SEO is almost as “Seattle” as coffee shops, grunge music, and rainy winter days. As the proud home of SEOmoz, Distilled, Portent, and Cobalt, Seattle is widely considered to be among the top cities for SEOs in the world. It’s no surprise then that there are so many Web Marketing conferences and conventions held here each year.

To make sure you don’t miss out on any cutting edge techniques, amazing free tools, and incredible networking opportunities, Seattle SEO Network has put together a list of the events coming up this year. We’d love to make this is as valuable as possible, so if you happen to know of something that we don’t, feel free to let us know in the comments below and we’ll update the listing as we go.

SkillPath Social Media Marketing Conference

Location: Crown Plaza Hotel

Dates: June 10, 2013

Why go?  If  either you can’t afford any of the other events and happen to be very interested in exclusively social media or  you’re interested in tackling a full day of intensive social media training as a warm up for the much larger SMX Advanced that starts the next day.

More Information:SkillPath Social Media Marketing Conference

SMX Advanced Seattle

Dates: June 11-12, 2013

Location: Bell Harbor International Conference Center

Why go? Q&A with Google’s Anti-spam Czar Matt Cutts and dozens of learning sessions sponsored and produced directly by Google. Hear it from the horse’s (donkey’s?) mouth at SMX Advanced.

More Information: SMX Advanced Seattle

Mozcon 2013

Dates: July 8-10, 2013

Location: Washington State Convention Center

Why go? Arguably the best value for great content, tools, and networking of any SEO event this year.  Off the record, many of top SEOs name Mozon as their favorite SEO conference of the year.

More Information:Mozcon 2013

2013 Seattle Interactive Conference (SIC)

Dates: October 28-30 2013

Location: Washington State Convention Center

Why go? Today’s SEO ideally should influence social media, user experience, and blogging strategies at the very least. This conference takes a broader look at the types of skills good SEOs should learn or at least partner with others to achieve. It’s also less than half as much as either SMX Advanced or Mozcon.

More Information: Seattle Interactive Conference

Any SEO or Internet marketer, for that matter, knows the importance of keyword rankings. If potential customers are looking for you on Google, you want to be #1. But what about the next step in tracking, besides keywords? It’s to track the traffic that results from those valuable searches. The way most marketers track website traffic is using Google Analytics, and a Non-Branded Search Segment is how to track SEO traffic from Google and other search engines.

The Non-Branded Search segment shows the number of people who have searched in Google or Bing for a keyword that does not include the business’ brand name, employees’ names or any other brand-specific keyword. So, for example, if we are looking at a business called I Feel Pretty (website www.ifeelpretty.com) that rents dresses, SEO traffic would include searches on Google (or other engines such as Yahoo or Bing) that do NOT include the words “I feel”, or the name of the business owner. However (and here’s where it gets tricky), a potential customers’ search query could include the word “pretty”, as in “pretty dress rentals”, so we would not want to exclude that word. Typical words to exclude are

• Business name (unless potentially part of a non-branded search)
• URL (yes, some people will actually search for part or all of a website URL)
• Business owner(s) and names of anyone else high-profile at the company
• Any “Not Provided” Keywords (technically not branded but we don’t know so have to exclude all)
• Any other words that show prior knowledge of the business. Look in the site’s analytics Search Queries list for any that show prior knowledge and exclude them.

Set It Up!

Setting up this segment takes a bit of customization per each website.

• First, identify the GA profile that will mainly be used to monitor site traffic. If a filtered profile to exclude internal traffic has not already been setup, consider implementing. Once profile is decided, create a Segment with the following setup:

• Note the excluded keywords – business name, principal’s name, senior mgmt’s name, etc, all separated by pipes, in a “Matching RegEx” box.
• Be sure to click “Test” and make sure that your 4 or so options are all working properly.
• Then click “More Options” and ensure this segment only exists in the correct website profile(s).

Advanced Setup:

If you have a large number of profiles in your GA account, there is an easy way to share this segment across profiles. What I suggest doing is creating one master segment that can be easily shared and customized for each one. This segment is called “Non-Branded Search – Generic Change before using”

Then proceed to rename the segment, add the branded keywords to be excluded AND don’t forget to click “More Options” and make sure it only appears in the relevant profiles.

To modify and copy for a particular profile, go to the Admin panel (even if you only have User access) and click “Copy” for the generic segment:

Note that, as the percentage of traffic showing “Not Provided” grows, eventually this segment will become useless, which will be a huge tragedy for all online marketers!

So what is a healthy percentage of SEO traffic to have, as a proportion of overall site traffic? In my experience, a healthy, SEO-conscious site will have between 10 and 40% of new, non-paid traffic as non-branded. Typically closer to 5 – 20%.

More Segments!

Below is a list of other great segments to make your SEO life easier.

• Branded search traffic – important to keep an eye on this now and then, especially during any major site changes, aggressive linkbuilding campaigns, etc.
• Keyword length – if you have good conversion-tracking you owe it to yourself to parse the keyword data any way you can to discover any actionable insights.
• Traffic from Social Media sites – although GA has SocMed traffic info now, having it in a Segment is useful.
• Traffic from directories – regional businesses should care about website visits from directories such as Yelp. I’m told there is a way to set this up using GA’s social media section.
• Visits to 404 page – yes you can get more 404 page info from Webmaster Tools, but don’t you want to know if a lot of visitors are suddenly hitting a bad link? Consider setting up a custom 404 that will show you the exact URL they typed in or clicked on, then an Analytics Alert to trigger upon a sudden increase.
• Traffic to a particular group of landing pages – does the site have location pages, such as www.nationalautorepaircompany.com/houston-auto-repair ? If so, might be worth monitoring how much traffic they get, especially from the Houston region. What about if you have specific, distinct product pages? You get the idea.
• Post-conversion traffic – one they’ve signed up for your newsletter or sent the contact form submission, what happens to them? Do they ever come back, and if so, to what page?

Further Reading

There are many, many useful segments to use, depending on if the business is local or national, e-commerce or lead-gen, B2C or B2B. Here are some resources:

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-to-use-advanced-segments-in-google-analytics-to-isolate-seo-problems-tutorial/29753/

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/guide-to-setting-up-advanced-segments-in-google-analytics-for-complex-brand-names

http://www.stateofsearch.com/google-analytics-seo/

http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/google-analytics-9-advanced-segments.html

http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/4-essential-free-google-analytics-seo-custom-reports.html

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/seven-google-analytics-advance-segments

Google Fiber Launch in Kansas City

Google has recently announced Google Fiber, a high-speed broadband internet solution that delivers internet speeds 100x faster than other broadband providers, like Comcast, at affordable prices.

Currently Google Fiber is being tested in Kansas City, MO and Kansas City, KS with upcoming expansion to other parts of Missouri and the Midwest, and Google fans hope Fiber will expand nation-wide soon.

More International Internet Connectivity with Google Fiber

According to Google Public Data, only 35% of the world’s population has internet access. Only 78% of the US population is connected to the internet, however some countries fall as low as 4% (like Afghanistan). Services like Google Fiber provide an opportunity not only for more Americans to have affordable high-speed broadband access, but also for people who live in developing nations that are quickly becoming more technologically advanced.

Since 1990, the United States, Canada, countries in Western Europe, Japan, and Australia have dominated the internet market. But now, developing countries like Jamaica, Egypt, Bangladesh, and Armenia are seeing a steady climb in internet access. Bridging the technology gap between wealthy countries and developing nations through inexpensive and reliable broadband access will soon change the online world and increase the demand for Google services. And as more and more of these developing nations enter the tech world, Google will see a steady increase in users, which ultimately means more ad revenue.

How Google Fiber Increases Google’s Ad Revenue

Over the long run, services like Google Fiber will provide internet at much faster speeds than we have today, and will subsequently load web pages much faster. As more pages are seen, online searchers will see more and more ads in a shorter amount of time. This equals more ad revenue for Google and other search engines.

Like it or not, you’re being pulled ever closer to a place where social signals and social sharing are going to become increasingly dominant factors in Search Engine Optimization. Your task then is to understand and subsequently harness this transition. Non-resistance then allows you to benefit from the currents of change that are bringing greater influence to social media while displacing link building as the lead character.

When you take a look at some of the more recent Google algorithm updates, including both the Panda and Penguin releases, you’ll notice that Google is starting to assign even greater value to certain links, at the same time they devalue spam links. Other ranking factors, including the usability of a given website and the quality of its content, are becoming increasingly important in the game of search engine rankings as well. These signs all tell you that the satisfaction of your website’s visitor can and do determine your site’s search engine rank.

Will Social Signals Become The New Link?

Devaluing Inbound Links
If, in fact, social signals do become the “new” link, this will necessarily create some changes on the part of major search engines. One such change may be a devaluing or reduction in emphasis on the value of inbound links to your website. While inbound links are likely to retain a certain degree of weight when all ranking factors are considered, they’ll likely lose their place as the ‘holy grail’ of your search engine optimization strategy.  

Social Shares Within A Domain
In the evolution of SEO best practices, you’ll be likely to see movement toward increasing value placed on the quantity and quality of social signals contained within any particular domain. If that is the case, then your next obvious question might be “How will Google index wall posts within my Facebook page to find social shares?”

Social Signal Overflow  
Another change that may be worth your consideration is whether the value of social signals on a given page will overflow or otherwise impact the other pages within your domain. For example, in the current state of SEO, if you have a web page that enjoys an inbound link from a .EDU domain (say Standford University), the power of the .EDU extension gives a higher degree of value to your page than would a link from a .NET domain. By extension, that same inbound link to your page may distribute additional power to other pages that the target page links to.

Social sharing typically happens when people ‘like’ or ‘tweet’ an individual URL or blog post within your website. Take, for instance, a piece of content that has received 500 ‘likes’ on Facebook, could the value of that amount of social sharing then overflow to improve the rank of all the remaining content on your website?

Most commonly, you’ll see the sharing of article-style blog posts but not the sharing of the service-related pages that you’d typically want prospective customers to see in their search results. Case in point, if you happen to work as a consultant or software provider, it’s far more likely for the average site visitor to share content that demonstrates your thought leadership than the content that only speaks to your product features or service offerings.

What Types of Penalties will Google Use For Social Signals?

If Google does elect to issue future penalties, as it did with its Panda and Penguin updates, it may decide to punish certain types of social sharing rather than reward them. If that does happen, what would that look like and why would that happen?

Page Rank by Social Influence
You may want to contemplate that Google may decide to assign a ranking or weight factor for individuals who do share in the social sphere but who might be considered spammers. Let’s say that your run a local HVAC company whose service area spans 20 miles and yet your Facebook fan page has hundreds of ‘Likes’ from fans halfway around the world. It’s conceivable then that your rank would be negatively affected by what Google might construe to be a gaming of the system if the interactions or profile of your followers are deemed lacking or spammy.

Penalties from Social Signals
As in the past, it’s likely that fraudulent efforts to build reach through social channels will receive a strong SLAP by Google and its competitors. The more significant a ranking factor these social signals become, the more likely you are to see both positive and negative consequences depending upon your adherence to the “rules” of SEO engagement.

Additional Penalties for Lack of Usability
In Google’s Panda update, you probably noticed more weight being given to the usability of your site as well as a corresponding penalty if your website lacks user-friendliness as measured by a visitor’s time on site. The penalty issued is a response to what’s deemed as low quality content which fails to engage your readers or hold their attention, thereby decreasing the length of the average visit. If a particular piece of your content is being shared socially yet fails to receive inbound links or adequate time on that page, Google’s algorithm may regard the imbalance as an indication of social spamming.

Is The End Near for Links?

When can you anticipate social signals overtaking traditional link building in the evolution of SEO? Perhaps not this year, but in looking ahead, you should anticipate such a shift as an eventuality; giving careful consideration to the power of social signals not only within your own domain but of those signals contained within the domains that link to your website. Last but not least, do not exclude proven linking strategies including generating more inbound links to your site, properly anchored by those keywords for which you wish to improve your rank.

Enter Google Tag Assistant, a great Chrome plugin that checks the presence & functioning of Google Tags on a particular page.

Unfortunately, once you start using it you’ll start to wish for something that will check for the presence & functioning of all the other codes out there, like WebTrends, Omniture, CoreMetrics or Bing conversion code. Supposedly ObservePoint Tag Debugger does all this but it didn’t work for me. (Yes I set it up properly and checked the Dev Tools window)

The other big win would be to be able to use a tool to crawl an entire site (including Thank You pages, ideally) and check for all tags. There’s only a few options on this that I can find:

1. Observepoint – expensive! $130+/mo for just one audit per month.
2. Web Analytics Solution Profiler – These guys are even worse: $700 to be able to scan an entire site.
3. Screaming Frog – SF has a free site crawl tool that works well for pulling site SEO data (URLs, titles, H1s, meta keywords, etc), although I like to actually merge its site crawls with the SEOmoz crawls. The paid version however, allows you to check an entire site for the presence of tracking codes on all pages. If configured properly, SF should be able to check for GA code, e-commerce code, adwords tracking code, Bing tracking code, GWT code, etc ~$150/yr. Downside is you must configure and test yourself.

Anyone heard of another tool that can do this? Anyone setup Screaming Frog to check this stuff? Help out your fellow SEOs!

Web Analytics Day 2013 1/25/13

Web Analytics is a crucial skill that savvy businesses use to drive higher customer satisfaction and profitability.  Join industry veterans and novices alike from around the Puget Sound to learn the basics about Web Analytics & Big Data, and where the industry is heading.  Lunch will be provided!

This event is designed for those who want to get an overall understanding of what Web Analytics is, how to apply Web Analytics to their business, or otherwise want to catch up on the latest trends in the industry.

Content will be presented in vendor-neutral way.  Any vendor solutions referenced will be geared towards painting an understanding of the various options available to solve certain problems.  No sponsorships are allowed.  Society Consulting is hosting this event to provide broad education & training for the Seattle market which ideally benefits all vendors and practitioners.

Presenters: Chad Richeson, Aaron Fossum, Chandra Chikkareddy, Ilya Buzytsky (Society Consulting)

Who Should Attend:

• People Who Want to Understand What Web Analytics Is
• People Who Understand Web Analytics But Need to Know How to Use It In Their Business
• People Who Understand Web Analytics And Want To Learn More About Big Data

– PROGRAM OUTLINE –

Part I: Using Web Analytics to Drive a Business (Chad Richeson)

1. Why Analytics Matters
2. How to Integrate Analytics with Business
3. The Value of Multi-Channel Customer Analytics
4. The Path to Predictive Analytics
5. Org & Infrastructure Models
6. How to Hire for Analytics

Part II: Web Analytics (Aaron Fossum)

1. Client & Server-side Tagging
2. How Web Data is Processed into Metrics
3. Cookies & User Identification
4. Tag Management
5. Purchase Funnels & Conversion (Click Analytics)
6. A/B Testing & Optimization
7. Customer Lifecycle Analytics
8. Mobile Analytics

Part III:  Big Data! (Chandra Chikkareddy, Ilya Buzytsky)

1. What is Big Data?  (hint: Web Analytics Is Big Data)
2. Introduction to Hadoop & the Hadoop Ecosystem
3. Pairing Hadoop with BI Technologies
4. Big Data Pipelines & Workflows
5. Data Quality
6. Great Use Cases for Big Data

Signifigance, Search & Information Architecture 2/12/13

Two brief talks from local search expertsRuth Burr of SEOMoz and Ian Lurie of Portent.

They’ll be speaking about the relationship of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Information Architecture and User Experience. So much of our work in IA & UX is about collaboration across departments and teams, so we invited people who really know SEO to speak directly to cross-discipline team work.

Details:

• February 12, 2013 at Piecora’s Pizza in Capitol Hill: 1401 East Madison Street, Seattle, WA 98122
• 7 pm Registration followed by two 20 minute presentations and Q&A with both speakers
• Parking is available at the venue, but you should arrive early to find a place
• Admission is $10 which includes both pizza and beverage. Additional donations are always welcome.

Google Tools Universe by Alex Kine – Click to view full-size PDF

A high-level understanding of the “Google tools universe” (GTU) is an important step when allocating a marketing budget. All businesses have administrative and information needs. Google provides a wide range of tools, many at zero financial cost, to help address those needs. All Google Tools require some time for learning and interacting. Knowing which ones provide the greatest return on your relevant market will reduce the decision paralysis that accompanies early use.

For the purposes of this article, we refer to the graphic “Google Tools Universe” created by Alex Kine for a presentation to the November SSN meetup on 11/13/12. In addition to the tools illustrated here, non-profit organizations have a broad set of tools and applications available through Google Non-Profit. You can ask your SEO or Google specialist to guide you. We will focus on Google today because Google accounts for four times more search traffic than its nearest competitor, Bing.

One of the key attributes of the GTU is that everything is interconnected. Efforts in one channel support and reinforce efforts elsewhere. For example, using rich snippets from schema.org and building out a robust Google+ site will positively impact search results on Google.

Google Search

Organic Search (unpaid or “natural search”) is the set of search results that are in the main part of a Search Engine Results Page (SERP). The rest of the results on a SERP are “paid search”, or PPC.

The percentage of clicks that come from organic search will vary. It is common to see results that range from 60% to over 90%. Some Internet marketers report that 60% of all visitors to their sites came from Google Organic Search. Comparing Organic to PPC it is common to see that over 95% of search traffic comes from organic and less than 5% from PPC. Given this knowledge, it is reasonable to allocate a proportionate amount of resources to getting organic search right.

Google makes many changes over time that impact how high your website ranks, for a given set of search terms. The top or number one spot will likely account for a majority of clicks. Therefore, the coveted top position is worth your time and attention. Google’s official position is that what makes a good website good for the viewer also makes it attractive to the search engine. So, just doing whatever you can to make your site easy to navigate, worth reading, and connected to others in your field should be enough.

The reality is that a variety of factors, some specific to the site content, some related to mechanics or architecture of site design, and some related to factors that aren’t on the site at all will impact your Google search results rank, or “PageRank”. These factors are endlessly considered by analysts competing with one another for that top spot. This process is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and it is an essential part of any thorough digital marketing strategy. A non-expert can do a lot of SEO work on their own, but keeping up with industry changes, new Google algorithms, and being aware of what actions will result in losing PageRank are just a few of the factors that can be managed more effectively by a Search Professional.

Analytics

Google Analytics is a performance analysis and segmentation tool that helps you determine what viewers are doing on your website, and how they got there. It shows all traffic to your website (not just from Google). It includes the search terms people used to get there, the pages they viewed, and how long they stayed. Analytics is also setup to track conversions. A conversion might range from casual viewing to a visitor taking a specific action. Examples include making a purchase, requesting an appointment, placing a phone call or downloading marketing content. In web analytics circles, conversions are grouped in goals, and goals are defined by how they are measured. These measures are called Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s), and tend to be the primary way businesses and marketers measure success. KPI’s include whether a website is sufficiently helping a business meet its marketing goals.

Webmaster Tools

Webmaster tools forms the foundation for performance analysis. It gives you web-traffic data for specific search words (also known as keywords). Webmaster tools is also a valuable diagnostic tool to find out if your site has been infected with virus or malware, if there are errors in your html code, and if there are errors that prevent Google’s machines to scan your website’s pages. If Google cannot properly scan (“crawl”) your pages, they will receive no search traffic. So, this can be a critical component of successful Search Optimization.

Anatomy of a Search Engine Result Page (SERP)

Google+ Local (formerly Google Places)

Google+ Local is Google’s effort to bring businesses and organizations into their Social Network Google+. Google+ Local integrates professional reviews from Zagat, user-generated reviews (in the style of Yelp), with maps and localization information that is provided by your browser (based on your IP address and also from location of nearby wireless signals) or mobile device.

Users can rate your Google+ Place without writing a review, and searchers can see your cumulative score on a 30 point Zagat scale. Have your customers leave reviews on your Google+ page, and then engage and respond positively to reviews, especially negative reviews.

Google estimates that nearly a quarter of all searches and closer to half of all mobile searches have “local intent”. If someone is looking for a local solution, like a restaurant, auto repair, health-care provider, etc… the results that Google+ Local generate will get their attention, and drive traffic to your site. You should optimize for Google+ because ranking well for local search results in more impressions and higher ranking for your business.

User searches within Google Maps return a high percentage of Google+ local results, and users who search within Google+ will only see Google+ and Google+ local results. Your Google+ page won’t get buried with other websites or PPC ads. Google+ Local reinforces efforts that you make to improve Google Search and AdWords.

AdWords

AdWords are those search results at the top of a SERP that have a colored background, or down the right column (under the word “ads”). You bid, auction style, to get an AdWords listing. Often, whoever is willing to pay the most per click ranks the highest.

Ads are shown based on a combination of how much is being bid for the relevant keyword and how successful the ad has been at motivating searchers to click. AdWords is commonly called Pay per Click (or PPC), because the marketer pays only when a searcher clicks on an ad. Payment for each time an ad appears is a different market, primarily used with banner ads, called “Cost per Thousand” views, or “CPM”. The M stands for “mille” the Latin word for “thousand”.

• Select words that searchers might use (keywords) when looking for your product or service
• Determine how much an average visit is worth.
• Set your budget, marketing expenses are limited to a specific amount per day, or per week, and can be targeted by day of the week, time of day, or other criteria.
• Write a compelling ad people will click on, because it doesn’t matter how much you bid for the AdWords ad to appear if nobody follows it to your site. This is a challenge, since less than a quarter of all clicks on most SERPs come from AdWords, but it can be rewarding if managed actively.
• Integrate with Analytics to provide data and detail about what drives viewers to your website, what engages them once they are there, and in many cases, how that behavior turns into sales.

If Dutch Bike Company will bid $3.00 per click, when a user searches for “bike shop”, and their budget is $100.00/day their ad will simply stop appearing after 33 clicks in a day. Although it may need to appear a hundred or more times, they only pay for the actual clicks. If your ad appears often and nobody clicks on it, Google might show other ads, which are bid at lower rates, but which return higher click rates.

Less than a quarter of all clicks on most SERPs come from AdWords, but it can be rewarding if managed actively. The latest edition of the AdWords interface can even reveal which keyword resulted in the ad appearing, and allows you to adjust keywords and bids accordingly. One key to earning profitable AdWords clicks and views is knowing how much a customer or web-visitor is worth, and actively managing the campaign to attract visitors with bids on lower costing keywords.

Google AdWords Bid-Volume Matrix

In the top right section of this chart, expensive keywords that lots of users search for, words like “Loans”, “Insurance”, “attorney”, and “mortgage”, those keywords do attract a lot of search volume, but also have a high value amongst businesses in that field. On the other hand in the lower right of this chart, the search term “lolcats” would get a lot of search volume, but very few marketers are interested in paying for it.

Search Keyword Demand Curve

When Internet marketers talk about “long tail” keywords, we mean terms that have low search volume, so not many competitors are interested and bids are low, but they are meaningful to your website and address a specific need on behalf of searchers. Use Webmaster tools to help find effective, lower cost keywords that would be relevant to your AdWords campaign.

YouTube

YouTube accounts for almost one-half of all videos posted on the web and more than one-half of all content that appears in video search. YouTube gets 14 Billion views per month (yes, per month), and it’s the third most visited site on the Internet (after Facebook and Google). Put relevant videos on YouTube and you will accomplish two things in terms of search.

1. It is another avenue for you to link back to your main page (from the embedded link when you upload the video).
2. It is a lot easier to get a video ranked in regular search results than an “ordinary” page.

Despite the fact that there are 35 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, there are even more web pages. Produce great video content that others want to embed on their site, embed the video on your own site, blog, etc… and make sure that the embedded link goes to your site. Here is an easy to follow tutorial. Each time the video is embedded, it counts as another link back to your site. The more often the video is embedded, the more links you get.

Conclusion

This article is only a toe in the water of the whole Google Tools Universe. We discussed fewer than one-quarter of all the items illustrated in the accompanying graphic. We briefly discussed where the value lies and how to begin earning that value. Further research is available for all of these subjects. You are encouraged to read more, learn more, and drive traffic to your site.

For small businesses, local reputation is king. If a customer was so pleased with your service that they are willing to take time out of their day and write a thoughtful review, the world should know! Good, publically available reviews are a crucial technique to attract the next satisfied customer. In addition, as most SEOs know, a plethora of reviews on a business’ local listings will provide a giant boost towards the top of the search results. The most important of those listings, Google + Local (formerly Google Places, formerly Google Maps) has gone through some major changes recently, placing more and more emphasis on social content, helping Google + compete more directly with Facebook.

Unfortunately, Google + Local is filtering out actual customer reviews, and eliminating reviews that have already been posted; leaving many small business owners begrudgingly scratching their heads.  So, it seems Google is going the way of Yelp and implementing a hardline filter that does a great job of sifting out the spam, but at the cost of often snagging actual reviews.

In Filter Purgatory?

But all might not be lost.  In this Discussion on the Google and Your Business Forum,  Top Contributor Mike Blumenthal has been                        bravely wrangling all of the complaints into one giant thread for Google staffers to see.  After posting their details of review abductions, some members of the discussion have had luck appealing to the big G and had their reviews released from internet purgatory.  So, if your hard-earned reviews aren’t shining brightly on the monitors of potential customers, be sure to post in this thread, and your reviews might return quicker than just waiting for Google to sort their mess out.

After some testing, a few theories have formed about what will usually get a review trapped in the filter.  If you are missing review(s), you can more than likely conclude it was for one of the reasons explained below.

Why Oh Why Filter Me, Uncle G?

The filter is sensitive to IP addresses. For example, if a customer writes a review for a Seattle business but happens to be in San Francisco when they write it, you can bet the review will be filtered. Even if the reviews are written in a different city of the same state, they may also fall prey to the filter. Conversely, if customers are submitting reviews onsite, with a computer owned by the business, the filter will also be triggered.

Along with the physical location, Google will also take into account how customers made it to the review page online. Did they naturally search for the business and make to their G + profile, or did they click a link from an email taking directly to the profile?  If a customer was brought to your Google + profile site from a link in an email, there is a good chance the review will be filtered.

The text of the review can also be possible filter bait. If the review is the same for multiple locations or multiple review platforms (i.e Yelp, Citysearch, UrbanSpoon, etc.) the review will be filtered.  If a URL of the business being reviewed is included, it will probably be flagged. If the review contains too many keywords, it will again probably be flagged.

E.g.: “Joe’s Seattle Car Repair is the fastest and most efficient car repair service in town. I highly recommend this car repair shop over everywhere else in town. I love Joe’s Seattle Car Repair!”

Even though the author’s intentions are good, this review doesn’t stand a chance.

On top of the location, arrival method, and content; frequency of reviews could also alert the filter. In the aforementioned Google thread, Google employee Jade W. explains reviews that come in waves will look suspicious.

“Still looking into this, guys. Soliciting reviews is suspect behavior for our systems, so please please please make sure your reviews are legitimate and left by your customers of their own accord.

What I mean by this is — it’s fine if you reach out to customers to ask them to review, but I do not recommend that you do this in waves. If you want to reach out to legit customers and ask them to review, I recommend you contact them immediately after you have done business with them. “

 So soliciting reviews is okay, just make sure customers follow these easy steps to ensure the survival of your next review.

1. Naturally search for and find the business’s G + profile
2. Type the review on a mobile device, or at home
3. Make sure the review doesn’t have the business URL or include too many key words
4. If the customer chooses to write the review at home, try to make the customer have a home relatively near your business.

Easy, right?

Google’s filter is far from perfect, but it is a step in the right direction to ensure legitimate reviews and an improved user experience.  In the meantime, if you or someone you know is having review issues, definitely refer to the Google and Your Business thread.

Coming up: “Jailbreak Your Review: How to Get unfiltered!”

Resources 

http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/business/technical-issue/mPz5bqu7ViM

http://www.nightlitemedia.com/2011/10/google-places-cracking-down-on-fake-reviews/

http://imprezziomarketing.com/seo-blog/google-maps/a-way-to-avoid-the-google-local-review-spam-filter/

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/08/08/what-should-you-tell-a-client-when-google-loses-their-reviews-a-4-part-plan/

Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop is the gold standard of desktop photo editing. If you have a copy, lucky you. If not, you can subscribe to Photoshop for $20 per month for an annual contract and $30 for a month-to-month contract. Given our simple need to scale (i.e., resize) images, Photoshop is more tool than is required.

Unpaid Image Editing Options

All three image-editing options are available free online. Each allows you to load/import an image, resize it and save/export the resized image to your computer.

Photoshop Express

Photoshop Express encourages you to sign up now but allows you to test drive the editor, as well. Support is limited to JPEG file type only. The resize workflow requires you to select Custom, before you enter the new width or height. Surprisingly, the quality of the resized image was the poorest of the three unpaid options.

Aviary Phoenix

The Aviary Phoenix image editor allows you to import/export images without registering and supports four file types: GIF, JPEG, PNG and PSD. While the editor is feature-rich, the resize workflow is clean and intuitive. Better yet, the quality of the resized image was excellent.

PicMonkey

PicMonkey is the simplest of the three image editing options and my first choice. It has no registration and supports two popular website file types: JPEG and PNG. In addition, it allows you to save JPEGs using one of three preset levels of size and quality. The resized image closely matched the quality of the original and the first resized image using Aviary. The file size dropped from 252 KB to only 8 KB, a savings of 96%.

Lossless Compression

Now that you have resized your images, there is another step: compress them using Yahoo SmushIt. Resizing your images could actually increase their file sizes. Losslessly compressing them maximizes the benefit of serving scaled images, which is to reduce your page load time. The SmushIt workflow is easy to follow and the results are impressive, all without the loss of any image quality. In our example, SmushIt reduced the 8 KB resized image an additional 5 KB, for a total savings of 99% versus the original.

Repeat the Page Speed Analysis

Before you declare victory, repeat the analysis using Page Speed Online. Then share the results [not the means] with other SEOs, clients and coworkers. They will be impressed. More important, the Web site visitors truly will appreciate the fast user experience you helped to create. One day soon, Google and Bing might reward you with more unpaid search traffic, too.

Please send us your comments about Ways to Scale Images. I especially am interested in hearing your thoughts about doing work traditionally done by content creators and Web developers.

Enter the latest local search update from Google, Google + Local.
On May 30, the search giant took a major step towards integrating their
social media offering, Google +, also known as Google Plus, with their
bread and butter search engine results. Google began an overhaul of its
local rankings, replacing various ranking systems with a unified, and more
scientific, ranking system acquired from its recent purchase of Zagat.
While this helped to refine local results, a major flaw in online rankings still existed. Bogus and spam reviews, the results of lowbrow SEO tactics that flooded local reviews, frustrated business owners and greatly skewed local Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

Google’s solution for this frustrating flaw? To require all reviewers to first be registered with Google Plus, greatly reducing the possibility of fake reviewers and helping to assure more accurate and appropriate review scores. After the May 30^th update, all reviews are directly associated to a user’s Google Plus profile. It’s a simple solution to a major problem, but in requiring reviewers to join their social network, Google may be creating several new problems that may serve to alienate a sub-sect of users.

Online and Offline Spaces

The first and most obvious barrier for a new reviewer is the requirement to create a Google Plus profile. However, this tie-in is a great strategy for social media. For example, Facebook has used it with success on the many Facebook Connect websites and has partnered with likes Turntable, Kotaku, and even local newspapers. Twitter also uses this social login feature extensively and Google itself is a major player in this field already. So, what is the difference between being identified on an article commentary and being identified on a local review? The answer is in Google’s new catchphrase: “Local”.

When someone places a review for a local site, they identify themselves as a direct customer of a physical establishment, blending the line between online and offline spaces. The removal of anonymity can greatly alter the customer’s relationship with the store. While most of us would be fine giving our opinion of a local hamburger shop, what about the adult novelty shop in the neighborhood or plastic surgeon? Would you want your circles knowing you frequented such establishments? How about a business knowing your identity after you has placed a negative review? Would you feel comfortable criticizing a new bartender at your local watering hole? How about claiming to see a rat at the corner bakery? These are undoubtedly fair critiques of a business, but the business owner may not see this in the same light. When the business owner logs on to their Google profile and sees a regular customer is complaining about rising prices or reduced quality, how will they react when that customer returns to the store at a later date? They might even approach the reviewer through their publicly available Google Plus profile. On Google’s forum the Google user, Don.a.dio, shares a personal example of this dilemma:

“…users who post negative reviews under their real names could face harassment. I posted a negative review about a club to warn other girls about the staff, but I wouldn’t have posted if I couldn’t remain anonymous in fear I may be targeted in some way by the owners.”

This is a situation most reviewers would likely want to shy away from. If there is one thing Americans have learned from half a century of suburbia, it is how to avoid social confrontations. Whether intentionally or not, Google has begun an interesting social experiment by bringing online confrontations into direct contact with daily lives.

To what extent removing anonymity turns away new reviewers, reduces negative reviews or impacts social media involvement is difficult to measure, but the move has already alienated more than a few Google fans. A similar, recent attempt to bring real names to YouTube also met uproar from the online community, as users feared the loss of anonymity on the popular video sharing site.

Google may claim that removing anonymity is a measure to validate reviews by removing fake profiles and ratings, but validation is something that can be accomplished without revealing user information. The option to anonymously post a Google review after logging in, and being internally verified, would be an easy fix to this problem. Google may need to validate user identities to clean up reviews, but they don’t need to present those same identities publicly. Google has sacrificed anonymity. Why? Because by doing so they add another key ingredient to their all powerful search algorithm. Google has recognized the value of tying reviews to people and plans to use both reviews and the Google profiles of the users who left them as sources for searchable data.

  Search and Social Together

As part of an attempt to improve personalized searches, Google has made it known that they will be moving to integrate Google Plus reviews and recommendations made by friends in your personal circles to your local SERPs, creating results that are customized for each user. The end result gives Google a product that no one else can offer, an effective blending of social media and search. Google Plus may have borrowed something from each of its major competitors (professional networking from LinkedIn, social profiles from Facebook, etc.), but now it surpasses them with a brand new offering. Google has a unique product that separates itself from its competitors. But more important than that, it now has access to a treasure trove of personalized data that it can use to upgrade its SERPs. Removing the protective shell of anonymity allows Google to access our consumer habits, the holy grail of advertising. Facebook can only dream of such a feature, which greatly surpasses any personalization they can offer through likes and subscriptions. Google Plus Local is just one step further along Google’s path, and end goal, of making a wholly integrated and searchable world.