‘Search Engine Marketing’

The Google algorithms change all the time and as such announcements about the company targeting low quality content don’t cause tremendous ripples on the surface. The general speculation, however, is that content farms are next on the chopping block. Google Panda has search engine marketers work round the clock to ensure that their client sites comply with all requirements for good ranking and are free from so-called junk or spam type content. The newest adjustment to their Google Panda algorithm may be a bit more difficult to address.

How Does Google Evaluate High or Low Quality Content?

One will first have to know how Google evaluates content and identifies spam before pro-active steps can be taken to limit the effects of Google Panda. Unfortunately the information has not been shared widely, but the following factors may play a role:

• Whether a website is generally a content farm where numerous topics are covered by a range of authors or whether the site covers a specific niche.
• Author Rank may become more important as Google will give more attention to articles written by a higher ranking author than one with a poor rating.
• The general length and depth of the articles as well writing style may be assessed (doing so will take loads of manpower or highly intelligent bots though).
• Authority level of the author and site on a topic. A site containing articles about maize seeds for instance, will be frowned upon if it also covers pregnancy, televisions etc.
• The age of the site will still be important.

When considering Google’s announcement one must agree that it does seem as if content farms are the targets rather than normal websites. Whereas one in the past would have added an article section to a website where the marketing articles featured, it may become necessary to integrate the articles in the various website categories as to prevent Google from viewing those as spam type content. This of course, is still mere speculation, but it does pay to reflect on possible scenarios.

Shallow Content

Google mentioned low quality and shallow content in their announcement. The normal website publisher may become wary of the terms, especially if the site owner has not hired a professional content writer. In general, it should not affect the average website where the content is not churned out at an enormous rate simply to have information that could be indexed. If a site owner or SEO company focuses on the provision of in-depth quality articles rather than marketing the company in every possible article, they have no reason to be concerned.  The content farms are known for some low quality content, but many of the articles are well written. Some articles may get a push in the ranking simply because of the author rank, while others can get a shift into the sandbox.

Why the Drastic Steps?

Google has not announced loud and clear that the target is content farms, simply that they are considering numerous changes because they want to ensure accurate, relevant and high quality search results for their users. Google has come under fire recently specifically on the topic of quality of search results. It is thus an effort by the company to save reputation and thus restore integrity of their search engine. Sites offering content that is strikingly similar to information at various other sites may also become targets.

The recipe for success in search results thus includes the major ingredient of originality. Sites such as Article Base, eHow, and Ezine obviously will have to do cleaning and be strict on the acceptance policy. It is difficult to control content which comes free. If you don’t pay anything for the articles, you thus don’t have much leverage. According to Google around 12% of searches are affected in some way or another by the changes Google has made in its algorithms.

Matt Cutts heading up the spam cutting at Google mentioned in a recent blog that high quality sites will be rewarded. Just how, one will have to wait and see. It does seem that anonymous articles don’t fall in the category of quality and as such the name associated with an article, may very well become even more important.

The Upside

High quality content creators have on numerous occasions complained about the copying of their content by other sites. The new changes in the algorithm will help to reduce copying of articles and simply rewriting content sourced on the Internet. As such the SEO companies making use of high quality content writers will have no problem and may indeed benefit from the changes made by Google. It is rather frustrating for a company to invest in solid quality content generation to simply find numerous websites with strikingly similar content two or three weeks later. The changes will bring back integrity to SEO and content generation and although some may feel the panic attacks coming on, for the most part, quality content writers and SEO companies will appreciate the changes.

Tips for Getting On the Good Side of Panda

• Remove content that is similar on all you pages. This means that if you have a little paragraph or sentence that is placed on numerous pages of your site that it will be best to remove such.
• Check affiliate sites for duplicate or similar and low quality content about your products and remove where necessary.
• Delete any pages from your index which are no longer used – cut the dead wood.
• Remove small letter links from the bottom of your pages – not all, only the ones that can be seen as spam links.
• Control the content at sub-domains to minimize duplication and low quality content.
• Remove any graphics and navigation which can cause slow loading speed.
• Ensure that there are no repeats in the headings of pages.
• Create original titles and ensure that when you add articles to your site that the content is not only original in the sense that you have generated such instead of copying, but each article must differ considerably in content from other articles on your site.
• Keyword selection becomes important as articles covering similar keywords can be seen as too similar. Choose distinct keywords and where you can, remove tags which can get the Panda upset.

Numerous high quality sites have been hit by the latest Panda changes and are struggling to make a comeback. The best advice is to keep creating original high quality content that offers value to the reader and to follow the principles of good SEO practice to ensure that your website is not seen by Google as one of the content farm sites.

Google has changed the SEO landscape considerably with Panda, the +1 Button, Social Search, and now the author rank algorithm. Web marketing companies and publishers need to make changes in their online marketing strategies or have their sites end up on pages five or six in the search results.

With the authorship mark-up announced, a tag can be added through semantic HTML to allow for searching of works by the same author in a particular website. In addition, the tag allows for directing to an author’s bio page which should be at the same website. With another tag, a link can be made to a profile at an external page or all pages displaying the author’s work.

Benefits For The Reader

The authorship mark-up enables users to locate articles written by a specific author. If an author has thus written informative and high quality articles, the recognition will be valuable. Users will not have to utilize the find option to locate works by a particular author at a website. In addition, the author rank system makes it easier to find articles written by a particular author in the organic search results of Google. The author’s page will include a list of articles or content pages created by the author and some biographical information. The days of the faceless content writer seem to be over.

Why The Authorship Mark-Up?

Google intends to deliver the most relevant and highest quality content in response to user searches. What makes it a bit tricky is that the author page must be located at the same website where the content is delivered. The user will have to rely on organic searches to locate works by the same author at other websites.

Implications For Freelance Authors

The author ranking system will benefit freelance authors who write quality articles. An author will think twice before spinning out superficial content for the sake of search engine marketing. Once the author’s name is connected to an article or press release, the author will rethink the content. As such freelance authors may in future decline projects where the focus is on articles about similar or rather similar keywords for the same site.

Authors writing for numerous sites may have an initial disadvantage because they write on a wide variety of topics and may find it difficult to develop a reputation of being an expert on a topic. Whereas an author may not have minded writing about a particular topic in the past because there was no name attached to the content, the reputation of the author may become more valuable and as such many freelancers may decline previously accepted projects to protect their reputations.

Authorship Mark-up And Author Rank

Google Authors by jimboot

The authorship mark-up is a tool to be used, simplifying the process of identifying and locating work of a particular author at a website. The author rank is a content metric to help measure the quality of articles and importance of a web page based on the reputation of the author. With author ranking then Google will be able to identify high quality articles and content pages and thus ensure more relevant search results. Google is also planning the implementation of trust metrics such as the Google +1 button and user feedback which will help to ensure accurate results. Users will appreciate other features such as Google Preview showing parts of a work and perhaps an image of the author as well as a short bio on the author.

Implications For Search

It would be naïve to think that the author ranking metric will not influence search results. Users may be influenced by the images of authors and the trust indicators. With a positive image and thus trust associated with an author, the user is more likely to click on the result. SEO companies and publishers will thus have to ensure that their content writers develop solid reputations in specific areas of writing and carefully select the topics to be written about. By taking pro-active steps in the matching of author and topic, they can thus ensure higher click-through rates based on the reputation of the author.

Authors will have to create Google profiles to which the authorship mark-ups can link. It will give them more control over their content in the sense that their content will be protected against scrapers. Ownership of the works will thus be easier to substantiate.

Reputable authors will rank higher with the author rank system ensuring better search placement for well written content. With the authorship mark-up tools webmasters will be able to also link to other web pages and the author bio ensuring that authors will play an all important role in placement of web pages in search results at the end of the day. Multiple profiles can be linked by using a mark-up such as rel=”me” to ensure linking between various profiles.

With the system in place, the content created by high ranking authors may even be indexed before there are links created to the content. If a webmaster therefore uses a reputable author with an excellent ranking, it could mean quick indexing and with this improved traffic. The focus in content generation will thus also need to be on improvement of author rank.

Search engine marketing through content generation in future may heavily rely on top quality content of high ranking authors. Even if an author is relatively unknown at the start of the author tag usage, the scene can change quickly as some freelancers write numerous articles for one site during the course of a month. The author could develop a reputation for writing excellence on the topic within a relatively short period, which will ultimately benefit the website owner.

Combine the author rank with the muscle of the Google +1 button to recommend sites and you have powerful tools for better search results placement on a specific topic. Professional web marketing techniques become all the more relevant for top ranking. Contact us to help your site reach top ranking and sustain its search engine placement.

The Google +1 button has been rolled out and received with mixed enthusiasm by website owners and AdWords advertisers. Many of the webmasters have already added the +1 button to their sites. No doubt, Google changes their search and indexing algorithms on a regular basis and keeping up with all the changes can be hard work. Google Buzz may very well disappear completely or if the company strategizes correctly, they may just combine the two ensuring more interactivity amongst searches.

If you haven’t placed the Google +1 button on your website yet, you will benefit from the tips and pieces of information about the new roll-out from Google.

Google +1 Button Will Influence Rankings

Google announced that the +1 feature will definitely be used in determining a web page relevance to a search string and thus also its ranking. Website owners will thus have to carefully consider the content of their sites and the keywords optimized for. Quality will count since the user will have the power to click on the button for liking the content. The button can almost be compared to the Facebook Like button, just with a bit more power.

How Does The User See The Google +1 Button?

When a searcher comes across a web page related to a specific search, they can simply click on the Google +1 button to recommend it as relevant to the search. The users must be logged in with their Google account to use the button and can set the public display in their profiles. The button and likes of a person will by default be publicly displayed unless set otherwise in the profile settings.

Users will see recommendations from contacts below their search results, helping them to get more relevant search results. The moment the user clicks the button, the content will appear in the user’s profile at Google under the Google +1 button tab. It can be seen in 44 languages, but the annotations will only be visible in English.

Is The Google +1 Button The Same As Google Buzz?

The +1 feature is not intended as a conversation tool whereas the Google Buzz feature has been created to promote conversation about interesting topics or web content found by searchers. Up to now, it has not been used widely and many website owners have already replaced it with the +1 feature, seen as more relevant to searches.

How Will The +1 Button Feature On A Website?

Google provides the website owner or AdWords advertiser with several styles and sizes to select from. If a site owner has a bit of technical knowledge, more customisation can be done to the button. One can add several +1 buttons to a single web page at various places. If a user clicks one, it will mean a recommendation for the whole page. Google has suggested placement of the +1 button near the page title and the links to be shared. In addition, you can place the button at the end of the page as well.

Google has given recommendations regarding faster loading speed such as placement of the script tag at the end of the page before the closing of the page body tag. It is worth keeping in mind since loading time of a page is also considered regarding page ranking. When it comes to AdWords, the +1 annotations will appear next to the headlines.

Where Will The Button Also Be Visible?

The Google +1 button will be visible under the Share at YouTube, and will also be visible at the Blogger, Android Market and the Google Product Search facility. It is not available for mobile search at the moment, but Google most probably will add the feature to the mobile search in the near future.

How To Add The Button At A Blogger Site

Simply click on the Page Elements under Design on the blog dashboard and once you have located the blog posting area, you can edit by selecting the share buttons option where the +1 button can also be found.

Why Place The Google +1 Button At Your Web Pages, Blog Posts And Search Ads?

According to Google, adding the button to your pages, AdWords and blog posts, you ensure that your pages and ads will be immediately visible. By giving your visitors more opportunities to plus one your content, you increase the chances of more relevant traffic to your site. This is so because the plus one annotations will be visible in the search results. The idea is that people are more likely to click on search results with plus one annotations than those not reviewed and recommended.

Terms Of Usage

Google by now has learned that SEO marketers and web publishers don’t take long before they get shortcuts regarding Google features. As such the company has created strict rules and regulations for the usage of the Google +1 button. One for instance, may not entice a visitor in any way to click on the +1 button. Publishers may also not try to discover who used the button unless the user has allowed sharing of such information with the publishers. Publishers cannot give awards in return for clicking on the + 1 buttons.

Analytics For The Feature Are Not Yet Available

Although you will not be able to use Google Analytics for the +1 button yet, Google is working on such to ensure that website owners will be able to get information on the demographics and content clicked for. In future then, webmasters will be able to use information derived from Google +1 button clicks to improve their web content and marketing strategies.

Should You Ignore Or Use?

The Google +1 button is a social sharing feature, something at which Google has not been able to succeed thus far. Considering that web pages are now almost cluttered with all the social sharing buttons, one may be sceptical regarding usage of the +1 by users.

Although people use the Like feature for Facebook, they tend to be less concerned about what their friends search for and will want to search for regarding organic searches. On the other hand, a +1 annotation or more can certainly help to improve visibility in the search results and as such we recommend that you add the button to your pages and ads sooner rather than later.

Let us handle the process should you struggle to add the new Google +1 feature to all your web pages.

The newest marketing tool that has hit the online marketing world is the virtual actor or virtual sales person. You don’t have to have an animated avatar, but can have a rather real life looking cyber actor introduce your website and its contents to the visitor.

Why Buy Into The Concept Of Virtual Actors For Online Marketing?

Users want interactivity and often struggle to navigate through websites, especially comprehensive websites with various options. Helping the user by means of audio is one way, but getting more personal, takes online marketing to a whole new level. The cyber actors or virtual sales persons can be compared to someone greeting a shopper at the counter or perhaps acting as guide through a resort. People want to know that they are not interacting with computers alone. They need some personalisation because we now live in a world where distance is placed between the supplier and the customer. Virtual actors or sales persons who are professionally dressed and speak with real human voices help to bridge the distance.

How Does It Work?

Saying real life may just be a bit confusing. The cyber characters are still animated, but sure do look like the real persons. You as the website owner will create the wording and where and when you want the virtual sales persons to appear. You can even have the avatar walk around, point to products and show a bit of humour. Facial expressions are possible and as such the user gets the feeling of interacting with a real person. Should the user want a question answered you can add little question boxes and also immediate contact boxes. On the other end you can have a call centre agent ready to answer and explain.  The virtual sales person is another one of your team members with the difference being that the cyber character sells to the online audience. It is a definite enhancement to the website and one online marketing tool that can set your website apart from that of competitors in the same industry.

More Convenience For The Customer

Users get tired of having to read through one sales letter after the other. If you want your Pay Per Click sales conversion levels to increase then a virtual sales person waiting on the landing page will do the trick. Instead of the user having to read through endless wording, you can have a friendly virtual sales person talk to the user and do the selling. As such virtual actors and cyber sales persons are ideal for sales landing pages. The virtual character relates to the specific audience and creates trust, something that a sales letter simply cannot always achieve.

More Applications For The Virtual Characters:

• Add a cyber character to an auction site.
• Use an avatar as host to a games site.
• Let a virtual actor introduce new concepts.

Some Of The Advantages Of Using Cyber Characters For A Website:

• Loads fast ensuring that the user gets immediate response.
• Creates a personal touch.
• Saves the user time as the user doesn’t have to read through long pieces of information.
• Especially helpful for users who have reading disabilities or who have difficulty seeing on computers screens.
• Helpful to the blind web users.
• Makes a site more accessible to a wider audience.

How To Add A Cyber Character To Your Website:

• Download a virtual actor software package from the Internet.
• You can find such cyber character packages by doing a search at Google for “cyber character” or “virtual actors” or “website avatars” or “speaking character for websites”.
• As an alternative let an online marketing company such as iLead create the characters and upload to your site.
• Select the avatar or virtual actor that you want to use and customize the cyber character.
• You can add accessories or change the clothing and hairstyle of the virtual salesperson or spokesperson.
• Record the avatar script and ensure correct voice usage.
• Generate the HTML coding and ensure that it is inserted at the correct places in your site.

It is important to speak in an audible voice and ensure that the speed of the conversation will be correct. You don’t want the recording to sound like a computer or unprofessional. If you don’t have the correct voice for the job, get the help from a professional online marketing company to ensure that the whole process of creating a professional website avatar is done correctly.

Cyber Actors or Characters and SEO

One of the questions that website owners have is whether the use of cyber actors will not influence their search engine rankings and the optimization process. Virtual characters speak in audible voices. Their conversations are not yet searchable by search engines. As such virtual characters should be used in conjunction with text. Some persons may still want text on the page and search engines require text. You will thus still need articles, blogs, press releases, newsletters, and keyword optimization, but the website virtual characters will create interactivity, save time for the user and help to boost online sales. As such the virtual actors will not take the place of text, but rather become guides, sales people, and hosts. A professional online marketing company such as iLead Online can help you create the website virtual sales persons, place them at the correct pages, and optimize the pages to ensure that there will still be enough text for the search engines.

If you have a dynamic web page, which is one that uses the client server scripts to ensure that the content displayed reflects the personal preferences of the user, you may find it difficult to optimize the web pages for good search engine placement. Fortunately it is possible by adding for instance, a static sitemap to the complete website and ensuring that you have a blog where new searchable content is created on a regular basis. Links from affiliate websites also improve the ranking of the site ensuring that even when you have a shopping or Web 2.0 site that the site will still be able to rank well. One should understand that the website virtual characters are online marketing help tools and not optimization tools. The SEO team will continue to optimize the pages for best search engine placement. Get going with cyber speaking characters and actors. Get professional help from the online marketing team at iLead. Contact us to help you create your very own virtual website assistant for better sales conversions.

The online war between the giant Google and Microsoft with their Bing search engine is heating up with accusations of copying flying from left to right. Google has gone public with their allegations by stating at their official blog in no uncertain terms that Bing is guilty of recycling the Google results.

Say what you want, but picking sides in this online war becomes easy when considering the evidence as stated at the Google blog, and of course, the fact that Google has always been in the lead when it comes to the generation of accurate search results.

Amit Singhal, the Google engineer explained in exact detail how Google engineers created phony search results as bait and how Bing then displayed the same results on their search pages not too long after. The conclusion can only be that Bing is guilty, but Microsoft responded with a not-guilty plea, stating that results indicate how Bing uses opt-in customer data for better search experiences for customers.

The tech community has come out with fierce criticism for both sides, but according to Google all they want is for Microsoft to stop with their practice of recycling Google results at their Bing search engine.

How does Microsoft Recycle Google Results?

Microsoft uses opt-in online customer data and their Bing toolbar to get a feel for what the users search for and which links are followed. Users who do searches using Google and have the Bing toolbar installed will subsequently find that every time they click on a Google result that Bing records it and then ads the results to their own search results. If one look at it in this way, it seems that Google has a point; recycling of Google search results is not too original on the part of Microsoft and it does seem to be an underhanded technique while the Google engineers have to work hard in ensuring that search results are highly accurate. The Google versus Bing war promises to get even more exciting and the outcome should set a president for future recycling efforts by search engine companies.