But Pinterest.com is far more than a “Virtual Pinboard.”

We’ve been keeping a close eye on Pinterest over the last year and can say with confidence that it’s something every brand and Internet marketing professional should master. In fact, the numbers alone should give you an idea of its impact since its March 2010 launch!

comScore reports that the visual bookmarking site saw an average of 72.1 minutes per worldwide user in October 2011. This is an astounding 512% increase since May 2011, when comScore first started tracking the site.

A month later, comScore reported that Pinterest was the 7^th leading social media site in the US based on the number of unique visitors in November 2011. With a rising estimated value of $200 million, the site had 4.9 million unique visitors spending an average of 88.3 minutes on the site.

So what can Pinterest do for your business?

Like the other top social networking sites—Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.—there are a variety of benefits. Here are some of the more obvious ones that should get you excited about your brand’s potential on Pinterest:

• Brand Exposure – every “Pin,” “Repin,” & “Like” is shared across the category that it falls under, as well as the network of the user who “Pinned” the image

• Shopping Discovery – a shift from search to discovery of products and services; Pinterest allows users to find the products and services they never knew they wanted or needed (and instantly become an advocate)

• Brand Advocacy – as the images from your boards or website are shared throughout the Pinterest network, users are sharing their support for your product, service and brand with their personal network

• Link Building – every “Pin” and “Repin” creates a link back to the image source

• Brand Management in the SERPS – to boost your search engine optimization efforts, securing the URL www.pinterest.com/yourbrand will allow your Pinterest profile to show up for branded search results

How Pinterest Works

The first thing you need is an invite to join Pinterest. Yes, its invite-only similar to how Google+ was at launch. You can request an invite directly from the Pinterest.com, but you may end up waiting forever. Instead, comment on this post and we’ll send one over so you can join the ‘pinning’ craze in no time!

During the set-up process, you will be asked to specify a few things that you’re interested in and also to install the “Pin It” button to your browser’s toolbar. Based on the interests you select, Pinterest will choose a handful of the top users for you to follow—this will help you feel all cozy and at home as you learn the ins and outs of the site.

From Weddings & Events, DIY & Crafts, Food & Drink to Technology, Science & Nature, and Sports (just to name a few), Pinterest currently has 32 unique categories that each “Pin” can be found under. No matter your industry, there’s a place for you/your brand to share and interact on Pinterest.com. But like any content sharing network, there are some best practices you will need to follow. Here they are according to the ‘pinning’ site itself:

• Pin from the original source
• Pin from permalinks
• Give credit and include a thoughtful pin description

Additional tips for a strong Pinterest presence include:

• Pinning from various sources rather than one specific site; Pinterest flat-out states that they do not want any brands on Pinterest solely for self-promotion

• Repinning from within the site to engage with others – repinning is one of the most social activities on Pinterest and it’s how any user really builds their network of followers

• Creating at least a few boards that cover a broad range of interests, rather than maintaining a single board devoted to one topic

So what do you think about the Pinterest craze? Have you already incorporated the visual bookmarking site into your 2012 social media marketing strategy? Still skeptical? Need an invite? Share your thoughts in a comment below.

January 10th - Display URL’s Are Standardized to Display as Lowercase Letters Only

Before: www.CoolExampleSite.com  |  After: www.coolexamplesite.com

The first change of 2011 removed a feature that enabled advertisers to capitalize letters within the display URL. This was useful to help make multiple word domains easier to read. However,  Google states that this change is made after determining that standardized display URL’s improved user metrics including click-through rates.

February 2nd - Location Extensions Enhanced With a Distinctive Blue Pin

This change affects only local searches for advertisers that have the location extension enabled. The blue pin is added to the location extension and integrated into the map when the ad qualifies to serve at the top of the page for a local search. This is a useful feature to help the advertiser stand out among a large set of listings.

February 3rd - Longer Headlines For Select Ads That Appear at the Top of the Page

Before:

After:

This update enabled advertisers to extend their headline to include the first line of description text as long it is a distinct sentence that ends with a punctuation mark. Google claims this enhances user experience by highlighting more information within the ad, but it could also be seen as an attempt to boost revenue by increasing clicks on paid instead of organic results. This was one of the most significant changes that Google has ever made to how search ads are displayed and provided a great opportunity for advertisers to enhance their messaging and increase click-through rates.

March 24th - Media Ads Display Video Directly From the Search Page

Media ads are released as an automated feature that serves a video (usually a movie trailer) into the ad. This feature is available only to a limited set of advertisers (motion picture studios promoting new release features). Users can find these ads by searching for upcoming films and then view the trailer within the search result page by clicking the thumbnail image.

March 30th - The +1 Button is Added To Search Ads

A “+1″ button is added to the right side of ad titles. Users can “+1″ ads that they like when logged in by scrolling over the button and clicking as shown in the above image.

Friends of users who have clicked the “+1″ button are able to see that recommendation directly from the ad unit as shown above. This personalized experience is intended to help users identify advertisers that are most relevant to them. For advertisers this new feature makes it ever more important that their product and ad quality is worth recommending.

April 25th - Instant Preview for Search Ads

Instant preview for organic results were first released in late 2010 and this update brings that feature to ads. Users are able to preview the landing page for ads by clicking on the instant preview icon and thereby enhance user experience and improve clickthrough quality for advertisers. This update puts added pressure on advertisers to enhance landing page design in order to produce a more quality preview.

May 17th - Display URL Shown in Headline For Select Search Ads

Before:

After:

Following the successful release of the extended headline in Febuary, Google followed up with this update which extends the ad headline with the display URL. Google states that the display URL can be an important deciding factor in whether a user clicks on an ad and would allow advertisers to more prominently feature their brand.

June 7th - Embedded Site Links Released

This feature enables advertisers to integrate site links into the text of their ad by matching a site link text exactly with a string of text within the ad. Google automatically detects the match and serves the link within the ad. This is a useful tool for advertisers to stand out in the listings and encourage users to click within the flow of their copy.

November 2nd - New Ad Placements on the Bottom of the Result Page

With this update Google decided to move ads in the right margin to below the organic listings in some cases. Google stated that on average this placement performed better than ads in terms of click-through rate.

Time To Catch Up

Now is a good time to review your ads and make sure they are taking full advantage of all the changes from 2011. Google released these changes at a rapid pace last year so it’s possible that you may have missed a few, but catch up soon because more are sure to be on the way in 2012.

For example, if you searched for SEO Inc. you would see these sitelinks.

SEO Inc. Sitelinks

But it is important to point out that the Google sitelink initiative is not limited to a particular domain and an exact search query. It is actually much bigger than this. Did you know that sitelinks can be created for an important directory? Here you see sitelinks that have been created for the seo-blog directory on the SEO Inc. website.

SEO Inc. Blog Sitelinks

But it doesn’t end there. Sitelinks are now being created for social media profiles as well! Let’s take a look at a few examples.

Tacori Facebook Sitelinks

Fredericks of Hollywood Facebook Sitelinks

SEOMoz Twitter Sitelinks

As you can see sitelinks are not only connected to the main domain and an exact search query. We are seeing more and more sitelinks in the Google search space everyday. Furthermore, companies are increasingly interested in gaining sitelinks, as it helps them secure more branded search space.

What are your thoughts on Google sitelinks and search? Comment below.

One idea we have been kicking around is putting a call to action in the meta description. We are in the process of implementing this on some test sites right now. But we wanted to get your opinion first, as we thought this new idea could spark some excellent debate.

Changing Meta Tags for More Google +1s

What do you think? Would you be more likely to +1 this search result listing.

www.example.com/my-favorite-url

Title: Welcome to My Favorite URL

Description: This page is here to talk about my favorite URL on the Internet. It is a amazing page. Learn more about this page.

Or this search result listing?

www.example.com/my-favorite-url

Title: Welcome to My Favorite URL

Description: This page is here to talk about my favorite URL on the Internet. It is a amazing page. +1 this amazing URL now!

Give us your answer below! Lets get some conversation going! What do you think? Will adding this call to action increase +1s?

First, let’s define the 3 different ways to engage with a Google +1 button.

1. +1 from Search Results
2. +1 from a Web Page Button
3. +1 from a Google + Profile or Business Page

You can also simply post a link to your Google + page or profile.

Now that we know what we are talking about lets look at each of these Google + functions a little more in depth and explore their SEO implications.

+1 from Search Results

When you +1 a URL from search results it does two things. First, the +1 acts similarly to a backlink, in that it adds credibility to the website and allows it rank higher in non-personalized Google search. Secondly, it also allows it to rank higher in personalized search. To be clear, your search results in Google are personalized in almost all cases. The only way to remove personalization is to log out of Google, clear all of your history, cookies, etc. But even then in most cases Google will still attribute a location to your search based on where they see your IP address.

So let’s get back to the question at hand, how do +1s from search results affect SEO.

Well, first that webpage will rank higher when you are not logged in to Google. But secondly, when you are logged into Google you will now see the items that you have +1ed higher in search results. For example, consider you did a search for social media marketing and then +1ed the SEO Inc. Google result. Next time you search for social media marketing you will see that SEO Inc. result higher than before and in most cases on the first page. But it doesn’t stop there. This +1 will also affect the search space for everyone in your Google + network. Essentially, this means that if your good buddy who is in your Google + network performs a search for the same keyword they will see the result you +1ed on the first page of Google, or at least ranking higher than before. Another important point is that your buddy will be visually informed that you +1ed that URL. This of course greatly increases the change that he or she will click on that search result.

It is important to note here that at this point when you +1 a search result it does not automatically show up on your Google + page. However, it does show up on the new Google +1 tab! We will talk more about this soon.

+1 from a Web Page Button

Now when you +1 from a Google + button on a webpage the same concepts remain but there are a few subtleties. Unlike the Google + button in search results, the Google + button that you have the ability to install on your webpage allows the user to also share the URL on their Google profile, However, they must make a selection to do this.

At this point you cannot use the button to share directly to a business page; however, you can still take care of this manually. Furthermore, by performing a +1 on a webpage it will register as a +1 on your account and have the same effect on logged in search results and non-logged in search results for yourself and the people in your network.

+1 from a Google + Profile or Business Page

When you use the +1 button on an actual Google + page or profile there is something that must be considered. In this case you are not +1ing a URL. Alternately, you are +1ing a post on a Google + profile. We have confirmed this through testing. This does not mean that this will not change in the future, but this is the way that the functionality works at this point.

So let’s take a moment to play out a scenario to better understand this. Say I take this post on The Many Ways Google +1 Influence Search Engine Optimization and post it to my Google + business page and profile. Let’s say that the post is +1ed 20 times on my personal page and the SEO Inc. Google + page. These +1s will not count as +1s for that URL at this point, they will only count as +1s for that post. Now this does not mean that those +1s do not have value. In fact they do. Think of them as getting 20 likes on a Facebook post.

The New +1 Tab

Google has just released a new tab on Google + that displays the items you have +1ed. What you will see is that this tab only shows website pages that you have +1ed and does not show individual posts you have +1ed from a Google + page or profile. It is important to note here that this has a massive impact from an SEO perspective. Each of the items listed on this +1 tab are now a backlink to a website! Here is an example of my page. You can bet we will be doing a full follow up post on this release

Summary

The most important points to take away from this blog are that

1. +1 from search results help rankings in regular Google search and personal Google search and add that URL to your Google + profiles +1 tab.
2. +1 from a web page button modify regular Google search and personal Google search and add that URL to your Google + profiles +1 tab
3. +1 from a Google + profile or business page only help the popularity of that post in Google +.

Please keep in mind all of this functionality is very new and it is changing daily. Please leave questions or comments below.

Log in to Google and visit YouTube and you may notice something different. Now you will see videos that people in your Google + network have +1ed front and center on the home page of YouTube. This is very similar to the way that Google is dealing with search results that have been +1ed. It is all about personalization via Google + at this point. You can see an example of this new YouTube development below.

Watch a Short Video on Google + YouTube Optimization

This development has massive implications for YouTube video marketing. Let’s take a moment to consider this YouTube/Google + update. Say 10 people in your Google + network +1 your video. Let’s assume they have 50 connections each on Google + who visit YouTube. Each of these people will see your video on the home page (of course there is a limited amount of space on the home page so this would be dependent on how many shares had taken place in their network). This has just resulted in your video being exposed to 500 new people. Furthermore, if members of this new pool of YouTube viewers +1 your video the viral effect only continues.

These new personalized video results on YouTube really change the game of YouTube video marketing. It makes it just that much more important to get +1s for your videos.

“We use many signals to decide which title to show to users, primarily the <title> tag if the webmaster specified one. But for some pages, a single title might not be the best one to show for all queries, and so we have algorithms that generate alternative titles to make it easier for our users to recognize relevant pages.” – Google

Google Changing Page Titles in Search Results

So Google is yet again taking it upon them to decide what is best for our websites, nothing new here. But why would Google do something like this? According to Google, their testing has shown that these specific query title results are more relevant to these searches. Google says that they substantially improve click through rates for the search results and this helps both searchers and the webmaster.

Increasing search to content relevancy and click through rates is not Google’s only motivation for making this alteration. In some cases Google will generate page titles for web pages that have not specified a title or have a non-descriptive title. Furthermore, it is common that Google will generate a page title when duplicate titles exist on the site.

Hopefully this post has given you a little more insight into why Google changes the title of webpages in search results. We know it is not the most exciting topic in the world but in search engine optimization, social media marketing and just Internet marketing in general; it’s good to be in the know.

Have a Question or Comment? Leave it Below!

Google Tools for Dealing with Malware Video

John E Lincoln on Google +!

Watch a Video on Google Search Plus your World

Watch a quick video on Google Search Plus your World so you can get a general idea of the update. Next we will go through the features one by one.

So let’s take a look at these new Google features and then determine how to use them towards our advantage.

What is Google Search Plus Your World?

The concept behind Google Search Plus you World is fairly straightforward. Now, when you are logged into Google and do a search you will not only be presented with normal search results but also content that has been privately shared by people in your network. Google will be giving users who are logged in and do a search the option to toggle between personal results and normal results by clicking a simple button in the upper right hand corner of the Google search page. Furthermore, now when you do a search it will show the number of personal results and the number of other (normal results). If you like, you can only view personal results, which would only include things you or someone in your network have shared on a Google property such as Google+ or Picasa.

According to Google, these are the main changes taking place.

1. Personal Results, which enable you to find information just for you, such as Google+ photos and posts—both your own and those shared specifically with you, that only you will be able to see on your results page;
2. Profiles in Search, both in autocomplete and results, which enable you to immediately find people you’re close to or might be interested in following; and,
3. People and Pages, which help you find people profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic or area of interest, and enable you to follow them with just a few clicks. Because behind most every query is a community.

According to Danny Sullivan from Search Engine Land, “Search Plus Your World doesn’t cover content on Facebook. Or Twitter. Or Flickr. Or any social network or place where content might be shared to a more limited audience. Currently, “Search Plus Your World” would be better described as “Search Plus Google+” Sullivan is exactly right. The personalized search results will only include items that have been shared on Google networks. In most cases, Google +.

Concerns with Google Search Plus your World

Critics have expressed strong concerns already about these new features. For one, when you do a search it appears as though your own private content is now listed in public search results. This, however, is not the case. It only appears this way. The content is actually secure. Remember back to when Google moved logged in searches to SSL connection? Now we know why right? To secure the log in before this update!

At this point the information is actually secure, or at least we think so. You could of course reveal unwanted information to someone if you stayed logged in to Google and walked away from your computer, as they could browse through your personal results. But this is true of really any website on the internet that you participate in while logged in. According to Google, “This means when you’re signed in to Google, your search results—including your private content—are protected by the same high standards of encryption as your messages in Gmail.”

The Search your World People and Pages Feature

There has been some controversy over the People and Pages feature. Essentially, now when you do a search you will be presented with relevant Google + profiles and business pages in the sidebar.

“Starting today, if you search for a topic like [music] or [baseball], you might see prominent people who frequently discuss this topic on Google+ appearing on the right-hand side of the results page. You can connect with them on Google+, strike up meaningful conversations and discover entire communities in a way that simply wasn’t possible before.” – Google

This provides a whole new form of Google + profile and business pages search engine optimization. Google will now automatically associate certain items on Google + with specific search queries. This will results in pages and profiles showing up in the sidebar when a specific query is completed. This means we need to find a way to associate Google + business pages and profiles with the correct query. Presumably, this is determined based off the information filled out on the Google + profile/page, the profile settings, the popularity of the Google + profile/page and the search engine query.

Final Thoughts on Google Search Plus Your World

This new feature in Google has not been rolled out to everyone yet. It should come out in English to the main Google property first over the next few days. Google says, “Search plus Your World will become available over the next few days to people who are signed in and searching on https://www.google.com in English.”

We are holding our tongs and trying not to make any rash predictions at this point. However, it would appear this update just brought a whole lot more of Facebook type functionality to Google, when selected of course. It would also seem that this update resulted in a giant change for SEO, making Google + business pages and profiles even more critical. Might want to download our Google + business page whitepaper!

What are your thoughts on the new Google Search plus Your World update? Comment below!

John E Lincoln on Google +!