Search Engine Algorithm Changes

The most well known search engine in the world is Google. There are others like Bing and Yahoo that do a fine job, however Google is undoubtedly the leader in search on the modern web. Here in South Africa we estimate that Google dominates at least 90% of all online searches. In February 2011 Google introduced a set of changes to its search algorithm that it dubbed “Panda”. This was probably the most significant set of changes made by Google ever and it did a great job of shifting the search results at that time towards more content driven searches. The goal as Google stated in its blog was ‘To give people the most relevant answers to their queries as quickly as possible”. In basic terms the changes were designed to reduce the ranking of low quality sites in favour of higher quality sites with unique and valuable original content.  This was a big warning call to all the SEO agencies out there using low quality content to gain short term benefits for their clients.

Strange though how such warnings are not heeded. The growth of blog networks for SEO purposes exploded, and SEO agencies around the world jumped on board. While most agencies won’t let it out the bag, we believe all agencies used the blog networks as part of their SEO strategies to make short term gains.

We as an SEO agency took note of the changes, and diversified our content creation strategies to create the original and content rich content that Google now seemed to favour. However competition in our local South African market for SEO services led us to believe that a diversified strategy including a ratio of 70% high quality content and 30% low quality content would achieve the short term results that our clients wanted to see, as well as the long term benefits in search rankings that high quality unique content brings.

The Blog Networks

So we like most SEO Agencies invested in the services of blog networks like Build My Rank, SEO Link Monster, Authority Link Network, and Linkvana. In case you are not sure what a blog network is here is a short explanation:

Blog networks allow you to publish blog articles on hundreds and in some cases thousands of websites owned by the network from a central posting platform. If I wrote an article about ‘cellular phones’, I could then submit the article to one of these networks and choose what kind of website I would like to publish to – for example ‘telecommunications’ or ‘technology’. The examples of blog networks given above all essentially provide the same service – they were an automated system for generating backlinks. Submit your content, define your backlinks, and the networks would pepper the articles on relevant websites around their networks with links back to clients websites. The price for membership of the networks ranged from $100 – $200 p/month. The content creation could be outsourced or completed by an internal copywriter.

Google Strikes Again

In March this year Google took another preventative step to increase the content its algorithm was serving. This change had dramatic effects on the work of many SEO practitioners and their clients. Google took the step of deindexing the blog networks. They have been systematically removing them since March. It could have been earlier, but the deindexing of Build My Rank, one of the mega blog networks sounded the warning bell for the SEO industry. So what is ‘deindexing’? Deindexing is when a search engine removes a website, or in this case a network of websites from their search results. So your website can still be on the web, however it will not show up in any searches for it via the Google Search Engine. Literally tens of thousands of websites were erased from search in this move via Google, and with their elimination so went the rankings of the websites they linked to. The elimination of these websites from Google’s index removed the cumulative power of all the backlinks built up over the years on the blog networks. Clients Google rankings literally fell out of the sky overnight.

The End Result

Google has shifted the goal posts again, and will continue to shift them into the future as they continue to refine their search algorithm to yield unique and relevant content. This is what makes the SEO industry so interesting and fluid. Only the brightest SEO’s will get consistent results for their clients.

As an SEO agency we have decided to steer clear of the blog networks entirely. There are some new types of blog networks that blur the lines of unique content submission, with guest posting on privately owned blogs, but we feel that this is not going to be a long term solution. As the web grows and search engines have to continually sift through more and more content, it is the highly original and content rich content that will provide the website traffic that SEO clients are looking for.

“What is the Google Zeitgeist?

zeit·geist | Pronunciation: ‘tsIt-”gIst, ‘zIt | Function: noun | Etymology: German, from Zeit (time) + Geist (spirit) | Date: 1884 | Meaning: the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era.

“Zeitgeist” means “the spirit of the times”, and Google reveals this spirit through the aggregation of millions of search queries we receive every day. We have several tools that give insight into global, regional, past and present search trends. These tools are available for you to play with, explore, and learn from. Use them for everything from business research to trivia answers.” Source: Google.com

http://www.googlezeitgeist.com/en

The graphs below are generated in Google Insights (Beta) and shed some light on two phenomenons that truly amaze me on a daily basis – Social Media and Julius Malema.

The numbers on the graphs reflect the number of searches that have been done for a particular term, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. They don’t represent absolute search volume numbers, because the data is normalised and presented on a scale from 0-100; each point on the graph is divided by the highest point or 100.

The graph above represents the searches in Gauteng, South Africa for ‘Social Media’ from 2008 – present, and the graph below searches over the same time frame for ‘Julius Malema’.

There are a number of insights we can infer from these two graphics. The first question that I ask is which phenomenon has greater power for social change? Out of interest – Malema’s spike was due to the tongue lashing he dished out to the ‘agent’ from the BBC in April 2010. We clearly found it very interesting and we duly Googled it ferociously. As for his longevity – in the Google search request rankings – poor. In fact one could argue that until Q2 of 2011 we found Mr. Malema rather un-Google worthy.

Social Media on the other hand, seems to me to have much more stability and staying power. A nice solid uptick in the search for social media can be seen over the last three years. Fellow South Africans are voting social media! I for one vote social media as well.

Although we might be sampling radically different cross sections of the populace, comparing people voting on Google vs. people that actually might support Mr. Malema – it is none the less interesting what we can infer from our searches on Google.

Below is the the Markets Online presentation. We were somewhat hesitant to tackle the subject of ROI in Social Media – as the material is subject to a screaming debate locally and internationally with Social Media being notoriously hard to pin an ROI to.

Consulting predominately to SME’s it is a subject close to our hearts, and our customers demand to see a return on the marketing Rands they spend. Without the big budgets of large corporates and very often privately owned, our customers have forced us to understand and extrapolate ROI from their spend.

Enjoy.

That statistic, which users will see on Pages below the total number of “Likes,” will be one of four tracked by Pages Insights. The idea is that users will understand a Page with a high People Talking About rating is one that has compelling content. Likewise, content creators will be motivated to make their Pages more comment-worthy.

People Talking About (that might not be the final name for the metric; at press time, Facebook wasn’t sure) will measure user-initiated activity related to a Page, including posting to a Page’s Wall, “liking,” commenting, sharing a Page post or content on the Page, answering a Question posed to fans, mentioning a Page, “liking” or sharing a deal or checking in at your Place.

The other metrics, which are designed for administrators of brand and media Pages, include “Likes,” “Friends of Fans” and “Weekly Total Reach.” While “Likes” is self-explanatory, Friends of Fans is the actual number of friends your fans have, and weekly total reach is designed to be an accurate assessment of how many total people have posted something about your Page, how many news organizations (within Facebook) have referenced it and how much viral distribution elements of your Page has gotten.

David Baser, product manager for Pages Insights, says that despite a raft of new activities that Facebook will be introducing soon under the Facebook Gestures banner, those four metrics will remain and the “Like” will maintain its ranking as a top measurement. “Likes are an expression of identity,” Baser says. “It’s a user saying that I have a relationship with this brand.”

In addition to tracking the four metrics, Pages Insights will also offer a deeper dive into data around specific updates. Facebook will list your last 500 posts (the company began tracking them in July) and count the total number of engaged users, People Talking About it and virality. The latter measures the percentage of users who commented on the post.

Sentiment, however, will not be part of the calculation. Whether a user is lauding a comment or trashing it, it will count the same.

Article courtesy Mashable.com
link to them here:
Facebook Launches New Metric

Nielsen says 176.2 million people in the U.S. visited Google in August. That’s more than Facebook (163.2 million), Yahoo (149.0 million), Microsoft (134.4 million) and YouTube (128.0 million).

However, in the race for user attention, Facebook is king. The average U.S. user spent a whopping seven hours and 46 minutes on Facebook in August. That’s a full 15.5 minutes the average American spends on Facebook every single day. Compare that to the average Google user, who spent just one hour and 46 minutes on the site.

Another surprise: YouTube wasn’t the second-biggest Internet time waster (one hour, 41 minutes). That title goes to AOL (two hours, 53 minutes) and Yahoo (two hours and 12 minutes).

Overall, U.S. Internet users spent 30 hours online in August, visited an average of 99 domains and viewed an average of 3,123 web pages. And 216 million Americans spent time on the web out of an estimated total of 275 million people who have access to the web.

Facebook has been the web’s ultimate time sink for a while now, but it’s becoming clear that Facebook is taking up more and more of our lives. In August 2010, the average American spent five hours and 46 minutes on the social network. In just a year, that number has grown by three full hours.

You Spend 8 Hours Per Month on Facebook [STATS].

Facebook will launch its long-awaited iPad app at Apple’s iPhone 5 launch event on Oct. 4, Mashable has learned. In addition to the iPad app, Facebook is also expected to release a revamped version of its iPhone app and may unveil an HTML5-based mobile app marketplace.

The Facebook iPad app, which leaked earlier this year, has been in limbo at Facebook for the past few months. That much was made clear in a blog post Monday by former Facebook engineer Jeff Verkoeyen. In that post, he revealed that he left the company (for Google) partially because Facebook has been sitting on the completed app since May.

The problem, according to two sources familiar with the situation, has been a combination of timing and a strained relationship with Apple. It’s no secret that the two companies have been at odds over various issues during the past two years. For example, the social network pulled the plug on Facebook Connect in Ping because Apple didn’t give Facebook any warning about the feature, which would have eaten a great deal of bandwidth on Facebook’s side.

We’ve also heard rumors that Facebook was supposed to be integrated into iOS. This was meant to happen years ago, but disagreements on both sides eventually led to Apple integrating Twitter into iOS 5.

The relationship between the two technology giants is warming up, however, thanks to the shared goal of beating Google — and the simple fact that Facebook and Apple may need each other. The former doesn’t have a mobile platform while Apple doesn’t have a social platform. The culmination of this renewed friendship: the launch of Facebook for iPad at Apple’s iPhone 5 media event.

At this event, our sources also expect Facebook to unveil a new version of Facebook for the iPhone, with design and speed improvements that mimic the iPad app.

Facebook has also been working on a project to bring the Facebook Platform to mobile devices. The project, labeled “Project Spartan” by some (a name not used internally at Facebook, according to one of our sources), is designed to be a platform where developers can bring their Facebook apps to mobile devices via an HTML5 platform.

What we’re hearing is that Apple is actually working with Facebook on perfecting the HTML5 platform. This could also launch at Apple’s upcoming iPhone event, though our sources wouldn’t commit to a specific launch date for the platform. Facebook decided not to launch it at f8, as it didn’t want to water down the announcement of the new Facebook Open Graph and Timeline.

When we said last week that Facebook would be profoundly changed, we weren’t just referring to the new Facebook Open Graph and the “frictionless sharing” touted by Mark Zuckerberg. We were also talking about its secretive effort to become a mobile platform for the social web. And thanks to Apple, it looks like that effort is about to come to fruition.

Article Courtesy Mashable.com

http://mashable.com/2011/09/26/facebook-ipad-app-iphone-app-exclusive/#21477News-Feed

It’s now been a while since I’ve last visited or posted anything on Google+, but I figured that was just me.

Turns out I might not be the only one after all, 89n now says, based on some quick-and-dirty internal ManageFlitter data research.

According to its data, the average number of public – i.e. not private – Google+ posts per day has decreased from 0.68 per day between 19 July 2011 and 19 August 2011 to 0.40 public posts per day between 19 August 2011 and 14 September 2011.

This represents a decrease of 41 percent, which could lead one to believe the early adopters are quietly turning their backs on Google+. (Someone inform Scoble!)

Note that this perceived behavior occurs despite the recent roll-out of enhanced Google +1 button functionality, a Twitter-like ‘suggested user’ list and verified profiles.

89n says 7,280 people have linked their Google+ accounts to Twitter using its ManageFlitter service to date. The company says it checks these accounts for new public posts every 10 minutes.

Now, 89n isn’t exactly a research firm, and they offer little insight into their methodology for gathering and interpreting the data. I asked them to clarify, but in the meantime, how many of you have tried Google+ early on and find themselves not returning to post as much as in the beginning?

Update: yes, I know the data doesn’t cover private posting, which for all I know is up significantly. Nobody’s saying Google+ is dead, I’m simply asking if you find it to be true that public posting is declining, which 89n’s data suggests. Relax a little

Article Courtesy Techcruch.com
Url: http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/15/raise-your-hand-if-youre-still-using-google/