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Archive for the ‘Google’ Category
The URL Debate: Underscore vs. Dash
Friday, August 19, 2011
A common question in the SEO world has always been: What’s best to use in a URL, dashes or underscores? Do they make a difference to search engines and how do they affect your web site ranking?
Which is better for SEO? Schipul.com/web-marketing vs. Schipul.com/web_marketing
According to Search Engine Land, Google and Bing handle dashes and underscores in URLs differently.
Google’s Matt Cutts, recently released this YouTube video update on the Underscores vs. Dashes question.
“Join on the Underscore, Separate on the Dash.”
Google says it’s better to stick with the dash to separate keywords in a URL. If you’re starting a new website and its brand new, Google encourages you to use dashes. This will allow you to add more easily searchable keywords into your URL and may help improve rankings.
However, if you have a website that’s successful in page rankings and has been around for a while, don’t worry about it. Underscores are fine to use for established websites. Cutts says the amount of impact it has in Google rankings is “relatively low” and he does not recommend going back and rewriting every single URL to use dashes because it’s just not worth it and may cause problems.
Do Dashes vs. Underscores Make a Huge Difference in Google?
Cutts states, “It doesn’t make that much of a difference. It’s what we call a second-order effect. It’s not a primary thing that makes a huge difference.”
What About in Bing?
A Bing spokesperson responded to Search Engine Land by saying they do not differentiate at all between dash and underscore in their URL ranking features.
What Should Webmasters Do?
If you are launching a new site, then go ahead and use dashes in your URLs, in order to keep your keywords separate. According to Cutts, “when Google sees an underscore in a URL, it joins what’s before and after into one term.” However, if you have an existing site and using underscores in your URLs, don’t change them to dashes because it can cause technical problems and can impact your search rankings.
Google Introduces Faster, New Way to Submit URLs Using “Fetch as Googlebot”
Monday, August 8, 2011
Google’s Webmaster Tools also features a new option to submit your new and recently updated URLs for indexing by Google. In order to submit a URL, first you have to fetch the URL as Googlebot. Once the URL has been fetched and deemed successful, Google will give you the option to submit that URL to their index. After submitting, your URL will be crawled by the Googlebot, usually within a 24 hour time frame. Once the URL has been crawled, it will be considered for inclusion in the Google index.
How to submit a URL Using “Fetch as Googlebot”
In Google Webmaster Tools, select the URL of the site which you want to submit. Once you are on the dashboard for that website, click Diagnostics in the right hand side menu.
Once the drop down menu expands, click “Fetch as Googlebot.” Then click fetch once you have entered the URL you wish to submit to Google. If the URL has been successfully fetched, you will see a “Submit to Index” link appear.
Photo Credit: Google Webmaster Central Blog
After you click the “Submit to Index” link, a dialog box will appear (like the one pictured below) that gives you the option of submitting the sole URL, or the URL and all of its linked pages. We recommend the latter, “URL and all linked pages,” especially, for newly launched websites.
Photo Credit: Google Webmaster Central Blog
Google places a maximum limit of 50 individual URL submissions per week, per URL. If submitting URLs with linked pages, the maximum drops down to 10 submissions per month, so submit carefully. The fetch as Googlebot page will always give you an updated count of your submissions and how many you have remaining.
Intermediate Google Analytics & Upcoming Webinars
Monday, August 1, 2011
Last month, our rock star Search Engine Marketing Manager, Caitlin Kaluza, gave a webinar on Intermediate Google Analytics. In case you missed it, we are recapping all the great information in today’s blog post. As an added SEM brain candy bonus, we’ve got all the slides from the webinar below.
Key takeaways from the Intermediates Google Analytics webinar:
- Email notifications are available for any website you are tracking.
- Goal setting is highly recommended.
- Learn about funnel and funnel reporting.
- Learn how to set advanced filters to your Analytics reports.
- Of all the reports Google Analytics offers you, which metrics should you be caring the most about? Visits, visitors, traffic sources, and conversions.
If you need a quick recap of Google Analytics basics, take a look at this Intro to Google Analytics presentation.
We’ve got a number of fantastic upcoming training webinars that we hope you’ll check out.
Here’s a few of the Schipul webinar events coming up in August:
- 8-4-2011: Intro to Drupal – Learn basic content management and site editing through Drupal Software.
- 8-10-2011: Intro to Social Media for Business – Learn the ways your business can benefit from participating in online communities and social networks.
- 8-18-2011: Intro to Web Analytics – Learn the important basics of web analytics.
- 8-24-2011: Facebook Fan Page Optimization – Learn about taking your Facebook fan page to next level with this SEO for Facebook webinar.
Be sure to click the link and register for any or all of these great webinars for free!
Don’t forget to check out the rest of the Schipul events on our calendar and remember SchipulCon 2011, our exciting web marketing conference, is taking place October 6-7 in Houston, TX. Register today!
Google Announces Places Changes
Monday, July 25, 2011
Google announced Thursday that Google Places pages have undergone a few very important changes. You’ll notice that third party reviews are now gone from Places pages. These changes come as a result of other consumer ratings websites like Yelp, Citysearch, and TripAdvisor claiming that Google was using their content without permission.
Places pages will still link to these third party sites for a more well rounded search experience but only after showing Google user reviews. Google will no longer integrate the actual reviews from any other consumer rating websites into the page or the Place rating system. Take a look at the photo below to see what this looks like.
Another important change to note is that Google is now emphasizing a call to action at the top of companies’ Places pages with two new buttons encouraging users to “Write a review” and more easily upload photos from places they’ve been.
Having stellar, yet genuine, user reviews are a great way to bring in business and encourage new customers to try your services and check out your business. Places photos also do a lot to help your search engine optimization efforts. Not only do they give your customers visual insight to your company, they also get indexed in Google images. In order to optimize your Places presence, encourage your happy customers to write reviews directly on your Google Places listing.
Expect more Places pages upgrades to roll out soon. Google also notes forthcoming advancements for increased user personalization of local searches, as well as platform and device flexibility.
For more information, view Google’s official statement on “The Ongoing Evolution of Place Pages.” For more do-it-yourself SEO tips from the Schipul SEM team, visit our DIY SEO page.
