So i’ve decided to send the site dark in protest over SOPA as if this passes in the USA it’s only a matter of time before the UK Government is all over it.
If you’d like to black out your blog in protest then (after having done a bit of research) the best plugin is http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sopa-blackout/
It implements a 503 header on your site which protects you from any dips in SEO.
check it!
Although Matt Cutts previously stated that there would be no ‘major’ updates to the Panda algorithm change throughout December, this didn’t stop them slipping in a minor update that occurred on the 19th Dec.
Reports that this ‘minor’ update has already affected some big sites such as JC Penny, Overstock.com and a host of other big name websites. So keep your eyes peeled as to their changes if you’re interested in observing how others master this change.
How do you fix it?
At the moment there’s no concrete information on the update other than it occurred. Personally we’ve only had one client effected by December’s Pandalization and we’ll be doing so broad investigation into this and as usually starting with on-page SEO.
You’ve probably heard all of that before however we thought this client was safe too!
Anyone who knows me knows I have this great admiration for Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz beard’s… I think its amazing lol.
Now as an unashamedly cool piece of halloween link bait I had this great idea to produce a range of popular SEO rockstars in halloween mask form… to date tho’ I’ve started with the best… good ol’ Rand Fishkin himself.
Rand Fishkin Halloween Beard
(yeah I look like a bit of a spaz here but my phone doesn’t have a front facing camera lol)
This amazing mask can be yours free of charge however i’d appreciate your blogging and tweeting about it as repayment. Even better feel free to send in pictures of you in full on Rand mode and i’ll gladly put the pics up on here and link to your websites.
Rands Beard
For your free Rand Fishkin Halloween mask download it here directly from the Bite Digital website.
Found an interesting thread on Google Webmaster blog that states that Google now use code validation as part of its quality score.
This is pretty massive as for years now I’ve been saying that yes, valid HTML is best practice but that no, it doesn’t really matter to Google.
Of course, like me many SEO’s have until this point added validation errors into our on-site SEO analysis however with the advent of HTML5 and other techniques that can result in as yet, non standard practices (i’m thinking wrapping block level elements in a link).
So in short, get out your W3C validators and start hassling your clients web development team! They’re going to love you for this!
Just logged into my faviourite competitor backlink analysis tool, Open Site Explorer and noticed that the SEOMoz team have radically changed how it works.
…and it SUCKS!
I used to steam through loads of reports by downloading the CSV of raw link data for each competitor. Now this once speedy solution has been reduced to “Your report will be emailed to you in the next 5-10 minutes”.
So what was once a fast zippy service is now delay-ware
AARRGGHH!!!!
Just received this email in my inbox!
–
In the coming weeks, your search results and ads on Google will include a +1 button, which users can click to recommend your ads. You don’t need to make any changes to your account in order to take advantage of them. The final landing page URL of your ads can also appear on the Google profile of any user who +1’s your ad.
Here’s how the +1 button works:
Let’s say you own a hotel in Madrid. Brian had a lovely stay at your hotel last summer. When Brian starts researching accommodations for his next trip to Spain, he searches on Google while signed into his Google account and sees your ad. He clicks the +1 button on the ad to recommend it to his contacts.
When Brian’s friend Ann plans her trip to Spain, she signs in to her Google account, searches and also sees your ad – plus the personalised annotation that Brian +1’d it. Knowing that Brian recommends your hotel helps Ann decide where to stay during her travels.
Think of the +1 button as a way for fans of your business to recommend what you offer, for all their friends and contacts to see. By helping searchers see more personal, relevant ads, we believe you’ll see more qualified traffic. You can also add the +1 button to your site to give your customers the opportunity to +1 your site after visiting it.
To learn more about what’s changing and how +1 works, visit the AdWords Help Centre.
To add the +1 button to your site, visit the +1 button tool on Google Webmaster Central.
Yours sincerely,
The Google AdWords Team
I’ve started my bi annual thread on the popular design forum qbn.com where people can ask me SEO questions about their sites.
If you have an SEO problem or would like some of the myths dispelled then why not join up and ask away.
Theres some crayzee people on qbn who are super talented so even if you’re not into SEO (which most of them are not) then you might be able to find a great illustrator, web designer (which i also do), 3D or video guy to help you out with your project…
…as well ass the odd forum troll lolz.
The guys at smartinsights.com have put together a really great chart that shows the effectiveness of varying link types in the post panda landscape. This is really interesting as it basically means push-button SEO is dead… however I don’t see many SEO businesses moving their campaigns from directories and article marketing to direct link building/guest blogging.
Check out more on the post on their site
So Google Panda has hit across all English language sites and we’re currently experiencing indexation as SERPS bounce around as kinks are valued and data across data-centres are normalised. So far so good.
The only issues I’ve seen are with select ecommerce websites where products light on content have been effected… a quick trip to Hitwise shows that our clients are not alone with hits being down throughout March (partially possibly due to seasonal and external financial factors too)… however a few sites are bucking the trend and have shown growth throughout this time.
What do these progressive sites have in common? Well firstly they don’t rely on article marketing for the bulk of their link building activities, secondly they invest heavily in on-page content and have really gone to town to make their sites useful and resourceful for their visitors.
So i guess Rand was right… content is finally king.
For those of you who are despairing about the demise of article marketing my advice is to turn to blogger outreach and sites like myblogguest.com where you can place good content across a wide pool of domains… just get your content sorted out and for gods sake stop spinning those articles… that’s just madness now.
I’ve had some amazing access to Hitwise over the past few days and have discovered some truths that might help you realise your campaigns ROI. This golden nugget is some real CTR data for fashion related SERPS. Check it!
| Position | Actual CTR % | Expected CTR % |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10.22 | 30.07 |
| 2 | 8.05 | 9.31 |
| 3 | 6.9 | 6.72 |
| 4 | 5.74 | 4.06 |
| 5 | 5.39 | 3.64 |
| 6 | 4.35 | 2.87 |
| 7 | 3.92 | 1.82 |
| 8 | 3.8 | 2.24 |
| 9 | 3.23 | 1.82 |
| 10 | 2.42 | 1.47 |
Expected results are calculated from previously acknowledged search CTR for organic terms divided by 0.8 to split between organic and PPC. The actual results are compiled of an average position from the top 12 terms spanning 2 different line specific keywords.
What this graph shows is that from position 7 onwards there’s a consistent volume of traffic. With these figures you can more accurately estimate return on investment for uplift on your keywords.
Its also interesting that the top places don’t yield massive traffic!… enough of my rambling lolz.
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