Source: www.deviantart.com, Artist: lunchboxmonkey

What is Penguin?

Penguin was the “over optimisation” penalty that Danny Sullivan first mentioned on Marketing Land at the end of March. Matt Cutts alluded to this update at SXSW in which he said that “Sites affected by this change might not be easily recognizable as spamming without deep analysis or expertise, but the common thread is that these sites are doing much more than white hat SEO; we believe they are engaging in webspam tactics to manipulate search engine rankings.” Google is basically targeting spam like many of its updates, but this is just a tweak to Panda which was released on April 24th and has stirred up the SEO community once again.

Who’s affected by Penguin?

Google said the sites that will lose rankings are those that practice keyword stuffing and sites that have unnatural links. Google were already cracking down on this before the update. However sites that have spammy link signals such as paid text links with exact match anchor text, guest posts of bad sites and comment spam are have been affected by Penguin.

What are the 52 updates?

The announcement last Friday clearly detailed the 52 updates Google amended in their algorithm. Some of the other most important changes included Penguin as well as more authorative results, no freshness boost for low quality sites, sub-sitelinks in expanded sitelinks and smoother ranking, for fresh results. The latter update reinforces the point that Google loves fresh content and will deem it more authorative than those sites that just linger on the web and are never updated. Content is king, so make sure you write relevant content on your site.

So what is the next step?

Do not just focus on rankings. Rankings do fluctuate month on month and it is important to look at overall search traffic (ppc and seo) especially with this latest update. Look at the amount of social media shares you have, if you are not using social media yet, you have to start now. When Google launched Panda there was a big backlash, the same is true with Penguin. Some sites have dropped in rankings, while others have increased. There are some sites that have been practicing white hat seo and have been affected, but if this is the case, Matt Cutts has asked webmasters to leave their feedback on a Google Doc form.

Google will always introduce new updates which will affect how sites rank and we cannot predict what works now will work in the future. However, one thing is for certain, if you create good content that is shareable and is interesting, you will achieve higher traffic and appear higher in Google than those sites whose focus is just about rankings.

It has been a long time coming

The search engine giant has been hinting at this AuthorRank for more than 3 years.  They started with the post about rich snippets where they wanted webmasters to be able to highlight the content on their site. Obviously at this time then, I am sure the concept of AuthorRank was not fully in place.  However with the updates that have taken place over the past few years especially with Panda, Google wants to get rid of those sites with poor content.

So what does AuthorRank mean for those in SEO?

Those who are engaging in best practice SEO have already been contacting high authority blogs for some time.  These blogs have good quality content and have a dedicated author or group of authors.  As Tom Anthony said in his post on SEOmoz, we have to start looking at who we are getting links from not where. Therefore if there is a post written by Rand Fishkin on a blog (not SEOmoz), it will be seen as more authorative than if the post was written by an author who is less known in the industry.

What should you do?

Google+ is tied into AuthorRank. If you do not have a Google+ account, you cannot expect to see your authorship results in Google. Therefore the first step is to set up your own Google and Google+ account. You will then need to link it to your blog or site where you regularly post content using the the rel=author tags. Most importantly, start participating in Google+, share interesting posts, photos and interact with others.

For those who thought Google+ was going to go away, this update clearly proves it is here to stay.  Google+ is another social media platform that you have to use to interact with others.

A heated discussion developed on stage about the fact that Google sometimes penalises sites through no fault of the webmaster. Pierre remained calm and gave the following advice to those who may have been penalised by Google for having bad links:

1) Contact those webmasters who have linked to your site and ask them to remove the link.
2) Be honest, if you have never asked for a link from these spammy sites, tell Google.
3) Send a screenshot to Google of your email to the webmasters.
4) Use webmaster tools to identify the bad links. If they are no longer present and your site is still not ranking, contact to Google.

Pierre was keen to mention that SEO is not a checklist. All signals will come naturally if you have good content which is relevant to the search query. Links to a website is just one signal that Google uses to identify the quality of a site. There are more than 200 factors Google analyses including social signals. Good social signals is the fact that the content is being pushed and shared around. It is more about speed and fluidity rather than the quantity of Facebook likes as there are some companies that buy likes which Google does not count. Pierre also emphasised that Google wants to help sites, not penalise them.

Over the past few years, a number of agencies that specialise in Search engine marketing in Perth have set up in WA. It can be hard to choose the right agency for you. One of the topics at BrightonSEO was about “Maximinsing Your SEO Agencies”, a talk given by James Owen, the SEO Manager of Hotels.com. We at WCR like to work with our clients throughout the duration of an SEO project and follow similar guidelines to what was discussed at Brighton SEO.

1) SEO targeting
We want to make sure we have the target URLs from our clients. We work with our clients to ensure they rank for the keyword important for their business. We also analyse the top 5 competitors of our clients to see what seo practices they are implementing.

2) On page optimsation
It is important to optimise the pages on a client’s site to help them rank for their keywords.

3) Off page optimisation
Link building is one of our specialties. We keep up to date with that is happening in the industry to ensure our clients are achieving the highest possibility of improving their rankings.

4) Reporting
Monthly reporting is a crucial part of our service. We want our clients to clearly see a ROI for using WCR. We ensure that we give a clear picture of results YoY, the number of orders made through natural search, the tracking of average keyword position brand vs non brand and report on the position, the top entry pages.

There has been an increase in the number of people who are interested in seo throughout Australia and there are events such as SMX which take place in Melbourne and Sydney every May. There are not many Perth seo events but there are a couple coming up next month and in October. We will be hosting a Google Analytics event, please visit http://www.whitechalkroad.com.au/workshop/google-analytics-course/ for more information.

Link building is not about buying links and we do not encourage that. It is about building relationships with bloggers and key influencers. The big update from Google last year that shook up the seo world was Panda. It was not, as some people think an algorithm update, it was more of a site quality update. The update affected the links quality of a site. Those websites that had low PageRank and were engaging in bad link building techniques were penalised.

Lisa Myers suggested two ways to build links:

1) Link Analysis and Link Prospecting

Once we have identified the sites, we analyse the anchor text, the number of links to the site and the strength of these links. We also have a look at their other marketing strategies to see whether they would be a good blog to work with.

You may be wondering “How do they find these sites?”, well a lot of it is manual, as blogger outreach cannot be automatic. We use a number of different syntaxes which Lisa also described such as:

Keyword + “blog”
Keywordinurl:”guestposts”
Keywordintitle:“writeforus”

We make sure that the blogs are relevant to the clients’ needs and what we think their visitors will be interested in and searching for. We also look at some of the Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin profiles of the blogs we are targeting.

2) Link Development

We want to build relationships not just links and therefore we want to use the contacts we have built previously. We have a number of bloggers we are in touch with and they are always keen to receive new content. We do tailor the content according to the tone and style of the blog. We also contact partners of clients as they may not have necessarily linked back to the client.

A growing area in seo which is becoming more important is link baiting. This is a piece of digital content (can be a video, post, image) which increases the chance of a client getting more organic links to their site which is the ultimate aim in seo. Infographics are very popular pieces of link bait which if done well, will result in higher visibility. The best thing about link bait is that people will share it and come to you, which is why it is important to have the link bait hosted on your site.

Link building is very important in seo and should be part of an overall seo and marketing strategy to ensure visible results.

The conference emphasised the importance of content creation rather than just building links for the sake of it. Rand Fishkin summarised his 5 reasons:

1. Meeting your Online objectives

Creating good content helps win a greater amount of fans and higher traffic which then leads to better rankings and more referring links. Having great content helps with every one of those channels, draw in bigger and better fans, better rankings, more referring links. By creating content that people want to share, you end up with a stronger social following.

2. Be proud of your work.

When those that have written the content for the blog or article are happy with their work, they will promote it, tweet it and share it. This will lead to more people viewing it and more traffic to the site.

3. Long-term strategies.

Once the content is on a website, it is there for a long time, therefore any interest, tweets, or shares that the content has generated will be visible. Buying links or submitting sites to article directories do not last, they may be live for a few months and when Google releases a new algorithm, they could be lost, and your site will lose the ‘link love’.

4.Content can build links while you sleep.

Seomoz receives thousands of links to their blog from the content that they build, for example their ‘Whiteboard Friday’ sessions and also tweets that the people at seomoz share.

5. Content can build brand loyalty and trust.

By ensuring you have good quality content on your site, you will start to get regular visitors who will then tell their friends and colleagues. They will trust that the content you have is valuable and insightful and will become your brand ambassadors.

These reasons to build great content over just article directory syndication or buying links, may seem very obvious to some, but a few marketing professionals still seem to be focused on the number of links instead of creating good content. It is important to have good content on your own site so that people will come to you regularly for your expertise and information about your industry.

Case Study

Fiskars have a really interesting and interactive blog with hundreds of comments each day. Fiskars is global company producing scissors and cutters and for most people it would be difficult to come up with creative content. However, they have done their research and found out what their customers are interested in and it has paid off. Don’t limit yourself to content about your subject. Find out about topics that are relevant to your audience, and write about thse, as it shows that you have an understanding of their needs.

The best way to get creative content and attraction the most attention is to check out who the influencers are on sites such as followerwonk. See the trending topics through topsy and google and write content which you know the readers are searching for.

Social media is playing an ever-increasing role in SEO. It covers bloggger outreach, twitter interactions, Facebook marketing, and social bookmarking on sites such as Digg and Reddit. However all of this ties back to the content. No one is going to share your content if it is not creative, no one is going to tweet about a post if they do not like it. Jane Copland from Ayima highlighted that if you do link building like everyone else, you do not stand out. You need to get creative with link building and it will help your content get shared through Facebook, Twitter and if it is really good, land of the front page of Digg which can have up to 10,000 hits a day.

Google

This year, Google released a video for all it’s Gmail users called Gmail Tap, similar to the one last year – Gmail Motion, a yoga-based motion detection system!  Gmail Tap centres around the idea that a traditional keyboard has too many keys and can confuse people. Enter Gmail Tap, and the re-surgence of the Morse Code! Watch this video to see the trick in action. Using LL Cool J as a beta tester was a dead giveaway.

In SEO news, Google Search also tricked a few with the fake release of “Really Advanced Search’ See their page for all the details here:  http://www.google.com/js/reallyadvanced.html. Seemingly allowing users to search based on rhyming slang, innuendo and thoughts.

Virgin Volcanic

http://www.virginvolcanic.com/

There is no such thing as Virgin Volcanic, but on the 1^st April this year, an ‘announcement’ was made that Richard Branson was in the middle of building a craft that would take visitors to the centre of the Earth by drilling through the centre of a live volcano. Hollywood stars such as Tom Hanks and Seth Green ‘lent’ their quotes to the venture.

Tom Hanks: “A window seat for a journey to the liquid core or our home planet would be a bargain at twice the price!”

Think Geek

Geeky merchandising site Think Geek outdoes itself every year with fake merchandise for it’s avid customers. Unfortunately, the items are usually such a hit that hundreds on outraged geeks demand the product be made in real life so that they can buy them. 2010’s Canned Unicorn Meat and Monolith Action Figure are just two from 2010 that ended up being made especially for the site.

This year, taking a cue from the popularity of TV show Game of Thrones, they spoofed a product called “Fire and Blood perfume” .  Board game enthusiasts would have been excited about “Hungry Hippos For iPad” – using the iPad as a virtual game board.

See them all here: http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/looflirpa/

With everyone keeping a close watch on search engines these days, everyone is certainly going to be keeping track of what is happening over at Bing. This is especially true since Bing plans on shedding light on some of its secrets, including but not limited to how the search engine works and the algorithms that drive Bing’s search engines. However, that is not all that Bing intends to do with its blog series. The company hopes that people who are interested in improving the quality of search engines will get involved in the conversation.

Some of Bing’s key players will be getting involved and participating in Bing’s Search Quality Insight Blog series. Many major contributors at Bing will be blogging on popular topics, including but not limited to its search engine, search results, research and highlights from a list of other projects the company is working on with Microsoft Research and many others.

Bing hopes that its Search Quality Insights blog series will open the lines of communication and encourage people to post comments and information. Bing is really looking forward to creating a perfect search engine – or at least trying to. By creating a new blog series, Bing is certainly demonstrating that it is taking the steps to gain ground in the search engine industry. What we do know is that Bing’s search engine didn’t just happen overnight and is the product of what is years of research. The search engine is definitely taking a step in the right direction by offering users a unique search experience.

In a recent post written by Jan Pedersen, Bing’s Chief Scientist for Core Search,

Jan offered a glimpse into what makes Bing so different. In his post, he discusses Bing’s unique approach to searches and page relevance. Unlike Google, Bing is not as focused on page rank, but focused more on pinpointing everything users may need and providing enhanced search results. Bing’s goal is to offer users everything they may need, including but not limited to maps, video and images. Bing’s main goal is to personalize its search engine results and improve users experience by providing optimized search results.

Whether you use Bing’s search engine or not, take the time to get involved and start reading Bing’s Search Quality Insights blog series today. Bing may hold the key to the future of the search engine industry and this is definitely a unique opportunity to learn everything there is to know about Bing’s unique approach to providing high-quality search engine results.

The idea of using these tools to search for ‘treasure’ or in games isn’t new; TerraClues and localiz.me have been around for a few years now, allowing users and participants the chance to create their own scavenger hunt based on Google Maps or Earth clues and trivia. These are forum based games and anyone can join them, the prizes usually being the kudos of finishing first.

Upping the stakes a little, in September last year (2011), author Tim Dedopoulos released a book of 15 cryptic pictorial clues, each with an answer that can be verified or proved using Google Earth. With a prize of €50,000, you can be sure that there is some fierce competition. Alongside some of the clues, are cryptic word puzzles, meant to assist in the interpretation of the pictures, however some become more puzzling on reading them. Once you have solved all 15 of the puzzles using Google Earth, the 15 solutions together will point you to a 16th location, which is the ultimate answer.

Tim Dedopoulos positions himself as the ‘Puzzle master’ and generously gives out additional clues via the Telegraph UK website, and his Twitter feed @dedopoulos), although all of this too, is cryptic and many times, he will not tell you which clue corresponds with which puzzle.

 
To enter the competition, you need to purchase the book from Amazon, or any good technical or reference bookstore (Retails for about $14 AUD) and download Google Earth. Once you think you have the answer, you can enter here: http://www.jointhetreasurehunt.com – but beware, only one entry allowed per person. This ends on March 31st 2012, so there is still time!

Intelligence2 was founded in London in 2002, and hosts some of the worlds most celebrated debates. With esteemed speakers which include former US Presidents, Scientists and popular celebrities such as Stephen Fry and Richard Dawkins, Intelligence2 seeks to air out the major and minor issues that concern the world. Formerly screened live via their website, and then screened on YouTube, these debates are now open to participants like you and me, through Google + Hangouts.

How can I participate?

Simply by adding the ‘Versus’ page to your Google + circles, you can watch these debates either as they happen via video, or in text on the wall posts, if you are lucky to secure a Hangout spot (Limited places) you can actually converse and interact with the debaters. Real-time voting on each speaker’s argument is also available so that they will know how they are doing with their audience.

If you have already joined Google +, then you can join in the debate here: https://plus.google.com/107841648304854245302/posts ; the next public debate will be on March 13th about the war on drugs, with Richard Branson, Julian Assange and the former Presidents of Mexico and Brazil weighing in.

What are ‘Hangouts?’

Hangouts are a way to connect with people or businesses in your Google + ‘Circles’. In order to use Hangouts, you need to install the Hangout plugin to your browser from here http://www.google.com/tools/dlpage/res/talkvideo/hangouts/ . Watch this video from Versus for more information on the live debates.

Do you have a business page?

Google Plus is still in its ‘early adopter’ stage, so it well may be that many of your customers and potential audience aren’t on Google Plus yet themselves. This doesn’t mean you should wait until everyone has jumped on board; sign up and set up your business page so that you are ahead of the pack, you could be the first business in your industry and location with a page.

It’s important to create a good first impression so make sure your page has all the information you would need for a first point of contact. You can link to your primary website, Twitter and Facebook pages from here, so it becomes an all-encompassing hub of information about your brand or business.

Join the conversation

Start following like-minded individuals and businesses to get in on the conversation. In many cities, there are ‘public circles’ that will already have hundreds of members, join one of those, and you will already be sharing with local people with similar interests.
Once your customer base gains awareness of your new page, you can start ‘hangouts’. This is like a group chat facility with the ability to add video to the mix.

It’s important that your business finds it’s ‘Google Plus ‘ voice. Don’t assume that what might work on Facebook or Twitter will work here. Have a look at other brands and pages in a similar industry; maybe in a different area or overseas to get an idea of how people are engaging their customers. For more information about finding your customer engagement style, see one of our previous articles here: What is your customer engagement style?

Segmentation of your contact lists is also an excellent way of communicating to specific groups of customers. Think of circle names like ‘repeat customers’, ‘referrers’ and ‘previous colleagues’ for example – that way you can send specific messages to the people that want to read them.

Personalise!

In Facebook, it’s easy to create your own URL for customers to find you easily. There is no such built in facility in Google Plus, however there are a few services that can create one for you, so that you can brand your URL should you need to. www.gplus.to is an easy one. You simply choose your chosen ‘nickname’, insert your Google Plus page URL and it immediately creates a short URL that is easy to remember. For things like email signatures and on your website, simply use a Google Plus logo for people to click on.