In the second installment in our Google + Series, we discuss more elements that will make G+ the premier social network in 2013 and beyond.
Explore
The Explore function of Google Plus allows the user to explore accounts they might not otherwise discover. Comprised of public postings from around the world, Explore will show you everything from photography, popular music, to world news. All posts are family-friendly and Safe For Work (unless you’re offended by bad amateur poetry), so there’s little (or relative) risk of offence or inappropriate materials.
Where to find it:
The Explore button is the image of a compass, and can be found in the left handed navigation bar, about halfway down the list. If you want to adjust the amount of Explore articles that appear in your home feed, it can be found in the header of Explore page, on the right hand side.
How to use it:
It also allows you to determine how many posts show up in your Home feed. This function makes it easier to integrate the Explore function into your everyday life while controlling the amount that appears on your feed. You can also access the entire Explore function through its specific button on the navigation bar, where every post will be available to the public.
 Why it matters:
The Explore function has several benefits for both consumers and organizations. Its ability to expose him or her effortlessly to new ideas, art, news or products improves user ability. It allows organizations the chance to gain exposure their target demographic, and further improve ad targeting and revenues.
Over the years, Google has made multiple attempts at creating a flourishing social media platform, with limited success. Now they have finally found a way to integrate user behaviour, search results and social into one cohesive platform – Google Plus. Available to anyone with a Google account, the G+ platform has many superior elements compared to other social networks. More importantly, it has the power of Google search engine results pages (SERPs) filtering through it. As a Google property, expect that it will become more essential in 2013 as Google incorporates it more blatantly into search results.
In this series, we’ll explore elements of the G+ system that set it apart from other social platforms, explain how they work and why they matter to both the general public and the search industry.
Circles
Circles are one of the best and most essential elements of the G+ platform. Essentially, it’s a filter you apply to your friends and posts. Break it down into work, friends, family, whatever you’d like – you can ensure that the appropriate information goes to the right people. And yes, that means your grandma or your boss can be a part of your online life while shielding them from those embarrassing photos from that trip to Vegas.
Where to find it:
In the left hand navigation bar, either in the initial list or under the ‘more’ section (because it’s all personalized).
How to use it:
For people: Click the circles button in the navigation bar. At the bottom of the screen, there will be several circles, like Friends or Family. You can create custom circles for your needs, which is a first in most social platforms. All you need to do is drag and drop names from above this list into the circles you’d like – and people can be in more than one circle at a time.
For posts: When you add a post, link or comment, there should be a section on the bottom of the window to specify which circles can see it. The default is usually Public, but that can be removed easily and replaced with specific circles.
Air Date: January 3, 2013
The Federal Trade Commission closes its antitrust review and announces Googles services are good for users and good for competition.
Plus, Jim and Dave discuss as they discuss Google Plus and personal privacy with Kristine Schachinger from SitesWithoutWalls.
Podcast: |
Google is entering the New Year trying to tie up loose ends. Interestingly, it’s not business or operations or even technological loose ends Google is thinking about. Given the company has the most intelligent work force ever assembled; Google is coping with most of its own loose ends. It is your loose ends that interest them.
Google Plus You
Over the next decade, Google expects to facilitate many of the physical tasks and mental chores you need to do daily. From basic grocery shopping to ordering and recording the complexities of our financial lives, Google is building systems to improve our abilities to achieve what can best be described as life-needs fulfillment.
Google developed the prototype for the self-driving car. The company now maintains a fleet to shuttle staff and key visitors around the San Jose region. Safer and ultimately less costly than human-controlled vehicles, Google’s driverless cars are moving metaphors for the future of Google services. A huge number of those little annoying chores you need to do every day can be automated.
Why shop for groceries when your life-system knows you need more milk, rice, beans and such and can simply order those items for you? Similarly, why should you drive to pick up the kids from school when a perfectly autonomous automobile can do that driving for you? Having used Google Wallet, which is tied to your bank account, to conduct major transactions over a one year period; it is far easier to figure out your taxes in March, especially now that the tax structures for entrepreneurs have become so bloated and wonky. Beyond taxes, Google might be able to prepare a manageable personal budget, one you can post with pride to certain circles of advisors and facilitators on Google Plus.
There is only one essential factor made up of seven billion unique things standing between Google Services and the promise of an automatic lifestyle. That essential factor is what makes you essentially you and me essentially me and makes that weird girl slouching over her coffee in the corner booth such an intriguing being. Call it a soul or call it a unique configuration of neural pathways, the end result is the same. Every person on the Earth has a slightly different combination of personal needs, wants, abilities, resources, talents and ambitions. Thus, every Google Service has to be unique to the person using it.
For most of us, that would put end to any attempt to assume we could automate people’s lives for them on a truly global scale. Notably, most of us aren’t sitting at the C-Level at Google or Amazon or Apple or Facebook. In fact, most of us laughed at Google’s attempt to build its social network, Google Plus. We giggled it was a ghost town. We goofed about abysmal user numbers. We staggered in awe at the audacity of authorship via Google Plus and felt forced into adopting its dictates.
What we didn’t understand while laughing at them was, in fact, the key to Larry Page’s strategy, one Google has been slowly revealing over the past couple of weeks. Google Plus is the identity machine binding all of Google’s services to Google’s growing impression of your personal needs. This isn’t about search or social, it’s about you.
Over the next three months, we’re going to examine Google Plus closely. Digital Always Media SEO Bria Jordan will take a look at various components of Google Plus and outline how to best use it. I’m going to be looking at the roles Google Plus is playing in both Google’s overall ecosystem and the Web in general, and how that affects integrated digital marketing moving forward into 2013.
Today on the Webcology @WebmasterRadio.FM radio show, we start by looking at Google Plus and personal privacy. The show starts at 2pm eastern and a podcast of the show will be posted here sometime tomorrow.
Air Date: December 20, 2012
SEO in 2013, the Old and the New as Jim and Dave welcome veteran SEOs, David Harry (Owner and Sifu at SEO Training Dojo), Terry Van Horne (Partner of Reliable SEO and SEO Training Dojo), and 1st year SEO Bria Jordan (Digital Always Media). The group talks about a year of changes and looks forward to what SEOs can expect in 2013.
Podcast:
Dec 12
12
Small Business and SEO
Recently, my husband and I went for a drink at a bar that opened down the road. As we were discussing our mutual employment with the bartender, he called over Craig, the owner, and introduced us.
Craig had recently opened , a music venue and bar in an up and coming neighbourhood in Toronto. Like most entrepreneurs, Craig was stretched thin financially; between start-up costs, overhead and renovations, outsourcing was not feasible, but was complicated by the fact Craig recognised the importance of SEO. The situation is not unusual: there are more than 28 million small businesses in North America. It’s a tough situation to any small business, so Craig asked what for some advice about how to do some of his own SEO work.
On average, I get asked twice a week about how an independent entrepreneur can start doing their own SEO work. These are some of my more common recommendations.
Get an Analytics account
Analytics are the cornerstone of SEO. By quantifying certain elements of your website, it is a mine of information for small business owners – these metrics can tell you about your customers and how they are engaging with your site.
Google tools are effective and free, ideal for any business owner who’s on a budget. Once you get your account set up, insert the snippet of provided code into your website’s own code. This is essential for analytics tools to work – don’t skip that step, trust me.
Determine keywords that relate to your product or brand
What are the search behaviours of your target audience? By thinking of what words and phrases your potential audience will use, you can make your website easier to find. Think about things like plurals, keyword order, spelling, acronyms and synonyms and if they affect results. Keep in mind: Local matters! Your keywords should include geographic indicators – including the cities you offer services in is a great place to start.
For example, the targeted phrase “Toronto Massey Hall concerts†could also be searched for as:
Events Toronto Massey Hall
Concert Massey Hall Toronto
Toronto Massy Hall shows
Pay Attention to these: Titles, text, links and tags
Your keywords should be incorporated into these areas in a natural way – loading them with too many keywords can often lead to penalties in Google search results.
Do you use your Content Management System (CMS) efficiently?
Drupal and WordPress are popular choices and are a great way to manage a website, especially for those with limited experience with computers. Both offer plug-ins (or modules, in Drupal) to assist in many aspects of site management. They improve the overall quality of the site – it allows for customization to your business’ needs, which is a hugely undervalued aspect of your website.
Is Your Site User Friendly?
Why do people come to your site? Is it to read your blog? Learn more about a product? Book an appointment? Take it into account when putting your site together. Make their experience the easiest thing possible: Forcing customers to click through several pages before finding what they need should never happen. It can be as simple as having a link to the desired page in the navigation, or embedded in a sidebar. The San Diego based conversion optimization firm Site Tuners offers a free eye-tracking tool that can show you how first time visitors are most likely to see your website.
Social Media is Your Friend
Engaging in social media helps maintain consistency in marketing and communications, and is a successful method of promoting your business. You should have a corporate account in every social media platform: even if you don’t plan to use certain programs, owning the account will protect your brand. Engagement with Social Media is key; it should be done on a regular basis every week.
Manage the feedback – negative or positive
The internet has changed the way companies get customer feedback: there are several ways people provide feedback and reviews, and they will show up in the search results when people are looking for your site. Maintaining genuine connections with clients or customers is important in engaging in a positive dialogue with current customers while gaining the trust of the potential customers.
Several times a year, take an hour and do some research
The nature of SEO is evolution, it’s important to understand how search engines weigh the importance of certain elements of your website. It’s realistic to expect this to change, so adjust your SEO efforts accordingly.
When doing your research, remember that as the algorithms change often, older information may not be accurate in the current circumstances. It is best to start with the most recent information and work your way backwards chronologically.
Blogging helps in creating fresh content
Currently, fresh content is highly valued in the current algorithms – and blogging is one of the best ways to keep your site fresh. Consistently adding new content to your site, regardless of size, will improve your search engine results over time.
SEO results take time
Do not expect a significant change in a short period of time – real SEO results take months to see improvement. If you see a sharp decline, investigate the cause immediately. It is possible that you have been penalized by Google, or that the algorithms have changed. Do not listen to anyone who promises instant results.
In an aritcle published today by Kristine Schachinger, our very own Jim Hedger weighs in the curent state of SEO and the needs that musts be addressed as the industry evolves. Read the full article here -Â
Ranking reports have finally died a most definite death. Earlier today, Patrick E. Keeble, co-founder, president and CEO of Raven Tools wrote a long and carefully worded letter to all Raven Tools users on his company’s blog, “”.
It might be the most important blog post Raven has ever posted because Raven is removing one of the oldest SEO reporting metrics from its analytic tool set. As of January 2nd, Raven will no longer generate keyword ranking reports. That will pose an inconvenience for a lot of Raven customers but as Keeble notes, it also marks a major change in how SEOs will explain and measure their services, one that’s been brewing for a long time.
Keeble says Raven Tools was forced to choose between using data collected by query-bots (aka: scraped) from Google, and using Google Approved Data. At stake was Raven’s license to continue accessing data from Google’s AdWords API. In other words, Google told Raven that no outside party is allowed to provide Google results alongside results generated and prepared by Google itself. A note from Google AdWords to Raven read:
“In order to be in compliance with the AdWords API Terms and Conditions please cease offering any product or product feature that collects scraped data or uses scraped data acquired from another source (this includes the functionality offered under website and keyword research in your tool).â€
After a few weeks of negotiation, Google gave Raven thirty day’s to turn off keyword based SERP result reporting and any other analytic reporting tool which gathers information about Google results from third party sources. Happy 2013!
This, along with the escalating non-referral keyword data in Google Analytics, pushes SEOs into a far more expensive and more professionalized future of web services. Both are very large waves in the storm of change facing the search marketing industry.
It’s important to note at this point, ranking reports are in most cases garbage. Though it might seem contrary to what people understand about SEO, tracking rankings by keyword at Google has not been an effective metric for the past three years. Most SEOs have continued to provide ranking reports but only because that’s what clients want to see, not because seeing the rankings was of any great relevance to the client. What good SEOs try to explain is, the ranking report the client is viewing is only good to the computer it was generated on. Any other computer is likely to see a different set of results. As we explain to our clients, ALL ORGANIC RESULTS ARE LOCAL. (hat-tip to Tip O’Neill)
This is a difficult thing to explain to a client. While anyone can easily understand regionalization, few know about personalization of search. Long term Google users see result sets heavily tailored to what Google perceives about their individual search patterns. If that Google search user is signed into another Google product such as Google Plus or Gmail, the information Google records about their interactions goes into the generation of future search result sets.
Many clients still perceive SEO services to be about keywords and search engine ranking. In one respect, that impression remains correct. We use highly descriptive words which we believe search users will enter when trying to find information. We also use phrases, sentences and entire paragraphs to the same effect. In many cases, we’ll try to introduce location specific information as frequently as possible. We expect the long-term effect of our work to generate high search engine rankings under a number of words associated with the product or service our clients offer. That alone however is not what SEO is about. It used to be but those days are long over.
Once upon a time, search engine optimization companies lived and died on their monthly ranking reports. The third week of each month was dedicated to preparing detailed depictions of how each URL in a website was ranking on six or seven search engines, against a set of target keywords. Life was good for those who knew what they were doing and achieving consistent Top10s meant you could consistently charge top dollar. SEOs could still serve small business clients and virtually (but never vocally or in writing) guarantee positive results. Back then, SEO was a 9-5 work-a-day job.
Today, SEO is about enhancing an environment of opportunities. The long-term goal of achieving high rankings remains the same but with a couple added goal posts and a heck of a lot more work. Search engines use a far wider range of signals and information sources than they used to. They also deliver wildly different types of search result sets. SEO firms are now tasked with providing expertise in multiple environments such as Facebook, Twitter, eBay, Amazon, AdWords, and increasingly in display advertising. As a myriad of web environments merge and draw data from each other, SEOs need to offer the service range of large-scale agencies.
The announcement from Raven Tools earlier today marks one of the last major milestones in the transition of the industry. The old way of reporting results is now effectively dead. Google has made it clear that serious analytic companies will no longer be able to provide ranking reports using data scraped from Google by query-bots. Keyword Ranking Reporting will be yesterday’s news within the next twelve hours. It’s a natural maturation but it’s a big one. One which bears marking.
Air Date: December 6, 2012
Jim and Dave discuss the ongoing saga of Software guru John McAfee, who recently suffered two small heart attacks while in detention in Guatemala. McAfee is considered a suspect in the fatal shooting of Gregory Viant Faull, who was shot to death in early November on the Belize island where both men lived. We also discussed how Google Quality Czar Matt Cutts dealt with having his Skype account hacked. Somewhere in here, we talk about search too.
Laura Lippay, the new CEO of SEOgadget.com, joins Dave and Jim this week as they discuss whether or not SEO is Dead, incorporating Yahoo! into your marketing strategy, and how Google Penalty Removal won’t guarantee better rankings.
For all this and more, listen to this weeks’ episode .
According to a report presented during the Mobile Marketing and Measurement Panel at SES Chicago 2012, 87 percent of search marketers will focus on mobile in 2013. Also, Matt Cutts discusses Google Disavow in new YouTube video, meanwhile a webmaster disavows 100 percent of links and still has Google link penalty.
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Nov 12
12
Webcology and #CyberSecurity
Last week’s Webcology podcast touched on the future of web security, and the responsibilities we as SEOs have in educating our governments’ in their pursuit of web security. Michelle Stinson-Ross expands on the issue in today’s Search Engine Journal – read the full article .
Looking into President Obama’s Second Term Tech Agenda, Jim and Dave discuss what web issues the Obama administration is likely to face.  They welcome Search Engine Journal writer Michelle Stinson Ross and Chris Boggs, President of SEMPO (search enigne marketing professionals association). He is also the Director of Thought Leadership at Rosetta and host of WebmasterRadio.FM show, SEO Rockstars.
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Nov 12
6
The ROI of Social Media
In an article published in yesterday’s Search Engine Journal, Alan K’Necht discusses the ROI of social media. .