SEO meets Technology

Yahoo! Search BOSS V2 Updates

2011-08-09T16:10:00.000-07:00

Yahoo! Search BOSS V2 were launched in April, and thanks to the users, the service has been blowing past our expectations. Back then, we promised that there was a lot more to come. Today we would like to announce a few updates to the service.

Control your daily usage limits

Many BOSS developers told us they wanted to be able to control their daily usage. Starting next wek, developers can specify a daily dollar limit for your service consumption. Of course, you can change that limit at any time and can make any combination of queries before hitting that limit. Learn more here on how to set this up. You truly control your own service.

HTTPS support for even more security

Even though we are the only Search API using oAuth, we decided to go one step further. We now allow you to use all the goodness of BOSS with HTTPS. You get all the same functionality that you have with BOSS V2 but you can affix a HTTPS to ensure additional peace of mind. Your search with even more security.
BOSS + SQL, BOSS + YQL

We know that a number of BOSS developers are more familiar with SQL and YQL. We have hence upgraded our BOSS mashup to work with V2, which allows for SQL type querying for the service. As shown in this example about 15 lines of code, you can put together a complete News module. You can also use a user created YQL table with BOSS V2. Download sample mashup code or start using YQL. Your search made relational.

More BOSS news

We added more functionality to the BOSS news service. You can now search for specific headlines, news from a specific location and by specific language. All this powered by the great news content that is indexed by Yahoo! News. Your news, with even more control.

Upgrades in the documentation

We have the best user community in the Search world and we listened to you. In addition to previous examples in PHP, we added code examples in Perl, Python, Ruby, Java and C# to make your jump to BOSS as painless as possible. We noticed the common pitfalls users faced and made sure to provide useful pointers where needed. Check out the documentation and start running with BOSS. Your documents, written your way.

What’s next?

We are truly only scratching the surface of what Y! Search BOSS can offer you. We’re working on delivering a new feature related to blog search. Stay in touch, we’ll share more details in posts to come.
Also as we had announced back in April, we are shutting down BOSS v1 on July 20, 2011, so make sure you transition your applications. If you have any questions reach out to us on the BOSS Yahoo! Group – we are always waiting to help.

New Yahoo Clues Launches

2011-08-09T16:03:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered how powerful it would be to instantly discover what’s popular to a select group of searchers – by age or gender – over the past day, week or even over the past year?
What if you had controls at your fingertips that let you slice and dice Yahoo! searchers by criteria such as gender, age group and regional interest, or gain deep insights from comparing search terms?
Welcome to the new Yahoo! Clues. This free service gives you fun and engaging ways to explore what users are searching for on Yahoo!, offering a “behind the scenes” look into popular search trends.

Top Trends, a key new feature, allows endless exploration of the most popular search terms on Yahoo! Search. Using filter selections, you can choose a combination of time range, gender, age group and geographic location, and even search term category – and Top Trends shows you what’s popular.

Other enhancements to Yahoo! Clues, first introduced back in November 2010, include:

New site design – Clues now includes a home page with navigation to the Top Trends and Trend Analysis features.

More data – We have expanded the history from one month to over 12 months, and covering over three times as many search terms as the previous release.

Global coverage – All English-language searches globally are available.

New map – Trend Analysis includes a brand new map that puts the data at the center of the experience with beautiful heat map visualizations.

Yahoo! Clues is one of the key tools behind the popular Yahoo! search trends stories on our blog, such as last week’s post on the Fourth of July searches, this year’s American Idol projections, Oprah’s Effect on web searches, or even search trends after major news events such as the Death of Bin Laden or the Japan earthquake.

As I ??discussed with Vera H-C Chan during SXSW Interactive earlier this year, analyzing search trends helps us understand the impulses and processes of why people make their choices at that particular moment in time. Furthermore, the massive global scale of Yahoo! Search activity provides a unique ability to instantly poll a huge sample size of our users to spot future trends or dig into what’s popular.

The questions are endless…
For more details on what’s new for Yahoo! Clues, visit the Clues help page, and to start exploring now, go check out the new Yahoo! Clues.

YDN QA with DuckDuckGo a search engine built with BOSS

2011-08-09T16:00:00.000-07:00

Rahul Hampole, Senior Product Manager for Yahoo! Search BOSS, recently interviewed DuckDuckGo founder Gabriel Weinberg by email for the Yahoo! Developer Network’s blog. One of the Q&A’s include:
How does Yahoo! Search BOSS appeal to a developer like you (both on the product side and the business side)?

On the product side, it enables a developer to deliver a fully functioning general-purpose search engine to a consumer, which is pretty amazing if you think about it. As such, it really opens up the possibility to innovate in search.

On the business side, the pricing structure enables you to find a profitable niche. Third-party advertising is allowed, and you can also use the Yahoo! Search ads, which should cover costs.
For more of the Q&A, check out the YDN blog interview.

Introducing schemaorg A Collaboration on Structured Data

2011-08-09T15:56:00.000-07:00

Today we’re announcing schema.org, a new initiative from Yahoo!, Bing, and Google, to create and support a common set of schemas for structured data markup on web pages. With schema.org, webmasters and developers can learn about structured data and improve how their sites appear in search results on Bing, Google, and Yahoo!. Information and tips are available on schema.org, a one-stop resource for webmasters looking to add markup to make their pages better understood by search engines.

In 2008, Yahoo! showed its support of structured data through the launch of the SearchMonkey program. We won plaudits and awards for our work but most importantly Yahoo! helped boost an increase in markup on the web which in turn helped improve the search experience by resolving questions quickly through enhanced result displays. SearchMonkey also helped Yahoo! kick start various initiatives to provide a better search experience, including automatic rich results and richer object displays on Yahoo! Search.

We continue our support of the open web and in an effort to delight our users with richer and more useful user experiences we’ve come together with Bing and Google to pool our experiences and to support a common set of schemas, just as search engines came together to support sitemaps.

Today’s announcement offers tremendous opportunity for growth. In addition to consolidating the schemas for the vocabularies we already support, there are schemas for more than a hundred newly created categories including movies, music, organizations, TV shows, products, places and more. We will continue to expand these categories by listening to feedback from the community and will continue publishing new schemas on a regular basis. Don’t worry if your site has already added RDFa or microformats currently supported by our Enhanced Displays program, that site will still appear with an Enhanced Display on Yahoo! – no changes required.

As webmasters add this markup to their sites, search engines can develop richer search experiences. Yahoo! is leading the way in this space and recently announced alignment between search and our Web of Objects program to deliver engaging answers through Search Direct. We look forward to seeing structured markup continue to grow on the web, power richer search results, and enable you to find answers faster to even more complex queries.

Yahoo Search Trends State Fairs Still a Summer Staple According To Online Searches

2011-08-09T15:47:00.000-07:00

An enduring summer ritual, Americans have been attending state and county fairs since 1841 and still turn out in droves for livestock judging, butter sculpting, cheese curds and fun family entertainment. Did you know that women search on Yahoo! for “state fairs” more than men and that Wisconsin, Missouri and New Jersey search the most for “state fairs”?

According to Yahoo!, the Top 10 Searched State Fairs are:

1. Texas State Fair
2. New York State Fair
3. Minnesota State Fair (searches are up 88% this week)
4. Wisconsin State Fair (searches are up 17% this week and this state searches for “state fairs” more than any other state this month on Yahoo!)
5. Indiana State Fair
6. Ohio State Fair (searches are up 215% this week)
7. Iowa State Fair (searches are up 66% this week)
8. Illinois State Fair (searches are up 19% this week)
9. California State Fair
10. Oregon State Fair

Today, state fairs have evolved from food and livestock competitions to events the whole family can enjoy with performances this season from nostalgic rock bands like Journey, Def Leopard and Pat Benatar to country favorites Reba McEntire and Alan Jackson. According to Yahoo!, searches this month are spiking for Sugarland, Train and Lady Antebellum, proving they are the hot acts to see this year and are some of the busiest bands on the 2011 state fair circuit.

According to Yahoo!, Top 10 Busiest Bands on the 2011 State Fair Circuit are:

1. Big Time Rush
2. Maroon 5
3. Train
4. Gavin Degraw
5. The Oak Ridge Boys
6. Lady Antebellum
7. Toby Keith
8. Jason Aldean
9. Sugarland
10. MC Hammer

Carnival staple: A trip to the fair would not be complete without a ride on the Ferris wheel or the Tilt-a-whirl, but this year searches are spiking for alternative carnival rides like “crazy mouse” and “the scrambler.” 33% of searches for “carnival rides” on Yahoo! come from those 24-33.

According to Yahoo!, Top 10 Rides on the State Fair Midways are:

1. Ferris Wheel
2. Tilt-a-whirl
3. Merry-Go-Round/Carousel
4. Freak Out
5. The Zipper
6. Skywheel
7. Scrambler/Sizzler
8. Pharaoh’s Fury/Pirate Ship
9. Alpine Bobs/Himalaya
10. Crazy Mouse

Whether you go to see your favorite band, to sample funnel cake or to see an entire sculpture made from butter, there is something for everyone at the state fair.
All data is based on the last 3 months.

Yahoo Search is looking for Insiders

2011-08-09T15:44:00.000-07:00

The last time I needed a cab ride to the airport, I knew I was in for multiple calls to at least three or four taxi companies before I could find one available within 15 minutes. So, I dove into the app store and its hundreds of thousands of apps to see what I could find.

I’d heard about UberCab, so I started there. I downloaded the app, but after going through sign-up and registration, I wasn’t sure how I’d be charged for the ride. I then searched some more and downloaded Taxi Magic and Cabulous. The Taxi Magic app scouted local cab companies for an available taxi, allowing me to pay the driver directly, so I booked and finished my search without trying the Cabulous app.

Apps are great in this way, but I did wish there was a better method to discover new apps, and find that one app I liked and could depend on.

The ratings and reviews in app stores help, but with 425,000-plus apps in the Apple App Store and 200,000 apps in Android Market, discovering new apps you like isn’t easy. And what’s more challenging – if you don’t know the specific name of the app you want, finding the right app out of the tens of thousands of possibilities requires multiple searches, downloads, and general uncertainty about the quality of the app you download.

Mobile users rely on apps to continuously be informed and entertained, yet discovering new apps on a daily basis is still much more difficult and less intuitive than searching for Web content on the PC.

At Yahoo! Search, we think there is a better way – both for discovering personally relevant apps on a daily basis and finding the utility apps that help get the job done – regardless of the type of device or platform.

Today, we are ?? introducing two fun, fast ways to search and discover mobile apps: Yahoo! App Search on the PC, and AppSpot, a new mobile application. Together, they take the guesswork out of finding relevant and interesting apps for users.

First, Yahoo! AppSpot, a mobile search app for iPhone, iPod touch and Android users, is packed with unique features:

Daily Personal Picks: Unlike ‘Top Apps’ lists that provide the same apps day after day, you’ll get new, personalized app suggestions on a daily basis, so you’re always introduced to the latest, most interesting, and relevant apps.

More Precise Results: Using Yahoo!’s sophisticated search technology, quickly zero-in on an app by showing matching app titles as well as related keywords as you type.

Related Apps: Discover similar apps within the “more apps you’ll love” section to find related apps that best match your needs.

At-a-Glance Shopping: Review the price, overall star ratings, screenshots, and description all on one screen to avoid the endless scrolling.

Fast & Easy Downloads: Direct links to the specific app pages within the Apple App Store or Android Marketplace make downloading an app a snap.

Second, we are rolling out Yahoo! App Search to provide the best of both the PC and mobile worlds –you get the convenience and speed to shop on your PC and the ability to easily download apps on your mobile device.

Yahoo! Search is continuing our mission to take search beyond just links to provide you with direct answers and great content discovery experiences – whenever and wherever you want.

Start discovering new apps today! AppSpot is available now for download on AppSpot for iPhone and iPod touch and AppSpot for Android. Or give it a spin on your PC at http://apps.search.yahoo.com

White Hat SEO

2011-07-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

Optimizing web pages for search engines is a huge business. Like many service industries, a line has been drawn in the proverbial sand pertaining to the sort of techniques used. SEO, or search engine optimization, entails promoting certain elements of a website and making them compatible with aspects major engines rank highly.

Black Hat SEO

Many marketers play games with the search engines, and in doing so often bend or break the rules. These sites can have terrific short term success if the gamble pays off, but more often that not, the URL will eventually be removed from the engine and the benefits cease. Website owners who prefer not to attempt to deceive both search engines and visitors are said to employ White Hat SEO techniques.

White Hat SEO

Much like the old westerns, the good guys wear the white hats. White Hat SEO techniques entail ethical practices that essentially take little or no consideration of search engine intricacies. These website are actually designed for specific, long-term purposes and are not the disposable, get-rich-quick URLS of the shadier techniques. White Hat elements generally appease the search engines, but take visitor preferences and purpose into consideration first and foremost. There are many techniques, including the following, utilized by White Hat SEOs.

Quality Content

As White Hat SEO websites are designed to appeal to actual people, the content on the sites must be of high quality. Written articles are easy for visitors to read and contain useful information. Images and information are designed for users, not for search engine algorithms. Of course, much of this style of content will also rank well in the search engines as it is legitimately relevant.

Legitimate Links

Obtaining links to a website is one of the aspects ranked well within a search engine. Of course, links can be purchased or traded, but these might not represent the quality reference material visitors are seeking. White Hat SEO seeks out links that pertain to actual content and legitimately offer additional information. They are usually a natural inclusion of the site, and again, are highly favored by search engines.

User-Friendly Websites

Websites utilizing White Hat SEO techniques are vested for the long-term. This means the website design is both user-friendly and quality. Black Hat marketers are fully aware that their sites can be banned at any moment, and don’t invest much time in developing the interface.

This is not the case for White Hat websites. The site itself is the main focus of these marketers. The site must appeal to and be easy to navigate by the visitors or it is irrelevant. The easiest way to create a user-friendly website is by using templates.

While there are many shades of gray between White and Black, website owners interested in following White Hat techniques generally fare better in the long run. It is important to plan for the future and take as many steps as possible to ensure a long life for your online business. For many, a template found on some sites can offer an excellent foundation for a high-quality website. Design well and follow through ethically, and your online business will prosper.

Six Effective Ways to Create Killer Content

2011-07-29T13:10:00.000-07:00

Imagine that you could create a single piece of content that determines your entire success on the web; it’s very possible. Creating a piece of killer content that gains the attention of your community, builds your brand and becomes a steady source of web traffic takes time and imagination but your investment toward content creation has a vast return on investment than aiming to create smaller, one-off pieces of work that are drowned in the vast information ocean called the web.

This article will explain six effective ways that you can create killer content that captures the attention of the web, launches your online brand and creates a never-ending flow of targeted web traffic.

#1: Write a definitive tutorial on a single subject

The web is jam-packed with powerful, informational pieces of content that teaches nearly any type of subject you wish to learn. You could become the source of information rather than being on the receiving end by compiling your knowledge, about a subject, into an incredibly detailed tutorial style blog post or website article.

The secret to creating killer content through tutorial style posts are the ideas, imagination and information you accurately deliver in a timely manner. Information you use for tutorial posts can be compiled through web research or through your own experiences; the later is the best choice.

You are the expert in topics you thoroughly understand; there will always be individuals that are still fresh to your niche and topics. Your task is to pour your best information into a piece of content which takes an individual from the very basics to becoming a master in the topic.

Tutorial posts can be done for any number of topics, such as:

    * Web design tutorials
    * Diet and exercise routines
    * How to repair a car

The list, quite literally, can go into the infinite. Taking the information you already retain and reinforcing it with additional information you’ve learned from the web is the secret formula for creating a tutorial post that entire communities will recognize and use as a definitive source when need be; that, is killer content.

#2: Design an infographic

Infographics have caught on like wildfire; they are easy to digest, passed around rapidly on social media and have an additional level of entertainment when people wish to learn something on the web. Infographics are the true body of killer content if you find topics people are interested in learning; the information is presented through design but still has the same amount of written content as one would pour into a blog post or website article.

Infographics are relatively easy to create; once one completes research, in a topic, the heavy design work can be passed off to those that have experience in design programs such as Photoshop. The inclusion of graphs, charts, design characters, typography and overall style of print layout should be tended with care as it ultimately captures the reader’s attention. However, the information, at its core, is the most important element and will need to combine entertainment with knowledge in a fun and easy format.

Added benefits of infographics are how easy they are shared on the web which can lead to viral traffic explosions. Infographics can be embedded with a few lines of code, uploaded to picture sharing websites, used in other content pieces and be quickly saved to hard drives. The design aspect, of infographics, will capture people more readily than trying to ‘convince’ them to read thousands of words.

#3: Shoot, edit and produce a video

People, in some ways, have taken a relaxed approach to content consumption ever since the invention of the television. It wasn’t too long after that web video was possible on the web which lead to wildly popular websites like Youtube, Vimeo, Dailymotion and many more.

Your content does not need to stick to a single medium such as text. Content can come in many different formats; one which has the potential to create lasting impact is video. Video lets you include additional methods to share information through visual and audible mediums; it creates a higher level of engagement in the viewer.

Video, remarkably, is extremely simple to create because of the falling price of technology. You can now purchase HD video cameras for less than $100 which come pre bundled with video editing software; this allows you to create engaging video from the comfort of your home or office without the high overhead that you would have faced just ten years ago.

Likewise, screen capture tools such as Camtasia can be used to record your actions, on-screen, and later edited to create a full featured video for your audience. Such uses of screen capture tools have started an entire vehicle to content delivery called ‘screencasts’.

Each video you create gives you an opportunity to reach multiple channels within your community. Video can be embedded within your website or blog, uploaded to video sharing websites like Youtube and readily shared in social media circles. An engaging, informative video is one of the best pieces of killer content you should aim to create for your website.

#4: Record and launch a podcast

Ever since the invention of the radio, people have been enthralled by audio recordings. Audio gives you the freedom to be entertained and taught without taking away from your current activities which, depending on your niche, can be phenomenal if your community is readily busy with their own projects.

Podcasts couldn’t be any easier than it is today; a $20 microphone headset and a free audio recording program, such as Audacity, are all that you need to get started with Podcasting. Your audio can cover any topic that you would in written or video form; your content is what matters though which is why you should take special attention to how well you are able to convey coherent thoughts and ideas through the medium.

There are dozens of ways to create podcasts, such as:

    * Reading, aloud, your previous content from your website
    * Interviewing key players in your market, niche or community
    * Having a free-for-all, roundtable discussion with current events

Think of your podcast as an additional channel for producing killer content. Your website can be the source for written content, video websites for the motion picture medium and Podcasting for audio; a strong command, and presence, in each medium further places you as a main player in your niche.

Once created, you may upload your podcasts to services like iTunes, embedded into your website or even placed on compact discs to be handed out to people when you meet in person. Your content is only limited by your creativity and willingness to record audio; once you gain a firm grasp on the format you will have yet another channel to reach people.

#5: Develop an ebook and share it for free

Ebooks, electronic books, are a fantastic method for content delivery because of their perceived value and overall free form on how content is shared. An ebook can cover any subject which fits your community, infuse print design elements and have the added advantage of hyper linking which can be used to point people to additional information. In essence, an ebook can be used as a killer piece of content because it automatically takes on the form of ‘higher end’ content.

The best kept knowledge has no value if it isn’t shared with others. A sure-fire way to build authority, within your niche, is by giving away your best secrets as this sets you on a new level in comparison to your competition. Although it may seem like you’re giving away the honey pot you are actually cementing your expertise on the subjects you know best; this makes people take notice and builds a greater level of trust which leads to a strong following online.

Ebook creation is easier than ever. A simple word processing program is all that you need to begin creating an ebook; it’s the time and resources to devote to writing that is the real pain.

An ebook can be formed through multiple methods, such as:

    * Compiling the best content from your website
    * Creating a long-form tutorial style piece of work
    * A compilation of quotes, suggestions and bits of knowledge from industry leaders
    * A white paper on the current trends, events and future of your industry

The ebook should take in all accounts of great copywriting which is why the title and cover design play important roles. Your ebook can begin to be shared in social networks, on your website, sold, given away to your email list, uploaded to sites like Scribd and many more once you’ve completed your work. The viral natures of ebooks are immensely powerful; they cement your placement as an authority within your niche and continually drive interested parties to you through content marketing.

#6: Compile information to create a case study

Case studies provide people with an introspective look into topics which may otherwise go unnoticed. Case studies can become a powerful form of content as they pull together your own knowledge, something interesting in the topic and information which your readers could use in their own projects.

A case study is a long-term engagement in order to produce sizable results but this investment on time and resources can become a definitive piece of work that is later referenced by many people in your industry. Compiling information about a topic, business or individual will drive attention to the subject and come full circle when the favor is returned through backlinking, social media shares and reciprocal attention from the topic’s community.

Case studies can come in many forms and cover any number of topics, including:

    * An introspective look at business practices of major market leaders
    * How an individual is changing ‘the game’ in the industry
    * Different methods how something was accomplished by an individual or business

The main draws of case studies are their detail to information and story telling style of content delivery. People read case studies because they place themselves into the same scenario; it’s much like interactive learning but with a story to hold on to. If you are able to find a topic which people wish to learn, discover someone doing it right and include your own take on how you believe it was accomplished you are fulfilling multiple channels of content creation; you’ve captured your reader.

Conclusion:

The time and resources you pour into creating killer content has a reciprocal effect; spending time to create a definitive piece of work, rather than a dozen smaller ones, will create a greater impact in your community than those which were compiled and published in a single afternoon.

Your content can be seen as a product. Product development is a time-consuming process but they produce a greater return on investment than simple one-off pieces of work. Think of your website as your business, content your product and your online presence will be met with enthusiasm; the item that sets your website above anyone else.

More-General Keywords

2011-07-29T07:25:00.000-07:00

One of the common rules in search-engine marketing (SEM) is that “content is king.” This is the idea that governs websites looking to become one of the Top 10 blogs with more-general keywords through the use of a content farm.

Ideally, this entails the publishing of quality articles that attract visitors through search-engine optimization (SEO) and keyword research who then spread the content themselves through outlets like social media. Of course, this is only part of the story. In order to rank highly in search results, websites and blogs also need a high number of backlinks to establish authority to Google’s spiders and search algorithms. And this is where the controversial practice of “content farms” comes into play.
There are many sites on the Internet that provide this important service even though it is self-serving as well. I do not want to risk any slander, libel, or defamation lawsuits, so I will not name them specifically. But any marketing veteran who provides SEO-consulting services will know to whom I refer.

Once a website or blog publishes a piece of good content, the author will often submit the same piece — usually rewritten in different words, if he does what he is doing — to a so-called “content farm” with included links back to the original site to gain increased authority from search engines. Of course, the site that again republishes the content — along with content from thousands of other sites — benefits through its outstanding SEO on more-general keywords to rank highly for the same terms as well as through gaining advertising revenue generated from the countless website visitors.

Google, however, is reportedly working to counteract the strategy (and rightly so, in my opinion). As CNET has reported:

Google has launched one of its first experiments aimed at fighting back against content farms, asking the public to help identify the worst offenders.

Chrome users can now download an extension from Google called Personal Blocklist that will allow users to block certain domains from appearing in a personalized list of search results. Google will also track the domains that users flag “and explore using it as a potential ranking signal for our search results,” wrote Matt Cutts, principal engineer at Google and a prominent anti-spam spokesman for the company, in a blog post.

For several weeks Cutts and Google have been acknowledging frustration over the proliferation of content farms in Google’s search results, or sites that write content for really no other reason than to appear within search results and draw traffic from Google. Most often that content is poorly written and sometimes nonsensical, as site editors try to understand what people are searching for on Google and commission low-cost posts with enough keywords to show up on the first page of results.

If I take several hours to research and publish a quality article at a place like my Considerations blog, then I expect to receive one-hundred percent of the credit.

More-General Keywords: How Not To Get Traffic.

Of course, that rarely occurs in the Internet Age. Without naming names, of course, I see many websites whose programming use my RSS feeds, Google News, and other items to excerpt much of the post and “reprint” it themselves. Contrary to popular belief, Google does not penalize websites that plagarize or copy existing content word-for-word — but the search search engine aims not to reward them, either. Google gives SEO “credit” to the site the published the content first. (However, sites with outstanding SEO — like many content farms — will still benefit somewhat by constantly adding “new” content and new pages.)

So, many webmasters have taken a different approach. I once had the owner of an online-gaming affiliate site contact me for SEO-consultant services that turned out to be the following: I would merely have rewritten content from other online-gambling sites in my own words for him to publish. Unfortunately, online-marketing strategies like this are common. As a result, much of the content online is a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of an original article published on a major site or news outlet.

Now, there is nothing wrong with researching a topic, reading existing articles, and then using the source material to compile something new and original on the subject. Journalists and academics do this all the time. But they credit the sources, come up with original insights, and spend the time to write something entirely fresh. I have no problems with other sites excerpting and sourcing my writings in other original content — of course, I like the backlinks. But I hate when sites merely copy my work — and besides, it is no way to become one of the Top 10 blogs on the Internet. The most-read bloggers are those who are experts on their topics and contributing something original.

And as CNET has reported, it seems that Google is planning to reward those types of online writers through helping to increase their search-engine rankings. In my opinion, it is not enough for content farms not to receive significant credit (at least usually) — they should be penalized and pushed down in rankings as well. Anyone can have a site search and copy content — I have even heard rumors of upcoming programs that will rewrite content in different words automatically without the need for an actual human being. Creating something significant and original takes time and effort — as well as SEO-software reviews.

Interesting Summary & Predictions for SEO

2011-07-28T20:16:00.000-07:00

Some predictions for SEO in 2011:

Social media will increase its influence in search-engine rankings. Mobile devices will become more important in online marketing. Social-media marketing itself will become more mainstream

The first point is obvious, but it is important to add a caveat: Social-networking websites like Facebook and Twitter, to varying degrees and in various search engines, are increasing in prominence. But wait a second before you start imagining a quick way to build thousands of backlinks.

First, not every social-media network’s links are “do-follow” (meaning that they pass “SEO credit” in search engines with the link). I do not have a source handy, but I read once that links on Reddit, for example, only count for search-engine growth when they receive at least five positive votes from users. And that is only one example. Caroline Middlebrook offers some thoughts and a list of SMM sites that are “do-follow.” The third point has indeed become increasingly true for those who have been paying attention — many companies are putting their Facebook URLs in commercials rather than corporate-website ones. (See eConsultancy for some interesting thoughts on the practice.)

The second point is relevant to marketing, but not SEO specifically (at least for now). The more that people use mobile devices rather than desktop or laptop computers, the more that marketing efforts will need to be tailored to the specific medium. But until search engines change their fundamental algorithms in ways that instantly differentiate between the type of medium that a person is using, SEO and SEM will remain the same (in all of their complicated, digital glory).

—

Interesting summary of Bing’s Search Summit at the end of last year:

Most searchers in Bing are focused on product categories like music and consumer electronics. Bing is developing “unique visual experiences” to accompany search results in these fields. Bing will incorporate the number of Facebook “Likes” into its search algorithm. Bing Maps will begin to show the interiors of venues including shopping malls
The idea of segmentation within the search industry is intriguing — to say the least. A standard practice in business when one company has an insurmountable portion of market share is for small competitors to carve a specific, focused niche for themselves. The idea is to do something small extremely well since a large behemoth of a corporation will be unable to be such detail-oriented.

But could that work in search market — could Bing compete with Google by focusing on a niche subset of search (as described in the first two points)? Bing, for example, could include additional data pertaining to music searches rather than just a list of websites and images. (Perhaps links to audio clips, online music-stores, and other things along with search results so that people do not need to make a few extra clicks?)

However, this was MySpace’s strategy to compete with a rapidly-rising Facebook — to focus on the music and arts industries. And the website cut half of its workforce last month. Bing may face even more difficulty against Google than MySpace has against Facebook. After the decline of sites like Friendster and LiveJournal, MySpace was something like a first-mover in the market — Facebook came later. However, Google has years of experience over Bing.

We’ll just have to wait to see what happens.

—

LinkedIn, also according to TechCrunch, now lets the administrators of Groups decide whether they want the forum discussions to be searchable and viewable by people who are neither members of the Groups nor LinkedIn itself.

Of course, there are pros and cons to each choice. It may come down to whether a group administrator wants to promote himself or the group. By opening the group to the public, the owner will expose himself, his business, and his abilities to a wider audience. After all, this is one of the benefits of owning or moderating a popular Internet forum in a given field.

However, it also opens up the group to potential spammers. (I cannot count of many LinkedIn messages I receive from people offering “sales” on backlink-building packages even though it is likely that such firms use black-hat SEO methods.) By keeping a group private, the owner would maintain increased quality-control over the group itself — for the benefit of the general membership.

It’s a tough call.

Social-Media Policy Examples in Business

2011-07-28T13:03:00.000-07:00

Social-media marketing (SMM) is one of the latter stages of the process of creating and implementing an overall Internet-marketing strategy, but that does not make it any less important.

As we often write, the general philosophy of all marketing — online or traditional — in for-profit companies is to maximize the number of relevant leads and then direct them to the sales department. The principle has remained the same even though the tactics may change — but with one important difference.

The process of maximizing leads in online marketing involves attracting as much relevant traffic to a website from which people will purchase a product, click on an advertising banner, or perform some other desired action. As such, the point is that the website itself needs to be optimized as well as attractive and engaging as possible before the traffic arrives through search-engine marketing (SEM) and SMM. If a person visits the site and sees that it is unattractive and unprofessional, he will never return (and be less likely to “convert” in the first place).

We have addressed the basics of search-engine optimization (SEO) and SEM in other places, so here we will address social-media policy examples. This will become more important as Google begins to incorporate social-media postings in search results (see “SMM — Art of Social-Media Marketing in Google“). After a website is constructed, it will be just as important to perform SMM in an effective, ethical way. First, the general principles:

SMM must incorporate your desired branding. Just as the general marketing-strategy must support the chosen business-strategy, so must social-media policies reflect the overall marketing-strategy. SMM is a crucial way to reinforce your selected branding. If you are a university, then your Facebook and Twitter posts will likely be serious and link to academic writings. If you are selling music to tweens and teens, then your updates will probably include “text-message spelling” (“what r u up 2?”) and jokes in an informal style. And so on.

SMM cannot be micromanaged. Traditional communications involves the sending of a smaller number of items like lengthy essays, press releases, and white papers. Each can be edited beforehand since the time-frame allows. However, social-media communications involve the sending of short messages (posts, tweets, and blog articles) very often — sometimes multiple times every few hours. If the marketing manager would review each one beforehand, then he would turn into a bottleneck and decrease the department’s efficiency. The person who is directly responsible for the marketing should be able to send the messages directly and without prior approval (as long as he knows the general policies and goals). The manager should review the communications in general once in a while and then provide feedback as warranted.

SMM must be as authentic as possible. To some degree, nearly all marketing communications are inauthentic because they are written or produced in ways to suit the mentalities, needs, and desires of the targeted customers. It is not an objective articles like one would find in a objective newspapers. However, there is a debate among online marketers as to whether active, intentional deception is ethical. (See “SEM Preparation: Social Media, Twitter, Fake Personas.”) In the aforementioned teenage-music example, a company’s Twitter account may “be” a teenage kid — complete with a “name,” “picture,” and so on — to appeal to that customer base. But is this wrong? Policies need to be written to address the use of these strategies.

SMM needs to address negative feedback. At some point, it is guaranteed that people like dissatisfied customers or unscrupulous competitors will post things you do not like on your Facebook page or addressed to you on Twitter. How should you respond? Ideally, social-media outlets can be an effective tool for customer service and market research. Someone may post on your Facebook page, “I used your product, and it broke after three days. Can I get a replacement?” And you can respond easily and cheaply (rather than by taking the time of customer-service representatives). But those people who develop a grudge against your company — rightly or not — may start harassing your company through posting negative items constantly. You need to develop a policy before this occurs.

These are just a few of the social-media marketing principles that form the foundation of effective outreach. However, it is important to develop policies alongside an overall strategy. For more information on specific social-media policy examples in companies and organizations that incorporate these principles, I recommend the sites here, here, and here for your own research.

Article-Marketing Automation

2011-07-27T16:54:00.000-07:00

Most SEO marketers and content writers understand the basic principle: that “content is king.” In general, the websites that provide frequent, quality content will be those that tend to rank highly in organic search-results and social-media marketing — especially though keyword targeting. Google rewards those website that update themselves regularly with new content (as opposed to so-called “business card” websites that have static pages).

As Cristian Lungu notes at Search-Engine Journal:

Yet, there are other benefits that article marketing offers and many of these benefits are of the psychological variety. In other words, an impression is left with the reader upon reading the material. Whether the reader is informed, entertained, or both, reading the article can provide a positive impression that leads him/her to patronize the website the article is supporting. Those hoping to maximize the potential of their search engine optimization campaign need to venture beyond just looking to boost rankings. They will need to employ a campaign that promotes the ability to generate sales and revenues. Really, without enhanced sales and revenues, a marketing campaign falters. This will be the case no matter how a particular website is ranked in the search engines.
The aforementioned “psychological variety” of benefits refers mainly to branding and being a “knowledge leader.” If your website manufactures, produces, or sells “widgets,” then you want your website to become the ultimate resource for “widgets” — as in, anyone who wants to know the latest news and information on “widgets” will visit and follow your website for that purpose. After all, people interested in the topic will see your advertisements and/or calls-to-action and become more likely to become paying customers over time.

Article-Marketing Automation:

Of course, this SEO and SEM principle is obvious in the Internet Age. However, the principle extends to other marketing practices — some good, some bad. If a company spends the time and money to develop quality content, then it will naturally want to promote that content as much as possible to maximize the return on its investment. The best method is through social-media marketing (SMM) — the placement of social-sharing buttons on each page of a website, article, or blog post along with the active promotion on Facebook and Twitter accounts.

However, other methods are more “gray,” for lack of a better term. As Lungu notes:

One of the best strategies to employ would be to write a high quality article and then remake four versions of the article. Not the word used here was remake and not rewrite or spin. You do not want to write one high quality article and then produce four inferior copies. You will want the writer to painstakingly rewrite the article so that the original intent and quality remains. Think in terms of remaking a motion picture. You always want the remake to stand on its own as a quality product.

However, many SEO writers and online marketers take this principle and incorporate it in less-than-successful ways. (See “Top 10 Blogs, More General Keywords, and a Content Farm.”) If a company owns, say, five websites, then the standard practice is to create an original, insightful article and then rewrite it in different words in five different versions — one of which will be published on each of the sites. But the problem is that each of the four rewrites will inherently be of less quality than the original — particularly since the so-called “best practice” is to employ cheap Indians or other low-cost labor to rewrite the article. After all, Google only recognizes and rewards original content. This practice of article-marketing automation does not always provide the best results.

In today’s Internet Age, the best results will occur for companies that produce as much original content as possible rather than copies of copies of copies. Of course, this requires additional investment — and not every website owner will be able to pay the extra cost. After all, when marketers submit guest-posts to my “Considerations” blog, I will reject it unless it is an original, lengthy, insightful piece whose content has not been published elsewhere. The key is to develop good content using the best information from SEO-software reviews.

Social Media Today, Google +1, and SEM

2011-07-27T09:37:00.000-07:00

SEOmoz has released its newest analysis of search-ranking factors, and a comparison of the most-important elements have changed in recent years highlights how SEO professionals — and their clients and customers — need to change their strategies. SEMmoz’s old analyses are no longer available on the company’s website, but a few summaries have been preserved. Here I will present them in chronological order and then explain the importance of the differences as far as link-building and social-media marketing (SMM).

From SEOmoz:

Top 10 Ranking Factors in 2005:
Title Tag Anchor Text of Links Keyword Use in Document Text Accessibility of DocumentLinks to Document from Site-Internal PagesPrimary Subject Matter of SiteExternal Links to Linking Pages Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community Global Link Popularity of Site Keyword Spamming

Top 10 Ranking Factors in 2007:
Keyword Use in Title Tag Global Link Popularity of Site Anchor Text of Inbound Link Link Popularity within the Site’s Internal Link Structure Age of SiteTopical Relevance of Inbound Links to Site Link Popularity of Site in Topical CommunityKeyword Use in Body Text Global Link Popularity of Linking Site Topical Relationship of Linking Page

From Kent Ong:

Top 10 Ranking Factors in 2009:
Keyword Use in Title Tag Global Link Popularity of Site Anchor Text of Inbound Link Popularity within the Site’s Internal Link StructureAge of SiteTopical Relevance of Inbound Links to Site Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community Keyword Use in Body Text Global Link Popularity of Linking Site Topical Relationship of Linking Page

From an excerpt of SEOmoz’s latest report specifically on the future of Google search:

Top Changes to Ranking Factors in 2011 and Beyond:
Analysis of perceived value to usersSocial Signals [from social-networking websites]Usage data (CTR, bounce rate back to search results, etc.)Content Readability/Usability/DesignPresence + Prominence of Advertising and ContentOn-Page Topic ModelingQuantity of Paid Results on SERPsAnchor Text in External LinksThe Effectiveness of Paid LinksExact Keyword-Match Domains.

(Important note: Re-read my phrasing of the last list — it is not the top-ten ranking factors now per se; it is reportedly the top factors that will increase and decrease in influence). According to a majority of the SEM professionals interviewed by SEOmoz, the influence of items one through five in the last list will greatly increase as far their affects search-result rankings. In descending order, the influence of last five will either remain the same or decrease.

I highlighted many of the items with the following colors: traditional optimization-tactics like keywords and title tags are in red, items involving incoming backlinks are in green, and items pertaining to social media and content are in purple. Glance at the list again. As the distribution of colors reveals, Google’s algorithm has gone through three general periods over the past decade or so:

Keywords. Google search-results were ranked based primarily on items like keyword-optimized meta titles and website text until 2005 or so.

Links. SERPs were increasingly ranked based on the quality, quantity, and anchor text of backlinks from 2005 to today.

Social Content. From now into the indefinite future, Google will begin prioritizing rankings based on social-media sharing and the quality of the content on a website.

The reason should be clear to anyone who has worked in Internet marketing: Google has had to stay one step ahead of spammers and people who use black-hat SEO software. After people began stuffing keywords into pages, Google switched to preferring links as a sign of authoritativeness. After people began to obtain junk backlinks through tactics including directories and blog spamming, Google had to look elsewhere — and that will likely be quality content and social-media sharing.

As Danny Sullivan writes at Search Engine Land: “This would be a way for them to know how much authority that people — rather than pages representing people — have on social networks, and to let those people have a signal that influences rankings.”

The takeaway: It is obvious that websites will still need to be optimized for chosen keywords and that select links will still need to be sought (like through business partners or media coverage that mentions your business but does not provide a link) — but the overall emphasis will increasingly need to be on publishing quality content on a quality, optimized website that provides easy methods for social-media sharing. This practice itself will generate more natural backlinks — the ones that Google will likely still prefer — through social media and other sites that mention a site’s content. And without the site’s owner or marketer needing to do anything else.

Google reportedly has more than 200 ranking factors, and keywords, title tags, and backlinks will likely always remain among them in some significant capacity. But now it is crucial to add social-media sharing — like Google “+1? now — towards the top of that list.

Search Engine Optimization Tools

2011-07-26T14:17:00.000-07:00

Here you will find an excellent selection of useful Search Engine Optimization tools, where you can perform a variety of SEO checks and tests on your websites, in order to discover where you need to apply more specific SEO techniques, and slowly being to improve your SERP Ranking, and achieve a greater amount of traffic to your websites.

Below are several links to various tools that all webmasters should sign up.

.:: Google Webmasters Tools

.:: Yahoo Site Explorer

.:: MSN Webmasters Tools

Social Bookmarking

2011-07-26T08:15:00.000-07:00

Social bookmarking is a web technology that is used to store, organize and share the bookmarks of the websites. Social Bookmarking has become very popular recently. The bookmarked websites can be held private or shared publicly. You can share your favorite links with your friends, colleagues or family members.

The people can view the bookmarks by category, tags or a search engine. There are many social bookmarking services available like onlywire.com and socialmarker.com. Today, a large number of communication and information networks are benefiting from these services.

These services offer tools to submit your website in different social bookmarking websites like digg.com, stumbleupon.com, reddit.com, faves.com, Del.icio.us.com, propeller.com, Slashdot.org, Connotea.org, Blinklist.com and many other websites. The social bookmarking provides you the following three major benefits.

It provides you the quick traffic.
It helps your website to be crawled by Google.
It provides one-way back links to your website.

There are hundreds of social bookmarking websites and you can submit every interesting story or article page of your website.

If your story, news or article is interesting, you will get hundreds of visitors in a single day. The online businesses see potential in the social bookmarking in promoting their products and services.

You can also use the social bookmarking plugins on your website to allow your visitors to bookmark your web pages. You can find a social bookmarking plugin from addthis.com.

Get started with social bookmarking is very simply. You have to sign up with the popular social bookmarking websites as mentioned above.

After creating your account, submit your URL, provide unique tags and provide title and short description of your link. To get most of social bookmarking websites, make sure that you are actively participating in these sites. You need to submit every interested web page of your website.

SEO: Off-Page Optimization

2011-07-25T17:10:00.000-07:00

Each search engine has its own criteria to determine that which websites meet their requirements. When we talk about ranking in Google there are following two major factors. These are On-Page and Off-Page Optimization.

Off-page optimization is the search engine optimization technique that is applied to “off page”. It consists of using the keywords as anchor text and getting links to your website.

There is a variety of ways of getting links backs to your website including directory submissions, articles writing and submissions, three-way links, one-way links, forums postings, blogging, press releases, social networking and reciprocal links.

Search engines frequently updated their algorithms and you need to keep yourself up-to-dated with the latest search engine patents, guidelines and techniques used by the search engines to rank the websites. The off-page optimization is the most important factor of website ranking in Google.

Google put a lot of emphasis on the off-page optimization and consider it one of the major factors in website ranking. If you properly plan your off-page optimization, you can rank well in Google and other search engines.

The off-page optimization is primarily tied with the link popularity and each back link to your website is considered as a vote in your site’s popularity. Search engines consider many factors in evaluating the off-page optimization.

How many websites are linking to your websites? The back links from the relevant websites are considered a plus for your website.
Which websites are linking to your website? It is necessary the sites linking to you are relevant to the contents on your websites and these sites are considered authority sites.
What anchor text you are using while linking back to your website. You should use your targeted keyword in the anchor text and the anchor text should not be same in every website linking to your site.
How many inbound and outbound links are there on the websites linking to your website?
What’s the PR of the web page linking to your website?
How much relevant is the website linking back to your website.

You need to evaluate and understand these factors both in on-page optimization and off-page optimization in order to get high ranking in the search engines.

SEO: On-Page Optimization

2011-07-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

Ranking in Google mainly depends upon on-page optimization and off-page optimization techniques. On-page optimization are search engine optimization techniques that are applied to the web page, which you are trying to get ranked in the search engines.

The on-page optimization techniques are essential for the natural ranking in the search engines. The most important on-page optimization technique include content optimization, using keywords in page title and meta tags, using H1, H2, alt tags and SEO making friendly file names.

Content Optimization
Optimizing your website content is one of the major factors of on-page optimization. You need to research the right keywords and key phrases and use them in your page’s text naturally.

From search engine’s perspective, it is important to repeat the same keywords but from users’ point of view it’s not a good idea to use the same keywords again and again so you need to keep balance in both.

Page Title
Page title appears at the top of your browser and it is also displayed as the title of your website in the SERPs. You need to use the targeted and relevant keywords in your pages’ titles. Make sure that you are using unique titles throughout your website.

Meta Tags (Description and Keywords)
These days the Meta tags are not as important as they were in the past because people started to spam them. But they are still used by some search engines. You need to provide the exact page description in the description tag and highly relevant keywords in the keywords tag.

Use Sitemaps
Google suggest using sitemap.html and sitemap.xml. A sitemap provides the exact description of your web pages.

Headlines
Search engines give much importance to the headlines especially between H1 and H3. You need to make the appropriate headings in your web pages by using the heading tags.

Image ALT Tags
Rename your image with your keyword using the ALT image tag. Search engines only recognize your images if you use Image ALT tags.

Inner Linking
You need to make a hierarchical structure of your website and put your main pages’ links on your home page.

URL Naming Convention
Using keywords in your URLs make them friendlier to the search engines and your website drive more traffic from search engines.

Things to Avoid in Search Engine Optimization

2011-07-24T20:57:00.000-07:00

SEO or search engine optimization is the action of optimizing a website to get its natural rankings in the major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. It is one of the most important ways of promoting a website online. SEO is so easy and misunderstood at the same time. The basic SEO strategies don’t require much capital and can provide your business some major benefits.

Search engines have some rules and guidelines that must be followed by an individuals and SEO companies. SEO scams are becoming more popular now-a-days despite the fact that there are many ethical SEO firms and SEO experts.

In order to get the good position in the search engines, you need to follow the guidelines of the search engines and avoid unethical SEO tactics. Some of the major practices that you need to avoid in SEO include the following.

Avoid bad neighborhood and don’t link to scam websites.
Avoid using the automatic linking software as your website can be banned permanently.
Don’t use the same titles, descriptions throughout your website.
Avoid keywords stuffing. Some people use same keywords many times to increase the keywords density. It can penalize your website from Google permanently.
Do not participate in the links exchanges and links farms programs.
Don’t use the tiny or invisible text. Some people do it in order to get high rank showing more text to the search engines.
Don’t spread duplicate contents across several pages or several domains.
Avoid building your website entirely in Flash.
Don’t use irrelevant keywords in your web pages.
Avoid doorway pages.
Don’t check your ranking in Google and Yahoo every day.
Don’t use black hat SEO techniques.
Don’t hire incompetent SEO firms.
Don’t believe everything in SEO that you come to know through internet. You need to do research online learn as much as possible about SEO.
Don’t over optimize your website.
Don’t forget to make your website search engine friendly.

Building Backlinks

2011-07-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

Building backlinks to your pages is an essential part of SEO (short for Search Engine Optimization) for two reasons. The first reason is that it helps your pages get indexed faster, which is very important because you want the search engines to find them as soon as possible and crawl them regularly. The second reason is that it helps your pages get higher search engine rankings for the keywords of your choice. The more backlinks you have, the better. Period.

However, building backlinks can be a time-consuming, boring process. You can outsource the process to an agency and pay a lot of money... Or you can do it yourself with SocialMonkee!

SocialMonkee is an instant backlink builder allowing you to build 25 unique backlinks, every day, FREE! All links are on unique C-Class IP addresses and domains. Imagine being able to create 25 unique backlinks every day, with the click of a button, FREE! So, 25 unique backlinks every day... That's a total of 175 backlinks every week, 750 every month.

Submitting a page to SocialMonkee via the members area takes under two minutes, but there's an even faster way! They created a Firefox plugin that allows you to submit your page to up to 100 sites in just a few clicks, using nothing else than Firefox!

If you have a Premium Account you will also get access to link reports and RSS feeds, which are great to keep track of your backlinks and get them indexed fast. Submitting your RSS feeds to RSS submitters is actually a very important step in link building.