PPC Bid Optimization Without Conversion Tracking

Lesson 1 of running a PPC campaign: track your conversions. A simple rule that we all try to stick to. But sometimes we can't.
Not all campaigns work so easily. It may be that conversions are too few and far between to make a difference. The website may convert everything over the phone through a system to complex/entrenched to track back to keyword level.
Whatever the reason, there are two techniques you can use to help get your PPC account delivering more value, even if you can't track it.

Option 1: Engagement Metrics

This one is hopefully going to seem like an obvious first step to most of you. If you have Google Analytics linked to your AdWords account, then you can create "engagement goals" and import them into AdWords as a conversion.

Engagement goals consist of tracking visitors who meet a threshold time on site or pages visited. In the screenshot above you can see how a goal would be set up to create a pages visited requirement of greater than 1. Doing this would let you see a goal in AdWords for any visits that did not bounce.
Based on the type of website you're running you really need to think carefully about which metric (time on site or pages visited) is going to be more useful for you, and what your requirement is going to be to log it as a conversion in AdWords.
Remember! Google Analytics does not track the time the user spent on the final page of their visit. If the user read that page for a long period then left the site, you won't see how long they spent on that final page. This can make time on site a slightly misleading metric for websites where visitors won't view many pages.
If you want to log pages per visit, then decide what kind of visitors qualify as "engaged" enough to be worth logging. You will find that many visitors will either bounce, or look at everything on the site. Averages suck. Your averages are being skewed by bounces and by visits with many many pages viewed, so don't base your assessment on logging visitors who visit more pages than your site average.
Visiting more than one page (i.e., not a bounce) can be a good signal. If it takes at least two clicks to reach a product page or view a price, then your ideal threshold may be greater than two pages viewed.

Option 2: Relative Weighting

For some sites you can't even accurately track the above behavior. One page visits might still be worth a lot to an information or blog site. You may have organizational reasons that you can't use Google Analytics or other web analysis packages.
You need to be more creative in these situations.
Step 1

Take your top 20 keywords by traffic. In most cases these will account for the majority of your total clicks, but if not then take 30, or 40. Don't take too many at this stage, or you're making a lot of extra work for yourself for not too much value. Exclude any of your brand keywords from this list.
Step 2
Rank these keywords by a "likelihood of conversion" factor. You need to know your business really well here, but you have to put your keywords into order sorted by how relevant and targeted they are. A particular keyword might suggest that everybody searching for it is looking for exactly your product. Alternatively it might have other meanings or be more generic. Rank these keywords by their "awesomeness" factor.
Step 3

Give each of these keywords a score from 1 to 10 for relevance. The best and highest should be 9 or 10 (this won't always be the case, if none of your best keywords are in your top 20 by traffic) and work from there. Don't feel like you need to go all the way down to 1. If the lowest keywords have maybe half the likelihood of conversion of the highest keywords, then respective scores of 5 and 10 would be appropriate.
Step 4

Add a column to your list that indicates the potential value of a conversion. This is only really necessary if different keywords imply a different value (e.g., they might be searches for a different product). If your website sells just one service, or value is not related to search term at all, skip this step and just add "1" to this column next to every keyword.
Step 5

Multiply these scores together for each keyword, and divide each one by the total sum of all scores added together. What you have now is an estimate for what proportion of your budget you should be spending on each keyword.
Remember that these keywords didn't make up your total spend. If the top 20 keywords spent 80 percent of your budget, then these proportions you've found are proportions of the 80 percent.

Deciding the Bids

You should now have each of your top 20 keywords with a score from 0 to 1 representing the proportion of your spend that should be going to this keyword. Achieving this takes some time. You're going to need to analyze your spend levels on a daily basis, and make changes accordingly.
Each day, download the keyword data for the previous day from the account. For each keyword in your list, work out how much it spent (proportionally) compared to your target. If the keyword's spend is too high, reduce the bid by 10 percent. If it is too low, increase the bid by 10 percent. Set a sensible level of tolerance on this, or you'll be changing your bids even if your keywords are reeeeeeally close to perfect.
The process that will occur is this: every day each keyword that is spending too much will have its bid reduced a little. If the next day it is spending correctly, then you'll stop making that change to that keyword and it's nicely on target. If it still hasn't reached target then the process will happen again.

The Inevitable Complication

You're working from assumptions based on gut instinct and guesswork. These aren't accurate and they never will be.
Don't go crazy looking to make each keyword fit your target perfectly, since your target is an educated guess at best. The process outlined above will give you a bidding strategy to meet your target but it doesn't validate it if you were wrong.
The second issue to be aware of is that every time you change your bids, the proportion of budget spent by each keyword will change. But it will affect the proportion spent by all your other keywords too.
If we imagine a situation with two keywords, "keyword a" and "keyword b". "Keyword a" spends $10 per day and "keyword b" spends $20 per day. If I conduct this analysis and increase the bids on "keyword a" so that it spends $20 per day, then "keyword b" is now spending a lower proportion of my new, higher budget. And if my budget is limited, then I may need to reduce "keyword b" to compensate.
Each action on a keyword affects the proportional spend on the others. Don't be surprised if your keywords overreact.

In Summary

Having a lack of good conversion data is no excuse for not optimizing bids in a campaign. The campaign can still perform better and deep down you know it!
The two methods in this article will give you some pointers to go about pushing your spend towards your best converters and most profitable keywords, but your overall budget must still be determined by the profitability of PPC as a whole.
Re-assess your assumptions regularly. Don't take your first best guess as fixed. Make changes and improvements over time as your knowledge grows and you can keep making the campaign better and better.
By: Alistair Dent

18 Minutes a Day to Social Media Time Management

There is a saying that goes something like this: “Are you working in your business or on your business?” Translate that to social media, are you working in social media or on social media? If you are “in” it, it’s time to figure out a way to be “on” it.
But what if you could improve your social media time management in just 18 minutes a day?
Let’s face it, we have a finite amount of time each day and usually we underestimate our to-dos and overestimate our time. If you’re in any type of online marketing position and reading (OK, skimming) this article, chances are high social media is part of your mantra. Bets are probably higher still that you spend more lost time in unaccountable social media diversions and distractions.
Whether you’re on the front lines, sidelines, or bylines, social media can easily monopolize hours of our day.
Scanning, curating, and aggregating content requires serious organization skills. Writing, reporting, and re-purposing content is best served with minimal distractions and maximum focus. Social media can be a 24/7 black hole or, if managed properly, a gold mine. It all depends on how disciplined, organized and aware you are of the time spent in social media.
I recently read Peter Bregman’s book "18 Minutes." It was just released last month and the result of a blog post he wrote for the Harvard Business Review that became one of the most popular and most commented posts on the site. That post, “An 18 Minute Plan for Managing Your Day,” began with Bregman’s humbling admission that we can all relate to, but here is my slightly modified version:

“Yesterday started with the best of intentions. I walked into my office in the morning with a vague sense of what I wanted to accomplish. Then I sat down with my laptop and a Starbucks, checked my Facebook, Twitter stream, iGoogle and e-mail. Two hours later, after fighting several digital fires, solving other people’s PR problems, and dealing with whatever happened to be thrown at me through my social media world via screen and phone, I could hardly remember what I had set out to accomplish when I first grabbed my Mac Book Air. I’d been ambushed at social media gunpoint. And I thought I knew better...”

Bregman’s takes you through specific and actionable strategies to seriously shut down the daily distractions and open up windows of social media opportunity. As I read this book, my social media fog began clearing and my days are now busier doing social media right.

Pick Your Social Media High Five

Look at your social media year and pick five areas that will make the most difference in your business. Social media is enchanting because there are so many interesting things to read, people to meet and places to go. It's challenging to prioritize and pick just a few; so instead we end up trying to do it all.
One of the secrets to thriving in social media is to look at doing fewer things better and pick the ones that matter most. When you decide on your five areas, commit to spending 95 percent of your social media time on these things and allow 5 percent for the rest of experimental or unforeseen unknowns.

Getting the Right Things Done

I’m always busy. But I asked myself after reading this book: Am I busy doing the things that matter in my social PR life? "18 Minutes" brings us to the reality that it’s possible to be busy in social media, look busy in social media, and unfortunately … get nothing done.
Making sure we’re getting the right social media things done is key – because it’s so easy to get off track when exciting breaking news happens, like Facebook F8 developer’s conference latest updates or industry shaking news like Steve Jobs passing away last week. I lost hours of focus to the reality and shock of losing one our greatest innovators. But to me, that was my 5 percent bucket of the unknowns you have to plan for.
Once we have our five buckets of focus, the goal is to make sure we spend 95 percent of our social media time each day doing things that fit into our five most important areas. Our focus is making sure the right things get done, as opposed to making sure everything social media gets done.

The 18 Minute Social Media Day

Step 1 (5 Minutes) Your Social Media Morning Minutes

This is your opportunity to plan your social media for the day. Before turning on your computer or picking up your PDA, sit down with the to-do list and decide what is happening to make this a social media successful day. What can you realistically accomplish whether it’s writing a blog post, researching a new Twitter tool, sitting in on a webinar, or getting ready for that next conference?

Step 2 (1 Minute Every Hour) Social Media Refresh and Refocus

Managing your social media time hour-by-hour is both a discipline and a science. Don’t let the hours manage you … How many times do you all of a sudden realize you have spent the last 20 minutes reading Twitter updates, surfing Facebook Pages, or reading an article from an e-mail subscription?
Set your phone, computer or watch to ring every hour and start the work that is listed on your calendar. When you hear the beep, do a social media check up. Assess your progress and recommit the next hour to get back on track.

Step 3 (5 Minutes) Your Social Media After Dark

At the end of your day, shut the laptop and review your social media day. Ask yourself some questions: How did my social media day go? What did I learn today? Whom did I interact with? Did I meet new followers on Twitter that I should send a quick @ reply? Was there a nice RT of me I should acknowledge? Any comments on my blog I should respond to?
Building and maintaining relationships is critical in social media and it is easy to forget that it takes just a few minutes to share appreciation, congratulate someone, or offer thanks.
All that seems easy, but here are some tips to add to the 18 minute plan.

Social Media Delete

It’s very hard to say no. I get invites every day to join a webinar, take a survey, look at this press release for a nonprofit who has no money, help my brother-in-law send a logo that I have sent him 20 times already, take unscheduled phone calls, or get sucked into a technical problem with Apple support.
All of these unscheduled things can rob you from important and strategic social media time. To get the right things done, choosing what to ignore is as important to choosing what to focus on.

Social Media Calendar

Bregman emphasizes and I agree: Place the hardest and most important items at the beginning of the day. He also notes the power of the when and where. Statistics show that when you schedule an action item with a time and date, the chances of it getting done are far greater than letting it float.
Mastering distractions and getting things done efficiently and effectively goes far beyond social media. Bregman offers a system and practical guides of how to get done what matters most to us and our business in 18 minutes.
By: Lisa

فیس بک کا مستقبل خطرے میں؟

اکیسویں صدی کو آئی ٹی کے عروج اور مقبولیت کا دور قرار دیا جاتا ہے جتنی ترقی اور اصطلاحات آئی ٹی کی اس صدی میں آئیں اس سے پہلے کبھی نہ دیکھی گئیں اور آئی ٹی کی وسع اور تیزی سے مقبولیت اختیار کرتی ہوئی ایجادات میں سے انٹرنیٹ سر فہرست ہے ۔انٹرنیٹ کی مقبولیت کی وجہ یہ ہے کہ وہ اپنے اندر منفرد سی سحر انگیز دنیا بسائے ہوے ہے ایک اندازے کے مطابق روزانہ اربوں ڈالروں کی سرمایہ کاری ا نٹرنیٹ پر کی جاتی ہے یہ صارفین کو E-Marketing, اور E-Commerce, E-Learning, E-Banking جیسی بہت سی کار آمد سروسز آن لائن گھر بیٹھے فراہم کر رہا ہے یہی وجہ ہے کہ جو دنیائے عالم کو مقناطیس کی طرح اپنی طرف کھینچ رہا ہے۔
انٹرنیٹ کی مقبولیت کی ایک وجہ سوشل نیٹ ورکنگ بھی سمجھی جاتی ہے جو ایک عرصے سے دنیائے عالم کے فاصلوں کو کم کرنے کے لیے کوشاں ہیں جن میں مقبول ترین سوشل نیٹ ورکس Twitter, LinkedIn اور MySpace سمجھے جاتے ہیں جو صارفین کے دل جیتنے کے لیے دنیائے عالم میں اپنا قلیدی قردار ادا کر رہے ہیں۔ حالیہ ہی میں دنیائے انٹرنیٹ کے مقبو ل ترین سوشل نیٹ ورک Facebook نے آ کر نہ صرف دوسروں کے دانت کھٹے کر دیے ہیں بلکہ سوشل نیٹ ورکس کی دنیا کو چار چاند لگا دیے ہیں۔
ایک محتاط اندازے کے مطابق دنیا بھر میں آٹھ ارب سے زائدکے لوگ فیس بک استعمال کرتے ہیں اور صرف پاکستان کے صارفین کی تعداد ایک کروڑ سے زائدہے ۔فیس بک کی اتنی مقبولیت کی وجہ اسکا آسان فہم اور پر کشش انٹرفیس ہے یہی وجہ ہے کہ وہ چند ہی سالوں میں سوشل نیٹ ورکس کی دنیا میں سر فہرست آ گئی اور سالانہ اربوں ڈالر کا منافع کمانے لگی مگر آج اتنی ترقی و مقبولیت حاصل کرنے والا سوشل نیٹ ورک مستقبل میں گرتا اور ڈوبتا نظر آ رہا ہے۔
حالیہ ہی دنوں میں دنیائے انٹرنیٹ کی ایک اور مقبول و معروف کمپنی گوگل نے اپنا نیا سوشل نیٹ ورک Google Plus کے نام سے متعارف کروایاہے ۔ ماہرین کے مطابق جو مستقبل کا سب سے مقبول اور جدید سوشل نیٹ ورک تصور کیا جا رہا ہے اس جدید سوشل نیٹ ورک کے منظر عام پر آنے سے قبل ہی کروڑوں لوگوں نے اسمیں شرکت کی درخواستیں دائر کر دیں۔ا سکی اتنی مقبولیت کی وجہ اسکا جدید انٹرفیس جس میں وڈیو کانفرنسنسگ، گوگل پروفائل ، گوگل سرکلز جیسی بہت سی دوسری سروسز کا متعارف کرانا کے ساتھ ساتھ ایک وجہ لوگوں گا گوگل پر اعتماد بھی ہے یہاں یہ بات قابل ذکر رہے کہ گوگل اس سے پہلے گوگل سرچ انجن، Youtube,اور Blogger, Gmail, Adsense, Adword جیسی اور بہت سی سروسز سے صارفین کا دل جیت اور دنیائے انٹرنیٹ میں مقبولیت حاصل کر چکا ہے ۔ماہرین کے مطابق گوگل اپنی ان منفرد خصوصیات کی وجہ سے یہ بازی بھی جیت جائے گا اور اسے فیس بک کا حریف بن کہ مقبولیت حاصل کرنے میں دشواری کا سامنا نہیں کرنا پڑے گا جسکی وجہ سے اربوں ڈالروں کی سرمایہ کاری کرنے اور اتنی مقبولیت حاصل کرنے والی فیس بک کا مستقبل اب خطرے میں نظر آ رہا ہے اور سوالیہ نشان بن کر رہ گیا ہے۔

حافظ محمد عثمان

8 Durable SEO Elements

Recent changes to Google’s search ranking algorithms and highly publicized search penalization of well-known brands, have caused much angst in the SEO community. However, Google’s changes to its algorithms aren’t new.
Seasoned SEOs have experienced major algorithm changes over the last decade. In fact, Google has confirmed making on average at least one change per day to its search algorithms. Clearly change is here to stay.

How do you minimize the impact of these inevitable changes? Focus your efforts on the durable elements of SEO. These are the cardinal elements of SEO that will stay true regardless of Google’s ongoing improvements to its algorithms.
These eight durable elements will withstand the test of time because they are aligned with Google’s explicit statements and implicit motivations. Here’s a rundown of these elements and practical steps you can take to align your website with them.

1. Basic On-Page SEO Rules

The basic keyword SEO rules per the Google Webmaster’s SEO Guide are easy to communicate and easy to follow. Google wants you to follow these rules, because it makes crawling easier for their bots, which leads to better results for users, and in turn, helps Google with market share.
Make sure your pages are optimized for these basic SEO rules. Include target keywords in your URLs, titles, meta tags, H1s, etc. Determine which pages rank for which keywords. Then use the right keywords to double-down your efforts on these pages.

2. Inbound Quality Links

An inbound link from an external website to your website signals to Google that the content it’s pointing at is relevant to the subject surrounding that link. Quality inbound links aren’t easy to amass and they require your content to be good enough for someone else to reference. For these reasons, quality inbound links are believed to have the biggest impact on ranking.
Continue building your inbound links through white hat content syndication and promotions. Create unique content that others will want to reference and link to. Build relationships with other web writers, so they are aware of your content.

3. Authority

Google’s Internet is a meritocracy and authority is essentially your assigned status within this order. To date, Google has confirmed using only Google PageRank and social media authority as the two types of authority signals in their ranking algorithm.
A website’s authority is factored into rankings. There will always be those who attempt to game the system rather than advance on merit, so diminished authority is one way Google punishes fraud.
Build your authority by creating unique content and follow white hat practices. Build relationships with authoritative sites and users. Pursue links from them to benefit from their authority too.

4. User Experience

Google wants their users to be satisfied. If Google gives high ranks to bad websites, with terrible designs, slow page load speed, and difficult-to-navigate pages, users will look for alternative search solutions.
A fast page load speed and a low bounce rate are two measureable indications of a good user experience. Additional qualitative measures include a nice design, easy navigation and a good UI.
Basically, anything that makes a user remain on your site and read more. Keep your site updated, measure your bounce rate and page load speed, and create clear alignment between the keywords you target, your content and the experience you’re creating for your visitors.

5. Freshness

If relevancy is the name of the game, then freshness is its nickname. The world is evolving and so is the web, and freshness of content will always be an indication of a site keeping up with the world. Freshness is a supporting factor to a site’s authority and plays a huge part in news ranking.
Keep creating new content as well as updating existing content. Link to it internally from indexed pages as well as syndicate it on social media. Register your site and submit a sitemap to Google. If you have a news site, register to be on the Google News Index.

 

6. Diversity

To borrow from the capital investment world, diversification minimizes your systematic risk allowing you higher overall return on investment, and it would appear Google follows this rule. Google prefers diversity in the format and content of its results.
Use multiple formats to deliver your content on the same page – video, presentations, images – and publish unique pages for diverse content to optimize for long tail terms. Submit a unique sitemap to Google for formats other than text.

7. Feedback

In order to gauge their effectiveness, Google must collect feedback on its work. From machine input, like click through rate and bounce rate, to human input, like human evaluators, Google’s “manual intervention” and  Google +1, Google will keep collecting feedback to improve its results.
Use only white hat tactics, be relevant and optimize your pages to the actual content on them. In addition, syndicate, promote and give people an easy way to share their feedback.

8. Compatibility with Updated Technology

Being compatible with new technologies such as new browsers is important to the overall user experience. Freshness is always good practice when it comes to being on top.
As an example, consider mobile devices. With the emergence and rapid growth of the mobile market, we can see how and why, in the future, Google will discount sites that aren't mobile device-compatible.
Make sure your site is up-to-date with the latest mainstream technology. For example, verify that your mobile site is indexed by Google and submit a mobile sitemap.

Summary

These are the eight durable rules of SEO. Follow and implement them on your website to maximize your SEO results and maintain your website rankings over time.
By: Erez Barak

What cool new websearch ideas should Google launch in 2012?

Even though this year is nowhere near finished, a lot of people at Google are already thinking about things to launch next year. So I wanted to put the question out: what cool things would you like to see Google launch in 2012?
For example, in 2011, we launched hundreds of search quality changes that might not be noticeable, along with a few high-impact changes. But we also added new ways to search, like the ability to search by image and search by voice. We’ve beefed up our social search, and continued to make search faster.
So take a minute to think about potential search features, products, or changes that we could launch next year. As a user (not as an SEO/webmaster/publisher), what cool piece of technology would you like to see Google launch in 2012?
By:  Matt Cutts

Now Google Could Make Your Wallet Lighter

Early today Osama Bedier Vice President of Payments announced through the official Google Blog that the Search Engine Giant had delivered on its May promise to create an app that would make the fat consumer wallet stuffed with credit cards look thin. Google Wallet opened its account on a limited scale with its first partner  Citi Master Card using Sprint and First Data. The tap and pay Google Wallet does not require you to use your phone and the Near Field Communication. ( Below Photo posted at GigaOm )

The video clip showing a demo of Google Wallet in action using a Sprint Nexus 4G phone, had a satisfied customer offloading his overstuffed wallet packed with credit cards, claiming ‘ it is serenity now’.
Google also announced that it will soon go full throttle after the required incorporation of ‘air update’ and further up gradation of software for the next roll outs. It confirmed that Visa, Discover and American Express have made available their NFC specifications that could enable their cards to be added to future versions of Google Wallet. It also introduced the Google Prepaid card, which can be funded with any existing credit card and added a $10 introductory bonus to early activators who would set up their Google wallet Accounts before end of the year.
Google Wallet had announced its intent to set up an open commerce ecosystem, a statement that has been differently interpreted by analysts. While most have taken the announcement at face value understanding that it was the ease of operation that Google was talking off, a few have interpreted it as an add on venture for using Google’s mountain of cash pile that exceeds $ 30 billion as of date.
They claim that Google could mean effectively that it would want to get into the consumer driven credit card market and enable interest rationalization in credit transactions for merchants and users, something that could give headache to the existing credit card companies. Whatever be the outcome, the Google Wallet business seems a promising diversification for the search engine giant in search of new avenues for its global domination plan.
By: Sandip Sen

What Might Google+ Improvements Mean for Marketers?

It’s been about 90 days since the Google+ project began and the proud parents of the bundle of joy are still oooh-ing and awww-ing over their 3-month-old. The site has seen more than 100 improvements, the most recent of which rolled out Tuesday. Let’s examine a few of those improvements and what it can mean to marketers.

Phone Hangouts

In a Skype inspired move, Google+ now offers live hangout streaming on your mobile phone. Only supported on Android 2.3+ phones with front facing cameras, this app is now available in the Android Market for download.

Broadcast Hangouts

Speaking to a large audience just got a little bit easier. The recent launch of Hangouts On Air allows you to interact with a large group of your Google+ buds, or just view as a spectator. There’s even an option to record your session.
Think we’ll see Google+ only webinars, free training sessions, and even live concerts? Of course!

Screensharing

Additional add-ons include screensharing. Need to teach a lesson, share photos, or whatever else might be on your screen? Hangouts now have the addition of screensharing to make your experience more seamless.

Sketchpad

Hangouts now come with the additional functionality of a sketchpad. Certainly will come in handy when you’re trying to show a client, friend or family member a concept that can’t be put into words.
I can see this helping with creative content projects like Infographics or ad copy: real-time mockup in Google+. Also – quite an entertaining way to play hangman with Grandma.

Google Docs

Google+ has finally integrated Google Docs into Hangouts. Work together on a project, update an editorial calendar with a client, or explain financials in real-time. Heck, even get your taxes done in real-time and see how the numbers compute with your accountant in a hangout. Connect with a freelance writer and see how they are progressing with an article, piece of ad copy, or project you have contracted them for.

Named Hangouts

Have a need to talk to others in a particular industry or with similar interests? Look for a public hangout about that topic and connect. Or create your own. This is a great opportunity for an up and coming designer looking to reach out to fashion bloggers, other designers, or to collaborate on designs to do so no matter where they are in the world.
Use these hangouts to meet up with a support group and invite others to join in on the conversation as well. Hold an online networking event and connect with prospective customers too. The possibilities are endless.

Hangout API

Something developers will likely jump for joy over is the basic set of hangout APIs being previewed. Building real-time applications for Google+ hangouts is now within reach. Games are certainly on the horizon for Google+!

Search

Certainly something you’d expect would have already been integrated into Google+ from the search engine giant, but search is now available. Relevant content and connections will show up in addition to relevant posts. Easily sort through and find content related to what you’re looking for.

Open to All

Finally, after 3 months, Google+ is available to all. Anyone has the ability to join, and over the course of the next few days the entire globe can join Google+.
Additional Updates on the Way
We certainly haven’t seen the end of Google+ updates. Some on the horizon include:

• +1ing comments from your iOS device 
• Improved support
• More personalization options

By: Kaila Strong,

'The Power of Google' Senate Hearing is Must Watch TV Today

People should be watching the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights hearing on "The Power of Google: Serving Consumers or Threatening Competition?" today. Executive Chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt will testify along with a number of his competitors who claim Google has hurt their business. NextTag, Yelp, and Expedia will be represented.

The Power of Google

The UK Guardian thinks Schmidt will "argue the company offers a level playing field for rival products – and is increasingly facing competition from social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. He will argue that Google's position as the world's No 1 search engine belies a rise in alternative ways to find information online, pointing to Facebook and other social networks. Research from Nielsen last week showed that US internet users spend more time on Facebook than any other website."
Additionally, All Things Digital reports Schmidt will testify that “Microsoft’s Bing launched in June 2009 and has grown so rapidly that some commentators have speculated that it could overtake Google as early as 2012.”
What is being overlooked here is one is not the same as the other. Google isn't a social network - even with what they have on offer in Google Plus – it is a search engine. Comparing it to Facebook is like comparing radio and TV – true one impacted the other but they were different mediums.
Regardless, Google has prepared its own website, Facts about Google and Competition, which Google is calling a "viewer's guide" to the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee's hearing. Featuring seven talking points, Google preemptively tries to spin the following topics in their favor:

• Google is a gateway to the web and controls what people see. 
• Google favors its own content. 
• Google's search ranking changes hurt a certain website or caused them to lose traffic. 
• Google deters other companies from innovating. 
• Google is hurting small businesses. 
• Google used third party reviews improperly for its Place Pages. 
• Google limits choice in the Android mobile operating system.

Startup search engine Blekko offered support to Google yesterday. In a blog post, "Blekko's not afraid of Google, why is Washington?", CEO Rich Skrenta noted that the products Apple has brought to market have done far more damage to Microsoft than the Department of Justice lawsuit they faced in the 1990s.
"The success of Google should be applauded on Capitol Hill, not derided," Skrenta wrote. "Let’s let entrepreneurs, technology and good old-fashioned innovation deal with Google. Consumers will always be the winners in that scenario."

How to Watch the Hearing

In the early days of television Senate subcommittee hearings were as popular as soap operas. "From the 1950s through the 1970s, televised Senate hearings played a major part in shaping public opinion on topics ranging from organized crime and alleged communist infiltration of federal agencies to the war in Vietnam and the Watergate scandals," the U.S. Senate site explains.
Sadly, yet realistically, we no longer keep that close an eye on our public and corporate officials. The major networks aren't covering it live – we'll have to see how many minutes it gets in the news.
If you want to watch the Senate is streaming it and cable channel C-SPAN3 will air the hearing live at 2 p.m. ET. I wonder what most of the monitors will be tuned to in Mountain View today?
I'll be watching and I hope they discuss their impact on the analytics market when they bought Urchin and started giving away a service numerous companies were making a living charging varying fees for.

What Will Be Covered?

Search rankings will obviously be the large focus of the hearing. Given Expedia is represented by counsel, the purchase of ITA will no doubt be front and center. Yelp will be able to tell how their information has been usurped and dropped by Google, while NextTag will be able to present their case for loss in rankings.
While Google addresses the U.S. Senate they are also dealing with numerous antitrust issues in Europe and have court dates in numerous countries.
"Today Google, like Microsoft then, is both admired and feared. Google has used the riches from its dominance in search and search advertising to expand into video distribution with YouTube, smartphone software with Android and Web browsers with Chrome. It has added online commerce offerings in local retail and restaurants, comparison shopping and travel, and folded them into its search engine, prompting complaints that Google is giving its businesses preferred placement in search results," the New York Times noted.
What they are missing is they are buying into those areas where their major advertisers are. That Google knows conversion numbers of successful advertisers cannot be denied, whether they use such information for developing programs and products is unknown.
Have the manipulated results for their own benefit? There are numerous types of articles on this issue. The fact Google laid a trap for Bing by manipulating their results shows they can do it... whether it is done any other time and for what reasons is the big question.

Must Watch TV

People in our industry need to watch this hearing, as should the generic public, to understand exactly what this company does. Their latest Droid phone ad even plays with the attitude of them taking over. We really don't need a Big Brother and this may be the start of the break up of a dominant force in everyone's lives. Either way, it is must watch TV.
by: Frank watson

Avast Ye! Talk Like a Scurvy Pirate wit' Facebook, Twitter n' Google

This day is International Talk Like A Pirate Day 2011. Woefully ye noticed all ye pirates be speakin' a little different? Yarr, bein' a Monday, the grog fest be early this year, but yer mateys p'on the good ship Search Engine Watch wanted to give ye a jolly way to hoist the colors afore the moon haunts the seven seas. So, we made 'tis guide to be tellin' ye how to change ye Facebook blabber settin's to scurvy pirate speak, squawk on Twitter, 'n bring ye treasure huntin' on Google a wee bit more o' a ruckas.

Changing Your Language Settings on Facebook to Talk Like A Pirate

It's incredibly easy to change your language settings on Facebook. Simply:
1. Scroll down to the very bottom of the page and locate the Language Settings link, which will display the current language setting you are using.

2. Click the link and a dialog box will appear. Click English (Pirate) to change the language setting change and then click 'Close'. Shiver me timbers, Facebook is now all piratey!

A warning comes with this salt-blastedly savvy tip. Turning your Facebook account language settings to English (Pirate) is so funny that you may never change back your settings again. The hazard being that you grow an unnatural habit for calling your friends wenches and sea dogs, refer to your family as kin and robustly congratulating newly-weds for "gettin' anchored".
Not only could such antics be construed as rude, but speaking from experience, you might find yourself wondering why no one else 'gets' your rampaging witticisms. The reason is because changing your language settings only changes what you see - not everyone else's. So, unless you encourage your friends to change their language settings too (which I heartily recommend you do), you may find yourself sharing a giant in-joke... with yourself.

Squawking on Twitter

Twitter's language settings does not currently support English (Pirate). However, if you cut and paste your tweet into this nifty little website, Post Like A Pirate, it will automagically get translated into pirate-speak right before your very eyes.

Click the Twitter link and it creates the tweet for you. The embedded Bit.ly link takes a user back to Post Like A Pirate, which should help your followers join in the shenanigans. After all, it's no fun raving like a lunatic on your own, right?

Treasure Huntin' on Google Pirate

Google, "Tha Old Seadog", has always maintained a swashbuckling version of their flagship at Google Pirate, which now has gleeful translations of their (relatively) recently introduced universal sidebar and plusbar.
There are many other silly versions of Google to be spied here, but as yet, there is no Gmail theme for pirates. Yet, there is a ninja theme. This has proven to be such a carbuncle in the backside of pirate fans that some are petitioning Google.

One Dastardly Tip for Ye Blackbeard SEOs

For those of you who prefer not to run any risk of walking the plank, a fun way to celebrate International Talk Like A Pirate Day, could be to translate your hand crafted blog posts into English (Pirate) using the plethora of translation tools available (there are subtle differences between the translations).
However, if you are feeling a little churlish this day, then you might want to weird out the web analytics teams in your competitors crow's nest by linking to a piratey translation of their site. The linked translation will force a dastardly duplicate copy of the site to persist on some 'inferior' search engines, such that said site may rank well enough to get traffic from search phrases such as "Blimey, That's Good", "I Needs Ya Gold", and "Stab that Crustacean!"
Such a motherload of curious search terms will surely have those landlubbers scratchin' their bonces!
By: Jonathan Allen,

Google Plus – A Great Place to Hang Out and Potentially a Powerful SEO Tool

If you haven’t heard about Google Plus yet then you have been missing out on one of the most exciting new social networks around.  Everyone is now used to Facebook and Twitter being part of everyday life, but what about Google Plus.  On a business level and in SEO circles, everybody is talking about it.  When it comes to my friends and acquaintances, there are hardly any talks or discussions going on, so why is this?

When Google Plus launched they did son on an Invitation only basis.  While people in SEO and the business sectors rushed around trying to get invites, casual users of social networks seemed not to care.

So What Does Google Plus Have?
The interface of Google Plus looks a lot cleaner and minimalistic.  In fact the minimalism goes far beyond the appearance, the whole operation seems to be very user friendly and is quick to grasp.

The adding of friends and organising into groups is simple and a lot easier when compared to Twitter and Facebook.  This could be one of the reasons why businesses are a lot more interested in this social network, although as word spreads casual users are likely to come and will appreciate this feature too.

A Circle of Friends
All of your friends can be placed into circles.  There are some generic ones created and it is quick and painless to create your own.  There are no friend requests, all you need to do is click follow on any profile and then it is up to you to simply drag that person into a chosen circle, but only if you want.

Group chats and hang outs are one of the most distinguishable features found in any social network.  You are able to open a hang out with anyone using your circles if you wish or making it public.  The group chat interface works well and is a feature that wins hands down over Facebook’s single video chat and the lacking live chat system that still needs some attention.

Instead of showing numerous web cams at once the system shows who is talking at the time.   You can welcome anyone you want into the live video hangouts and enjoy group face to face discussions through your social network for the first time.

The Stream of Information
The stream is much like Facebook’s news feed.  Here you are able to post updates, links, and pictures, anything you want.  This is where organising your circles can come in handy.  Once you have written your post on the stream wall you are then able to select which of your circles are allowed to view it.  If you are moaning about work simply hide it from work mates and associates.

On a business level this could be a very handy feature.  If you are promoting your services to other businesses then you can hide the post from customers for example.  For SEO purposes this is where you can post links to your latest products, articles and blog posts.  If you are able to attract +1’s from your followers then all the better.

Your Profile Page
Creating your profile is much like creating any other profile.  You have the ability to add links to your other sites including Facebook and Twitter.  You can also add your business and personal sites and pop in a link to your LinkedIn profile too.

Show Off Your +1’s to Help Your SEO Strategies
There are tabs that allow you to show off your +1 likes all across the Internet.  Google have made it clear that +1 will be used in their ranking algorithms for search, so don’t waste time, get yourself a +1 profile and start using it. The +1 tab is automatically hidden on your Google Plus profile so you need to go into the privacy settings and allow other people to see what you have +1’d.  If you are looking to promote your sites or share other sites that have impressed you then adding your +1 tab is highly recommended.

The Future of Google Plus
Business pages have not been introduced as yet.  Google have invited users to submit their interest in obtaining a business profile and if you haven’t yet then add that to your to do list. Google plus has become the fastest growing social network to date.  If you haven’t created your profile yet then you may as well get started.  Users are able to invite 150 people with an easy link so ask around and join the impressive network that could become one of the most important SEO tools in the future.
By:  SR

5 Filters Everybody Should Use In Their AdWords

It's the dream. To be able to log into AdWords and instantly find the changes you need to make. Well that's the trick that long-time paid search managers have been using to allow them to keep an eye on so much material so easily.
If you save the filters below in your own accounts (at keyword level) I guarantee you'll save time and always know what needs attention in your PPC campaigns.

Filter 1: Great But Expensive

How to set it up:
Spend > $X
CPA > $Y
Avg Position better than Z
Sorting: Conversions from high to low
What it's for: This filter will identify the keywords in your account that contribute most to your total conversions, but are costing you more than you can really afford per conversion. The keywords caught by this filter are high enough up the page that you have scope to reduce the CPA by lowering your positions/bids.
Tips: Set the CPA limit to a tolerance just a little higher than your target. You want this filter to identify keywords whose cost is above what is profitable for you. Set the average position to a slot above your average, where there is plenty of scope for keywords in those positions to be moved down and still attract reasonable traffic.
Actions: Reduce bids. Any keywords showing up in this filter are important to your account, but too expensive at the moment. They are high enough up the page that you can reduce the bids without demolishing traffic volumes.

Filter 2: Good, But Not Much Scope

How to set it up:
Spend > $X
CPA > $Y
Avg Position worse than Z
Sorting: Spend from high to low
What it's for: This filter will find the keywords in your account that are too expensive but don't have much scope to be reduced further. Decreases in bids here will likely move these keywords off the first page more and more often, reducing impression share down very low. These keywords will be expensive no matter what position they are in.
Tips: You can set up this filter with a position tolerance at the edge of the banner (usually top three positions) or down at the edge of the first page (usually nine or 10). In our experience the positions on a side are fairly similar in terms of performance. CTR won't vary significantly, but impression share will drop off as you move lower.
Actions: Reduce bids, but don't be afraid to pause. Sometimes the keywords in this filter simply won't work. If any keyword shows up in this filter for period after period you'll probably find that even when it shows mostly off the first page it still won't start converting well for you.

Filter 3: Doomed

How to set it up:
Spend > $X
Conversions = 0
Sorting: Spend from high to low
What it's for: Finding keywords that simply don't work.
Tips: Check your timelines. Just because a keyword didn't work in this period doesn't mean it never did. It could have been through a blip. Always check keywords in this bracket across multiple timelines.
Actions: Bearing in mind the disclaimer above about timelines, you can usually safely pause these keywords. These are spending your money and showing you nothing in return. If your business takes a large proportion of leads over the phone then don't necessarily be so hasty. Consider phone-tracking methods if you're in this situation.

Filter 4: Gold

How to set it up:
Spend > $X
CPA < $Y
Avg Position worse than Z
Sorting: Conversions from high to low
What it's for: These keywords are make or break for your campaign. These are the keywords that have good traffic volumes, convert at below target CPA, and have scope to move up the page and get more daily impressions.
Tips: Set your average position pretty high on this one. The idea is to find keywords that can get more impressions if they're moved up the page. Almost anything not right at the top could potentially improve so be bold here.
Actions: Increase the bids. For as long as the keywords keep their low CPA, keep pushing those bids up. You want as much traffic as you can get from these keywords.

Filter 5: Quality Score Duds

How to set it up:
Impressions > X
Quality Score < Y
CPA > $Z
Sorting: Impressions from high to low
What it's for: Identifying keywords that are having a negative impact on your overall campaign and account level quality scores. These keywords hurt the performance of all the other keywords in the campaign. But monetary performance has to come first.
Tips: Set your CPA limit such that only keywords that are not profitable for you are included. Any keywords with low quality scores but good CPAs should be kept, and you need to look at your ads to try to improve the quality score.
Actions: Pause these keywords. Run down the list, dealing with the highest impression volume keywords first. These are the terms that are having the biggest impact on your campaign. The more impressions you get with low quality scores, the more you're going to have to pay for everything else in the long run. If a particular keyword looks nicely relevant and targeted and looks like it should work, then give it a stay of execution for now. Work on your ad text and your landing pages to improve your CTR and relevancy.

Honorable Mentions

There are two pieces of information we'd love to be able to act on but currently can't.

1. Google-only CTR. When Google revamped the reporting interface they removed the ability to segment keyword data by network, so you cannot see the effect that the search partners are having on your stats. You would definitely want to be able to see your keywords that have low CTRs but search partner activity can mask the true nature. There are two main ways around this:
    
• Segment by Top vs Side. This new segment will let you see that data separately, but it's not ideal for our purposes (screenshot above).
   
• Use the API. The data is still available (for now) in the API for those of you who really want to see it. This isn't the most straightforward thing to set up for most campaign managers though. If you have API access then I suggest you take a look at this data. If you don't, then just use the method above.
   
2. Impression share per keyword. Google give us impression share data at campaign level, but not at keyword level. The ability to see how much additional traffic each individual keyword missed out on due to its rank on the page would be of great benefit. The filters above use average position as an analogue to impression share, to get an idea how much more traffic would have been available if we'd been more aggressive. If we really knew how much we'd missed we'd be able to make a better estimate of the scope still available to us.

Using Filters

The filters in this article are the types of filters used by experienced campaign managers to quickly get to the source of potential problems in your account and make rapid improvements to your performance. There are many others you can use to identify items of key importance to your own specific account.
One example of this would be a filter to show all keywords that contain a specific word or phrase that is particularly important to you, and where average position is below X. This type of filter would help you to see keywords of particular relevance that should be getting as much traffic as possible but aren't.
By: Alistair Dent,

Google search quality is hiring

I wanted to mention that Google’s search quality team is hiring. We work on everything from synonyms and spell correction to core ranking, UI changes, evaluation, and yes–even webspam. The sorts of people that do really well in Google tend to be smart, personable, can work well in teams or independently, get things done, and take initiative. It helps to have a healthy balance of theory as well as the pragmatic ability to build/launch real systems.
If you’re a smart engineer who wants to work on interesting problems across the scale of the entire web, why not reach out?
drop us an email? Contact joinsearch at google.com to reach the recruiters in search quality directly.
The best way to apply is to through our search engineering page. If you’re a great engineer who would like to work at Google in search, I hope you’ll apply! (The majority of people in the search quality group are based in Mountain View, California, by the way.)
By: Matt Cutts

Review: In The Plex, by Steven Levy

Steven Levy just wrote a new book about Google called In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives. It succeeds the most on the “how Google thinks” part–if you want to understand how Google thinks, get an overview of Google, or understand its impact on the world, this is the book for you.
I think anyone interested in Google would enjoy this book. People who don’t know much about Google will get a good overview. People who are really interested in Google or the search industry will get a better understanding of how Google thinks. And even if you’re an expert, you’ll probably learn a few new tidbits. For example, Levy reveals the identity of GoogleGuy, the Google representative who answered questions from webmasters as early as 2001. You’ll also hear about inside-Google allusions like Audrey Fino or Emerald Sea.
Given that Levy isn’t a computer scientist or a Googler, I wasn’t sure how deftly he would internalize or explain how Google looks at the world, but for the most part he nails it. The book, like many accounts of Google, emphasizes the company’s focus on making decisions based on data and logic. At some points I felt that Levy pushed this point too hard. On the other hand, I recently had a conversation with a Google colleague about Lady Gaga, and the word “scalability” cropped up a lot more than you would expect for a conversation about a pop star. I don’t think Google is full of purely left-brained eggheads, but I’m willing to concede that compared to the average population, we probably skew further in that direction than most places.
Reading the book, I realized how much you could write about the different facets of Google. Even in 400+ pages, some topics get short shrift; it felt like Levy covered Google News in a single, condensed paragraph. But Levy gives complete and clear explanations for the parts of Google that receive his focus.

Search Engineering at Google

I’m always a fan of Googlers doing more communication and more videos, so when some fellow search quality folks made a video about working at Google, I said I’d be happy to post it:

You can find out more info and apply to be a search engineer at Google if you’re interested.
By: Matt Cutts

Google I/O 2011!!1!

This week brings the Google I/O conference. That page has a QR code that lets you install the official Google I/O Android app for the conference.
The conference has a ton of great talks scheduled. You can learn everything from “Building Aggressively Compatible Android Games” to “Cloud Robotics” to “Designing and Implementing Android UIs for Phones and Tablets” to a Google Checkout talk to “Honeycomb Highlights” to “How to NFC,” plus a ton more. Want to hear about Python from Guido van Rossum? He’ll be there. Want to hear how the Google Pac-Man logo happened? Those folks will be there. Web Fonts? Uh huh. You can even meet the Google Ventures team for some VC speed dating.
I’ll be doing an Ignite talk at 5pm on Tuesday about “Trying Something New for 30 Days.” If you see me at Google I/O, come up and say hello!
You can also follow @googleio on Twitter, and the hash tag is #io2011.
Even if you can’t make it to Google I/O in person, a lot of the talks will be livestreamed. They just announced that the keynotes will be about Android and Chrome. I think the videos of the talks should be up fairly quickly as well: the official blog post claims “Recorded videos from all sessions across eight product tracks will be available within 24 hours after the conference.” Here’s the session videos from 2010, for example. Hope to see you at I/O!
By: Matt Cutts

A rel=canonical corner case

I answered an interesting rel=canonical question over email today and thought I’d blog about it. If you’re not familiar with rel=canonical read these pages first. Then watch this video about rel=canonical vs. 301s, especially the second half:

Okay, I sometimes get a question about whether Google will always use the url from rel=canonical as the preferred url. The answer is that we take rel=canonical urls as a strong hint, but in some cases we won’t use them:

- For example, if we think you’re shooting yourself in the foot by accident (pointing a rel=canonical toward a non-existent/404 page), we’d reserve the right not to use the destination url you specify with rel=canonical.
- Another example where we might not go with your rel=canonical preference: if we think your website has been hacked and the hacker added a malicious rel=canonical. I recently tweeted about that case. On the “bright” side, if a hacker can control your website enough to insert a rel=canonical tag, they usually do far more malicious things like insert malware, hidden or malicious links/text, etc.
I wanted to talk today about another case in which we won’t use rel=canonical. First off, here’s a thought exercise: should Google trust rel=canonical if we see it in the body of the HTML? The answer is no, because some websites let people edit content or HTML on pages of the site. If Google trusted rel=canonical in the HTML body, we’d see far more attacks where people would drop a rel=canonical on part of a web page to try to hijack it.
Okay, so now we come to another corner case where we probably won’t trust a rel=canonical: if we see weird stuff in your HEAD section. For example, if you start to insert regular text or other tags that we normally only see in the BODY of HTML into the HEAD of a document, we may assume that someone just forgot to close the HEAD section. We don’t allow rel=canonical in the BODY (because as I mentioned, people would spam that), so we might not trust rel=canonical in those cases, especially if it comes after the regular text or tags that we normally only see in the BODY of a page.
But in general, as long as your HEAD looks fairly normal, things should be fine. If you really want to be safe, you can make sure that the rel=canonical is the first or one of the first things in the HEAD section. Again, things should be fine either way, but if you want an easy rule of thumb: put the rel=canonical toward the top of the HEAD.
By: Matt Cutts

Goal: getting email under control

Each year I try to settle on a small set of big goals for the year. Last year my big goal was to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. This year, I settled on 2-3 goals I wanted to achieve:
1. Go skydiving. I was with a group of ~15 people in January and we realized that no one in the room had gone skydiving or run a marathon. Both sounded fun, so I made them goals for this year. I met some great folks at Foo Camp a couple weeks ago who had been skydiving, and this past weekend we went skydiving together:

It was a lot of fun; I’d recommend skydiving to anyone. You’re up high enough that a fear of heights doesn’t come into play… much. (If you live in the Bay Area, I went to Bay Area Skydiving in Byron, California and had a great experience.)
2. Run a marathon. This goal came from the same group in January where no one had run a marathon. I’ve been training for a couple months now and I’m up to nine miles on my long runs. Unless I’m injured, I think I’ll run a marathon this year. (By the way, USA FIT is a great organization in a bunch of U.S. cities where people get together to train for running a marathon.)
3. Get my email under control. This is a recent goal, but it might be the most important. Email is flawed in a lot of ways. Some wise people have referred to it as a “to-do list that anyone can add to.” It’s typically a poor use of time: you’re often talking to someone 1:1 when those cycles would be better spent working on something that will help a broader range of people or to realize a broader goal. Emails can take a long time to craft compared to other ways to communicate. Email is near-universal, but it lacks good ways for better processing or prioritizing (e.g. “show me the five least useful mailing lists” I get). Lots of email is sent to too many people or is just trying to find the right person to ask a question. Email also encourages us to pay attention to things that are urgent at the expense of things that are important.
Like most people in the tech industry, email has grown into monster for me in a lot of ways. I recently had a day without meetings, and I ended up spending the entire day replying to email, and still only took care of the email that I’d received that day. That’s just not sustainable–even a little more email would mean that I could never catch up–and that’s time that I’m not talking with my team, or thinking about new ways to improve search quality, or making videos or blog posts that can benefit a lot of people.
I’ve tried various email challenges before, e.g. not replying to outside emails for 30 days or not replying to emails after 10 p.m. I don’t know what my final solution to email will be, but this is a heads-up notice that I’m going to try a bunch of things until I find a better balance. I suspect that the final answer may be fairly radical, so if you’re hoping for an email reply from me, you should probably lower your expectations to zero. I’m going to try not replying to outside-Google emails for a while and then adjust things more over time.
Email is a big part of the problem, but I’ll probably have to say “no” more often as well. Please be patient with me while I try to recalibrate. I want to make sure that I spend my work time in the best way I can.
By:  Matt Cutts

Social SEO – Facebook & Twitter Best Practices

Optimizing your social presence for search is important, right? That is certainly what we've all been told for some time, but determining why it's important and deciding where to focus can be challenging. Exponential growth of a medium is great and all, but your problems figuring out how to tame the wild beast tend to grow exponentially as well.
Let's discuss a couple of simple ideas regarding conversational media (i.e., social networking sites and blogs) and its relation to search:

1. How to help your social pages rank better
2. How to help your website rank better with social influences

A Little Perspective About the Market as a Whole

The growth in activity at conversational media sites is undeniable. The number of unique has increased more than 80 percent since 2007 to 213 million in May 2011, while total visits to the category grew 136 percent to 6.2 billion.
Since a search click to a website represents one type of site visit, this is where we can begin to connect the dots on influence between navigation events. The number of search clicks to the category reached 845 million in May, accounting for 13.5 percent of the total visits to the category. That number has grown 145 percent since 2007, outpacing gains in both unique visitors and total category visits.

Branded social media searches (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) and people searches (e.g., friends, celebrities) appear to be the two primary growth drivers of search clicks.
Although these types of terms still make up the vast majority of the terms driving traffic to conversational media sites, the fastest growing search traffic segment is actually big name brands. Well-known consumer brands have finally begun to embrace their conversational media assets and are driving a considerable amount of traffic directly to Facebook and Twitter in addition to their own websites.
When combining the top 20 brand names in retail, finance, and travel, their branded searches delivered over 1.6 million clicks directly to Facebook, a 1,300 percent increase since mid-2009.

How to Help Your Social Pages Rank Better

Links on SERPs are like shelves in a store: Owning more shelf space, and the more varieties you have to offer, invariably will drive more sales (clicks). Because you will already own the premium position for your website for your branded searches, further promotion of your social media assets can only improve your end game.
In collaboration with SEO software vendor BrightEdge Technologies, we've identified three simple steps you can take to improve the rankings of your social pages.

Link From Your Homepage

It can’t be as simple as linking from your homepage, can it? Actually, it can because search engine algorithms absolutely value these links when scoring sites (more on this later).
Despite this reality, 6 of the top 20 most searched for Retail brands did not have any sort of social media integration on their homepages. Talk about a missed opportunity! Linking from your home page and using your brand name in the link will have immediate impact.

Use Brand Names in Posts

URLs that match search terms have a built in advantage for high SEO rankings on that search. This same principle will apply to the words you use in your social media posts, so be sure to use the brand names of your company and your products when posting for maximum effect.

Get Likes

Search engine algorithms value crowd science quite heavily in their rankings (link building relationships). This same type of value is given to likes, follows, +1's, etc. This is an inherent trust metric and will impact rankings as well.
Getting likes can be easier said than done. It may require some creative marketing tactics that engage your customers and make them smile.

Helping Your Website Rank Better With Social Influences

The first part of this column discussed how to drive better rankings for your social media pages. Clearly this has become more of a priority than it was a couple of years ago – particularly for branded terms – but will never be of the same volume and SEO coverage as your own websites. The more important goal is figuring out how to use social media influence to impact your owned media assets.
Social signals drive SEO performance, but how important is it? According to data from BrightEdge, between 75 and 90 percent of the top 10 search results on any given SERP have at least one Facebook like or Twitter tweet. These numbers and the related influence will spike sharply, especially for industries such as retail and finance.

Start With the Basics

Visitors to your website are usually interested in your company and your products, so don't miss the opportunity to invite them into your treasured social media circle. Invite them to connect, like, follow, and/or share your company and your product pages.

Target Head Terms With Social Media Friendly Pages

For most companies, head terms make up a large percentage of their referral traffic. Although these terms drive high volume in both searches and clicks, they are often very competitive for page/position rank.
Ensuring that your head term landing pages are social media friendly with further impact your overall SEO ranking for these coveted terms. The more likes and follows your landing pages have, the higher they will rank.  Therefore, encouraging visitors to take social media action with a “bookmark & share” drop down menu will further your landing page SEO efforts.

Create Tools That Are Easy to Share

An easy to share tool is something that is visually appealing and simple to use. Too many times you arrive at a website that has expert only tools available for analysis, searching, sorting, and the like.  Or you find a tool that is easy to use for all of these things, you would love to tell someone about it, and there is no sharing drop down.
Either of these scenarios is negatively impacting your use of social media SEO influence. Think about the types of assets you have on your site that begat social involvement and make it simple to do.

Drive Social Engagement to Your Website

Facebook offers a variety of social plugins you can utilize on your site. Different plugins encourage different types of engagement, so choose wisely on which ones work best for each part of your site.

Conclusion

Social media and search share a two way street of influence. Social media assets have reached enough critical mass to rank on the first page of search results, as well as directly contribute to the SEO ranking of your website pages.
Although many companies are taking advantage of this established medium, many others have not and are missing a sizeable opportunity. By implementing some of the best practices mentioned here, you can ensure that your social media and search teams are working together and that your organization isn’t being left behind.
By: Eli Goodman, 

Google + A Real Life Social Network Story

Over a year ago Paul Adams who was then the user research lead for social at the Google UX team told a story in a power point presentation at SlideShare of the evolution of Google + . The story of a little girl Debbie and how she has several different circle of friends and family with whom she can share and talk on varied topics without opening her life to all.
The circle was born out of such brainstorming at UX. Even then Google+ was devised as a social networking site based on the perceived drawbacks of Facebook. Adams said that this not a criticism of the rival network but was rather an evolutionary process and a fundamental change in architecture of how people will use the web in future. Nobody knew then why Adam was so diplomatic about Facebook.
Adams quit Google to join arch rival Facebook a few months later in Christmas following a year of high profile and key departures to Zuckerberg’s camp from Google. By the end January major changes were offing at Google after Eric Schmidt’s repeated failure to break the Facebook stranglehold of Social Media. In came youth with co-founder Larry Page deciding to step in as CEO and creating the base for an all out turf war with Facebook for dominating the social media. The cast was being set since long. Now Google + has been launched as a project not a product. Why?
Simply because Debbie’s circle is only the first step of a long list of features listed by Adams in his PPT presentation that has fetched 713737 views till now and still counting. The 160 slide presentation gives a literal blueprint of how Google wants to map, learn and assist the growth in social media and lead it to increased interaction and conversation.
How it wants to publicly protect privacy but actually encourage the ‘bare it all’ phenomenon by urging the human instinct to let loose inhibitions and try become a celebrity in her chosen and pre-selected circle. Blending the personal image building with some crafty advertising from top selling brands Google wants to layer the online social life of a person with her choice of products and friends to create a unique mix of people activity and commerce. How is this different from Facebook?
While the current model of Facebook is probably the stone age art of ‘social media based commerce’, the Google Plus model is its refinement to script and beyond. The Google plus project looks truly evolutionary, but whether it will have the punch and power to eclipse Facebook or even restrict its growth before its 2012 IPO remains to be seen.
By:Sandip Sen

Submit video topics for mid-2011

This submission round is now closed–thanks!
Sometime soon I’m planning to record some new webmaster videos. I created a Google Moderator page where you can post video suggestions and vote topics up and down.
Instead of short 1-2 minute video answers to quick questions, I’d like to try something new this time. I’d like to move toward making tutorials about how Google works and–more importantly–why Google works that way. I think videos that dive deeper like this video about robots.txt can be really helpful. So if there’s a meaty topic that you’d like to hear more about, please head over to the Google Moderator page and ask about it!
Just a reminder: please ask your questions on Moderator, not in the comments here. When you suggest a topic on the moderator page, people can vote for the questions and I can see which questions people are most interested in.

BY:  Matt Cutts