Update – new algorithm from the big G More (not provided)! Google Maps 8-Bit NES Cool Panda Info-graph from Search Engine land Google+ now open for teens

Apr
25

Update – new algorithm from the big G

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Yesterday, Google announced a detailed blog post on what they will be targeting in their next algorithm update. This one looks to be a major one!

Google have said “In the next few days, we’re launching an important algorithm change targeted at webspam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines. We’ve always targeted webspam in our rankings, and this algorithm represents another improvement in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content.”

It continues “We want people doing white hat search engine optimization (or even no search engine optimization at all) to be free to focus on creating amazing, compelling web sites. As always, we’ll keep our ears open for feedback on ways to iterate and improve our ranking algorithms toward that goal.”

So has anyone seen their rankings being affected by this Update?

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Apr
14

More (not provided)!

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When it was introduced late last year, Google’s secure search was defended by its creators, saying that it was an important step in providing more privacy for its users. In order to provide this privacy, any search queries performed by users signed into their Google accounts would be registered as (not provided). Google claimed that this would only have a small impact on keyword stats; however this was not always the case.

So far people have reported that up to and in excess of 20 % of their keyword traffic has been hidden under (not provided) in analytics.

There is more doom and gloom to follow as Mozilla, creators of the popular Firefox browser have announced that anyone one using Google on the Firefox 14 version of their browser will be treated to secure search too.

17% of internet users in the UK use Firefox. That is another large chunk of data that will be discounted from your organic keyword data.

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Apr
02

Google Maps 8-Bit NES

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As someone who used to have a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) as a kid, playing those Mario games all day, you can imagine how much I enjoyed Google’s April Fools prank this year.

On April 1st, Google announced that they had made an 8-Bit Google Maps for the NES.

Click on the video below to see Google Maps for the NES

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Feb
27

Cool Panda Info-graph from Search Engine land

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Has Google Panda been eating away at your bamboo shoots?

If your into SEO and live in Scotland you would be forgiven for thinking 2011 was the year of the Panda. Every where we look there are Pandas, Christ they are even flying them in from China via Fed Ex Express.

Google’s way of shipping Pandas around the world seems to be less stressful for the big friendly looking chaps however, do not be fooled by there cuddly lovable looks!

If you have not prepared there bamboo shoots or content properly you may find yourself tumbling back down the mountain you just climbed.

Beware of the Panda!

The Google Panda Update, One Year Later

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Jan
27

Google+ now open for teens

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Google have announced that they are now allowing teenagers to join their social networking site Google+. This brings Google+ in line with Facebook’s age policy. Up until now, you had to be at least 18 to join but by following the likes of Facebook, Google are now open to a whole new generation of potential users.

With the possibility of young teenagers on board, Google have made a few adjustments to make sure any teenagers online will be safe.

If a teen decides to post a message and it is available to be seen by anyone publicly, a pop up direct from Google will warn them that anyone can view the message and comment on their post.

Another change is that only people within the teenager’s circles can interact with them. This is the default setting but can be changed.

The teens can interact with a bunch of their friends in one of the Google+ hangouts. If a stranger that isn’t in any of the teens circles tries to join this hangout, the teenager will be removed from the hangout, notified about the stranger and given the option to rejoin the hangout or leave completely

 

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Jan
18

Sites go dark to oppose Congress bills

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Many sites have gone dark or went black to show their opposition to two bills being discussed in US Congress.

SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act) have come under fire from countless critics around the world that say these if these bills were ever passed would censor the web and hurt businesses too.

 

Wikipedia has decided to show its opposition against SOPA and PIPA by going black for the whole day. Google has also voiced its concern about these two bills but didn’t follow Wikipedia’s suit and instead covered its logo with a black rectangle on its homepage and added a short message below the search box saying “Tell Congress: Please don’t censor the web!”.

The message also linked to an online petition ‘End Piracy, Not Liberty’ where visitors could sign up against the legislations.

Many other websites such as Craiglist and WordPress also viewed their opposition to SOPA and PIPA.

 

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Jan
17

Why Google decides to change page titles

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If you have some knowledge of SEO, you’ll know that the page title is reasonably important; however we still see lots of sites with badly formatted titles or even have no title at all.

These titles need to be descriptive of the page and unique which is why Google have an algorithm now in place to decide whether your page titles are closely related and

descriptive enough to the search query term. If the algorithm decides this is not the case, Google will replace or tweak the title to fit a certain search query.

Google say that tests they have run shows that adjusting or tweaking page titles to be more descriptive and relevant to a particular search query can improve the click through rate therefore benefitting both user and site owners.

If you search for “untitled document” in Google search, you will see that over 60 million search results are returned yet most of the titles showing in the SERPs will have been changed by Google, sometimes a little better than others.

If you want to check your site or blogs page titles, you can use tools such as Google’s Webmaster Tools or SEOmoz tools and they will point out any discrepancies such as missing or duplicate titles.

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Nov
23

Yahoo Site Explorer gone! What now?

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With the demise of Yahoo Site Explorer (YSE), SEOers and online marketers will be searching the internet for a tool that gives free access to the invaluable information that YSE provided for the past 6 years.

As far as I know, there are very few tools out there that are free and offer the same level of information as YSE but there are some free tools available that still could be of use.

Web SEO Analytics and Searchmetrics have backlink analysers that show one page at a time. This can be time consuming but could be useful.

Other alternatives such as SEOBook’s toolbar or SEO for Firefox are browser plug-ins that can be used to find out the number of back links for the page loaded in the browser. If you looking up several of your competitors, this could be time consuming but it is free.

If you want a tool that gives you same level of information YSE did, then the chances are you’ll have to part with some money. There are a many paid tools on the market that can do the job and the one you choose will be down to personal preference. I use Open Site Explorer from SEOmoz but Majestic SEO and Link Research Tools are good alternatives. If you can’t afford to pay for these tools, signing up for trial periods could be a short term solution to obtain link data.

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Nov
15

Search Market Share October 2011

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In the latest results from Hitwise, Google continues to enjoy its dominance of UK search in October with a share of 91.02 percent. This is down slightly from September’s 91.34 percent share of search.

After two months of decline, Bing has made a comeback, getting a 3.85 percent of all searches in the UK. This shows a year-on-year growth of 0.64 percent for Bing in the UK.

Yahoo was third with 2.79 percent of the searches, who are showing a loss of 0.66 percent in searches year-on-year.

Here are the results…

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Nov
09

Google tests new “sources” box

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Google have been seen to be testing out a new “sources” box on the right hand side of the search results.

Cyrus Shepard was one of the first people to notice Google showing source boxes when he was searching for Twitter and the singer Rihanna.

 

Company Health Insurance

With Adwords now having listings on the bottom of the page, it seems Google have freed up some space in which to play around with. The worry with the new source box is that it might have an adverse effect on click-through rates as users might be getting the information they were looking for without actually visiting the site.

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