Ironvine Analytics Web Analytics, Data Analysis, Online Marketing, and Search Engine Information.

26May/110

Google +1 Button Setup, Google +1 on SEO, Adwords


[repost]
Google +1 Button Setup, Google +1 on SEO, Adwords

Google has made the +1 Button feature available on web search.

  • Google’s +1 Button is similar to the Facebook’s Like button which allows users to vote up content within Google’s search engine results pages (SERP).
  • Google’s +1 Button allows you to share recommendations to others and receive recommendations from others.
  • Google +1 is one of signals Google uses to identify the most useful recommendations to you, including people you are already connected to you through other Google products such as GMail, GTalk, Google Buzz and Google Reader.
  • Google’s +1 button will initially only appear on Google.com’s English search results.

Google’s +1 is Google’s social search.

Google +1 Button Setup

To activate and use Google +1 Button:

  • Sign-in to your Google account.
  • Go to Google Labs Experimental and click “Join this experiment” for +1 Button.
  • Go to www.Google.com and do a web search.
  • Click on a +1 button next to a web page.
    +1 Button on Google SERP
  • Click “Confirm and +1″ – You’re done voting the web page.
    +1 a web page

Next time when you search on Google and this web page shows up in Google’s SERP, your +1 and Google profile photo with “You +1′d this” will appear.

    You +1'd this

Google +1 Button for SEO

A Quora discussion on how Google’s +1 Button will affect SEO:

  • +1 becomes the new Google PageRank – Google’s search algorithmmay eventually rely less on link popularity.
  • Google may give different weighing scale to +1′s from different users. Example, A +1 from Danny Sullivan on Gordon Choi’s Blog may carry much more weight than a +1 from an anonymous person.
  • Google can build the BIG social graphs from your personal social graph (i.e. all the +1 recommendations your friends have contributed) and the +1 graph for a piece of content (i.e. all the +1′s recommended to a single web page).

Google +1 Button for Adwords

Google’s +1 Buttons will appear on Adwords ads, though Google officially announced +1 won’t affect Google Adwords Quality Score.

  • All ads will be getting these buttons.
  • Theres no way for advertisers to turn them off.
  • Clicks on the +1 button next to ads do NOT count as a paid ad click.
  • Advertisers will be able to see stats about which ads are getting the most +1s.

Google +1 Button on Your Site

Webmasters may add Google’s +1 Button on their websites, allowing visitors to +1 (recommend) the web pages (content) to Google and other users.

Tagged as: , , , No Comments
9May/11Off

Google Ranking Advice 2011

Google Panda UpdateGoogle lists the following as “questions that one could use to assess the ‘quality’ of a page or an article”:

  • Would you trust the information presented in this article?
  • Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
  • Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
  • Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
  • Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
  • Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
  • Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
  • Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
  • How much quality control is done on content?
  • Does the article describe both sides of a story?
  • Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
  • Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
  • Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
  • For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?
  • Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?
  • Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
  • Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
  • Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
  • Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
  • Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
  • Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
  • Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?
  • Would users complain when they see pages from this site?

The company is careful to note that it’s not disclosing actual ranking signals used in its algorithms, but these questions will help you “step into Google’s mindset.” These questions are things that Google says it asks itself as it writes algorithms.

Singhal also reminds webmasters, “One other specific piece of guidance we’ve offered is that low-quality content on some parts of a website can impact the whole site’s rankings, and thus removing low quality pages, merging or improving the content of individual shallow pages into more useful pages, or moving low quality pages to a different domain could eventually help the rankings of your higher-quality content.”

(2011-May-09)

Source: http://www.webpronews.com/google-panda-update-advice-2011-05

6Apr/11Off

SEO Tip – Build User Engagement

SEO Tip:

Is there a way to secure more business from you current traffic?

Build User Engagement

Remember the Web has multi-media potential to offer. Have you ever thought about enhancing your content with a video tutorial or something to get visitors engaged with you?

Filed under: General, SEO Comments Off
31Mar/11Off

Google +1

Google +1 IconGoogle is rolling out it's version of the Facebook "Like" button for it's search results. Soon you will be seeing how many people recommend a link and who of your Google contacts like the same content. Check out the video below to get an introductory overview of Google +1.

 

 

From the Google Social Web Blog:

But the +1 button isn’t just for search results. We’re working on a +1 button that you can put on your pages too, making it easy for people to recommend your content on Google search without leaving your site. If you want to be notified when the +1 button is available for your website, you can sign up for email updates at our +1 webmaster site.

9Mar/11Off

Video: Search Engine Optimization SEO Tutorial

Search Engine Optimization SEO Tutorial -- WebBizIdeas

Filed under: SEO Comments Off
26Jan/09Off

How to market your website with free publicity!

How to market your website with free publicity!

Press releases and well written informative articles are a cheap and easy way to get public awareness of your site and promotions. Not all submission sites charge to send out your PR, although most have some sort of limitation to them unless you pay for features. This article should show you how to get around having to pay anything for some great online visibility!

Are you quaking in your boots about having to write something from scratch? It is not as challenging as you may think, and you don’t always need a professional copywriter to do all the work for you! The main goal to writing a publication is to provide valuable information. It may be something as simple as how to properly wash you hands. That may not sound like much, but to a company that sells soap or paper towels that bit of information could end up making them a lot of money!

Step #1 - Think of something relevant to you or your company to write about!

As I mentioned above, it doesn’t have to be something major like a public stock offering notice. Something simple, easy to understand and relevant to you is all you need. Somewhere in the world there is someone who wants to know what you have to share.

Going back to the example of an article explaining how to wash your hands correctly, there are any number of people or groups that could find this information valuable. Hospitals, dentist offices, supermarkets, Microsoft, you never know! And neither will they unless you tell them.

Step #2 - I have to write now???

Soon, but before you have to get into your creative mode there are some tips that might make things easier. From experience, looking at a blank piece of paper can be scary. It is easy to get lost in the blankness of how to fill the white void.

Solution: Make yourself a template and break the page up!

Not only will a template help you start writing easier, it will help you organize your thoughts, form a well structured document, AND have it ready for all those online submissions later on! Here is a sample template you can use while getting ready to create a document. Notice how the headings are put in brackets to help distinguish the sections.

[DATE]

[TITLE]

[SUMMARY]

[BODY]

[RESOURCES/LINKS]

[AUTHOR]

Step #3 - Great! You have something on that blank page now right? Now you are wondering what to put in each of those sections. Let’s go through them briefly.

[DATE] - This should be self explanatory. This is more for records keeping than anything. Maybe you write a great article and want to share it more than once, but you want to give it a month or two before resubmitting it. Now you know when it was first published.

[TITLE] - The title may be the first and last step of your creativity. Many times a title that was started with changed dramatically by the end. Still it is a good place to start. Give your article something to go on.

[SUMMARY] - Tell the people what you are going to tell them, briefly. Hit the high points of what you are going to say. This section can either help focus your ideas, or you can come back to it after you are finished writing the bulk of your text.

[BODY] - Here is where your true genius shines through! This part of the writing I can’t give you too many tips on. The content really depends on you and what you want to say.

Some general tips: Be thorough. Be concise. Be intriguing. Write information you want your audience to read and remember. Stylistics: For online reading if you can keep your paragraphs to no more than 4-5 lines long it is easier to read. Remember to spellcheck!

[RESOURCES/LINKS] - Feel free to back up your information with supporting data! Your website/blog being the #1 prime location to link to. Other supporting resources that will provide your readers with valuable information are also good. You may have a great new idea, but help your credibility with supporting data.

[AUTHOR] - Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do? Who do you work for? Why should someone listen to what you say? How can someone contact you? Provide your information here.

Step #4 - Almost done! Now you have your article prepared. What do you do with it?

First of all I would suggest having someone proof-read it. Spellcheck doesn’t always catch wrong words. Now it’s ready for publication! Below is a long list of sites where you can submit articles and press releases for free. I am not supporting one over another as there are many popular to professional news agency sites listed.

You will most likely have to create a user account on each before they will allow you to publish your work. Be careful as most free submission sites will try to get you to pay for certain features. Feel free to use any features you like, they can really add to your visibility, but they can add up ($$$) quickly and are not always needed.

What should you expect to get out of all this work? Getting your name and information out to the public should be worth enough, but there are other perks. Search engines love linkbacks from quality sources. How much more quality can you provide than using yourself as a source publishing around the world? It can be a huge boost to any search engine optimization plan. If you can get people talking about you, good or bad, it’s all publicity.

Hopefully this article has helped you in some small way. If it has then it was worth the effort of writing it!

Good luck and go get that free publicity!

[RESOURCES]

[Press Release Submission Sites]
PR Free [http://www.prfree.com/]
SBWire [http://www.sbwire.com]
Press Zoom [http://www.presszoom.com/]
Press Base [http://www.press-base.com/]
Express Press Release Distribution [http://www.express-press-release.com/]
Press World [http://www.press-world.com/]
Open PR [http://www.openpr.com/]
Free Press Release [http://www.free-press-release.com/]
Free News Release [http://www.free-news-release.com/]
I Newswire [http://www.i-newswire.com/]
Newswire Today [http://www.newswiretoday.com/]
PR.com [http://www.pr.com]

[Article Submission Sites]
iSnare [http://www.isnare.com/]
ArticleBlast [http://www.articleblast.com/]
Ezine Articles [http://www.ezinearticles.com/]
GO Articles [http://www.goarticles.com/]

For more information please visit:
Ironvine Search Marketing Blog - Tips, tricks, code, resources and news 

[ABOUT THE AUTHOR]
Steve Terjeson is an Online Marketing Specialist with over 10 years programming and web experience. As a search engine optimization expert, he has managed hundreds of web sites in high performance search engine rankings and has set up marketing campaigns with exceptional results.

Steve Terjeson
Online Marketing Specialist
Ironvine Search Marketing

Published Source: How to market your website with free publicity! - Amazines.com

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , 

Filed under: Marketing, SEO Comments Off
23Jan/09Off

ChannelAdvisor Lays off 19%

ChannelAdvisor Lays off 19% of its Workforce

Sad to say, I was one of them. Apparently there were 32 Employees let go in the US offices.

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y09/m01/i23/s04
http://onlinesaleschannels.wordpress.com/2009/01/22/my-liquid-lunch-with-ex-ca-employees/

I look at this as a good thing though as I was the only member of the Seattle office left on staff after they vacated the office building in Oct 2008. (Yes, no more west coast office). I have had to work out of my home office since then. It will be nice to be able to get back into traveling to work and getting to talk to other people, sharing and learning new things.

If anyone knows a company looking for a Search Marketing guru feel free to contact me at steve @ ironvine.com!

My condolences to all the other employees that were let go this week I wish you all the best, and to my former co-workers it was a great 2 years. Take care!

24Jun/08Off

Yahoo on Click Fraud

As I posted last week over at SearchMarketing.com, Yahoo has done a good bit to give more insight into what it is doing to combat click fraud.

While there is not a lot of everyday usefulness in the update, they are making a good faith effort to combat the very controversial topic.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

17Apr/08Off

Keyword Generation Resources

I know we've probably all used these but I thought I would toss them up here when I found an article with them all included.

Word Tracker http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
With Wordtracker you type in one keyword and can get up to 100 top keyword variations and approximately how many searches each one receives. They also have an 'adult filter' you can use to eliminate any adult orientated search terms that might be related to your keyword.

Google Adwords Keyword Tool https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
The Google Adwords keyword tool is great! You can type in as many keywords as you like to start with, and Google will literally give you hundreds of keywords to choose from including different variations of your keyword to misspellings. They also give you much more information than just keyword variations. They can show you advertiser competition, search volume per month, average search volume total, average CPC , ad position and much more.

SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/
The  SEO Book Keyword Research Tool is very cool for many reasons. Mainly, it shows the estimated number of daily searches for each Google, Yahoo and MSN. They've also recently added an export to CSV feature, so you can now export the entire list of keywords into a spreadsheet to share with others or to use for future references.Keyword Discovery http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.htmlThe free Keyword Discovery tool is great for giving many different variations of keywords and their estimated number of searches performed. The great thing about Keyword Discovery is that they collect data from all major search engines. I do feel however that on some keywords they estimate a very low number of searches .

SpyFu http://www.spyfu.com/?kw=keyword%20research%20tool
 Spyfu is pretty cool in the fact that they give you more than just variations of keywords you are searching for. Spyfu gives you such information like, an average cost-per- click, cost/day, clicks/day, the number of advertisers also bidding on a particular keyword and the number of search results listed. In addition, they will list out top related terms, related concepts and keywords that competitors bought. What's even more cool, they will also list out the top 5 (although you can view more) advertisers who are advertising for this keyword, their domain and ad text, both in paid search and organic. Now that's a lot of info!

MSN Keyword Forecast Tool http://adlab.msn.com/ForecastV2/KeywordTrendsWeb.aspx
This tool doesn't necessarily give you variations of a keyword you type in, but it gives you traffic forecasting information as well as demographic information. For Example, for the keyword 'catheter' I found that that majority of people tying in this keyword are women ages 50+. This will help me understand my target audience better as well as allow me to set up correct demographic settings within my accounts. It also gives me an estimate of when searches on this keyword are highest and lowest so I know when to expect more traffic and when to expect a drop in traffic.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , ,

Filed under: Marketing, SEO Comments Off
13Mar/08Off

New Search Engine Searchme.com

Here is a first look at a new visual search engine at searchme.com.Searchme does look good, resembling a mashup of Google with Apple's popular Cover Flow three-dimensional graphical user interface used on its iTunes service, with a little of Ask.com's categories thrown in.For now, Searchme is only going into private beta, adding users by invitation only.To create the page-riffling effect, Searchme has been working with Adobe. The top screen, after a search term has been entered, then creates a stack of pages to represent the page links on a list below. Technorati Tags: , , , , , , ,

5Mar/08Off

Ask.com Downsizing and Refocusing

Today CNN published an article about some major changes in the way Ask.com is going to be doing business moving forward. They are changing their focus from an all inclusive, interactive search engine and adapting it to target a specific audience.

With the change it will return to its roots by concentrating on finding answers to basic questions about recipes, hobbies, children's homework, entertainment and health.

The decision to cater to married women primarily living in the southern and midwestern United States comes after Ask spent years trying to build a better all-purpose search engine than Google.

While I am fully supportive of them creating a niche market to provide specific answers, this comes as a strange choice to me. Thinking economically that demographic isn't among the stronger per capita income areas. They are going to have limited influence in the market base with advertisers who will also be constrained by their focused market.

It seems as this is yet another down turn in the search competition world, Ask.com is starting to fade away into its own corner and returning a small portion of the market share back into the search pool.

You can read the full article at CNN - Ask.com gets a makeover, lays off 40

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

Filed under: Marketing, News, SEO Comments Off
21Feb/08Off

adExcellence Certified

Steven Terjeson of ChannelAdvisor is accredited as an official Microsoft adExcellence Member. A Microsoft adExcellence Member has completed comprehensive online training on managing Microsoft adCenter search engine marketing campaigns and has demonstrated expert knowledge by passing the Microsoft adExcellence accreditation exam.

This completes my suite of certifications, Google, Yahoo and now MSN.

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

Filed under: General, MSN, News, SEO Comments Off