good reasons that are easily explained.
Keep the focus and motivation raging until the project is completed and polished! It is no small task to get a new or redesigned site off the ground (trust us, we know). Be diligent and keep going!

Let's review - a successful site migration or site's construction depends on an effective team leader. The keys to success are clear communication (including expectations, goals, and timeframes) and a motivated team. Talk first (and often) and track your progress.

And if you're doing a site migration then be sure to share this checklist with your team so you can get the technical aspects right the first time!

A Real Step by Step Guide to Changing Your Domain Name Without Losing Your Web Site's Rankings.

Vince Vaughn & Owen Wilson Decide to Become Google Interns

2013-03-25T11:29:24Z

Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson have decided to step into the role as Google interns and thanks to 20th Century Fox we get to watch it all unfold. This summer the latest blockbuster comedy takes a direct crack at Google's culture in the feature film "The Internship." Check out the official trailer below for a quick laugh...

As you'd expect, Google employees had varying responses to the trailer:

"As a Google employee I'm not sure whether this is going to be awesome and/or awesomely inaccurate."
"Yeah, I'll probably see it, and yeah, it'll probably make me cringe in parts. But, yeah, the whole no-drinking-with-the-boss thing sets the wrong tone on accuracy ;-)."
"I had hoped the movie would at least ok, but the trailer looks truly awful. Oh well. "
"They got some details right (the CD case nameplates, green badges for interns, the tech stop) but some others painfully wrong (no beer with the boss?!) Uncertain about whether it will be painfully product-placement-tacular."
"What bothers me most is that it seems to want to portray Google as a cutthroat place. In my experience, Google works very hard to avoid zero sum games, readily promotes people who did well on a project that failed, and hires people because they're awesome, not because they were better than someone else."

Is this film another Hollywood idea or is it a Google driven ploy to bring awareness to their company and products? Just days after the trailer's release, Google announced that they are always hiring and launched a redesigned jobs page to have a solid place to funnel the potential flood of applicants the film could create.

Google+ and Google Hangouts have been key tools in promoting "The Internship". See the high number of Google+ users following the film's page below. We wonder how many of them are Google employees...

As for us, we welcome the search engine jokes - the fact that they're at Google's expense just makes them that much more fun :)

Introducing Reachability as a Future Google Ranking Factor

2013-03-13T12:58:17Z

Google was recently granted a new patent on November 16th that outlines a system designed to grade the resources that a page links out to. This means that in the future the quality of your content will be determined by all the factors you're currently familiar with (uniqueness, freshness, keywords, social signals, author rank, etc) AND the quality of resources you link out to.

In this department, less is always more. With any good resource you want to have a few solid outgoing links pointing to additional resources on your site or to an authority in your industry. A piece of content with 20 outgoing links to affiliate sites will not rank as well as one with a few links to sites with authority that are a benefit to the visitor.

You need to treat this patent as a glimpse into the future of Google's algorithm. Be careful who you link out to and when given the choice go with the site that has more authority and more social interaction. At first this may seem like a bit of a stretch, but before long the reachability of the resources your content links out to will be a serious Google ranking factor.

Brought to you by the experts at SearchEngineNews.com who have had their finger on the pulse of the SEO industry for 16 years. Reading every mainstream blog, talking with industry insiders and separating what works from what doesn't - ALL so you don't have to. Learn more and qualify for a FREE copy of our award winning SEO Book today!

Google Forbids You From Bribing Customers to Leave Positive Reviews

2013-03-11T12:13:59Z

As of late, businesses have been offering contest entries in exchange for positive reviews on Google+ Local. The team at Google responded to a query on their forums recently, explaining that soliciting your customers to give you good reviews for a chance to win product (or money) is a violation of their review guidelines.

Let's break down the rules once more:

Do not bribe your customers to review you or your competitors in a certain way.
Do not set up a kiosk or review station to get immediate reviews from customers.
Do not review your place of work if you are an employee or business owner.
Do not pretend to be a customer, in order to give yourself a good review.
DO provide top-quality service, so people are naturally inspired to give you a good review.

Trial by Fire: How You Manage a Crisis Affects Your Online Reputation

2013-03-08T10:00:52Z

In January 2013, a customer of the Subway sandwich chain posted a photo on the brand’s Facebook page, suggesting that the chain was misleading customers about the size of its sandwiches. Within hours the photo went viral, with more than 100,000 likes and comments. A major newspaper launched an investigation into the issue — which led to additional, similar photos being published — and the public demanded answers.

The answer came in the form of an e-mail sent to major news outlets from Subway’s PR department. The message attributed possible discrepancies in sandwich size to the baking process but did not actually address specific consumer concerns. The company also removed the original photo from its Facebook page.

Marketing experts and social media gurus alike lamented Subway’s handling of this incident. One analyst even went so far as to say that the incident was a prime example of “doing social wrong,” and how not to handle a reputation-damaging crisis. Want to Survive a Crisis? Don’t Have One.

No one wants customers or associates to spread negative information about them or their business. Things happen, though — a product fails, there’s a customer service issue, a new policy has unintended consequences — and people react, often by taking to their social media accounts.

Social media allows news to spread quickly, and bad news spreads fastest of all. A single negative comment among all of the positive ones is probably not going to make much difference. But when the tide of public opinion turns against you with hundreds or even thousands of negative comments on Facebook, Twitter and other online social outlets, your response determines the fate of your public image.

5 Points to Success

When you’re faced with a social media crisis, the worst thing to do is nothing, hoping that the problem goes away. In fact, successful crisis management can improve your status in the long run. If the worst does happen, though, keep these points in mind:

1. Monitor what people are saying. Most major brands have dedicated team members devoted to monitoring social media conversations 24/7. While a small business or individual may not have access to such resources, set aside time each day to monitor the conversations about you, your brand and your industry, or hire a management company to do it for you. Note spikes in negative conversations and investigate the cause. Proactively responding and making changes will preserve and protect your image.

2. Respond to questions and comments. In the Subway case, the original poster never received a response even after a response was requested, and additional queries were also ignored. Reputation management requires acknowledging critics’ points and responding to them. Even if you can’t respond to everyone who tweets or comments, reply to the most common questions and concerns.

3. Provide information. When a crisis occurs, people want answers. Whether it’s an explanation as to why their sandwich is smaller than expected or something more serious, offering information can often defuse a potentially volatile situation. Allowing your audience to speculate opens the door to rumors and untruths. Be honest, explaining why something happened and what you plan to do about it.

4. Be quick. One reason that crises spiral out of control is that companies fail to react quickly. Instead of immediately putting out the fire, leaders take hours — or longer — to develop a strategy for dealing with the problem. In the meantime, the negative comments gain traction, resulting in the need for more damage control. Have a social media response plan in place even if it’s just to let commenters know that you are aware of the issue and are looking for a solution.

5. Apologize. A sincere apology can go a long way to defusing a crisis and keeping your reputation intact. For example, when changes to Instagram’s terms of service were met with great public outcry, the CEO apologized for the confusion and returned the TOS to the original version. Instagram lost some users in the fallout, but far fewer than they would have had the problem been ignored.

At the end of the day, Subway remains the world’s largest restaurant chain, having beaten out McDonald’s in 2010, and customers still buy sandwiches, even if they may be an inch or so smaller than advertised. However, the long-term effects of the viral photograph remain to be seen, and there is certainly greater skepticism of Subway’s claims. Don’t allow your reputation to be permanently sullied by a disgruntled customer or unfortunate mistake. Make a crisis plan and address issues head on, before you lose the trust of your customers and your associates.

About the Author: Steven Wyer serves as Managing Director for Reputation Advocate, Inc. The firm provides Digital Branding, Online Reputation Management and consulting services. His book, Violated Online, delves into the stories behind online slander. The book offers more than 50 specific tips on how the reader can better prepare for an unexpected online attack. www.ViolatedOnline.com

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5 Easy Tips to Raise Your Klout Score

2013-03-07T10:00:52Z

Every month we get great questions from our Business Support members focused on a wide variety of issues. With all the controversy surrounding links and the Google penalties we decided to upgrade the following question to be published so that you could learn from it as well...

"With Bing now including Klout within their social sidebar, it's got a lot of our clients asking how they can influence their own Klout scores and gain some increased visibility. Can you provide us some tips on how we can raise their scores naturally?

This is a members-only post. If you're a member, read the full article here, or find out more about SEN.

Google Maps Now Featuring North American Ski Runs

2013-03-06T10:00:53Z

Recently Google Maps announced the release of popular North American ski resort maps on the iPhone and Android Apps. There is no need to download an additional app, this is included in Google Maps app. And the price is right: FREE.

Below is a picture of one of our favorite ski resorts -- Squaw Valley, California.

You can see the runs are solid green, blue, or black lines; while the ski lifts are dotted red lines. Also included in these maps are ski lodges and peak names. This addition is a highly useful tool for the avid skier and snowboarder.

Preview the mountain maps, before or during your trip to the slopes:

Brought to you by the experts at SearchEngineNews.com. Who has had their finger on the pulse of the SEO industry for 16 years. Reading every mainstream blog, talking with industry insiders and separating what works from what doesn't - ALL so you don't have to.

What’s New in Local Search for March 2013?

2013-03-05T10:00:34Z

Here is the March 2013 installment of 'What's New in Local Search'. It's been another busy month so I won't waste your time and am just going to dive right in.

Google spent the past year aggressively pushing to get everyone to set up mobile-only campaigns in addition to their regular campaigns on AdWords. It told us we needed different keyword research, different ads and different bidding strategies. Now, Google announces that mobile-only campaigns are going away. As of June, advertisers are being forced to advertise across all devices whether they want to or not.

This will help some businesses that have not yet made any effort to use mobile advertising, but wil...

This is a members-only post. If you're a member, read the full article here, or find out more about SEN.

Google+ Hosts Hangout with Astronauts in Space!

2013-03-04T10:00:34Z

Always proving our limits can be stretched; NASA and Google+ hosted an hour-long hangout with astronauts Kevin Ford, Tom Marshburn, and Chris Hadfield, who are aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS is an orbiting laboratory, 240 miles above Earth.

Real-time questions were submitted from fans all over the globe via social media outlets Google+, Facebook and Twitter.

NASA has long been an avid user of Google's products. From Mars on Google Maps to the latest facts about our solar system on Google+, Google and NASA's partnership seems to be beneficial for us all.

- Kristi Hagen, President & Chief Editor, SearchEngineNews.com

Best Practices for Using The Canonical Tag CORRECTLY!

2013-02-28T12:23:13Z

Are you using the Canonical Tag Correctly?

We are a big e-commerce operation with a lot of duplicated or nearly duplicated product listing pages. We also have a large syndicated content network where we push out articles on client or affiliate sites. It is my understanding that this can lead to Google Penguin and Panda issues and we've been advised to make sure we are using...

This is a members-only post. If you're a member, read the full article here, or find out more about SEN.

Video Tutorial: A Beginner’s Tutorial on How Social Media Helps Your Business

2013-02-28T10:00:29Z

Today’s tutorial answers the question, “Does social matter?” Absolutely yes! There are different ways to interact with potential and existing customers. Establish your presence on social media, link to it on your Web site, hold contests and engage with people regularly! Watch this video to see a real-world example from Google of how social media can influence potential customers.

Beginner’s Success - A Quick Note on What You NEED to Know When First Starting Out

2013-02-27T10:00:03Z

Search Engine Optimization, it's a common passion that we share with you. Many newbies jump into the scene with their guns a-blazing, ready to climb to the top of Google rankings. After a few weeks, when they don't find themselves anywhere near the top -- they give up!

Here are some critical points to keep in mind:

This is a Long Term Commitment -
Don't think that you can just add some html tags, create a few social media profiles, and win the search engine wars. The name of this game is "Slow and Steady." Regularly producing good content, will build your online reputation. You may not get your content noticed for months, or even years. Be patient and stick to the course. SEO done right is a powerful marketing tool that can turn clicks into dollars.
Gear Web Sites for Customer's Use, Not Search Engine Crawlers -
First and foremost, think about your site's visitors! Make your site easy to navigate, chockfull of useful information, and nice to look at. Engage your audience, in a unique and clear way. Rankings will follow the site that is usable. The search engine algorithms are constantly changing, and it would take a few geniuses to understand them. As number one of Google's Ten Commandments touts, "Focus on the user and all else will follow."
There is NO Single Key To Success -
There is no secret, no special trick that will guarantee super SEO success. Slow and steady wins the race. Beware of the sales pitch that makes promises to 'get you to the top' in less than 3 months. If it sounds too good to be true, IT IS! As discussed in our first critical point -- SEO is a long-term commitment. Aim at the best user experience on your website, a strong social media presence, regularly producing unique and informative content are just some of the mountains to build over time.
Building Links: It's an on-going process -
Will you ever be done link building? The answer is, not really. You can create numbered goals for yourself, to pass at six months or one year. But as long as you want to stay on the search engine front pages, you will have to continue building links.

As long as you keep your eye on the prize (long term success!) and keep taking the correct steps, you can do it! Keep these key points in mind and keep following SearchEngineNews.com. We're here to help.

Data Providers are Quickly Becoming the Go-To Source for Local Data in 2013

2013-02-26T10:09:15Z

The established Business Data Providers have always played a huge role in Local Search. However, their value and impact seems to have dramatically increased for anyone looking to rank within Local Search because of a number of factors that have all become a reality

Smartphone usage has exploded and is predicted to continue to rise at an astounding rate. Statistics tell us that 1 in every 3 Mobile Searches is Local in nature. More and more people are searching for things nearby them every day, so data about those establishments, is extremely valuable to mappers and mobile app developers.
Google's API costs have increased, spurring those thirsting for loca...

This is a members-only post. If you're a member, read the full article here, or find out more about SEN.

Google Admits to Throwing SEOs Off By Serving Up Completely Random Search Results

2013-02-25T10:26:25Z

Ever get the feeling that the search results you're getting are changing every time you click the 'search' button even while using the same query? We know you've had that 'WTF is going on' thought when you're trying to show a client or employer the results of a search you just did 2 minutes earlier but the results have changed.

Well, you can take a deep breath now because those conspiracy theory thoughts rolling around in your head have just been officially confirmed. A Google patent called Ranking Documents that was recently uncovered goes into detail about how Google serves seemingly random results to webmasters when things have changed on a site in an effort to fight 'rank-modifying spamming' and 'rank manipulation'.

The concept is that when Google detects a change to your site that is meant to manipulate your rankings in any way (ie: any type of link building) then they will randomize your site's rankings for a while to give you the impression that it's not working. Then when enough time has lapsed your true ranking will surface.

Within the 2 year old patent Google outlines everything they consider 'Rank-modifying spamming techniques' which '...degrades the quality of the search results provided by existing search engines.' Here's a summary with more details found within doing a quick ctrl+F within the patent, although none of these are new to you:

Keyword stuffing.
Page redirects.
Link-based manipulation.
Invisible text or tiny text.

The list above seems like legitimate reasons to tip a red flag with the search engines. However, this same filter could potentially react the same way when legitimate optimization techniques are done on too large of scale. So what happens when Google's Randomizing filter is tripped? Your results become very unpredictable that's what. They can either delay the response, give you a negative result or just serve you a seemingly randomized response. Here's one description of what could happen according to the patent if a 'damped response' or delayed response is triggered:

"For example, if the damped response transition function is selected, the document's rank may slowly increase over a period of time, such as several days, before settling in on the target rank."

Then if an 'initially-inverse response' or a negative response is triggered:

"If the initially-inverse response transition function is selected, the document's rank may initially be caused to decrease (negative influence) before seeing the 10% increase. In this case, the negative influence may last several days as may the increase 0.66."

To make a long story short - this proves what you've known all along. Google's results are seemingly random and are more so when you're optimizing your site and tracking your rankings. Clients want to see instant improvements for their money and as you can see - unfortunately, patience is going to have to win out.

This all translates to you having to continue to manage your clients, employers' and/or partner's expectations when optimizing a Web site. White hat optimization techniques do work and will continue to work. All you need is a little patience to see your hard work win out.

Unfortunately, this is also a potential trap for over eager webmasters. If you make a small change to your site to try to boost your rankings and the result you get is an immediate negative one, then you may quickly go back into your site and change it before the real results of your change can take effect. In the end you gain your original rankings back and scrap that technique as not working. Too much of this back and forth and Google has very effectively allowed you to paint a target on your site as trying to manipulate your rankings...thus a red flag is tripped and you're suddenly a 'spammer'.

The takeaway here is to be consistent with your optimization efforts, building them up over time and be patient with the results.

Create Your Own Infographics in Minutes Using These Top 5 Tools

2013-02-22T10:00:28Z

We've started using Infographics to market our sites thanks in no small part to your previous articles on the subject. However, we usually had to contract these out to other firms or pay a pretty penny for quality infographic graphic designers. Can you recommend some tools that will help those of us with limited graphic experience to put these together ourselves?

Answer: Absolutely! If you are anything like us, Photoshop might as well be a four-letter word. Further, quality infographics aren't cheap and as you correctly noted, outsourcing their design can get expensive.

Fortunately, there are a ton of Web 2.0 tools out there that allow even the most graphic design-challenged individuals to put together engaging, informative, and visually attractive infographics in minutes. We polled the staff at SearchEngineNews and here are our top five recommended infographic builders.

1. Visual.ly - Visual.ly is a great one-stop resource for everything infographics. Not only do they have a gallery of user-submitted infographics, but they have a marketplace if you want to hire a professional infographic builder. Their kick-ass new self-creation tool is what is really worth a visit though. Just select an infographic template from the gallery to customize, connect Facebook or Twitter to authorize the app, then customize the template. Done!
2. Easel.ly - Easelly is still in BETA but is super easy to use and a popular choice among the staff. Users create visual themes called vhemes which you customize by dragging and dropping into a pre-chosen template or canvas. You then add objects (people, stats or graphics) into your template and customize the information in a myriad of ways. Check out their tutorial video for a more detailed overview of the design process.
3. Infogr.am - The best thing about Infogram is its easy data import functionality. Users can import data from MS Excel or CSV then customize one of dozens of pre-designed pixel-perfect templates. Users just pick a template, add their data, customize, then share it. Simple. Check out their gallery of featured infographics to get an idea of all the variations you can do with the tool.
4. Piktochart - This infographic site provides three levels of design bang depending on your needs. For the casual user, Piktochart allows you to customize one of three themes for free with up to six color themes and limitless font customization. You can upgrade to a Pro $29/mo package which unlocks 100+ templates, more customization options, and eliminates the Piktochart watermark. For a small $50 fee you can even print your infographics on a large print canvas/poster. View their user showcase for examples of completed infographics.
5. Kinzaa - This infographic site is one of the new players in the rising infographic resume market. Users sign-up on the site and import their Linkedin information to make visually attractive graphical representations of their work history and experience. There are other players in this niche including Re.vu and Visualize.me but Kinzaa may be the simplest to use and you can literally set-up an attractive Web resume in less than 5 minutes.

As we covered previously in our Infographics are AWESOME! Here's How to Create Them article, infographics are a fantastic way to spice up even the most boring data points and look good doing it! However, if you are still getting writer's block after checking out the do it yourself options above - you can always connect with us and we'd be happy to get those infographics created for you!

7 Kick-Ass Wordpress Tips The Pro’s Use to Combat Spam!

2013-02-21T10:00:58Z

"We had a consultation with a client that had closed all commenting down on their blog due to comment spam. As you've advised us in SearchEngineNews, this is going to prevent them from taking full advantage of the Google Freshness Update. What can we do to improve their blog and eliminate as much comment Spam as possible so they feel confident turning commenting back on?"

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Video Tutorial: How to Use Google’s Webmaster Tools Message Center

2013-02-20T10:00:28Z

Today's question addresses the Google Webmaster Tools Message Center. This is the point of contact between Google and you, the Webmaster. Some of the messages you receive might include alerts of declining site ranking and examples of your issues. To ensure you receive these messages, enable the email-forwarding feature. If you've got a minute to spare, look over this video!

- Kristi Hagen, President & Chief Editor, Planet Ocean

Pinterest: Demographics, User Habits & a Few Surprising Facts

2013-02-19T10:00:34Z

We've been reporting on how to use Pinterest since it first hit the scene and we're even more excited when we get updates from clients on how much success they're seeing with this site! However, the question we're focused on now is if Pinterest is really worth your attention or if it's a bad fit for your marketing.

The first thing you need to understand about Pinterest in order to be sure you want to target it in your marketing is WHO is actually using the site. When researching this topic we found a great infographic depicting Pinterest's demographics and user habits. When looking at the research a ...

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