As an online marketer you probably have heard of or used the Google Keyword Tool. As the co-founder of a Search Marketing firm we were using it religiously and put a lot of faith in it to gauge search volumes on keywords we were researching. That is until we started wondering why the numbers were not matching our results.
We knew Google’s numbers were correct but why such a big disparity between our analytics reports, after taking the top position n Google’s organic search results, and the current monthly searches Google was showing in their Keyword Tool. Well just the past Friday Sept. 24 Google revised the Keyword Tool’s search numbers and explained it this way:
“…we’ve also changed how we calculate Global Monthly Searches and Local Monthly Searches. Statistics in these columns are now based on Google.com search traffic only. Previously, they also included traffic from search partners.
So as you see, we can now see pure search numbers coming from Google Search. This is great for us as SEO’s and for everyone who was looking to the tool as a baseline of how certain keywords will perform.
To see the press release from Google Click Here
The text that is used in the links that point to your website has a major effect on the position of your website in Google’s search results.
For example, if many people use the text “buy blue widgets” to link to your website, then it is very likely that the linked web page will get high rankings for the keyphrase “buy blue widgets” in Google’s search results.
The link text (also called anchor text) is the text that is used in text links. Example:
<a href=”http://www.example.com”>this is the link text</a>
Unfortunately, not all anchor texts will be used by Google. Check the following things to make sure that the links to your website pass the correct anchor tag:
1. The nofollow attribute
This is a no-brainer. Links to your website that use the rel=”nofollow” attribute don’t pass the link text to Google. Example:
<a href=”http://www.example.com” rel=”nofollow”>great keyword</a>
There are some automated tools that you can use to help you find out if the websites that link to your site use the nofollow attributes.
2. Invalid characters in the URL
If an URL contains invalid extra characters then chances are that search engines won’t be able to index the link correctly. Example:
<a href=”http://www.example.com “>great keyword</a>
In this example, there’s a space at the end of the URL. Some webmasters found out that anchor text is not passed to Google if the link contains an extra space character.
Note that most browsers are able to correct this link and they will display the web page correctly. Unfortunately, search engine spiders seem to have more difficulty with malformed links (or they take them as a signal of low quality).
3. The links use 301 redirects
Google’s Matt Cutts recently confirmed that Google won’t consider all anchor texts that are used in 301 redirected links. Example:
<a href=”http://www.example.com/page.htm”>great keyword</a>
The web server redirects “http://www.example.com/page.htm” to “http://www.example.com” with a 301 redirect. In that case, it’s likely that Google won’t use the link text.
4. The first link passes the link text
If a page links twice to the same page then Google will use the first link text and discard the other link texts. Example:
<a href=”http://www.example.com”>This</a> is an example. The link text <a href=”http://www.example.com”>great keyword</a> will be ignored by Google.
The first and the second link go to the same URL. In this example, Google will use the link text of the first link, which is “This”. The link text of the second link will be ignored by Google.
If the second link points to another page of the linked website, then both link texts will be used by Google:
<a href=”http://www.example.com/page1.htm”>This</a> is an example. The link text <a href=”http://www.example.com/page2.htm”>great keyword</a> will be ignored by Google.
Links are the most important factor when it comes to getting top 10 rankings on Google and other major search engines.
No matter how good your company is, some people will always write something negative about your site, even if you tried your best to help them.
Some customers might write negative comments about your company in their blogs or some of your competitors might like to damage your reputation by creating fake comments about your site.
What can you do if web pages with negative comments appear on Google’s first result page for your company name?
1. Fix the problem
If people write negative reviews about your company, the first thing that you should do is to fix the problem that caused the negative review.
2. It doesn’t hurt to ask
Send the webmaster of the web page with the negative review a polite email and ask for removal of the negative comments. Many webmasters will cooperate if you explain the issue.
3. Give web pages with positive comments a boost
If the webmaster does not want to remove the negative review, find websites that contain positive comments about your site.
Link to these pages from your own website to increase the link popularity of these pages. The more links the pages with the positive reviews have, the higher they will be ranking in the search results.
If appropriate, bookmark web pages with positive remarks about your website on social bookmark sites such as Digg and Delicious.
4. Ask for testimonials from happy customers
If you receive positive feedback from customers, ask them to write a review on ConsumerReview.com, Epinions.com or similar sites.
5. Add your website to company wiki pages
Websites like AboutUs.org allow you to create an article about your company. If your company is important enough, you might even create an entry in Wikipedia.
These Wiki pages will also appear in the search results when someone searches for your company name.
6. Make sure that your own website tops the search results
If your own website comes first for your company name then most people will click on your link and don’t look further. Use the expert services of companies like Click Farther Media, to help you fix these problems. We use a hollistic and systematic approach to remove or push negative results away from the eyes of your customers. Call us at (561) 301-2424.
Google Maps is rolling out what it hopes will be a solution to one of the Local Business Center’s longtime shortcomings: the inability for service-based and/or home-based local businesses to use the LBC. Before today, all local businesses using the Local Business Center had to display a business address for their physical location — not an ideal situation for home-based businesses. Further, for plumbers, real estate agents, and countless other businesses that serve many towns in one area, it’s been extremely difficult to have visibility anywhere other than the town associated with the LBC listing.
Those problems appear to be a thing of the past.
When logged in to the LBC, users will see a new tab called “Service Areas and Location Settings.”
After clicking “Yes, this business serves customers at their locations,” a new set of choices appears.
As you can see, at this point the local business owner can indicate that s/he doesn’t want a business address to appear in Google Maps. This is for local business owners who work from home, but don’t want to give out their home address in Google Maps. Until now, the primary advice for business owners in this situation has been to rent a mailbox somewhere and use that address; others have simply spammed Google Maps by using someone else’s address or creating a new, non-existent address to get around this problem.
For service-based businesses, there’s also an option to tell Google Maps how your location should be specified. The choices are “Distance from one location” or “List of areas served,” and you can only choose one.
There’s been no official announcement from Google about this yet, and we don’t know if this is available to all LBC users or if it’s a limited test. We have an email in to Google for more information. In any case, this will be extremely welcome relief for a large group of local business owners who’ve essentially been unable to use Google Maps for search engine visibility.
Google launched a new AdWords reporting feature called AdWords Search Funnels. AdWords Search Funnel shows you all the keywords that assisted in conversions made through Google AdWords, rather than just the last one before a buy or conversion action. This feature is being rolled out over the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for it.
Until now, Google would only show you the last keywords that led to a conversion. In many cases, searchers will go through a searching process that includes research that might not lead to an immediate sale but may assist in a sale after a few more searches.
For example, imagine someone searches for [camera] then visits your site and does some research. They later search for a specific model number that they want to purchase. They end up back on your site and convert based on the specific model number. Google will show you in the Search Funnels report that the keyword [camera] did not specific convert, but assisted in a conversion.
How’s Google gathering the data and protecting user privacy? Good Question. Here’s How:
Funnels are created by noting when someone clicks on an ad at Google. That links their search activity from that click to a particular advertiser for 30 days. If they do other searches in that period after the initial click, even if they don’t click on the advertiser’s ad each time, Google will still track that the advertiser’s ad showed for that searcher and what keywords it showed for. If they eventually click again on the advertiser’s ad and convert, only then is a funnel report created — and only if the advertiser also uses the AdWords conversion tracking code.
This means that no “natural” clicks are logged and reported in the funnel (a potential weakness for those fully trying to understand the research process). It also means that no keywords are reported as part of the funnel unless the advertiser has an ad showing for those keywords — so again, some part of a research process might go missing.
In terms of user privacy, Google’s not reporting actual search queries — the exact search terms entered in the order they are entered — but rather a list of keywords used overall. Further, any “non-popular” search paths are not reported. In other words, you shouldn’t be able to single out a particular individual. Instead, only popular funnels drawn in aggregate from data are reported.
First, only advertisers who make use of the AdWords conversion tracking code will even see tracking reports. Second, someone has to actually convert for a report to be available. Third, someone needs to click on an ad.
There is a summary page that includes total conversion, average days to convert, average ad clicks to convert and average impressions to convert. You can drill down deeper to see specific details.
For instance, you can see the distribution of the number of impressions and the percentage of those searches that led to a conversion (i.e. 45% convert after 1 impression and 20% convert after 2 impressions, etc.). There are reports that show a breakdown of the number of clicks leading to conversions, the time to convert, the top paths to convert and so on. I will post screen captures of sample reports, which should explain most of these reports.
It is important to note that you can set up conversion types to better differentiate between true assisted keywords and fake assisted keywords. For example, if you sell both dresses and cameras, most of the time an assist from a keyword search on [dresses] would not be relevant. So there are ways around that.
Finally, I have asked if the AdWords Quality team takes into account “assisted” conversions. Obviously, as a advertiser, to keep your quality score up, you want keywords that lead to clicks and conversions, but these reports can show you that impressions and non-converting keywords do play a role in conversion. When I hear back, I will update this post. Update: Google told me, “Search Funnel data does not affect quality score. You can see the core components of calculating quality score here.”
Google also discusses them more on their blog here.
