Why SEO Can’t Afford to Ignore Google+

Excerpts from my latest article at Practical Ecommerce: “SEO: 5 Reasons Not to Ignore Google+.”

Two years ago when Google+ launched, I had high hopes for its value as a marketing platform to rival Facebook and Twitter. Read my enthusiastic missal, “Google+: The Beginning of a Revolution?” The reality of Google+ for marketers thus far has been less than glorious, with low adoption rates for many ecommerce sites’ target audiences.

Even so, Google+ matters to search engine optimization.

I know, your audience isn’t on Google+. The consumers you’re trying to reach are on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or LinkedIn. So why not engage with them on their social platforms of choice, but echo the conversation on Google+?

What follows is why you can’t afford not to….

Read more at “SEO: 5 Reasons Not to Ignore Google+.”

Read my articles in full at Practical Ecommerce » Jill Kocher


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Originally posted on Web PieRat.

Paid and Organic Search: Better Together in AdWords Search Report

Excerpts from my latest article at Practical Ecommerce: “Google Offers Paid and Organic Search Report.”

Paid and organic search work better together. Because searchers inherently trust that search engines are recommending the best pages in search results, when brands rank well in both paid and organic search their search performance for that phrase tends to increase. However, measuring that increase has been a bit challenging until now.

Google AdWords released a new feature this week enabling search marketers to measure performance of their paid and organic search efforts. The “paid and organic report” can be found in the AdWords campaigns tab as a dimension.

Analyzed together, paid and organic search data can uncover a wealth of optimization opportunities. Taken together, paid and organic search represent a large portion of the available real estate on the search results page. The larger your brand’s footprint on the search results, the more likely searchers are to choose one of your listings over the competition.

For example, the report could show keywords that are driving organic search traffic but no paid search traffic. Those keywords could be added to your AdWords campaigns to drive additional traffic and potentially boost the effectiveness of the organic search listing as well…..

Read more at “Google Offers Paid and Organic Search Report.”

Read my articles in full at Practical Ecommerce » Jill Kocher


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Originally posted on Web PieRat.

Banned by Google? Check Now in Webmaster Tools

Excerpts from my latest article at Practical Ecommerce: “SEO: Google Adds Manual Spam Actions to Webmaster Tools.”

Google Webmaster Tools launched its new manual spam actions feature yesterday, enabling verified site owners to check whether their site has been manually penalized by Google.

Over the last couple of years, Google has slowly increased its communication to webmasters, with the goal of fighting webspam by educating site owners on how it impacts their performance in search results. Previously, Google would leave notifications about manual actions taken against a site in the owner’s Webmaster Tools account. This feature augments the notifications with a real-time tool that performs a live check against Google’s internal webspam systems.

Read more at “SEO: Google Adds Manual Spam Actions to Webmaster Tools.”

Read my articles in full at Practical Ecommerce » Jill Kocher


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Originally posted on Web PieRat.

Detecting Unfair Linking Practices … by Whose Definition?

Each of Google’s recent algorithmic updates shares a focus on improving the quality of search results by detecting and removing factors that give some sites unfair advantage over others in the rankings. The criteria for fairness in search results are highly subjective, but Google and the other engines consider content and behavior from “real” people who act without personal gain the most valuable.

For example, imagine that two sites sell the same brand of widgets online. Each site has 100 links from 100 other sites pointing in to it. The first site has attracted 100 links from media sites, bloggers and other people who write unique and relevant content about shoes simply because they’re passionate about them.

The second site wants to get ahead fast, though, and builds links in all the directories, article sites, wikis and blog comment sections they can find. They don’t focus on building the content and relationships necessary to earn links naturally. The second site has the same number of links, but the quality and topical relevance of those links are much lower because they’re manufactured artificially by the company to improve rankings. To the extent that the search engines can detect these lower value links, the second site’s ability to compete in the search results will decrease.

Why is this “fair” in Google’s eyes?

Continue reading “Detecting Unfair Linking Practices … by Whose Definition?”

Press Releases Officially Made Google’s Web Spam List

Excerpts from my latest article at Practical eCommerce: “SEO: Google Devalues Another Link-building Tactic.”

Google’s search result quality mission stands seemingly opposed to the search engine optimization practice of link building. For years, SEO professionals have worked to increase the number of external in-bound links to a site in an effort to build authority and trust, thus boosting organic search rankings. One by one, Google has been devaluing these tactics, and press release distribution is the latest target.

Until recently, optimized press releases were a legitimate if increasingly overused link-building strategy. Press releases are written as part of a company’s normal course of business, and links are naturally included in the body of the press release as they would be in any piece of content on your site. So far, no problem.

Then eager marketers realized that optimized links in press releases would pass link value back to their site when distributed via a press release syndication service like PR Newswire. Sites all over the world receive feeds from these distribution services and repost them on their own sites, typically with links still intact. Next came the spam: overabundant linking within the press release coupled with over-optimized anchor text.

According to Google, press release distribution for SEO benefit is just another source of paid links. You pay for the distribution service, and the result is (was) SEO benefit. In fact, PR companies openly listed SEO among the benefits of using their service. As with other forms of paid linking, Google is devaluing these links now. They’re also asking webmasters to nofollow links in press releases in the same way that links from advertisements should be nofollowed…. Read more at “SEO: Google Devalues Another Link-building Tactic.”

Read my articles in full at Practical eCommerce » Jill Kocher


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Originally posted on Web PieRat.