Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts

Monday, 16 October 2017

SEO 2017: 8 Crucial Rules for dominating google’s search results.


In this article by R.L. Adams, a software engineer, serial entrepreneur and author of the popular blog called Wanderlustworker, he discusses the 8 crucial rules to make your posts and your content popular in search engines, specifically Google.  As we already know, there are tons of rules and recommendations of how to be popular or how to rank high in the Search engines but these insights come from a person that not only know the theory but also practice it, so this article must be valuable for people looking to apply them. What is also really important is not that you have the right tactics or rules but that these rules are recent and that you can still apply them as time goes by, this is why this 2017 guide for dominating Google’s search results may result pretty relevant nowadays.

Let’s start reminding you that Google’s algorithms offer the most relevant and most organic search results quickly and accurately. Google’s algorithms are constantly changing and updating, this is why it is really important for you to be prepared and keep track of all these changes so you can become a master in SEO. The author explains us how some people understood the power of ranking and the way this algorithm worked and started coming up with several ways to “fool” them “by building massive link farms and content farm, spinning low quality articles and auto generating links in an effort to outgun other listings and secure the top spots on Google” according to the author. Google has reacted by updating and launching new and enhanced algorithms such as Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird to booth weed out the spoofs and scammers, but also to improve semantic search, which now resulted in a pretty good tool for humans given that these algorithms practically mimic how humans would read content, and interpret the semantic of the texts for Google to give you quality and relevant content.

R.L. Adams throughout this entire article explains us that Search engines is a matter of getting the greatest initial return for a GREAT amount of effort, it is not an “easy peasy” job he says that it is a slow and painful process, this is why he shares these 8 rules with us.  In order to be ranked on the top, there’s basically one thing you must master at performing and this is to get Google’s trust in order to do that you must do as follows:

#1 Indexed Age: A completely new article in the web is going to be less trustworthy than one that has been there for more time. Age relies on when Google discovered the domain and not when it was created.

#2 Authority Profile: this means quality links coming from quality content across the web, reliable sources and sources that already have authority and also diversity, not all links coming from the same source.

#3 Underlying content: Make sure you double check that your article is well written, keyword centered and highly engaging otherwise it might be harmful.

But let’s get going to what really matters, the reason why we are all here for, which is the rules to dominate SEO:

Rule 1: Always work to gain Google’s trust. (Already discussed how)
Rule 2: Age always comes before beauty. Google looks for link consistency over time besides how good your site looks like. Age is measured by its content and the links that are pointing to it and it takes consistency into account, you can not work one month and then abandon your site two months.
Rule 3: Quality will trump quantity every single time. Focus on doing the right thing once rather than several times so Google’s algorithm can consider your content as quality.
Rule 4: Content will always be king. Great content is shared often, make sure that your content can deliver real value to the readers.
Rule 5: Regardless of what you have heard, size really does matter. It is more plausible that you deliver value if the article or the content is long enough so you can elaborate your ideas. A study showed that the articles that were on the top rankings were over 2,000 words but they are not superfluous, size matter but also quality.
Rule 6: Keywords, keywords, keywords but don’t over do it. Make sure you include in the content the keywords that you would like to relate your article to, but just don’t over do it. Google’s algorithms prevent to top rank spam pages. There’s good news about Google’s algorithms, it is that they can now identify semantics, so you don’t have to be repeating and repeating the same exact word.
Rule 7: Step up your mobile game: Today if you don’t make sure that your content can be seen through a mobile phone or your page takes too long to charge in mobile phones, your are dead.
Rule 8: Location, location, location (Of your link of course). In order for you to top rank  one of your main tasks is that you have to be linked from high quality, relevant site and not garbage.

These are the 8 rules that have given the author the opportunity to succeed in SEO with his blog. He ends his article preventing readers from thinking that this would be an easy job, it is going to be really difficult but whenever you seed limitless amounts of free organic traffic coming to your site, everything is worth it.

 Read full article on:


Monday, 31 October 2016

Will Google Win the Presidential Election?

Presently, we are but a few days before the US Presidential Election, a time when candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are pulling out final cards to win the White House. As the tensions have risen with the campaign, accusations have gotten progressively more absurd. Last September, Donald Trump made another dramatic statement against the Hillary Clinton campaign, this time accusing Google of deleting negative search results about Clinton. Trump said at a rally that "A new post-debate poll, the Google poll, has us leading Hillary Clinton by two points nationwide …. and that's despite the fact that Google search engine was suppressing the bad news about Hillary Clinton. How about that." He has also accused via Twitter that the tech companies - as Google - are trying to stifle the new revelations about the FBI investigation into the case of Clinton emails.
Similar claims have even been made by less politically affiliated sources, such as the popular video-news blog SourceFed, which stated in June that Google in particular has been “burying potential sources that could hurt Hillary in the Primary Elections by manipulating recommendations on their site”. Common negative search terms did not appear in the automatic fill-in bar as compared to other search engines. (For instance, “hillary clinton criminal” - while a more popular term did not appear in the automatic results, while the less popular “hillary clinton crime reform” did).



Considering the Threat

Rather serious accusations! If true, what are the consequences?  Internet users around the world rely on search engines as a fast means of being informed. There is a conception that the top results are most relevant and trustworthy and can be believed. This means that the first results and words seen by a viewer can have serious consequences on what they think about a subject. Robert Epstein, psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology, conducted a study regarding the “Search Engine Manipulation Effect”.  In a study in which subjects were shown search engine results of two candidates. The results greatly impacted the opinions due to the subjects making instantaneous judgements based on what they saw first. Regarding the US Election, Epstein ‘s study estimates that “based on win margins in national elections around the world that Google could determine the outcome of upwards of 25 percent of all national elections.”

Considering the Facts

So was Google really manipulating search results? And now to explain what really happens.
Both the Trump campaign and SourceFed have accused Google of human-made modifications. However, Google’s massive functions are carried out via automatic operations.  Trump’s statements about “suppressed bad news stories” are the result of PageRank, the link analysis algorithm which makes Google’s search engine so successful. PageRank’s automatic  operation is quite simple; the more an article is mentioned by hyperlinks, the higher it will likely be displayed in the top results of Google searches. This arguably makes the results even more relevant than competing search engines.  Google’s Privacy Policy  explains that this algorithm is based upon "the search frequency of a term by users in order to reflect the diversity of the information on the Web. This diversity, the proposed search terms can therefore sometimes seem strange or surprising”. 
Regarding the SourceFed accusations, Google released a statement saying that “autocomplete predictions are produced based on a number of factors including the popularity of search terms … Our systems are periodically updated to improve search, and our user’s search activity varies, so the terms that may appear in autocomplete may change overtime. Additionally, our systems filter a small set of offensive or inappropriate content from autocomplete predictions”. SourceFed’s accusations likely point to the results filtered due to the latter part of this statement. This  shows that many elements are considered in the search autocomplete bar and Google was not biased.
In short, there is no evidence that Google has human-caused manipulation of results. Both accusations have simply noticed the results of an automatic process.




Conclusions to be made for Digital Marketing

The concern and denial over this subject shows us that, political alliance aside, there are concepts here to be taken seriously, because potential “manipulation” of search results can lead to dramatic opinion change.  It is interesting to apply this to a Digital Marketing perspective since the US Presidential Election is effectively the Trump “Brand” and Hillary “Brand” fighting for “Positive Consumer Brand Equity” . This case shows us that accusing the Google of result manipulation is not accurate and that all non-paid results are subjected to the same algorithms. Therefore, understanding how the PageRank and AutoComplete can give us a practical lesson in SEO for firms which want to have a successful e-marketing strategy.  Marketing teams should be aware of the various factors that produce different autocomplete text and search engine results. There are differences depending on geographic-interests and the personal profiles Google has created for each account. Results of your product will appear is varying priority as a result - this should be considered when targeting specific markets. Potential “offensive” text content most also be considered, as this will lead to a filtering of this content from this results. Furthermore, the case reminds that viewers of online media pass instant judgement based on what they see first - this applies to not only search engine results, but social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. A single post can tarnish the brand image or cause lasting support in an instant.



Source: Donald Trump says Google proves he’s winning — and is trying to make sure he loses
By Nadiya Kutishcheva & Staël Anicet



Newly Launched Google Click-to-text Ad Extension

             One event worthy to note this month in the World of Digital Marketing is the Google Adwords launch of Click-to-text ad extensions. At this point, I am sure we are all familiar with the Click-to-call ad extension that has existed for years. So, why not bring out the option of texting? For the “call-phobic” generation we are today.

Search Engine Land published this article earlier this month, in anticipation of the launch of Google Adwords Click-to-text extension:


Adwords also published a blog post on GoogleBlog before the launch of extension, linking within the post to a Best Practices Guide: 

Drive Conversations with Message Extensions: Google Best Practices.



            So how does Click-to-text extension work exactly? As we can see in the example taken from Google above; essentially, it’s another extension underneath the ad with a choice of call to action. Once the user clicks into the extension, their SMS application launches in their smart device. The advertiser can even incorporate a prewritten message tailored to their product or service, then the user has the option to edit the text before sending it.
          
            It seems about time for a search engine to incorporate this type of extension, as it is obvious that many people value the option to continue the conversation at their convenience; just look at the prevalence of live chatting now offered by many retail sites. Not to mention “Nearly two thirds of smartphone owners use messaging more than five times a day to communicate with others. And people aren’t limiting their use of messaging to social communications - 65% of consumers say they’d consider using messaging to connect with a business to get information about a product or service, or to schedule an in-person appointment.” Quoted by Google on their blog. Also quoted in the blog are some positive feedback from advertisers already using the extension, the TravelPass Group claimed that “The conversion rate on message extensions is 41% higher compared to other ad extensions.”


Now with enough evidence that introducing the new Click-to-text ad extension was indeed a step forward taken by Google Adwords, let’s get to the nuts and bolts of the operation. The message extension will be charged the same way as any other clicks on the ad, the advertiser is able to publish the extension with campaign and ad groups, as wells as scheduling the appearance of the extension during certain periods of the day. The timing of this particular extension is important because during after business hours, it is recommended to set up an automated response to incoming messages. To optimize the usage of the Click-to-text ad extension, there are four overall guidelines: Create clear and relevant message extensions, set up a great conversation over text, measure the value of the messages you receive, and boost the performance of your messaging extensions. These guidelines can be found in greater detail on the Google Adwords support website.



Rose Yin, Yauheni B. 


Sources: 
http://searchengineland.com/click-to-message-extension-google-adwords-launch-261228
https://adwords.googleblog.com/2016/10/click-to-message-ads-bring-new-and-easy.html
https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/7182126utm_source=inside_adwords&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=messaging


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Sunday, 9 October 2016

Free Ways to Promote Your Website


In modern era of total digitalization and googlization of everything, it is important to find ways of being competitive online. Of course, professional promotion and marketing costs a lot of money, which some companies have scarce amounts of, especially the ones that were unexpectedly hit by the digital world (newspaper/ magazine industry). Couple students, who are trying to create a digital start-up or ambitious entrepreneurial individuals trying to make a name for themselves online, often dont have deep pockets either. Thankfully, for those disadvantaged with low budgets, there are lots of free ways to promote their website/blog online. The article on Outbrain.com 7 Best Techniques to Promote Your Website for Free introduces some of the best advices on the topic, which I am going to briefly summarize in this blogpost.[1]


1.     Search Engine Optimization (Google Keyword Tool Planner www.googlekeywordtool.com)
To understand what this free tool does you have to first understand what a keyword is. A keyword is any word or short phrase that describes a website topic or page- The more a keyword is used by searchers and websites the more attraction power it has.[2] The keywords are added to the titles, headings or content of your website/webpage. The way the tool works is that after typing the keyword you want to use in website’s title or description, the tool will give you a list of words similar to yours, the frequency at which it is searched and how much competition or value it has in the opinion of the advertisers. With the help of that tool you can find keywords that have low competition and high search frequency, which are the most optimal conditions for your page being discovered.

2.     Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pininterest, Instagram)
The best way to interact and create a community with the user base of your website. Also, a really good way to get instant feedback and spread free-of-charge ads of promotional products (in case your website is retail based) or discount in services (for service-based websites) to the audience that is interested in your product.  Such internet phenomenon as Bunz Trading Zone (http://bunz.com), where people can locally trade anything for anything with no cash involvement, have organically grown just through local Facebook groups. It grew from couple people trading random items with each other - to 72 locally-based Facebook groups, 40,000 members and 600 transactions a day in 3 years.[3]

3.     Submit the URL of your website to Search Engine directory.
You can add your website manually to Google’s or Bing’s directory so it appears in the search query. You can also do that with any new content on your website. For Google http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl. For Bing http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster.

4.     Branding with URL signatures
In any email, text or social media communications include your Website’s URL in your signature. This will increase the recognition of your website, as well as increase the amount of links pointing to your URL page. A creative, rememberable and relevant website name is extremely important for people to actually click on it. So make sure you spend some time thinking what your URL looks like and get an opinion of third parties about it.

5.     Links
Create partnerships with other websites or blogs that are related to the products or services that you offer on your website. The more links that point to your website, the higher will be the ranking of your website in the search query. For example, if there is a very influential blogger or social media personality, whose audience would be interested in your product, you can reach out to that individual and ask them to mention your website in their next blogpost. Of course, a lot of times they would ask for something in return, but sometimes, when the blogger is just passionate about your product, they would be happy to mention your website for free. However, you have to make sure that your website is linked to high-quality websites and that there are no irrelevant links pointing to it or going out from it. Also be careful of not being too hasty about  making links, if there are too many links pointing to your website all of a sudden, your website might be banned from the search engine.

6.     Quality Content
Having a constant flow of fresh and relevant content on your website is the best promotion you can do for yourself. If you write a quality article or blogpost on your website, people will pick up on it and you will get more and more links pointing to your article, which brings customers to your website. Quality content is the kind of thing you can also share on Social Media to increase your visibility. For example, posting any industry related articles on LinkedIn will make sure to get some traffic to your website.

7.     Google Local Business (https://business.google.com)
In the case where you have a physical location together with a website, placing your business on Google Local Business Platform (which basically means you are putting it on Google Maps), will make it really accessible for your potential customers. Nowadays, so many smartphone users just go on google maps and type in “whatever near me” and google displays all the relevant results in that area right on the map. If your business is in the area and the customer clicks on it, they can access your website, look up directions or call you right inside the Google Maps app. All those functions you get for free from Google.

So there you go - 7 free perks that everyone should consider implementing into their website before going for paid promotion platforms like Google AdWords. Those tips aren’t only important to know for those, who do not have enough liquid cash for paid advertising, but also for companies who just want to cut some major costs. All the listed tips don’t require any specialized knowledge, therefore almost anyone can implement them, without bothering to understand complicates SEO algorithms.

By Yauheni Baldziusau




[1] Outbrain Inc. (2016). [Intermediate - 108] 7 Best Techniques to Promote Your Website for Free. [online] Available at: http://help.outbrain.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1575129--intermediate---108-7-best-techniques-to-promote-your-website-for-free [Accessed 6 Oct. 2016].
[2] Googlekeywordtool.com. (2016). Google Keyword Tool. [online] Available at: http://www.googlekeywordtool.com [Accessed 6 Oct. 2016].
[3] The Globe and Mail. (2016). At Bunz Trading Zone, you can swap old items for a sense of community. [online] Available at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/at-bunz-trading-zone-you-can-swap-old-items-for-a-sense-of-community/article28819549/ [Accessed 6 Oct. 2016].