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Archive for October, 2009
Twitter Teams up with Google and Bing
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Twitter recently partnered up with both Google and Bing to allow them to search and index the full stream of tweets. Both companies are taking a different approach to how to showcase the data. Here is a look at each one.
Bing Twitter Page and Search
Bing actually created an entire page at bing.com/twitter which displays trending topics in a cloud at the top followed by a listing of the most active links below. Each link is followed by a couple of related tweets. There is some mystery as to which tweets are being selected. It does not appear to be the first tweets or the ones from people with the most followers. It also seems the links are tied to the trending topics, and are not necessarily the most popular links on twitter.
Additionally, Bing adds the ability to search the twitter stream in real-time. After searching a term (like Yankees) and you 4 selected tweets followed by some of the top linked content relating to those words. You can view the full tweetstream and either allow it to continually refresh or pause it a read a few. Be careful with some of the top trending topics, as they can start refresh faster than you (or at least I) can read them.
The Bing search adds some value with the related links, but the selection of how these links (and top two tweets) are chosen is still not fully known. Hopefully some of this will get ironed out as Microsoft continues to make progress in developing this search option.
Google Social Search
Google takes a completely different approach to the fire hose of Twitter data. While this may not be their long-term plan for the data, they are currently integrating it with a few other services in Google Labs. At the Google Labs Experimental Search, you can join the experiment, which gives you the option to use Social Search. Once you have signed up, when you search for something on Google and click Show Options you will see Social at the bottom. Selecting it gets you into the special Social results.
These results will show links from different people you are connected to and how you are connected to them. It also gives you the option to view results from a single person. Google creates these connections using your Google Profile (you created that, right?). I have Twitter as one of my links, as well as my YouTube account. Google scans these two networks to search for connections I might have, then it searches through that data.
This is much different than a full Twitter search, but in many cases it may be more useful. You are probably more interested in what the people you know and follow have to say than the rest of the Twitter universe. It also works to filter out all of the spam that currently plagues and Twitter trending topic. The links go to tweets, blogs, and other links related to the search, which adds some additional value to just searching the twitterstream.
These two new ways to search Twitter are still early in development so expect some changes and improvements in their results over time.
New Google Analytics Features Released
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Today, the Google Analytics Blog detailed some of the new features that are out now and coming soon. Here is a rundown of what is included and why you need it.
More Goals
Previously you could only have 4 goals per profile. Now you can have up to twenty, made up of 4 sets of 5 goals. Additionally, you can now setup Engagement Goals which allow you to use Time on Site and Pages per Visit as goal-capturing metrics. This is valuable for many types of sites (like Blogs!) that may consider a Goal accomplished without actually capturing contact information or making a sale.
Advanced Filters
Advanced Filters allow you to create single one-off filters for different reports. Currently, you would need to use the Advanced Segments to accomplish this. Now, filtering top landing pages with over 10 visits and bounce rates over 80% is a snap. This will help you find the pain points in your site and make positive changes. This can also help you identify your top performing keywords and markets.
Automatic and Custom Alerts
If you use Google Alerts then you know how valuable it is to have this kind of automation. These alerts will allow you to track increases in certain activities or to certain pages on your site. They will be very useful when tracking different campaigns and when monitoring the effects of social media. These alerts can be viewed and grouped by date or by type, so you can create clear reports for the things you need to watch, and they can be emailed to you automatically. Alerts are not available yet but should be out by the end of the month.
Other features include Mobile tracking without javascript for older mobile browsers and more custom variables options for tracking members and logged-in status. These take a bit more work to setup but can give you even more details for your more advanced sites.
Many of these features are available today and the rest will be rolled out very soon. Check back with us at theSEMblog for more tips on how to use these great new tools.
Clearing up SEO Misconceptions
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Recently, Derek Powazek wrote a fairly aggressive rant attacking SEO as a profession and business. Unfortunately, while he makes a few good points, he muddies the water with even more misinformation.
Let’s clear some of that up right here.
The Good Advice is obvious, and the rest doesn’t work
This is spot on. The good advice is not only obvious, it’s also very easy to implement on your site.
- Unique Titles and Title Tags
- Using Heading with relevant keywords
- Good text content that is interesting and relevant
- Outbound links to other related and interesting pages/sites
- Accessible design/code that makes viewing the content easy
We can all agree that those are the right methods. Derek calls it “making a website good” in the comments. We call it SEO, or at least one aspect of SEO. Google and the other search engines encourage and reward these practices because it makes good content easier to find for searchers (people).
The above list is great advice. It is easy and you should be doing it on your site.
Now we can address the second point: SEO is poisoning the web. Let’s fix it first.
SEO Spam is poisoning the web
That looks much more accurate now. SEO Spam is a mixed bag of loopholes and black-hat tricks that, to borrow Derek’s phrase, “are ineffective at best and destructive at worst.”
There are many practices involving bot computers and fake blogs and other automated processes used to generate link farms solely to increase ranking. They steal content or print gibberish all in an effort to gain clicks for other sites. There are other practices involving hiding links and text to trick the Search Engines into seeing something that the typical web surfer would not see. This is all bad, and any real SEO professional would never recommend these things. They are disgusting and they ruin the search experience for everyone. They force search engines to waste time playing cat & mouse when they could be innovating. If you are exploring SEO services, make sure the company you choose does not use these tactics. They will only end up hurting you.
Real-life SEO Experience
I’ve been knee-deep in Search Engine Optimization for about 6 months now, and I have never wasted my time with anything but the good advice in the list above. I’ve seen great results by simply updating Titles and Headlines and making the text content more web-friendly with <p> tags and the occasional bolding of important terms. It takes some time, but the effects have been lasting and will continue to help future content. I don’t promise results, I just promise that I will do the 5 easy steps above across a website.
Many of my clients are not in the internet business. They are doctors, marketers, educators, and other professionals who have a skill they do very well. They don’t want to learn the easy steps to SEO and spend time doing it. They came to us because they wanted to outsource that task to someone with more knowledge and experience. Derek says that SEO is “so obvious, anyone who pays for it is a fool.” Am I a fool for sending my laundry out? It’s simple and easy to do, but I just don’t want to do it. I’m fully capable of making a grilled cheese sandwich (easy and simple), so am I a fool for buying one at Steak-n-Shake? I don’t think so.
SEO, just like any other business, has professionals that are ethical, fair, and honest as well as those who try to cheat the Search Engines and their clients. If you need SEO services, find a company with a phone number and an office. Meet with them and ask them what they do. A small bit of education can help you to select the right people to help with your Search Engine Optimization needs.
