Archive for the 'General' Category

Optimising Quality Score

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on January 20, 2009
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Over the last 6 years PPC marketing has developed into a fiercely competitive market arena with certain keywords valued at more than $54.33. With such high competition comes a necessity to improve the relevance of your listings.

Google has recognised this and is actively seeking to improve the relevance of search results. To help search marketers generate high quality traffic which is likely to result in conversions Google amended their quality score algorithms.

Quality score is important because it affects where your ads appear (ad rank) and how much you pay per click. The real question though, is how do we improve the quality score and generate more conversions?

There are various rules of thumb when optimising ad quality score. I have outlined them below:

  • Run lots of small, concise ad groups. Keeping the keywords in you campaign tight and relevant to each other (that is they follow the same theme) will allow you to write effective ad copy relevant to all keywords in the ad group.
  • Assuming you have a reasonable budget it is better to run campaigns with lots of small ad groups than ad groups the size of campaigns. Google have allowed us to break campaigns into ad groups for a reason. Use them.
  • I would suggest a typical ad group should have between 1 and 20 keywords all linked by a common theme.
  • Try to include keywords in your ad copy. This ensures that your copy is relevant to the keyword searched and will improve your quality score.
  • Create more than one ad per ad group, turn off ad optimisation and run A/B testing on your ad copy. This will allow you to test the performance of each ad against the other.

Google’s Chrome looking to shine as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Security Alert announced

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on December 16, 2008
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100 days after the launch of its browser ‘Chrome’, Google announced that it will take this out of beta phase, probably secure with the fact that 10million people have downloaded it.

The announcement couldn’t be more time as Microsoft announced last night that it has some serious security issues with its Internet Explorer browser as recently reported on the BBC

On the official Google blog, VP of product management Sundar Pichai and engineering director Linus Upson said, “Since we released Google Chrome, the development team has been improving the stability and overall performance of the browser. In just 100 days we’ve reached more than 10m active users around the world and released 14 updates to the product.

“Chrome is a better browser today thanks to the many users who sent their feedback and the many more who enabled automatic crash reports, helping us rapidly diagnose and fix issues,” they added.

Chrome has quite a way to go before it catches up with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer but I remember someone back in 2001 at AltaVista saying the same thing about a little company called Google….

The importance of SEO in ecommerce

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on December 11, 2008
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When putting together an SEO proposal for a client recently It became apparent that many companies are still operating with outdated websites that were built with no consideration for the purpose of a business website: to drive sales and grow the brand.

It’s quite understandable that a business that is not online orientated will lack the in-house know-how and skill sets required to work with these goals in mind, it is more often the employed web design company that are at fault. The fact is however that no company can afford to ignore SEO when developing their website.

The culprits (if I can call them that) are companies that have not updated their website in 5 or more years, back when META tags were enough to get you listed in search engines and online sales were a drop in the ocean. Projections vary but in the next five years online sales are expect to account for between 30 and 50 percent of all retails sales, such a large amount that those not online and not competing are going to suffer hugely.

Now for an analogy: Imagine a shop selling exclusive designer clothing that all the stars are wearing and millions of people want – they’re going to do great business! Now imagine the same shop is located down a back alley in a quiet part of town. Suddenly this great product that’s in huge demand isn’t being sold because no one can find where to buy it!
If you’re now a little worried there are a few basic checks you can make yourself:

  • Are you using keywords you’ve specifically chosen to attract visitors and are they used in the right places?
  • Are other sites linking to you? How many? Check in Google by typing “link:www.yourdomain.com”
  • Have you included Meta Tags? (Specifically Keywords and Description)
  • Is your content unique? Do you update regularly?
  • Are you using an Analytics tool to monitor progress?

This is a very brief checklist - there are many other issues a serious SEO campaign would go into but it should be enough for you to decide if you need some help. Even if you pass all of the above points it may still be worth contacting a professional SEO company with good experience to guide you. The internet opens your business up to millions of customers but it puts you in competition with just as many businesses.

Predictions in Search for 2009

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on December 9, 2008
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Though Google is not the only Search Engine out there it is by far the biggest when it comes to users searching its index. From a search marketing perspective it is a must have in a schedule in any campaign. So, when the internet giant’s Webmaster guru Matt Cutts talks about his prediction for 2009, the industry takes note.

In a recent article on the excellent WebPro News Matt Cutts gave his predictions for the ever changing search arena in the coming year. These views were timely as they come hot on the heals of Bruce Clay’s comments on how Personalised search will lead to a more Behaviour Based Search Ranking. This sparked a major debate on the value of ‘ranking’ and the phrase “Ranking is Dead” being touted for 2009.

To try and deliver some perspective, Matt Cutts added his personal thoughts and views.

Jason Lee Miller conducted the discussions and they were joined by Google’s Senior Support Engineer Maile Ohye.

Does the age of a website/domain affect its ranking?
Ohye answered this way: a site’s reputation can be a indicator to search engines, but of course, it’s not everything. Having a site for a long period of time can establish credibility with users, and as a search engine we also want to reflect this type of credibility. Of course, newer domains can also gain users and credibility. It seems like running a good site is a bit like running a reputable business. So yes, if your domain has been credible for years it can help. If you buy an old domain and put all your content on it in hopes of getting instant rankings, that’s not the best idea.
But, when the question was rephrased from another webmaster, Cutts answered: In the majority of cases, it actually doesn’t matter–we want to return the best information, not just the oldest information. Especially if you’re a mom/pop site, we try to find ways to rank your site even if your site is newer or doesn’t have many links. I think it is fair for Google to use that as a signal in some circumstances, and I try never to rule a signal out completely, but I wouldn’t obsess about it.

Official translation: Sometimes, when we say it does.

GOOGLE STRAIGHT TALK

Do 301 redirects carry over PageRank?
Where appropriate, ranking signals will be transferred across 301 redirects (if the same page has moved from one URL to another). This may take some time, so you should probably leave the redirect in place as long as you have control over the URL.

How many 301 redirects are acceptable?
It’s ok to chain a few together. The HTTP 1.0 standard allows for a maximum of 5 redirects for a URL, so keep it minimal.

Why do pages translated into different languages each have different rankings in their respective engines?
Google looks at content on a URL-by-URL basis, so even if you have translated top content from one language to another, Google might not treat it the same way as they would treat the original content. It’s also possible that the translated content is not as relevant as other original content in that language. Generally speaking, making sure that your content is as unique and compelling as possible for the users in that target market is the best thing to do.

Do backlinks from bad sites negatively affect my PageRank?
Those links might be positively affecting your PageRank (PageRank does not go down from “bad” links like those from adult sites). In general, you don’t have to worry about bad links like that which point to your site that aren’t under your control.

How often does your search algorithm change?
We change the algorithms all the time - last year we had over 450 changes.

Could sharing an IP address with a bad site get my site penalized?
The situations where it would matter are when the server is overloaded (can’t respond to your visitors) and when it’s incorrectly configured (not returning your site to your visitors). But otherwise that is no longer a concern.

Does Google have a problem with rank-checking software?
Rank-checking software is against Google’s Terms of Service and could result in blocking your IP address, and it doesn’t really help, especially when it comes to personalized or geotargeted results.

CIRCUITOUS ROUTES AND TRANSLATIONS

Question: Is there PageRank boost from .edu or .gov links?
Google’s Answer: You don’t get any PageRank boost from having an .edu link or .gov link automatically. If you get an .edu link and no one is linking to that .edu page, you’re not going to get any PageRank at all because that .edu page doesn’t have any PageRank.

Translation: If the .edu or .gov page is linked to, then yes, because that webpage now has some authority, just like with any (non-.gov or .edu) page.

Question: Does a page load time play a crucial role in Google Page Ranking? If yes how important is it?
Google’s Answer: I think the more important issue here is user experience. If your site loads fast, your users will be happy; if it loads slow, users will be less happy. Make your users happy, right?

Translation: Yes, and as important as 200 other factors.

Question: Aaron D’Souza of the Search Quality team was reported as stating that publishing the same content on two separate geotargeted paths under your domain will not trigger the dupe content filters. Is this correct?
Google’s Answer: In general, in a case like that, we’d try to pick the best page based on various factors, including geotargeting and language choices. If that page is one which is also available for other geotargeting/language choices, we will generally try to pick the version that our algorithms feel makes the most sense.

Translation: Yes, we think.

Question: I have reported sites that clearly have paid links (e.g. the backlink page says “Advertising” above the link), but Google does not seem to take action. Why would that be the case? These are .orgs who are clearly selling their .org juice.
Google’s Answer: While paid links and spam reports are being taken very seriously by Google, the results may not be seen immediately for users or even not at all. This does not mean no action is being taken on the offending sites. Also, the TLD of the sites should not be a factor being taken into account. For this reason reporting both, web spam and PageRank passing link selling makes sense and contributes in an important way to the quality of Google’s index.

Translation, partly based on .gov/.edu response: Google treats all top level domains the same, so a .org would have no more juice than a .com or .info. Further, clearly marked paid links (ones on pages labeled “Advertising”) are not necessarily violations of Google’s guidelines. If the links you reported were found to be nofollow links, then no action would be necessary. But keep trying to sabotage the competition. Business is war.

Question: Is it true that the fewer the links FROM your website, the more influence they have on the sites receiving those links?
Google’s Answer: PageRank is split up over the links from a page, but I would recommend not concentrating on this (as you won’t be able to “measure” and act upon it anyway) and instead making your site as usable as possible for your visitors.

Translation: Yes, the more you link the more the link juice passed on is diluted, but don’t go trying to figure out the formula in order to game the system. We’ll figure you out. We’re Google.

Question: Does getting a lot of comments in a blog help in being well indexed/ranked by Google?

Google’s answer: Having a lot of enthusiastic users commenting on your posts and doing so generating content on your site, certainly does not harm your rankings. Furthermore, a large fan base gives the webmaster a bit of independence from search engine traffic, which is the reason why generating original and compelling content in order to nurture a group of committed users is something I would highly recommend to any blogger

Translation: Yes.

Question: Recently, you removed this suggestion: “Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!” from your guidelines. Is there any chance that you will be discounting these kinds of links for ranking value in future?
Google’s Answer: There’s always the chance that we’ll discount directory links in the future. What we were seeing was quite a few novice people would see the “directory” recommendation and go out and just try to submit to a ton of directories, even if some of the directories were lower-quality or even fly-by-night directories that weren’t great for users. Right now we haven’t changed how we’re weighting directory links–we’ve only removed the directory suggestion from the webmaster guidelines.

Translation: Possibly.

Question: Until recentley (the last six months or so) a high ranking was achievable by submitting articles to article directories (providing they were 40%-60% unique),  it no longer seems to be the case.  Have links from article sites been de-valued at all?
Google’s Answer: In my experience, not every article directory site is high-quality. Sometimes you see a ton of articles copied all over the place, and it’s hard to even find original content on the site. The user experience for a lot of those article directory sites can be pretty bad too. So you’d see users landing on those sorts of pages have a bad experience. If you’re thinking of boosting your reputation and getting to be well-known, I might not start as the very first thing with an article directory. Sometimes it’s nice to get to be known a little better before jumping in and submitting a ton of articles as the first thing.

Translation: Yes.

Full Article available http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/11/10/google-answers-some-tricky-questions Courtesy of Webpro News

Aussie Gov’t Says ‘Yep lets do it’ to ‘Net Censorship’

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on November 7, 2008
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Australian Government

Australian Government vote yes on Net Censorship

Australia’s federal government plans to implement a mandatory national internet “filter” in order to block illegal material.

Surprisingly the news follows an announcement from major global internet technology players (e.g., Microsoft, Yahoo, Google) toting the Global Network Initiative, which limits government interference in tech availability and protects human rights, including privacy and freedom of speech.

However Australian officials say the roadblock is intended to combat child pornography and proliferation of adult content. But the filter could conceivably be extended to controversial websites promoting euthanasia or anorexia, as stated in The Sydney Herald Sun (29th Oct).

I’m sure we would all agree that combating child pornography is in the greater good, but the management of such a filter is insurmountably enormous, it will be interesting to watch. We can also hear the minds ticking over of many internet surfers dying to know what the Australian government portrays ‘adult content’ to be – one thing that business owners will no doubt see is a increase in productivity (joke)

Arguments against the filter include higher prices for internet access, slower speeds, and restriction of Australians’ web access. ‘Electronic Frontiers Australia’ pointed out that since the filter does not cover peer-to-peer file sharing networks, it will have little effect on pirated internet content.

Meanwhile, an American company is working on ways to help ISPs intercept “illegal content” on file sharing networks, while giving pirates an opportunity to buy certain content for free. The program will be tested on an Australian ISP next month.

Purportedly in the interest of children, The Australian Christian Lobby promoted the nationwide filtering system, urging its implementation in a statement saying:

“The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) today welcomed Government moves towards a
two-tiered Internet filtering system which would include mandatory blocking of illegal
material.

ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace said it is vital that better Internet safeguards are
put in place to protect children and the community from the increasingly abusive and
degrading material too easily available over the Internet from both legal and illegal
sources.

“Obviously the Internet industry is going to continue to fight this important initiative
but the interests of children must be placed first.

“The need to prevent access to illegal hard-core material and child pornography must
be placed above the industry’s desire for unfettered access.”

Even so, human rights groups such as Amnesty International remain adamantly opposed to what they call “censorship,” asserting the block violates freedom of expression. In 2006 — soon after Google agreed to censor certain search results in China –  it accused all three internet giants of enabling the erosion of such freedoms.