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

2013-05-13T16:28:29Z

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:

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Youtube to Put Some Channels Behind Membership Walls

2013-05-08T17:29:52Z

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.

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

2013-05-07T16:01:04Z

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

2013-05-06T15:22:04Z

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

2013-05-03T14:54:08Z

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

2013-05-02T14:40:11Z

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

2013-04-25T19:17:27Z

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

2013-04-24T15:00:13Z

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?!

2013-04-22T16:34:52Z

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?

2013-04-19T17:01:56Z

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

2013-04-10T15:00:14Z

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

2013-04-09T16:17:08Z

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

2013-04-08T21:15:40Z

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’

2013-03-29T15:00:42Z

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’

2013-03-28T15:00:28Z

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

2013-03-27T15:00:51Z

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

2013-03-26T15:00:34Z

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

2013-03-25T15:29:24Z

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

2013-03-13T16:58:17Z

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

2013-03-11T16:13:59Z

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

2013-03-08T15:00:52Z

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

2013-03-07T15:00:52Z

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

2013-03-06T15:00:53Z

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?

2013-03-05T15:00:34Z

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!

2013-03-04T15:00:34Z

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!

2013-02-28T17:23:13Z

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

2013-02-28T15:00:29Z

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

2013-02-27T15:00:03Z

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

2013-02-26T15:09:15Z

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

2013-02-25T15:26:25Z

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

2013-02-22T15:00:28Z

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!

2013-02-21T15:00:58Z

"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

2013-02-20T15:00:28Z

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

2013-02-19T15:00:34Z

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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Video Tutorial: The Who, What, Where, and Why of Great Content

2013-02-18T15:36:18Z

Today’s question relates to the basic tenet of attracting Search Engines to your site: Content! By creating relevant, customer-oriented, and fresh content – you will create a quality website and a niche for yourself. This video also touches on the importance of ‘pruning’ your content for ease of navigation. This is an important step in creating a Search Engine friendly and customer friendly site. Take a minute, literally one minute and 23 seconds, to view this short tutorial today.

If you're looking for some more solid direction when it comes to creating the right kind of content for your site to avoid penalties, increase traffic and get people talking all while using a solid content calendar then see the featured SearchEngineNews.com content below:

- Kristi Hagen, President & Chief Editor, Planet Ocean

Google Tells Some ‘Service Area’ Businesses to Delete Their Local G+ Page Completely!

2013-02-15T15:00:50Z

Google is still trying to unravel the mess that they've made of their local system and sometimes it seems that it might be getting worse rather than better.

The latest is that Google has given an official recommendation that if you are a service area business that does NOT accept customers at your location and have also created and verified or merged your place page with your local G+ page then you need to delete your G+local listing. Sounds scary now doesn't it. Well, we will let Google explain it to you themselves. Here's a quote from their Help pages:

Are you a Service Area Business (SAB) that has created and verified/merged a social local Google+ page for your business? Read on!

If you do not accept customers at your location, then your address should be hidden. At this time, Google+ currently does not support hidden addresses. You should delete your social local Google+ page from within Google+ (Click on Pages on the ribbon on the left, go to the Settings of your page, and scroll to the bottom and click Delete page).

Don't worry! You can still manage your business’ presence on Google. Here’s how: If you’re a verified business owner in Google Places for Business... Manage the listing via the Google Places for Business dashboard. Be sure to hide your address. If not, but a listing for your business exists... Find the listing for your business and become a verified business owner by clicking on Manage this page on the right-hand side. Then, manage the page via the Google Places for Business dashboard If no listing for your business exists... Add it on Google Places for Business: http://www.google.com/local/add

We'll share updates with you on this thread when we have them.

The above is just one of the MANY issues businesses are still facing within Google's newly socialized local platform. If you are struggling with issues yourself then check out these resources to help you navigate through them.

To Merge or Not to Merge…That is THE Question in Local These Days
A Pro's Cheat Sheet to Navigating the *Biggest* Problems within Google Places
A Professional Local Search Audit Checklist

Keep us posted on your experience with G+ Local and if you have any questions use the comment form below.

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

Twitter Tips: Split-Test Your Twitter Marketing

2013-02-14T15:00:47Z

Testing is a critical part of any marketing strategy—and social media marketing is no exception. I'm a huge proponent of not only collecting data, but using it to see what works (and doesn't work) with your target audience. After all, digital marketing campaigns aren't stale, static strategies—instead, they continually shift and evolve based on new tools, best practices and what your audience tells you they want.

Some types of marketing, like email marketing, make it easy to test various components so that you can quickly gather and analyze data with built-in tools ava...

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Groupon Shifts Its Focus to Become a Local Marketplace as Well as a Daily Deal Site

2013-02-13T15:00:18Z

The Internet is designed to keep businesses on their toes and Groupon is no exception. They're smart enough to realize that they need to evolve or they will shortly become yesterday's news and with that in mind Groupon has officially taken the jump into being something more than a Daily Coupon site.

Like Foursquare announced late 2012, Groupon is stepping out of their little nitch to become a Local Marketplace. You can now go to their site and search for a deal on something specific. Let's say you really want to get your carpet cleaned in your house. Before you'd have to patiently wait for a deal to hit your inbox and make your move then. Now, you can go to their site and do your search to find a deal on the service you're looking for in a matter of minutes.

For now, Chicago and New York are the first cities enjoying these features, but Groupon promises to roll these out to everyone soon.

"As of today, we've opened the doors so you can search and browse that inventory of deals, both daily deals and real-time Now! deals. Yes, you can actually type in a search ("pizza," "couple's massage," "oil change"), and you can browse by category (Food & Drink, Beauty & Spa, and so on) and subcategory (Indian Cuisine, Massage, Yoga). You can also specify exactly where you want your deals. Just type in an address, a neighborhood, or a city, and we'll instantly find the closest, most relevant deals for that location."

If you have signed on with Groupon in the past, then you're on the short list to be contacted to offer deals that have a longer shelf life. If you're new to Goupon then now is the time to signup with their marketing team to see if they're the answer to your local marketing needs this quarter.

I also highly recommend that you read our featured article so that you can get the most out of your promotion and don't get burned by too many deal seeking customers, Leverage A Groupon Promotion and Boost Your Bottom Line.

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

What’s New in Local Search February 2013

2013-02-12T15:00:52Z

Here is the February 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.

Foursquare has almost removed the ability to be anonymous, but not really. It's going to show your first and last name, but it is possible to go by a false first and last name. At least Foursquare does insure that you've actually visited the place by checking, though. Watch for this trend in all the spaces that enable ratings and reviews. There's just too much suspect review content out there and consumers know it. They are seeking others' opinions in places that publish the most trusted reviews, like Hotels.com whi...

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Video Tutorial: How to Quickly Know if Google Has Crawled Your Site

2013-02-11T18:25:17Z

Today's question has to do with how you can know for sure if Google has indexed or found your new Web site or page and served it up in it’s search results. This quick 2min video answers all of your questions by teaching you about the simple ‘site.yourdomain.com” search command. They also go into detail about blocked pages from a mistake in your robots.txt and even filing a reconsideration request.

See the video below for complete details directly from Google so that you can be sure your site is being crawled by Google.

Was your Site Hacked? How to Recover from a Google Malware Attack

2013-02-09T15:00:20Z

Help! My site was recently hacked and we got the dreaded "malware warning" labeled on our search results. Our rankings then completely disappeared. We downloaded and checked our site and found nothing. We also changed our server log-in info and upgraded our overall security. Nevertheless that hasn't helped us get back in Google. What can we do?

Answer: Ouch! Nothing is worse than typing your site name into Google and finding that it has been labeled with the dreaded - This site may harm your computer warning, like the graphic below.

Click-thru on the malware warning notice in Google and you will usually be presented with a further page that looks like the following:

Surprisingly, there is some good news in seeing the above messages. It means your site is still in Google and not completely removed which is common when Google identifies malware on a site. But, as you stated in your question, your rankings completely disappeared which is common since...

Google does the following when it believes a site has been hacked or infected with malware:

They put a hacked flag on the suspected site within their ranking database.
They remove the site from ranking competitively in Google by suppressing it in keyword searches.
They attempt to contact the site owner at any or all of the possible email addresses tied to the site:
abuse@
admin@
administrator@
contact@
info@
postmaster@
support@
webmaster@
They send out a Malware warning through the site's Google Webmaster Tools account, if the affected site is verified in Google.
They report the site to StopBadWare.com and the site is included in their Badware Site Clearinghouse.

Unfortunately, we can attest here at SearchEngineNews.com that Google does not do ALL of the above ALL the time. In fact, when we unwind these malware problems with our own clients we find that most didn't receive notice that a problem existed until either...

They found their site in Google labeled with a malware warning, or
They woke up and found their home page, multiple pages, or their entire site, completely missing from the Google index.

In the case of either of the above occurring with you in the future, a quick and effective way to see if you site has been hacked is to perform the following sample searches in Google:

site:yoursite.com sex
site:yoursite.com porn
site:yoursite.com viagra
etc...

If Google returns pages on your site listing ANY of these phrases, it's very possible these pages were hacked and should be reviewed immediately.

Now, recovering after someone has hacked your site takes some very specific steps. Here's what you should do if you find your site similarly affected in the future:

Immediately change the FTP and online log-in info for your affected site. Make sure to check with your Web host to ensure they show no security breaches that could have affected your site directly.
Log-in to your Google Webmasters Tools account and check for a malware warning from Google. From the dashboard screen, choose Labs on the left-hand side menu, then Malware Details. Follow the prompts if malware is detected.
Remember that injected code may not be visible to the human eye, while in Webmaster Tools use the Fetch as Googlebot tool to view pages on your site. This is a great way to visually check your pages for Malware code.
Download and review your entire site for malicious coding or files and remove them.
If you're using Wordpress/Joomla or other CMS closely review all plugins and server permissions to identify injected code or malicious commands.
Review the best practices against hacking post published on the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog from February, 2009.
Visit the Malware & Hacked Sites help forum on Google Webmaster Central and ask for a quick site review from the Google community. Tell the forum users what happened, what you did, and ask them to verify if they see anything else.
Another option is to seek professional assistance. Sites like this one offer professional Google malware removal services. Do your research though before you sign-up with this or any other firm.

Once you've done the above and you are sure your site is now Malware free log back-in to Google Webmaster Tools account and do the following: choose the affected site, click Health, then click Malware, then finally, Request a Review. Recently we have seen requests take as long as three full weeks to be reviewed, so be patient even though it's hard. Google will drop you a note to let you know it has received your request and is currently processing it.

Finally, it's important to note that EVERYONE, regardless of their security, can be infected with malware. Don't take it personally. Just follow the detailed steps above and return your site to the good graces of Google as fast as possible.

- Casey Markee, Writer & Lead SEO Consultant, Planet Ocean

Apple Maps is Growing - Be Sure Your Business is Ready!

2013-02-08T03:00:48Z

The argument that 'Mobile is the Future' has won so completely that it's more fact than fiction. The world is so obsessed with the latest gadget that it becomes worldwide news when the iPhone 5's mapping system falls apart after dropping Google's system to go out on their own.

It's obvious enough to anyone who has done a side by side comparison of the two mapping systems that ...

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Video Tutorial: Basic SEO in Under 10 minutes

2013-02-06T15:04:04Z

An excellent video for the beginner SEO is “SEO for startups in Under 10 minutes.” In it, Google’s Maile Ohye outlines how to create a Search Engine friendly site. She touches on 301 redirects, using Webmaster Tools, site design strategy, social media marketing, and much more. If you feel confused by the wide scope of SEO terminology, this video is a GREAT introduction.

However, after watching it, if you have any questions then feel free to use the comments box below and our experts will be sure to point you in the right direction.

Add Authorship Markups to Your Site in 4 Quick Steps

2013-02-05T15:00:50Z

Authorship rich snippets, which is almost a year old, is the little bit of code (rel=author) that gives you the opportunity to officially claim your content with Google. Doing this comes with 3 great benefits.

1. Increases your click throughs. When your content is marked up properly Google includes your G+ profile image next to the listing within the search results. There have been countless studies indicating this increases your listing's click through rate. People are naturally inclined to look at images in a body of text.

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The Next Google Chrome Update Encrypts ALL Searches

2013-02-04T15:33:04Z

Currently in beta, Chrome 25 will soon encrypt ALL Google searches performed in its Omnibox, the URL bar. Previously, the encrypted searches were only available to Google users who were signed into their accounts.

On one hand, they are protecting user privacy by encrypting the searches. For example, if you were searching for “50 Shades of Gray” at a coffee shop that had an open wireless connection (no password) and your search was UNencrypted - any person could use free software to monitor your web searches and basically unencrypted site you visit.

We all want to feel safe in the ‘privacy’ of our own laptops, right? Many large sites, like Facebook, have increasingly moved to https:// versus http:// to help users have a sense of security with all the personal data these large companies are collecting on them.

On the other hand, when you are losing out on the search terms that drive traffic to your site then it's much harder to optimize. In other words, the percentage of [Not Provided] information is on the rise in a big way!

People want privacy and SEOs want to know what customers are looking for. For now, your consolation prize is that Google Webmaster Tools retains the top 2,000 search terms for you site in the past 90 days.

Google Teaches You Adwords on G+ Hangouts

2013-01-28T15:55:13Z

Google recently publicized a New Hangout on Air Series, entitled “Under the AdWords Hood.” In their January 10th blog post, AdWords staff outlined when and what they’ll be talking about:

January 10th @ 11am PDT: Adwords Policy

January 24th @ 11am PDT: Breaking Down Ad Rank

February 7th @ 11am PDT: Remarketing Tips

February 21st @11am PDT: All About Adwords Billing Cycle

The first Hangout featured Director of Engineering for Advertising at Google, David Baker. He explained ad reviews, statuses, and policies. You can see this video coverage of the first hangout below:

The second hangout featured three AdWords Specialists and they broke down how ad positioning is determined and how you can optimize your bids and quality score to achieve optimal ad rank. You can see the video coverage of this below:

To join the Hangouts, just sign into Google+ and add the Google Ads +Page to your circles. Let’s face it - to ignore this Internet Giant would be a disservice to yourself and your clients. Where better to learn about AdWords, than from the source? See you at the hangout!

Are all Sitewide Links on your Site Bad? Read this to find out.

2013-01-25T14:57:47Z

"Google seems to be frowning on sitewide links more and more and we've been advising clients to minimize them whenever possible. However, from a hierarchal design point-of-view, how should we be approaching internal navigation? Are there good sitewide links? Are all footer navigation links now bad? How about social sharing buttons that are sitewide? Should we be limiting these as well?

Answer: That's a great qu...

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Video Tutorial: How to Verify Your Site Quickly Within Webmaster Tools

2013-01-24T16:00:37Z

Google Webmaster Tools are a MUST if you want to take your site optimization seriously. These tools are Google's way of directly reporting to you (the site owner) must-know stats on things like: crawling errors, malware notices, as well as recommendations on specific tweaks to your Web site helping you to rank higher within Google Search. If you haven't yet established your account there then today is the day to do that.

Below is a image provided by Google outlining some of the features included within Google Webmaster Tools.

Step one: Get signed up using the gmail account that is specific to the company that you're representing. Don't use your topace@gmail.com if you're representing another company in this process. On that note - even if you're the owner it's best to create a Google account using the business name to be used now and later for business purposes. Once you've got the email nailed down then go here to get started: http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

Step two: Verify your site ownership. In this four-minute video Maile Ohye, who is part of Google’s Webmaster Support Team, explains how to insert an HTML meta tag into your site as a way to verify that you are in fact the owner or authorized webmaster of a specific site.

Finding the Best Citation Sources for YOUR Business

2013-01-23T16:00:02Z

Every business that wants to rank in the Google Local Packs has to be concerned about citations. They are a critical way to help you to gain trust from Google by reinforcing your NAP data (business Name, full street Address, local Phone number).

The best citations for your business also will help you to send signals to the Search Engines about your relevance to your particular niche, such plumber, lawyer, office supply store, wedding gown retailer, Chinese restaurant, etc. And citations from powerful sites within and/or about your geographical area will also boost your location prominence, or popularity within your own town.

It's important to remember that some citation sites, ...

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Talk to a Real Person – Google+ Local Help Desk Goes Live

2013-01-22T17:06:41Z

If you've been having issues verifying your business on Google+ Local then you're in for a treat! Google has implemented a help desk to support people like you. The Help Desk currently serves English speakers in the United States. So far, there hasn't been much press about this line of customer support. So, we are unsure if or when there are plans to serve the rest of the Google-using world. In the meantime, we can celebrate the fact that Google+ Local is providing real-time, over-the-phone support!

To access the help form, visit Google Places Help Forum and select I'm having a problem verifiying my listing(s).” Select the option, “I tried PIN verification for a single listing.

In the following questions, specify you asked for a postcard and have waited 15 days. You will then have the option of either calling them or completing the form pictured below.

What does this mean for YOU? Google is just making it easier and easier to use their free products. This is also an indication that Google has prioritized having direct relationships with business owners. The best way for Google+ Local to have accurate information is to be in contact with YOU! They are willing and able to help…just a phone call away.

Generate More Pings for Higher Search Rankings

2013-01-19T20:08:17Z

It's not conjecture, it's FACT! that Pinging is an explicit call to Bing and Google to fetch new content. If you have been following our coverage of the "Freshness Update" with Google, then you know how much emphasis we put on this in 2012. The more you are able to generate pings and encourage repeat visits, the more and deeper you can generate crawls of your site content, and the more value that content is given algorithmically (if it's high-quality mind you).

That's why we have been so big on pushing blogs as the main content generation vehicle for sites over the last couple of years. Regular Web pages do not have the inherent ability to ping search engines when they have been added to or updated with new content.

Blogs however, have that inherent, basic function. Every time you add a blog post, every time a new comment is generated on that blog post, or a trackback is generated, a new ping is sent out requesting that Google and Bing come and fetch that content. It's delicious junk food for search engine spiders.

As a refresher, check-out our resources on the Google Freshness Update and WHY having a blog is so important in a post-Panda/Penguin world:

Next, check out this report that we published back in 2010 in which we predicted that updating your content frequently would only become more and more important.

Does Updating your Site Content Frequently Really have SEO Benefits? Yes!

In your case, if you have submitted a sitemap to Google for your Web site pages, Google will automatically refresh or ping that sitemap based upon the time parameters you enter. So if you entered daily, weekly or monthly, that's the time considerations you have suggested that Google use to come back and reindex your site's content.

This clearly has a downside and it's a big one.

"Most people update their Web site content at infrequent times and unless they actively ping Google it may take days for that specific updated content to be re-cached."

However, with a blog, this is all moot. The blog automatically pings Google the minute the post goes live. That's why you see blog posts get indexed in minutes and rank very, very fast. Again, it's this kind of QDF (Query Deserves Freshness) date-stamped content that the Google Freshness Update is designed to target.

That's why if you don't have a blog, you need one; otherwise, no freshness boost for you! It's the fastest way to get your content out there and to continue to REINFORCE your existing content.

Further, let's say you have updated your Web site content and now you are just waiting on Google to find and re-cache that content through your sitemap. This, as we discussed above, can be a slow process. Fortunately, you have a blog. By publishing a blog post and linking it to this recently updated page you WILL generate a new crawl by Google when it comes back and snatches your minty fresh date specific blog post and crawls all the links (including the link to your updated Web page) at the same time.

Now, as with anything, there is a caveat here: you can't just publish CRAP folks! The Freshness Update in its most basic form is meant to reward the freshest, HIGHEST-QUALITY content. So if you are publishing every day or multiple times a day and your content is still pretty sub-par, no amount of newly generated pings in the world is going to get you higher rankings. If you don't have anything powerful or really interesting to say, don't blog that day. Frequency doesn't equal higher rankings.

Check out this featured article to get inspiration and motivation for your content creation, Must See Tips & Tools for Fresh Content Creation, Optimization & Distribution.

There are a lot of SEO myths and conjecture online. The fact that frequent pings from Google and Bing can and do lead to increased crawl rates, faster content indexing, and higher rankings, isn't one of them. And as with anything, you have to be publishing great content while connecting with your blog audience.

- Casey Markee, Writer & Lead SEO Consultant, Planet Ocean

A Pro’s Quick-Guide to Gaining a Top Yelp Ranking

2013-01-18T17:29:36Z

It's no secret that as much as some people dislike the new Apple Maps, it's here to stay. There will be several hundred million devices with Apple Maps as their default map search by early 2013, so it can only become more and more important to local businesses that understand the value of ranking well on mobile devices.

Siri, Apple's conversational iOS search assistant, has always had an intimate relationship with Yelp, looking to its directory for information whenever she's asked for local business information. While the Apple Maps ranking algorithm is too new to really know much about it, ranking well in Yelp is currently believed to be one of the best ways to rank well in Apple Maps.

In addition, ...

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Facebook Releases ‘Nearby’ Focusing on Local Search

2013-01-17T20:00:34Z

As of December 17th, 2012, Facebook officially entered the Local Search industry as a contender with Foursquare and Yelp. On their iOS and Android mobile applications, Facebook released Nearby, which allows you to search for businesses based on location, friends’ recommendations, likes and yes - even check-ins. Consumers also have the ability to connect directly with businesses, whether it is by calling, getting directions, ‘liking,’ or ‘checking in.’

Foursquare responded to this change by personalizing their service, which consists of allowing you to link your Facebook account to Foursquare. In turn the recommendations that Foursquare delivers to your account will now be refined by your friends’ activity! This is very similar to Nearby, except Foursquare’s personalization is available on their Web site as well...whereas Facebook's Nearby is only available on a mobile device.

Now, more than ever, is an important time for you to manage that Facebook page. Facebook just tossed you into the local search deep end for smart phone users. Step up to the opportunity and be sure your business category and contact information are up to date. Encourage your loyal customers to recommend, like, and check in to your business.

Here are a few of our favorite articles on boosting your Facebook and Foursquare traffic, while still staying on top of that content demand:

Beware of Social Media ‘Experts’

2013-01-15T19:46:58Z

Within the monthly issue of SEN we publish what we call our SE Bytes. These are questions to some of the MANY questions we get asked within our FastTrack service within a month. /we upgrade some of these questions to allow all of our members to learn from the questions. I've gone ahead and wrote a post about one of our recent SE Bytes that really got people talking...

"We've been contacted by purported social media experts to help grow our influence on multiple occasions. However, more than once, the results were terrible and we found out through closer study that all we received were paid Facebook likes or Twitter followers and very little in the way of actual social media assistance. Are there some tips you can provide on how we can recognize a quality provider or company from one that is clearly not?"

It's amazing how many self-titled social media experts are out there these days. If you recall, during one of our presentations we equated the common social media expert with that of seeing a unicorn: it clearly doesn't happen very often.

The best social media professionals don't usually refer to themselves as experts. In fact, many of us here at SearchEngineNews.com will readily admit that although we do social media marketing on a daily basis, it's always shocking to discover how much we DON'T know, and several of us have been training other SEO and social media professionals for years.

In fact, we'd posit the belief that unless OTHERS call someone a social media expert, it should be a flogging offense to refer to yourself as such on your Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn profile. As the writer of this article, I'd certainly not refer to myself in that way but, if anyone reading this would like to do so I'd readily accept (just send out a Tweet or Facebook post so there's evidence, thanks).

Clearly, in your case, if your provider's idea of social media marketing was concentrating on generating paid followers to your account then that's a big red flag that they probably don't possess the slightest clue on how to research your target niche, generate engagement, and virally promote your content to a qualified audience.

Fortunately, there do exist several ways to recognize the true social media professional (again, not a big fan of expert here) from the proverbial snake oil salesman, including:

1. Check their Twitter Account. It's amazing how many companies or so-called social media experts don't have a Twitter account. Those that do may still have an account that is for all intents and purposes, "fake." Use a free tool like this fake follower tool from Status People. Here's the Twitter account from a not-to-be-named social media expert that shows up prominently in Twitter search:

Now, we don't know about you but if you are going to work with a purported social media expert that offers Twitter follower promotion, it's probably not a good sign when 71% of their own followers are fake. Anything above 5% is ABNORMAL. If you are going to be working with a company/individual in the future, run them through the tool. It's pretty damn accurate.
2. Check their LinkedIn Account. If anyone is operating in the social media sphere a LinkedIn profile should be standard. Check their profile for completeness. Have they published their work? Do they have a fully fleshed-out profile with keyword specialties? Are they members of social media groups? More importantly do they have actual client recommendations you can review on their profile?

3. Ask the Right Questions: Noted SEO Ian Lurie of Portent Inc. published a great article containing must-ask questions to evaluate a so-called Social Media Expert. It's a must-read for anyone interviewing either a potential new hire or a new company for outsourced social media work. Simple questions like "how long have you been doing social media?" and "what strategies and techniques would you use to build/promote an audience?" are all no-brainers.

Next, DO NOT be afraid to run the other way if your firm says they "can't disclose their methods because they are proprietary." That's ridiculous. They aren't curing cancer here; they are promoting YOUR accounts online. This is your reputation they have in their hands. If they aren't willing to be 100% transparent with what they are doing to "grow" your influence, you need to look elsewhere!
4. What Tools do they use? To be blunt, anyone who tells you that they are not using a tool for social media management is just ignorant! I say ignorant because that can be fixed, stupid is forever. If you are managing multiple client accounts or want any credibility as a social media expert you should be using a professional tool. Personally, we recommend Sprout Social, Viral Heat, or even HootSuite for most clients. These automate a ton of the daily tasks that are necessary for good, successful social media. Make sure to review the following resources on tools, time-management, and social media specifically:
Personally, you cannot throw a rock and not hit a social media management tool. We won't harp on which tool you choose; just choose one. Trust us, it's much easier.
5. Ask for Samples and Recommendations. You wouldn't buy a car without a test drive, would you? How about choosing a school for your kids? You wouldn't do that without first visiting some of the teachers, seeing the facilities or reviewing their recent API scores, right? Don't you think you should do the same thing with your social media efforts?

If you are looking for full social media campaign management do they have a portfolio of past work and projects? Visit their Facebook and Twitter accounts, are they using custom professional backgrounds? Check them out on Klout. Are they listed and if so do they have social media listed as an influential topic?

When we are approached for social media assistance, the above (at the minimum) is how we present ourselves to prospective clients. They've worked out well for us, and we know they will do the same for you.

Remember: social media is a tool. You need to find someone who wields that tool proficiently and can back up their talk with cogent, detailed answers to the above. If not, keep looking!

Email Marketing: Don’t Overlook The Power of Thank You Emails

2013-01-14T17:24:09Z

I don't know about you, but I'm a big fan of email marketing and according to some recent statistics, I'm not alone. Email marketing not only continues to be an effective way to deliver content to your audience (and drive sales and conversions, too) as email becomes more easily accessed on mobile devices, this marketing medium is expected to increase in use and efficacy in the coming year.

If you've spent time developing an email marketing strategy, you've likely created a some-what formulaic approach to this particular type of content. As you plan and refine your messagi...

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

Surface Windows 8 Pro Coming Soon…..

2013-01-11T17:37:30Z

Microsoft released pricing for the new Surface with Windows 8 Pro, with two options available either 64GB at $899 or 128GB at $999. It's similar to the Surface with Windows RT in that it's got a similar look, same sized screen, with a kickstand.

Both the Windows RT and Windows 8 Pro versions come with a Surface pen (Type or Touch covers are sold separately). However, the Windows 8 Pro is beefier. It weighs a half pound more with a stronger battery life. The biggest difference being that you can run your legacy Windows 7 desktop applications on Windows 8 Pro while Windows RT is restricted to work exclusively with apps in the Windows Store. At first glance it appears to be a great alternative for someone wanting a tablet with PC capabilities. If you'd like to check out the full specs you can do so here.

Introducing the iPotty - Taking Potty Training and SEO to a Whole New Level

2013-01-09T20:10:32Z

All I can say is holy cr@p are you kidding?! What else will people think of...and why does a toddler get this latest gadget designed when Daddy doesn't even have one yet ;-)

This photo originally from Gizmodo shows what can only be described as a toddler's potty chair with a harness integrated into it that is designed to hold an iPad. Now, I tease all the time about letting your 7yr old show you how the iPad works but this is something else.

This image above is a GREAT example of how you can take an image and story that targets a HUGE number of people and create a blog post around it. This image catches every parent's attention and causes them to look twice. They will share it on Facebook and laugh about it with friends.

This is also a great image to pin up on Pinterest - like the images we talked about in our recent post: How To Create Pinterest Images That People Will Share.

Now, if you are in a business that doesn't lend itself to being naturally entertaining to read (like SEO or shoe manufactoring) then it can be hard to lighten a typically dry topic. Taking the latest news or a funny image and integrating it into a great post is a natural way to keep your writing entertaining, encourage those social shares - all while keeping you from losing your mind from boredom. You'll also want to be sure that your post is littered with your target keywords to get that extra SEO bump.

The Call To Action

At the closing of your post include a call to action to encourage likes or comments. With this image I can say something like:

Hey, I know what it is to potty train kids and how hard it can be to get them to slow down long enough to not have an accident. I'm personally on the fence about this latest gadget. What do you think? Do you think this is what the world needs and can't wait to buy one or do you feel this is bad parenting?!

If I can spin an image about a potty chair into a targeted post for SEO just think what you can do!

What’s New in Local Search for January 2013

2013-01-08T19:34:30Z

Here is the January 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.

Comscore tells us that the 2 smartphone manufacturers set to dominate the market are Samsung (running Android) , with 26% of mobile subscribers, and Apple (with its own iOS6 operating system with 18%. So far, the Windows phones are a bust in the US, which is really bad news for MSN and Bing as more and more searches move on to mobile devices.
TomTom replaces Google Local Search results with its own TomTom Places Not only is TomTom a data provider to Apple Maps, it also offers a navigat...

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

Facebook Cheat Sheet Infographic

2013-01-08T17:36:33Z

Facebook is a fickle mistress when it comes to getting fans to comment and share on your wall posts. The good news is there are some tricks of the trade experts use to boost customer interaction. The good folks over at Linch Pin SEO created a great infographic that is a cheat sheet to help you increase interaction.

We've shared this infographic below to show you how easy it can be to tweak even the smallest aspect of your posting to get the boost you need to be noticed. If you're looking for more advice on your Facebook content creation and promotion then be sure to check out these resources as well:

Facebook Wall Post Cheat Sheet infographic designed by Linchpin Infographic Design

12 Most Popular SEN Articles of 2012

2013-01-07T17:35:48Z

If last year was as busy for you as it was for us here at SearchEngineNews.com then it was a blur of Panda/Penguin updates, traffic ups and downs, Google Plus Local crashing onto the scene, a mass of link pruning and oh yeah all that other stuff that didn't revolve around your Internet Marketing!

Because of all the noise we live with daily, I know the importance of stepping back and quietly reviewing the year that has past. While I was doing that reflection (as the Chief Editor of SearchEngineNews.com) I went into our analytics and looked at the articles that our members - YOU - voted as most popular by reads and return visits. I've gone ahead and listed then below for your review. They are not numbered in any specific order because I felt that by being in the top 12 that was priority enough.

And before you get lost in the list below, I want to personally thank you for your continued loyalty over the years. The newly released site is a big milestone for us and is proof to you that there is so much more to come.

Social Media is Taking Everyone by Storm…Even the Vatican?

2013-01-06T11:18:18Z

Social Media is officially here to stay and in some instances that's not great news. Especially if the article published by The Daily Dot announcing the birth of Hashtag Jameson, a baby girl weighing in at 8 pounds is true.

The story has been reported by a number of sites and even got a mention from Stephen Colbert when he tweeted.

"A couple has named their baby 'hashtag.' What a great name, said his siblings Lycos and http://Pets.com"

If that's not proof enough that it's time to embrace social media, consider the fact that Pope Benedict XVI sent his first tweet December 12th, 2012. As of publish, he's got nearly 1.4 million followers and at 17 tweets to date that's nearly a tweet a day.

SearchEngineNews.com Re-Imagined & Redesigned

2013-01-04T01:57:12Z

All of us here at Planet Ocean have decided to start the New Year (and our 16th year in business) off with a bang, so we're launching our completely re-imagined membership experience to you with the January edition of SearchEngineNews.com.

To get more of the details about the site before its official Beta launch on Monday, January 7th check out this quick 3min video message:

Make sure you have Adobe Flash player installed.

How To Create Pinterest Images That People Will Share

2013-01-03T15:45:16Z

To say that 2012 has been a great year for Pinterest is, well, a pretty vast understatement. The online pinboard has seen explosive growth to the tune of reaching nearly 30,000,000 unique U.S. users in July 2012. And although the site began as a tool geared toward individuals, the recent release of several business tools (including Pinterest pages for business) have given brands and companies increased functionality and more incentives to use the site.

The keys to Pinterest aren't much different from any other social network. You want to grow your audience and pre...

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

How to Charm Customers into Writing Reviews on Your Google+Local Business Page

2012-12-28T14:40:56Z

If your business is now listed with Google+Local then congratulations. However, before you stop to celebrate and catch your breath be sure that you've taken the time to see where you stand with your customer reviews.

As you may already know, many of your customer reviews probably didn't make the transition for any number of reasons and we can feel your frustrations - believe me. We also know that pain. The important thing is to move on and see the bright side of this shift. Your competitors also lost a large piece of their reviews so you are not behind and now is the time to get ahead!

On the flip side - if you're still struggling with your listing, need a little help troubleshooting issues or just want to read the latest news on the topic then look to our SEN featured article for the answers

Google+Local Primer: Your Guide to the Future of Local Business on the Internet.

Customer reviews within G+Local is knowing and understanding the Zagat score, which is triggered when your business gets enough reviews to be measured, as a 30 point scale that includes snippets of customer reviews. As an example, we searched for restaurants in Kailua Kona, HI within Google+ under the 'Local/Maps' tab on Google's new search bar.

There were a lot of restaurants coming up for that search. In fact, we had a hard time finding a business that was missing! On top of that, we found most of the reviews matched up with our personal opinions about each place we've visited. We were a bit impressed considering what a mess this all was less than 30days ago!

When you're looking to build your customer reviews don't be afraid to ask and be creative! Send out an email directing your customers to your G+ profile. Ask them how satisfied they were with your services. Have a QR code printed on your shopping bags, business cards and even on a sticker you can attach to your receipts that links to your G+ page and ask for honest reviews. (Need a refresher on QR codes? Check out these resources:

Don't be afraid of negative feedback. Embrace it, address it, and do your best to correct it. Engage with your customers online but never in a negative manner. Thank people for the negative and positive things they have to say. Engaging in argumentative behavior with your customers online is like poking a angry bear in a zoo. Don't poke the bear!

A local restaurant here in Kona called Jackie Rey's, has a rewards program. Every dollar you spend gets you closer to a coupon for $20 off your next visit. They pride themselves on the fact that they're a restaurant where locals eat and they reward locals that do so! In order to sign up you have to share your email address, they regularly ask their customers how they're doing via email pushing them to write a review. As you can see based on their Google profile I've shared below - they're not doing too bad.

So when it comes to your Google+ Local Profile

Be Accurate.
Be Complete.
Encourage your customers feedback in creative ways.
Respond professionally to reviews and comments both negative and positive.
Don't game the system with fake reviews - Not only is Google getting better at determining when a review is fake but so are your potential customers!

If you're looking for even more resources on customer reviews check out the numerous articles we've published over the years.

10 Internet Marketing Techniques All Businesses Should Be Using

2012-12-19T16:08:06Z

As a business owners in today's markets ALL we hear about is different Internet Marketing techniques with the hottest (and sometimes flash in the pan) techniques at the tip of everyone's tongue. Sometimes it's something you've never heard of or just when you thought you knew what it was - it changed! I'm thinking about things like:

Pinterest business profiles

Google+Local
Groupon's Local Marketplace
Goodrelations
EMD Updates and so on.

All of these and more are thrown down your throat during phone calls and in emails about how they can help grow your business and increase your revenue.

Today, I wanted to break down the top 10 things you can do for yourself with a small time investment each day. This can lead to thousands of dollars in increased revenue for your business, more exposure, and more traffic - and we're going to skip all the obvious ones listed above :) Now, let's get started!

Technique 1: Identify Your Target Audience - One of the biggest mistakes business owners make is to target everyone and everybody. What you want to do is find your target audience, segment them, and then market to each group. You can use 3 sites to get the demographic information you need. Quantcast, Manta, and Facebook Ads.
Technique 2: Decide Your Marketing Goals - After you decide who you're going to target you need to decide why you are targeting them. Are you trying to get more exposure for your business? Do you want to increase sales? Are you trying to drive more traffic to your site?
Technique 3: Decide What Your Web site Will Do - Now that you know who you are targeting and your marketing goals, you need to decide what your Web site will do. Do you want a lead generation site that will make your phone ring? Do you want to set up a lead capture system so you can capture contact information on your site? Do you want to sell a product?
Technique 4: Identify Targeted Search Phrases - The next thing you'll need to do is find some targeted search phrases (commonly called keywords) for your site. What are people typing into Google to find your business? For example, if you own a local pizza shop what are people typing in besides pizza? Use the Google keyword tool to find out. You'll see a long list of words people are searching on such as pizza delivery, pizza places, order pizza online, pizza restaurants, etc.
Technique 5: Create Unique Content - Nothing is more important to the lifeblood of your business than creating unique, compelling content. Let's go back to our previous example, pizza. How much unique content can you really create? Plenty. Especially if you're a locally owed shop. You can talk about your homemade pizza dough. The sauce you make from locally harvested fresh tomatoes. You can talk about your dining atmosphere. Fast service. Unique guarantee. Before you know it your site fill be informative, interesting, and authoritative.
Technique 6: Use Social Networking Sites- Use a combination of social media networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and LinkedIn to promote your business. You can hold contests, offer coupons, and provide great information and link it all back to your site. To continue with our pizza shop example, let's say that Monday nights are dead. You can tweet a buy 1 get 1 special to all your Twitter followers good on Monday night as well as put it as a Foursquare special on checkin. Then to round things off you can post the same thing to your FaceBook page.
You can do this all at once using social media management tools such as Hootsuite or SproutSocial and even have it be a recurring note. So perhaps it's sent out once a month to your followers and fans. It will take you 15min top to set it all up and even one order is a return on your investment.
Technique 7: Install Google Analytics - Installing an analytics package is easy. We recommend Google Analytics because it's robust, and best of all it's free. 99% of businesses can get by with the data contained in GA. If you really want something super powerful you can try WebTrends or Coremetrics, but they can be pricey. This will give you the ability to measure different metrics and behaviors on your site.

To continue with our pizza shop example: let's say you notice the bounce rate on your home page is 70%. This is terrible! You need to find out why. It could be a bunch of reasons. When you drill down you notice that a bunch of people who are coming to your site that don't live in your local area. Of the people that do live locally, you notice the bounce rate is only 10%. This means that your home page is great for your target audience, so you can take it with a grain of salt. Without installing a package such as GA, you'd never know why people are leaving your site.
Technique 8: Set up Google Analytics Goals - Goals are an essential part of marketing your business. Google Analytics can help you get there. You can set a number of different goals in GA. Time on site, time on page, conversion goals such as filling out a form, making a phone call, etc. You can also measure how much each of these actions is worth and then figure out your marketing budget based on it.

For example, let's say the phrase order pizza now results in 10 calls a day to your pizza shop, or 300 calls per month. Out of these 10 calls half order. Your average order is $20.00. So that's 150 calls times $20.00 or $3,000 in extra orders from this one keyword. This means that you can invest $3,000 per month in marketing to break even or invest $2,000 a month for an extra $12,000 in annual profits.

Are you seeing the power in this?
Technique 9: Start a Pay Per Click (PPC) Campaign - There is nothing more powerful than instant traffic to your Web site. You can be up and running with Google Adwords or Facebook Ads in a matter of hours. If you don't have the time or expertise to do this, by all means, hire an expert. For a simple PPC campaign, it's pretty straight forward. You can even offer coupons right in your ad! You can control when your ad appears and how much you spend. Just be careful when setting up these paid systems. Start out with a very small budget until you're comfortable with the system and understand how things work.

To continue with our example, let's say you want more business on Friday night. You know the major chains and some of your competitors are killing it. You can run a PPC ad that says kids eat free, by one get one, 50% off one entree, etc. You keep running ads until you find a winner. Then keep running it. You can also build in a loyalty program using text message marketing (SMS) where your customers continue to get better and better deals.
Technique 10: Stay Current - One of the things you want to stay on top of is what your competitors are up to and also the latest tips and techniques for using PPC, Social Media, and other IM tools. The easiest way to do this is to sign up for both Google alerts and Google reader.

Of course you can get an easy-to-read digest delivered to your inbox once a month with all the information you need for just $12 a month with SearchEngineNews.com

With Google alerts you can use any keyword phrase and choose how often you get updated whenever anyone posts anything online about your keyword. So if Sid's Pizza is your main competitor in your local area you can set up an alert about that. That'll go right into your inbox and you can use Google reader to organize and read any of your alert content. If Sid is offering a Two-on-Tuesday special you can make a competing offer.
Bonus Technique: Lead Capture System and Email - One of the most notorious mistakes business owners make is failing to capture the user information of their visitors. This is easy to fix. All you need to do is install a lead capture form to get your visitors email address. This will automatically add them to your email list and you can continue to market to them.

Again with the pizza! Yes. Sign-up for our email alerts and get our exclusive bring a buddy for free coupon. You can set this up any way you like and then test it until you find a combination that works.

As you can see, marketing your business online is no easy task, but it's not as hard as it sounds. With careful research and cautious application, you can see huge returns on your Internet Marketing investment.

Doing the old stuff, billboards, yellow pages, direct mail, radio ads, and cold calling can still work, but none of that is nearly as cost effective or as lucrative as a successful Internet Marketing campaign.

So now what? Make a schedule. Take each one of the steps above and put it on your calendar. Then do it. Now jump in and get going!

7 SEO Predictions for 2013

2012-12-17T16:18:42Z

With the projected end-of-the-world date of December 21, 2012 fast approaching, I thought it prudent to get a jump on my annual list of predilections, prognostications and predictions that may drive your SEO marketing efforts in the coming year.

But first, if you didn't get a chance to review this year's 7 SEO Predictions for 2012 article it's worth your time. Overall, I'd say I did pretty well. I predicted that Google would lower the value of exact match domains (EMD...

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

What’s New in Local Search December 2012

2012-12-10T22:07:35Z

Here is the December 2012 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.

It's a no brainer that mobile devices will play a huge roll in shopping this holiday season. Smart phones and tablets will be blazing with mobile search, mobile advertising, coupons and deals, product and price comparisons and checks for nearby product availability. If you or your retail clients arenít onboard with a mobile and tablet friendly website by now, youíre going to feel the pain this Christmas.
Yelp ditches Google Maps in favor of Apple Maps as part of ...

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

Bing’s Updated Webmaster Guidelines Focuses Heavily on Social Signals & Page Speed

2012-12-06T18:19:07Z

Duane Forrester announced November 16th on a Webmaster Center Blog Post the release of Bing's Webmaster Guidelines.

These new guidelines are actually very general and that's by design, and for the most part echo what Google advises in their Webmaster Guidelines. There are however a few tidbits you might want to take note of.

The new document is available when you sign in to Webmaster Tools, in the Help section, under the "Content Guidelines" sub section.

Social - Bing is clear that social signals do impact ranking, unlike Google who fails to address that question clearly.

Social media plays a role in today's effort to rank well in search results. The most obvious part it plays is via influence. If you are influential socially, this leads to your followers sharing your information widely, which in turn results in Bing seeing these positive signals. These positive signals can have an impact on how you rank organically in the long run.

Bing has deals with Quora, Facebook, and Twitter, so it's very likely these are the services they monitor in regards to social influence. But, be warned, Bing doesn't like the idea of using schemes to artificially inflate your popularity. They specifically address this issue in their guidelines.

Like farms are similar to link farms in that they seek to artificially exploit a network effect to game the algorithm. The reality is these are easy to see in action and their value is deprecated. Auto follows encourage follower growth on social sites such as Twitter. They work by automatically following anyone who follows you. Over time this creates a scenario where the number of followers you have is more or less the same as the number of people following you. This does not indicate you have a strong influence. Following relatively few people while having a high follower count would tend to indicate a stronger influential voice.

Page Speed - Bing specifically mentions that page load times can impact ranking...

This element has a direct impact on the satisfaction a user has when they visit your web site. Slow load times can lead to a visitor simply leaving your web site, seeking their information elsewhere. If they came from our search results that may appear to us to be an unsatisfactory result that we showed. Faster is better, but take care to balance absolute page load speed with a positive, useful user experience.

While they don't exactly say it, what Bing means is if someone uses Bing to search, clicks the search result, then clicks the back button quickly Bing believes that listing might be a bad result. The reason someone clicked back quickly might be due to a slow loading page, or irrelevant content or other reasons...however anything that causes a fast back-click can impact the URL's ranking in search.

Of note is one error Bing has been really going on about almost immediately after they released the guidelines, it's where they call the image alt attribute an "alt tag" which, is an incorrect statement despite being frequently used. The HTML img tag features the alt text attribute and that's what they are referring to as an "Alt Tag".

Forrester also announced a series of Webmaster Webinars starting late November. They will be conducting six free webinars during November, December, January and February. As an added bonus, they will feature some Q & A time as well. If you're not able to attend them, the webinars will be recorded as well for later viewing. To register, visit their Webinar Schedule & Signup Page. Note: Viewing the webinar requires Flash player to be installed on your computer.

We also should point out that Bing does have a rather comprehensive, FAQ document also available for webmasters available in PDF format which actually has more info than the Guidelines document. It's a bit dated as it was last updated March 15, 2010, but it might help answer some questions for you.

Your Exact Match Domain Won’t Keep You Safe Any More

2012-12-01T17:38:46Z

Once again, Google has targeted low quality sites in their latest update. This round of changes went after Exact Match Domains (EMD) with low quality content specifically. Since this has already been a portion of the recent Penguin and Panda updates, it really didn't take many by surprise.

In the past, exact match domains were the holy grail for webmasters. No matter the industry, if you could get a domain that had your top keywords, you automatically got a rankings boost. So if your business sold real estate in Boston, landing www.bostonhomesforsale.com would be an amazing find. Oh, those were the days :)

However, in Google's war against low quality content even an exact match domain won't keep you safe. Don't get us wrong, it's still automatic ranking credits - it just isn't enough anymore. Low quality is low quality - end of story and unfortunately most of the exact match domains have spun or low quality content.

If you're an owner of an exact match domain that is full of spun content, our advice is that you take the time to really build your site out as you're already a step ahead of competition. Or if you don't want to make the effort, then you can always shoot us a note when you lose your rankings and want to sell that domain :)

One example of a site that immediately dropped from the top position when this change was made is www.teethwhitening.com. The image below shows a screen grab from content on the homepage. As you can see, it's spun content set to bring someone ad income by tarketing high traffic keywords with no work on their part and worthless for human visitors.

It's official, the time of your domain name making or breaking your business has passed. We are now in the era of solid, fresh content dominating the results and if you also have a great keyword rich domain then life just got that much better for you. If you're having writer's block creating content for your site, check out this featured article, Must See Tips & Tools for Fresh Content Creation, Optimization & Distribution.

Remember this type of update is automatic which means that the search engine formula changed to reduce the rankings of these types of sites automatically. In other words, a reconsideration request won't help. Recent automatic updates (in order of their appearance) include:

Panda - first rolled out in Feb 2011 and targeted sites with low quality content.
Top Heavy - first rolled out Jan 2012 and targeted sites that had too many ads above the fold.
Penguin - first rolled out April 2012 and targeted overly optimized sites (aka web spam).
Pirate - first rolled out Aug. 2012 and targeted any site that had numerous copyright complaints against them.
EMD - first rolled out Sept. 2012 and targeted sites with exact match domains with low quality or spun content.

On the other hand, if your site has a manual update (one that was given after a human reviewed your site and found something violating Google's Webmaster Guidelines) against it then you should receive a Webmaster Tools notice telling you. During the October Pubcon convention Matt Cutts was quoted saying...

"We've actually started to send messages for pretty much every manual action that we do that will directly impact the ranking of your site."

So the first thing you should do when you notice a sudden drop in rankings is to check your Webmaster Tools Account for any notices you may have missed. If there is nothing there, then most likely you're dealing with an automatic update and need to bring up the overall quality of your site or deal with your anchor text profile.

Apple Maps, So What?

2012-11-19T16:12:24Z

By now, everyone in the Search world has heard about Apple Maps or experienced it for themselves. Much of what is being said about it isn't very flattering, but that doesn't really matter.

Google makes a habit of releasing products that are far from perfect-sometimes so far from perfect that near-crippling pains mask the vision of what the product can become. Just look at Google +Local for Business. Five months after its debut it's still so mired in extremely ugly customer service issues that Google has barely been able to move forward with the planned new features on the front end.

Sometimes, this is done because a first step must be taken before even a fuzzy picture of where...

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

5 Strategies The Pros Use to Influence ‘Google Suggest’

2012-11-14T17:49:25Z

Need to influence Google Suggest? Here's How!

When potential visitors search for our business name in Google many times they are presented with Google auto-complete search suggestions that include things like our "Business Name Scams" and our "Business Name Bad Reviews" among other queries. This is unflattering to say the least. Is there ANYTHING we can do to influence what kind of suggestions Google serves?

Answer: Google search suggestions generated by Google Instant Autocomplete functionality...

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

Matt Cutts’ View on the Importance of Social Signals in the Future & the Power of Links Today

2012-11-09T15:00:44Z

In an interview with Danny Sullivan, Matt Cutts was asked whether or not links were being completely replaced with social signals for rankings. His answer? Not yet!

"There's this perception that 'Yes, everything will go social' or 'links are completely obsolete'. And I think it's premature to reach that conclusion. I don't doubt that in 10 years things will be more social and those will be more powerful signals but I wouldn't write the epitaph for links quite yet"

He goes on to talk about how big the Web is, reminding us that there are tons of signals that Google uses within its algorithm to determine rankings. Generally, major changes happen slowly so expect a small dialing down of links importance with tests and tweaks along the way. You can watch his short two minute interview below to see how Matt sees Google handling social signals going forward.

With the importance of social signals growing every day it becomes harder to know exactly how to integrate that into your marketing. That's why we've gathered some of the very best in the industry to quickly teach you which social media platforms are your best fit, which are a waste of time, why blogging is the key to your site's success and WHY "popular" is the last thing you ever want to design your brand to become.

So, if you are interested in a week long professional course in all things social including:

Using social listening to write blog content that not only draws traffic, but creates loyal readers.
An easy 4 step process to create a Social Media Strategy, Proposal and Action Plan.
How you can get your clients AND supervisors to buy-in to social media as the future.
Why Twitter is so Damn Powerful.
and of course - how to use analytics to track everything.

Then let us know and we'll send you all the details on the next course we have scheduled and how you can participate along side our members!

What’s New in Local Search November 2012

2012-11-06T16:54:39Z

Here is the November 2012 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.

A survey entitled How Long Does Local Search Visibility Take? rounds up the opinions of a sampling of Local SEO's, thanks to Phil Rozek. You'll get some great tips from people with a lot of experience in the trenches.
Locu expand its offerings beyond the restaurant space to help retailers better push their product and pricing information out across the web...

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

Don’t Ignore Bing! Top 5 SEO Tips to Dominate

2012-10-24T14:45:42Z

Don't Ignore Bing! Top 5 SEO Tips to Dominate

We seem to be doing pretty well ranking-wise in Google, but surprisingly, not as well in Bing. Can you provide us some algorithmic insight into how Bing is ranking their content and provide some tips we can implement?

Answer: Earlier this year at

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

13 Ways to Kill Your Site’s Search Engine Rankings

2012-10-22T15:35:32Z

The 13 Fastest Ways to Kill Your Site's Search Engine Rankings - by Kristi Hagen

Google has created a lot of rules and policies over the years to make sure sites play by their rules. Sites that ignore them are ritualistically slashed from the search results on an ever increasing basis. These almost monthly massacres are going after more and more sites that are all doing the same things wrong!

This article is a new twist on the top things you can do to become one of the many nameless victims left after the next algorithm update (1...2...Google is coming for you...3...4...lock the door.)

Don't be fresh and original. It's like a horror movie plot you've seen 100 times when the pretty young girl runs screaming up the stairs instead of out the front door when the man in the mask shows up. Instead of writing your own original articles just copy articles from various other sites or 'spin' your content into gibberish keyword rich phrases that no human can understand.

If a Web site has a really good article, why try to compete with your own original content? You can just copy and paste it to your site and BAM content added. While you're at it, lots of Web sites sell PLR (private label rights) article packs that have been resold and 'spun' hundreds of times. You'll never have to write again if you post them onto your site and through the article directories without revising any of the content. Cutting corners like this means you're guaranteed to be publishing duplicate content.

When this happens, your site will be flagged by the duplicate content filters on Google and ranked lower than the sites that you've copied from.

** We've outlined steps to avoid getting trapped in the duplicate content house of mirrors in The SEO's Guide to Preventing Duplicate Content.

Another way to ensure those rankings will plummet into the pit of despair is by writing original content but never updating it. You're busy and have more important things to do. Leave the content up there, even if the events took place four years ago. Not only will your customers love reading about things that have already taken place but Google won't have any new content to crawl. Your rankings won't increase and the spiders will visit your site less and less.

** Don't let your site turn into a gnarly dried up corpse. Take some clues from a couple of the many articles we've written regarding updating regularly with quality content here and here.
Keyword stuffing. Again it's that moment when the killer in the latest installment of a movie series has been shot, stabbed and buried and the last scene is that hand coming up out of the ground as the audience does a collective eye roll (Friday the 13th Part 13 - seriously?!).

There's nothing that readers love more than reading an article that has the same keyword in there 30 or 40 times. For example if your keyword is video marketing be sure your content reads something like this:

"Video marketing is one of the best video marketing strategies to get hits on your Web site. When you find video marketing companies, make sure their video marketing strategies are..."

If that doesn't do the trick you can develop a great looking site and add SEO copy at the bottom that provides absolutely no value to your readers. To try and lose a few extra spots in the ranking, make sure that you really cram those few paragraphs with as many keywords as possible. The search engine algorithms have been adjusted to look for these tactics, so you can certainly trash your rankings by following these steps.

** That's why keyword stuffing was our first spamming technique to avoid like the plague in this feature article The Top 10 'On-Page' SEO Spamming Tricks to Avoid Like the Plague.
Continue to think that panda and penguin are two animals at the zoo. Here's a quick hint if you're confused - Panda and Penguin are two of the latest updates to Google's algorithm to make sure that Web sites are naturally integrating SEO. If you ignore all of the latest news on SEO and don't change anything about your site just wait, perhaps both Panda and Penguin will get their fangs into you.

** Or if you'd like a silver bullet in your arsenal check out this month's update to get links to all the most current topics regarding Panda and Penguin.
Make your site all about the Ads. Ads make you money so the more ads the better...right? Wrong, sites with excessive ads being displayed above the site fold (Using more than 3 AdSense units per page? You may want to lower that) are being dropped from the rankings quicker than they can wonder what happened to their ad income.

** Hit the right balance of ads and content with hints from this byte How much content do you have on your home page? Is it enough?
Use IP Delivery: aka, Cloaking. IP Delivery, most commonly referred to as cloaking, is one of the most controversial and complex SEO strategies. We've covered it often over the years. The root of the controversy stems from the fact that IP delivery enables a site to serve one page to human site visitors and a different page to search engine spiders. When used in this fashion, the site is said to be "cloaking" (i.e., hiding) the real page - the one that human site visitors see - from the search engines.

** Search engines do not like being served a page that is different from the page that people are seeing. That being said, if you don't understand the technology - don't use it because when done incorrectly it's like taking a sledge hammer to your rankings. It's a slow recovery and the Googlebot is a fickle host who wants what it wants.
Use Doorway pages. Aggressive SEOs have been known to create large numbers of low-quality pages with the intent to rank well for as many keywords as possible. Often these so-called doorway pages are automatically generated using software designed to optimize each page around a specific long-tail keyword. The goal is to funnel visitors from these doorway pages into a smaller number of highly converting sales pages.

** Of course, it's fine to use content management systems and other software to manage your site as long as your actual content is being generated by humans. Obviously using software to automatically generate your content and send visitors from one site to another is another great way to get the Googlebot to send your site into oblivion. This will also make sure you violate Google's Terms of Service so that you even risk being removed from the search index entirely. Ouch.
Use graphics and scripts. Instead of using actual text for your Web site, you can decrease your rankings easily by presenting everything on your site through the use of graphics. Hire the most expensive graphic designer you can find and focus only on the visual aspects of your Web site. You will have the most attractive Web site on the Internet that isn't getting any kind of traffic and probably runs more slowly than the zombies from Shaun of the Dead.

** If you'd like to give your site a fighting chance against the invasion check out these resources for ways to incorporate things that add visual interest like well-optimized images and infographics without bringing your load time to a screeching halt.
Don't use keywords. Keywords are for people who actually want to be found on the Internet. When people enter keywords that have anything to do with what your site is about, make sure that you don't include these throughout any of your Web content or in any of the on page SEO spaces such as your title and header tags. You'll save a fortune in keyword research and since the entire Internet runs on keywords, you never have to worry about appearing in the top results of a search engine. Your site can be like Big Foot, always rumored about but never seen!

** Or you can bring your site to live amongst us and target your keywords with our three part Keyword Primer Series Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.
Build your site around a brand name that isn't yours. If you infringe upon the copyrights of another company, you may not only experience a lawsuit but you may be able to get your Web site completely wiped from the indexes. All you have to do is create an entire site about an already established brand - or your competitor's Web site and poof! Rankings gone.

** Use your own IP (intellectual property) and you should be in the clear. Check with your attorney if you are unsure on anything.
Participate in link schemes. It's like that moment when you notice an overly large clown peering out at you from a storm drain. Logically you know clowns are creepy and that no matter what he's promising it's not worth climbing into the gutter for. Same goes for links - if it's too good to be true, chances are it is.

The worst place to start your link building is using one of the various link schemes. That would include the good old fashion link farm, cross domain linking, obvious paid links, and of course linking to 'questionable' sites (online gambling, porn or certain foreign sites). Google polices link schemes heavily, so your site will drop down in rank considerably within a very short period of time. Even better, submit your site to dozens of link farms all at once to absolutely ruin your rankings and the scary clown wins!

** Punch that creepy clown in the face and review ways to mitigate your linking problems here or start right from the beginning with our advice in this byte.
Hide your text. What your readers don't see won't hurt you. And the search engines love to read all of that hidden text. What you want to do is make sure you have all of your keywords in row after row and then make sure the text color matches the background color so it blends right in.

For instance, if the background is white bgcolor="#FFFFFF", then the text font is also set to white as such: font color="#FFFFFF" (of course, this can also be done with CSS instead of font tags). The end result is text that blends invisibly into the background color of the Web page. It effectively appears invisible to people viewing the page, but not to the search engine spiders that index all of the text found within the HTML source code. Do this for every page and you'll be down in the rankings in no time at all. Because sometimes those things you can't see can still hurt you.

** Just avoid doing this, there is not really anything more to say other than that the search engines do not like being fooled.
Keep ignoring your site's load time. That's right - keep ignoring the countless times we've lectured you on your site's load speed. If you don't know your site's speed, then you're no better than the girl in ALL of those movies that can't out run the killer who never even breaks a sweat as he strolls along. Quit tripping over things that aren't even there and act like you want to live.

** Google has made it 100% clear that your site's load speed is a ranking factor. It should load between 0 and 5 seconds and if it doesn't you need to start working on what's going on under the hood. Pick yourself up off the ground and use tools.pingdom.com/ to be sure your site is fast enough to survive. Google's serious enough about it they've even added site speed tools to their Analytics. If your site isn't up to snuff check out this byte to troubleshoot so that your site loads before the lunatic catches up.
Ignore errors on your site. You'll get around to fixing them...eventually. In the meantime, it will disrupt performance to your site, piss off visitors and cause you to index poorly.

** No big deal that both your Webmaster Tools accounts and our own Super Spider Tool will quickly lay out the issues on your sites in a matter of seconds.

As you can see it's easy enough to ignore our advice and make a mockery of the SEO system, waste millions of marketing dollars and thousands of hours of intense online SEO work. If you're doing even one of these 13 things we've outlined and you're still ranking well then consider yourself one of the lucky survivors ...for now.

Don't be a cliche,

Kristi Hagen - President & Senior Editor
Planet Ocean Communications

Once They Find Your Page How Do You Get Them to Take Action?! Common Mistakes Marketers Make.

2012-10-18T15:50:57Z

The following blog post is a reprint of the VERY first article published to SearchEngineNews.com back in February of 1997. It's written by Stephen Mahaney and it's message is short, to the point and still 100% accurate and relevant today! So relevant, in fact, that we felt compelled to share it with you now - over 15 years later. The very foundation of marketing is understanding human nature and Internet or not - that will never change.

In this month's issue I will address the most common marketing mistake people are making on the Internet...

However, before I can do so I must point out the question that every customer wants answered before they will decide to do business with you or your company -- and that question is...

"What's in it for me?"

Customers (bless them all) are a selfish lot. They want to know why they should do business with you instead of one of your competitors. What is unique about your offer..., how will you deliver on your promises and how good is your guarantee? (...you DO have a guarantee, don't you?)

In essense, they want to know what is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). That compelling reason why your product or service will solve their problem and why your offer is better than any of your competitors'.

The common mistake that most companies are making on the internet these days is they fail to address this issue from the start. Instead, they force the customer to wait for unnecessary, slow loading graphics that gloriously illustrate the company's logo followed by some obscure mission statement that sounds more like rhetoric than benefit.

Maybe I shouldn't tell you this, but your customer doesn't care. He or she wants to know what's in it for them. And, if you make them wait too long before you tell them they "click" away to another site.

Of course there are exceptions... especially if your site's primary focus is entertainment. However, if your are looking for a direct response... a purchase or a phone call, it will seldom happen if the customer cannot quickly determine what it is you have to offer and your reason(s) why they should buy it... from you -- this is a fact of marketing.

So here are some tips.

The name of your company is seldom your headline.

Unless your company name has household recognition within your industry, your name is insignificant to the customer until he or she has decided that they want what it is you are offering. If they want it... they will literally examine the computer screen with a magnifying glass, if necessary, to find your contact information.
Your headline should be your USP.

Tell them -- right away -- what benefit they will achieve by doing business with you right now! Tell them why you can offer them what they are looking for and why they can trust you to provide the product or service. This is what they want to know. If you have the best price, tell them. If you offer exclusivity, show them. If your service is superior, prove it.
Sell the sizzle, not the steak.

Customers buy benefits not features. They want to know how your product or service is going to solve their problem... and they want a guarantee! If you really think about it honestly you will find that these are the same ingredients that you look for when you buy, isn't that true?

For instance, if you are in the flower business on the Internet you are selling primarily to men (women don't usually buy flowers on the Internet -- they'd rather pick them out in person or "chat" about them by phone). Men want to know that you will take responsibility for getting the flowers to their significant other on time! (translated, same day... usually within the hour) ...and that the flowers will be beautiful, and the girl will LOVE them. Men don't (usually) really care what flowers you pick out... they only care that your flower service will solve their problem! ...which is -- keep the girl happy! Because, when the girl is happy, men think they will get what they want.

Reducing this process to such simplicity may seem silly but if you think about it, you know it's true.

Here's the point. Your business site on the internet should focus on solving the problems of your typical customers. Design your site so that it is user friendly, makes a compelling offer and builds trust.

It is a mistake to attempt to dazzle your site visitors with entertainment and gloss. There are plenty of ways to look professional without resorting to Java Applets that distract from your message, frames that fragment their attention, and company logos that look as if they were produced by Madison Avenue... if people want entertainment they have TV.

People who have money and use the Internet are looking for information, products, and services that will make life easier and solve their problems.

If you want to make sales, you should design headlines and pages that are benefit oriented and lead your potential customers through a systematic presentation that focuses on what you can do for them and why they should do business with you. By doing so, you'll be amazed how less is more and how well simplicity sells.

Happy Marketing,

Stephen Mahaney
Planet Ocean Communications

What’s New in Local Search October 2012

2012-10-15T15:49:06Z

Here is the October 2012 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.

Pew tells us that 45% of US adults now own smartphones and that 53% of all phone subscribers have smartphones. If you're still wondering if you need a mobile Web site, you're already losing business because you don't.
Groupon debuts a payment system to make it easier for deal purchasers to pay via Apple's mobile devices.It also gives merchants a bit of a break on transaction fees for their Groupon offerings. I can't imagine that discount has much of an impact, though, wh...

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

Pricing Pitfalls in Local Search Projects

2012-10-05T15:22:58Z

The Monster That Ate the NAP

Quite often, Local SEOs are handed a bloody mess to clean up. It's not unusual to find a mess within a mess, a mess that has expanded across the Local universe at warp speed and/or a mess that has devoured the business' real NAP and spit out multiple imposters to take its place. None of these situations bodes well for the SEO who has not adequately researched a business' NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) consistency before taking on a new client.

Real Life Case

I'm currently trying to help an outfit that has used 5 different business names online. 3 of the names are significantly different. 2 are just minor variations. They have also used 6 different local phone numbers, including one with an area code in a neighboring state, and 2 call tracking numbers over which they have absolutely no control.

I did an audit for this business using our Web Site Audit Checklist and gave them a detailed, prioritized list of what they need to do and how to do it. Unfortunately, after a few short weeks, the in-house staffer charged with trying to update all of this information online threw up her hands in frustration. What at first seemed to the business as a simple matter of changing name and phone number information to match the authentic data became an overwhelming, often mind-numbing chore. Here's why...

Missing Logins

She didn't have logins to most of the places where the business was listed. I never ceased to be amazed at how often this happens even among large businesses with full time, in house marketing staff!

In Local Search, your logins are a valuable business commodity that is close to the core of what Mike Blumenthal refers to as digital equity. Without them, it is difficult at best and impossible at worst to update your information online.

All listings should be created and held in accounts that the business owner has complete control over. They need to be recorded in a meaningful way and safeguarded within the organization.

As an agency, setting up accounts in the proper way, taking care of the record keeping, openly sharing it with the business and then turning it over to the owner when your relationship with them ends, is undoubtedly the ethical path to travel.

Login Recovery Not Possible

In many cases, login recovery was not possible because she didn't know what email addresses had been used to create them and/or didn't have access to those email accounts. Many times, employees or former employees create business listings with the best of intentions. But often those listings are held in personal accounts or accounts that were not recorded or shared. In those cases, the business has no access to those email addresses to receive lost login information.

Sometimes the recovery email address is under the control of a former agency rather than the client, which also prevents the business from recovering lost login information. Some agencies actually do this on purpose to cause defectors as much pain as possible. Don't be one of them.

Updates Not Possible

For some directories, it's not possible to update or delete an existing listing. Instead, you must make the effort to create and verify an entirely new listing. This can be unexpectedly time consuming, especially when you want to add photos and details to make it as complete as possible. To find a comprehensive list of all the directories that we recommend updated and/or creating a new listing - check out our The Ultimate Local Search Directory & Citation List.

This also doesn't do anything to get the bad NAP information in the original listing out of the mix, but it does add one more instance of good information. It may also mean that your reviews on that site will be split between 2 or more listings, which doesn't provide a complete picture to searchers who only find and view one of them.

In some places, like CitySearch, there is no option given to update anything. So if you can't find an email address to send your request to, you're done. On some sites, you will find email addresses, but responses can vary immensely as does the wait time for the data to be updated.

Pricing Considerations

So you can see why it's critical to learn how much online NAP confusion the prospect is experiencing BEFORE you price a Local Search project. It's also important to pin the client down as to whether they wish you to correct the inconsistencies or if they are willing and able to commit to doing it themselves. Any agreement should spell this out. And if they choose to do it themselves, make it clear that it isn't optional, but is a necessary task for achieving good rankings in Local Search within the shortest amount of time.

If they choose to have you correct inconsistencies, don't sell yourself short. You'll be in the best situation if you can price it as actual time spent to do the work. It can be an amazingly time consuming process that can quickly suck up your profit margin if you don't price it right.

Remember G+ Local

You are also going to want to do your homework in regards to how their current listing stand within the chaos that is G+ Local. As we've detailed in our October Search Engine Update - To Merge or Not to Merge -That is THE Question in Local These Days, it can be a very sticky situation to get a company properly listed if they have inconsistencies in their NAP information or within their original Place Page.

A Great Upsell to Existing Clients

Remember! Google has also just released Business Photos and Virtual Tours to both mobile and desktop versions of Google Maps. This can be a must do for many businesses so be sure to bring it to the table as an upsell to your existing clients.

The Key to Facebook Engagement is________Fill In The Blank

2012-09-20T16:14:26Z

If you're the admin of a Facebook page (or 10), you likely spend a lot of time cultivating your Facebook marketing strategy. And with Facebook changing things on what seems like a weekly basis, it can be hard to keep up with the latest tips and tricks.

The good news? Despite Facebook's ongoing evolution, it's certainly possible to cultivate an engaged Facebook following as part of your larger digital marketing strategy. Regularly posting relevant, interesting content is a big part of Facebook community management.

Interacting with your Facebook audience is also important. After all, a social presence without conversation is, well, the opposite of social. And although you can't necessarily expect each and every Facebook post to spark dozens and dozens of comments, you can learn from successful case studies to better understand what prompts Facebook users to interact with page content.

Take JetBlue, for example. The airline recently experimented with fill in the blank status updates as part of their Facebook content strategy. Over a six-week period, JetBlue incorporated a fill in the blank post every 7-10 days like the one that appeared on March 26 and coincided with the release of The Hunger Games: If your city could be any district, it would be ______________. May the odds be ever in your favor.

SimplyMeasured analyzed the performance of JetBlue's Facebook content over that six-week period. The fill in the blank posts averaged 119 comments, while the second most popular content type, links, averaged 61 comments - a 182 percent increase, as illustrated in the chart below.

Although SimplyMeasured's analysis indicates that fill in the blank posts can be incredibly successful in driving comments, it's important to note that these types of posts don't necessarily drive high engagement across the board. Links actually resulted in a higher number of likes and shares for JetBlue, compared to multimedia, followed by fill in the blank posts and status updates.

The larger lesson to be learned from JetBlue's approach is that it's important to experiment with a variety of Facebook content types. Take note as to which ones spark the most audience engagement. You don't want to inundate your page with those posts, but you do want to make sure that you regularly include them as part of your content strategy.

To me, that's one of the exciting things about Facebook marketing...and about digital marketing in general. Creating a solid strategy is a key to getting started, but after that, it's just as critical to constantly analyze and tweak your approach. Doing the same thing month after month won't get you very far, especially in the ever-changing and fast-moving world of the Internet. Instead, savvy marketers understand the importance of listening, collecting analytics and then analyzing the data in order to make larger contextual decisions that can drive not just your digital strategy, but overall business decisions, too.

If you work with Facebook pages, I'd love to hear what types of content have proved most successful in driving engagement among your audience.

What’s New in Local Search September 2012

2012-09-11T15:12:58Z

Here is the September 2012 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.

A study finds that Yellowpages.com can deliver calls to businesses at a lower overall cost than Google AdWords does. The study was commissioned by YellowPages.com. That's great if they can do it and prove it without using call tracking numbers, but...
Google buys Wildfire, a platform that helps "brands run and measure their social engagement and ad campaigns across the entire web and across all social services". Wildfire is all about boosting continual social engagement with things like sweepstakes, contests, surveys, deals, quizzes, etc and measuring their effectiveness. While this will beef up Google's social-ness, I wish it would have put that $250 million dollars into more customer support for local businesses, instead.
Google opens up Map Maker in Australia. Is this a blessing or a curse for local marketers down under?
Google Webmaster Tools now gives you information about the structured data it sees on your Web site. This can be extremely useful for e-commerce sites and for regional and national brands with many locations.
You can now force integration of your Places page into a Google+ Business Local page, if you have already created a Google+ Business Local page. It won't work with Google+ Business Brand page and it won't work for service area businesses located in residential areas. Confused yet? Me too! But apparently the type of Google+ page is already important to Google or is going to be important, which also makes it important to us.

Personally, I wouldn't force this right now, especially for multi-location businesses because we have no clear direction from Google. Anything you do now might be something you'll soon have to undo and Google tells us it is going to automatically do the merge. If you do force the merge, you'll likely need to re-verify your listing via postcard, so be prepared for that.
Google starts to highlight local business info that pertains to a query (hours, address, phone number, etc) in the mobile search results. Structured markup will help your details surface here.
Google Wallet is now compatible with Visa, MasterCard and Discover as well as with AMEX. Along with this upgrade, you can now disable Wallet if your phone is stolen or lost. The Wallet app allows for both online and offline purchases. Unfortunately, you have to own one of the 6 Sprint or VirginMobileUSA phones that are NFC-enabled to use Wallet.
Meanwhile Starbucks has invested in the mobile payment system Square and will soon be using it at 7000+ coffee shops.
The Social Share report tells us that 75 of the worlds' top brands have Google+ pages. I don't know what criteria are used to determine what is a top brand in the world, but 75 doesn't seem like very many to me. It's no wonder that number sounds low when bulk uploads take way too long to be verified and reviewed and we've received no direction from Google as to how businesses can best deal with hundreds of locations on Google+Local.
Google starts testing mobile optimized Web site icons in its mobile SERPs. The icons are different on different phones, which is probably part of the test. This certainly ups the ante for getting onboard with a mobile-friendly Web site, doesn't it?
Yahoo Local adds an owner verification process for Local business listings. In addition to the usual choices of phone or email verification, you can verify via SM or by email. It's uncertain at this time if every listing gets all of these options or if your choices might be restricted under certain circumstances. Yahoo also has a new local listing management dashboard. With the sad shape of Google+Local right now, it's hard to tell if becoming more Google-ish is going to be a good thing or a bad thing for Yahoo Local.
Frommers is being bought by Google. Another big brick in that wall Google's building towards owning travel online-at least in its own SERPs.
Yet another massive loss of reviews in Google+Local sparks speculation that the review filter has been cranked up again. As usual, it seems as though many legitimate reviews got tossed out in the process. While restaurants and coffee shops typically attract tons of online user opinions, it's a grueling process for some types of businesses to gain any reviews at all from their customers.

Cavalierly tossing these out does them a great injustice and solidifies their already less-than-warm-fuzzy feelings towards Google+Local. There's buzz in auto dealer community of mass reporting the problem to the FTC.
Two studies are released indicating that mobile users tend to navigate directly to a Web site or an app more often than using web search for information. If you have a smartphone, I doubt this is a surprise to you.
Google is spotted testing a return to the old 5 gold stars review system and showing those stars in the Local SERPs. For most businesses and consumers, the complex Zagat rating system really doesn't make any sense. I wouldn't be surprised to see some type of new hybrid rating system come out of this, with some types of businesses getting the Zagat option and some getting the star option or the option to use both.
A study of the of the Internet YellowPages vs. local businesses in the Google SERPs is released by Gregg Stewart of 15 Miles
Home based businesses get direction on how to hide their addresses on local sites from Phil Rozek. He's figured out which sites you can do it on and gives advice about how to keep your home address as private as possible, if that's what you want. For most home-based businesses, this isn't really an issue. It's very rare that anyone will actually show up at your door if people in your niche normally travel to the customer. For some other types of enterprises, such as a gold buyer for example, it can be major concern.

Theoretically, it shouldn't matter, but you can't ignore the question - "Can you rank in the Local Pack in Google if it can't find address info about you out on the web?"

Google+ custom URLs become available to a select few. This I supposed to eventually roll out for all. Jump on it when it does before someone else squats on your brand name or personal name.
July search share from ComScore puts Google at about 67% and BingHoo at about 29%. Hitwise measured it at 66% for the Google and 27% for BingHoo.
Check your privacy levels if you are posting to Google+ from your mobile phone. You could have a problem.
Google tells us we can merge our Google+Business page with our Google+Local page but glitches come and go over the next few weeks. Googler Jade W, gives her advice on who should/can merge and how to do it in the help forum. IMO it's much more complex than most business owners would tackle.
A new Web site grader for Local Search was released by the team at Nifty Marketing. You'll find it useful in showing clients how their site measures up for Local Search best practices.
Superpages hopes to merge with DexOne to become Dex-Supermedia. The combination makes it one of the top 3 Yellow Pages in the United States and reinforces the trend of ad network consolidation which seems to be what's keeping the IYPs afloat.
More and more page titles for local business Web site are being rewritten by Google.
The schizophrenia of Google's review guidelines continues to wound local businesses from unexpected directions. We're now being told that review stations are bad (it was less than a year ago we were told they were okay) that reviews shouldn't be posted in waves (that's not the way the real world works, Google!) and that if you reviews for your business are not appearing, it's probably the new-ish review/reviewer algorithm that killed them (and that no longer should be attributed to glitches).

I would be hard pressed to count the number of people who have contacted me about getting their reviews back. Unfortunately, the best solution is probably to just keep trying to get more good reviews.
A missing categories bug hits Google+Local pages on Labor Day weekend. Google says it knows about it and is working to resolve it. The truth is, we're getting much too used to Google+Local bugs. They're great for Local SEO's! Unfortunately, they're not so great for our small business clients.

If you've taken the plunge and decided to manually merge your Google+ Local profile with your Google+ Business page then PLEASE share your experience with me in the comments field. I'd also love to hear from you if there is anything I've missed that you've noticed! See you next month.

7 Little-Known Tricks to Maximize Your Facebook Page

2012-09-07T18:41:29Z

If you're like most marketers, you probably have a love-hate relationship with Facebook. Yet there's no denying that the social networking behemoth is a great addition to your digital marketing presence, allowing you to expand your reach, increase your engagement and drive more people back to your website.

Facebook changes features and functionality on what seems like a weekly basis, so it can certainly be difficult to keep up with what's new. And as a result of a slew of recent changes, you may not have noticed a number of updated features that give you more control over your Facebook page - and, by extension, your Facebook marketing efforts.

Consider this your cheat sheet. If you're not already putting these features to work for your Facebook page, now's a great time to start.

7 Little-Known Tricks to Maximize Your Facebook Page

Organic vs. Viral Visibility

Stats are a goldmine for marketers. And Facebook provides no shortage of data and insights that can help you track how your Facebook content resonates with your audience, as well as what types of post spark the most engagement. You can also see how many people have viewed your Facebook posts organically (your page's fans) and virally (friends of your fans). Simply hover over the "_. people saw this post" link below your page post to see the count. Regularly checking out these numbers can help you fine-tune your content to consistently post information that resonates not only with your page's audience, but with their connections, too.

Reposition Facebook Photos

Whether you love or hate Timeline, you can't deny that it's a much more visual experience for Facebook users. That being said, a photo may sometimes not appear as you'd envisioned because of the site's automatic cropping and positioning parameters. The good news? You've got control! Go to your post and click the pencil icon in the top right corner. Select Reposition photo, then use your mouse to better align the photo within the space provided. This is a great trick for the default photo size, as well as photos that you enlarge by highlighting the post.

Schedule Facebook Posts

I don't advocate automating your entire social presence (after all, you're not a robot - you're a person!) But the ability to schedule posts can save you a great deal of time and make sure your page is covered during traditional downtimes like evenings and weekends (which is when a lot of page admins see increased Facebook traffic). To schedule a post, make sure you're in your page's admin view (where you can see insights at the top and your page posts below). If you switch over to your page's News Feed and try to post from there, you won't be able to schedule. Under the status window, you'll see a clock. Click and add the year, month, date and time you want your post to publish. Once you're done, a window will pop up that confirms the update has been scheduled.

If you're interested in Planet Ocean experts' direct recommendation on the Social Media Tools that we use most then be sure to check out this post as well. The Top Social Media Tools You Can't Afford to be Without!

Define Facebook Admin Roles

If you work with a team of people to manage Facebook pages, you'll want to take advantage of the more recent admin role functionality. Facebook has defined several roles: manager, content creator, moderator, advertiser and insights analyst. Each role comes with a varying number of responsibilities, with managers having complete access to all tasks (pictured below).

This way, you can ensure that your admin team can fulfill various page-related tasks, but perhaps it's not appropriate for every member to have full-fledged access.

Customize Your Facebook Links

It's happened to all of us. You find the perfect link, copy and paste it into the status update window, and bam - the meta data leaves a lot to be desired. Facebook automatically imports this information from the source, and although you can't change a link's thumbnail, you can edit the title and description. When the link preview pops up under your status window, simply double-click the headline and description text and you'll be able to make edits as needed. This might seem like a small adjustment to make, but let's face it - everything you post on your Facebook page counts. And the more polished and enticing the information is, the more engagement you'll likely see.

Highlight Fan Posts

One of the more consistent complaints with Timeline is that it consolidates fan posts into one window on the side of the page, rather than interspersing them on the page's main feed. Just as you might highlight a status update, you can highlight fan posts, too, and draw more attention to user-generated content. Click the wall posts box, select the post you want to highlight and click the X in the right corner to select Highlighted on Page. Not only does this feature give your page some increased content diversity, but also signals to your fans that you're paying attention to their content - and appreciate their contributions to your page.

See Page Likes

Getting people to like your Facebook page is the key to a robust presence and an engaged community. Yet it's also important that you, as a Facebook page, like other pages - and they return the favor. Not only does this increase the size of your Facebook audience, but it creates a more robust news feed and allows you to more easily share updates and activity from other pages. To see which pages have liked your page (and so you can return the favor, if applicable), go to New Likes in your admin panel. Click See All, then go to the top left and change from People to Pages.

You've likely heard the saying "the devil is in the details." And Facebook marketing is no exception. By incorporating these tips into your Facebook strategy, you'll make subtle yet noticeable improvements to your page - and continue to know more about your audience, too. When you factor in Facebook's fast-moving stream and continually growing user base that's approaching 1 billion people, you need all of the competitive advantages you can get to make your Facebook page stand out in a crowd.

Have you discovered any other little known Facebook tips or tricks that have improved your Facebook marketing efforts?

The Top Social Media Tools You Can’t Afford to be Without!

2012-09-03T23:16:21Z

We were asked for a list of Social Media Tools that we would take on a 'desert island'. After some heavy debate and a few laughs we settled on our favorite tools based on these five critical factors:

1. Ease of use

2. Affordability

3. Time savings

4. Tracking

5. Overall reporting features

If you're looking for online tool to make managing your social media profiles easier then read on to see what our experts had to say...

Overall Social Profile Management Tool

Sprout Social - The 30 day free trial initially covers Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin. Then if you upgrade (after the trial) you can add in Google+, Foursquare, etc. It allows you to set-up and manage clients via different profiles. We have a detailed resource titled Manage ALL your social media efforts with Sprout Social! available within SearchEngineNews.com.
SocialOomph - This is a paid or a free tool based on the features you're looking for. It does allow complete management of all the major platforms. It was a top recommendation from our experts to set up keyword alerts.
Hootsuite - This is a great social media management/reporting tool for clients working with Facebook and Twitter. It's also an indispensable tool for scheduling as well as Facebook and Twitter content management.
SocialBro - A complete Twitter management tool that has all the extras a serious marketer could want.

Tools for Content Distribution & Analytics

BufferApp - A Smarter Way to Share. Be awesome on social media with this free app. Easily add great articles, pictures and videos to your Buffer and they auto magically share them for you through the day! Distribute content to major platforms, track your impact with analytics and invite your whole team to make consistent sharing easier.
ViralHeat - Allows you to track and monitor your social media campaigns for most major platforms. You can read our detailed report on this tool here.
SimplyMeasured - This software streamlines the process from data to deliverables and eliminates the countless hours spent on everyday reporting tasks. They do this by putting cloud data sources at your fingertips, providing a marketplace of best practice reports, and generating beautiful deliverables on the web, in Excel and in PowerPoint with a couple of clicks.

Tools to Help You Find Great Content Ideas

GroupHigh - Blog outreach program. GroupHigh provides software that helps public relations, seo, and social media professionals reach out to bloggers.
Help a Reporter - No such thing as free PR? There is with HARO. Help-A-Reporter-Out connects news sources with journalists looking for their expertise. It also allows you to easily monitor press requests and potential media opportunities for clients and our company.
Scoop.it - This is a tool that allows you to create your own magazine or digest on the topics of your choice. In turn you can use this information to find really outstanding content to share or blog about.
MuckRack - Cut through the clutter of Twitter to see what journalists are saying about any topic. Search journalists by name, beat, title, tweets or even by articles they link to.
Zite - This is a tool that allows you to create your own magazine or digest on the topics of your choice. In turn you can use this information to find really outstanding content to share or blog about.
Pulse - Pulse takes your favorite web sites and transforms them into a colorful and interactive mosaic. You can then take this information to create blog posts or share within your social media profiles.
Flipboard iOS - This is another tool that allows you to curate all of the information from the sources of your choice so that you can use it to get caught up on the news within your industry at a glance.

Specialized Tools

InboundWriter - Introduced in May 2011, InboundWriter is a cloud-based content optimization application that makes it easy for content marketers and professional writers of all types create more relevant and web-friendly content. InboundWriter integrates real-time search and social intelligence directly into the writing process itself, making it an indispensable tool for improving content reach and engagement.
Scribe - This is THE BEST SEO tool for WordPress and other blogging platforms. It assists with content creation using the right keywords, optimizing the post for search engines and then walks you through sharing it as well as building incoming links.
Woobox - Facebook App. Create coupons, sweepstakes, photo contests, polls, and custom Facebook tabs to woo your fans.
Promoboxx - This is a brand to retailer marketing kit that allows brands to create turn key local marketing plans for their distributors.

We also have a great article recently published that goes over some of the very best, Must See Tips & Tools for Fresh Content Creation, Optimization & Distribution. Be sure to check it out for more depth.

Do you see your favorite tool listed above? If not, let us know what we're missing and I'll get it added to the list with your direct recommendations!

Google Glasses Videos Worth Laughing At

2012-08-24T20:08:40Z

Augmented reality is a long wished for dream of many, and a logical next step for many mobile devices. Looking through your smartphone's camera to see an additional overlay on real world buildings and streets has been the most realistic idea to date. Even then that idea is very rudimentary compared to what's possible.

A few months back we informed our members that Google decided they would help us take that next step. They announced the project that is being worked on at 'Google X' lab which they're calling Project Glass. This is a set of questionably fashionable glasses that would theoretically project information in your view while you wear them.

Along with the above set of pictures with hip young people wearing the ridiculous set of glasses, Google also released a video showcasing what the glasses would be capable of.

After the project was announced and the video spread around the Internet, many response videos in the form of parody videos popped up to make fun of the project. I have to say - they're ridiculous and worth looking out for some fun. A common topic shared in most of them is annoying ads popping up all the time, and running into things. Here are our favorites for your viewing just in case you're looking for a good laugh at Google's expense :)

As of now, the pictures and device shown are just design images and are basically concept images. Any actual product that exists at the moment would be much bulkier, and it's hard to imagine how the shown product could actually create a useful heads up display. Fashionable or not, the idea for the glasses is pretty impressive and gadget freaks around the net are sure to want a pair should they ever become available, even at the cost of looking silly.

Franchises Get D- in Local Search

2012-08-21T17:21:29Z

I never ceased to be amazed at the number of big, huge, enormous brands out there that just don’t get Local Search. They tend to do okay with ranking in the results for brand names, but often fail to appear in the Local Pack for category-type searches. There is really no excuse for this since big brands usually have powerful websites that can provide considerable lift in helping all of their individual locations to rank for queries made by searchers nearby them.

Two simple questions that can reveal how well a brand is working for its franchises or in-house store operators: Are the individual locations appearing for brand name searches? And are the individual locations appearing for ...

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

Google Officially Testing New Tabbed Sitelinks

2012-08-15T15:22:12Z

It's official, Google is testing Sitelinks in a new tabbed format. The sitelinks that you're used to seeing are still there. However, above them are clickable tabs with more categories of sitelinks to choose from.

While we've not had the chance to mess with the new format ourselves, others have reported that it appears sitelinks within each tab are determined by relevance and popularity. The new tabbed sitelink format gives your site the opportunity to increase the number of sitelinks substantially, as you can see in the example below with the search for Apple.

Of course there are pros and cons to the new format for site owners. Some worry that the tabs just add bulk which in turn push listings farther down the line. There are also concerns that this is the latest attempt by Google to keep traffic on their own site longer.

The positive side is that giving visitors the chance to click right through to the information they're looking for could bring higher quality traffic. It will also decrease your site's bounce rate and increase time spent on each page dramatically. We'll reserve judgment and keep you posted as the testing continues or quietly ends.

Beware: Google Getting Even Better at Identifying Duplicate Images

2012-08-10T17:00:57Z

Search by Image has been used for pretty much anything like pinpointing the origin of old photographs, search by drawing, recursive search by image, and creating photo mosaics. Since its launch last year, Google has been making changes to the algorithms weekly to improve the way people use it and how it interacts with the normal search results. This is a feature that is overlooked by many but I feel that it's something you should stop to consider for a minute. Here's some of the latest changes announced by Google.

Image Search Results with Knowledge Graph

Google now has a better grasp on understanding the world the way we do with the use of their recent launch of Knowledge Graph. Google's Knowledge Graph provides a panel of additional information when searching with an image next to the normal search results. The results found in the Knowledge Graph panel provides a deeper and broader pool of information that may relate to your original search image. One cool new feature is that you can actually grab the image set inside the Knowledge Graph panel and drag and drop it into the search box creating a new search when using Chrome or Firefox 3.0+.

How "Search By Image" Works

Search by Image is most commonly used to find and learn more information about a specific image. You can find it when you go to Google's Image search and click the little camera icon to the right of the search bar. Once clicked you can either put the URL of an image in or just drag and drop an image from your computer to trigger a search.

Google has expanded its index so that when searching with an image you can find a larger collection of sites that contain the image and the information that relates to it.

3 Reasons You Should Give a Damn...

1. Protect Your Copyrighted Images. Doing this search will allow you to find all the sites illegally reprinting your images. You could then contact them and ask for the credits you deserve as well as a link back to your site.

2. Create Unique Images. You can leverage this feature to create and modify images so that they will not be considered a duplicate. If you have product pages and use manufacture provided images then your product image will be seen as a duplicate. To avoid this you can do a few simple modifications to reduce the risk of it being filtered out of the image results as a duplicate image. Simply changing things like: file name, image size, add a boarder, or even a quick watermark are not going to do the trick. You are going to have to think outside of the box a little bit in order to be seen as original. Doing this will dramatically increase your chances of being ranked within image search for your product pages long term.

3. Google is Going to Go After Duplicate Images BIG Time. Like Bing, Google is taking these steps to make their image search more reliable and relevant. It starts out with these types of changes and then the next thing you know - they've improved their images results to be able to dramatically reduce duplicate images. We covered Bings shift in image search in July here: Bing Image Search Update Clamps Down on Duplicate Images Big Time. This sounds good for the searcher but again, if you're using product images within your commerce site then this can quickly kill your image research traffic which in turn threatens your bottom line.

If you count on image search for traffic to your product pages then now is the time to shift away from the mass produced product images to something fresh and original. If you don't in a month or two your images will be bunched up with the masses of duplicates and removed completely.

Take a look at the video below for more information on how to use Search by Image.

What’s New in Local Search August 2012

2012-08-06T18:37:31Z

Matt Cutts states in an interview with Eric Enge, that the pages for each franchise or chain location should be unique. He also says a few unique sentences are all that is needed. I disagree. To make location pages really useful landing pages for visitors, you need to localize them as much as you can with information unique to that particular store or service provider.

Offline maps become available via the Google Maps app. Save up to 5 geo-locations and you can view them even when your connection is lost or you can use them to save on data charges.

The new Apple mobile operating system iOS6, ...

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

Google Denies Google Shopping is ‘Paid Inclusion’ - The Rich Man’s World

2012-07-30T19:53:57Z

In a recent earnings call, when asked about the paid inclusion model for Google's newly announced Google Shopping, Google's representative blatantly ignored the FTC's definition of paid inclusion and went on to explain that they don't call it paid inclusion.

This is where I want to chime in just in case this is all news to you. Google Shopping, which has already begun to roll out, is what happened when they took Google Product Search (a previously free service) and switched it over to a service that you have to pay to be included in. The cut off date for free listings is October 1st, where merchants will either have to update and pay to be included or be dropped out completely.

Now back to the 'news'...Google's main argument against being called 'paid inclusion' is that they disclose the fact that the results on Google Shopping are paid. Well, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck - unless Google says it's a cat and then well...

Let's face it - Google is using a paid inclusion model. Companies are paying to be included in the Shopping index. How much more straightforward can this be?

So, why is Google denying that this is a paid inclusion model? Mostly because it makes them look bad. The truth is...

Less than a decade ago Google actually fought against this model and put it under the "evil" label. They also went ahead and openly stated that they would never do it.

Actively participating in something evil would be against the company motto of "Don't be evil" and also make them liars. So in order to save face and rake in a lot of money at the same time, Google has just decided to try to change the definition of paid inclusion to whatever they see fit. Sounds fun - wonder how much it costs to buy that privilege.

To be fair, Google's Shopping service is in fact just another service for businesses that allows them to put their products online for people to buy. Those who pay get the service, and those who don't - aren't on Google Shopping. Google doesn't want the bad connotation of paid inclusion because it usually means that those who pay more are treated better, but in this case, everyone who pays is treated the same...or so we hope.

Google was originally right when they fought inclusion because it allowed users to see products from all over the Web. It made the shopping selection greater and gave everyone a chance to be seen. They've claimed several times that their new paid system will somehow produce better shopping results (the exact opposite position they held as before), but it remains questionable as to how.

Spend Fridays Hanging out with Google Top Contributors

2012-07-23T18:01:24Z

Attention all webmasters Google is giving us the chance to hang out with their Top Contributors...on Google+ of course. You can join them for weekly hangouts to discuss webmaster related issues as they relate to Google search.

You can bring your questions and concerns to the hang out to be talked over live or you can submit them in advance using Google Moderator.

These hangouts are scheduled to take place every Friday from 11am-12pm PT. You can Check out their Google+ page, +helpdeskhangouts, for future hangout announcements.

What’s New in Local Search July 2012

2012-07-18T22:48:09Z

Bing takes a step back in the battle for socializing search with a social sidebar. This new strategy takes most of the social aspects out of the search results and puts them all together into the sidebar, but you have to be signed into Bing to see it. Right there if and when you want it, but not gumming up your SERPs and jamming other people’s opinions into them. You know, sometimes, I just want to indulge in a good old school search all by myself.

At the same time, Bing takes a step forward by partnering with Yelp to integrate sn...

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

Google Gets iPhone Friendly and it’s About Time

2012-07-09T17:01:53Z

Get faster results, access to all of your Google apps, and high-resolution full screen image searches all in one place with the newly redesigned interface of the Google Search app for the iPhone.

Faster Results

Everyone wants fast results when they are on the go.

With the help of auto-completion of search suggestions, the slide-in panel, and the swipeable menu viewing webpages has never been easier.

The slide-in panel allows you to quickly slide back and forth between webpages and search results while the swipeable menu at the bottom gives you instant access to search modes like Images and Places.

Need help finding text within a webpage? No problem, just simply tap the magnifying glass located on the menu at the bottom of every webpage.

High-resolution Image Search

Images can easily be searched using the image button on the swipeable menu at the bottom of the search page. Images can be viewed in two ways: by scrolling through a full-screen grid or by tapping a single image and swiping back and forth. When viewing a single image you will also see information about that image.

Found an image you liked? By tapping and holding an image you can save it to your phone so you can later share it with friends or use it as a wallpaper.

Easy App Access

Organizing your apps made easy. Choose between browsing your Google web apps or apps on your iPhone. All of your favorite Google apps are now in one place. Sign in once and never sign in again to view your email, calendar appointments, documents, or the latest hot posts on Google+.

Google+Local

2012-07-04T18:19:15Z

In the world of search you have to stay on your toes. Changes are the norm, not the exception. Our industry has matured enough that many of the more drastic changes (like Panda and Penguin) are not unanticipated and do not really effect those concentrating on good internet marketing. However, for those who live and die by tricks and loopholes it’s a much more tumultuous world.

Over the past few years, the changes in local search have been fast and furious. It’s not unusual to wake up in the morning to unexpectedly learn that things have changed, really changed, since you powered down your pc the previous evening. Google giveth and Google taketh away and the G god i...

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

Did You Feel That?...the Internet Just Got Bigger.

2012-06-29T20:21:50Z

Believe it or not, the internet was not originally an infinitely spanning space. At the time when the IPv4 protocol was created the founders of the internet never believed they'd have to worry about running out of IP addresses. That's because they couldn't imagine that there would be more than 4.3 billion devices connected to the internet at one time.

However, that threshold is quickly coming to pass and the internet is running out of unique IP addresses. This is where the transition to IPv6 is going to come into play. The limit for IPv6 is a staggering 340 undecillion. That's equates to 340 trillion trillion trillion, or in numerical form: 340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Whereas it may have taken well over 30 years for us to fill up 4 billion IP addresses and those that created the IPv4 protocol couldn't imagine us filling up that many addresses, we are in a similar situation with IPv6. We can't imagine how long it will take to fill all those unique IP addresses if ever. This will leave use with virtually infinite space.

June 6, 2012 was the global launch of IPv6 and the beginning of major sites and ISPs to transition over. You can find more information here.

The Missing Link To Writing Effective Ad Copy

2012-06-18T16:32:27Z

Search Engine Marketers generally know how to advantageously apply HTML tags, create focused content, and build link equity for positioning Web sites with an eye toward reaching their ranking objectives. But, in regards to online marketing in general, there's one little 'ole-school' piece of homework that most SEO's entirely overlook — they neglect to interview their target customers!

Why is this important? ...because you absolutely must,

find out what they want!
...never mind what you think they want.

It doesn't take a marketing genius to know that success depends on getting the most important details right. Leave any one of the essential ingredients out of the mix and your 'salesmanship in print' falls flat. Once that premise is understood, it's easy to see why the place to start is with interviewing customers. After all, how else could you possibly 'get into their heads?'

You simply must understand their motivations, desires, likes, dislikes, expectations, problems, perceptions, misunderstandings, and wants if ever you expect to write effective sales copy!

Amatuer Web marketers typically guess and test, guess and test, guess and test (ad nauseam)—all the while telling prospects what they need in presentations peppered with lofty achievements, mission statements, and well-meaning pontifications intended solely to impress a hardly caring and hardly captive audience armed with itchy fingers that click-away at the first hint of tedium.

Customers, of course, buy what they want! ...not necessarily what they need. And, frankly, they care little, if at all, about the achievements and goals of the companies they buy from. Even trust is a non-issue until after they are four-fifths (80%) sold—at which time it becomes paramount! ...but not until then.

But, hey, don't take my word for it—start interviewing your customers and find out for yourself how little they care about you or your company as they expound enthusiastically upon what THEY want (selfish bastards;-).

From $500 start-up to nearly $2-billion-a-year in sales

Perhaps you've heard the story of Tom Monaghan. Back in 1960, when Tom was 23, he bought a pizza business for $500. As Tom struggled to bring the business along, there came a time when he inquired as to what it would take to go 'big-time' — to compete with the giants in the pizza business. The answer he received was (something like) 7 years and 10 million dollars to elevate his fledgling pizza business into the ranks of the top three. The problem was, however, Tom didn't have that kind of money nor did he wish to wait so many years.

Besides, Tom had another idea. It was simple really. You see, Tom had spent time in his pizza shop talking to his customers and listening. Tom allowed them to tell him what they wanted in regards to pizza. In a short time he learned his customers wanted their pizza...

fresh
hot
fast
but, most of all — delivered!
...and, they wanted a guarantee!

That's right, Tom enlisted his customers in the process of crafting what quickly became one of the most successful unique selling propositions (USP) of all time...

Dominoes delivers fresh hot pizza in 30 minutes or less
...or else it's free!

Now, had Tom been like most (internet) marketers he might have guessed what his customers wanted. He may very well have guessed they wanted...

the lowest cost (wrong!)
the best taste (wrong!)
the finest ingredients (wrong!)
the friendliest service (wrong!)
the fanciest eatery (wrong!)

Nope! ...they wanted their pizza delivered. And, they wanted it hot, fresh, and quick! ...with a guarantee. And, Tom did not guess. He knew what they wanted because he asked the right people—his actual bona-fide, money-in-hand, hungry customers. You should do the same and accept no imitations (i.e., forget about focus groups).

The formula for 'the asking'

Ok, you say, 'ask the customer' — what could possibly be simpler? ...guess again. There's a science to asking questions. Call it a formula. If you ask the wrong questions you'll get the wrong answers. And, if you ask at the wrong time you'll get the wrong answers. And since we all know that wrong answers can lead to very bad (think expensive) mistakes, let's take a few minutes to dissect the components of a sale in our quest to determine how best to find the right answers.

Typically speaking, the sales process must filter through each one of these well-traversed levels of this inverted pryamid...

In other words...

The customer has a problem, is aware of the problem and has an interest in solving the problem.
The customer is somehow made aware that you have a solution.
The customer believes your solution will work. In the mind of the customer, your solution is credible and your customers sees your solution as THE solution. In other words, your story sounds 'right' to the customer.
Your solution is affordable in the mind of the customer. This means that the money+time+effort you are asking them to "spend" is less than the value of what they'll gain from having their problem solved.

For instance, when buying a car, the value of the money+time+effort is outweighed (in the customer's mind) by the value of the benefits derived from owning the car—thus making that car affordable to that particular customer.

And the elements that compose price are what determines affordability.
The final hurdle in the race to tran$action is trust. Having satisfied the preceding conditions, the customer looks to determine whether the seller is trustworthy. Once it becomes settled (in the mind of the customer) that you (your company, service, etc.) has the ability, means, and integrity to deliver on the promise, then and only then will...
a transaction (you know, the sale, the money part) culminate as the natural outworking of the formula.

These 5 steps, culminating in the sixth (i.e., the transaction), is what's typically referred to as the sales process.

It should be especially noted that it's premature to enter into any single one of these levels until the preceding level has been satisfactorily completed in the mind of the customer. In other words...

To introduce a solution to a customer before they're aware of the problem will generally doom the sale.
Attempts to show affordability prior to establishing the solution's credibility also torpedos the transaction.
And, attempts to establish trust prior to settling the problem, solution, credibility, affordability issues can lend a whiff of snake-oil to even the most well-meaning proposals.

Why 'lowest price' often doesn't actually sell

The fact the sales process must follow an orderly progression explains why 'lowest price' frequently fails to sell. Many times the customer lacks conviction your solution will work...or is unaware the problem even exists.

Marketing plans that rely on lowest price presuppose the first three levels — i.e., problem, solution, and credibility — have already been satisfactorily traversed in the customer's mind. Only then is the customer logically able to shop for that 'lowest price' (i.e., best affordability).

Then, in such cases, if the customer agrees with your affordability presentation and satisfactorily proceeds beyond the trust level, a transaction (sale) will predictably follow as the natural outworking of the sales process.

In fact, once the decending pyramid levels are traversed in orderly fashion, and each to the satisfaction of the customer, a transaction (sale) ensues as surely as the numeral 4 will always result from the natural outworking of the mathematical equation 2+2.

Therefore, professional marketers would be wise to realize that 'lowest price' succeeds only when your target customer has already...

identified the problem,
found your solution,
and believes your solution will solve their problem.

In other words, lowest price assumes the customer is already a level four prospect who is shopping price. However, when such an assumption is wrong, it helps explain why prospects are unresponsive to lowest price sales pitches. Of course, the transaction could also be getting hung-up on (level five) trust issues.

Therefore, you must first determine the mind-set of your customers

When interviewing customers, try to determine what level they're at when they arrive at the threshold of your sales presentation. Remember, the purpose of interviewing is to gain insights that will allow you to write effective sales copy. Therefore, strive to determine your typical customer's state-of-mind (i.e., level) and ask questions designed to help you gain such insight. That's why we call this process getting into the customer's head.

Your challenge is to join their internal conversation—that discussion they are having with themselves as they traverse the five levels—as seamlessly as possible. In order to do this, you simply must learn what they are thinking at the moment they initiate contact with your services.

In the case of our Pizza example, Tom knew his customers were already hungry and safely assumed they had already decided on pizza as the solution to their hunger problem. After all, that's why they were in Tom's pizza store.

Whatever the process, Tom's customers had quickly and perhaps unconsciously traversed the first three levels of the sales process without him. Tom learned from his customers that their critical decision-making point was at the affordability level. Now, remember the components that comprise affordability?

Money+Time+Effort=Affordability

In the process of interviewing his customers, Tom discovered they wanted their pizza to be more affordable in terms of time and effort but not necessarily in terms of money. And this multi-billion dollar flash of insight came from asking his customers the right questions at the right time—when they were in the buying mind-set. As the saying goes, timing is everything. It is how you ask, who you ask and when you ask.

So, let's look at the proposition Tom developed with the aid of his customers...

Dominoes delivers fresh, hot pizza

...he already knew they were hungry and that pizza was their credible solution to the problem. Tom knew his target audience had already passed through the first three levels of the sales process. They initiated contact with their mindset on the fourth level of the sales pyramid—affordability.

Now (the brilliant part), while competitors assumed that the money element was the key to the affordability equation, Tom discovered (by asking his customers) that time and effort were the more important elements of the affordability equation leading to the $ale at the tip of our inverted pyramid.

Therefore, by reducing time and effort, thereby increasing affordability, all that was needed to close the sale was a believable guarantee to instill trust...

...in 30 minutes or less—or else it's free!

Here's the point...

This intricate breakdown of the sales process is intended to help you see, no matter what business you are in, that your average customer enters your "store" (virtual or otherwise) in an identifiable state of mind that corresponds to the levels illustrated in our inverted pyramid. To write effective sales copy you must learn which level in the sales-pyramid your typical customer begins with when they arrive at your online doorstep. That's the point at which you must seamlessly join their internal conversation, bonding in the common goal of jointly crafting a believable, affordable and trustworthy "solution" to their problem.

And the only way to do all that is to ask!

Question everything. Question everyone. Question yourself—Always!

Stephen Mahaney — Founder
Planet Ocean Communications, Inc.

Facebook Offers Available to Most US Businesses

2012-06-16T17:58:10Z

Facebook has just announced that Facebook Offers and Promoted Posts are now available to all local US businesses. However, as of the time of this publishing, we had paid posts but not Facebook Offers on Planet Ocean's Facebook Page. So we're guessing these features are still rolling out and will be available to everyone sometime in June. Regardless of when you get them on your page they're both going to be great resources.

Facebook Offers...
These offers will work very similar to a Groupon or Google Offer. Creating an offer is completely free and extremely easy. This makes it obvious that Facebook Offers has the potential to be a very powerful tool, especially since it is utilizing the Facebook network. Your fans or people who have liked you will see your offer in their stream automatically and a post will be created on their stream if they claim the offer, meaning their friends will know about it as well. If you'd like to take a more direct approach at getting the word out, you can broadcast your offer by paying for an ad on Facebook Marketplace.

Here's a quick 2min video explaining how it all works.

With this type of freedom, Facebook's service has the potential to become competitive with the rest of the popular offer sites. So, how do you know if your page has offers available? Just look for the Offers button. If it's there, you are ready to start testing it and if not...you get to play the waiting game with us :)

Promoted Posts...
On the flip side, Promoted Posts aren't free. This is a feature being tested that allows users to pay up to $2 to have their post highlighted and posted more prominently above the more common posts of your friends.

This could be a cheap and useful way to get the word out about something new and important, as well as allow you to get more exposure for your brand. It's safe to say this will become a global Facebook feature in the near future.

What’s New in Local Search June 2012

2012-06-13T18:53:43Z

Googler Vanessa Schneifer (aka Vanessagene) begins a weekly “need to know” video round up of important things happening in the help forum available via YouTube. Two videos have been released:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp30pGhveJE&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO5wd2fl2Vs

...

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

Local Search Tips for Canadian Businesses

2012-05-31T18:27:43Z

While those of us in the US are often clueless about what's going on north of the border, SEO's working to promote Canadian Businesses via Local Search are acutely aware of the unique challenges they face. Hopefully, this post will help the rest of us understand Local Search in Canada a little better.

Dot Com or Dot Ca?

If you have a business that is marketing strictly to Canadians, then dot ca is the way to go with your domain name. Nothing more clearly tells the Search Engines that you are marketing to searchers in Canada.

If you also market in other countries, a dot com domain name will serve you better in most instances. However, don't ignore a dot ca domain. You'll want to own that version of your domain, too, to protect your branding.

Public domain name registration, rather than private, using your Canadian address, will add some credence to your location trust, as well.

Where to Host

If you are using a dot com domain, it's probably best to host it on a Canadian server to give it a little more location trust. But if you are using a dot ca domain name, then it's okay to host it anywhere. Just make certain that you set your location in your Webmaster Tools account to Canada.

Trusted Data Providers

Infogroup and Acxiom both play a role for Canadian business, but the major data providers for businesses north of the border are Industry Canada , a government directory, and the YellowPagesGroup. There are dot ca versions of some popular local directories that feed info directly to Google Places, as well many local Canada-only directories.

With the help of prominent Canadian SEOs, Darren Shaw and Jim Rudnick, David Mihm recently released a Canadian Local Search Ecosystem chart. This allows us to visualize the data sources for Local Search in Canada and get a feel for how the business information flows across the web. You won't go wrong getting listed in as many of the directories revealed by their research as possible.

Canadian Directories

Citations are just as important for Google Maps in Canada (Maps.Google.CA) as they are elsewhere. The more trusted web pages that list the standardized name address and phone number for your business, the better. Many dot com directories have Canadian sections and/or allow Canadian business to list on them. In addition to those, here's a list of Canada-specific directories to help you get started with your citation building:

Canpages.com
Ca.Local.Yahoo
Yellowpages.ca
Yelp.ca
MerchantCircle.ca
WebLocal.ca
ShopinCanada.com
ZipLocal.ca
Hotfrog.ca
WhitePages.ca
411.ca
Where.ca
BestoftheWeb Canada section
eSourceCanada.com
Goldbook.ca
CanadianWebDirectory.ca
GoPro.ca
FindHere.ca
SafeandTrusted.com

Canadian Local Search Tools

WhiteSpark Local Citation Finder

One of the best tools for Local Search is one home grown in Edmonton, Alberta - Whitespark.ca's Local Citation Finder. It works on the same principal as link hub finders and also includes additional useful features.

You first set up a project with Canada as the county and select a city or town and then search by keyword phrases. The software scrapes the phone numbers of the top ranking local businesses in Google for that term and then looks across the web for those phone numbers. The resulting citation sources can be viewed for each individual top ranker or as a consolidated list, making it easy to see the websites on which you may wish to try to get your own business listed.

Many of the good citation sources you find will be dot com domains, but try to get listed on as many good dot ca domains that appear in your results as you can, too.

The tool also helps you to find your own citations, find citations that need to be updated, keeps track of where you are already listed and helps alert you of citations that have dropped out of the Google index.

Google Category Tool

If you didn't already know that Google Places enables different categories to choose from in different countries, you know it now. Mike Blumenthal's simple Google Category Tool allows you to see which ones are used where. For Google Places Canada, you can view the preset categories in both English and French.

Search Events and Conferences in Canada

One of the best ways to learn more about search engine marketing is by attending a good conference. You'll come away with a brain packed full of new ideas and gain validation for many things you already suspect, and a to-do list a mile long. Best of all, you'll get the opportunity to meet new people and gain colleagues and that help you build a network of knowledge and support that will serve you well into the future. Yes, these things can get expensive, but in my opinion, it will pay off for you if you make the effort to network and learn. Some of the best sessions I've attended over the years were ones that were only of marginal interest-they really opened my eyes to new ideas that I hadn't been paying any attention to.

Here are the organizations that frequently hold search engine marketing conferences in Canada:

SearchMarketingExpo.ca
Sempo.ca
SESConference.com/Toronto
AimConference.com
InternetMarketingConference. com

Canadian SEO Bloggers

These are a few of my favorite bloggers who specialize in Local Search in Canada:

Darren Shaw - WhiteSpark
Jim Rudnick - Canuck SEO
Matthew Hunt - Small Business Online Coach
Adam Steele - Nightlite Media
Dev Basu and Team - Powered By Search
Helen Faber - WebFuel
Steve Hatcher - GeoLocalSEO

The Legality of Pinterest: Copyrights, Spam and Imposters

2012-05-15T23:10:17Z

There’s no doubt that, in the last few months, Pinterest has become the social media darling du jour. In March, Experian Hitwise data indicated that Pinterest was the third most popular social media platform in the U.S. with 104 million visits.

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

EU Slams Down on Web Site Cookies Leaving European Webmasters Confused on How to Comply

2012-05-15T15:42:23Z

It's officially 10 days until Europe's much talked about ‘law' comes into play doing its best to restrict and control the way site owners use cookies within their sites. The law sounds scary and there are rumors flying about how it will ‘kill European marketing'.

However the truth as we see it is that it's just a pain in the ass to have to stop what you're doing in order to comply. Then once you've complied you're getting in the way of your visitor's user experience with annoying pop-ups and warning messages. So, let's cover what this law is, what you need to actually change on your site AND how to do it gracefully without chasing your visitors away.

Understand The Law

Legislation states that on May 25th 2012, all sites within the Member States of the European Union AND sites that are outside of that area which are specifically targeting visitors within the Member States will be required to be sure that...

"...users be provided with clear and comprehensive information when engaging in any activity which could result in such storage or gaining of access. The methods of providing information and offering the right to refuse should be as user-friendly as possible."

Yes, it is written in a way that is vague and well...kind of nice. There aren't any solid restrictions and plain spoken language within the legislature that lays down the exact details which can be both good and bad. Good because it will allow you to find your own way to comply to this new law and bad because it leaves itself open to a lot of abuse. Then in turn (because of all the abuse and difficulty enforcing the law) those in charge will be forced to continue to update it with addendums in order to make it realistic. Here are just a few HUGE loopholes within the document as cited in Gigaom:

"It's not really a law yet. The document states that each member state should enact their own legislation in this area in order to harmonize with each other, but each country gets to apply it in its own way. Britain's government will have no impact on the French; the Spanish solution may be very different from the Italian, and so forth.

It doesn't make opt-in compulsory yet. Because of the system, directives take a long time to become enforceable laws. So while the directive might come into force on May 25, it's not going to be resulting in court cases for years.

It doesn't ban cookies. It just asks that those sites which use cookies to track user behavior off site (usually to serve targeted ads) tell users that they're doing so. Login cookies and shopping carts would be exempt."

The Actions You Need to Take

Your site now needs to be transparent about how you are using cookies, detailing exactly what information each cookie holds and how long it will be held. Then you need to request permission from your visitors before cookies can be used. Yeah I know it's all still vague so here are 3 steps to compliance.

1. Audit Your Site's Use of Cookies. Get rid of what you don't need and document how you're using them. Ask questions like: can they be linked to personal data like email address, applying to just this visit or future visits, how long they last, and are they 1st, 2nd or 3rd party?
2. Update your Privacy Policy with exact details on how you're using the cookies and why. Use plain spoken terms. This law also dictates that you make your privacy policy more prominent. This can be easily done by adding it to your site's footer.
3. Gain Consent. This is the part that you have a lot of room to figure out. From what we've read and researched there is any number of ways to get this part handled. The first thing you need to understand is the different types of consent.
- Settings based consent
  This involves gaining consent when a user makes a change that affects how the site works for them. For example, this could mean asking the user if they want the website to remember a particular language setting and gaining consent for cookies to be used for this purpose.
- Feature based consent
  This applies in instances where cookies are used to remember what content a user viewed the last time they visited the site, to enable content to be tailored to them – for example, remembering what videos they viewed last time they visited. In such cases, your site should make clear to the user that taking a particular action will result in a cookie being used. This could mean, for instance, highlighting cookie use when a user turns on a particular feature and requiring consent before the change is applied.
- Consent for functional/analytical cookie use
  Cookies used to collect anonymous information about how visitors use your site still need user consent. This is relatively straightforward if a user has to log into your site, but more complicated where they do not. You'll need to make absolutely clear to users what cookies are being used, what they're being used for, and asking for consent.
When it comes to how you gain consent from visitors be creative. To get you started here are some ideas that were officially released from the Information Commissioner' Office.
- JavaScript pop-up box - explaining cookie use and offering 'yes' and 'no' options for consent. This is a good idea but popups can turn people off to your site and most browsers block them automatically.
- Splash page - yeah maybe 5 years ago. This has proven to stop visitors in their tracks and is terrible for your optimisation.
- Banner - shown along the top of the page to first time visitors with a tick box to allow users to consent, with cookies disabled until the visitor ticks to indicate consent.
- Footer bar - similar to the banner concept, this would be displayed along the bottom. And here's the great part - if they do not click yes or no, but continue to use the site, consent can be inferred because they have seen a clear message but are still continuing to use the site. Then a smaller message could be maintained throughout the site in such instances, to remind users of the fact that the site is using cookies.
- Remember preferences - When a user clicks to change a preference on your site they should get a check box that tells them that cookies are required in order to have the use of 'remember preferences'. When they click yes or I agree then you're good.
- Flag changes to terms and conditions - This is an option where users have to log into their account on your site. They will need to see all changes and updates to your terms and conditions as they happen and re-agree to them. Consent cannot be assumed just by changing the terms and conditions they agreed to when they signed up. You'll need to get a positive indication that consent is granted, as they log in and before they are able to proceed to their account.
The above changes are a pain yes, but the end to marketing as we know it - NO. Even with only 10 days left on the original deadline you don't need to be in a panic. Yes, make it a priority to get the above completed but do expect a little flexibility. On the 25th every site in non-compliance isn't going to suddenly disappear or be fined. It's completely unrealistic for them to attempt action so quickly.

Sometime in the future, when the law is more enforceable, there may be some sites pulled out of the mix and fined as warnings to everyone. So, make the changes to your site and keep your ear to the ground for the exact details for your area when they're released.

The most important thing you can take away from all this is to *always* keep your site user in mind when making the necessary changes. Keep things simple and don't give into the panic that seems to be sweeping Europe. This may be the first wave of restrictions of this kind, but it's doubtful to be the last.

Kristi Hagen - President
Planet Ocean^® Communications, Inc.

What’s New in Local Search May 2012

2012-05-10T23:14:51Z

The new Places Help Forum is buzzing with problems. There are either some serious bugs in Places, another "unknown" guideline of some kind is in force or the enforcement of one or more known guidelines has been stepped up considerably - or all of the above. Just when you think Google Places can’t get any more confusing for small business owners, it does.

Rich snippet spam becomes a household word, at least in houses with SEOs. It’s mainly coming in the form of false rating stars appearing in the Search results, but it’s so easy to make happen and the positive effect is so strong and so immediate that ...

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