Beyond PageRank: Graduating to actionable metrics

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Recapping SES San Francisco 2011

The SES San Francisco 2011 conference is now over and that means our extensive live blog coverage for this show is now complete.

A two man, tireless group live blogged 25 sessions over three days from the event.

Ben Pfeiffer and Shanon Woodruff of RankSmart teamed up to volunteer to bring the conference to those of us, including myself, who could not make it to the event. They all deserve our most sincere thanks and appreciation. Live blogging is incredibly hard and honestly, not all that fun. So thank you Ben and Shanon!

If you did not catch the live coverage while it was happening, you can read the recaps now. Here they are:

Thank you all and next up, SMX East next month!

View the original article here

Webinar: Implementing the +1 Button

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Pilot Webmaster Tools’ Search Queries data in Google Analytics

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View the original article here

Recapping SES San Francisco 2011

The SES San Francisco 2011 conference is now over and that means our extensive live blog coverage for this show is now complete.

A two man, tireless group live blogged 25 sessions over three days from the event.

Ben Pfeiffer and Shanon Woodruff of RankSmart teamed up to volunteer to bring the conference to those of us, including myself, who could not make it to the event. They all deserve our most sincere thanks and appreciation. Live blogging is incredibly hard and honestly, not all that fun. So thank you Ben and Shanon!

If you did not catch the live coverage while it was happening, you can read the recaps now. Here they are:

Thank you all and next up, SMX East next month!

View the original article here

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: August 19, 2011

Sorry for missing last week, but I am now back in action. Google released the full international release of Panda for most languages last Friday. We have pictures of Google testing infinite scroll in the web results. Google is also testing scrolling panes and columns in the search results. Google Images are now more relevant and better at sourcing original image. Bing added Yahoo data to Webmaster Tools so your numbers may appear higher. Google + results are in the web search results. Google Sitelinks are huge. Google changed sitelink management in webmaster tools. Google fixed a link report bug. We have several stories on documenting Google's update history. Google News dropped their news archive page. Google Analytics updated how they handle sessions but it caused a bug for a while. We covered SES San Francisco, Ben and Shanon did an outstanding job on the 25 sessions. Google had an I Love Lucy logo and a Pierre de Fermat doodle. That was the past two weeks in search news at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

For the original iTunes version, click here.

Search Topics of Discussion:

Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!

View the original article here

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: August 19, 2011

Sorry for missing last week, but I am now back in action. Google released the full international release of Panda for most languages last Friday. We have pictures of Google testing infinite scroll in the web results. Google is also testing scrolling panes and columns in the search results. Google Images are now more relevant and better at sourcing original image. Bing added Yahoo data to Webmaster Tools so your numbers may appear higher. Google + results are in the web search results. Google Sitelinks are huge. Google changed sitelink management in webmaster tools. Google fixed a link report bug. We have several stories on documenting Google's update history. Google News dropped their news archive page. Google Analytics updated how they handle sessions but it caused a bug for a while. We covered SES San Francisco, Ben and Shanon did an outstanding job on the 25 sessions. Google had an I Love Lucy logo and a Pierre de Fermat doodle. That was the past two weeks in search news at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background. Here is the YouTube version of the feed:

For the original iTunes version, click here.

Search Topics of Discussion:

Please do subscribe via iTunes or on your favorite RSS reader. Don't forget to comment below with the right answer and good luck!

View the original article here

Easier URL removals for site owners

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Google Scrolling Panes Design Test

Rubén spotted a new interface design and posted a YouTube video of it in action. He posted the details on Google Blogoscoped Forums and his blog and describes how you can change your cookies to see this test.

The video shows how the left search filters and the middle search results have their own scroll bars. Here is the video:

Here is a static picture:

This is a pretty interesting test and I am not sure if it will last, but it does seem like Google is testing this internally.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Update: This is now confirmed, Google told me "Google is always experimenting with new features."

View the original article here

SES Live: Social Media Signals in Search

What's the New Search Experience Mean for Publishers?

People Share > Content gets processed > Public Information comes to Bing, real time > Content processing and indexing > Ranking Annotation > User Experience

Reputation = More than Followers:

Users' Attributes: Friends, Followers, Follows

Users' Actions: Retweets, Replies, Others that share the some link, Likes

You have to be organic!

Social Spam?

Reciprocal friending is no more beneficial than reciprocal linking

Social Spam Behavior:

Spammy communities are highly visible - don't be a part of one

View the original article here

Supporting rel="canonical" HTTP Headers

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SES Live: Local + Social: the Future of Promotion

Disclaimer: The coverage is brought to you in real time, using a custom live blogging tool. Feel free to ask questions or leave comments for inclusion into the live coverage. During the live event, live notes will auto-scroll with newest entries at top. After the session is complete the archive version will have the oldest entries at the top. We ask you to please excuse any typos, as these are live notes.

Stay tuned! Live updates will begin momentarily.

9:44:15 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Local + Social: the Future of Promotion
Clearly two of the hottest categories in online marketing are local search and social. Find which data feed services work best for mass local listings online and on the mobile web plus which social networking features have the most effect on local marketing. From Geolocation social media with FourSquare to Local Search Marketing with Google Places, this session will offer tried and true strategies for maximizing visibility on the local search and social web.

Moderator:
Anne F. Kennedy, SES Advisory Board, International Search Strategist, Beyond Ink USA
Speakers:
Benu Aggarwal, Founder & President, Milestone Internet Marketing
Gregg Stewart, President, 15miles

9:44:37 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Gregg is up first.

9:45:05 AM Ben Pfeiffer: He asks what type of local businesses are in the audience. He is going to cover the local space and why it's important.

9:45:28 AM Ben Pfeiffer: He says local is ripe fertile ground that is usually at the end of the sales cycle.

9:45:45 AM Ben Pfeiffer: He says local is ripe fertile ground that is usually at the end of the sales cycle.

9:46:17 AM Ben Pfeiffer: When we look at the importance of local search. Almost every local search is mapped. Google place pages are viewed by millions of people.

9:46:31 AM Ben Pfeiffer: 20% of search are local oriented.

9:47:46 AM Ben Pfeiffer: While 83% of consumers of shop online at least weekly. There is a lot going on here.

9:47:51 AM Ben Pfeiffer: While 83% of consumers of shop online at least weekly. There is a lot going on here.

9:47:54 AM Ben Pfeiffer: While 83% of consumers of shop online at least weekly. There is a lot going on here.

9:48:23 AM Ben Pfeiffer: So 64% of small businesses think social media is not necessary.

9:49:13 AM Ben Pfeiffer: That is a stat from a Mashable article. Gregg says that social is a higher sales funnel.

9:50:40 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Consumers are increasingly using more sources to find local information and content.

9:54:36 AM Ben Pfeiffer: When you are start to look at local and the social dimension. Facebook for example, 1/3 of users access the site via mobile.

9:55:13 AM Ben Pfeiffer: So what is the local search foundation best practices? You need accuracy, distribution, signal strength, and enrichment.

9:56:56 AM Ben Pfeiffer: So the business name: represents your business exactly as it appears in the offline world.

9:58:15 AM Ben Pfeiffer: For your business name do not include marketing taglines in your business name. Include phone numbers or urls in the business name field. Don't keyword stuff.

9:59:52 AM Ben Pfeiffer: For categories: provide at least one category from the suggestions provided in the form as you type. Categories should be specific, but brief. Do not: provide categories about your business does or what it sells, but what your business is.

10:00:36 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Also custom attributes and description: This is your change to tell about your business.

10:01:20 AM Ben Pfeiffer: To help ensure that consumers are able to find your pertinent business information, it is important that your business listings are distributed across multiple channels.

10:02:00 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Once you have your accurate business listings distributed amongst the different channels, it is important that your listings all appear in similar format.

10:02:30 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Local requires a proactive approach to help correct inaccurate local listings at the source.

10:03:16 AM Ben Pfeiffer: In discussing place page listings. Gregg says it's amazing how few business have claimed their place pages.

10:03:44 AM Ben Pfeiffer: It's a huge opportunity for businesses to take control of their place pages and ways to optimize their pages.

10:04:26 AM Ben Pfeiffer: So shifting gears for a moment. When we look at the social part of local search, reviews and ratings are a component of that.

10:05:23 AM Ben Pfeiffer: When he started to look at the ComScore data. The most revealing thing was when consumers were asked whether yellow pages were important. Most said yes, but they couldn't find it. So there is a content problem.

10:05:58 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Question are citations still a local search signal?

10:06:40 AM Ben Pfeiffer: This is reviews from TripAdvisor, opentable.com, etc.. Google removed these from the listings. Why? Not quite sure. The data is still there but its harder to find.

10:06:59 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Google is in the game of promoting their own information.

10:07:44 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Gregg says as a business do not abandon the reviews and ratings information.

10:08:28 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Reviews are one of the most important optimization techniques when it comes to local listings and position rankings.

10:09:00 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Only 6% of consumers are leaving content out there. Users are lazy, ask them for a review.

10:10:16 AM Ben Pfeiffer: In terms of special promotions, this is helpful too for local search.

10:11:26 AM Ben Pfeiffer: In summary, basic business listing information is so very important.

10:15:28 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Up next is Benu Aggarwal

10:15:42 AM Ben Pfeiffer: She starts off asking the audience some questions.

10:17:14 AM Ben Pfeiffer: She says that understanding your goals for local are very important.

10:18:41 AM Ben Pfeiffer: If you saturate all search engine buckets ideal scenario for any platform.

10:19:44 AM Ben Pfeiffer: She talks about crafting a platform for which you put out your business information. Saturating this information has a big impact on your local search.

10:21:19 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Puts up a graphic of a marketing funnel. Social is at the top, web & mobile in the middle, and local is at the bottom.

10:22:55 AM Ben Pfeiffer: So why do social interactions might not work?.. For example you put up a social media page. But it goes wrong because all your focused on was just creating the facebook page. You had no strategy.

10:23:33 AM Ben Pfeiffer: She provides some examples, in this case Six Flags Fiesta Texas. She shows the facebook page for this place.

10:24:52 AM Ben Pfeiffer: She said Six Flags had about 30 websites. They looked into analytics to find out what people where using to find them. Who were their users.

10:31:10 AM Ben Pfeiffer: She recommends to always geotarget, so very important.

10:32:22 AM Ben Pfeiffer: The use of QR codes works well.

10:32:40 AM Ben Pfeiffer: The idea is to convert local users into mobile users.

10:33:05 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Encourage users to write reviews about the property. Give them ways to connect with you.

10:34:32 AM Ben Pfeiffer: She puts up a flow chart. 1. Competitive & Marketing Analysis 2. Perform Research & Create Social Marketing Strategy 3. Creates Calender. 4. Design Channels & Push Live

10:34:56 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Content calender are important and helpful to organize the info.

View the original article here

Validation: measuring and tracking code quality

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Daily Search Forum Recap: August 19, 2011

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

View the original article here

SES Live: SEW Labs - Social SEO

Below is live coverage of the SEW Labs - Social SEO panel from the SES San Francisco 2011 conference. This coverage is provided by Shanon Woodruff at RankSmart.

Disclaimer: The coverage is brought to you in real time, using a custom live blogging tool. Feel free to ask questions or leave comments for inclusion into the live coverage. During the live event, live notes will auto-scroll with newest entries at top. After the session is complete the archive version will have the oldest entries at the top. We ask you to please excuse any typos, as these are live notes.

Stay tuned! Live updates will begin momentarily.

12:18:47 PM Shanon Woodruff: SEW Labs - Social SEO : SES San Fran 2011 Live Coverage

Moderator:
Lee Odden, SES Advisory Board & CEO, TopRank Online Marketing
Speakers:
Jonathan Allen, Director, SearchEngineWatch
Ian Lurie, Chief Marketing Curmudgeon and President, Portent
Todd Malicoat, Independent Search Engine Marketing Consultant, stuntdubl

12:26:10 PM Shanon Woodruff: This session with focus mostly on a couple of examples - First up: tauk.com

With all things site audits, you really need to start by looking at:

-Site Command
-Calls to Action
-Phone Number
-Site Map
-Domain
-Off the site information
-What keywords
-User and Commercial intent
-What is reasonable for ranking
-Social mentions

12:49:42 PM Shanon Woodruff: Tauck.com Audit - Goal Inspire, Inform, and consult

To many links - specifically "Why Tauk" - remove drop down
Site speed - turn on gzip on your server
Title Tags need to be better
On FB - 7,906 Likes, show that on your page - good social influence
Larger type is better for Seniors and Teens
Needs Alt Attributes
Replace FB login at top of page with a "Like" button
Consider implementing a blog - Use customer generated content - base it on intensive
Use your forums to mine for blog topics
Also, your forum is hosted somewhere else, and is blind to the search engines
Focus on the Forum
From a usability stand point, a horizontal bar is harder to navigate

1:11:11 PM Shanon Woodruff: Next: USBank.com

Homepage redirect needs to be fixed
Your site is 302 redirecting, so bad
Great link equity
Need to focus on the generic search terms
There is to many little things are wrong with the site - need to fix it before you can move onto social and other advanced SEO tactics
Social is not the best way to go with a banking site
Customer services page is a disaster, way to complicated - Lurie suggest just add a "Ask us on Twitter"
Look at Google suggest
The site comes across clinical, doesn't have to be changed

Hookah-shisha.com

Excellent FB, but need to show is on your homepage
Lots of unoptimized images
Dedicated audience - use their dedication to help you
Work on your domain
Brocken links lead to 302 - need to use IIS for errors
Watch out for site that only have duplicate content at bottom of pages
Get you basic SEO out of the way
Blogging is good
Move blog to same domain - you want your blog to be a part of your site
No Index your archive
Beef up product links

1:24:59 PM Shanon Woodruff: Drsfostersmith.com

Missing pages need to refer to a 404 not a 200
Excellent Blog - Add Twitter and Google plus on each post
Install Socialable pluggin on your WordPress blog
Great sticky post at the top
Remove gray on gray text - hard to read at the top of the site
Too many links and duplicate content and make site appear low quality
Make sure Java Script is at the bottom of the page, it could cause a speed problem
Structure menus better - too long - Use categories
Use author pages for you blog

1:35:53 PM Shanon Woodruff: scilearn.com

Don't show entire blog post on the homepage of your blog
Reduce number of blog tags
Turn on gzip - site will load faster
Better label your YouTube Videos
Work on title across the board
Don't make people dig for "FastFoward" put it on the homepage
Clean up your archive
Pay attention to what people are looking for when finding your site.
Show your social proof
Make your call to action easier to find on each page

1:40:32 PM Shanon Woodruff: SEO always before Social Media

1:41:42 PM Shanon Woodruff: Never auto play a video

1:45:43 PM Shanon Woodruff: The End - SEW Labs - Social SEO : SES San Fran 2011 Live Coverage

View the original article here

Keyword Exceptions On AdWords Infinite Loop Bug

A Google AdWords Help thread reports that there is a bug with applying for keyword exceptions within the AdWords advertiser console.

When an advertiser is notified that "This ad requires review before it can run," and they submit the reviewal process, it simply just sends them back to the form.

Here is what the advertiser said:

If I check the box and click save, the same form shows up again. I can check the box and submit ad infinitum.

Laura from Google is trying to get to the bottom of the bug but she is not sure why it is happening yet. It seems like the bug is still not fixed.

Oh, and bonus points for those who get the reason I used the image I did.

Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help.

View the original article here

Introducing the Google Webmaster Team

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SES Live: Local + Social: the Future of Promotion

Disclaimer: The coverage is brought to you in real time, using a custom live blogging tool. Feel free to ask questions or leave comments for inclusion into the live coverage. During the live event, live notes will auto-scroll with newest entries at top. After the session is complete the archive version will have the oldest entries at the top. We ask you to please excuse any typos, as these are live notes.

Stay tuned! Live updates will begin momentarily.

9:44:15 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Local + Social: the Future of Promotion
Clearly two of the hottest categories in online marketing are local search and social. Find which data feed services work best for mass local listings online and on the mobile web plus which social networking features have the most effect on local marketing. From Geolocation social media with FourSquare to Local Search Marketing with Google Places, this session will offer tried and true strategies for maximizing visibility on the local search and social web.

Moderator:
Anne F. Kennedy, SES Advisory Board, International Search Strategist, Beyond Ink USA
Speakers:
Benu Aggarwal, Founder & President, Milestone Internet Marketing
Gregg Stewart, President, 15miles

9:44:37 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Gregg is up first.

9:45:05 AM Ben Pfeiffer: He asks what type of local businesses are in the audience. He is going to cover the local space and why it's important.

9:45:28 AM Ben Pfeiffer: He says local is ripe fertile ground that is usually at the end of the sales cycle.

9:45:45 AM Ben Pfeiffer: He says local is ripe fertile ground that is usually at the end of the sales cycle.

9:46:17 AM Ben Pfeiffer: When we look at the importance of local search. Almost every local search is mapped. Google place pages are viewed by millions of people.

9:46:31 AM Ben Pfeiffer: 20% of search are local oriented.

9:47:46 AM Ben Pfeiffer: While 83% of consumers of shop online at least weekly. There is a lot going on here.

9:47:51 AM Ben Pfeiffer: While 83% of consumers of shop online at least weekly. There is a lot going on here.

9:47:54 AM Ben Pfeiffer: While 83% of consumers of shop online at least weekly. There is a lot going on here.

9:48:23 AM Ben Pfeiffer: So 64% of small businesses think social media is not necessary.

9:49:13 AM Ben Pfeiffer: That is a stat from a Mashable article. Gregg says that social is a higher sales funnel.

9:50:40 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Consumers are increasingly using more sources to find local information and content.

9:54:36 AM Ben Pfeiffer: When you are start to look at local and the social dimension. Facebook for example, 1/3 of users access the site via mobile.

9:55:13 AM Ben Pfeiffer: So what is the local search foundation best practices? You need accuracy, distribution, signal strength, and enrichment.

9:56:56 AM Ben Pfeiffer: So the business name: represents your business exactly as it appears in the offline world.

9:58:15 AM Ben Pfeiffer: For your business name do not include marketing taglines in your business name. Include phone numbers or urls in the business name field. Don't keyword stuff.

9:59:52 AM Ben Pfeiffer: For categories: provide at least one category from the suggestions provided in the form as you type. Categories should be specific, but brief. Do not: provide categories about your business does or what it sells, but what your business is.

10:00:36 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Also custom attributes and description: This is your change to tell about your business.

10:01:20 AM Ben Pfeiffer: To help ensure that consumers are able to find your pertinent business information, it is important that your business listings are distributed across multiple channels.

10:02:00 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Once you have your accurate business listings distributed amongst the different channels, it is important that your listings all appear in similar format.

10:02:30 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Local requires a proactive approach to help correct inaccurate local listings at the source.

10:03:16 AM Ben Pfeiffer: In discussing place page listings. Gregg says it's amazing how few business have claimed their place pages.

10:03:44 AM Ben Pfeiffer: It's a huge opportunity for businesses to take control of their place pages and ways to optimize their pages.

10:04:26 AM Ben Pfeiffer: So shifting gears for a moment. When we look at the social part of local search, reviews and ratings are a component of that.

10:05:23 AM Ben Pfeiffer: When he started to look at the ComScore data. The most revealing thing was when consumers were asked whether yellow pages were important. Most said yes, but they couldn't find it. So there is a content problem.

10:05:58 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Question are citations still a local search signal?

10:06:40 AM Ben Pfeiffer: This is reviews from TripAdvisor, opentable.com, etc.. Google removed these from the listings. Why? Not quite sure. The data is still there but its harder to find.

10:06:59 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Google is in the game of promoting their own information.

10:07:44 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Gregg says as a business do not abandon the reviews and ratings information.

10:08:28 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Reviews are one of the most important optimization techniques when it comes to local listings and position rankings.

10:09:00 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Only 6% of consumers are leaving content out there. Users are lazy, ask them for a review.

10:10:16 AM Ben Pfeiffer: In terms of special promotions, this is helpful too for local search.

10:11:26 AM Ben Pfeiffer: In summary, basic business listing information is so very important.

10:15:28 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Up next is Benu Aggarwal

10:15:42 AM Ben Pfeiffer: She starts off asking the audience some questions.

10:17:14 AM Ben Pfeiffer: She says that understanding your goals for local are very important.

10:18:41 AM Ben Pfeiffer: If you saturate all search engine buckets ideal scenario for any platform.

10:19:44 AM Ben Pfeiffer: She talks about crafting a platform for which you put out your business information. Saturating this information has a big impact on your local search.

10:21:19 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Puts up a graphic of a marketing funnel. Social is at the top, web & mobile in the middle, and local is at the bottom.

10:22:55 AM Ben Pfeiffer: So why do social interactions might not work?.. For example you put up a social media page. But it goes wrong because all your focused on was just creating the facebook page. You had no strategy.

10:23:33 AM Ben Pfeiffer: She provides some examples, in this case Six Flags Fiesta Texas. She shows the facebook page for this place.

10:24:52 AM Ben Pfeiffer: She said Six Flags had about 30 websites. They looked into analytics to find out what people where using to find them. Who were their users.

10:31:10 AM Ben Pfeiffer: She recommends to always geotarget, so very important.

10:32:22 AM Ben Pfeiffer: The use of QR codes works well.

10:32:40 AM Ben Pfeiffer: The idea is to convert local users into mobile users.

10:33:05 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Encourage users to write reviews about the property. Give them ways to connect with you.

10:34:32 AM Ben Pfeiffer: She puts up a flow chart. 1. Competitive & Marketing Analysis 2. Perform Research & Create Social Marketing Strategy 3. Creates Calender. 4. Design Channels & Push Live

10:34:56 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Content calender are important and helpful to organize the info.

View the original article here

High-quality sites algorithm launched in additional languages

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View the original article here

A new, improved form for reporting webspam

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View the original article here

SES Live: Social Media Signals in Search

What's the New Search Experience Mean for Publishers?

People Share > Content gets processed > Public Information comes to Bing, real time > Content processing and indexing > Ranking Annotation > User Experience

Reputation = More than Followers:

Users' Attributes: Friends, Followers, Follows

Users' Actions: Retweets, Replies, Others that share the some link, Likes

You have to be organic!

Social Spam?

Reciprocal friending is no more beneficial than reciprocal linking

Social Spam Behavior:

Spammy communities are highly visible - don't be a part of one

View the original article here

Page Speed Service - Web Performance, Delivered.

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

View the original article here

Google + 1: Louis Gray

Famed blogger, Louis Gray, has formally announced he is joining Google to help with product development and evangelize Google +. He posted this picture on his blog and Google + of his kid outfitted as a Googler.

This post is part of our daily Search Photo of the Day column, where we find fun and interesting photos related to the search industry and share them with our readers.

View the original article here

SES Live: Getting More from Google+ and the +1 Button

Disclaimer: The coverage is brought to you in real time, using a custom live blogging tool. Feel free to ask questions or leave comments for inclusion into the live coverage. During the live event, live notes will auto-scroll with newest entries at top. After the session is complete the archive version will have the oldest entries at the top. We ask you to please excuse any typos, as these are live notes.

Stay tuned! Live updates will begin momentarily.

2:02:04 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Getting More from Google+ and the +1 Button
In this session we'll look at the many ways Google is improving by focusing on people. We'll review how the Google+ project is adding the richness of real-life sharing to software, combining the casual meetup with live multi-person video, and much more. We'll then dive into some detail with +1 implementation best practices, getting the most out of analytics and reporting, structured markup, and some thoughts on businesses in Google+.

Speakers:
Jonathan Allen, Director, SearchEngineWatch
Timothy Jordan, Developer Advocate, Google

2:06:35 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Timothy Jordan from Google is up to talk about Google+

2:08:11 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He says at Google it's important to focus on users. The internet is more and more about people. There are a few problems Google thinks they can solve.

2:08:41 PM Ben Pfeiffer: When you are online it is not too different than when you are offline.

2:09:35 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He says there is still something not the same online. That is why they introduced Circles to Google+

2:09:43 PM Ben Pfeiffer: It's natural way to share.

2:10:09 PM Ben Pfeiffer: The presentation is have some technical difficulties.

2:10:53 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Circles is about sharing what matters/

2:11:11 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Sparks is another part of Google+

2:11:29 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Sparks help you start a conversation online.

2:12:11 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Google Hangouts are a big part of Google+. This is a video chat but with ten of your friends. Hangouts are easy because you can jump in and out.

2:12:30 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Mobile is another component of Google+

2:13:00 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Google+ is about you and adding you to Google.

2:13:13 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Games has just launched in Google+

2:14:03 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Now he is gonna talk about +1 button

2:14:39 PM Ben Pfeiffer: 90% of consumers online trust recommendations made by friends.

2:15:25 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He puts up a search results for something. And shows how that article got a lot of +1.

2:16:30 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He says there are different levels of +1'ing something. In the results or in the article.

2:17:27 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Your social connections may increase your CTR on paid and search listing.

2:18:08 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Couple things they recently done since lauching Google+ is they released it into analytics and into webmaster tools.

2:19:22 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Once you have enough +1 data, they give you general demographic data.

2:20:07 PM Ben Pfeiffer: There is a new social engagement tracking part in Google Analytics to help you track +1 and other signals.

2:21:09 PM Ben Pfeiffer: There is now a new snippet that will load in conjunction with the page.

2:21:39 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Now he is going to present some best practices.

2:21:54 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Canonicalization is important.

2:22:39 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He gives an example of rel=canonical tag.

2:23:28 PM Ben Pfeiffer: So where do you put the +1 button on the page?

2:24:11 PM Ben Pfeiffer: A lot of retail sites are putting the +1 on the categories level pages. Such as putting it on a Shoes category, or TV category page.

2:26:14 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He is gonna present some Callback examples. This is data that Google will tell you when you get a click.

2:26:56 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He puts up some images he pulled from Flickr

2:28:53 PM Ben Pfeiffer: When you click the +1 button on the photo, and get a Callback which then shows the user other photos about green frogs from Flickr. So they get something in return which is other great photos of green frogs. All the user had to do was +1. Pretty cool!

2:29:27 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He moves on to Author information in search. 1. Ask your authors to create Google profile.

2:29:46 PM Ben Pfeiffer: In the links section of their profile they should link to sites to they contribute to.

2:30:04 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Next in the article page, you link to the authors Google profile page.

2:31:13 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Next you need to associate content with author. Use the Google author tag.

2:31:46 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Next he moves into structured markup. It's not related so much with +1, but still important. Check out schema.org

2:32:25 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He puts up a search for stuffing. It shows recipe sites, etc..

2:33:18 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He then talks about how you can markup the code on your site with schema.org markup.

2:33:56 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He says its useful and beneficial to include markup in your code.

2:55:51 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He can't comment on when Business pages will be released. He can't comment on what will be included, but promises it will be awesome. #fail

3:00:50 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Last session of SES over!

View the original article here

Daily Search Forum Recap: August 19, 2011

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

View the original article here

See A Spike In Bing Traffic Within Webmaster Tools? Here Is Why.

Login to your Bing Webmaster Tools and click on a traffic report, you may notice a spike of twice as much traffic being report from August 13th on. I do.

The reason is because Bing has now incorporated Yahoo traffic and other data directly into the Bing Webmaster Tools.

The numbers that should inflate on these reports include:

Impressions – will go up based on combined data numbersClicks – will go up based on combined data numbersClick Through Rates (CTR) as appropriate from above (change only due to the mathematics involved in the first two items)

Just an heads up on this, there has not been much discussion around this news except for at WebmasterWorld.

View the original article here

SES Live: Local + Social: the Future of Promotion

Disclaimer: The coverage is brought to you in real time, using a custom live blogging tool. Feel free to ask questions or leave comments for inclusion into the live coverage. During the live event, live notes will auto-scroll with newest entries at top. After the session is complete the archive version will have the oldest entries at the top. We ask you to please excuse any typos, as these are live notes.

Stay tuned! Live updates will begin momentarily.

9:44:15 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Local + Social: the Future of Promotion
Clearly two of the hottest categories in online marketing are local search and social. Find which data feed services work best for mass local listings online and on the mobile web plus which social networking features have the most effect on local marketing. From Geolocation social media with FourSquare to Local Search Marketing with Google Places, this session will offer tried and true strategies for maximizing visibility on the local search and social web.

Moderator:
Anne F. Kennedy, SES Advisory Board, International Search Strategist, Beyond Ink USA
Speakers:
Benu Aggarwal, Founder & President, Milestone Internet Marketing
Gregg Stewart, President, 15miles

9:44:37 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Gregg is up first.

9:45:05 AM Ben Pfeiffer: He asks what type of local businesses are in the audience. He is going to cover the local space and why it's important.

9:45:28 AM Ben Pfeiffer: He says local is ripe fertile ground that is usually at the end of the sales cycle.

9:45:45 AM Ben Pfeiffer: He says local is ripe fertile ground that is usually at the end of the sales cycle.

9:46:17 AM Ben Pfeiffer: When we look at the importance of local search. Almost every local search is mapped. Google place pages are viewed by millions of people.

9:46:31 AM Ben Pfeiffer: 20% of search are local oriented.

9:47:46 AM Ben Pfeiffer: While 83% of consumers of shop online at least weekly. There is a lot going on here.

9:47:51 AM Ben Pfeiffer: While 83% of consumers of shop online at least weekly. There is a lot going on here.

9:47:54 AM Ben Pfeiffer: While 83% of consumers of shop online at least weekly. There is a lot going on here.

9:48:23 AM Ben Pfeiffer: So 64% of small businesses think social media is not necessary.

9:49:13 AM Ben Pfeiffer: That is a stat from a Mashable article. Gregg says that social is a higher sales funnel.

9:50:40 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Consumers are increasingly using more sources to find local information and content.

9:54:36 AM Ben Pfeiffer: When you are start to look at local and the social dimension. Facebook for example, 1/3 of users access the site via mobile.

9:55:13 AM Ben Pfeiffer: So what is the local search foundation best practices? You need accuracy, distribution, signal strength, and enrichment.

9:56:56 AM Ben Pfeiffer: So the business name: represents your business exactly as it appears in the offline world.

9:58:15 AM Ben Pfeiffer: For your business name do not include marketing taglines in your business name. Include phone numbers or urls in the business name field. Don't keyword stuff.

9:59:52 AM Ben Pfeiffer: For categories: provide at least one category from the suggestions provided in the form as you type. Categories should be specific, but brief. Do not: provide categories about your business does or what it sells, but what your business is.

10:00:36 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Also custom attributes and description: This is your change to tell about your business.

10:01:20 AM Ben Pfeiffer: To help ensure that consumers are able to find your pertinent business information, it is important that your business listings are distributed across multiple channels.

10:02:00 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Once you have your accurate business listings distributed amongst the different channels, it is important that your listings all appear in similar format.

10:02:30 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Local requires a proactive approach to help correct inaccurate local listings at the source.

10:03:16 AM Ben Pfeiffer: In discussing place page listings. Gregg says it's amazing how few business have claimed their place pages.

10:03:44 AM Ben Pfeiffer: It's a huge opportunity for businesses to take control of their place pages and ways to optimize their pages.

10:04:26 AM Ben Pfeiffer: So shifting gears for a moment. When we look at the social part of local search, reviews and ratings are a component of that.

10:05:23 AM Ben Pfeiffer: When he started to look at the ComScore data. The most revealing thing was when consumers were asked whether yellow pages were important. Most said yes, but they couldn't find it. So there is a content problem.

10:05:58 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Question are citations still a local search signal?

10:06:40 AM Ben Pfeiffer: This is reviews from TripAdvisor, opentable.com, etc.. Google removed these from the listings. Why? Not quite sure. The data is still there but its harder to find.

10:06:59 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Google is in the game of promoting their own information.

10:07:44 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Gregg says as a business do not abandon the reviews and ratings information.

10:08:28 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Reviews are one of the most important optimization techniques when it comes to local listings and position rankings.

10:09:00 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Only 6% of consumers are leaving content out there. Users are lazy, ask them for a review.

10:10:16 AM Ben Pfeiffer: In terms of special promotions, this is helpful too for local search.

10:11:26 AM Ben Pfeiffer: In summary, basic business listing information is so very important.

10:15:28 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Up next is Benu Aggarwal

10:15:42 AM Ben Pfeiffer: She starts off asking the audience some questions.

10:17:14 AM Ben Pfeiffer: She says that understanding your goals for local are very important.

10:18:41 AM Ben Pfeiffer: If you saturate all search engine buckets ideal scenario for any platform.

10:19:44 AM Ben Pfeiffer: She talks about crafting a platform for which you put out your business information. Saturating this information has a big impact on your local search.

10:21:19 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Puts up a graphic of a marketing funnel. Social is at the top, web & mobile in the middle, and local is at the bottom.

10:22:55 AM Ben Pfeiffer: So why do social interactions might not work?.. For example you put up a social media page. But it goes wrong because all your focused on was just creating the facebook page. You had no strategy.

10:23:33 AM Ben Pfeiffer: She provides some examples, in this case Six Flags Fiesta Texas. She shows the facebook page for this place.

10:24:52 AM Ben Pfeiffer: She said Six Flags had about 30 websites. They looked into analytics to find out what people where using to find them. Who were their users.

10:31:10 AM Ben Pfeiffer: She recommends to always geotarget, so very important.

10:32:22 AM Ben Pfeiffer: The use of QR codes works well.

10:32:40 AM Ben Pfeiffer: The idea is to convert local users into mobile users.

10:33:05 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Encourage users to write reviews about the property. Give them ways to connect with you.

10:34:32 AM Ben Pfeiffer: She puts up a flow chart. 1. Competitive & Marketing Analysis 2. Perform Research & Create Social Marketing Strategy 3. Creates Calender. 4. Design Channels & Push Live

10:34:56 AM Ben Pfeiffer: Content calender are important and helpful to organize the info.

View the original article here

+1 reporting in Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

View the original article here

See A Spike In Bing Traffic Within Webmaster Tools? Here Is Why.

Login to your Bing Webmaster Tools and click on a traffic report, you may notice a spike of twice as much traffic being report from August 13th on. I do.

The reason is because Bing has now incorporated Yahoo traffic and other data directly into the Bing Webmaster Tools.

The numbers that should inflate on these reports include:

Impressions – will go up based on combined data numbersClicks – will go up based on combined data numbersClick Through Rates (CTR) as appropriate from above (change only due to the mathematics involved in the first two items)

Just an heads up on this, there has not been much discussion around this news except for at WebmasterWorld.

View the original article here

SES Live: Social Media Signals in Search

What's the New Search Experience Mean for Publishers?

People Share > Content gets processed > Public Information comes to Bing, real time > Content processing and indexing > Ranking Annotation > User Experience

Reputation = More than Followers:

Users' Attributes: Friends, Followers, Follows

Users' Actions: Retweets, Replies, Others that share the some link, Likes

You have to be organic!

Social Spam?

Reciprocal friending is no more beneficial than reciprocal linking

Social Spam Behavior:

Spammy communities are highly visible - don't be a part of one

View the original article here

SES Live: SEW Labs - Social SEO

Below is live coverage of the SEW Labs - Social SEO panel from the SES San Francisco 2011 conference. This coverage is provided by Shanon Woodruff at RankSmart.

Disclaimer: The coverage is brought to you in real time, using a custom live blogging tool. Feel free to ask questions or leave comments for inclusion into the live coverage. During the live event, live notes will auto-scroll with newest entries at top. After the session is complete the archive version will have the oldest entries at the top. We ask you to please excuse any typos, as these are live notes.

Stay tuned! Live updates will begin momentarily.

12:18:47 PM Shanon Woodruff: SEW Labs - Social SEO : SES San Fran 2011 Live Coverage

Moderator:
Lee Odden, SES Advisory Board & CEO, TopRank Online Marketing
Speakers:
Jonathan Allen, Director, SearchEngineWatch
Ian Lurie, Chief Marketing Curmudgeon and President, Portent
Todd Malicoat, Independent Search Engine Marketing Consultant, stuntdubl

12:26:10 PM Shanon Woodruff: This session with focus mostly on a couple of examples - First up: tauk.com

With all things site audits, you really need to start by looking at:

-Site Command
-Calls to Action
-Phone Number
-Site Map
-Domain
-Off the site information
-What keywords
-User and Commercial intent
-What is reasonable for ranking
-Social mentions

12:49:42 PM Shanon Woodruff: Tauck.com Audit - Goal Inspire, Inform, and consult

To many links - specifically "Why Tauk" - remove drop down
Site speed - turn on gzip on your server
Title Tags need to be better
On FB - 7,906 Likes, show that on your page - good social influence
Larger type is better for Seniors and Teens
Needs Alt Attributes
Replace FB login at top of page with a "Like" button
Consider implementing a blog - Use customer generated content - base it on intensive
Use your forums to mine for blog topics
Also, your forum is hosted somewhere else, and is blind to the search engines
Focus on the Forum
From a usability stand point, a horizontal bar is harder to navigate

1:11:11 PM Shanon Woodruff: Next: USBank.com

Homepage redirect needs to be fixed
Your site is 302 redirecting, so bad
Great link equity
Need to focus on the generic search terms
There is to many little things are wrong with the site - need to fix it before you can move onto social and other advanced SEO tactics
Social is not the best way to go with a banking site
Customer services page is a disaster, way to complicated - Lurie suggest just add a "Ask us on Twitter"
Look at Google suggest
The site comes across clinical, doesn't have to be changed

Hookah-shisha.com

Excellent FB, but need to show is on your homepage
Lots of unoptimized images
Dedicated audience - use their dedication to help you
Work on your domain
Brocken links lead to 302 - need to use IIS for errors
Watch out for site that only have duplicate content at bottom of pages
Get you basic SEO out of the way
Blogging is good
Move blog to same domain - you want your blog to be a part of your site
No Index your archive
Beef up product links

1:24:59 PM Shanon Woodruff: Drsfostersmith.com

Missing pages need to refer to a 404 not a 200
Excellent Blog - Add Twitter and Google plus on each post
Install Socialable pluggin on your WordPress blog
Great sticky post at the top
Remove gray on gray text - hard to read at the top of the site
Too many links and duplicate content and make site appear low quality
Make sure Java Script is at the bottom of the page, it could cause a speed problem
Structure menus better - too long - Use categories
Use author pages for you blog

1:35:53 PM Shanon Woodruff: scilearn.com

Don't show entire blog post on the homepage of your blog
Reduce number of blog tags
Turn on gzip - site will load faster
Better label your YouTube Videos
Work on title across the board
Don't make people dig for "FastFoward" put it on the homepage
Clean up your archive
Pay attention to what people are looking for when finding your site.
Show your social proof
Make your call to action easier to find on each page

1:40:32 PM Shanon Woodruff: SEO always before Social Media

1:41:42 PM Shanon Woodruff: Never auto play a video

1:45:43 PM Shanon Woodruff: The End - SEW Labs - Social SEO : SES San Fran 2011 Live Coverage

View the original article here

SES Live: Search on Mobile Devices, QR Codes, Mobile & Social: The Next Mobile Frontier

Q&A:

Q: It still seems like a challenge to get people to download an app and scan or will it go native on handsets

A: No, but some smartphones are starting to include a reader on their pones

Q: QR, they like to put the URL with the QR code - what do you think?

A: Good idea for those without readers, a nice backup.

Q: Is QR code will get you their quicker

A: Yes, but on social media sites it takes you to the web not the app

View the original article here

Introducing schema.org: Search engines come together for a richer web

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

View the original article here

Troubleshooting Instant Previews in Webmaster Tools

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

View the original article here

Daily Search Forum Recap: August 18, 2011

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Google News Archive Search Home Page Gone
If you try to access the Google News Archive Search Home page, you will be redirected to the advanced search page at Google News instead of the old Google News Archive Search home page...Google Webmaster Tools Sitelinks Change Confuses Or Clarifies?
If you login to Google Webmaster Tools and select "Sitelinks" under the "Site configuration" section you will be presented with a new way of managing your sitelinks. In the past, Google would list your sitelinks and let you block them one by one...Google Webmaster Tools Link Report Bug Fixed
Google admitted to a bug causing some webmasters to show a deflated number of links within the Google Webmaster Tools link report. There were several threads at Google Webmaster Help dating back to August 5th with complaints...Google Analytics Session Bug Fixed
Earlier this week, Google announced they have changed how they define sessions in Google Analytics. That change should have only impacted about 1% or less of the traffic reports. But webmasters and marketers were noticing major changes and felt something was wrong...Infographic: Google's War On Spam (or Updates)
Recently, there have been several folks coming out with infographics and timelines on Google's update history. They all have their advantages. Most recently, SEO.com released their Google Wages War on Spam Infographic. It is really a fun one to look at...Google Represents at SES San Francisco
This year Google has a booth at SES San Francisco. I always find it weird when there is a search related event and Google is not there to represent. So I am glad they are here this year.

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

View the original article here

Google + 1: Louis Gray

Famed blogger, Louis Gray, has formally announced he is joining Google to help with product development and evangelize Google +. He posted this picture on his blog and Google + of his kid outfitted as a Googler.

This post is part of our daily Search Photo of the Day column, where we find fun and interesting photos related to the search industry and share them with our readers.

View the original article here

Add +1 to help your site stand out

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

View the original article here

Google Maps Weather Layer

Google Maps has added a weather layer to let you see weather around the world, including forecast data.

To see it yourself, just go to maps.google.com/maps?lci=weather. It should load a page like this:

You can always zoom in or search for a location:

So while it is a bit chiller where I am in Suffern, if I drove a few miles towards Nyack I can warm up a bit.

Note, you can also click on a reading and get a forecast for the future.

Google said the cloud data for this layer comes from U.S. Naval Research Lab, the weather data is from our partner weather.com.

Here is a video demo:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

View the original article here

SES Live: Search on Mobile Devices, QR Codes, Mobile & Social: The Next Mobile Frontier

Q&A:

Q: It still seems like a challenge to get people to download an app and scan or will it go native on handsets

A: No, but some smartphones are starting to include a reader on their pones

Q: QR, they like to put the URL with the QR code - what do you think?

A: Good idea for those without readers, a nice backup.

Q: Is QR code will get you their quicker

A: Yes, but on social media sites it takes you to the web not the app

View the original article here

SES Live: Getting More from Google+ and the +1 Button

Disclaimer: The coverage is brought to you in real time, using a custom live blogging tool. Feel free to ask questions or leave comments for inclusion into the live coverage. During the live event, live notes will auto-scroll with newest entries at top. After the session is complete the archive version will have the oldest entries at the top. We ask you to please excuse any typos, as these are live notes.

Stay tuned! Live updates will begin momentarily.

2:02:04 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Getting More from Google+ and the +1 Button
In this session we'll look at the many ways Google is improving by focusing on people. We'll review how the Google+ project is adding the richness of real-life sharing to software, combining the casual meetup with live multi-person video, and much more. We'll then dive into some detail with +1 implementation best practices, getting the most out of analytics and reporting, structured markup, and some thoughts on businesses in Google+.

Speakers:
Jonathan Allen, Director, SearchEngineWatch
Timothy Jordan, Developer Advocate, Google

2:06:35 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Timothy Jordan from Google is up to talk about Google+

2:08:11 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He says at Google it's important to focus on users. The internet is more and more about people. There are a few problems Google thinks they can solve.

2:08:41 PM Ben Pfeiffer: When you are online it is not too different than when you are offline.

2:09:35 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He says there is still something not the same online. That is why they introduced Circles to Google+

2:09:43 PM Ben Pfeiffer: It's natural way to share.

2:10:09 PM Ben Pfeiffer: The presentation is have some technical difficulties.

2:10:53 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Circles is about sharing what matters/

2:11:11 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Sparks is another part of Google+

2:11:29 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Sparks help you start a conversation online.

2:12:11 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Google Hangouts are a big part of Google+. This is a video chat but with ten of your friends. Hangouts are easy because you can jump in and out.

2:12:30 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Mobile is another component of Google+

2:13:00 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Google+ is about you and adding you to Google.

2:13:13 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Games has just launched in Google+

2:14:03 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Now he is gonna talk about +1 button

2:14:39 PM Ben Pfeiffer: 90% of consumers online trust recommendations made by friends.

2:15:25 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He puts up a search results for something. And shows how that article got a lot of +1.

2:16:30 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He says there are different levels of +1'ing something. In the results or in the article.

2:17:27 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Your social connections may increase your CTR on paid and search listing.

2:18:08 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Couple things they recently done since lauching Google+ is they released it into analytics and into webmaster tools.

2:19:22 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Once you have enough +1 data, they give you general demographic data.

2:20:07 PM Ben Pfeiffer: There is a new social engagement tracking part in Google Analytics to help you track +1 and other signals.

2:21:09 PM Ben Pfeiffer: There is now a new snippet that will load in conjunction with the page.

2:21:39 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Now he is going to present some best practices.

2:21:54 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Canonicalization is important.

2:22:39 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He gives an example of rel=canonical tag.

2:23:28 PM Ben Pfeiffer: So where do you put the +1 button on the page?

2:24:11 PM Ben Pfeiffer: A lot of retail sites are putting the +1 on the categories level pages. Such as putting it on a Shoes category, or TV category page.

2:26:14 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He is gonna present some Callback examples. This is data that Google will tell you when you get a click.

2:26:56 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He puts up some images he pulled from Flickr

2:28:53 PM Ben Pfeiffer: When you click the +1 button on the photo, and get a Callback which then shows the user other photos about green frogs from Flickr. So they get something in return which is other great photos of green frogs. All the user had to do was +1. Pretty cool!

2:29:27 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He moves on to Author information in search. 1. Ask your authors to create Google profile.

2:29:46 PM Ben Pfeiffer: In the links section of their profile they should link to sites to they contribute to.

2:30:04 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Next in the article page, you link to the authors Google profile page.

2:31:13 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Next you need to associate content with author. Use the Google author tag.

2:31:46 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Next he moves into structured markup. It's not related so much with +1, but still important. Check out schema.org

2:32:25 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He puts up a search for stuffing. It shows recipe sites, etc..

2:33:18 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He then talks about how you can markup the code on your site with schema.org markup.

2:33:56 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He says its useful and beneficial to include markup in your code.

2:55:51 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He can't comment on when Business pages will be released. He can't comment on what will be included, but promises it will be awesome. #fail

3:00:50 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Last session of SES over!

View the original article here

Recapping SES San Francisco 2011

The SES San Francisco 2011 conference is now over and that means our extensive live blog coverage for this show is now complete.

A two man, tireless group live blogged 25 sessions over three days from the event.

Ben Pfeiffer and Shanon Woodruff of RankSmart teamed up to volunteer to bring the conference to those of us, including myself, who could not make it to the event. They all deserve our most sincere thanks and appreciation. Live blogging is incredibly hard and honestly, not all that fun. So thank you Ben and Shanon!

If you did not catch the live coverage while it was happening, you can read the recaps now. Here they are:

Thank you all and next up, SMX East next month!

View the original article here

Preview the latest +1 button changes

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

View the original article here

SES Live: Search: Where to Next?

Disclaimer: The coverage is brought to you in real time, using a custom live blogging tool. Feel free to ask questions or leave comments for inclusion into the live coverage. During the live event, live notes will auto-scroll with newest entries at top. After the session is complete the archive version will have the oldest entries at the top. We ask you to please excuse any typos, as these are live notes.

Stay tuned! Live updates will begin momentarily.

12:13:21 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Search: Where to Next?
It's been said that the best way to predict the future is to invent it. And almost everyone likes to speculate about the future. When it comes to search marketing, none are better at it than our veteran panel of industry insiders. Join us for an illuminating discussion as we peek into the next generation of digital marketing and predict what search might look like in the following five to ten years. What should be on your search radar for 2012 and beyond? Does the key to the future of search lie in personalization? Do social networks herald the end of search? Certain industry pundits have even been heard to say that SEO is dead. The future is coming. Are you ready for it?

Moderator:
Anne F. Kennedy, SES Advisory Board, International Search Strategist, Beyond Ink USA
Speakers:
Tamara Colagrossi, Head of Marketing, Marchex
Eli Goodman, Search Evangelist, comScore, Inc.
Mike Grehan, Chair SES Advisory Board, Global VP Content, SES/Search Engine Watch/ClickZ
Rand Schulman, Chief Marketing Officer, Eightfold Logic
Dana Todd, Vice President of Performance Innovation, Performics

12:14:30 PM Ben Pfeiffer: This session is usually really great. I have attended this specific session at SES for over 5 years. Always very interesting to see what the speakers will predict search will be like in 5, 10, 15 years.

12:16:40 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Mike is gonna talk about where SEO is headed.

12:17:34 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Rand is talking about content engineers (or otherwise an SEO).

12:17:57 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Eli says he is a stats guy, he will talk about market numbers, branding, etc..

12:19:23 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Dana is looking at the future of advertising. She gives a stat that 83% of people on the net, don't click on an ad, nothing. She will talk about this in more detail.

12:19:58 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Tamara is gonna talk about how search is transforming because of mobile devices.

12:21:00 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Anne says lets start with mobile and mobile apps. How is it changing how we search? How can marketers reach transient media consumers.

12:21:44 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Tamara when users use mobile devices to search a product they are in the last stages of the buying cycle.

12:22:05 PM Ben Pfeiffer: She gives an example of needing to buy running shoes and how she used her phone to do this.

12:22:44 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Search engines will be used for the research phase of the buying process. Mobile will be used for the buying/immediate need stage of the buying cycle.

12:24:26 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Eli says the data supports this. There are many different types of devices now. 14 million tablet and ipad users in the US.

12:25:04 PM Ben Pfeiffer: 3.2 - 3.4 words per search, with mobile the length of words used to search is shorter.

12:25:31 PM Ben Pfeiffer: The length of the search phrase keeps getting longer. On mobile this will happen too.

12:26:23 PM Ben Pfeiffer: There is a fundamental shift, search is reaching a glass ceiling. The mobile app economy could be heading there as well. The mobile search bypasses the browser.

12:27:11 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Mike says people spend their day on the WWW, but don't even use the internet technically. They use apps on their phone.

12:28:02 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Apps are a workaround for the shortcoming of using a computer. Apps are kind of a mess. You can't find the tops and bottom of the app market.

12:28:43 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Apps are some what limited. They don't share data, its kinda messy. The trend to the future however is they evolving and it will change dramatically in the future.

12:29:00 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Creativity with conversion = what?

12:29:25 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Creativity without conversion = zero(not art, not branding)

12:29:51 PM Ben Pfeiffer: The people that are creating the apps, we need to give them the tools to measure the conversion.

12:31:11 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Rand says that we need to create courses in colleges that merry both left and right brand ideas that teaches people how to use the web and measure the success on the business side.

12:32:20 PM Ben Pfeiffer: They get into the subject of art.

12:33:25 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Mike asks "What is content?"

12:34:37 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He is trying to explain that content creation on the web today sucks essentially. There is often little purpose behind it. He gives the example of xe.com. It has ranked for years, but has no real content. It valuable as a tool.

12:34:57 PM Ben Pfeiffer: The future of search is around content engineering. Building that content to be found and used.

12:35:07 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Not content just created for search engine bots.

12:35:54 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Mike: If you look at the web today, its a huge sea of crap. He says Google thinks they are going to crawl the web and pick out the good bits. It's stupid.

12:36:39 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Mike asks why do I keep having to ask the same questions over and over to a search engine, and getting the same crappy result. Why can't they just give it to me.

12:36:44 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Mike asks why do I keep having to ask the same questions over and over to a search engine, and getting the same crappy result. Why can't they just give it to me.

12:38:12 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Tamara says that apps work well because they provided targeted unique content. I can see what she means, that is valuable and why apps are used.

12:42:38 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Dana talks about experience. Experience takes into account what people want. Content doesn't take into the experience of someone.

12:42:46 PM Ben Pfeiffer: They go off onto an education rant.

12:43:34 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Rand says we are too focused these days of what search used to be.

12:43:56 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Anne asks whether we will have "experience" search engines in the future?

12:44:59 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Eli says people have predicted the demise of search for many years. The reality is that last month there was 20 billion searches last month. People using search engines keeps growing.

12:46:29 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Mike says people don't wake up in the morning thinking they are going to go search something. No, search is task oriented. It satisfies a need for information.

12:47:24 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Eli says 10% of people who checkin anywhere, use FourSquare.

12:47:24 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Eli says 10% of people who checkin anywhere, use FourSquare.

12:47:44 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Last month 95% of people who checked in somewhere used Facebook Places.

12:48:09 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Google+ is one of the fastest growth of a social network ever. We will see how it plays out.

12:50:48 PM Ben Pfeiffer: So what is customer 2.0 of the future going to look like?

12:51:01 PM Ben Pfeiffer: They don't want to be sold too, they just want to buy.

12:51:25 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Tamara says mobile is more about using it to fill an immediate need.

12:52:28 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Dana says she looked at some stats yesterday that showed more and more people are using their phones in their downtime, use their phones when they are bored, or to pretend they are on the phone.

12:53:54 PM Ben Pfeiffer: PC's used to be more about surfing the web, going from link to link. Then it became task oriented, its all about conversions and I am getting things done. Mobile is doing the reverse, mobile was about getting things done and now mobile is less about tasks but about playing.

12:54:21 PM Ben Pfeiffer: 62% of people who search for something on their phone call a business.

12:54:50 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Tamara thinks mobile is an amazing DM (direct marketing) vehicle.

1:00:00 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Dana asks whether anyone is doing barcode search?

1:00:34 PM Ben Pfeiffer: She doesn't mean QR codes. She mean bar codes in stores, etc..

1:03:34 PM Ben Pfeiffer: An audience members speaks up and points out UPC codes etc are universal but its impossible for retailers to manage this and add URL to those codes... The convo is going all over the place.

1:09:20 PM Ben Pfeiffer: They are still talking about bar codes, UPC codes, etc..

1:09:42 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Rand pipes in that we need to teach kids/students how to use the information on the website.

1:11:10 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Anne asks if any of the panelists about whether they have seen an collaborative efforts in marketing to share info, tweak campaigns, etc.?

1:11:42 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Tamara says she does but it requires a lot of people to deliver the right message.

1:12:34 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Dana says its still important to go out in the real world and watch people use your product. She says we are so focused on just sitting behind the screen where everything is available. Collaboration takes both.

1:28:04 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Mike says UGC will make a big impact to search more and more in the future.

1:29:03 PM Ben Pfeiffer: An audience member asks as how we have to work the findability of non-text related items? Images is an example.

1:29:39 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Mike says originally text was the strongest signal, then it was links. Mike said Google says the strongest signal is end-user behavior.

1:30:08 PM Ben Pfeiffer: So when people share, etc.. this is a strong signal.

1:30:56 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Mike says computers are getting better reading subliminal signals.

1:32:26 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He gives the example of using instant search. For example, someone types in special collection. Next he types special edition. Finally he types in limited edition and it shows him books. That was what he was looking for... Next time the search engine is going to suggest limited edition when someone searches for special edition.

1:33:33 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Dana says that discoverability is something social is teaching us.

1:39:27 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Session is just about over with 5 min. left so I will close it here.

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Google Maps Weather Layer

Google Maps has added a weather layer to let you see weather around the world, including forecast data.

To see it yourself, just go to maps.google.com/maps?lci=weather. It should load a page like this:

You can always zoom in or search for a location:

So while it is a bit chiller where I am in Suffern, if I drove a few miles towards Nyack I can warm up a bit.

Note, you can also click on a reading and get a forecast for the future.

Google said the cloud data for this layer comes from U.S. Naval Research Lab, the weather data is from our partner weather.com.

Here is a video demo:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

View the original article here

Keyword Exceptions On AdWords Infinite Loop Bug

A Google AdWords Help thread reports that there is a bug with applying for keyword exceptions within the AdWords advertiser console.

When an advertiser is notified that "This ad requires review before it can run," and they submit the reviewal process, it simply just sends them back to the form.

Here is what the advertiser said:

If I check the box and click save, the same form shows up again. I can check the box and submit ad infinitum.

Laura from Google is trying to get to the bottom of the bug but she is not sure why it is happening yet. It seems like the bug is still not fixed.

Oh, and bonus points for those who get the reason I used the image I did.

Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help.

View the original article here

SES Live: Getting More from Google+ and the +1 Button

Disclaimer: The coverage is brought to you in real time, using a custom live blogging tool. Feel free to ask questions or leave comments for inclusion into the live coverage. During the live event, live notes will auto-scroll with newest entries at top. After the session is complete the archive version will have the oldest entries at the top. We ask you to please excuse any typos, as these are live notes.

Stay tuned! Live updates will begin momentarily.

2:02:04 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Getting More from Google+ and the +1 Button
In this session we'll look at the many ways Google is improving by focusing on people. We'll review how the Google+ project is adding the richness of real-life sharing to software, combining the casual meetup with live multi-person video, and much more. We'll then dive into some detail with +1 implementation best practices, getting the most out of analytics and reporting, structured markup, and some thoughts on businesses in Google+.

Speakers:
Jonathan Allen, Director, SearchEngineWatch
Timothy Jordan, Developer Advocate, Google

2:06:35 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Timothy Jordan from Google is up to talk about Google+

2:08:11 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He says at Google it's important to focus on users. The internet is more and more about people. There are a few problems Google thinks they can solve.

2:08:41 PM Ben Pfeiffer: When you are online it is not too different than when you are offline.

2:09:35 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He says there is still something not the same online. That is why they introduced Circles to Google+

2:09:43 PM Ben Pfeiffer: It's natural way to share.

2:10:09 PM Ben Pfeiffer: The presentation is have some technical difficulties.

2:10:53 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Circles is about sharing what matters/

2:11:11 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Sparks is another part of Google+

2:11:29 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Sparks help you start a conversation online.

2:12:11 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Google Hangouts are a big part of Google+. This is a video chat but with ten of your friends. Hangouts are easy because you can jump in and out.

2:12:30 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Mobile is another component of Google+

2:13:00 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Google+ is about you and adding you to Google.

2:13:13 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Games has just launched in Google+

2:14:03 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Now he is gonna talk about +1 button

2:14:39 PM Ben Pfeiffer: 90% of consumers online trust recommendations made by friends.

2:15:25 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He puts up a search results for something. And shows how that article got a lot of +1.

2:16:30 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He says there are different levels of +1'ing something. In the results or in the article.

2:17:27 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Your social connections may increase your CTR on paid and search listing.

2:18:08 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Couple things they recently done since lauching Google+ is they released it into analytics and into webmaster tools.

2:19:22 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Once you have enough +1 data, they give you general demographic data.

2:20:07 PM Ben Pfeiffer: There is a new social engagement tracking part in Google Analytics to help you track +1 and other signals.

2:21:09 PM Ben Pfeiffer: There is now a new snippet that will load in conjunction with the page.

2:21:39 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Now he is going to present some best practices.

2:21:54 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Canonicalization is important.

2:22:39 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He gives an example of rel=canonical tag.

2:23:28 PM Ben Pfeiffer: So where do you put the +1 button on the page?

2:24:11 PM Ben Pfeiffer: A lot of retail sites are putting the +1 on the categories level pages. Such as putting it on a Shoes category, or TV category page.

2:26:14 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He is gonna present some Callback examples. This is data that Google will tell you when you get a click.

2:26:56 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He puts up some images he pulled from Flickr

2:28:53 PM Ben Pfeiffer: When you click the +1 button on the photo, and get a Callback which then shows the user other photos about green frogs from Flickr. So they get something in return which is other great photos of green frogs. All the user had to do was +1. Pretty cool!

2:29:27 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He moves on to Author information in search. 1. Ask your authors to create Google profile.

2:29:46 PM Ben Pfeiffer: In the links section of their profile they should link to sites to they contribute to.

2:30:04 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Next in the article page, you link to the authors Google profile page.

2:31:13 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Next you need to associate content with author. Use the Google author tag.

2:31:46 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Next he moves into structured markup. It's not related so much with +1, but still important. Check out schema.org

2:32:25 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He puts up a search for stuffing. It shows recipe sites, etc..

2:33:18 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He then talks about how you can markup the code on your site with schema.org markup.

2:33:56 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He says its useful and beneficial to include markup in your code.

2:55:51 PM Ben Pfeiffer: He can't comment on when Business pages will be released. He can't comment on what will be included, but promises it will be awesome. #fail

3:00:50 PM Ben Pfeiffer: Last session of SES over!

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+1 around the world

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A new rich snippets format for music

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Keyword Exceptions On AdWords Infinite Loop Bug

A Google AdWords Help thread reports that there is a bug with applying for keyword exceptions within the AdWords advertiser console.

When an advertiser is notified that "This ad requires review before it can run," and they submit the reviewal process, it simply just sends them back to the form.

Here is what the advertiser said:

If I check the box and click save, the same form shows up again. I can check the box and submit ad infinitum.

Laura from Google is trying to get to the bottom of the bug but she is not sure why it is happening yet. It seems like the bug is still not fixed.

Oh, and bonus points for those who get the reason I used the image I did.

Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help.

View the original article here

Improved handling of URLs with parameters

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