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How To Create A Business Page On Google+

2011-11-09T06:15:00.000-08:00

Now that Google is inviting businesses and brands onto its platform, here is how you can get an early bird advantage. Given below is a detailed insight into creating a Google+ business page.

Starting With Creating A Google+ Business Page:

Those using the create a page tool will have the following five categories to choose from for their page:

Local Business or Place
Product or Brand
Company, Institution or Organization
Arts, Entertainment or Sports
Other

Once you reach the page creation tool, this is the sort of welcome you will get:

Administering A Page:

The creator of the page is the administrator too. As of now there are no features to support multiple administrators, but will be added soon. There are no business name URLs yet, but a long string of numbers. Google has not given any information on when this may change. Once you change the name of your page, your account verification will be null and void then, and you need to get the account verified again.

Like Facebook, you will access a page through a personal account and can choose whether you want to use Google+ as a person or a page.

Multiple Pages Are An Open Option:

You can operate multiple Google pages from your personal account. As Google says, “Pages can be made for a variety of different entities whereas profiles can only be made for people.If you’re a business, you could have a page for the overall business (say Pepsi) as well as for a particular product (say Diet Pepsi) as well as for an event (say the Dew Tour).”

This is a great idea for brands with multiple products to have pages for each product.

Things You Can Do On A Page:

On a business page, you can share pictures, videos and links apart from chatting as in conduct hangouts. There are no ways to automatically post on the page using native and third-party tools, most likely the integration tools will come as part of a future Google+ API release. As a page, you can follow those fans who have followed you. This is totally opposite to Twitter, where Pages can follow people first.

How Will Fans Follow Your Page:

On Google+, for a fan to follow a page, they have to “Add this page to their Circles”. If the fans click the +1 button on the page, the page will still be out of their Circles. Similarly, if a fan clicks on the “Add To Circles” does not mean that the page will be “+1ed” too.

The +1 count that you see on the pages shows the number of people who have +1ed the page.

This number is the number of +1s the Google+ page has got and not the +1s of the website.

Verify Your Page And Get A Badge!

In an effort to inspire brands to get followed, Google+ is launching a new icon with badges (reminds you of Facebook's Facepile doesn't it?) Go to this badge maker page and explore further, at present you can get an icon from here and use that in linking your site to a Google+ page.

Pages For Local Businesses Are A Whole New Story:

Local business pages have the additional option of entering phone numbers, so that people may coneect quickly. As Google says, “Local Google+ pages are unique from other categories of pages because they have features that allow customers to easily connect with that business’s physical location. For example, local pages include a map of the business’s location and feature its address, phone number, and hours of operation.”

How to Add Pages To Circles From Google Search:

You can now reach people searching for your brand or business on Google, by adding pages to circles from Google search. This can be done either by including Google+ pages in search results, or via a new tool- called Direct Connect.

If users want to connect to a Google+ page straight away, they have to add a plus (+) sign before their query and they will be taken to that Google+ page. Like +Google, +Pepsi, and +Toyota.

How To Link Pages To Sites?

If you link you site to your page, then the chances of a Direct Connect get enabled. Here is how you can link your site to the Google+.

Rel=”publisher” (this is to link your site to the Google+ page)

To protect unauthorized users from creating your page (as at present any body can create a page for a site they are not even associated with), Google recommends the use of a the new verification icon and badge. This badge is only awarded if the page is connected to a website. This ensures that only authentic people behind the page can get the badge.

Visit, PageTraffic's under construction Google+ Page. For more information on using business page for promoting your brand, see this.

Source: www.pagetrafficbuzz.com/create-business-page-google-plus/12327

The Winners And Losers Of Google's Freshness Algorithm Update!

2011-11-09T06:09:00.000-08:00

Google rolled out a freshness update in its Caffeine algorithm, that impacted 35% of the searches made. Now, SearchMetrics has compiled a list of the biggest losers and winners post the update. Most sites that have benefited from the update are major brands and a variety of news sites. News sites is not a surprise as the update was aimed at rewarding fresh content, the fresher the better.

SearchMetrics has used a “visibility score” that’s based on analyzing millions of keywords to get to the results. The winners are losers are decided on this score only and not on loss or gain in traffic.

The Winners Of Freshness Algorithm:

The clear winners are news sites as was expected, since they are constantly updated with fresh content. Celebrity news and gossip sites have done well for themselves too. Brands like Coke have also gained better visibility. The surprise winners include travel-related brands like Hotels.com, SouthwestVacations.com, and pizza sites like Dominos.com.

The Losers Of Freshness Algorithm:

The losers also includes various types of sites, some of them being the winners type, as in news sites. Independent.co.uk is a news site that has been hit, along with several government sites- CPSC.gov etc.

Ironically, Google's update has hit its own site- Blogger.com.

This update aimed at fresher content was supposed to impact 35% searches, and Google thinks this move will give the users access to really fresh content.

Was your site affected? Do share your views.

Resource: www.pagetrafficbuzz.com/winners-losers-googles-freshness-algorithm-update/12332

Google Webmaster Tools Launches New Message Alert For Duplicate Content!

2011-11-03T22:33:00.000-07:00

Google Webmaster Tools has launched a new message alert that will inform the webmasters whenever a particular URL is seen by Google as a duplicate of another domain's URL, and consequently doesn’t appear in search results.

How Google Identifies Duplicate Content:

Google recently introduced the Webmaster Tools alert feature and also threw light on the way, Google identifies duplicate content cluster and then selects a canonical version of the cluster to display as a part of search results.

Google is quoted on this matter as, “When we discover a group of pages with duplicate content, Google uses algorithms to select one representative URL for that content. A group of pages may contain URLs from the same site or from different sites. When the representative URL is selected from a group with different sites the selection is called a cross-domain URL selection.”

Google says that Webmasters mostly use rel=''canonical'' elements or 301 redirects to indicate the preferred URL to Google, and that is why the choice made by the algorithms are guided by the webmaster’s intent. Like in the case of multiple URLs having the same content (the reasons may be infrastructure configuration, optional parameters, or internationalization), the webmasters can use the aforementioned options to indicate to Google which version is canonical.

But, if these preferences are not defined, or if Google selects a different version than the site owner specified, then this alert comes into play. This new feature alerts site owners when Google algorithms select an external URL rather than one from their own website. As Google says, “To be transparent about cross-domain URL selection decisions, we’re launching new Webmaster Tools messages that will attempt to notify webmasters when our algorithms select an external URL instead of one from their website.”

Why Google Makes The Cross Domain URL Selections:

In the case that webmasters specified a URL, and still a cross domain URL was selected, Google has pointed out to these common reasons:

Regional sites- Duplicate content on multiple regional sites is a common cause. Same content for a .com or a .ca site. In this case Google may will bring together the pages with duplicate content and will display the pages according to their relevance to the query.
Incorrect canonicalization- If the webmasters have misconfigured the usage of canonicalization techniques, and have pointed to URLs on an external website, then Google's algorithms may select the external URLs. The same is the case with misconfigured content management systems or CMS plugins installed by the webmaster.
Misconfigured server- In the case of shared hosting, a hosting misconfiguration can lead to duplicate content being displayed across two different domains.
Hacked site- If a site is hacked, then a code is introduced that leads to unwanted canonicalization. For instance, a malicious code may lead the website to return an HTTP 301 redirect .

Another situation, where Google may select an incorrect URL is, when it displays a site that has scraped content from your site. In this case webmasters may complain too, as Google is quotes, “If you believe that another site is duplicating your content in violation of copyright law, you may contact the site’s host to request removal. In addition, you can request that Google remove the infringing page from our search results by filing a request under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.”

When And Where Will You Get The Alert :

Google has specified that this alert will be available to the webmasters within the message center. Also, they will only see them if their site has duplicate content issue, and that Google is currently only reporting on the URLs from the Top Pages report.

As a webmaster, do you think this alert will come in handy, to figure out why a certain page never shows up in search results? For further clarifications, you can refer to Google's in-depth help topic, and do leave your comments behind on this feature.

Source: http://www.pagetrafficbuzz.com/google-webmaster-tools-launches-message-alert-duplicate-content/11960/

Google Search Now Indexing Facebook Comments!

2011-11-03T22:27:00.000-07:00

This one is a big news- Google is now indexing AJAX and JavaScript content. This means that the text from comments on Facebook pages will now show up in Google search results.

What Is The Big News?

The comments made on blogs and sites via the Facebook comments box are now being indexed by the search engine. As reported by Digital Inspiration, the Googlebots can now crawl comments made on web pages and can now read Facebook comments, just like any other text on the page. And when a search is made about the text of the comments, they will show up in the search results. Now, your comments made on a site through Facebook, are searchable via Google. This indexing stands clear for other commenting engines written in JavaScript like- Disqus and Intense Debate.

For example, see this comment made on TechCrunch-

And now a Google search of the comment that came up with the commentator's named queried.

Why The SEOs Are Happy With The News?

This is a great news for SEOs as till now, Google bots were not able to pick up comments made via systems such as Disqus, Facebook Comments, and Intense Debate as they could not read text within iFrame coding. Consequently, the blog commenting done by SEOs did not give any search boosts to their websites. But now that Google has started indexing Facebook comments using Googlebots the text posted in those comment boxes will now be visible in Google search.

Google has confirmed the move. The head of Google’s Webspam team, Matt Cutts, sent out a Tweet and confirmed the news on Twitter:

“Googlebot keeps getting smarter. Now has the ability to execute AJAX/JS to index some dynamic comments.”

The news has spread like wildfire on the internet, and among internet marketers, and Google has been quoted as saying, "What you're seeing is a result of Google increasingly being able to crawl JavaScript and AJAX content. We have steadily been increasing our ability to index richer content such as JavaScript/AJAX. If users can see something in their browser, our goal is to be able to index that content irrespective of its language or format."

Now, commenting through third party engines will lead to SEO boost, as opposed to earlier when commenting engines like Disqus, Facebook or Intense Debate could not be crawled by the search bots. As a blog or website admin, these commenting platforms were quite convenient to enable commenting, and tackle spam. But they were useless for SEO purposes. However, now that Google bots can read AJAX and JavaScript, the comments and commentator's name are finding place in search results.

The Privacy Concern For The Common Users:

The delight of SEOs aside, Google indexing their comments may not seem that exciting to users. Most users guard their privacy against Google by upping their Facebook privacy on their profiles, but now, their names and comments will show up via Facebook Comments on blogs. This sort of backdoor entry for Google may not be appreciated by people.

People may not like their online commenting activities being indexed by Google and their names coming up in search results. What remains to be seen is how Facebook will react to this? What will it do to protect the users' privacy, is being watched by the industry experts now.

The Takeaway Tip For SEOs:

Now, Facebook Comments come in various formats like-XFBML and HTML5. After several tests, it has been observed that you must comment with the XFBML implementation, as it is what that is showing in search results.

Source: http://www.pagetrafficbuzz.com/google-search-indexing-facebook-comments/11997/

Google Page Speed Online Comes Out Of Labs!

2011-10-19T06:12:00.000-07:00

The wait is over as the Google Page Speed Online has finally come out in the open from the Google Labs. Now. You can get to know the speed of your site, by dropping it on the search bar given right at the center of the tool page.

Google Page Speed is an online tool that will let you know the load speed of your site on a scale of 1 to 100. That's not all, it will also give you suggestions about what needs to be done to improve the page loading speed.

As Google says, “Page Speed Online analyzes the content of a web page, then generates suggestions to make that page faster. Reducing page load times can reduce bounce rates and increase conversion rates.”

Why The Need Of Fast Loading Sites?

Site load time is one of the major factors in reducing visitor's bounce back rates. It is an essential part of the entire user experience of your site, and a slow site leads to poor user experience. So, probably Google wants you to speed things up in the interest of the users!

Try out the online tool, drop your URL in the box and see the results for your site. Make the changes and ensure better user experience. How did you find the tool, do share your views.

Source: http://www.pagetrafficbuzz.com/google-page-speed-online-labs/11631

Now Listings Being Updated Automatically In Google Places!

2011-10-19T05:59:00.000-07:00

If your business is on Google Places, then the address and related information will be updated automatically with the information that Google will gather from users and “third parties/trusted sources.” This was announced by Google on the LatLong Blog recently and it stated that the update will be done automatically if they think that the information is more accurate and up to date than the Places Dashboard.

Google says,

“We’re introducing a new process that helps streamline the way updates are made to potentially outdated or incorrect business listings. Previously, verified business listings would always reflect the information provided by its owner – even if we received data about an updated name, address, or hours of operation. But now, if a user provides new information about a business they know – or if our system identifies information from another source on the web that may be more recent than the data the business owner provided via Google Places – the organic listing will automatically be updated and the business owner will be sent an email notification about the change.”

Google has added that business owners can always log in to their Google Places account and make further edits, if the information provided in incorrect or incomplete. Also these updates will have no effect whatsoever on the online ads from business owners using AdWords or AdWords Express programs.

Why Was This Needed?

There was massive outrage globally when Google allowed users to update the information about a business listed on Google Place. This was a green signal for spammers, disgruntled customers or vengeful ex-employees to list the business as “closed”. Google was at the receiving end of quite some flak for this. However, it announced that it is working on a solution. And now has come up with the automatic update plan.

But Why Automatic Updates?

Google says that they cannot rely on business owners to continuously update their Google Places listing. That is why they use a network of other sources like partners, users and other authoritative sources to verify the details about a business, and if they deem fit, they update the details automatically. As Google says, "We recognize that amidst all the work that goes into running a successful enterprise, remembering to update their Google Places account may not always be top of mind. Oftentimes, a neighborhood local or a loyal customer is eager to help their favorite business update its online presence."

Are The Businesses Still Safe?

This question remains unanswered as, it is quite a possibility that the "trusted external sources" can be easily manipulated. Incorrect data about the business can still be implemented, leading to inaccurate details be updated automatically. However, if this can actually happen remains to be seen.

What do you think? Do leave your comments.

Source: http://www.pagetrafficbuzz.com/listings-updated-automatically-google-places/11701/

Now Get Real Time Reports With Google Analytics!

2011-10-03T01:08:00.000-07:00

To begin with, Google Analytics will have a new look next week. Secondly, it will have a new set of reports called "Real Time." This was just announced by Google and the reports will be under the 'Dashboard' tab and will show you what’s happening on your site as it happens!

What Will The Real Time Reports Show?
According to Google, the Analytics Real Time will tell you-

Number of Visits per minute
Number of active visitors on the site per minute
The Location of visitors
Sources sending the traffic
The Keywords that brought the visitors

The real time reports will have a lot to tell big websites or even blogs, as they see a lot of activity.

How Will The Real Time Reports Help You?
You can use these real time reports to-

Measure social media impact: You can get an immediate insight into how your social media campaign is going. As Google said, “Whenever we put out a new blog post, we also send out a tweet. With Real-Time, I can see the immediate impact to my site traffic. For example, last week we posted about the latest episode of Web Analytics TV and also tweeted about the post. By campaign tagging the links we shared, we could see how much traffic each channel is driving to the blog as it happened. We could also see when we stopped receiving visits from the tweet, which helps know when to reengage.”
Ad Campaign measurement: You can also use Real-Time to ensure that the campaign tracking is implemented in the right manner, just prior to launching a campaign. Real-Time reports tell you within minutes if the data you are getting in Google Analytics is actually what you want. This will let you verify the effectiveness of the ad, while rolling out your campaign.

These Real-Time reports are available in the new Analytics and are in the Dashboards tab. The Dashboard will soon be moved to the Home tab (remember the new interface being launched next week?). Google has also made it clear that Real-Time does not support profile filters.

When Will Real Time Be Out And Pick Up Speed:
According to Google, it is a one to two weeks wait before the complete roll out of Real Time reports. For those who want to sign up now can do it here.

Resource: http://www.pagetrafficbuzz.com/real-time-reports-google-analytics/11419/

New Designs For Yahoo’s Search Results Pages!

2011-09-19T00:59:00.000-07:00

In a fresh attempt to better the Yahoo! Search experience by presenting the most relevant content in an organized manner, Yahoo has introduced newer designs for search results pages. According to Yahoo,“ We have been working to unify the search experiences across web, multimedia, and vertical search results pages with a design that is clean and intuitive.”

And now they have implemented the the latest design changes across the search results pages. The changes are visible on web-image-videos-news-blogs, finance and sports search results pages. The main features of the pages are:

Clean Look- the look is clean and simple. So that you can easily find what you are looking for and not be distracted or confused.
Automatic Tabs- The pages now have easily accessible tabs that appear right below the Search box to provide the searcher with the relevant and specialized content they are searching for.
Filters- There are filters on the left side of the results will help you sort results by time and related searches.

How The New Search Works:
These tabs are work on the basis of your query. So that you have an enhanced vertical search experience. See the search results for Page Traffic Buzz for example:

The searches performed on the news search page will also include filters on the left for news sources, and the related videos to the search will be shown on the right side of the results.
The image search page has also got a facelift. This is how it will be different now:

Facebook results will rule the roost. As the images from fan pages and public profiles will be displayed prominently.
You will get the latest of pictures, that will be taken from even more Yahoo! content
You will benefit from the better recommendations at the end of galleries

Below is an example of the Image search results page for the “Search Engine Optimization” query. This brings you the most relevant pictures on top and also gives an indication as to how long ago each was published. On the left hand side, you can see the Facebook option displayed prominently.

On the video search page, the search results for search engine optimization show videos from across various Yahoo! Properties. This is in addition in addition to the top web videos.

Google Releases The AdWords Editor Version 9.5 For Windows And Mac!

2011-08-31T23:09:00.000-07:00

Google has announced the release of version 9.5 of its free desktop software for managing AdWords campaigns. This new version “supports Campaign Experiments, Location Extensions, and plenty of other features to boost your productivity while managing your AdWords campaigns.”

Campaign Experiment:

With the new 9.5 version users can now better administer their campaign experiments on the AdWords Editor. It also lets you apply and edit your experiment status, to a default maximum CPC or a maximum CPC bid multiplier. Also you can now both import and export these alternatives to be uploaded in CVS and XML.

Location Extensions:

This new version supports both the new and existing location extensions. You will now be able to create new location extensions for any address, modify the existing locations and also download or uploads data in CSV and XML manually.

Background Download:

An additional modification that ought to be a timesaver is the ability to download several of your large accounts in the background whilst you are working an another account.

Additionally, Google has also “improved revert functionality and streamlined Add Multiple Items workflow.”

Apart from the above major changes, for the full list of changes, check out Google’s release notes.

So, the next time you log into your AdWords Editor account you will be prompted to download this new version. You can now also download this 9.5 version from the Editor web site

Source: www.pagetrafficbuzz.com/google-releases-adwords-editor-version-95-windows-mac/10246/

20 Free Best Press Release Distribution Sites!

2011-08-29T00:14:00.000-07:00

We write press release to disclose and spread a news amongst readers. Press releases are becoming a successful way of Internet advertising. These not only provide valuable inbound links, but also increases traffic and thus your chances of getting located by search engines. But, all your efforts will get waste if the press release is not newsworthy or if it is distributed via a non-credible PR distribution site. There are only a few PR services providers who can provide you maximum visibility and credibility on the Internet. Follow these guidelines while choosing a press release distribution site:

You should use a site that has a Google pagerank of 4 and above because sites with no pagerank will lower the credibility of the PR.
Approach a site that allows you to optimize the press release for search engines by using header tags, tagging, anchor text and other SEO techniques.
Keep away from sites that use NoFollow tags. These tags are inserted into website code in order to stop the search engine from finding the site.

So, here are a few press release sites that provide both free and paid distribution services. The list will help you in finding a reliable PR distribution service provider who will get you maximum visibility on the World Wide Web.

PRLog.org – Pagerank 5 / Alexa 16,551- It is an ordinary and functional looking site but results are good. It gives free distribution service for Google News and other search engines. Inbound links are allowed and the site is also properly optimized for search engines. You can schedule the press release.
Free-Press-Release.com – Pagerank 5/ Alexa 3,547 – Good Alexa ranking makes this not so good looking site really good. The best part of using it is that you can place banners on the press release that will point to your website. The paid service offered by this website has better ranking and many SEO benefits.
OpenPR.com – Pagerank 5 / Alexa 42,088 – This service distribution site is based in Germany. It provides free submission and distribution along with SEO benefits.
PR.com – Pagerank 5 / Alexa 27,482 – The domain name is superb but you can say the services are not so appealing. The site has one free basic service and two paid services of $199 and $499. You can give full company profile by taking paid option.
NewswireToday.com – Pagerank 5 / Alexa 51,449 – The design of website is not good and you will difficulty in navigation also. It offers common free distribution tools and the premium service will enable you to give logo, product picture and insert other features in the press release.
EcommWire.com – Pagerank 4 / Alexa 107,600 – This site has low traffic but it is really good for e-commerce related press releases. You can add three keywords, image and pass a link with the anchor text.
1888PressRelease.com – Pagerank 5/ Alexa 58,760 – The site has good page rank and also gets good traffic. Active links are allowed. If you opt for their paid service, the placement will be better and you will get features like image galleries & permanent archiving.
PressMethod.com – Pagerank 4 / Alexa 66,727 – The site gets good traffic. There is a limited list of features for free PR distribution. There is no point in spending additional money to get paid service.
PR-Inside.com – Pagerank 4 / Alexa 17,995 – The only reason for which you can use this site is that it is one of the few PR distribution sites that are focused on Europe.
I-Newswire.com – Pagerank 3 / Alexa 69,619 – You get free PR distribution option to sites and search engines. If you opt for premium membership, the only difference is that you can add graphics on the PR.
24-7PressRelease.com – Pagerank 4 / Alexa 46,460 – This free press release submission site provides limited distribution service. Active links are allowed.
Free-Press-Release-Center.info – Pagerank 3 / Alexa 56,516 – It is a clean looking site and the increasing traffic level will increase the pagerank soon. You can do PR submission and distribution, include one link with the anchor text while availing free service. The paid service enables you to give three links, permanent archiving and has many more features.
TheOpenPress.com – Pagerank 4 / Alexa 64,691- You will get free distribution service in plain formatted releases. If yo want HTML-coded release, go for paid option.
Merinews.com – Pagerank 5/ 49,687 – It is more of a online news journal that also provides press release distribution service.
PRUrgent.com – Pagerank 3/ Alexa 80,402 – You will surely get some useful advice on writing press releases. This site is good looking and poor Alexa rank.
Press-Base.com – Pagerank 3 / Alexa 389,117 – If you want a press release distribution site where you can get on the front page and under the category of your choice, go for this one.

Paid Press Release Distribution Sites

BusinessWire.com – Pagerank 8 / Alexa 16,730 – It is mostly used by bigger companies to meet SEC full disclosure requirement. Prices are not disclosed and can be known via application.
PRWeb.com – Pagerank 8/ Alexa 9,822 – This site has a good reputation when it comes to distributing local news in a single region. The prices for service start at $80 and go up to $360, depending on the visibility you want to get.
PRNewsWire.com – Pagerank 8 / Alexa 7,508 – This not so good looking site is used by many journalists. The annual subscription price is $195 and you will have to pay additional price for more exposure.
PRLeap.com – Pagerank 6 / Alexa 55,935 – The site is said to deliver reasonable results. It is nice and clean. The price of press release starts from $49 – $149, depending on the level of service you have opted for. The distribution is done on search engines, RSS feeds and newswires.

Getting media coverage is the best form of marketing, but you need to make efforts to get good coverage. Choose the press release distribution site carefully, especially when you are paying for the service.

Source: http://www.pagetrafficbuzz.com/20-press-release-distribution-sites/6839/

Google Announces The Retirement Of The Google-News Bot!

2011-08-29T00:05:00.000-07:00

Google has announced that they will now crawl news sites with Googlebot instead of Googlebot-News. For those wondering about Googlebot, it is the same bot that crawls sites for web search.

If you are wondering if you can still block your content from being indexed in Google News; you can opt to do so. David Smydra from Google confirmed the same by commenting,“Google News will still respect the robots.txt entry for Googlebot-News, our former user-agent, if it is more restrictive than the robots.txt entry for Googlebot.”

So, what are the implications of this announcement?

Well, as a Google News publisher if you want Google to index your content in both the web search and the News, then you won't have to do anything. By default Google will continue crawling like it normally does, however your server logs will only see entries for Googlebot as opposed to the previous separate entries for both the Googlebot and Googlebot-News. So basically if you wished for Google News to keep your content, you can continue using the Disallow directive in robots.txt or meta robots tag in order to block the Googlebot-News.

However if you are using data to understand how your website is crawled and make improvements this change is likely to make things much more harder to comprehend.

For instance, if you were to spot that your news writings are not being indexed in the Google News and you check the news-specific crawl errors in the Google Webmaster Tools and fail to notice any issues, apparently you will no longer be able to verify your server logs to see if the writings are being crawled for the news index. Whilst you can only see if the pages are being crawled in general, it does not help in troubleshooting problems on the whole.
Furthermore, if you are generating a news-specific Sitemap but missing the specific URLs, until now you could review your server logs to make sure that Googlebot-News is crawling a particular URLs, and varify the URLs that were not crawled in the Sitemap. However now, the only information the server logs will give you is if Google is crawling the URLs at all. Whilst, whether they are being crawled for web search and not News, that detail is now lost.

Also, with this announcement you will now lose vital insight for web search too. So, if you were looking to tracking down why specific pages on your site are not being indexed, previously you were allowed to review your server logs to see if they were being crawled, but now it will appear as though they are being crawled for Google News.

However it is not all bad news, you can still get News-specific and web-specific crawl errors from Google webmaster tools, so you will certainly get some available insight for checking if your website is being crawled and make improvements. Also the most important reason for this is the ability to block and allow content from Google News separately from web search, and that functionality remains.

Whilst, this in-depth insight was useful for many of us it is indeed unfortunate that Google has now retired the Googlebot- News.

Source: http://www.pagetrafficbuzz.com/google-announces-retirement-googlenews-bot/10190/

Facebook Updates Advertising Guidelines!

2011-08-26T05:10:00.000-07:00

Facebook has announced the release of their new version of Advertising Guidelines and Help Center resources in their bid to make them “simpler, better organized and more intuitive.”

This new version now allows the offline casinos, legal gambling establishments and state and national lottery commissions companies to advertise on Facebook. However, they are required to strictly adhere to the proposed guidelines of targeting appropriately and ensure they are not violating the laws. Whilst online gambling in the U.S. is still not allowed to be advertised, but when secured the required authorization they may be accepted in other countries.

As for the pharmaceutical and dietary supplement industry Ads they are still not allowed to advertise for sale, distribution of prescription pharmaceuticals and online pharmacies. Meanwhile, the advertising of legal dietary supplements that do not consist of any banned substances are permitted to publicize their ads as long as they adhere to the proposed guidelines.

The Facebook Help Center updates' main goal is to compliment the Advertising Guidelines as it now consists of “examples of acceptable and unacceptable ads along with more detailed explanations of the reasoning behind those examples. The layout closely resembles that of the Advertising Guidelines and now contains many of the specific requirements we once included in the old Advertising Guidelines.”

Facebook makes it very clear that all it means is, the examples and restrictions previously listed in the Advertising Guidelines are now located in the Help Center and you are expected to check both sources for compliance.

This new version has created some buzz amongst the Facebook users, however like every change Facebook makes its not all good news with many users criticizing them. Following image reveals how the Facebook users have reacted to the announcement:

Source: www.pagetrafficbuzz.com/facebook-updates-advertising-guidelines/10183/

Google AdWords Keyword Tool Being Tweaked To Let You Input 2500 Terms!

2011-08-26T04:42:00.000-07:00

As spotted by Hobo SEO, Google seems to be experimenting on updating it's AdWords Keyword Tool which will allow its users to input 2500 keywords into the search box. Currently, the word limit is caped to a mere 100 in order to come up with new keyword ideas.

However, if you try it now it might not work for you as they are still working on it. While there is enough buzz hinting the same, the official word is yet to come out from Google.

Source: www.pagetrafficbuzz.com/google-adwords-keyword-tool-tweaked-input-2500-terms/10160/

How To Get Links From Major Industry Associations!

2011-08-24T23:01:00.000-07:00

External Links are one of the major contributors towards getting a better placement in the search engine results. Link Building with major industry associations will go a long way to improve search engine rankings. But more often than not, a simple link exchange program with a leading website of your niche will not work. They are already the industry leader, hence, they really don't need a link from you. So what can you do in this case? It is to understand and then implement these steps.

Why Are Authority Sites Important?

The most important thing- these authority websites are trusted by the search engines- they believe that where these sites are pointing, it is a good and relevant page. The absolute authority websites are mostly '.gov', '.edu', '.org' etc. They have gained their authority status over time and are well established and several years old. With time, they have many backlinks from other sites.

In the case of relative authority, or niche authority websites, they belong to the most important sites for a particular niche. Like maybe a trusted android forum may be an authority website for a mobile retailer.

How To Find High Authority Sites?

Well, the PageRank (above 7) can be considered in deeming a site as authority or industry major in your niche. When these come first in search results, it shows that they have great links to them, and are interlinked-also they're well-known names (trusted and not spammy). Here is how you can find them:

In a country specific Google home page- a search for "www" displays the local authorities. Like in the screen shot, you can type in '.gov' and get a list of authority government sites.

For sites in your niche, you can do a search like- “Big companies in health care, electronics etc” “popular news sites and media houses” “top universities”, “top government agencies, and charity”. See the screen shot for better understanding.

If your linking campaign needs more, then you can link to sites that have been linked to by the authority sites- and then you can link to these second tier sites. For this you can use the Bing operator "linkfromdomain:authority.com" to find out what sites is the niche authority site linked to.

The more authoritative your domain is, the more damage it can sustain
.

How To Get Links From Industry Majors?

If you have a link from a government site or an educational site, your site's weight increases considerably for the search engines. Even with the leading sites of your niche linking to you, your domain will gain credibility. But these sites have offers to link to a hundred sites, why should they do that with you? To ensure linking from industry majors, follow the strategic steps below-

Offering Them An Affiliate Program:

Yes, you have to part with your money here. To gain a link, you will have to pitch in some cash. However, this will be small investment, seeing the amount of traffic and higher ranking you will get on linking with the authority site. As a part of your strategy to get links from the biggest names in your niche, you can offer them an affiliate program that pays the company a percentage of any sales resulting from the link. Government sites, military websites, News sites and educational institution & universities, are of high authority. So, if it seems possible, you can choose from the numerous affiliate programs and services on the market to offer these websites.

Now, some may take up the offer, but some, including esteemed publications, may not take a share in the sales, as it goes against their image of unbiased reporting. There are ways around such non-profit modules too. You can provide the sites with yearly dues etc., and in return get those precious links.

Offering Discounts To Their Users:
This strategy could work. If you approach an authority site in your niche, like-Bloomberg News, if you are an online retailer, and offer their members or readers a discount on your products. Moreover you can also pitch them the idea of creating a special web page on your site for their members/readers only, that will feature special discounts. So, in exchange of the link to your site, you'll provide this discount for free. Authority sites or organizations may take this offer, as it will put them in a positive light for being so concerned in bringing down their employees' expenses by offering them discounts.
If this also doesn't work, then you may go further by offering them a share of the profits in addition to the customer discounts. The industry major will like it if you offer it or its users some kind of 'exclusive' bonus or benefit that they can pass on to their customers.

Write Content For Them:
One of the best ways to get them to link to you is- great and unique content. When writing the content for the authority site, make sure that is is well written and original- only then will they will publish it. Send them the piece for free and get a link to your domain from somewhere in the write up. A link in the reference box always helps. Apart from articles, writing tutorials for them will also work. Tutorials- as in how to do a thing- is something that these sites appreciate and so do the users. So write an understandable tutorial and garner authority links. See in this screen shot of how the USA.gov has linked to interesting articles on prescription drugs.

Source:http://www.pagetrafficbuzz.com/links-major-industry-associations/10114/

Top 5 SEO Mistakes To Avoid!

2011-08-23T06:59:00.000-07:00

You are doing everything by the book, but still there is always chance of an error. So just pause. Think for a while. You might be making some mistakes, that can prove to be death traps for your site. Listed below are the Top 5 SEO Mistakes, that many commit unknowingly.

1. Not Doing The Proper Keyword Research- You may be targeting the wrong keyword. You may have picked up on a keyword that may not be what the average user will pick up. You SEO campaign can shoot up or go completely for a toss, depending on the choice of your keywords. Tip: use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool – to help you find keywords best suited for your site.

2. Lack of keywords in the URL or the content – You have done your research and know what your targeted keywords are. But, the entire effort is gone waste if your URLs are not search engine friendly and the targeted pages/urls don't have keyword rich content. Getting your keyword on your URL (the domain itself, or the file names that may be part of the URL) will rank you better with Bing, and often also with Google. As for the content, make sure you put the keywords keeping users in mind and not the search engines alone. It is also advisable to highlighting them or making them bold.

3. Empty Title tag – The title of the page is one of the most important place to use your keyword. Having a keyword rich title tag helps you in getting better rankings. It is understood that with your keyword in your title, the search engines will show the same in the page title in SERPS

4. No use of header tags -Header tags : <h1>, <h2> — are of primary importance. Why? Because they highlights what are your web page is all about. Remember that Search engines always scan the header tags for important keywords, so always use them to highlight the main points of your text. You may also use your chosen keywords in header tags.

5. Ignoring Social Networking – This is one of the most common mistake. Social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Myspace are huge traffic sources. Sharing your posts on these sites, will drive huge traffic to your sites. Focus on Social Media too, while optimizing your site. Check out recent presentation by Navneet on Slideshare.

Stay away from too many backlinks as well, as too many of them may lead to your site being penalised or worse, banned. Remember, the real task is not getting heavy traffic only. Its the conversions. You need to focus on the kind of traffic you are getting too. Question yourself- Is this the kind of traffic I want on my site?

Keep these pointers in mind, the next time you set to work on optimizing your site, and see the better results with time.

Source: http://www.pagetrafficbuzz.com/top-5-seo-mistakes-avoid/9462/

Now Bing Webmaster Tools To Show Integrated Data From Yahoo!

2011-08-23T06:11:00.000-07:00

Bing's Webmaster Tools now shows integrated data from Yahoo Traffic in some reports and areas.
The integration began on the 12th August, however, September will the first month that will see complete merger of the combined data. Justifying this amalgamation, Bing's Duane Forrester commented, "Given the combined effort the Search Alliance represents, it makes sense to showcase relevant data from both engines within a webmaster account."

The good news is, most areas and the data within your accounts itself are not going to be affected with this merger.

Following are the noticeable changes that are seen in the Traffic Tab's, Traffic summary report and Page Traffic reports:

Impressions- will increase as a result of showing combined impressions for the listings across both search engines
Clicks- will also increase because of the integration of the two data numbers
Click Through Rates (CTR) will also either rise or fall as a direct consequence of the above two

If you are worried if this will affect your actual ranking, rest assured as these changes will only reflect the numbers shown and not your actual rankings.

Also note that, at the moment the data is combined by default and is updated in all the markets wherein Bing powers Yahoo search.

Source: www.pagetrafficbuzz.com/bing-webmaster-tools-show-integrated-data-yahoo/10085/

Use Local Listings To Rank Higher in Mobile Search

2011-08-22T23:39:00.000-07:00

Mobile Search Is Becoming Standard:

Searching the Web from a mobile phone is increasingly part of everyday life. Looking for some new sports equipment and not sure where to go? Just type it into your smart phone, and you’ll get a list of businesses eager sell you their products.

One thing you can be sure of: If you like fast and easy information, your prospective customers feel exactly the same way. So if you own a business dependent on local traffic, you’ll want to be right there on people’s phone screens when they’re searching for what you sell.

Getting there is pretty simple: Claim your business listings on all the major search engines – Google, Yahoo and Bing. Each of these search engines returns local results when someone searches for a product or service. You’ll have a much better chance of appearing front and center in mobile search results if you claim and optimize your business listing.

You should create your Google Places listing before your Yahoo and Bing listings for several reasons. First, Google is the most widely used search engine, and its local listings – called Google Places – include a mobile app.

Second – but no less important - Google recently rolled out product listings, which help searchers find products available in their area. If you provide Google your product availability data, your Google Places page will display products available at your store. It’s a great way to introduce what you’re selling to people who don’t know your business yet.

How To Optimize Your Google Listing

Claim your business listing using a business email address. Don’t use a @gmail.com address – instead, use a @mybusinessname.com address. This helps strengthen the trust Google has in the authenticity of your listings.

Make sure you list business categories that are relevant to your store. For example, if you sell sporting equipment, use some variation of “Sporting Goods Store” as one of your categories.

Use the city and state where your business is located in the description.

Use a page from your website that includes the address and phone number of your business on it as the website link on your listing – for example your “Contact Us” page.

Keep all important location information, such as business name, address and phone number, consistent across all local listing platforms. This sends a strong signal to search engines that your local listing is legitimate, and that the information is accurate. Your consistent information creates greater trust in your listings and site, and that ultimately helps your rankings in search results.

Click to Call

If you decide to use Google’s pay-per-click advertising program - called AdWords - be sure you add Click to Call. People using their phones to search often want to locate something quickly, and Click to Call offers them a one-step option to get in touch with you.

Click to Call lets you set up ads that allow someone to simply click your business number and call you directly from your ad. It’s so easy that a shopper is much more likely to call you than a competitor whose number isn’t as readily available.

Click to Call is easy to set up in the AdWords campaign settings. All you need to do is set up location extensions and provide your phone number.

Don't know how to set up AdWords yet? Read Google AdWords Guide for Beginners.

Location Extension Set Up

To make things even easier, you can link your Google Places listing directly to your AdWords account, and your location and contact information will automatically be included in your ads. Next, make sure you’ve chosen to show your ads on iPhones and other mobile devices that have full internet browsers.

That’s it – once you complete these few easy steps your customers will be able to call your business with the click of a button.

Source: http://www.aboutus.org/Learn/Use-Local-Listings-To-Rank-Higher-in-Mobile-Search

The Official URL shortcut for Google websites

2011-07-19T23:36:00.000-07:00

In the world of URLs, bigger is not always better. In 2009, we helped shrink up long, unwieldy URLs by launching our public URL shortener, goo.gl. Today, we’re announcing a new URL shortcut that will link only to official Google products and services: g.co.

The shorter a URL, the easier it is to share and remember. The downside is, you often can’t tell what website you’re going to be redirected to. We’ll use g.co to send you only to webpages that are owned by Google, and only we can create g.co shortcuts. That means you can visit a g.co shortcut confident you will always end up at a page for a Google product or service.

There’s no need to fret about the fate of goo.gl; we like it as much as you do, and nothing is changing on that front. It will continue to be our public URL shortener that anybody can use to shorten URLs across the web.

We’d like to thank our friends at .CO Internet SAS who operate .co domain names for facilitating the acquisition of g.co, and keep your eyes open as we start rolling out g.co as our official URL shortcut for Google websites.

source:www.googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/gco-official-url-shortcut-for-google.html

Google Makes Substantial Change in its Search Algorithm to Tackle Content Farms!

2011-04-26T04:35:00.000-07:00

Google has announced that it has made a huge change in their search algorithm to provide better search results. Unlike most of the tweaks and changes made by the company in their search algorithm earlier, which usually go unnoticed by most users, Google says that this one is big and that it affects 11.8% of their searches.

Google says that with such a major change made in the algorithm, it is inevitable that the rankings of many sites will be affected. In other words, some will go up and some down. However, the company has not named specific sites that would be directly at the receiving end of the made change. Matt Cutts, Google spam fighting team's leader, when asked by Danny Sullivan from searchengineland, answered, “I think people will get the idea of the types of sites we’re talking about.”

Any feedback or information gathered through the Personal Blocklist extension of the Google Chrome browser which was recently launched, has not been used while making this search algorithm change, says Google. However, they have compared the Personal Blocklist gathered information with the sites identified by the new algorithm, and found that 84% of the sites blocked via Chrome extension (Personal Blocklist) were identified by the new algorithm.

Although Google has not given names of the sites that are supposedly going down with the effect of this new ranking algorithm change, it seems quite clear with a little contemplation. The company had earlier announced in January that they will focus on content farms in 2011, and made content farm focused algorithmic changes following the announcement. Hence, content farms that has less original content or those that copy others’ content, are the sites that are being focused on.

Now, sites such as Demand Media, Associated Content and Mahalo etc., that are labeled as content farms come to mind. How will their rankings be impacted with the change in force? To such speculations, Demand Media is defending itself saying that its sites, such as eHow, has high quality content. Well, as to who gets affected by the change or will the latest change really improve Google's ranking quality? Time will tell, as this change that has been put in to action in the US (as of now) gets rolled out in other parts of the world.

Resource: http://www.pagetrafficblog.com/

Analyze And Optimize Your Site's Speed With Google's Page Speed Online!

2011-04-09T05:34:00.000-07:00

Google introduces Page Speed Online. It is a web-based tool in Google Labs that analyzes the performance of web pages (by analyzing its content) and then gives specific suggestions on how to make them faster.

Earlier there was Page Speed was available as browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, which needed to be downloaded and installed before you could use the Page Speed features. However, the Page Speed Online is available for all. You can use it any time you want.

How it works

At the Page Speed Online page, you enter your site's URL and click the Analyze Performance button on the right. The tool will then return a 'Summary' page, allotting a grade out of within 0-100. Below the summary are suggestions that could make your site faster.

There is also a mobile analysis and suggestions option for Page Speed Online, specifically for smartphones. This means you can also analyze and optimize your website for mobile performance. So if you are a site owner, go ahead and analyze your site's performance and make the improvements if needed, and speed it up for both desktop and mobile devices.

Source: http://www.pagetrafficblog.com/analyze-optimize-sites-speed-googles-page-speed-online/8886

Google Cache not updating since mid of december!!

2011-01-08T03:20:00.000-08:00

Has Google Bot gone on a long holiday?

Most of us have been on a holiday and back. But going by the cache dates of numerous websites, Google crawlers are still on a holiday, which decidedly is turning out to be a long one.

A large proportion of the sites we tested have a cache date of December 4th, 15th and 16th. News sites and blogs are the only exceptions to this. A few webmasters have reported cache updates for inner pages though no change was for the home page. Many webmasters have emailed us reporting the same issue as well.
There is no reason to panic as apart from the cache there is nothing else to suggest that something is wrong. We can only wait and wish Google to come out of the holiday hangover!

Source:www.pagetrafficblog.com

High Traffic Free Classifieds Ads Listing

2010-08-04T03:04:00.000-07:00

http://www.classifiedads.com/

http://www.freeadposting.com/

http://www.bestads.com/

http://www.youadlist.com/

http://www.freeclassifiedssites.com/

http://www.myboxad.com/

http://www.yatbo.com

http://www.indonesianwoodcarving.com/classifieds/

http://www.jicka.com/

http://www.classifiedsforfree.com/

http://www.highlandclassifieds.com/

http://www.ileeg.com/

http://classifieds.justlanded.com

http://www.kugli.com/Classified_Ads/

http://www.classifiedslive.com/

http://www.newfreeclassifieds.com/

http://www.affari.to/en/

http://classifiedsoo.com/

http://www.kugli.com

http://www.beatyourprice.com

http://www.classifieds.abydir.com

http://www.biggestclassifieds.com

http://www.bestwayclassifieds.com/

http://www.muamat.com

http://www.mcslist.com

http://www.interking.com/

http://www.expatriates.com/

http://www.jihoy.com/

http://www.ablewise.com/ads/listings/United-States/

http://www.usnetads.com/

http://www.canetads.com/

http://classifieds.shopmania.com/

http://www.classifieds.ivarta.com/

http://www.american-classifieds.net/

http://oodle.com/

http://www.webcosmo.com/

http://www.webclassifieds.us

http://www.adoos.us

http://ajcexchange.com/

http://www.freeadlists.com/

http://www.adpost.com

http://www.meetpark.com

http://www.uslisted.com/index.php

http://www.bestwayclassifieds.com/

http://losangeles.locanto.com/

http://www.isell.com/

http://www.southcoastgo.com/

http://www.freelocalclassifiedads.us/

http://www.canetads.com/

http://www.seenotice.com/

http://www.americanlisted.com/

http://sanjoseclassifieds.net/

http://www.anunico.us/

http://www.hot-web-ads.com/

http://www.olclassifieds.com/

http://globalclassified.net/

http://www.localglobalads.com/6_California/

http://trinifieds.com/classifieds/

http://www.adszi.com/229-California/

http://classified4free.net/region/usa/

http://solditlocal.com/

http://www.livesimon.com/

http://www.classifiedsdir.com/

http://ca.mystateads.com/

http://chaosads.com/

http://www.freeads24.co.uk/

Quick Approval Article Directory List

2010-04-20T02:20:00.000-07:00

http://www.goarticles.com

http://www.articlexplore.com

http://www.everyonesarticles.com

http://www.articlebasement.com

http://www.articleplanets.com

http://www.990m.com

http://www.articlelookup.com

http://www.articleszones.com

http://www.articler.com

http://www.articlerich.com

http://www.selfgrowth.com

http://articlebeach.com

http://www.en.articlesgratuits.com

http://www.212articles.com

http://www.freearticlehq.com

http://www.365articles.com

http://smarticledirectory.com

http://drarticle.com

http://articles.professionalseoindia.com

http://articleart.com

http://americanahost.com

http://www.goarticles.net

http://www.articleblast.com

Quick Approval Free Directory List

2010-01-27T02:18:00.000-08:00

http://www.trustdir.org/

http://usdir.info

http://seadir.info

http://www.coolwebsitelistings.com/

http://www.alltheshopsonline.co.uk/

http://www.businesssitesonthenet.co.uk/

http://www.leetech.net/

http://www.alcoosite.org/

http://www.hjavira.net/

http://searchnet.us/

http://www.awsomesurf.info/

http://www.finans-egitimi.com/

http://www.emlv.org

http://onemission.com/

http://www.vankia.com

http://www.submittolinkdirectory.com/

http://www.fatinfo.com/

http://www.best-net-sites.com/

http://www.yourjoker.com/

http://www.nkssnet.net/

http://2.0websites.com/

http://www.directoryutopia.com/

http://www.webdee.org/

http://www.5ixsy.com/

http://www.list-your-sites.com/

http://www.linkcruncher.com/

http://www.katerart.com/

http://www.wsdaj.com/

http://www.vankia.com

http://www.submittolinkdirectory.com/

http://www.wantfreetextlink.info/

http://www.canadalinkdir.info/

http://www.directoryforlinks.info/

http://www.omlinksdir.info/

http://www.matrixlinkdirectory.info/

http://www.livearticles.info/

http://www.allindiaservices.com/

http://directory.blfree.com/

http://www.eubc.net/

http://www.lyuban.info/

http://www.replacementshield.com/

http://www.ifccfbi.org/

http://www.12-step-s.com/

http://www.infignos.com/

http://efrg.info/

http://dcel.info/

http://wdue.info/

http://cbic.info/

http://yegu.info/

http://www.webnetclick.com/

http://www.web-master-directory.com/

http://www.maverickmoon.com/

http://www.help-me.co.in

http://www.viesearch.com/

http://www.foqe.net/

http://directory.ezweb-tools.com/

http://www.websquash.com/

http://www.craigs-directory.com/

http://www.backlinkplace.com/

http://www.greatstartmentor.org/

Search Engine List with Page Rank

2010-01-18T07:16:00.000-08:00

Search Engines	Page Rank
http://www.google.com/	10
http://www.bing.com/	9
http://search.yahoo.com/	9
http://www.dmoz.org/	8
http://www.alexa.com/	7
http://www.cuil.com/	7
http://www.acoon.de/	6
http://www.onekey.com/	6
http://www.entireweb.com/	6
http://www.infotiger.com/	6
http://www.whatuseek.com/	6
http://www.feedplex.com/	5
http://www.cipinet.com/	4
http://www.sentenceseek.com/	4
http://www.thelessonfinder.com/	4
http://www.super.info/	4
http://www.amfibi.com/	4
http://www.intelseek.com/	4
http://www.towersearch.com/	4
http://dinosearch.com/	4
http://www.anoox.com/	4
http://www.ghetosearch.com/	4
http://www.fybersearch.com/	4
http://www.sonicrun.com/	4
http://www.wikidweb.com/	4
http://www.claymont.com/home/	3
http://www.myahint.com/	3
http://search-o-rama.com/	3
http://www.thagodz.com/	3
http://www.burf.com/	3
http://www.foovy.com/	2
http://www.mixcat.com/	2
http://www.famhoo.com/	0
http://www.boitho.com/	0