Google adding synonyms and intent in the search for the perfect match

// For some time now, #Google has not been taking your searches... literally. Your keywords will of course be used but Google will also add in the mix the correct spelling of the words you used (if you made an error) as well as synonyms or related words (think "cat" when you search for "pet")

But Google is going further, analysing what people click for each search and determining users' intention. E.g. watching a video when you just search for "U2". This can go to an extreme like also giving you Best Buy pages when you search for another electronic site (see screenshot).

What to do about it? Use Google #Keyword  Tool http://bit.ly/UYKnWx and see which search terms people are using. Combine it with your Google #Analytics  report about through which keywords people end up on your site. 

Use also Google #Trends http://bit.ly/VFwcry to see if your website topic is part of a large audience over time or not and decide if you should expand or focus your coverage.
 
Read more on this article http://selnd.com/W3zwcp by +Vanessa Fox on +Search Engine Land 

G+ statistics via Webmaster Tools Author Stats

// I had previously http://bit.ly/W8U6r2 written about adding your #author information in your content so that your name can show up next to Google search engine results of your website and #Google+ posts. 

What I hadn't included though is that Google's #WebmasterTools  have a "Author stats" report with traffic #statistics of the pages that Google has correctly indexed as authored by you. The interesting part is that your Google+ posts are included in this, so you actually have some analytics on your G+ activity (unlike Facebook if you only use a personal profile). 

If you have previously added your authorship information to your pages, this link http://bit.ly/Wd9Klr should give you the report. 

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Romney Self-Googlebombed!

// Apparently if you search on #Google images for "completely wrong" you get tons of photos of Mitt Romney. It's not an old-style #googlebomb but just a regular search engine... feature. This result comes probably from Romney's recent statement that he was "completely wrong" on his characterizations of 47% of americans...

Google search link: http://bit.ly/VQqLGt
Link to statement: http://usat.ly/WSck2T

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Easy SEO for your YouTube videos in 3 steps

This post contains photos of sexy aliens

1) Find out what's popular in the last 24-72 hours
2) Choose a maximum of 3 terms
3) Put them on your video title no matter what kind of content you have

Done! Just sit back and watch that counter go up! :D

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You can now play doctor with Google

In it's quest to serve you the most accurate (ads and) information that you are looking for, Google will now match searches for illness symptoms with the actual disease you might suffer from. A search "abdominal pain on my right side" will provide a top-of-search-results box with possible situations such as appendicitis, ovarian cyst and hernia. Of course #Google is quick to note that this is not medical advice...
Full details at the official Google Search blog http://bit.ly/xGk5TT

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Improve your SEO with XML Sitemaps

One process often suggested to improve your search engine rankings are creating your #sitemap in XML format and submitting to search engines. #Google and #Bing are among the search engines that support the format. But a simple dump of every single page on your site might not be the best way to go about it.

You can use the XML Sitemap to guide the search engine bots to the page you really want to have traffic. +Ben Goodsell at +Search Engine Watch is analyzing the concepts and tricks behind this, check the full article here http://bit.ly/zTddWV

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Romney: to defecate in terror!

Apparently Mitt #Romney now has a "Santorum problem". www.spreadingromney.com has managed to come up in the top search results on Google and Bing for "Romney" (#5 on Google on my tests both with "google plus your world" and normal settings)

+Search Engine Land has more on the subject http://selnd.com/ytX7Oc
(Yes, I suppose this post's title just helped spreadingromney.com's cause a little bit :))

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12 Steps to organic keywords optimization

+George Aspland at +Search Engine Land has posted a comprehensive guide on improving your search engine ranking through careful curation of your content and code. His 12 steps:
1. Choose The Keywords To Focus On
2. Prioritize Your Keywords
3. Check That Important Content On The Page Is Getting Indexed
4. Ensure The Indexed Text Is Unique
5. Try To Improve The Search Listings For The Keywords
6. Update Or Add A Headline
7. Optimize Existing Text
8. Look For Text In Images
9. Possibly Add New Content On The Page
10. Develop Alt Tags for the Image Links
11. Update The HTML Page Title & Meta Description Tag
12. Increase Internal / External Links & Social Engagement

Full article here http://selnd.com/zXRr4k

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Inevitable

No big internet story is complete without a Hitler video. That said, when I search for "Britney Spears" I dont get her Facebook page but I do get her Twitter account. Her Google+ page is not included, but there is a small link to it under the result for her official page (it's the new "author information" feature) http://i.imgur.com/A51en.png

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Now you really need to be on Google+

In case you didn't think you needed to be on Google+ since your social media presence on other platforms was "good enough", think again. As of this week Google is rolling out the "Search Plus Your World" feature, basically combining it's data from Google+ in the search results, both providing a more personalized result but also acting as a gateway to Google+.

As you can see on the screenshot below, the search results are now split vertically in two parts: the regular search results (but personalized with information on whether you or your friends shared a link) on the left and on the right related results from Google+. If you search for "music" you get Britney Spears's G+ profile.
Search Engine Land has more examples of these changes
http://selnd.com/wKFaBM

Now, Google says http://bit.ly/x5oIXJ they are not really favoring Google+ and they would want to add Facebook and Twitter on the right-part-of-the-screen results, if they just could make a deal with them. Of course until then, the situation is simple: If you're on Google+ and your competition isn't, you have a possible advantage (you also need to appear on Google's suggestions for your desired keywords). The fact is that Britney Spears didn't appear on the first page of search results for "music" yesterday, now she does.

So how do you get on the action? Google has a guide page http://bit.ly/y0GhHP but it's not really clear. Basically they are saying "get on Google+ and start posting useful content". Good luck then! :)
Google now has it's own internet :)

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Add your author information in search results

#Google is quickly adding social elements in search, you might have seen that can see who shared a page directly on the #search results page. But you can now add your own author information (name and photo) when a page of yours shows up in search results.

Here's how to do it:
1. Link your content to your Google Profile: basically just add a link to your Google profile similar to this <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/109098983561044225374/?rel=author">Markos Giannopoulos</a> on all of your pages (for example in the footer or your sidebar bio)
2. Link to your content from your profile: This is done by editing your Google profile and adding your page under the "Contributor" section on the right column.

Google will do the rest. The full information is here http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1408986 Google also provides the option to verify your information by your e-mail address, but this requires that your address is made public on all of your pages (not a good idea due to spambots).

You can verify that everything is working with the Rich Snippets Testing Tool https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets

The end result is similar to what you see in the attached image. Your name and photo will appear next to your pages in the search results, along with your circle count and "Add to circles" button.

(Post based on information thanks to an article by +WPMU.org, found via +Brian McDaniel)

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The Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors

Here is a handy chart of factors to consider in your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts by the good folks at Search Engine Land.

Use it to
1) evaluate your current status: how are you fairing on each of them (from none at all to perfection - but also "doesn't apply" might be a valid response
2) determine what you could change
3) research how you can achieve your targets
4) figure out how you can measure your progress
5) make a plan
6) apply your strategy with periodic checks on the results

Search Engine Land have the table in many forms including a PDF here http://searchengineland.com/seotable

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If Google bans Google

[Update]
In an excellent move of fairness, the Google Chrome page no longer appears on the organic results for "browser".
Here is a screenshot (G+ doesn't allow me to add another photo on this post any more)
http://giannopoulos.net/2012/01/03/if-google-bans-google/google-chrome-demoted/
Here is Matt Cutt's post on the matter
https://plus.google.com/109412257237874861202/posts/NAWunDzJSHC
It would be nice if they also stopped the paid ad for Google Chrome from appearing on the top spot of the results by the way... :)
[/end]

will it break the internet? :) Apparently Google has been paying for blog posts about Google Chrome, against it's own rules for the rest of the internet. On the issue:

The original article by SEOBook
http://www.seobook.com/post-sponsored-google
Article on Search Engine Land
http://searchengineland.com/googles-jaw-dropping-sponsored-post-campaign-for-chrome-106348
Google's "Paid Links" guidelines
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66736
Google says it's the marketing firm that did it
http://www.theverge.com/web/2012/1/3/2678948/google-unruly-media-response-chrome-sponsored-post

Damn marketers! We told you, "NO EVIL"! :)

P.S. I love the quote from Search Engine Land: "So what have we got? Google’s paid for a content-light post that’s not a review of Google Chrome, nor a review of how Google Chrome helps small business, pushing a video that also doesn’t show how Google Chrome helps small businesses."

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Have you noticed a change in your search results? Google has been making some changes......

Have you noticed a change in your search results? Google has been making some changes... http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/giving-you-fresher-more-recent-search.html

Reshared post from +Danny Sullivan

Terrible accident on the M5 motorway in England, which I used to drive on often. I was curious how Google's new "fresh" algorithm handled this. In the US, not at all -- nothing fresh makes in into the regular listings, only a news unit shows that's not impacted by the new change. On the UK side, five out of 10 listings are news content. Good, though hard to tell if this is much different than in the past, as news content would still have done well. Does feel a bit more. But downside, the Daily Mirror gets listed twice. Why? They wrote a story, then reposted it again best I can tell about 1 minute later -- and perhaps with a cloaked title. Handy way some publishers have pushed to keep ranking as "fresh" in Google News. Not going to be pretty if it starts working for Google web search.

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Google changes Sitelinks, top search result spot gets more important

Google is changing Sitelinks, the links below a search result with access to other pages of the same site.

Changes include:
- Sitelinks are now full-size links with a URL and one line of snippet text.
- Links have increased from a maximum of 8 links to 12, revealing more about the websites you are searching for.
- Sitelink ranking is now also combined with regular result ranking to produce higher quality searches.
- Sitelinks also vary based on your query, where a more comprehensive keyword search will return better results.

This basically means more power to the top 1-2 results if they use sitelinks, as they grab more above-the-fold space. This will increase the need for a SEO strategy that will get your site on the top spot of the desired keywords / phrase (and of course refuel the discussion on whether this is a good move as it will be slightly harder for users to see a more diverse choice of results)

More at The evolution of sitelinks: expanded and improved - Official Google Blog and Google improves sitelinks for better search results - The Next Web

7 SEO Myths You’re Probably Following

SEO. Just the mention of it will flood your Twitter stream with spam replies and start the “gurus” knocking at your inbox door. But really, SEO isn’t as big of a mystery as many would make it out to be. Oh sure, there are some hard and fast rules when it comes to the good versus the bad, but many of the important parts about SEO can simply be followed by writing good content.

An interesting read, the most important being that SEO is something you do once. SEO is a continuing process that should be part of your site updating routine. Of course, you need to have such a routine first. Most corporate (or personal) sites are also done once, then forgotten for ages. A stale site is a dead site...

Full article: 7 SEO Myths You’re Probably Following - TNW Design & Dev.

FAQ: How Google factors page speed into its search rankings

It’s a well-known fact that site speed is a critical ranking factor for organic search. The big question has been how exactly Google does this. This is probably one of the most-asked questions I receive, and the answers aren’t easy to find.

Full article: FAQs: The 12 most-asked questions about how Google factors page speed into its search rankings - Web Performance Today.