Posts on State of Search about ‘Google’

Google Decides Where You Should Put Your Ads, But What About Their Own Pages?

ad-overkill

Who owns your website? On paper it is you. Because you are the one who is putting the content on your pages. In a perfect world you would however focus on your target audience and would fit the page so they would find what they are looking for within a micro second. In reality it is neither you or your customers who decide what goes where. It is companies like Google and Facebook who in the end make the decisions.

Google just made another decision for you. In a post on their Inside Search Blog Google announces an algorithmic change which makes Google one of the important deciders when it comes to what you put where on your site. Google’s newest change punishes those sites that have too many ads ‘above the fold’. At the same time they don’t seem to live up to their own rules. (more…)

A Crash Course in Filter Bubbles aka Google Search+ Your Web

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The chances are over the last few days if you have even the slightest passing interest in SEO you will have come across Google Search Plus Your Web (of Search+ to it’s friends) It’s easily one of the biggest single changes in the UX of Google search ever made and is the endgame many have foreseen in Google’s march towards personalisation.

While talking about it many have referred to changes as encouraging ‘filter bubbles’ while the name is fairly self-explanatory I thought many people might benefit of a ‘primer’ on the filter bubble concept and some further reading which you might find interesting in light of Google’s changes. (more…)

Participating in the SOPA Black Out? Don’t Forget to SEO

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This Wednesday many sites around the web will turn black. This as a protest to plans in the US called the Stop Online Piracy Act. Even though the White House is said not to support SOPA this bill might just become a law, which would be disastrous for the online industry. It is supposed to protect the intellectual properties online, but it can also be seen as possible Internet censorship. Therefore some of the big players, like Wikipedia and Reddit, on the web will turn black on Wednesday, to make a statement.

Maybe you are making that same statement. If so, you need to think of a few things. What many sites don’t realize is that “blacking out your site” might just harm your rankings in Google. Google after all doesn’t stop crawling and if they can’t find your site or do find it but won’t find anything ‘but black’ just when you are joining in on the protest, you might just lose your rankings.

Luckily Google has Pierre Far. This Googler, who is speaking at the next Thinkvisibility by the way, is not only a nice guy if you meet him in person, he thinks along with webmasters. So he decided to post some helpful tips for webmasters who plan to participate in the blackout on his Google+ Profile. (more…)

New Allegations: Is Google Trying to Kill Themselves?

Image Credit: Alex Moss - http://alex-moss.co.uk/

Back in 2009 I was on a panel at SMX London. At the end of the session, during the Q&A we were asked the question who we believed would be the ‘Google Killer’. My answer back then was “The only one who can kill Google, is Google itself”. If you look at the start of 2012 you might think Google is doing just that.

Within two weeks time Google has been hit a few times, which Barry describes nicely on his personal blog. After Manipulating +1 Upvotes, link buying for Chrome and last weeks allegations in Kenya Google now again faces allegations. This time they are accused of ‘vandalizing Open Street Map’. (more…)

Google Testing Out “Sesame Open”, But Working On Something Better

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Do you not trust public computers with your passwords, because maybe, just maybe a keylogger might be installed which records your password? Well help might be under way. Google is testing a new way of login: QR Codes. But that is just the start. Google says they are already working on ‘something better’.

If you go to Google’s special page on this: https://accounts.google.com/sesame you will see a QR Code. You can scan this barcode with your phone which will then take you to a website using your mobile browser. Google will then prompt you to type in your password and will ask for confirmation you do want to login. Once confirmed, your desktop browser will receive notice from Google that you are good to go and open a Gmail session for you. (more…)

What Would Google Bot Do?

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When building or optimizing a website you have to keep in mind you need to do things so the website can be found in search engines pretty well. Therefore you have to ‘obey’ to the rules of Google. And since Google sends its bots around to find what site is relevant it might be a good idea to consider ‘what would the Google Bot do?’ when optimizing a site. (more…)

Why Google Replaces Your Page Titles

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We all know classic titles in the search results like “New Page 1″, “Untitled Document” or simply just “Home”, these are titles for which Google could decide to replace with a more descriptive title. In a blog post Webmaster Trends Analyst Pierre Far explains the reasons why Google might replace the original title of a page in the search results with an own generated title.

Normally titles have to be unique and need to describe what the content of a page is about in 70 characters max. But even if a single title is written the right way it’s not always the best one for all search queries.  That’s why in some cases Google uses algorithms to decide if a title is good enough or if it’s better to replace it with a alternative title that’s more relevant to the query. (more…)

How To Switch Off Google’s Search Plus Your World Permanently

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Last week Google introduced “Search plus Your World” which integrates Google+ in to the search results. With the update Google also placed a new switch at the top right to turn off the personal results so you only see the non-personal results. These personal results are for example posts and pictures from Google+ but also all the recommendations from people within your own social circle and it even hides the +1 button. Unfortunately the big block “People and Pages on Google+” on the right is still shown, that should be hidden to I think.

You can use this switch but when you do a new search query then the personal results are just switched back on. But there is a simple cure for this if you don’t want these personal results or if you just think it clutters the search results to much. You can see the difference in the screenshot below after search for “YouTube”. (more…)

How To Become That Suggested User on Google

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Thats the thing with Google. Suddenly, overnight, things seem to change with the search giant. All of a sudden an SEO, or nowadays even the SMO, the Social Media Optimizer, has to change their strategy because of the change Google made. Right? Well not always, in many cases if you understand the way Google thinks and works your basic strategy can stay the same, you just have to change some of your tactics. Make some minor adjustments and you continue to do well in the SERPS.

Google’s latest integration of Google+ into the SERPS might indicate there are more changes we have to make to our strategy to stay visible in Google. After all, we now have the ‘suggested users’ more prominent appearing in the results. And the results are mixed with social elements coming from Google products. How to make sure we are visible there? And how to become one of those suggested users? That last one I want to focus on here: I want to be one of the suggested users as much as possible. But how? Let’s analyze. (more…)

Privacy Watchdog EPIC Requests FTC to Investigate Search Plus Your World

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Is the web closing around Google or is Google closing the web? You can ask that question based on the developments around “Search Plus Your World” the past few days. Many are unhappy with the changes Google has made. Most of who are unhappy however seem to be competitors although users also have stated their concerns.

Now a new group has been added to those disapproving of Google’s new way of showing the search results. Privacy Watchdog EPIC, who before successfully put down a claim against Google Buzz, have now urged the FTC in an official letter to “review Google’s recent decision to integrate its Social Network, Google+, into search results“. EPIC has two things it feels are not in order: Google favoring their own products, and potential privacy hazards. (more…)

The Unexpected Backlash of Google Plus Your World

Filter-Bubble-Google

Before we get started here I do want to take a minute to point out that SEOs are – almost unanimously – ultra critical of Google. In my opinion I think a lot of this is unfounded and that as a company Google has certainly been one of the most innovative and important companies in the last decade or two, but I can understand Google bashing is fashionable because we are so dependent on Google as search practitioners to make a living but also because we are the individuals (not machines) that actually interact with Google most on a day-to-day basis.

As such, many of us are quick to judge whether an algo change, product, feature, etc. is a better search experience – and far too often we do so with either: a. an oversimplified view of what an “average searcher” is actually like or b. based upon the percieved impact of such a change on the ability for us to do our job well and offer better results to our clients. (more…)

Search Plus Your World the Expert Views – part 2

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Yesterday we saw some experts shine their lights on “Search Plus Your World”. Opinions differ and today we see even more blogposts and opinions around the web. Like yesterday we gathered some more thoughts on the matter.

In the meanwhile, make sure you let us know how you feel about the quarrel between Google and Twitter. Who is right and who is wrong? (more…)

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