Every six months or so Google changes some aspect of how they rank sites. Last summer it was called Google Caffeine – because the goal (or so we assume) was to pick up stories more quickly. In other words, they wanted to be able to rank news and events in real time. (Possibly to keep up with Twitter.) So after last summer, I really emphasized regular changes on the homepage and faster download speeds. http://byteoftheweek.com/2010/08/12/google-caffeine-dinner-for-tcdp/
They made some more changes recently. (I’ve heard this change called Google Panda.) The goal this time (we assume) was to downgrade junky sites – or sites that just seem to rerun syndicated information and ads. I want to be clear and say that Google doesn’t have a problem with people who buy ads – but with people who run too many of them on their sites. Google sells ads – or it seems strange to penalize folks who run the ads, but Google was always clear that only so many ads per page are acceptable. So how are they tracking this? It seems as if Google has added people to the equation. They have been having human indexers out there making some judgments. I suspect most people won’t notice much of a change in their ranking but it’s good to be aware of the fact that they are looking at syndicated article and ads.
I often think these changes are like fashion. Good to be aware of what’s happening – but few of us will be slaves to the changes. The folks who are slaves to the changes run the greatest risk of falling out of fashion – while the rest of us can forge ahead on a steadier course of just looking good
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I have a double Byte today. The first part is for everyone:
Esty: http://www.etsy.com/ – it’s like e-bay for handmade stuff. Go there to buy unique handmade items or sell items if you make them. (I learned about it at the Blandin Conference http://tinyurl.com/37fo3lo last week – where I was also inspired to learn at least one new thing a week, which hopefully will keep me on top of the Bytes!)
The second part is for anyone who uses WordPress (on their own server) and wants to improve Search Engine Optimization.
All in One SEO Pack: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/
With All in One you can add meta tags (which are back in vogue) and make alterations to the title tags. You add it as you would any Plugin. Once added you’ll be able to access it under the WordPress Setting in the Dashboard. You need to administer it before you enable it. The top section is pretty straightforward, you add the title, meta-keywords and meta-description. Next you can a make modifications to the titles that show up in posts and pages – but it’s not as easy to set up. You can select what types of information you want to include in the title, such as the header, blog name, post categories or add your own text. Then you can set up no-index codes for categories and archives, which can be a good way to make sure that search engines aren’t penalizing you for duplicate content.
Once enabled you will also be able to set titles for each page and post when you write them – just scroll down for the option.
If you want more instructions on the setting the All in One options you can get more details here: http://www.jackleblond.com/all-in-one-seo-pack-configuration/
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Thanks to Carissa in Minneapolis for today’s Byte. After last week’s Byte on Get Listed (www.getlisted.org), Carissa was inspired to look into her map placement and sent on the tools she used. If you want to make sure that your address is showing up correctly on web site and GPS systems, check out the following:
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OK I know I’ve been MIA for a while. I just got tremendously busy. But I’m going to try to make the Byte weekly again. Starting with a tip for anyone who has a web site.
Local searches are a big deal these days. They became a bigger deal with the changes in Google this summer – but regardless of search engine ranking – folks are starting to go more local to find folks online.
Get Listed http://getlisted.org is a great resource to see how the search engines see you and provides steps for improving your listing.
If you want to take it even a step further – once you claim your places online you should talk to some of your best customers about posting comment and reviews for you. That user-generated content will be huge for
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This morning I gave a presentation to the Minneapolis Breakfast Club. I belong to the club; we each get one week to present on our wares. It’s a great group of folks. I promised to post the PPT here…
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Sorry today’s Byte is kind of long – but hopefully helpful to some folks. Also for folks in the Twin Cities, I wanted to invite you to a fundraising dinner for the TC Daily Planet. (I’m on the board and I think they do good work training folks to use media for community advocacy.) The dinner is Aug 29 – it’s 4 courses (and wine!) for $40 at the Black Dog in St Paul with Shelagh Connolly (of Mildred Pierce Café) as chef. You can get more info here: https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/262/donate.asp?formid=TCM-Event&c=7852940
And now with our regularly scheduled Byte…
Google Caffeine was created to index sites faster. It was officially unveiled in June so that searchers might come back to Google for real-time search results (such as update on a tornado happening in Blue Earth or score of sporting event). Most of us had moved to Twitter for that kind of info. Also I think it’s an attempt to tie social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) more closely into the search results.
Google Caffeine refers to their new process for indexing. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
So the big question is – how can we keep (or get) our good search engine rankings? I think many of the rules remain the same. You want good content (that uses good keywords), you want good links to your site (but not bad ones) and you want fresh content – or regular changes.
- Here are some priorities I might shift to accommodate the changes:
- Stress fresh content even more. I’d find social media tools to add to that content. So maybe it’s time to add a RSS feed from the blog(or Facebook or Twitter) to the homepage rather than a static link.
- Download speed is more important than ever. It used to be a courtesy – but now you will be judged on speed.
- Build a sitemap and rebuild as often as necessary.
- Double check links – good code is starting to count more too.
- Keywords in the URL (domain name, file structure) are gaining importance too. It wouldn’t make me change my address, but I’m going to think about it more.
- Meta-tag description. I haven’t tested this myself yet but I’ve seen more folks mention it. Meta-tags were *big* 10 years ago, then they lost favor with search engines so adding them become due diligence but not a priority. It looks as if the description tag maybe seeing a comeback.
- Title tags remain *very* important.
- Be prudent in your links. Do not link to bad (link farm) sites. Really think about why you’d want to link to unrelated sites too. At best unrelated links aren’t helping you.
- Three link rule – yup, everything old is new again. We used to design sites to be flat so that you could reach almost everything in three links. (We did that because the Internet was slower and clicking was a real time commitment.) Now a flat architecture makes it easier for robots to crawl the site.
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In the past I’ve talked about the importance of having other sites link to yours – if you want to rank highly with Google. Mostly I like the idea of doing that organically – by linking to content you think is good and hoping folks do the same. Now that doesn’t mean that you might not ask someone to link to you if you think you have something valuable to their visitors.
When choosing who to link to f or where to request links – it often makes sense to see what Google thinks of them. It’s easy to do that with the Google Page rank checker: http://prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php
The higher the rank, the more Google likes the page. Now I have to say that I don’t use this tool a lot – because I use my best judgement on whether I think a site is related and worthy to link – but when someone comes to me with a request to exchange links, I have been known to use it as a shortcut.
Have a fun and safe 4th of July!!
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OK a couple of weeks ago I mentioned QR codes with a promise to say more later – well it’s later. It’s a little later than intended but I got mixed up with a great vacation in the West of Ireland and a week back home for work. (For a great refresher or demonstration of QR code you should check out this link from my friend John in St Paul: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsPRpQfHYOY).
Google Local Business Center has changed and is now Google Places. You know when you search for something and you get the almost phone book like listings at the top – well that’s Google Places. And if you have a business web site – especially if location matters – it makes sense to claim your address (real and URL) on Google Places. According to the Google blog here are some of the new features of Google Places (although first I’ll add that one of the best features is that most features are still free):
• Service areas: If you travel to serve customers, you can now show which geographic areas you serve. And if you run a business without a storefront or office location, you can now make your address private.
• A new, simple way to advertise: For just $25 per month, businesses in select cities can make their listings stand out on Google.com and Google Maps with Tags. As of today, we’re rolling out Tags to three new cities — Austin, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. — in addition to ongoing availability in Houston and San Jose, CA. In the coming weeks we’ll also be introducing Tags in Chicago, San Diego, Seattle, Boulder and San Francisco.
• Business photo shoots: In addition to uploading their own photos, businesses in select cities can now request a free photo shoot of the interior of their business which we’ll use to supplement existing photos of businesses on Place Pages. We’ve been experimenting with this over the past few months, and now have created a site for businesses to learn more and express their interest in participating.
• Customized QR codes: From the dashboard page of Google Places, businesses in the U.S. can download a QR code that’s unique to their business, directly from their dashboard page. QR codes can be placed on business cards or other marketing materials, and customers can scan them with certain smartphones to be taken directly to the mobile version of the Place Page for that business.
• Favorite Places: We’re doing a second round of our Favorite Places program, and are mailing window decals to 50,000 businesses around the U.S. These decals include a QR code that can be scanned with a smartphone to directly view the mobile Place Page for the business to learn more about their great offerings.
You can take advantage of as much or as little as you want – but as I said it make sense to at least claim your spot. You can do so here: http://google.com/places
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Thanks to my friend Sheldon in Minneapolis for the heads up on Google’s latest SEO criteria. I’ve been touting for years that three things matter in terms of Google Ranking:
Good use of relevant keywords (to the searcher as related to your site)
Good links into your site
Freshness of content
Well it looks like I can add fast download to my list:
http://searchengineland.com/google-now-counts-site-speed-as-ranking-factor-39708
How do they test speed? Well by the Googlebot (Google’s spider that tracks your site and others) and the Google Toolbar. Rumor has it that this has had an impact on few sites. I don’t have a specific download speed – but I think it’s like porn, we know it when we see it.
So my advice for the week – keep an eye on how fast your web page loads.
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I’m in town giving a presentation to the MCN Nonprofit Technology & Communication Conference. So I’m totally cheating today and am just pointing you to the presentation for tips of the week.
Here’s a Reader’s Digest version that just includes the various links to tools:
http://www.keywordspy.com – to check out popularity of keyword terms
http://www.webconfs.com/search-engine-spider-simulator.php – shows you how a search engine sees your site
http://www.linkpopularity.com – see who links to you
http://getlisted.org – see which local search directories link to you
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/ranking-reports – see how you rank with search engines
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