My intention was for this to be live blogging.. but the Internet ain’t working so good, so it is a bit late coming…

Social Link Building

Lisa Myers:  Verve Search

Top message: “Social SEO is the same old job as SEO.  We are just creating ‘votes’ to websites”

There is hard evidence that social mentions are important from an SEO perspective: Rel Author tag is a very powerful social signal:  the concept of “personality rank”.  Use Google+ if for nothing else but building authority as an author.

There is evidence of the impact of Google+ on organic rankings  :  see this article on Tasty Placement

Social signals may be important, but they are ephemeral or restrained by time.  A boost of 200 social links over night has a temporary impact

Click through rate is a signal, and +MyWorld showing images in the search results will improve CTR

Lisa’s slides can be found here

James Carson: Bauer Media: @MrJamesCarson

Top Tip:  Your social media strategy should focus on pursuing influencers rather than focus on irrational numbers like number of followers

A process for using social media for link building:

1.      Network selection: for example Facebook for big brands, Twitter for technology and news, etc
2.      List influencers: identify who you are targeting using tools like Google+ search, Followerwonk
3.      Ripple and curate: create “Ego Bait”, competwitions (tweet to enter the competition)
4.      Make waves:  leverage Celebrity culture, or other major players
5.      Practice your timing:  do your own testing to find the best time to use social media
6.      Optimise for Edgerank: consider the type of content (post, status update, photo) + Engagement Rate (comments, reposting) + Affinity (spreading via Friends) + Time Decay (newness)

Case Study: Anatomy of a successful Facebook post: 585 Likes, and 212 shares:

This successful post has 4 key characteristics

1. mentions something New
2. Asks a question
3. Has a link
4. And includes a great image

Technical SEO Issues

Maile Ohye:  It’s Maile Time!

Maile from Google gave an exceptionally useful update on managing changes to your website, particularly when you are changing the structure of your site, or when tidying up duplicate content on your site.

New: to encourage reindexing of existing URLS with new content, submit a sitemap with an accurate last updated date using  a <lastmod> date. When processed then they will be processed. These pages will get prioriitsed and will get recrawled more quickly

Consider using separate sitemaps for tracking refresh of content.  For example, one sitemap for a product category, and a differnet sitemap for 301 redirects, or other deduplication activities.

When cleaning up duplicate content, remember the objective is to reduce the numbers of pages in the index.  It is obvious, but….

Previously, sitemaps only contained the main pages you wanted indexing (canonical) but now you can create seperate sitemaps to clean up your duplicates.  These sitemaps will generate errors, but this is in the normal course of events and not to be worried about.

And a good process for cleaning up duplicate content:

eliminate the stuff on your site you know is of low quality. We all know we have junk, so make it no index.  Do not get rid of the content.  You still want it to be crawled, but just not appear in the index

Only link to quality pages on your site.  Use Webmaster Tools for internal links to old content

Consolidate known duplicates using 301 redirects

Create a schedule of items to prioritise for deduplicating.  Start with Webmaster Tools, and check out your search queries and expand the keywords to see the full (potentially duplicate) URLS.  Also check to see which URLS that might be competing for the same keyword

Also look at your Top Pages that might contain duplicate URLs – these pages are ranking well and are competing for the same keywords

And finally, check your recommendations for HTML improvements in Webmaster tools – this will show duplicate Title Tags which should also be a priority.

Vanessa Fox:  “Don’t Give That Man the Microphone!”

Vanessa did a great job managing the chaotic questioning from the floor, and kept the discussions focused and on track.

A few takeaways:

Once Google knows a URL it will always continue to crawl it, even if you use a 301 redirect, etc.

Google has a Prioritised List of pages it crawls (Home Page, <lastmod> or high Page Rank) but lower stuff still will get indexed at some time

No index should be your last resort. You really should rel canonical

Google loves keyword based parameters and indexes them so don’t rewrite.  It is better to be item=keyword rather than item=12345.  Better for users, better for click throughs.

Pagination tag:  Google sees all the content in every page in the series as a single entity. Use rel=”next” and rel=”prev”.  Most commonly page 1 will rank, but it could be any page in the series

Ian Galpin @g1smd

Fixing canonical issues is very likely to have an impact on Analytics data, for example numbers of page views may go down, because pages have been de-duped.  As a result, Analytics will be much more accurate

Q&A

What should we do with Google Site Search results, in other words search on your own site

Google does not want them in the index. Current guidelines says to disallow, but even better to noindex those search results pages

What about housekeeping pages, like T&Cs, that might be ranking well. How to deal with them

First, figure out why that page is ranking for example because of inbound linking. Get links from T&C to home page. If you don’t need that page indexed, the noindex.  But if home page has a big problem, then nothing might appear rather than having it pop up.

King Content, and Panda

Ken Dobell: DAC Group

Ken gave a compelling argument for not chasing the algorithm, but instead focus on generating useful content that meets your users’ needs. Consider generating different types of contents for different channels: whether organic, local, paid, mobile.

Google’s implementation of semantic search is starting to appear in the wild:  for example see Engadget’s sighting of the Howard Carter search results

Simon Penson:  Zazzle @simonpenson

Understanding Site Penalties

Top tip:  these updates are not unusual big changes;  these update are going to become business as usual for Google.

Black and white animals like Penguin and Panda are not cute and cuddly.  Together these updates make a powerful web spam update.

Some key concepts guiding penalties

1. Anchor text as a strategy is dead.  It is replaced by Relevance to the page. Anchor text as a signal is either tuned down or turned off. And of course there is a penalty for over optimised text
2. Understanding your link profile. How many identical links have anchor text.
3. Understanding your link profile.  How many PR 0 links.
4. Link profile: where are your links placed. Links in short paragraphs or groups of links on a page. Area of concern. Remove sitewide links. Remove unrelated links
5. Backlink acquisition graph.  Steady predictable growth in links, with no peaks and troughs

Stephen Croome @FirstConversion

Stephen gave a very useful overview of how to recover from a Panda slap, using Prezzybox as a practical Case Study.  Thanks for the excellent example!

Steps to take to recover from the Panda update:

1. Get a good monitoring system.

AdvancedWebRanking, Analytics, GWMT, Twitter, Email, SEOMoz, SearchMetrics

 2. Use the data to help  make difficult decisions as to what needs to get purged

What big chunks of pages don’t generate traffic.  Low quality content that can be removed.

 3. Clean up the site index by dealing with extraneous URLS

Canonical cleanup

 4. Delete or rehoming orphan pages, and low internally linked pages

(pages you forgot about)

Xml sitemap

 5. Clean up navigation and architecture. Internal linking

6. Throw away product feeds that don’t drive traffic. Duplicate content pages from feeds. Rewrite the pages that actually are getting traffic and money

7. Throw away product categories with no depth of products

8. Add unique text to the top of the product pages. 200 words.  Making better content. Makes each page more different.

Using semantics: use insights for search.

 9.Adding UGC to increase relevance, uniqueness.  Adding FB comments around the product

Incentivize social content.

 SEO and Social Media Power Tools

Michael King (@iPullRank) gave an amazing summary of about a million tools. Fortunately, he has already given us access to his slides:  http://iacq.co/toolspullrank2.  Thanks, Michael, for such a fantastic presentation!

Dixon Jones from MajesticSEO gave an overview of the benefits of Receptional as a rank checking tool.  It is a white label solution for reporting, it can be country specific, the providers have to fix it as part of their business model, it is scalable, and it tracks over time.

Dixon also talked about Google Analytics alternatives, primarily so a company can keep their own data

• Yahoo Web Analytics
• Piwik which is open source
• SEM Rush

SEM Rush provides useful competitor information, primarily for larger organisations.  Where they rank, their keywords, paid and organic. Very useful to investigate new markets.

Hydra:

Grab other presentations here:

http://www.slideshare.net/kevgibbo/how-much-seo-juice-do-you-get-from-google

https://seogadget.co.uk/amazing-seo-tools-for-excel/

http://www.slideshare.net/aleydasolis/hardcore-local-seo-tactics-smx-london-by-aleyda-solis

]]> http://www.hallaminternet.com/2012/smx-london-live-blogging/feed/ 0 http://www.hallaminternet.com/2012/uk-business-directory-scam/ http://www.hallaminternet.com/2012/uk-business-directory-scam/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 07:55:24 +0000 Susan Hallam http://www.hallaminternet.com/?p=11668 Continued]]> Your phone may be ringing, and those dreadful UK Business Directory cold calling salesman will be on the line. They tend to autodial companies in certain cities, so you may be next on the list.

They pop up under various names over the years: World Business Directory, EU Business Directory…

These are scams.  They are deliberately misleading and there is no need for your business to pay to be in any of these directories.

Do not pay for their services. Do not agree anything over the phone, get everything in writing. And even if it looks genuine, be sure to investigate their background.

The Office of Fair Trading website has a section on business directory scams

The scammers will typically insist on being paid over the phone, with an offer that expires in the next very few minutes.  They are highly aggressive telephone canvassers, and my advice would be to simply hang up the phone.  Better yet, say you need to put them on hold for a few minutes… and then just leave them there.

The sales people will usually claim:

• that the entry is now due for renewal (even if you have never paid before)
• that you have paid for the service before
• that you have already agreed to purchase the directory entry
• that they have spoken to one of your colleagues already
• that it is a “free” listing, but the sting in the tail is the paid listing in the print version.

It appears that the Penguin update is looking for pattens that show link spamming behaviour, and then reducing the value that those links gave previously.

What you may need to do now is a programme of  link pruning, or removal of poor quality links that are causing your positions in the search rankings to fall.

What Links Need Pruning?

Initial analysis of sites getting punished by the Penguin show artificial patterns of identical anchor text coming into the site, specifically for highly competitive keywords, also known as “money” phrases.

The good people over at MicrositeMasters have produced an analysis of the types of sites that were penalised, and their graph clearly shows the correlation of sites with a disproportionately high number of keyword rich anchor text links.

So, the first step in your link pruning may be to try to get a better spread or variety of key phrases in your anchor text.  You can run a report to showing inbound anchor text links, and that will give you a good starting point to get in touch with webmasters to get this links amended.

Will this be easy?  It certainly will not!

Eric Enge from Stone Temple Consulting, is writing in practical and clear terms about link pruning, and he recommends a rolling programme of link reviews, and acknowledges getting links removed or amended is nearly as difficult as creating them in the first place.

Other characteristics of sites ripe for link pruning

• sites that come from completely irrelevant and unrelated topical areas.

• sites that are very poorly written, and in particular if they are using what appears to be machine generated translation

• sites with a huge link “footer” at the bottom giving away links to other link farm type sites

• links coming from sites all having the same IP address

• links coming from sites all owned by the same person or company

• links from sites with link selling keywords on them like “free link” or “upgrade your link”

Is it worth doing link pruning?

The big question considers the amount of resource it will take to do this link pruning.  Is it worth it?

If you have received a warning message from Google Webmaster, then you certainly do want to clean up your act, and in your reconsideration request you can list all the links you are trying to get rid of , whether you have managed to get them successfully removed or not.

And the glib answer is if you weren’t doing deliberate spammy link building in the first place then we wouldn’t need to be discussing this at all.

Prevention is always better than cure, and and my belief over the last 12 years to getting nothing but high quality inbound links has never wavered.

But, if you have succumbed, then pruning away some of the worst links and replacing them with higher quality links will always be a good idea.

Further reading:

Google Warns Owners about Bad Linking

The Perfect Link:  21 Tips a Link is Great

Team Hallam: Link Building Top Tips

Google Penalities and How to Avoid Them (2010)

Here is the lovely picture of me displayed next to one of my recent articles:

Google makes it clear that not all authors generate good content, and we all know there is a lot of rubbish out there.

So, Google is looking to identify and highlight the best writers.  Google makes this clear in its announcement about Google Authorship:

“We know that great content comes from great authors, and we’re looking closely at ways this markup could help us highlight authors and rank search results.”

Many of our clients are generating high quality content as a technique for positioning themselves as experts at what they do, and as part of their search engine optimisation strategy.

The Google Authorship display will create a search engine result that

• creates a larger and higher impact listing in the search results
• builds trust by including both your personal photograph and name
• builds your brand recognition
• includes a link back to other articles that you have written
• encourages interaction with your Google+ profile

How can you get your own Author Information in the Google Search Results?

There is no guarantee that Google will display your Authorship information. But unless you help Google to figure out who you are, then you have no chance at all!

The first stage in the process is to create your personal profile on Google+

You need to have a good picture that clearly identifies you as an individual, and create as complete a profile as you can.

The second stage is to claim your authorship identity.  This process consists of three links that serve to reinforce to Google your authorship:

1.  You will need an “author” page on your blog that confirms who you are.  You can see an example of the Susan Hallam author page by clicking here.  You will need to have a link from your Author Page to your Google+ profile page using the using rel=”me” tag

2.  Next, you need a link from your blog post back to your Google+ profile using the rel=”author” tag and you need to include your name on each post that matches the name on your Google profile:

3.  And finally, you need to link from your Google profile back to your blog using either the “Contributor To” section, or verifying that your email address matches the domain name that your content is hosted on.

 And the last stage of the author verification process is to see if the whole thing worked or not.

Google Webmaster tools has a Rich Snippets Testing Tool that will show you whether you are verified as an author.

It will also show you what “rich snippet” will be used for your post. In the case of my articles, the rich snippet is determined by the key phrase entered by the searcher:

The really big question:  Will your Authorship reputation influence your rankings in the search engines?

More on that topic in my next post!  See you then.

Background Reading:

Google Plus: Authorship main page

Google Authorship Information: how to verify your identity

Hallam Top Tips:  Google Plus

The Wall Street Journal is reporting a major change to Google that means rather than providing us with just a big list of links to websites, the search engine is striving to provide us with the direct answer to the questions we’re asking.

In other words, Google is trying to make the leap from “data” to “information.”

In order to organise all this knowledge, Google has acquired a product called Freebase, a database of more than 20  million topics or”entities”.  As an example, the entity of “John F Kennedy” includes biographical information, pictures of him, famous sayings, and much much more.

Using this data will help Google to understand semantically what it is we’re looking for.

Confused?  Watch this video.

However, I reckon there are a number of ways that Google already gives us information now, rather than just blue links.

My favourite example is an oldie but goodie:  “what’s the answer to life, the universe, and everything?”

Here is Google helping us with infomation about the Olympics:

And of course what about the weather:

This kind of “information answer” in Google is currently known as the Google One Box.  Over the years Google has introduced a number of changes in the USA version of the One Box that have gradually arrived on our British shores.

As they say, the more things change the more they stay the same!

Hope this has given you a little something to talk about at your next trip to the pub…

The video advert contains the trailer for the film Wanderlust, triggered by my rather general search for the phrase “movies”:

Click on the ad and it expands, and Google uses a lightbox to display the content, overlaying the video on top of the search results:

This is a new ad format that apparently has been around for more than a year, but clearly it hasn’t reached the rock that I live under!

You can find information about this ad format in the Google Ad Innovations, which states this ad format is still in Limited Release.

Here is how it works:

• the advertiser doesn’t pick keywords; the ads are triggered automatically using the Google algorithm
• the cost to the advertiser isn’t based on bidding like other advertisements.  Instead it is a flat rate fee
• the advertising appears to be limited to a select group of advertisers, specifically major film studios
• and finally, the video displays in a lightbox to give it a more “theatre like” experience.

You can learn more about this advertising format by clicking here and there is another announcement here.

Gone are the days when conveyancing was a mysterious set of transactions conducted by distant and aloof solicitor.  It has been replaced by a friendly and open online system that lets me keep track of all the correspondence pertaining to the sale of our house, and purchase of our new property.

Fiddler and Pepper were the first firm of solicitors in the UK to offer online conveyancing, and they are based in Mansfield.

The  Fiddler & Pepper Online Case Tracker system

The online conveyancing system has been designed to give me access to everything that has happened or is due to happen, in a format that is easy for me to understand.  It includes documents both sent and received, notes, and updates on important milestones that form part of the conveyancing process.

The case tracking system is designed to be mobile friendly.  Rather than developing a mobile phone app, Fiddler have developed the website to detect what kind of user you are, and in this instance present me with the choice of what kind of page I want to see:  a mobile page, or a web page.

Here is a screen shot of what I see when I access the tracking system on my iPhone:

Note the layout of the documents are suitable for reading on my smart phone:

The benefits of online conveyancing

I’m delighted with the system

• Up to date:  our account is kept up to date “real time” so I can see what has happened today
• It is easy:  Just scan and send documents as attachments, or just use email
• It is faster:  no need to wait for letters going back and forth in the post
• Save money:  Fiddler and Pepper are “real” solicitors, but I’m sure they are able to offer cheaper fixed rate conveyancing since they don’t have to spend time arranging appointments with conveyancing clients.

It is a free business exhibition with more than 200 seminars, 200 workshops, and 200 exhibitors.

We’ll be exhibiting at stand E48, directly opposite Google.

We will be launching our new product, the Competitor Spy Report, and every day you will have the chance to win our new report letting you know what competitors are doing online, what they are up doing for competitive advantage, and get the information you need to make sure you are not getting left behind

I have been invited to deliver 3 seminars during the conference, and will be delivering my fast and furious “30 tips in 30 minutes”, and “Successful Selling using Social Media.”  Remember you need to book a seat in order to attend!

There are also lots of other great reasons to be there with Keynote Speakers including Sir Richard Branson, Lord Alan Sugar, and Cherie Blair, and main sponsors The Telegraph Business Club, Microsoft, and Blackberry.

Internet Marketing: 30 Tips in 30 Minutes

A number of our clients have requested a comprehensive analysis of what their competitors are doing.  They want a better understanding of what the threats are to their business, and also want to spot the opportunities to be making more money.

Using a range of proprietary tools gathering data from a number of sources, and good old fashion brain power, we are able to analyse:

• what keywords your competitors are targeting, both for search engine  rankings and also for pay per click advertising

• their SEO strategy

• why they are ranking as well as they are

• where they are getting inbound links from

• how well they are using social media tools like Twitter and LinkedIn and Facebook

• how they are getting more customers and generating leads

• what you should be doing now to have a better website, better rankings, and better engagement with your customers

If you are trying to grow your business, the first step is to understand the competitive landscape

The report is designed to give you a legal and  ethical advantage over your competitors providing your with information you need to help you make strategic decisions for your organisation.

You will discover how your website fares as compared against your competitor’s website.  And you will get fresh ideas for your own web development, optimisation, and social media marketing activities.

Do you really know what your competitors are doing on the Internet?

And do you know what you should be doing to keep ahead of the rest of your competitors?

Launch: Business 2012 conference and exhibition

This is just a sneak preview.  We will be launching this new service at the Business 2012 exhibition taking place in London at the 02 arena, 18th to the 20th March.

Come along to our stand where you can win a Competitor Spy Report.

Click here to learn more about Business 2012, book your free ticket, and also register to attend my free seminar “30 tips in 30 minutes.”

You can take a look at my presentation here, and I will be adding more ideas during the course of the day:

I mentioned a number of resources that you might find helpful:

Avinash Kaushik:  Social Media Metrics, including the wonderful spreadsheet

Social Mention:  social media monitoriong search engine

Twitalyzer

Get our Hallam Social Media Marketing Calendar (Excel) (Pay with a Tweet)