Google Still Taking a Beating Over Max Mosley S&M Party Search Results

Max Mosley, former president of the FIA and Formula One racing is still battling Google in an epic suit that's gone after the search engine in two European countries over search results he wants gone.

Even though Mosley has managed to collect more than a $100,000 in damages from News Corp. in two countries, he's not satisfied until the Google search engine has a special algorithm to detect and delete certain content, specifically of him participating in an S&M party with multiple prostitutes.

Google said in a French court this week that it had removed hundreds of pages for Mosley and stands ready to remove others he identifies, but that the law does not support his demand for the creation of "an unprecedented new Internet censorship tool," according to Bloomberg.

Mosley's lawyer said this case could be important to paving the way for more cases against Google in Europe and beyond. It's certainly not the first case against Google from plaintiffs requesting censorship.

Earlier this year, a German federal court ruled Google must restrict information in its autocomplete when it violates personal rights. That case was brought about when a plaintiff said defamatory autocomplete results linked him to fraud.

Germany's former First Lady, Bettina Wulff, also battled Google for autocomplete results that suggest she's linked to prostitution.

Similar cases have been brought about in Japan and the U.S. In all these cases, the plaintiffs claimed the defamatory content presented in Google search results was false. In the case of Mosley, he's not denying the S&M event happened, he just wants it erased from the Internet's memory.

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SEO Effect Keyword Research Tool [Review]

The last year or two has seen a big shift in the infrastructure that SEO agencies and in-house teams have had at their fingertips, as full campaign platforms have finally come of age.

Search engine optimization (SEO) has always been a data heavy enterprise, and any team with any coding ability at all pretty quickly started to hack together tools to deal with it. Pretty quickly, some of those companies realized they could offer those tools to customers directly, and suites such as SEOmoz's and Ontolo's were born, to name but a couple. The next step is obvious: integrate all the keyword and page optimization data for a particular site, along with link graph data and basic task management, and, hey presto, you have an SEO campaign platform.

And, the newest kid on the block is Dutch company SEO Effect.

Big Flexibility

Like most similar tools, SEO Effect has a lot to it, and a single review can but dip the toe in its water. However, two things impressed straight out of the box: the research tools and the flexibility of the system.

The flexibility starts just with creating an account and adding campaigns. Unlike most platforms, which have fixed packages, each allowing a certain number of campaigns and other resources, SEO Effect allows you to buy credits and then allocate them between campaigns as you need to. If you're an agency managing campaigns for sites both large and small, that's invaluable. There's a free trial as well, of course.

The flexibility also extends to the tools themselves. Many platforms shoehorn you into a certain way of work (that can't really be avoided), which can be a bit of a barrier for uptake amongst SEOs who already have fairly fixed ways of doing things. Whilst SEO Effect can't avoid that completely, they do the best they can, with many of the tools having both "basic" and "expert" mode, the latter offering a lot more options.

Research Tools

Almost all platforms now offer the ability to track trends in your data over time: keyword positions, your link graph, traffic data pulled in via the Google Analytics API. Indeed, some platforms, such as SEOmoz's don't do a lot more than that. Of course, SEO Effect has these basics, but what really impressed me with the ability to do actual research within the platform, and merge resulting data with an existing campaign seamlessly.

The tool is divided into four main areas:

Research keywordsSite optimizationLink strategyMonitoring trends

Task management is also promised. Let's dig into the keyword research area a little to explore what the tool can do.

Keyword Research

SEO Effect works around the concept of multiple, flexible assets within a campaign. So, for example, instead of limiting a campaign to a fixed number of keywords, you can have as many keyword research lists as you like, each containing as many keywords as you like. You can use these to research keywords for different topic areas, for example, or different products that you sell. Opening a new keyword research list gives you this screen, with options for geographic location and language:

Step two lets you enter a keyword list manually, extract it from Analytics or from your own (or someone else's) site. Each method has its own set of options, but ultimately, you end up with a copious list of keyword ideas. This is where things get interesting:

There's a fair amount of information here: overall and long tail traffic estimates, along with data pulled from your own Analytics profile, telling you how much of the traffic you already have and how much more you could potentially get with a top ranking for that keyword. There is also the ability to drill down further into the keywords (using any of those presented as a stem for a new list) and to get more detailed information on each. The only piece of information this review thinks would be useful on the overview panel is a difficulty estimate.

It's important to note, of course, that all keyword data can only ever be estimated (at least under present conditions). The sources of that information, the search engines themselves, have never been that forthcoming about exact figures, and the only truly reliable way to find traffic data has been to run a paid search campaign. However, some data is always better than none, and this extra information is welcome here.

Once you have a list with which you're happy, you can assign a relevance to each (and label the keywords), and add them to your campaign's master list. The tool will track absolute traffic and estimate traffic share for all your keywords, and back date it to the date you install Analytics on the site. The usual CSV export options are also available.

One thing that the tool doesn't do is track keyword positions. While a debate rages about their importance, again, some information is better than none, and this is something that this reviewer would expect to see in a comprehensive campaign tool, even if it's not the primary metric.

Just a Taster!

This dive into SEO Effect's keyword research tool will, with any luck, have given you a taste of how it works and of what it's capable. It does have a lot more to offer in terms of link prospecting and on-page optimization.

All tools grow and change over time, and SEO Effect promises more features in the future, including dramatic performance enhancements (some reports are very slow currently). Some areas of the interface are a bit unintuitive and not all the information is where you'd expect it to be, but, as a beta tool, again, these are areas that will improve over time. Overall, it's definitely work checking out and keeping an eye on.

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Online Marketing News: BlogWorld 2012, Facebook Still On Top, Twitter User Insight, Google Mobile Recommendations, TopRank In the News

BlogWorld 2012 – Day 1

TopRank Online Marketing CEO Lee Odden and I have spent the better part of this week at BlogWorld 2012 in New York City. �This was a great event in both the quality of the content, as well as the networking opportunities. �This video shares some insight into the attendees of this stellar event. �If you would like to learn more about what happened at BlogWorld be sure to take a peek at one of our posts covering the event:

Common & Deadly Social Media Sins – Scott Stratten Author of UnMarketing #BWENYHaters Gonna Hate: Tips on Brand Management from McDonald’s #BWENYA No B.S. Guide to Mobile with Jason Falls – #BWENYStand Out Above the Noise – Blogging Tips from Chris Brogan #BWENYCreate a Stronger ROI: Return on Influence – Mark Schaefer #BWENYOnline Marketing News

People Are Facebooking�ing �and- Buying More Than Even, Even if They Don�t Realize It
Although a Reuters study released last week asserted that 34% of people believe they are using Facebook less than they were 6 month ago, Nielsen DATA shows that usage is actually up 18 minutes per month. Users tracked 7 hours and 9 minutes total on the social networking site in April 2012.� Via TechCrunch.

�Fix Your Website: 5 Things to Change Now
When investing in PPC or SEO it is vital to test the effectiveness of your landing page to ensure that you have made a sound investment. Making tweaks to your landing page can greatly increase results. This article provides some great tips that can be tested and hopefully easily implemented.� Via Inc.

Penalty or Algorithm Update? Matt Cutts Explains the Difference
�Google Penguin penalized my site.� It�s a phrase that online marketers have heard and read about ad nauseam over the past few weeks. But what is the difference between being penalized by Google and being impacted by an algorithm update? More importantly, what does that difference mean for your site? Search Engine Land Editor-In-Chief Danny Sullivan caught up with Google�s Matt Cutts to discuss this very topic and more.� Via Search Engine Land.

TopRank Team News

Alexis Hall – Twitter User Insights for Marketers
New study from Pew Internet reveals that 15% of adults now user Twitter up from 13% 12 months ago. The study also reveals interesting data regarding user demographics.� Via Search Engine Watch.

Jolina Pettice -� Finally! Mobile SEO Guidelines from Google
If you have felt like Google�s guidelines for mobile SEO are as clear as muddy water, you aren�t alone. But wade in uncertainly no longer, and check out these mobile site recommendations, which make it easy for the user and the algorithm. Via Search Engine Land.

Brian Larson – Twitter Mobile Ad Revenue Surpassed Desktop for the First Time
Twitter reaches a major milestone with daily revenue for mobile ads surpassing desktop ads for the first time in the company�s history. This certainly comes as good news for the company given their February rollout of ads for iPhone and Android apps. Learn more about Twitter�s mobile growth in this post from Cotton Delo of�AdAge.

Shawna Kenyon – The Internet Changes Wednesday, but Most People Wont Notice
It seems as though we have run out of IP addresses so the Internet Society has launched the IPv6 to allow the web to continue growth.� This signals the largest upgrade in the history of the Internet.� Moving forward users will be forced through transition gateways to reach businesses that currently don�t have the upgrade. The upside is that if this is done properly it should mostly go unnoticed. Companies making the switch include: Google, Facebook and Time Warner Cable.� Via�Mashable.

Mike Yanke – It�s Official�Google Has Actual Mobile Recommendations
June 6, 2012, Google officially changed its stance on mobile SEO from �why provide recommendations when we can just see what websites will do?� to the bit more specific, �OK, here�s what you should do.�� Included in this event wrap-up posted to�Search Engine Land is Google�s recommendations for building search and user friendly sites using both a responsive design and device specific approach.� Also included in this article is a link to the full set of Google Mobile site recommendations.��Via Search Engine Land.

TopRank Online Marketing In the News

We�ve been very busy the past few weeks!� With the launch of Lee Odden�s new book Optimize as well as the recent Penguin updates from Google, TopRank has been able to share some knowledge with an even larger audience.� Our recent mentions include:

Wall Street Journal – As Google Tweaks Searches Some Get Lost in the Web
After the change in the way that Google tweaked their ranking system many small businesses are scrambling to avoid slipping rankings. � �Learn more about Google’s stand against those looking to artificially boost their ratings. Via WSJ.

New York Times – It’s Small Business Week
The news of Facebook going public has been on the lips of most marketers for the past couple months. �Lee Odden offers advice on 5 tips for optimizing your business value. �Via New York Times.

Forbes – Who Are the Top 10 Influencers in Social, Mobile, & Cloud?
TopRank CEO Lee Odden was one of the select few that made multiple lists! �In this article you will have access to those that are said to be some of the most influential people in the online marketing industry. �Via Forbes.

Forbes – Social Media Thought Leader: Ford’s Scott Monty
Scott Monty of Ford is a true brandividual. �In his new book Optimize, Lee Odden shares a story about his experience with Scott and the seriousness with which Scott takes his work at Ford. � Via Forbes.

BtoB Magazine – Using Content Marketing for Leads-to-Sales Optimization
This recent article from Lee Odden provides direction on optimizing for your customers, throughout the buying cycle. �It is essential that you not only create customer-centric content to attract and engage customers, but it must be at the right time. �Via BtoB.

Entrepreneur – Talk of the Town
Entrepreneur’s most recent print magazine features an article by MarketingProf’s Ann Handley. �In her column Ann mentions getting optimized with the help of Lee Odden’s new book.

Phew! It’s been a busy few weeks for our team but we are very thankful for all of the great things we have been able to participate in. �I’d like to know what you think about what is going on in the online marketplace. �Have you been one of the select companies affected by Google’s most recent algorithm update? �Do you think it’s time to invest in Twitter advertising?

 

Google Places for Business vs. Google+ Local

Confused about how Google Places is different from Google+ Local? You aren't alone. Do you need one, both, or neither? Google hasn't made it easy for small, local businesses to understand, and it's left many frustrated and annoyed. Let's clear up the confusion.

What is Google Places for Business?

Google Places is the information that a search engine receives and uses when listing your business. A search engine will probably already have your business listed in results, but your Google Places page allows you to control what information Google has and presents to searchers about your business. You can fill in your Places page with information like a description, images, hours of operation, and contact information.

You manage all of this information in your Google Places dashboard, so you can change it anytime you wish. You have to sign up for Google Places here, fill in your information, and then verify your account – you have to verify either by phone or by mail, which Google will walk you through, and then you're set to go and start taking control of your brand.

For more information about setting up Google Places, as well as the benefits, check out my article on how to get started with Google Places for Business.

What Are Google+ Local Business Pages?

Google+ Local for Businesses is all about the social aspect of search. This is where you connect with customers and/or others in the industry by putting them in your circles (similar to "friends" on Facebook or "followers" on Twitter).

Those who have your company in their circles will be able to see updates from your company, whether it be blog posts or just a general comment on the feed, as well as see Zagat reviews for your company.

Your general business information and photos are also visible to help give social users the full picture of your company. You are in control of adding in all of this information as well as updating your feed as you wish (just like the way if works for Facebook).

What is particularly interesting about Google+ is the idea that Google is starting to offer personalized search results based on your Google+ connections. For example, if person A puts your company in his/her search results, then when person A searches for something related to your company you are more likely to pop up at the top of that SERP. If person B types in that exact same query but does not have you in his/her Google+ circles, you might pop up at the very bottom of the SERP instead.

Do Local Businesses Need Either?

It's very important for businesses to get involved in Google Places as well as Google+ Local for two major reasons:

First, it helps to put you in control of your brand. Whether you like it or not, your company is going to be mentioned somewhere on the Internet, either by clients or customers. You want to make sure that the right information about your company is displayed, and Google+ and Google Places allow you to do just that. You can update your contact information, images, etc. and you can connect with customers and answer their questions or respond to their online reviews.

Second, it helps you gain increased visibility. As discussed above, Google is beginning to move to a more holistic approach to search results. Link building is still important, but social (amongst others) is starting to become just as much of a ranking factor. The more information you can give Google, the better.

In the end, both are free to set up and easy to use. At last count, some 100 billion searches are conducted on Google every month, so visibility and control of your online presence is a must.

Google Places vs. Google+ Local Business Pages: What's the Same

Before diving into the differences between these three terms, it helps to know what's the same. A few things that fall into this category include:

Business Information: Your general business information – name, description, location, hours and content information – is going to be the same on both of these different pages.Photos: Both pages allow you to upload photos.Comments and Reviews: Readers can comment and review your business on both of these different pages.

The similarities between the two pages are pretty basic and what you would expect. So why do they still look so different? Not only do they have layouts that differ, but there are a few features that differ as well.

What Makes Google Places UniqueListing Appears on Google Maps or in Google Search: It's the information you add into your Google Places listing that will show up on a Google Map, which will show up on a Google search. In the past this was the page that would show up if you typed in a Google search for a local business (e.g., "pizza in Chicago"), but the Google local carousel has now brought Google+ pages back to the forefront.Pages Verified on Places for Business Dashboard: You're used to seeing your Places for Business dashboard complete with all of the information from your Google Places listing. This is ultimately where you manage all of your business information that is seen on Google as well as your AdWords efforts.What Makes Google+ Local Business Pages UniqueDesigned to Look Like Google Places: A Google+ Business page is designed to look like a Google Places listing, which is different than your traditional Google+ account page. This was an effort to make things easier, but ended up being very confusing. Now you have two pages, Google Places and Google+ Business pages that look similar.Social Features: A Google+ Business page is where you find all of your social features. This is where you can share your articles on your Google+ feed so all of your followers can see what you're sharing. It's where you connect with others in the industry as well as consumers and then interact.Quick Identification: Posts, About, Photos, and Videos Tabs. You will see all of these tabs on a Google+ Business page. If you're missing a video tab or a tab for posts, you're not looking at a Google+ business page you're looking at a typical Google+ account page.Combining Google Places & Your Local Google+ Page

You can now manage your Google+ Business page within your Google Places dashboard, which means both are somewhat combined from a management standpoint. You will only see this tab if you have a Google Places dashboard and have verified your Google+ Business page account.

Here's where things get tricky.

You can verify a Google+ local page and your existing Google Places listing for your business will be merged with that Google+ local page. You then have one local page for Google that combines the features of both of the two different kinds of pages described above (reviews, scores, social sharing, etc.). This page is then called simply Google+ Local – complete with features from Google Places as well as an option to manage your Google+ Business Page.

Below is an example of what that page looks on a test account I created. As you can see in the left column, there is a place where you can click "Google+." This means that this particular account has merged the two pages and can now manage both from one location:

You can verify your Google+ local page by clicking Manage this page > verify your business > adding in contact information > request postcard >wait for your postcard and receive a PIN number to verify online. Visit this page for detailed step-by-step instructions.

Who Should Combine the Two Pages?

Combining your two pages won't do much for your SEO, but will rather just help make things easier to manage. However, merging the two pages is really only best if you fit the following conditions:

You have to be able to receive verification postcards.You must have a Google+ Business page.You don't use bulk uploads features.Your Google Places listing and your Google+ business page were claimed by the same email address.

If you already have a Google Places listing, Google asks that you just be patient as the new combined feature rolls out to your account. If you just have a Google+ Business Page and not a Places page, sign up for a Places listing and you should see your Google+ Business Page ready to be managed in that new dashboard. You can set up a Google Places listing here.

Why Both Google Places and Google+ Local?

The idea behind merging these two pages was to make things easier and less confusing. However, not all Google Places pages have seen this upgrade. The integration between the two pages has only been in full swing since around April of this year, so it will take some getting used to for users.

The simplest solution: Create a Google Places listing first, and then create a Google+ local business page. Verify that Google+ local page so that you have one combined page, and never look back. Because you're a new user, you will have this new combined interface for easier management.

Quick Tip: Use the New Phone Support Feature

Clearly, Google local is a little bit of a mess, so even if you follow everything in this article and even if you spend a lot of time researching best practices, there is a chance you will lose some data or have issues with your listing. It's inevitable, but we can sure try to lessen the damage!

Google offers a new phone support feature that many have found to be a lifesaver. If you're having issues claiming or creating your new local listing, you can visit this link and then see a screen that looks like the following:

You will most likely want to click on the first option at the bottom of the page that says "I tried PIN verification for a single listing." You'll then be taken to another page where you can call Google or fill out a form. Once you do this a Google representative should call you back and help you with your issue.

Calling through this form is actually incredibly easy. I've done it myself, and it took just a minute or two to get a call back from a native English speaker.

Summary

Hopefully this article has cleared up any confusion you've had about Google Places vs. Google+ Local. Google certainly hasn't made it easy for us.

Have we missed anything? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Bing Tags Expands, Makes Pages Linked To Your Profile Public

Search engines continue to go old school, encouraging people to “tag” content in a way that makes it feel like it’s 1999 all over again. Today, Bing makes another push in that direction, making content you tag with “Bing Tags” more visibile.

Honestly, I feel like this tagging crazy is simply Google and Bing falling down on the job. It used to be that we praised search engines for moving away from the tagging that was popular with them in the mid-to-late 1990s. That’s because they were getting smart enough to know that every word on a page was effectively a tag rather than forcing human beings to waste their time categorizing things.

Still, Google — long the lone-standout against tagging — tossed in the towel with the meta news keywords tag last year. As for Bing, it renamed Bing Linked Pages�into Bing Tags last December.

That tagging of content was only visible to you. Now, tags will supposedly be public, if you allow:

The whole Bing Tag system really makes my head hurt. The idea is that you — or others — can tag pages to appear associated with you in Bing’s search results. By “you,” Bing means associated with a special “tagged” area at the top of its listings, visible to those who have a Facebook account that’s connected to Bing.

Up Close With Bing Tags

I think. Like I said, it makes my head hurt trying to figure this out.

For example, here’s a search on Bing for Search Engine Land news editor Barry Schwartz, showing what the public sees if they aren’t signed-in to Facebook:

Barry — our Barry, not the famous psychologist Barry — has pages about him that show up midway down the page, as the arrows show. Now here’s what I see when I am signed-in:

See how there’s a new section at the top, saying, “Barry Schwartz, tag more pages to your friend.” This is the product of Bing Tags in action. If someone is tagged, then a section like this should appear for them or those they are friends with on Facebook, when they are searching at Bing when it is connected to Facebook.

Want to add pages to tag to your friend? It seems kind of crazy. I mean, if they’re my friend, I probably already know the pages they have on the Web that are important. But maybe you want to help ensure other friends they have know about these on the chance they’re searching for their friend on Bing. If so, click on “tag more pages” link, and you get something like this:

That shows me what’s already tagged to Barry, and I have the option to use the “Find pages to tag” button, which brings up some suggested pages (you can also search for anything when in this mode to tag to a particular person). Found a page you want to tag to someone? Then you use the button next to the page:

Notice that warning at the bottom, “Friends will see your tags on Facebook.” Yes, whenever you tag a page on Bing like this, all your Facebook friends potentially see this in their stream.

Why do they need to see this? My assumption is because Bing would like you to help spread the word about Bing to your Facebook friends. I’d rather this wasn’t a requirement.

You’ve Been Tagged! Do You Approve?

Once you’re done, then that tagged page may show up assuming the person you tagged approves it. And if people tag you? When you go to the Bing Tags area when signed-in, you can see what’s been tagged to you and decide if you want to approve it.

In the end, I don’t really see the usefulness here. As I said, I think your friends already know what pages you’re likely associated with. And tagging only seems to work to show these pages to them, not to the general public. If there was a way to tag pages to better ensure people who don’t know you got better visibility of your content, that would be useful.

Does The Public Really See Them?

That, by the way, is what today’s Bing post suggests is the case — that these tags really are going to be visible to the general public now, if you allow that. But so far, I don’t see that this is actually happening. If it’s still rolling out, and it really works, maybe Bing Tags will deserve a second look.

Postscript: I’m getting further clarification from Bing, but apparently the tags associated with your name on Bing should show to the general public depending on whether you have have Facebook page that shows up high in Bing’s results AND if you’ve have enabled them to be seen by the public. If you don’t enable public sharing, they won’t appear.

To�simulate�this, if you don’t see it, try searching for someone’s name plus the word “facebook,” as shown in the example below:

See how I appear at the top under the “Danny Sullivan’s Tags” heading? This is what shows for me when I’m completely logged out of Bing and Facebook, i.e. — a public view.

I’ll update further when I get more clarity from Bing.

Postscript 2: Bing has now sent me that further clarification:

The placement of tags is based on a variety of factors including the ranking of a person�s profile page, e.g. a Facebook page.� To start, the ranking of public tags is on the conservative side, so the tagged pages don�t displace results the searcher is likely seeking.

In the case of a query like �Danny Sullivan� there are already a lot of high value search results, so tags don�t get as much visibility.

For a name query where the intended result is more ambiguous, the grouping and placement of tags can be more prominent.

We will continue to experiment with ranking of tags based on engagement data.� As previously, tags will be ranked higher if the searcher has a Facebook connection with the tagged person.

 

Google Names Next Android Operating System KitKat

Google has announced that the next version of its Android 4.4 operating system will be called KitKat, in a surprise move to use the chocolate bar brand over Key Lime Pie.

"Android is the operating system that powers over [one] billion smartphones and tablets. Since these devices make our lives so sweet, each Android version is named after a dessert: Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, and Jelly Bean," said Google. "As everybody finds it difficult to stay away from chocolate we decided to name the next version of Android after one of our favorite chocolate treats, Kitkat!"

A deal with Nestlé, which owns the Kit Kat name, came about after a decision by Google to take a break from the norm and name its latest OS after a candy bar. No money changed hands as part of the deal, Google told the BBC, although the decision by Google is clearly a massive bonus for KitKat.

"One of the snacks that we keep in our kitchen for late-night coding are Kit Kats. And someone said: 'Hey, why don't we call the release KitKat?'," John Lagerling, director of Android global partnerships, told the BBC. "We didn't even know which company controlled the name, and we thought that [the choice] would be difficult. But then we thought well why not, and we decided to reach out to the Nestlé folks."

Nestlé said it decided within an hour to grant Google's request.

The Kit Kat marketing team has responded to the deal by rebranding its website in a pastiche of Apple's site, with a long scrolling page touting Kit Kat’s compatibility with all liquids – tea, coffee and water – global coverage and the fact it can even be taken to work.

The head of Android, Sundar Pichai, posted a picture of the new KitKat symbol at the Google headquarters on his Google+ page, pictured above, although no details on what the KitKat 4.4 operating system update will contain have yet been announced.

“On my return from Asia, I was also thrilled to find this guy waiting to greet me on the front lawn -- love the new #AndroidKitKat statue and can’t wait to release the next version of the platform that is as sweet as the candy bar that’s one of our team’s favorites,” he wrote.

KitKat also released a tongue-in-cheek video of its "Chief Break's Officer" discussing the new features of the KitKat 4.4 chocolate bar.

This article was originally published on V3.

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New Yahoo Logo Revealed

Yahoo has finally unveiled the logo that it spent 30 days counting down to releasing.

Yahoo's new logo isn't dissimilar to previous Yahoo logos. It has a slightly slimmer font and retains the exclamation mark.

Here's what Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer had to say about the new font.

"One weekend this summer, I rolled up my sleeves and dove into the trenches with our logo design team: Bob Stohrer, Marc DeBartolomeis, Russ Khaydarov, and our intern Max Ma. We spent the majority of Saturday and Sunday designing the logo from start to finish, and we had a ton of fun weighing every minute detail," said Mayer. "We knew we wanted a logo that reflected Yahoo - whimsical, yet sophisticated. Modern and fresh, with a nod to our history. Having a human touch, personal. Proud."

According to Mayer, who has already made some sweeping changes, the Yahoo brand name is worth $10 billion.

Apparently all sorts of thinking went into the logo, and although it looks like it, people have not just highlighted the text and clicked through a range of font options.

"We didn't want to have any straight lines in the logo. Straight lines don't exist in the human form and are extremely rare in nature, so the human touch in the logo is that all the lines and forms all have at least a slight curve," she added. "We preferred letters that had thicker and thinner strokes - conveying the subjective and editorial nature of some of what we do."

The unveiling comes at the end of what Yahoo called 30 days of change and follows redesigns of the Yahoo homepage and Flickr.

What do you think of Yahoo's new logo?

This article was originally published on the Inquirer.

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5 Tips on Dealing With Small Budget Search Clients

I've been working in online marketing for nearly 10 years now. My experience has ranged from being both in-house and agency side as well as running my own freelance company. Today I run an agency (with other people too) with offices in two countries.

One thing this varied experience has done for me has given me insight into clients who have budgets from $400 per month all the way up to in excess of $40,000 per month. You learn a lot about client relations from both budget spectrums, however, I have found that the smaller the budget, the higher the proportion of maintenance that the client requires (from my experience).

Here are some potential issues you may encounter with small budget clients and solutions for managing expectations from the outset.

For this post, let's assume that "the client" is a new lead that has come in and has a budget of $500 per month. Let's also assume that the client is a "one man band" (up to 5 people), is less than 2 years old, and has no other marketing budget set aside.

1. Expectations of Hours Spent

When I was a freelancer much earlier on in my career I said yes to pretty much any job that fell in my lap. While this was great at the beginning, over time I found that I was working too much in proportion to what my client was paying. As it was early in my career, I was perfectly willing to work extra hours to ensure client retention. But eventually there came a point where it was too much.

Solution

Create an hourly rate and stick to it, even before any contract is signed. Here, the client has $500 to spend each month and you have to consider any outgoings you may have attached to that budget. An example would be to charge $75 per hour, giving you 6 hours of work per month plus $50 to spend.

This expectation may not please your client as that $500 is important to him/her. Six hours may not sound like a lot, but this has to be fair on you too. For $500 the client can't expect a "virtual member of staff" who is on call to answer everything at any point – especially if your hours are fulfilled. The client has to remember that you will have many clients just like him/her, and that they too will have their own expectations.

2. Managing Those Limited Hours Wisely

The term "SEO" is now only part and parcel of a general online marketing strategy that requires work on various aspects, including on-site, content, outreach, CRO, analytical research, social media integration, and reporting. For that $500, you will have to manage this each month to ensure that they have the best quality work done with consideration of that budget, noting that month-on-month you will have to concentrate on different things.

Solution

Each month you will have to set out how much time you want to spend on each task. You can make it slightly easier using a project management document to ensure everything is organized for all clients. Luckily I have created a free project management template for Google Drive which can help you with this.

One thing to note: the client should always be informed of your plans ahead of time as their priorities may not match your own. Concentrate more perhaps on converting visitors rather than sacrificing the majority of your time with outreach.

3. Sacrificing or Simplifying 'Non-Essential' Tasks

Managing those hours may still be tight for you. If you're faced with a task that could potentially take 2 hours to complete, you should seriously consider if there is a way to compress it into a one hour task without loss of quality to the client.

Solution

Create an extremely simple report containing limited data that will, in effect, reduce the time it takes you to produce it. One tip here would be to include less commentary or create a streamlined Google Analytics Dashboard for your client to view that can give them up-to-date information without you having to produce another section about analytics in your report.

Something else to consider is logging the work you do. Trello and Toggl will help you out with this, but having to report on every minute detail of your work is inefficient and has no real value to anyone when the general budget is small – there's no need to log every email you send just for the sake of the client if you're organized enough.

Agree on KPIs

You need to understand the client's business from the outset. The client is investing a lot in you despite having no guarantees of any ROI – SEO is something that can't be measured or forecasted with precision (especially with low budgets), and SEO takes quite a few months to see real results.

However, you still need to decide on what these key performance indicators (KPIs) are and you need to ensure that the client understands that short tail is pretty much impossible unless their short tail keyword targets is a general long tail.

Solution

Let's say that the client is an accountant. You need to ensure that you know what their average client makes for them as one client may make them $2,000 per annum (assuming that the client keeps them year-on-year).

I would also advise to have an agreement of no less than 6 months so that the client understands that no work you do will show any real effect for at least 3 months and that you will need months 4, 5 and 6 to analyze results and prove you have fulfilled your agreed KPIs.

Try to Increase Budgets over Time

Let's say that 6 months have now passed and you've fulfilled the KPIs you agreed at the beginning of the contract. The client may insist that no ROI has been generated, however, you must refer back to your agreed KPIs – if you fulfilled them, then you did your job correctly. Of course, KPIs will be connected to ROI, but sometimes the work you do is only so much.

Using the accountant as a client example again, one KPI would be that you need to increase conversions where a conversion would be defined as an email form completion or telephone call. Once that email is sent or call is placed you have no control as to whether that conversion will turn from a lead into a client for many reasons – the client may not be able to service that lead as intended, there may be a seasonal slump, or the salesman answering the calls and emails may not be good him/herself at converting leads.

Solution

Translate to the client, and be clear, that fulfilling KPIs and ROI aren't always the same thing and ROI is something you can't solely control and therefore can't be held to it to decide on any renewal.

You may also want to suggest (if your first 6 months can prove it) that their budget needs to be increased to show more significant results. The client may always say that they intend to increase their budget, but until they actually do it, they simply won't receive what they expect to receive.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $200!
*Pre-show rate through September 6.

Matt Cutts on Auto-Generated Content: Google Will Take Action

The latest webmaster help video from Google's Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts deals with auto-generated content and whether manual action is taken against these types of sites (i.e., whether the site will receive a Google penalty).

Many years ago, these websites were often referred to as "Made for AdSense" or "MFA" sites. The only reason these MFA sites were created was in the hopes that people would land on the page, not find what they're looking for, and click an AdSense ad to leave the page rather than hitting the back button.

Most of these types of sites are automatically generated with a script that takes snippets of either search results or web pages with those keywords on it. There is no real content to them, just the auto-generated snippets.

One user who has seen these types of sites asked Cutts specifically if Google is taking any action against these sites.

What does Google do against sites that have a script that automatically picks up the search query and makes a page about it? Ex: you Google [risks of drinking caffeine], end up at a page: "we have no articles for DRINKING CAFFEINE" with lots of ads.

"We are absolutely willing to take action against those sites," Cutts said. "So we have rules in our guidelines about auto-generated pages that have very little value and I have put out in the past specific calls for sites where you search for product a VCR or laptop or whatever and you think you really get a review and the new land there and the very first thing you see is '0 Reviews Found for [blah blah blah]'."

From Google's perspective, if a searcher lands on one of these pages and doesn't find what they are looking for, that results in a bad user experience, which is why Google would take action against these zero value sites.

Cutts also said that webmasters of sites with search results should make sure that those search results snippets aren't being indexed unless there's something highly unusual about it, such as data no one else has. But in this case, you still need to ensure that you aren't allowing Google to index search result pages that are saying "0 Results Found" because that isn't helpful to Google searchers.

Bottom line: if you're creating web pages of auto-generated text and snippets, you should be aware that Google can and will penalize your site. And if you're just a user who is finding these types of pages in the Google search results, you can send in a spam report.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $200!
*Pre-show rate through September 6.

Matt Cutts on Auto-Generated Content: Google Will Take Action

The latest webmaster help video from Google's Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts deals with auto-generated content and whether manual action is taken against these types of sites (i.e., whether the site will receive a Google penalty).

Many years ago, these websites were often referred to as "Made for AdSense" or "MFA" sites. The only reason these MFA sites were created was in the hopes that people would land on the page, not find what they're looking for, and click an AdSense ad to leave the page rather than hitting the back button.

Most of these types of sites are automatically generated with a script that takes snippets of either search results or web pages with those keywords on it. There is no real content to them, just the auto-generated snippets.

One user who has seen these types of sites asked Cutts specifically if Google is taking any action against these sites.

What does Google do against sites that have a script that automatically picks up the search query and makes a page about it? Ex: you Google [risks of drinking caffeine], end up at a page: "we have no articles for DRINKING CAFFEINE" with lots of ads.

"We are absolutely willing to take action against those sites," Cutts said. "So we have rules in our guidelines about auto-generated pages that have very little value and I have put out in the past specific calls for sites where you search for product a VCR or laptop or whatever and you think you really get a review and the new land there and the very first thing you see is '0 Reviews Found for [blah blah blah]'."

From Google's perspective, if a searcher lands on one of these pages and doesn't find what they are looking for, that results in a bad user experience, which is why Google would take action against these zero value sites.

Cutts also said that webmasters of sites with search results should make sure that those search results snippets aren't being indexed unless there's something highly unusual about it, such as data no one else has. But in this case, you still need to ensure that you aren't allowing Google to index search result pages that are saying "0 Results Found" because that isn't helpful to Google searchers.

Bottom line: if you're creating web pages of auto-generated text and snippets, you should be aware that Google can and will penalize your site. And if you're just a user who is finding these types of pages in the Google search results, you can send in a spam report.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $200!
*Pre-show rate through September 6.

Matt Cutts on Auto-Generated Content: Google Will Take Action

The latest webmaster help video from Google's Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts deals with auto-generated content and whether manual action is taken against these types of sites (i.e., whether the site will receive a Google penalty).

Many years ago, these websites were often referred to as "Made for AdSense" or "MFA" sites. The only reason these MFA sites were created was in the hopes that people would land on the page, not find what they're looking for, and click an AdSense ad to leave the page rather than hitting the back button.

Most of these types of sites are automatically generated with a script that takes snippets of either search results or web pages with those keywords on it. There is no real content to them, just the auto-generated snippets.

One user who has seen these types of sites asked Cutts specifically if Google is taking any action against these sites.

What does Google do against sites that have a script that automatically picks up the search query and makes a page about it? Ex: you Google [risks of drinking caffeine], end up at a page: "we have no articles for DRINKING CAFFEINE" with lots of ads.

"We are absolutely willing to take action against those sites," Cutts said. "So we have rules in our guidelines about auto-generated pages that have very little value and I have put out in the past specific calls for sites where you search for product a VCR or laptop or whatever and you think you really get a review and the new land there and the very first thing you see is '0 Reviews Found for [blah blah blah]'."

From Google's perspective, if a searcher lands on one of these pages and doesn't find what they are looking for, that results in a bad user experience, which is why Google would take action against these zero value sites.

Cutts also said that webmasters of sites with search results should make sure that those search results snippets aren't being indexed unless there's something highly unusual about it, such as data no one else has. But in this case, you still need to ensure that you aren't allowing Google to index search result pages that are saying "0 Results Found" because that isn't helpful to Google searchers.

Bottom line: if you're creating web pages of auto-generated text and snippets, you should be aware that Google can and will penalize your site. And if you're just a user who is finding these types of pages in the Google search results, you can send in a spam report.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $200!
*Pre-show rate through September 6.

Facebook Hashtags Not Yielding Added Exposure for Brands [Study]

Ever since Facebook hashtags hit the scene in June, marketers have been trying to figure out if they're worth the extra effort. So far, the results aren't looking good.

First, Simply Measured claimed status updates with hashtags weren't helping brands gain additional exposure. And now, EdgeRank Checker agrees with its latest analysis.

EdgeRank Checker data showed that of the more than 500 pages it studied, viral reach and engagement were down on posts with hashtags versus posts without hashtags.

EdgeRank Checker wanted to see if the same were true for hashtags in other platforms like Twitter. What it found after analyzing a sample of 50 Twitter accounts from Fortune 500 brands was that 70 percent of brands experienced an increase in retweets when using a hashtag versus not using one.

In Twitter, retweets are the equivalent of what viral reach is to Facebook, EdgeRank Checker said.

So why the low viral reach? EdgeRank Checker had a hypothesis:

Our hypothesis is that not many people are clicking on hashtags. If many people were clicking hashtags, we should see an increase in Viral Reach for posts with hashtags. The data is not showing that. If anything, it's showing a decrease in Viral Reach.

We hypothesize that hashtagged posts don't have the expected increase in Viral Reach due to how brands are using them. After examining how hashtags are being used, hashtags are often used in promotional material. For some brands, they've created campaigns around particular hashtags and use them in all posts associated with the campaign. By nature, campaigns are promotional, therefore more likely to drive less engagement, less clicks, and ultimately less Reach.

Brands are often instructed to use the same important keywords across all their channels when possible, like in the form of hashtags. But it's also important to research what keywords are actually being used across those social platforms before appending them on status updates in a hashtag.

Do a quick search in the social network for the words you think are associated with your content and see which ones have the most activity. You might be surprised at what you find.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $200!
*Pre-show rate through September 6.

Google May Be Updating Their Algorithm But They Won’t Confirm It

Today, September 4th, and last week, August 21st, there were huge spikes in chatter amongst the SEO and webmasters about the Google search results shifting and changing.

In short, many SEOs and webmasters were complaining that their rankings in the Google search results have declined drastically. In addition, many sent me images of their analytics, showing a clear significant drop in traffic from the Google organic source.

I asked Google about both these updates, and for each one, they said they have “nothing to announce.” Meaning, they won’t confirm if there was or was not an update.

We can confirm that the various search results monitoring tools, such as Mozcast, SERPs.com, SERP Metrics and Algoroo all showed volatility on August 21st. Since the September 4th chatter began this morning, we will have to wait for tomorrow to see if the tools show activity for today (the tools are about 24 hours delayed).

Although, there are hundreds of comments on the August 21st post and well over fifty comments on the September 4th post in less than seven hours.

Google does not always confirm updates but we think you should be aware that on August 21st and September 4th, there was enough noise to report to you that Google may have done some sort of algorithmic update.

For more info on the more popular Google updates, see our Google Panda and Google Penguin categories.

Facebook Hashtags Not Yielding Added Exposure for Brands [Study]

Ever since Facebook hashtags hit the scene in June, marketers have been trying to figure out if they're worth the extra effort. So far, the results aren't looking good.

First, Simply Measured claimed status updates with hashtags weren't helping brands gain additional exposure. And now, EdgeRank Checker agrees with its latest analysis.

EdgeRank Checker data showed that of the more than 500 pages it studied, viral reach and engagement were down on posts with hashtags versus posts without hashtags.

EdgeRank Checker wanted to see if the same were true for hashtags in other platforms like Twitter. What it found after analyzing a sample of 50 Twitter accounts from Fortune 500 brands was that 70 percent of brands experienced an increase in retweets when using a hashtag versus not using one.

In Twitter, retweets are the equivalent of what viral reach is to Facebook, EdgeRank Checker said.

So why the low viral reach? EdgeRank Checker had a hypothesis:

Our hypothesis is that not many people are clicking on hashtags. If many people were clicking hashtags, we should see an increase in Viral Reach for posts with hashtags. The data is not showing that. If anything, it's showing a decrease in Viral Reach.

We hypothesize that hashtagged posts don't have the expected increase in Viral Reach due to how brands are using them. After examining how hashtags are being used, hashtags are often used in promotional material. For some brands, they've created campaigns around particular hashtags and use them in all posts associated with the campaign. By nature, campaigns are promotional, therefore more likely to drive less engagement, less clicks, and ultimately less Reach.

Brands are often instructed to use the same important keywords across all their channels when possible, like in the form of hashtags. But it's also important to research what keywords are actually being used across those social platforms before appending them on status updates in a hashtag.

Do a quick search in the social network for the words you think are associated with your content and see which ones have the most activity. You might be surprised at what you find.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $200!
*Pre-show rate through September 6.

Topsy Becomes Definitive Twitter Search Engine

Social search and analytics provider Topsy�announced that users can now search its index for every single tweet ever published since Twitter’s inception in 2006. This capability is very useful and likely makes Topsy an acquisition target (probably by Twitter).

According to the site, there are now more than 540 billion tweets in its index. Topsy has become a social analytics service in addition to being a “social search engine.”

Topsy has the added distinction of being essentially the lone survivor among a group of “real-time” search sites that emerged in 2008 – 2010, including Collecta, OneRiot, Crowdeye, Tweetmeme and Scoopler. At the time, Google, Yahoo and Bing appropriated or adopted real-time search (for a time) essentially killing these startups with the exception of Topsy.

OneRiot was sold to WalMart Labs and the others basically shut down.

7 Things I Learned From Dan Schawbel About Personal Branding and Promotion

Having just finished re-watching the movie, Julie and Julia, I�m struck by how personal blogging has morphed into personal branding over the last decade. Julie Powell launched her food blog, providing readers a daily dose of meal prep and instruction based on The Art of French Cooking, the cookbook that revolutionized American cooking in the 60s.

The movie portrays a 30-year-old governmental worker/writer in various stages of emotional meltdown and marital woe, but, in the end, she triumphs.

Powell dedicated one year to working her way through 524 recipes as an homage to the inimitable Julia Child and also as a means of self-expression and proof that she could (and would) �finish something!� Without trying, Powell created her personal brand via her blog. Her write up in the New York Times generated a wellspring of support from both traditional media and publishing; a book deal and movie became the fruits of her labor.

Having received an advance copy of Dan Schawbel�s new book, Promote Yourself: The New Rules for Career Success, I was curious what advice he might have offered Powell (or any other person) trying to succeed in a world of constant change. How does a worker stand apart from the crowd? Now that blogging has become ubiquitous, what other tactics might he recommend?

Dan Schawbel, recognized as the �personal branding guru� by the New York Times and a popular career and workplace expert, writes for Gen Y just starting their �first job� as well as for seasoned veterans who want to up their game. After perusing the book, I�d like to share what I learned from Dan about personal branding and promotion, the questions he might ask and the advice he could offer in order to help you navigate today�s increasingly competitive marketplace.

Be More than Your Job Description � People who adapt, survive; people who don�t, won�t. It�s imperative to stay current with industry trends and technology, or you�ll soon find yourself irrelevant. Ultimately, you�re the one who decides which skills to master and how you spend your time; the more time you invest in learning skills that are in high demand, the more valuable you become. When you master the right hard skills that relate to your profession and industry, people will notice your talents and ask you to work on projects with them. You’ll become the go- to-employee.

Leverage Your Emotional Intelligence � There�s more to career advancement than job results. Interpersonal skills are increasingly becoming the yardstick by which managers determine an employee�s advancement potential. These are �soft� skills that enable you to form relationships with coworkers, fit into the corporate culture and communicate well. By gaining and mastering such skills as optimism, strong work ethic, tactfulness, empathy and humor, you�ll become the person everyone wants to work with. Dan also details how you can learn to develop emotional intelligence. This chapter alone is worth your time if you feel you�ve over invested in hard skills, like technical expertise, at the expense of people skills.

Use the Web to Build Your Personal Brand � Think of social media as assets that you�ll be building on throughout your career. The networks you build can help you stay connected with people you know and build new connections with people you don�t know. And, the more people you know, the easier it becomes to open doors to new opportunities. Build and use your networks wisely now, and they�ll pay big dividends later.

How to Gain Visibility Without Being Overly Self-promotional � Career advancement isn�t going to happen unless you�re persistent in letting people know what it is you can do and where you can make the biggest contribution to your company. All that added attention will earn you more respect from the people you work with, and more confidence�along with even more visibility and important projects�from the people you work for. The best way to proactively build your online brand is by making deliberate postings that position you the way you want to be seen. That could be thoughtful comments on articles related to your job, relevant information you publish on Twitter and your personal blog, or videos you post showcasing your latest project.

What Managers Look for When They Decide Whom to Promote � Your online brand is how you position yourself in the company, how you demonstrate your expertise, how you define the way managers and coworkers see you. Not surprisingly, soft skills were at the top of Dan�s list. Based on his company surveying 1,000 managers, he found that the ability to prioritize work, to maintain a positive attitude and to demonstrate teamwork were skills most in demand when managers talked about promoting the next generation of leaders.

The Importance of Developing Cross-generational Relationships � When it comes to dealing with older generations, developing skills your audience values is important. When you understand how different generations operate as well as their feelings and what motivates their behavior, you�ll have a much easier time forming relationships with them. �There�s an entire chapter dedicated to describing and defining four generations. It�s worth reading if you�ve been puzzled by a coworker�s behavior or expectations.

How to Build Your Network at Work and Beyond � �The currency of real networking is not greed but generosity.� I love that quote by Keith Ferrazzi, author, Never Eat Lunch Alone. If you remember that building business relationships is a lot like dating, then you won�t have any trouble following Dan�s four rules for success:

Target the individuals you click with right away and whose company you enjoy. Keep the 80/20 principle in mind; businesses derive 80% of their revenues from 20% of their customers. It�s a similar thing with building relationships.Mutually beneficial relationships will stand the test of time. The people you want to get to know have to get at least as much out of the relationship as you do.Reaching out sincerely to help others without asking anything in return is the cornerstone for all successful networkers. When you give without strings, people will naturally want to help you.Be authentic. If you don�t mean it, don�t say it.

The American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) estimate that by 2015, 60 percent of new jobs will require skills only 20 percent of the population currently has. How do you know which skills you�ll need in the future? Dan offers some current trends that provide basic direction: seventy-one percent (71%) of employers say they value emotional intelligence over IQ, according to CareerBuilder.com. Fifty-nine percent (59%) would not hire someone with a high IQ but low emotional intelligence.

Your online brand is how you position yourself in the company, how you demonstrate your expertise, how you define the way managers and coworkers see you. Managing your online brand is one of the most powerful tools for your career advancement. It�s something you need to do thoughtfully, regularly and proactively.

Now that you understand the importance of people skills, what changes will you be making in how you promote yourself both within your company and externally to your social networks? Is there a blog in your future?

 

 

 

 

Top Photo credit: Flickr

Multi-Channel Analytics: An Interview With SES San Francisco Speaker Andrew Edwards

SES San Francisco is next week, taking place September 10-13. The comprehensive agenda of this conference will walk you through the new marketing landscape of converged media will be led by industry practitioners and innovators. The program is designed to help marketing professionals meet their needs regardless of their experience level.

Prior to the conference I was lucky enough to interview various experts, including Bill Hunt and Bryan Eisenberg. Another expert that I had the pleasure of interviewing was Andrew Edwards, who is the managing partner at Efectyv Marketing. He will be speaking at SES San Francisco on Multi-Channel Analytics: How Convergence Analytics Changes Digital Marketing Forever.

Victoria Edwards: What is convergence analytics?

Andrew Edwards: Convergence analytics is an emerging field that takes up where web analytics, mobile analytics, and any other siloed data analytics leave off. Some have also called it Multi-Channel Analytics, but this does not describe the single-view outputs that are common today.

There are at least a hundred vendors today who offer applications that can measure many different channels and display them in an elegant fashion. We believe the trend towards converging many data inputs and creating a flexible output model is accelerating – and changing business analytics forever.

VE: Who should attend your session on multi-channel analytics?

AE: Anyone who wants to know the latest on emerging digital analytics trends, technologies and challenges.

VE: What tools does an individual use for multi-channel analytics?

AE: There are so many choices in so many measurement fields that it's a challenge to even begin listing them without leaving out key players. If we can suggest a common denominator like Google Analytics and apply that across many channels with many different ways to collect and review data, that might come close to a broad description.

VE: If someone is new to convergence analytics where is a good place to start gaining more insight?

AE: Certainly our session would be a great place to start. But they can also go to the Convergence Analytics section at ClickZ to see more content about it.

VE: You’re currently the CEO at Technology Leaders. What was your career-path that lead you into that role?

AE: I founded Technology Leaders in 2002 and continue to run the enterprise digital analytics practice there. My most recent focus is on digital analytics strategy, including the writing of the next Convergence Analytics Report with Efectyv Digital.

I got started in digital as a computer-illustrator, and I got to know the creative side during the late 1980s with the advent of desktop publishing. I created the first DTP group at the Yellow Pages. Then I moved on to interactive television that led to CD-ROMs and finally website development.

As the Internet became more of a commercial venture, I got interested in how to measure its effectiveness in the marketplace. That's how I got involved with analytics. I have a book coming out in the spring with Pearson Publications called "Digital is Destroying Everything, and What Comes Next".

VE: I see you’re also a painter? What’s your favorite medium and are there any places online we can see your work?

AE: Yes, I do love creating actual things in the world sometimes – so I paint with acrylics on canvas. They tend to be surreal-mythical in nature with a focus on mid-20th century iconography. You can see them here.

You can meet Andrew Edwards at SES San Francisco. You can also follow him on Twitter @AndrewVEdwards.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $200!
*Pre-show rate through September 6.

Facebook’s Graph Search & YourTrove’s Social Search: 5 Questions With Jesse Emery

[Ed. note: This is the first of what will be an ongoing interview series called "5 Questions With...," in which we'll publish brief interviews with interesting and important online marketing newsmakers. Depending on the topic, the interviews may be published on Search Engine Land or Marketing Land and, depending on the topic and interview subject, we may occasionally ask more than five questions.]

Facebook made a splash this week when it announced Graph Search, an upgrade to its long-neglected search tool. It’s very much a beta product. Facebook emphasized that the product will expand to include searches for status updates and other text content, not just “Likes” and check-ins and photos and the limited data it searches now.

But astute Search Engine Land readers will remember that there’s already a search engine that’s tackling Facebook search — and doing it differently than Facebook itself. Last September, I profiled YourTrove, a social search engine that crawls Facebook content and provides a searchable index that includes the text in status updates, photo captions and more. You can’t get that in Facebook’s Graph Search – not yet.

We reached out this week via email to Jesse Emery, Co-founder and Chief Identity Officer at YourTrove, for our first “5 Questions With…” interview, to get his thoughts on Graph Search, how it’s different from YourTrove, and how it might impact YourTrove’s plans.

5 Questions With … Jesse Emery, YourTrove, On Facebook’s Graph Search

Matt McGee: The Graph Search that Facebook announced this week is different — at least in its current form — from what Trove is doing. Can you explain how?

Jesse Emery: In the two services current forms, there are two big differences. The first is that Graph Search is querying against very explicit user actions — such as Likes, Tags, and Check-Ins. So when Facebook talks about a query such as “Friends who like Star Wars” they literally mean that the search will return your friends who clicked the “Like” button on the Star Wars page. YourTrove, on the other hand, does text search through posts and other meta data, such as photo captions.

The other, and probably bigger, difference is that YourTrove is much more focused on user content, rather than say, people or places the way Graph Search is focused. While Graph Search is also returning photos (presumably via photo owners and tags), YourTrove will return photos based on the captions and comments. So, while YourTrove can’t (currently) do “Friends who like Star Wars,” it can search for “Star Wars photos” and probably return much better results than a Graph Search for Star Wars photos can at the moment.

In the long-term the biggest difference is that YourTrove was designed from the ground up to search content from a lot more services than just Facebook, so that a user could search, for example Facebook, Tumblr and Pinterest content simultaneously.

MM: You mentioned on Twitter that YourTrove began by using structured queries like this, but you guys weren’t satisfied with the results. Why? Was it not comprehensive enough for what you had in mind?

JE: What I was getting at with that tweet is that we used to store the content YourTrove ingested in a very structured way. This made it really easy to do explicit, filter-like queries like “Show me Matt’s photos” (a very Graph Search-like query, no?). But YourTrove is content focused and we’re more interested in enabling users to do searches like “Show me photos of Matt’s dog” or even just “Matt’s dog” and return photos, videos, and statuses about Matt’s dog. To do those kinds of queries, in any kind of performant way, we had to un-structure a lot of that data.

Note that this isn’t to say that we can’t do “Show me Matt’s photos,” in fact that’s pretty trivial from our system’s standpoint. We just haven’t focused on exposing and refining that from a UI/UX standpoint the way Facebook has with Graph Search.

MM: What are your thoughts on Graph Search — strengths? Weaknesses?

JE: I am on the waiting list like most people, so I have only been able to do the demo searches. I think the most obvious strength is that Graph Search is a vast improvement over the current Facebook search, which left a lot to be desired. It’s also a huge step for Facebook in terms of interest and location oriented discovery.

The most obvious weakness is that it’s not searching or returning things like posts, comments, and links.

Additionally, I am worried that it’s going to make property owners (i.e., Page admins) even more aggressive about trying to get users to Like them. There are already a lot of annoying practices in that arena and Graph Search just further incentivizes trying to get Likes.

MM: How do you think the average Facebook user will react to Graph Search?

JE: I think, on the whole, most people will find it to be an improvement. Obviously, since it’s Facebook, there will be the expected gripes and people surprised by their privacy settings, but it’s just so much better than the current search that I think most people will view it positively.

MM: Will Graph Search impact the development of Trove?

JE: In the short term, not at all. For one thing, Graph Search won’t initially be available through the API, but additionally, right now Graph Search and YourTrove almost perfectly complement each other. Both of them are pretty good at the other’s weak spots.

MM: Give us an update on Trove and how things have progressed since I spoke with you guys back in September.

JE: We’ve been working on several things.

The first is getting users into YourTrove faster. We haven’t been nearly as fast at getting people off the wait list and into the system as we would like and we’ve been working on both software and hardware improvements in that arena to speed things up.

We’ve also been beta testing Tumblr as an additional service that you can add to YourTrove and search content across both Facebook and Tumblr.

Many people have been asking for us to get more frequent content updates from Facebook and that functionality is implemented and in the testing phase now as well.

SES London 2013: How to Make the Most of Your Conference

London has proven its ability to put on big events over the last 12 months, and we look to continue that trend as we host SES London, Europe’s biggest search marketing event, from 18-21 February.

Whilst the world’s greatest athletes arrived last summer to compete in the London Olympics, this February will see Europe’s greatest search marketers congregate to share expertise and sharpen their skills.

It’s always a pleasure for me to work with the fantastic SES team, helping them to line-up Europe’s biggest search experts and most prevalent topics. This year they have once again exceeded themselves. We see a recurring theme amongst sessions this year, which looks at integrating search marketing campaigns into your wider media mix.

The team has also decided to make a small change to this year’s session formats, which I believe will make a big difference. We’ve decided to reduce the number of speakers in each session to two people, plus a moderator. This means each speaker will have 25 minutes enabling them to share more expert tips and go deeper into more advanced levels of insight on their specialist subject.

Greg Jarboe did an excellent job rounding up the big name SES London keynote speakers from Microsoft, Twitter and aimClear who will share their insights in London; however, I wanted to quickly highlight some of the other must-see sessions on each day at an even bigger and better SES Conference this year:

1. The Age of Big Data & the Modern Marketer

Moderator: Matt McGowan, Managing Director - Marketing & Americas, Incisive Media
Speakers: James Murray, Digital Insight Manager, Experian Marketing Services. Jon Myers, SES Advisory Board; Commercial Director EMEA, Marin Software.

This Day 1 session (more details here) is certainly the one I’m most looking forward to participating in across the conference. “Big Data” is one of those industry buzz words that we have to put up with, but unfortunately for all online marketers it is a stark reality.

Online advertising professionals sit on more data than they know what to do with. Managing data in the search channel is time consuming enough, but viewing it and integrating it with data from outside the search silo is a big resource and technology challenge.

This session will look at how marketers need to adapt their skills to a role which begins to look more like that of a CIO. We’ll also look at how to use technology in this mix, as well as how to turn your data into actions which optimise revenue outcomes.

2. Next-Generation Site Architecture

Moderator: Will Critchlow, Founder and Chief Strategist, Distilled.
Speakers: Maile Ohye, Senior Developer Programs Engineer, Google. Alan Perkins, Head of Search Marketing, SilverDisc Limited.

Whilst making site architecture search-engine friendly has always been a core part of SEO, the importance of site architecture now goes way beyond traditional SEO. Much like SEO, site architecture now needs to take into account the needs of social-media, real-time, and user-generated content.

With the rate of change in the online advertising industry there will no doubt be new factors to consider in future. This Day 2 session (more details here) will give tips on how to design and deploy a next-generation site architecture which maximises your chances of being found now and in the future.

3. Enterprise Level SEO

Moderator: Crispin Sheridan, Senior Director of Search Marketing, SAP.
Speakers: Simon Heseltine, Director of SEO, AOL Inc. Julian Sambles, Digital Product Director, Telegraph Media Group.

As SEO has elevated itself into a position where it impacts the entire way a company works, practitioners of SEO in large organisations have to battle with the challenges of education, budgeting and implementation.

This Day 2 session (more details here) will provide a best practice blueprint for SEO people in large organisations to use for organisation of enterprise-level SEO campaigns, as well as success metrics.

4. SEO Tools Deep Dive

Moderator: Jon Myers, SES Advisory Board; Commercial Director - EMEA, Marin Software.
Speakers: Richard Baxter, Founder and Director, SEOGadget. David Naylor, SEO, Bronco.

Both paid and natural search in the modern-day require technology to automate manual processes and give deeper insight into search data. This Day 3 session (more details here) will look at the array of SEO tools available on the market across indexing, competitive analysis, diagnosing and remedying problems, page and site-level information and on-page optimisation. You’ll walk away knowing the tools you need in your armoury to run successful SEO campaigns.

Meet the Experts

Outside of these structured conference sessions we’re also continuing the Meet the Experts Roundtables after a successful debut in 2012. Attendees requested more time with our expert speakers in a more intimate and informal session, we found this to be the most effective solution to deliver that.

With a choice of several roundtable discussions, each focusing on different key topics and featuring two experts, this session is high value for attendees. Simply choose the roundtable most pertinent to you and join the discussion.

You can also move freely between different roundtables to make sure you get the most out of this session. Afterward, take your conversation and new contacts to our networking cocktail reception where you can continue the discussion over a few drinks.

Great Chances to Network & Share Insights

That brings me on to my final, and possibly most important, reason to attend SES London. That is the great chances to network and share insights with other conference attendees, both during the day and through some evening social events, as well as as the BlueGlass party.

Whether it's during the networking lunch or over a drink after the conference, I look forward to seeing many old and new faces in London for SES this year!

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $200!
*Pre-show rate through September 6.

SEO Mindshift: Link Building As Online PR & Social Promotion

Whether Google and social media sites like Twitter exist as platforms for discovery or not, links are votes that can create awareness and send traffic to whatever it is that you’re promoting online: website, blog, YouTube Channel, Facebook Fan Page or Pinterest Board. The internet is made of such connections and with the social web, even more so.

One of the core principles of optimization is to make the connection between your brand’s content and a particular destination or audience, easier. Creating, optimizing and promoting content and media that inspires people to share does exactly that.

But what are the best tactics for link building? Isn’t Google Penguin putting the hammer down on many SEO focused link building schemes? Do links even matter anymore, now that social shares are being debated as the new electricity of the web?

To help answer those questions, I’m going to share some insights�to provide some context for an effective approach that is risk free, relevant, and high impact for building links and attention to a new website or social destination.

One of the most important things to realize about modern, sustainable link building is to stop thinking of it simply as a SEO tactic. While Google’s PageRank algorithm has inspired a whole industry of SEOs specializing in building links to client web pages for better rankings in search results, the tactics come and go. For example, buying links was promoted as a good idea by a lot of companies and consultants for a while, but now, not so much, especially with Google.

Do you like being a hamster? Viewing links only as a SEO tactic can mean chasing after loopholes like a hamster on an exercise wheel. Rather than ask, “What’s the best link building tactic?”, ask, “How will we market our website?” and think about how you can optimize those marketing and PR efforts to also result in link acquisition. In my book (literally)�the smart approach is to view links as a by product of online marketing and PR vs, looking at online marketing and PR as means to get links.

Practical Online PR for links example: With the book website for Optimize, we launched a brand new website built on WordPress with a new domain name. This presented a substantial challenge, because a book about optimization (including SEO) using a single word like “optimize” with over 100 million competing search results in Google, would be expected to do well in search. Imagine being presented with the task of achieving top placement with a new domain for a very competitive single keyword with little budget and a short timeframe. Run fast, right?

“Optimize” is optimized. Currently the keyword “optimize” drives the most organic search traffic to OptimizeBook.com and on both Google and Bing, the book site appears in the top 3 pretty consistently with 113m and 80m competing search results respectively.

That visibility was achieved entirely through online promotion and PR, not just SEO link building tactics. We did leverage some links from this blog, but the vast majority of links to OptimizeBook.com came as a result of publicity. We created something relevant, timely and worth sharing and reached out to publications in need of such content or stories. In fact, through email and other online promotion as well as creating awareness through social channels, many of our best online media opportunities came to us with no pitching at all.

Online PR�and social promotion (not just guest blog posts)�are probably the most powerful means for promoting a website that also attracts substantial, high authority web links and social shares. The amazing thing about Online PR is that most companies are unaware of its impact. In our recent Integrated Online Marketing survey�with over 220 respondents,�Online PR ranked at the bottom on every dimension in terms of popular tactics, measurable tactics and tactics for future investment.

Despite that low set of scores from online marketers in general, our clients with TopRank Online Marketing that are using Online PR see significantly greater industry awareness, social media visibility and search engine placement. So much so that, we’re�hiring more Online PR staff right now, so check out the opening.

I know it seems like semantics, to focus on website promotion (ads, social, email) and online PR first, then optimize for links vs. using links as the goal with promotion and online PR as tactics. But when it comes to a more effective strategy and better business outcomes, that change of perspective and approach has had a substantial impact on our own ability to attract new business as well as for many of our top clients.

Here are some of the questions we asked in our survey. Please let us know where you stand: �

How important is it to your online marketing mix? How effective has Online PR been for your digital marketing efforts? How measurable do you find Online PR compared to other tactics? Do you plan on investing more or less in Online PR in the future?

 

Google AdWords Geo-Targeting: 5 Jaw-Dropping Techniques

Many PPC advertisers who need to geo-target their audiences can find it challenging to find the volume they need when limiting to location. Since some searchers limit cookies or browse privately, this can further reduce reach.

Advertisers can improve ROI by being more creative in their targeting methodology.

There are several ways to geo-target, which can be mixed and matched to some extent.

City, state, country, regionDMA (designated market area)ZIP codeRadius around a pointLocation extension targeting

Google will determine which ad to serve based on several location cues, such as search terms, physical location of the searcher, and the domain being viewed.

Selecting the advanced setting "People in, searching for, or viewing pages about my targeted location" will allow ads to be shown to people who used the name of the location in their searches, viewed content about a location, or selected the location in their search settings.

For example, this type of targeting would be important for someone who is searching for services in a location they are moving to, or searching for a job and willing to travel. Consider various scenarios where the audience may not be physically located in the geo-targeted area but would still be a qualified lead.

What follows are five geo-targeting techniques that can greatly improve performance and ROI in an AdWords campaigns.

1. It's OK to Exclude

AdWords allows advertisers to exclude a location so ads aren't shown in there. For example, a retail chain excluding locations where they don't have a store. This is also a good way to improve ROI by limiting activity in areas where poor leads are originating.

Run a report to see locations clickers are coming from.Sort by low quality clicker (i.e., don't convert at a high enough rate or CPA).Exclude them or use bid adjustment (more on that next).2. Bid Adjustments Can Help Trim the Fat

Enhanced campaigns offer a great feature: bid adjustments by location. This allows an increased or decreased bid in chosen locations to optimize performance.

For example, consider a college or event company that hosts attendees from all over the world.

Look at attendee/student list.Calculated a % of attendees/students by country, region, or applicable.Use the EC % bid adjustments to match the attendee list.3. Geo-Targeting an Area With Only Keywords

There are some businesses with local presences that would be appropriate to limit targeting not by the location settings, but by keyword only.

For example, a cable company may want to create separate campaigns to target people searching for "cable companies Rochester" rather than only using geo-targeting. Most people know that cable services are limited to an area, so may be more likely to include a geo-modifier in their query. The cable company can pick up more traffic and even use this as a competitive strategy.

4. Geo-targeting With Mobile Focus

You didn't say goodbye to mobile-only campaigns in AdWords did you? You don't have to!

If your audience is on-the-go or works in the field, it may be appropriate to geo-target to your mobile audience. A nice option for advertisers who use call extensions and where click-to-call is a critical part of business.

Imagine targeting real estate agents who are always on the go. Or consumers who are looking for towing services when stranded!

5. Bid by Weather

Using Google scripts, we can now make bid adjustments depending on the weather with a simple spreadsheet.

Google gives an example of an amusement park that may want to increase their bids when the weather is nice. Businesses could use the bid by weather feature to increase bids for cold and rainy days for their indoor entertainment or theaters for new movie releases.

This exciting feature has a lot of potential. Consider your unique audience and how the weather impacts their searching and purchase decisions.

Conclusion

When we think about geo-targeting, there are many creative ways to be more precise and relevant without limiting reach. Share what you've learned in the comments.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $200!
*Pre-show rate through September 6.

Thin Content With Little or No Added Value Manual Action: Google on How to Fix It

If you've received a warning in your Google Webmaster Tools account about thin content with little or no added value, you will need to rectify that before your site will have much success in Google's search results.

What is thin content? Generally this refers to non-original content found in your website. It can be something like product descriptions that are taken from a feed that can be found on many other sites, or can simply be a page that has a little content on it other than things like the navigation, such as doorway pages.

An example that Google's Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts uses in the video is a DirecTV installer in Colorado who created an individual page for every single city in Colorado to save a he does installations there. However, on those pages the only thing different about each was the fact the city name was changed.

Another example he brings up is thin affiliate sites. He said affiliate sites aren't necessarily bad, however it needs to add value. But many of them are simply cookie-cutter type sites where it is similar to many other sites out there.

He also talks about article syndication as being problematic for receiving a thin content warning. It is called "thin syndication" where you might have articles taken from free article banks, or republished from an RSS feed, or content taken from Wikipedia. Again this is all non-original content which really doesn't add value to any website.

If you have this warning, the best way to solve this is to remove the thin content pages that aren't adding value to your site. But also, you should "think about what additional value you can add. Is there unique content you can add?" Cutts asked.

You can also replace the thin content with original content you write, such as articles, because you have experience with the product or even user-generated reviews. Also think of the other types of content you can add, whether it is videos or some other type of multimedia that makes the site interesting.

"It goes back to the sort of thing where we're looking for original content, original research, original insight, something that would make the site compelling, something that would make it so that users really like the site, they'd bookmark it, they'd tell their friends about it, they'd come back to it, they really enjoy the site," Cutts said.

Ideally you want to make sites that has unique content that people want to read and share with others, and "make people excited to land on that page," he said.

Lastly, if you do get this warning in your webmaster console, ask yourself "OK, what do I need to do move up that value add to where I'm really doing something that users will find compelling?"

It really means that if you get this warning, your site just isn't serving the best possible quality of content for your visitors, primarily because either nearly nonexistent, or it's cookie-cutter cut and pasted from other sites.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $200!
*Pre-show rate through September 6.

A Year Later, Google’s Block Sites Feature Remains Blocked

In 2011, Google rolled out a feature allowing searchers to block web sites they don’t like from appearing in its search results, which drew great attention. That got dropped last year, when Search Plus Your World was launched last January. A year later, Google says there are no firm plans for it to return.

Google’s Blocked Sites Feature

The block feature, which was released in March 2011, placed a small “block” link next to any result in Google’s listings:

Clicking on that link prevented any pages from that web site from appearing again in your results at Google.

At the time, Google said it was adding the feature to give searchers more control:

We�re adding this feature because we believe giving you control over the results you find will provide an even more personalized and enjoyable experience on Google.Blocked Sites Goes Missing; No Plans For Return

That control was lost when Google’s “Search Plus Your World” super-personalized search results rolled out last year. The block link went missing. When asked why, Google initially said it was in the process of restoring the feature but then later said “it might take some time.”

Checking back this week, Google now says there’s no time frame at all for when or if it will be restored:

We don’t have firm plans on that feature, so nothing really concrete to share about where that’s going. But�if people want to block sites, we’d recommend this Chrome extension from Google:

It should provide a lot of what people are looking for (though it�doesn’t sync across all computers and only works on Chrome). People seem to like it — it has over 176K users.Blocking Via Chrome Works; Managed Blocked Sites Page Doesn’t

The blocking tool for Chrome�was the predecessor to the blocking option within Google’s results themselves. It was launched in February 2011 and remains an option, as Google notes. It’s just not as easy an option.

Some places like LifeHacker and Deadspin have noted�an alternative way to block without using the Chrome extension. This is by accessing the Google “Managed Blocked Sites” page. Using the page, you can enter the sites you want to block:

That sounds promising for those who don’t use Chrome, but my testing shows it doesn’t work. You can add a site, but that doesn’t block it from your results.

You can learn a bit more about how that page is supposed to work on Google’s help page about the blocked sites feature, which also suggests that blocked links still appear in Google’s results.

Related ArticlesGoogle SearchWiki Launches, Lets You Build Your Own Search Results PageNew: Block Sites From Google Results Using Chrome�s �Personal Blocklist�New: Google Lets You Block Any Site From Search ResultsGoogle�s Results Get More Personal With �Search Plus Your World�Google: Ability To Block Sites From Search Results Will Return, But When?