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Google News: Algorithms, JCPenney and Overstock.com

Tuesday March 1, 2011

Reading Time: 11 minutes

GOOGLE makes news every day. If you don’t see the headlines hot off the presses, you may catch them later via a TWITTER feed, a Nightly News program, a cable news program, a co-worker, a client, a FACEBOOK page, or even GOOGLE’s Official Blog. February 2011 was flush with GOOGLE news. News about algorithms, JCPenney and Overstock.com. Each bit of news is vital for you to understand how it relates to your business efforts regarding search engine optimization and your search results.

Let’s start with algorithms…

Do you know what an algorithm is? According to Wikipedia: “In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning.” All you really need to know for this conversation is that GOOGLE uses many algorithms to deliver SEARCH results to those that use the GOOGLE search engine. Oh, and one more thing: GOOGLE is constantly reviewing and tweaking their SEARCH algorithms.

Everyone dreams of being #1 out of 2 million+ results, or at least everyone dreams about being on page 1. Right? I am not talking about being #1 for your business name, most businesses can accomplish that feat with a little time, good content and responsible search engine optimization. No, what I am talking about is being #1 or on page 1 for a really competitive, albeit generic, keyword or keyword phrase. The fact is there is a lot of competition for most businesses’ wares and services, unless of course you have a very specific niche with no competition. I will not belabor this, but instead invite you to read GOOGLE’s entire announcement for their latest algorithm update, that really deals with what they call “content farms”. Here is an important highlight:

“Many of the changes we make are so subtle that very few people notice them. But in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking—a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries—and we wanted to let people know what’s going on. This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.

We can’t make a major improvement without affecting rankings for many sites. It has to be that some sites will go up and some will go down. Google depends on the high-quality content created by wonderful websites around the world, and we do have a responsibility to encourage a healthy web ecosystem. Therefore, it is important for high-quality sites to be rewarded, and that’s exactly what this change does.”

What about GOOGLE and JCPenney?

We all know JCPenney, the store. Heck, I used to live in a town where the only “department store” was JCPenney. We didn’t have a Macy’s, SEARS, K-Mart, Walmart, Bloomingdales, Nordstroms…somehow we managed and what we couldn’t find in the store itself we purchased from the JCPenney catalog. Did you know it was founded in 1902? That is a lot of merchandising. But this month the New York Times reported to GOOGLE that JCPenney’s website was violating GOOGLE’s “link scheme” policy. GOOGLE investigated the claim and after finding the claim to be true, then took action against JCPenney.

“On Wednesday evening[in early February], Google began what it calls a “manual action” against Penney, essentially demotions specifically aimed at the company.
At 7 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, J. C. Penney was still the No. 1 result for ‘Samsonite carry on luggage.’
Two hours later, it was at No. 71.
At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Penney was No. 1 in searches for ‘living room furniture.’
By 9 p.m., it had sunk to No. 68.
In other words, one moment Penney was the most visible online destination for living room furniture in the country.
The next it was essentially buried.
PENNEY reacted to this instant reversal of fortune by, among other things, firing its search engine consulting firm.”

And now about Overstock.com…

I have never bought anything from Overstock.com, but then I am not much of a shopper. How about you? I see their television ads and I have visited their website a number of times when I was trying to find an obscure item. This story also has to do with links, but particular link types and how GOOGLE’s algorithm considers .edu links. The fact is GOOGLE views both .edu and .gov sites as trusted and authoritative. Now it seems that Overstock.com was “gaming the system” and GOOGLE took action.

“The incident, according to Overstock, stemmed in part from its practice of encouraging websites of colleges and universities to post links to Overstock pages so that students and faculty could receive discounts on the shopping site. Overstock said it discontinued the program on Feb. 10, before hearing from Google, but said some university webmasters have been slow to remove the links.”

The bottom line to all of these incidents is that we’d all like to think there was some fairness in the wide world of the World Wide Web. If you own a business it is natural that you want to do well and you probably want to be able to sleep at night. Right?

My thoughts about GOOGLE’s actions are: A few years ago, I saw a movie, “The Winslow Boy”, and in the closing scene a defense attorney states: “I wept today because right had been done.” When questioned by the defendant’s sister, “Not justice?” to this the attorney replied, “No, not justice. Right. Easy to do ‘justice’. Very hard to do ‘right’.” GOOGLE tries to do right.

My thoughts about businesses that attempt to game the systems: Mark Twain said it best. “The glory which is built upon a lie soon becomes a most unpleasant encumbrance. How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and how hard it is to undo that work again!”

It would be great to hear from you. What do you think about GOOGLE’s attempt to level the playing field?

Has Google’s New Algorithm Really Cleaned Up Search? (nytimes.com)
Google Rakes Content Farms (blogs.wsj.com)
There’s No Clear Winner in Google’s Search ‘War’ (pcworld.com)

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Have you claimed your GOOGLE Place Page yet? Remember when I talked about GOOGLE Local becoming GOOGLE Places? In September I wrote about how GOOGLE Places was upgraded to a TWO-WAY STREET. Webconsuls subscribes to a number of SEO/SMO on-line newsletters and also makes SMO and SEO News Feeds available for our site users. One of our favorite newsletters is Planet Ocean’s Search Engine News and we read with interest their current article “Must Do List for November: Create, Claim, Improve Your Google Places Page.” Here is a bit of what they have to say:

“Google has rolled out Place Search which is a whole new way of displaying search results. This combines the natural and the local search algorithms and completely eliminates the traditional 7 pack and integrating it within the top 7 results. This is huge! The new algorithm relies heavily on Place Pages and it’s clear that without a Place Page you may be left behind. Here’s a location specific search that shows exactly what’s changed:

“One thing to notice is that all the top results had very complete place pages that included pictures, reviews, links etc. As time goes by the consequences of the changes to local search will become clearer. The one thing we can tell you right now is you MUST have a complete Places Page for your business or you WILL be left behind in local search! Regardless how completed or not your Place Page is – make sure it is as complete as possible before December. This is the advice you pay us to hear…do yourself a favor and listen.”

Ok, I am going to run through this information again.
Follow these steps:

· Go to Google Places

· Sign in with your business GMail address

· On the new screen click on LIST YOUR BUSINESS

· A new screen will appear and you will be asked to enter your non-toll-free phone number and then hit the button that says: Find Business Information

· Your current business address will appear and you will click on EDIT to update your listing.

· A new screen will appear where you will be allowed to give all of the pertinent information about your business.

· At the end of this process, when you hit submit, GOOGLE is going to call you within seconds to give you and PIN number to activate your account.

· It is very important that you be there to answer the non-toll-free number. This is one of their ways of verification of business ownership.

You may be wondering why we just don’t take care of this for you. We have found that this free Google service is better managed by the customer for a number of reasons.

Google frowns upon 3^rd party management of these accounts, as we are not the business owner.
While we could go in and perhaps enter all of the information correctly, we are not sitting at your phone to take the call from Google and to try to coordinate that with you or your employee can be very difficult.
Now that Google Places allows the business owner to respond to REVIEWS (good and bad) you really need to manage and understand this tool. We cannot respond for you.

Should you decide you need help with this, I would be happy to tutor you over the phone while you CLAIM YOUR PLACE and LIST YOUR BUSINESS. Let me know if you have questions.

Let’s make it a goal: Get your GOOGLE Place Page in Order!

Your Parking “PLACE” (Page) Awaits YOU!

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Major changes affecting SEO have taken place OVERNIGHT in Google’s ever changing, ever improving algorithm. Straight from Google:

We are constantly looking for ways to get you to the web page you want as quickly as possible. Even if you don’t notice all of our changes, rest assured we’re hard at work making sure you have the highest quality search experience possible.

Semantic Technology vs Information Technology

Semantic Technology, forecasted to be the future of search, is built on contextual relationship and meaning. Traditionally computers were limited to very mathematical relationships. Context and meaning were relegated to only human activity, something computers were not equipped or built to provide. Evolving semantic technology redefines the type of intelligence which can be utilized. Computer programs have evolved from one on one preprogrammed predefined relationships to functions based on intuitive concepts and abstract relationships.

This is a profound change for SEO. Semantics is the study of meaning. Semantic Technology enables the computer to make cognitive jumps between related words based on context. Semantic based search will draw in words based on context not just content.

Straight from The Official Google Blog

Starting today, we’re deploying a new technology that can better understand associations and concepts related to your search, and one of its first applications lets us offer you even more useful related searches (the terms found at the bottom, and sometimes at the top, of the search results page).

Longer Snipets for Searches of Three of More Words

When you search for a phrase in Google you will notice that the words you queried are bolded in the results. The small description found with each search result is referred to as the snipet. When you put a short search in the query box, a search of one to three words, there is plenty of opportunity to display those highlighted terms within a two line snipet.

For searches of more than three words a snipets will now be occasionally expanded to three lines to allow for the highlighting of more terms from the query.

Remember that your average searcher on the internet has gained in sophistication and that longer multiple word searches have become standard practice.
Snippets are what searchers use to choose which links from the search results will most likely solve their problem or answer their question. An extra line of snippet is more opportunity to provide quality information about your site.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Google has created another AdWords tool for finding keywords to put in a PPC account, creating more competition, bidders, which therefore raises the price in addition to other factors. This time the tool proposes that it finds relevant keywords by ‘matching (keywords) to specific pages of your website with your ad and search share’. To translate, it is trying to provide keywords not currently in the account that are best for the account as determined by looking at the whole picture- website, ads and budget.

Of course past PPC blogs on ‘helpful’ tools created by the big search engine giants have made my tone a bit cynical. These tools are created at best based off user demand, but always tailored to and quietly aimed at revenue. This is not to say that there isn’t utility and useful qualities of a tool like this one, but it is important to read between the lines.

I used the tool for the first time on a current account I manage, and found some keywords I didn’t currently use; but nothing major or shocking. Having said that, that is the way it should be. This should be a comment that I am doing my job as a Pay Per Click administrator. On the other hand, this tool may be helpful for business owners who are attempting to run the marketing themselves and have to balance the business with the marketing.

The tool can be found in the Campaign Management tab, ‘tools’ sub-tab left-hand column. Use of the tool is simple- put the web address in the search field and in another box type the essence of the topic to be explored. The parameters included in the results are keyword suggestions, monthly searches, competition as a bar graph, suggested bid and ad share.

Use this tool in addition to the Keyword Tool, but in both beware of general and expensive keywords that will not return a positive ROI.

Do you need help with Google AdWords or any PPC tools like this one? Let us know at Webconsuls.com.

Reading Time: 5 minutes

One of the joys of having a child in the house is how they can be so easily impressed by simple adult skills and knowledge. I know this phase will pass, in our house this period of time is passing very quickly. The other day I realized that I had an analogy for why blogs are so helpful when placing in the search engine results as I was asked to locate a small misplaced toy.

When I returned with the small bobble I was met with wide admiring eyes and a WOW, how do you always know where EVERYTHING is? (Trust me when I tell you that I am being sure to enjoy these moments of alleged omniscience as it will surely pass.)

Knowing my time is limited and that I had her undivided attention I decided to explain to the little one just why I usually have the answer to where everything is.

“I scan.”

“Huh?”

“I am always scanning the house.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, as I walk through the house I am always scanning. I just automatically make sure things are in their place and I take note of what I see.”

Replace scanning with spidering and house with World Wide Web and I am just like a search engine spidering links, exploring and noting where everything is so as to find it later!

Well, imagine you have just arrived home and the grocery shopping had just been done, or someone came home from a trip, or for some reason new items have been added to your home. What will you most likely need to do?

You will need to put your stuff away and you will want to know where it is so you can find it when you need it. Search engine spiders will not put your digital files or your groceries away. Deciding where items go and putting them there is still your job.

So why will the search engine be draw to your blog? How does a blog help me?

Blogs feed the purpose of search engines.

That search engine is going to investigate to see just what you added and where. It is the search engines’ job to know what material is available on the World Wide Web. Whether it be Google, MSN, Yahoo, Dogpile, you name it, the search engines must familiarize themselves with fresh timely material in order to return the most relevant search. Search engines must keep up on new additions in order to perform the job they were designed to do.

Using a blog to consistently add useful relevant content is a powerful method to draw the search engines to spider (or scan) your site and index the timely information you post.

For help on how to add a blog to your web site or blog training to make the most of your blog please contact us at Webconsuls, LLC.

Reading Time: 5 minutes

It’s an unlikely tale but I assure you it is all true. It all started when Darin went out and bought this odd contraption to cut his hair. Sunday morning he announced he was going to give it a go out on the patio and cut his hair all on his own. “What do you think?”, he asked. “Sure”, I grabbed my coffee, shielding it from potential flying hairs and sat up wind to watch the show.

It was actually going quite well. All the tension had left my body and I was resigned to see a normal looking hair cut at the end of this process. Then I heard a click and saw the huge chunk of hair sliced right out of the middle of Darin’s head.

It was the point of no return. He had to shave the remaining hair.

We laughed. I said, “You look like Seth Godin.” We took his picture. We laughed again. He said, “I should be Seth Godin for Halloween.”

Then Darin does what Darin does every time he gets a hold of a goofy picture of himself. He posted it on the internet. Actually, he posted it just once, to ping.fm, titling the post “For Halloween I am going to be Seth Godin”. Ping.fm is a new service which will deliver posts to a long and growing list of blogs, microblogs and social sites.

The next day we googled “for Halloween I am going to be Seth Godin”. The results are interesting.

“for Halloween I am going to be Seth Godin” with quotations filled the first page with results from his social sites.

for Halloween I am going to be Seth Godin (with no quotations)
Out of 4,190 results 3 of the first page results point to to Darin’s social sites.

Our intention was not to rank for these keywords, but what these results illustrate and remind us is that by using the “long tail”, optimizing for keyword phrases we can build traffic sources with our blogs and social sites by titling our posts with keyword rich phrases.

For those who would like a little more information on the theory of the long tail and how it applies to SEO here is a video from one of my favorite experts in the field, Avinash Kaushik.

When you are posting to your social media sites and writing blog posts remember the long tail. Your blog titles are important and over time can develop into a key component of your online success.

What is the single question or problem your customer might be posing to Google?
Are you using the language of your customers?
Can you formulate an interesting story around it?

Your social media sites serve as another entry way to your website and by titling your posts with keyword rich phrases you can grow a nice long tail.

I will be waiting for Darin’s hair to grow back. For more niche specific advice for how you can grow your long tail with social media contact us at Webconsuls.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Website Optimizer gives us the opportunity to create different versions of our website pages and to test how they are received by actual visitors. There are many well documented design theories out there. If you want to move past theories and test your actual visitors going to your pages Website Optimizer is the tool with which to do it.

Color Theory Color theories, which colors will appeal to your audience and have a specific affect or mood. As fascinating as color theory is, it can feel about as scientific as a horoscope. Cultural differences, variations of shades, and the ebb and flow of fashion can be influential in shaping a viewers perception of your color scheme.

Eyetracking Human testing has established that content with pictures of people appears more professional to viewers of websites. Eyetracking studies have collected results which indicate that viewers are drawn to the line of site of the person in the picture. If you want to highlight specific text or a call to action on your site it is recommended that you use pictures in which the person is looking towards that text or call to action.

Unlike print work, where you would choose your paper stock and give a final okay to the printer before production, in website design we do not have control over the final viewing. Different computer operating systems, different browsers, and even different levels of technical proficiency on the part of the viewer are variables we have no control over.

As we make changes to our website how can we be sure that the results from the changes are not due to seasonal changes, adword campaigns, social media posts or a variety of other variables? There are so many interacting variables.

Website Optimizer allows for a more truly scientific experiment. Visitors are randomly sent to the different versions of the same page and their activities can be tracked and data collected to make your design decisions based on the visitors’ actual response to your website and the actions you wish to encourage. No theory!

If you would like to look into staging a truly scientific experiment with your website design we would be glad to help.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

What is Pay Per Click ‘Quality Score’ and how is it calculated?
Quality Score is a dynamic variable assigned to each of your keywords. It’s calculated using a variety of factors and measures how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user’s search query, according to Google.

About Quality Score

Quality Score influences your ads’ position on Google. It also partly determines your keywords’ minimum bids. In general, the higher your Quality Score, the better your ad position and the lower your minimum bids.

Quality Score helps ensure that only the most relevant ads appear to users on Google and the Google Network. The AdWords system works best for everybody—advertisers, users, publishers, and Google too—when the ads we display match our users’ needs as closely as possible. Relevant ads tend to earn more clicks, appear in a higher position, and bring you the most success.
For calculating a keyword’s minimum bid (PPC only, not content network or content targeted ads):

The keyword’s historical click-through rate on Google
The relevance of the keyword to the ads in its ad group
The quality of your landing page
Your account history, which is measured by the CTR of all the ads and keywords in your account
Other relevance factors***

Unfortunately, that is all Google will tell us, partly to avoid people gaming the system and partly to be less accountable. The ability to control earnings this way (in my estimation) will keep Google (and Yahoo in their shadow) from ever completely erasing the veil.

All we can do is play by the rules and put ourselves in the best position to pay the least for the desired position. This includes rotating ads, writing the most direct ad, and having the site back both of those points us with our “call to action”, or what we are looking to have the user/searcher do. This must be done clearly, easily and within the top fold of the landing page.

Reading Time: < 1 minute

In this first video, Matt Cutts talks about the anatomy of a Google search result, and gives some useful tips on how you can help improve how your site appears in Google search results pages. This talk covers everything you’ll see in a Google search result, including page title, page description, and sitelinks, and explains those other elements that can appear, such as stock quotes, cached pages links, and more.

OUR BLOG

Category: google-SEO

Google News: Algorithms, JCPenney and Overstock.com

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