The first I heard about this is through an aptly named post on inbound.org:

The post takes you to the notprovidedcount.com site which tracks the keyword (not provided) count across 60 sites. The graph clearly shows a dramatic spike in the amount of keyword (not provided) traffic tracked over the last month:

As you can see, going at it’s current rate will mean (not provided) will hit 100% on 11th December 2013.

Back in October 2011, Google encrypted all searches done by logged in, US users. US users who were logged into their Google account were redirected to https://www.google.com when carrying out searches. It now appears that all searches, whether done by logged in users or not, are encrypted. I did a quick test to see whether or not this was the case by logging out of my Google account and performing a search incognito:

Sure enough, the search was encrypted. (Notice the ‘https’).

Out of interest, I performed the same search on Bing:

As suspected, the search was not encrypted.

What Does This Mean?

Well, besides the fact that the searches you perform are now protected and hidden from view, it means that none of this keyword data is passed onto the publishers.

Usually when you perform a non-encrypted search and click on a site in the search results, the keyword that you searched for then appears in the publishers Google Analytics account. This data can be of great importance to SEOs in particularly. A lot can be done when you know what your customers are searching for to land on your site.

With encrypted search however, this keyword data isn’t passed on. When you look in your Google Analytics account what you will find instead of the keywords is (not provided), which is a whole lot less useful.

Looking at the analytics for one of my other blogs, the (not provided) percentage currently sits at 74.43%:

Why Now?

Any attempt to answer this question right now would simply be speculative….but there has been speculation. Over on Search Engine Land, Danny Sullivan offered up two potential reasons why Google may have made this move now:

1. To Block the NSA
2. To Boost Ad sales

You can read more on these in his post here.

It seems that Google aren’t keeping all the keyword data secret. You can still see some (although not all) of this keyword data by logging into your Google Webmaster Tools account.

Whatever their reason, encrypted search and keywords (not provided) is on the rise. Those who used this Google keyword data will have to go elsewhere. Other search engines still pass on the keyword data….but is it only a matter of time?

For more on this topic,  I recommend reading the following posts:

Post-PRISM, Google Confirms Quietly Moving To Make All Searches Secure, Except For Ad Clicks – Search Engine Land

Goodbye, Keyword Data: Google Moves Entirely to Secure Search – Search Engine Watch

Your ‘Not Provided’ Percentage In Google Analytics Is Only Going Up – WebProNews

The post Google Makes Searches Secure – No More Keyword Data? appeared first on SEO Post.

Ronnie Bincer

Jesse Wojdylo

Brian Gundersen

They discuss a variety of issues regarding using Google Plus successfully. They share their thoughts on Google Plus embedded posts, driving engagement from G+ to your website, how to build post engagement etc. Well worth a watch.

Related articles

• How to Use Google Hangout Published at BrianHanson.com
• Improved Audience Interaction: Google+ On Air Hangouts Get Slick Q&A Upgrade

The post Driving Google Plus Success with Great Content – Google+ Hangout appeared first on SEO Post.

In today’s post I’m going to look at some  of the reasons why you should stop posting content to Article Directories.

Let’s start off by explaining what an article directory is, and why people post to them.

What is an Article Directory?

The name’s a big giveaway here, but an article directory is a website that hosts various articles, on various topics, written by various people. You’re likely to have heard or even visited some of the bigger ones. Sites like Squidoo, ehow, Ezinearticles and hubpages are all examples of article directories. Anyone is free to submit original content to these directories, and pending a successful review, your article will go live on the site. But why do people post content on article directories?

Why do People Post Content to Article Directories?

Article Directories generally allow to user to submit an Author Byline with their article. The Author Byline usually contains some information about the Author, and may also contain a link back to the author’s website (which is often related to the content in some way). In the past, this was seen as a great way of getting a high quality backlink to your site. If your article was popular, you might have even got a lot of direct traffic to your site.

Sadly, times have changed, and Google algorithm updates have come and gone (and they keep on coming). The number of article directories on the web exploded during the noughties. More and more directories were popping up, and more and more people were submitting content to them. SEOers knew that posting to article directories was a great way of advertising their site and getting a nice quality backlink. Google knew they knew this.

With more and more article directories popping up, and more and more people posting to them, the quality of article directories and the quality of the articles on them began to decrease. Article directories began to become diluted with average quality content which covered little, if any,  new material. Spammers began posting spun articles to directories in an attempt to artificially improve their rankings in Search Engines. Google knew this and they acted accordingly in an attempt to stop it.

Google introduced the Panda and Penguin algorithm updates which tackled problems related to keyword stuffing and duplicate content (where article directories were concerned). Sites with thin content, duplicate content and content with stuffed keywords were all punished. I won’t go much further into the algorithm updates here. If you’d like to know more I suggest reading this post here – http://www.helloseocopywriting.com/9/post/2013/02/how-googles-panda-and-penguin-updates-have-affected-article-marketing.html

Image source – http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/how-search-really-works-keyword-stuffing.html

Why You Should Stop Posting Content to Article Directories

OK, before I go any further I should say, contrary to the title of this post, not everyone should stop posting content to article directories. Of course, those who have been doing it for some time and are successful article marketers should continue what they are doing. These people have likely made a name for themselves and their articles would prove to be popular wherever they might post them.

However, if you’re new to the web and you’re trying to get your site some exposure, don’t waste time posting content to articles directories. It’ll do you little good in terms of search rankings and it’s unlikely to get you much in the way of direct traffic.

Where Should You Post Content?

You should either be posting content on your own site (an onsite blog for example) or posting content on sites in relevant niches (as guest posts etc.).

Content posted on your site will get crawled by the search engine bots, and you’ll likely get a few hits from search engines without doing too much in the way of SEO. The more content on your site, the more hits you’ll get. If the content’s worth sharing, it will get shared; resulting in more visits to your site.

Posting content on sites in relevant niches has a number of positive outcomes. If the site is similar to your site (which it should be), you’ll likely get valuable visitors to your site. They will be interested in the content you have on your site, and are likely to stay just that little bit longer.
You will also be building relationships with other bloggers and webmasters. If you provide them with content, they might even return the favour.

Another positive outcome (and I believe this one to be the most powerful) is that you will be getting your name out there. Becoming an authority figure in your selected niche isn’t easy. The best way of getting there is by posting great content in places where interested people will see it. If someone reads one of your posts and enjoys it, they might just remember your name. In the future, if they see you’ve wrote another article, they will be more likely to read it. Now imagine if thousands of people enjoyed reading your posts and recognised your name. These people will read your content wherever you might post it, they will share it on social networks, and both you and your site will benefit from it.

It’s good if your content goes viral. It’s awesome if your name goes viral.

For a history of the Google algorithm updates, I recommend visiting this page on SEOmoz.

The post Stop Posting Content to Article Directories appeared first on SEO Post.

Don’t get me wrong, Google Search works fine on touchscreen devices, be it on a smartphone or tablet. It’s pretty similar to the desktop version we’re all used to. This makes it easy for us to go from the desktop version to the version we see on our tablets.

However, this is where my problem with Google Search on touchscreen devices lies.

Let’s pretend a person has never experienced the desktop version of Google Search (i.e. they’ve never used Google Search with a standard keyboard and mouse). Let’s also pretend that their first experience of Google Search comes on a touchscreen device, say and 10 inch Android tablet. Below is a screenshot of Google Search running on my Android tablet. If the person searched ‘seo’ this is what they would initially see.

What the person would initially see.

Scrolling down a bit  further (vertically) and it looks like the following.

What the person would see after scrolling down the page.

Being used to a touchscreen device, this person will be accustomed to touchscreen features such as navigation by sliding fingers, pinch to zoom etc. I believe this person would find a number of problems with the search engine results page.

Now, I’m simply going to list off places where Google Search could be  improved, mainly in terms of usability.

• Size of Text, Links and Icons – Why is everything so small? Sure, I can zoom in and out by pinching the screen, but why am I required to do this? As soon as the ads on the right hand side end, there’s a lot of empty white space on the right. Surely it would benefit me more had that white space been filled with bigger search results text etc. Also, look at the size of the Google+ button beside the website links. Could that not be be placed more to the right and made slightly larger? My fingers aren’t particularly chubby, but I’d still have a hard time pressing it accurately.
• No Horizontal Sliding – One of my favourite features of touchscreen devices is the ability to navigate through content by sliding my finger to the left or to the right. On Google Search, sliding my finger in either direction does nothing. On the desktop version, hovering over a search result brings up a little arrow, and when you hover over this, a preview of the webpage appears on the right. Why can’t this happen when I slide my finger across a search result on a tablet?
• Search Box Disappears – Why do I have to scroll right up to the top again to make a new search? There are so many ways to improve on this; Have a search bar at the bottom that never disappears; Make a search bar appear when you hold your finger at the bottom of the screen; Add a simple ‘back to top’ arrow that lets me go to the top of the page instantly.
• Poorly Placed Advertisements – Few of us like advertisements, so most of us are probably glad that the Google Ads only appear at the top of the page. I think there are ways in which Google could show more ads, while still giving a better user experience. This is easiest explained by looking at my mock-up of a better Google Search Results Page for touchscreen devices below.

So what might this improved Google Search results page might look like. I spent all of 10 minutes on Photoshop designing the mock-up below. And this is just one of the design ideas I have for a better Google search results page.

(I’ve blurred the image as I didn’t want to single out a search result without asking permission)

Google Search Results Mock-Up.

Things I’ve done in this Google Search Results mock-up:

• Added Slider Bar – On the left you’ll see the search results for what you’ve searched. The greyed box indicates the current search result which is visible in the main screen. The slider will move and update as you slide your finger through the list, updating the main display as you go.
• Sliding navigation – Sliding your finger in different directions causes different things to happen.

1. Sliding vertically north to south on the main search result area will make the previous search result appear.
2. Sliding vertically south to north on the main search result area will make the next search result appear.
3.  Sliding horizontally east to west on the main search result area will make the site preview appear from the right.
4. Sliding horizontally west to east on the main search result area will make the full search list take over the screen again.

• Advertisements – Adverts are present all the time on the main search result area. One advert per search result in main search result area. Imagine being able to bid for ads to appear on your competitors search result page. Adverts could also be more relevant to the result which is visible.
• Search Bar – The search bar is always present, as is the heading bar where you can switch to searching images etc.

Again, this was a very quick mock-up and there are a lot of areas that could still be improved. I hope to do a follow up blog post on SEO Post in the future which would include a storyboard, showing the effects sliding would have etc.

Humans Don’t Like Change

Yes, humans hate change. But, I think this is one area where change is needed. It’s not too far-fetched to assume that in the near future, many people’s first encounter with the world wide web (and Google Search) will be done on a touchscreen device. My younger sister recently told me that most of the students in her class at school had received tablets for Christmas. Many of them already had smartphones, and only a few of them owned their own Desktop PC’s or laptops.

A good infographic on ‘the tablet take over’ can be found here: http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/17/tablet-growth/

The mobile/touchscreen versions of web sites are going to be ones later generations are most familiar with, so why not start making them more usable right now? If this change was to start with the webs most popular sites, then others would surely follow.

Now I’d like to hear what you think. Are you happy with Google Search on touchscreen devices? Can you think of any other areas where it could be improved? Leave your comments below.

The post Google Needs to Optimise Search for Touchscreen Devices appeared first on SEO Post.