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    February 2014 Summary of Search:
    Do as I say, not as I do

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    “Do as I say, not as I do” Sometimes Google does things it warns others not to do:1. Don’t be top heavyGoogle just updated it’s “Top heavy” algorithm. For sites that show many ads at the top, or make users scroll to see content, penalties can apply. 2. Don’t scrape content from other websitesMatt Cutts of Google is actively seeking reports of what would be considered “scraper sites”. One SEO responded with a screenshot of Google scraping wikipedia. 🙂http://www.seroundtable.com/google-scraper-site-report-18184.html In other news, Google will now start showing restaurant menus for those keyword searches. But the restaurant brands do not know exactly where Google is scraping this data from, and how to update it.Read the whole scoop here: http://searchengineland.com/now-official-google-adds-restaurant-menus-search-results-185708 3. Links on user generated content sites that pass pagerankFor most sites, Google insists that links created by site visitors are “nofollow”. But Google+ allows links that are curiously “dofollow”. Other sites could indeed be penalized by this. 4. Sell LinksAlmost $17 billion of Google’s almost $17 billion in revenue from last quarter was from “selling links”. But of course, they aren’t “dofollow”. A couple more items have garnered Google’s attention:1. Rich snippets should be used for good, not evilGoogle has been levying a manual penalty against sites using rich snippets in a spammy fashion.http://www.link-assistant.com/news/rich-snippets-penalty.html 2. Don’t try to insert too many keywords with your business listingThere used to be an distinct advantage in having your keywords in your business name. Now Google wants to make sure the business name you use in your business listing matches you business name.– Your title should reflect your business’s real-world title.– In addition to your business’s real-world title, you may include a single descriptor that helps customers locate your business or understand what your business offers.– Marketing taglines, phone numbers, store codes, or URLs are not valid descriptors.– Examples of acceptable titles with descriptors (in italics for demonstration purposes) are “Starbucks Downtown” or “Joe’s Pizza Delivery”. Examples that would not be accepted would be “#1 Seattle Plumbing”, “Joe’s Pizza Best Delivery”, or “Joe’s Pizza Restaurant Dallas”.See more: https://support.google.com/places/answer/107528?hl=en So what to do?Create a content generating, curating, sharing machine.1. Post full versions of your content to your site, but also Google+, linkedin, and promote your content at other relevant places around the web.2. Tag your content with rich snippets, facebook open graph, twitter cards to increase it’s “sharability” and categorization. PSST! Need a Free Link?We’d like to help you promote your own business, hoping more work for you brings more work our way! Join our newsletter for our suggestion this month: It’s a site with a pagerank of 9!

    Spam-Fighting Always Continues – December 2013 Summary of Search

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    Spam-Fighting Always Continues Google’s Matt Cutts promised a month free of major updates, but added that “spam-fighting always continues.” Indeed, there were some complaints from webmasters around the 17th and 19th that could have been Google taking out another link network. This month, Google made an example out of Rap Genius. The site was offering traffic for blog links. To participate, you had to link to their Justin Bieber page. And somehow feel good about yourself. Oh, and send them the link. Rap Genius would then tweet your link to their followers, sending traffic to your blog. Google caught wind of the link scheme, and severely punished Rap Genius in the rankings. The moral is that Google will always, usually, catch you! So how do you invest in search engine traffic for the long term? 1. Create Content Google wants compelling content: images, blog posts, videos, podcasts, surveys and more. Good content is long (1000 words plus for articles) and holds your visitor’s attention. Google does not want visitors leaving the site quickly (but will probably forgive if it’s an ad click!). 2. Tag Your Content Search engines are getting better at understanding what we humans create on the internet. But communication directly with “search engine bots” has never been easier. These technologies could be better implemented on almost every website: – Internal linking structures – Sitemap.xml – Title tags – Meta descriptions – Rich snippets   – Authorship 3. Get the Word Out Content outreach and marketing has never been more important. Content today is where websites were in 1998: Many build, and then are disappointed at the results. Good content competes against a dizzying array of distractions in an always-connected world, and must be actively marketed – even AGGRESSIVELY marketed – to make an impression. Content must be spread via social media (especially Google+), and marketed specifically for links. These are “earned links” and outreach for the purpose of links wonderful way to promote your content. As a bonus, this promotion of content will also promote rankings! Get a free link for your business: Would you like our monthly take on the changing world of SEO delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE! When you subscribe, each newsletter will contain a link idea for your business!

    Summary of Search, September 2013

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    Google announced that it rewrote pretty much it’s entire algorithm last month in that “unnamed update.” It’s the biggest change since 2001. Seventy percent of the Search Engine Results Pages were affected! Compare that to Penguin, in which something like 3 percent of SERPs were affected. The new Google algorithm is code-named “Hummingbird.” Many of the basics are the same: 1. Content should be accessible / easy to navigate for search engines. 2. Keywords should be properly tagged, with special boost to those using: a. Semantic markup b. Rich snippets c. Google authorship 3. Authoritative links According to one expert, “Quick SEO” is firmly in the past. We couldn’t agree more: Google has been strongly advocating this direction for some time. And the Panda/Penguin updates began steering the industry more than 2 years ago. Panda & Penguin aren’t going away: They are parts of the new algorithm and are likely to get additional updates in the future. Across our clients, we saw very little change. Certain keywords had light movement up or down on August 20, but not by much. If you follow Google’s rules, you don’t get hit.   WHAT’S NEW IN HUMMINGBIRD? 1. Mobile/Voice/Location queries Google expanded it’s ability to deal with mobile/voice & location based queries like: “What’s the closest place to buy the iPhone 5s?” They also have more comparisons showing via the “knowledge graph” for queries like: “space needle versus empire state building” 2. “Entity search” In keyword based queries of yesteryear (and even “yestermonth”), google sometimes couldn’t figure out queries like “windows replacement” and “windows 7 replacement”: Is it a PC user or a homeowner asking? Google is using a database of facts about specific, unique entities (people, places, businesses, events, etc) to figure out how to return the best results. Think about the broad keywords you are targeting, and consider how you can “talk around” these topics. 3. Hashtag search The only posts that will show up on Google searches are those that were shared publicly, or shared with you (if you’re a Google+ user). Clicking on one of the Google+ posts leads you to Google+ where the search is reproduced. There are also links at the bottom of the sidebar to perform the hashtag search over at twitter or facebook, but these are bumped below the fold in less than 2 seconds – as new Google+ posts fill the sidebar.   MOVING FORWARD: 1. Create content around your “entities” Engaging, shareable, linkable content is now more important than ever. Do you have every kind of content about your subject? Consider videos, images, lists, podcasts, infographics, and articles regarding the entities you want to be found for. These are likely your broad keywords, but don’t go too broad. 2. Tag content with semantic markup & rich snippets Google is smart, indeed. But semantic markup & rich snippets make it easy for Google to understand the correct answers for their users questions. Rich snippets have grown in importance, and are now “must have” for search engine visibility. While Google is still working out the kinks in authorship for brands, it’s becoming increasingly important that authorship be implemented. 3. Content Marketing Link Building & Social Media Marketing Having great content was never enough, and it still isn’t. There are more ways than ever to get the word out. Some will even help you win authority links.   Would you like our monthly take on the changing world of SEO delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE!

    Summary of Search, August 2013

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    Summary of Search Is Google backward compatible? The previous advice from Google, given in their 2008 Starter Guide for SEO, is now “out the window.” Google previously recommended that the underlined text of a link (aka “anchortext”) contained keywords, but now finds that somewhat spammy. The new Google direction is all about authority link building, not keyword-focused link building. It’s nice to occasionally say: “There was only one major update this month in Google.” It’s an as-yet unnamed update that changed the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) in a way similar to Penguin 1.0. Google did, however, roll-out out an exciting new feature with this update: Special placement in search results for “high-quality, in-depth content” that is properly tagged. See their example:   How do you take advantage of this special placement? Try this: Tag everything to make it easy for google to figure out: Use schema.org “article” markup: http://schema.org/Article Provide authorship markup: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/3280182 Include pagination markup, if applicable (rel=next and rel=prev) Create a Google Plus page, linked to your website: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1708844 Provide information about your organization’s logo: (organization markup) http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2013/05/using-schemaorg-markup-for-organization.html Create compelling in-depth content (so easy, right?) Lengthy – Google has given no numbers, specifically, but we recommend text content of 1000-3000 words in length. Engaging – Google is likely looking at many metrics, including time on page, as signals of engagement. Popular – Content that is popular has inbound links, shares, likes, plus-ones, etc. And it probably has links to it from the site’s homepage or other important pages on the site. See more about the announcement at: http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2013/08/discover-great-in-depth-articles-on.html Google is communicating about penalties much better than in the past, too: They have added a feature to Webmaster Tools which will alert webmasters if a manual penalty has been levied. Recent interviews have revealed that disavowed links are not stored. This means that old disavowed links must be included in every new batch submitted. Disavowing some links appears to be a normal part of modern SEO. Multiple reconsideration requests are okay, and are considered independently of past requests every time. Would you like our monthly take on the changing world of SEO delivered to your inbox?  Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE!

    Summary of Search, July 2013

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    Remember those tactics that worked so well? And what about the old recommendations in the webmaster guidelines? Well, it’s time to take another look at all of those tactics with the new Google! Google released a “multi-week update” that continued into July, but the “Panda Recovery Update” got far more interest. Google Panda has been heavy handed since it’s inception, and Google finally released a kinder, gentler version. Duplicate Content We see many different ways to deal with duplicate content. Based on results we have seen, we have this recommendation: Use canonical tags whenever possible to deal with duplicate content. Other methods like nofollow, noindex, and robots.txt are prone to leaks or are too aggressive. Despite many Google help articles recommending duplicate content be removed, Matt Cutts this month noted: “I wouldn’t stress about this unless the content that you have duplicated is spammy or keyword stuffing.” Over-Optimization We are seeing more penalties for on-page over-optimization since Penguin 2.  the good news is, they are easily reversed:     Diversify those title tags!     Limit yourself to 2 separators like the | (pipe) character in the title tag.     Do not repeat anything more than once in a title tag.     Do not use excessively long title tags. Try to stay between 60-69 characters.     Look in your code for hidden comments, and usage of keywords with a dash between them (URLs, image names, etc). Consider whether excessive. Authority Links With Google’s upcoming (and continued) emphasis on authority links, we recommend these long term strategies: Link Building for Business Development: Make connections that also build your Google rankings. Think trade shows, associations and resource pages. Content Marketing Link Building: Use compelling content to create brand awareness and links! Think videos, infographics and guest blogging. Would you like our monthly take on the changing world of SEO delivered to your inbox?  Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE!

    Summary of Search Engine Optimization, June 2013

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    The world of SEO is still reeling from Google’s latest Penguin update, and many are questioning Google’s new guidelines. Having a well-known worldwide brand wasn’t enough for the Salvation Army – nor was it enough for Dish! We added on two more link building techniques Penguin 2.0 seems to penalize, for a total of 7 so far: 1. Exact match anchor text 2. Spammy links to subpages 3. Link networks / schemes 4. Links from de-indexed and banned websites, including old directories. 5. link velocity “spikes” 6. Paid Links 7. Sitewide links – especially blogroll and footer links Google updates in June: Even though Panda is now “rolled into the main Google algorithm”, there was some sort of refresh event last month. Google is being very tight-lipped about updates lately, and would not comment on at least one event this month that looked like an update. Some updates are being said to rollout over the “next 1-2 months”. Blackhat SEO – where SEOs attempt to fool search engines – are surviving these updates on some level. At a recent conference, Matt Cutts(Google’s engineer in charge of combatting webspam) mentioned specific actions against sites ranking for “Payday loans” in Google UK. A few weeks later, paydayloansfrommrcutts.blog.co.uk started ranking in the top 3! We do not recommend black hat SEO for brands, companies or sites with longterm value – but these blackhats are definitely keeping google on their toes! With Google’s upcoming (and continued) emphasis on authority links, we recommend the longterm strategies of 1. link building for business development, making connections that also build your google rankings 2. Content Marketing Link Building: Using compelling content to create brand awareness and links!

    Summary of Search, May 2013

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    Around May 22nd, there was an update to Google’s search algorithms. It’s being called Penguin 2.0 (or sometimes Penguin 4) and is a major update. Matt Cutts said in a recent video that compared to the original Penguin update, this one does go much deeper. While the impact is supposed to be 2.3% of English queries, the effect is very large considering the number of Google keyword searches! Here is the full history: Penguin 1 on April 24, 2012 (impacting ~3.1% of queries) Penguin 2 on May 26, 2012 (impacting less than 0.1%) Penguin 3 on October 5, 2012 (impacting ~0.3% of queries) Penguin 4 on May 22, 2013 (impacting 2.3% of queries) Much of the analysis of Penguin 2.0 is still in progress, but some big brands were hit, including SalvationArmy.org and even Dish.com. As far as we can tell so far, Penguin 2.0 penalized: 1. Exact match anchor text 2. Spammy links to subpages 3. Link networks / schemes 4. Links from de-indexed and banned websites, including old directories. 5. link velocity “spikes” Penguin is impacting sites with unintentional webspam. We’ve seen scraper sites (targeting adsense keywords) delivering the worst links to clients’ profiles. These sites weren’t created for a link building campaign, but instead just adsense revenue for some site owner in a distant land. While they could be ignored before, they cannot be any longer. Now their penalties are our penalties. The approach we recommend is: 1. Protect Authority link building is the only protection against both negative SEO and Penguin penalties in general. Authority links are gained primarily from great content, promotion and involvement. One authority link can beat hundreds of spammy links in the algorithm of “the new Google”. 2. Defend Find and remove as many unnatural links as you can manually before disavowing the rest. 3. Build Over the long term, these strategies will also help protect from Google penalties, and are of course great marketing initiatives: a. Great content Copy writing has gone through an evolution and cheap content is not going to cut it. Could it ever though? b. Promotion & Outreach for Social Media Marketing & Inbound Links Since the web’s inception, much content has been posted with little regard to promotion. Social, link building, and other outreach initiatives are vital to maximize dollars spent on premium content. c. Brand Name Searches Google knows big brands are searched. Their “buzz” is a signal of authority, although not yet on par with link building. d. User Engagement Once a visitor is onsite, engage them. Keep their interest and involvement. Good design and excellent content have never been so important. Google has been watching this for some time. e. Multi-tiered approaches Spread marketing dollars broadly across many initiatives. It creates a variety of signals to Google that you are legit.

    Summary of Search, February 2013

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    Some SEOs speculated a Panda update was in the works a couple of weeks ago, but none has been confirmed by Google. It’s actually been a pretty calm month in the world of Organic SEO. What does Google want these days?! Overall trends and our collaboration with other SEOs reveal four important trends: 1. Google wants content published by Brands Keyword rich domains have lost much value in the last year. Google is giving preference to brands. They expect constant publishing and distribution of content. 2. Google plus is gaining in importance Will the Google plus economy replace the link economy? It’s too soon to say. But with the increasing importance of Google plus, it is becoming more vital to have profiles built out and maintained. 3. Negative SEO is alive and well One of our Black Hat SEOs on the panel has a thriving business doing “Negative SEO” for clients. Instead of building up his client’s authority with links, he’s creating as many horrible links as possible to competitors. The process is phenomenally easy, and the results mean a scary new chapter for SEO. Building sufficient authority with good links is the only possible defense. 4. Links from authority sites are more important than ever Getting links from important sites, whether in the niche or just more important overall, is a sign of confidence affecting rankings now more than ever. Moving Forward To reiterate last month’s emphasis on the New Google, and add on a 4th item: 1. Google continues to reward branding, social signals, and links from authority websites. 2. Even larger brands have to pay ever more attention to their technical SEO. No longer can duplicate content or thin content be overlooked. 3. Google expects sites that engage users: Videos, images, animations, and other forms of engaging media are important in the new Google. And content needs to match keyword targets wherever possible. 4. The more that media can be spread and leveraged, the better. New SEO Approaches: If you have a content creation initiative (or can get one started), our Content Marketing Link Building is the best way to go. If not, see our Business Development SEO Cycle. 1. “Content Marketing” Link Building involves gaining links for clients based upon their excellent content. 2. “Business Development Link Building” gains links through regular business development activities: providing sponsorships, getting listed on resource pages/”hub pages” in a vertical, and being involved in related conversations in forums and blogs.

    Summary of Search, January 2013

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    Summary of Search, January 2013 It’s almost been 2 years since the first Google Panda update, and it looks like there is a new update about every 4 weeks now. Update 24 was released on Jan 22nd, impacting 1.2% of English queries. Branding and Content Other updates have included a “brand signal update” on the 17th. Some felt this update more than the Panda update 5 days later! Image search Google rolled out changes to their image search interface, touting these changes as better for webmasters. The consensus among webmasters has been that visitors from image search are down, and that’s not a good thing. Google hasn’t been forthcoming in how this was to help – were they trying to help reduce server bandwidth?! At any rate, Google is not likely to change image search interface back. Moving Forward Businesses expect perhaps less marketing over time, that there will be efficiencies and even possibly a “maintenance mode” for online marketing. With the new Google, nothing could be further from the truth: 1. Google continues to reward branding expertise, social signals, and authority linking. 2. Even larger brands have to pay ever more attention to their technical SEO. No longer can duplicate content or thin content be overlooked. 3. Google expects sites that engage users: Videos, images, animations, and other forms of engaging media are important in the new Google. New SEO Approaches: If you have a content creation initiative (or can get one started), our Content Marketing Link Building is the best way to go. If not, see our Business Development SEO Cycle. 1. “Content Marketing” Link Building cycle: KW Research Help with analysis. Content Creation Integrate/tag with keywords, as well as connect you with copywriters. Content Publishing Make sure content being posted is being indexed by search engines. Content Sharing & Distribution Get content indexed, and create links to the content to build authority. Share and distribute to maximize link authority. Campaign measurement Provide analysis, always optimizing the approach. 2.”Business Development” SEO cycle: KW Research Send possible link ideas every month, based on your keyword targets and industry. Business Development Link Building Provide possible sponsorships, “hub pages” in your vertical, and related conversations in forums and blogs. Link Contact Information Provide the best contact/submission info, which can be as hard to find as the link! Link Outreach Strategies Suggest approach, based on our experience in link outreach. For companies, link outreach is best done in-house – but let us know if you need us to do the outreach instead. Campaign measurement Our end-of-month reports will help measure and optimize the approach for each next month.

    Search Marketing Standard: Read it twice

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    I’m still getting two copies of Search Marketing Standard magazine, but I’m not reporting it. First off, it’s so good that I don’t want to possibly miss an issue by having anyone mess with my subscription. With other magazines, I’ve found that fulfillment centers sometimes get confused, and it’s usually months before I realize a certain issue isn’t coming. I just can’t risk it. Every article is good. Secondly, I’ll probably read through it twice. Might as well have a fresh crisp copy the second time. I wonder if I’ll even dog-ear the same pages? Here are four excellent resources for anyone interested in SEO, internet marketing, ecommerce, and the affiliate scene: 1. Search Marketing Standard. If you’ve thought the SEO world moves too fast for print, think again. 2. Practical Ecommerce. Not just for ecommerce store owners. Every web developer creating ecommerce websites should be in tune with the industry. 3. Revenue. Great for affiliate marketers, ecommerce merchants, or any company creating PPC(Pay Per Click) campaigns on Google AdWords or Yahoo Search Marketing. 4. Internet Retailer. Especially important if you are helping larger companies with their SEO, SEM, PPC, and ROI! This publication is best at industry trends influencing larger retailers and online merchants. It is essential that web designers and web site developers start paying attention to the many facets that can make or break an online business. These publications can help get you serve your clients!