SEO Consultant

Did You Really Email A Googler For A Link Exchange?

2012-01-16T01:08:00.000-08:00

That is a picture of Susan Moskwa, a Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, who works with the search quality team at Google.

Someone sent her an email requesting a link exchange. In fact, it is fairly common for Googlers, including top well-known Googlers like Matt Cutts, to receive link exchange requests via email.

Susan posted on Google+ the email she received and the response she sent back. Her response was, you and your site violated Google's guidelines and will be reported as such.

Link exchange email request:

Hi, my name is Mary. I came across your website, THEDAME.NET, and would like to propose a link exchange between your sites and [redacted].com. Did you know, exchanging links will generate more traffic to both of our sites. Best of all it's FREE; there is no cost or hidden fee. We simply ask for a link back from a page on your site. Simple enough, don't you think?

Here is Susan's response:

Seriously, Mary? You sent a link exchange request to a member of the Google search team, for a domain that isn't even hosted?? You didn't even look at the site, did you. MAJOR LINKSPAM FAIL. I'm reporting your site to Google for violating our Webmaster Guidelines.

Serious response!

John Mueller from Google said that he gets between 3-4 a week of these a week.

Forum discussion at Google+.

How Google Picks Your Title In Search Results

2012-01-16T01:04:00.000-08:00

PREV STORY NEXT STORY

There are often complaints in the forum that Google is not showing your title tags in the search results properly.

Yesterday, Google wrote a blog post named Better page titles in search results. Here, Pierre Far, explains why Google may pick a different title tag.

In a Google+ post he gives the short version:

Our algorithms generate thee alternative titles so that your page is no longer constrained with having just the one title for all the different queries your page ranks for. This has the nice side effect of making the result look more relevant to our searchers and...
On average, the alternative titles increase the clickthrough rate on the results, i.e. more traffic for you.
The tag is still a primary source for titles we show so all our advice about make them concise and useful and enticing still very much apply. Keep an eye on the HTML Suggestions page in the Diagnostics section in Webmaster Tools for title suggestions.</li></ul><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 19px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 19px; "></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 19px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 19px; ">For a more detailed walk through of this, see the Google Help document on this topic.</p></div><p></p></DIV>

Google Search Algorithm Updates By date

2012-01-16T00:43:00.000-08:00

2012 Updates

Search + Your World - January 10, 2012

Google announced a radical shift in personalization - aggressively pushing Google+ social data and user profiles into SERPs. Google also added a new, prominent toggle button to shut off personalization.

Search, plus Your World (Google)

Real-Life Examples Of How Google’s “Search Plus” Pushes Google+ Over Relevancy (SEL)

January 30-Pack - January 5, 2012

Google announced 30 changes over the previous month, including image search landing-page quality detection, more relevant site-links, more rich snippets, and related-query improvements. The line between an "algo update" and a "feature" got a bit more blurred.

30 search quality highlights - with codenames! (Google)

Google Announces “Megasitelinks,” Image Search Improvements & Better Byline Dates (SEL)

2011 Updates

December 10-Pack - December 1, 2011

Google outlined a second set of 10 updates, announcing that these posts would come every month. Updates included related query refinements, parked domain detection, blog search freshness, and image search freshness. The exact dates of each update were not provided.

Search quality highlights: new monthly series on algorithm changes (Google)

Google: Parked Domains, Scraper Sites Targeted Among New Search Changes (SEL)

Panda 3.1 - November 18, 2011

After Panda 2.5, Google entered a period of "Panda Flux" where updates started to happen more frequently and were relatively minor. Some industry analysts called the 11/18 update 3.1, even though there was no official 3.0. For the purposes of this history, we will discontinue numbering Panda updates except for very high-impact changes.

Google Panda 3.1 Update: 11/18 (SER)

10-Pack of Updates - November 14, 2011

This one was a bit unusual. In a bid to be more transparent, Matt Cutts released a post with 10 recent algorithm updates. It's not clear what the timeline was, and most were small updates, but it did signal a shift in how Google communicates algorithm changes.

Ten recent algorithm changes (Google)

Improved Snippets, Rank Boost For “Official” Pages Among 10 New Google Algorithm Changes (SEL)

Freshness Update - November 3, 2011

Google announced that an algorithm change rewarding freshness would impact up to 35% of queries (almost 3X the publicly stated impact of Panda 1.0). This update primarly affected time-sensitive results, but signalled a much stronger focus on recent content.

Giving you fresher, more recent search results (Google)

Google Search Algorithm Change For Freshness To Impact 35% Of Searches (SEL)

Query Encryption - October 18, 2011

Google announced they would be encrypting search queries, for privacy reasons. Unfortunately, this disrupted organic keyword referral data, returning "(not provided)" for some organic traffic. This number increased in the weeks following the launch.

Making search more secure (Google)

Google Hides Search Referral Data with New SSL Implementation (SEOmoz)

Panda "Flux" - October 5, 2011

Matt Cutts tweeted: "expect some Panda-related flux in the next few weeks" and gave a figure of "~2%". Other minor Panda updates occurred on 10/3, 10/13, and 11/18.

Taking a Closer Look at the Google’s Panda 2.5 “Flux” (SEL)

“Minor” Google Panda Update On November 18th (SEL)

Panda 2.5 - September 28, 2011

After more than month, Google rolled out another Panda update. Specific details of what changed were unclear, but some sites reported large-scale losses.

Confirmed: Google Panda 2.5 Update Arrived This Week (SEL)

Google Panda 2.5: Losers Include Today Show, The Next Web; Winners Include YouTube, Fox News (SEL)

516 Algo Updates - September 21, 2011

This wasn't an update, but it was an amazing revelation. Google CEO Eric Schmidt told Congress that Google made 516 updates in 2010. The real shocker? They tested over 13,000 updates.

Eric Schmidt's Congressional Testimony (SEL)

Pagination Elements - September 15, 2011

To help fix crawl and duplication problems created by pagination, Google introduced the rel="next" and rel="prev" link attributes. Google also announced that they had improved automatic consolidation and canonicalization for "View All" pages.

Pagination with rel=“next” and rel=“prev” (Google)

Google Provides New Options for Paginated Content (SEL)

Expanded Sitelinks - August 16, 2011

After experimenting for a while, Google officially rolled out expanded site-links, most often for brand queries. At first, these were 12-packs, but Google appeared to limit the expanded site-links to 6 shortly after the roll-out.

The evolution of sitelinks: expanded and improved (Google)

Official: Google Sitelinks Expands To 12 Pack (SEL)

Panda Goes Global (2.4) - August 12, 2011

Google rolled Panda out internationally, both for English-language queries globally and non-English queries except for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Google reported that this impacted 6-9% of queries in affected countries.

High-quality sites algorithm launched in additional languages (Google)

Google’s Panda Update Launches Internationally in Most Languages (SEL)

Panda 2.3 - July 23, 2011

Webmaster chatter suggested that Google rolled out yet another update. It was unclear whether new factors were introduced, or this was simply an update to the Panda data and ranking factors.

Official: Google Panda 2.3 Update Is Live (SEL)

A Holistic Look at Panda with Vanessa Fox (Stone Temple)

Google+ - June 28, 2011

After a number of social media failures, Google launched a serious attack on Facebook with Google+. Google+ revolved around circles for sharing content, and was tightly integrated into products like Gmail. Early adopters were quick to jump on board, and within 2 weeks Google+ reached 10M users.

Introducing the Google+ project: Real-life sharing, rethought for the web (Google)

Larry Page On Google+: Over 10 Million Users, 1 Billion Items Being Shared Per Day (TechCrunch)

Panda 2.2 - June 21, 2011

Google continued to update Panda-impacted sites and data, and version 2.2 was officially acknowledged. Panda updates occurred separately from the main index and not in real-time, reminiscent of early Google Dance updates.

Official: Google Panda Update 2.2 Is Live (SEL)

Why Google Panda Is More A Ranking Factor Than Algorithm Update (SEL)

Schema.org - June 2, 2011

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft jointly announced support for a consolidated approach to structured data. They also created a number of new "schemas", in an apparent bid to move toward even richer search results.

Google, Bing & Yahoo Unite To Make Search Listings Richer Through Structured Data (SEL) What is Schema.org? (Schema.org)

Panda 2.1 - May 9, 2011

Initially dubbed “Panda 3.0”, Google appeared to roll out yet another round of changes. These changes weren’t discussed in detail by Google and seemed to be relatively minor.

It’s Panda Update 2.1, Not Panda 3.0, Google Says (SEL)

Google Panda 3.0 (SERoundtable)

Panda 2.0 - April 11, 2011

Google rolled out the Panda update to all English queries worldwide (not limited to English-speaking countries). New signals were also integrated, including data about sites users blocked via the SERPs directly or the Chrome browser.

High-quality sites algorithm goes global, incorporates user feedback (Google)

Panda 2.0: Google Rolls Out Panda Update Internationally & Incorporates Searcher Blocking Data (SEL)

The +1 Button - March 30, 2011

Responding to competition by major social sites, including Facebook and Twitter, Google launched the +1 button (directly next to results links). Clicking [+1] allowed users to influence search results within their social circle, across both organic and paid results.

Recommendations when you want them (Google)

Meet +1: Google's Answer To The Facebook Like Button (SEL)

Panda/Farmer - February 23, 2011

A major algorithm update hit sites hard, affecting up to 12% of search results (a number that came directly from Google). Panda seemed to crack down on thin content, content farms, sites with high ad-to-content ratios, and a number of other quality issues. Panda rolled out over at least a couple of months, hitting Europe in April 2011.

The 'Panda' That Hates Farms: A Q&A With Google's Top Search Engineers (Wired)

Google's Farmer/Panda Update: Analysis of Winners vs. Losers (SEOmoz)

Attribution Update - January 28, 2011

In response to high-profile spam cases, Google rolled out an update to help better sort out content attribution and stop scrapers. According to Matt Cutts, this affected about 2% of queries. It was a clear precursor to the Panda updates.

Algorithm Change Launched (Matt Cutts)

Latest Google Algorithm change (Search News Central)

Overstock.com Penalty - January 2011

In a rare turn of events, a public outing of shady SEO practices by Overstock.com resulted in a very public Google penalty. JCPenney was hit with a penalty in February for similar bad behavior. Both situations represented a shift in Google's attitude and foreshadowed the Panda update.

2010 Updates

Social Signals - December 2010

Google and Bing confirmed that they use social signals in determining ranking, including data from Twitter and Facebook. Matt Cutts confirmed that this was a relatively new development for Google, although many SEOs had long suspected it would happen.

What Social Signals Do Google & Bing Really Count? (SEL)

Google Webmaster Video Reconfirms Use Of Social Signals (SEL)

Negative Reviews - December 2010

After an expose in the New York Times about how e-commerce site DecorMyEyes was ranking based on negative reviews, Google made a rare move and reactively adjusted the algorithm to target sites using similar tactics.

A Bully Finds a Pulpit on the Web (NY Times)

Being bad to your customers is bad for business (Google)

Instant Previews - November 2010

A magnifying glass icon appeared on Google search results, allowing search visitors to quickly view a preview of landing pages directly from SERPs. This signaled a renewed focus for Google on landing page quality, design, and usability.

Beyond Instant Results: Instant Previews (Google)

Google Instant - September 2010

Expanding on Google Suggest, Google Instant launched, displaying search results as a query was being typed. SEOs everywhere nearly spontaneously combusted, only to realize that the impact was ultimately fairly small.

About Google Instant (Google)

Google Instant: Fewer Changes to SEO than the Average Algo Update (SEOmoz)

Brand Update - August 2010

Although not a traditional algorithm update, Google started allowing the same domain to appear multiple times on a SERP. Previously, domains were limited to 1-2 listings, or 1 listing with indented results.

Google Search Results Dominated By One Domain (SEL)

Caffeine (Rollout) - June 2010

After months of testing, Google finished rolling out the Caffeine infrastructure. Caffeine not only boosted Google's raw speed, but integrated crawling and indexation much more tightly, resulting in (according to Google) a 50% fresher index.

Our new search index: Caffeine (Google)

Google’s New Indexing Infrastructure “Caffeine” Now Live (SEL)

May Day - May 2010

In late April and early May, webmasters noticed significant drops in their long-tail traffic. Matt Cutts later confirmed that May Day was an algorithm change impacting the long-tail. Sites with large-scale thin content seemed to be hit especially hard, foreshadowing the Panda update.

Google Search Results Dominated By One Domain (SEL)

Video: Google's Matt Cutts On May Day Update (SERoundtable)

Google Places - April 2010

Although "Places" pages were rolled out in September of 2009, they were originally only a part of Google Maps. The official launch of Google Places re-branded the Local Business Center, integrated Places pages more closely with local search results, and added a number of features, including new local advertising options.

Google Local Business Center Becomes "Google Places" (SEL)

Introducing Google Places (Google)

2009 Updates

Real-time Search - December 2009

This time, real-time search was for real- Twitter feeds, Google News, newly indexed content, and a number of other sources were integrated into a real-time feed on some SERPs. Sources continued to expand over time, including social media.

Google Launches Real Time Search Results (SEL)

Caffeine (Preview) - August 2009

Google released a preview of a massive infrastructure change, designed to speed crawling, expand the index, and integrate indexation and ranking in nearly real-time. The timeline spanned months, with the final rollout starting in the US in early 2010 and lasting until the summer.

Google Caffeine: A Detailed Test of the New Google (Mashable)

Help test some next-generation infrastructure (Google)

Rel-canonical Tag - February 2009

Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo jointly announced support for the Canonical Tag, allowing webmasters to send canonicalization signals to search bots without impacting human visitors.

Learn about the Canonical Link Element in 5 minutes (MattCutts.com)

Canonical URL Tag - The Most Important Advancement in SEO Practices Since Sitemaps (SEOmoz)

Vince - February 2009

SEOs reported a major update that seemed to strongly favor big brands. Matt Cutts called VInce a "minor change", but others felt it had profound, long-term implications.

Big Brands - Google Brand Promotion: New Search Engine Rankings Place Heavy Emphasis on Branding (SEO Book)

Google's Vince Update Produces Big Brand Rankings; Google Calls It A Trust "Change" (SEL)

2008 Updates

Google Suggest - August 2008

In a major change to their logo-and-a-box home-page Google introduced Suggest, displaying suggested searches in a dropdown below the search box as visitors typed their queries. Suggest would later go on to power Google Instant.

Google.com Finally Gets Google Suggest Feature (SEL)

Dewey - April 2008

A large-scale shuffle seemed to occur at the end of March and into early April, but the specifics were unclear. Some suspected Google was pushing its own internal properties, including Google Books, but the evidence of that was limited.

Google's Cutts Asking for Feedback on March/April '08 Update (SERoundtable)

2007 Updates

Buffy - June 2007

In honor of Vanessa Fox leaving Google, the "Buffy" update was christened. No one was quite sure what happened, and Matt Cutts suggested that Buffy was just an accumulation of smaller changes.

Google "Buffy" Update - June Google.com Update (SERoundtable)

SMX Seattle wrap-up (MattCutts.com)

Universal Search - May 2007

While not your typical algorithm update, Google integrated traditional search results with News, Video, Images, Local, and other verticals, dramatically changing their format. The old 10-listing SERP was officially dead. Long live the old 10-listing SERP.

2006 Updates

False Alarm - December 2006

There were stirrings about an update in December, along with some reports of major ranking changes in November, but Google reported no major changes.

Google Update Debunked By Matt Cutts (SERoundtable)

Supplemental Update - November 2006

Throughout 2006, Google seemed to make changes to the supplemental index and how filtered pages were treated. They claimed in late 2006 that supplemental was not a penalty (even if it sometimes felt that way).

Confusion Over Google's Supplemental Index (SERoundtable)

Big Daddy - December 2005

Technically, Big Daddy was an infrastructure update (like the more recent "Caffeine"), and it rolled out over a few months, wrapping up in March of 2006. Big Daddy changed the way Google handled URL canonicalization, redirects (301/302) and other technical issues.

Indexing timeline (MattCutts.com)

Todd, Greg & Matt Cutts on WebMasterRadio (SEOmoz)

Jagger - October 2005

Google released a series of updates, mostly targeted at low-quality links, including reciprocal links, link farms, and paid links. Jagger rolled out in at least 3 stages, from roughly September to November of 2005, with the greatest impact occurring in October.

A Review Of The Jagger 2 Update (SERoundtable)

Dealing With Consequences of Jagger Update (WMW)

Google Local/Maps - October 2005

After launching the Local Business Center in March 2005 and encouraging businesses to update their information, Google merged its Maps data into the LBC, in a move that would eventually drive a number of changes in local SEO.

Google Merges Local and Maps Products (Google)

Gilligan - September 2005

Also called the "False" update ? webmasters saw changes (probably ongoing), but Google claimed no major algorithm update occurred. Matt Cutts wrote a blog post explaining that Google updated (at the time) index data daily but Toolbar PR and some other metrics only once every 3 months.

Google's Cutts Says Not An Update - I Say An Update, Just Not A Dance (SEW)

What?s an update? (MattCutts.com)

Personalized Search - June 2005

Unlike previous attempts at personalization, which required custom settings and profiles, the 2005 roll-out of personalized search tapped directly into users? search histories to automatically adjust results. Although the impact was small at first, Google would go on to use search history for many applications.

Google Relaunches Personal Search - This Time, It Really Is Personal (SEW)

Search gets personal (Google)

XML Sitemaps - June 2005

Google allowed webmasters to submit XML sitemaps via Webmaster Tools, bypassing traditional HTML sitemaps, and giving SEOs direct (albeit minor) influence over crawling and indexation.

New "Google Sitemaps" Web Page Feed Program (SEW)

Bourbon - May 2005

"GoogleGuy" (likely Matt Cutts) announced that Google was rolling out "something like 3.5 changes in search quality." No one was sure what 0.5 of a change was, but Webmaster World members speculated that Bourbon changed how duplicate content and non-canonical (www vs. non-www) URLs were treated.

Google Update "Bourbon" (Batelle Media)

Bourbon Update Survival Kit (SERoundtable)

Allegra - February 2005

Webmasters witnessed ranking changes, but the specifics of the update were unclear. Some thought Allegra affected the "sandbox" while others believed that LSI had been tweaked. Additionally, some speculated that Google was beginning to penalize suspicious links.

Google's Feb. 2005 Update (SEW)

Nofollow - January 2005

To combat spam and control outbound link quality, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft collectively introduce the "nofollow" attribute. Nofollow helps clean up unvouched for links, including spammy blog comments. While not a traditional algorithm update, this change gradually has a significant impact on the link graph.

Google, Yahoo, MSN Unite On Support For Nofollow Attribute For Links (SEW)

2004 Updates

Google IPO - August 2004

Although obviously not an algorithm update, a major event in Google's history - Google sold 19M shares, raised $1.67B in capital, and set their market value at over $20B. By January 2005, Google share prices more than doubled.

Google IPO priced at $85 a share (CNN)

Brandy - February 2004

Google rolled out a variety of changes, including a massive index expansion, Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), increased attention to anchor text relevance, and the concept of link "neighborhoods." LSI expanded Google's ability to understand synonyms and took keyword analysis to the next level.

Google's Brandy Update Exposed (WebProNews)

How To Beat Google's "Brandy" Update (SitePoint)

Austin - January 2004

What Florida missed, Austin came in to clean up. Google continued to crack-down on deceptive on-page tactics, including invisible text and META-tag stuffing. Some speculated that Google put the "Hilltop" algorithm into play and began to take page relevance seriously.

The latest on update Austin (Google's January update) (SEJ)

Google Update Austin: Google Update Florida Again (Search-Marketing.info)

2003 Updates

Florida - November 2003

This was the update that put updates (and probably the SEO industry) on the map. Many sites lost ranking, and business owners were furious. Florida sounded the death knell for low-value late 90s SEO tactics, like keyword stuffing, and made the game a whole lot more interesting.

What Happened To My Site On Google? (SEW)

Supplemental Index - September 2003

In order to index more documents without sacrificing performance, Google split off some results into the "supplemental" index. The perils of having results go supplemental became a hotly debated SEO topic, until the index was later reintegrated.

Search Engine Size Wars & Google's Supplemental Results (SEW)

Fritz - July 2003

The monthly "Google Dance" finally came to an end with the "Fritz" update. Instead of completely overhauling the index on a roughly monthly basis, Google switched to an incremental approach. The index was now changing daily.

Explaining algorithm updates and data refreshes (Matt Cutts)

Exclusive: How Google’s Algorithm Rules the Web (Wired)

Esmerelda - June 2003

This marked the last of the regular monthly Google updates, as a more continuous update process began to emerge. The "Google Dance" was replaced with "Everflux". Esmerelda probably heralded some major infrastructure changes at Google.

Google Update Esmeralda (Kuro5hin)

Dominic - May 2003

While many changes were observed in May, the exact nature of Dominic was unclear. Google bots "Freshbot" and "Deepcrawler" scoured the web, and many sites reported bounces. The way Google counted or reported backlinks seemed to change dramatically.

Understanding Dominic - Part 2 (WMW)

Cassandra - April 2003

Google cracked down on some basic link-quality issues, such as massive linking from co-owned domains. Cassandra also came down hard on hidden text and hidden links.

Google - Update "Cassandra" is here (Econsultancy)

Boston - February 2003

Announced at SES Boston, this was the first named Google update. Originally, Google aimed at a major monthly update, so the first few updates were a combination of algorithm changes and major index refreshes (the so-called "Google Dance"). As updates became more frequent, the monthly idea quickly died.

2002 Updates

1st Documented Update - September 2002

Before "Boston" (the first named update), there was a major shuffle in the Fall of 2002. The details are unclear, but this appeared to be more than the monthly Google Dance and PageRank update. As one webmaster said of Google: "they move the toilet mid stream".

September, 2002 Google Update Discussion - Part 1 (WMW)

Dancing The Google Dance (Level343)

2000 Updates

Google Toolbar - December 2000

Guaranteeing SEO arguments for years to come, Google launched their browser toolbar, and with it, Toolbar PageRank (TBPR). As soon as webmasters started watching TBPR, the Google Dance began.

Google Launches The Google Toolbar (Google)

Buy Tramadol Online

2011-11-27T22:01:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Buy Tramadol Online pharmacy. Here you can buy medicine cheap without having a prior prescription from our easy online prescription service. After completing your first order you will get an email instructing you to call in and verify your order. You will be provided with the number to call in the email. This verification is only needed on the first order. Upon checkout simply fill out our easy secure confidential medical questionaire and a US licensed doctor will review your information. Upon approval your prescription will be sent to a US licensed pharmacy where it will be shipped overnight using discreet packaging. 24/7 support is available for any questions or concerns you may have about our service or your order.

Google Closing Buzz, Jaiku, Labs, Other Websites

2011-10-18T02:31:00.000-07:00

Google is beginning to crack down on whimsy.

Historically, Google’s massive revenues fromadvertising products like AdSense have allowed it to finance a slew of Internet products and Web apps, few (if any) of which make the company any money. This “shotgun approach,” plus a handful of startups it bought out, made the company’s portfolio of online services extremely diverse.

Google is raking in record-setting profits, beating Wall Street expectations and bringing the company’s stock up to nearly $600 a share. Despite this, it’s decided to close the doors on a number of its services, including last year’s precursor to Google+: Google Buzz.

Google Buzz

“Start conversations about the things you find interesting.” That’s the tagline for Google’s soon-to-be-shut-down social networking service, but not an explanation for why anyone would use it over Twitter and Facebook. And while it’s built in to Google’s popular webmail service, Gmail, it also caused a “privacy nightmare,” according to Molly Wood of CNet. Buzz users found themselves sharing their photos, locations, and contact lists with everyone they knew — even stalkers — without realizing it, leading to a class action lawsuit Google finally settled for $8.5 million.

Google says it will close Google Buzz “in a few weeks,” and that users will be able to download their personal data from it using Google Takeout.

Jaiku

Jaiku promises to let you “Create your own microblog and connect with your friends.” It succeeded at the first part, but was rapidly eclipsed by Twitter, so chances are you can’t really connect with your friends there. Its blog hasn’t even been updated since 2009, making Jaiku’s Jan. 15 shutdown a mercy kill.

Google Labs

Google Labs was Google’s catch-all site for experiments, including the Google Body anatomy app and an interactive story creator called Breadcrumb. Labs featured Google’s most whimsical products, few of which caught on but many of which interested their users. Google Labs products that turned into Android apps will stay on the Android Market, but Labs itself has already been shut down. (“Labs” sections on apps such as Gmail are separate, and are not being taken down.)

Code Search

Google’s Code Search lets programmers search for open-source code across the web, using a complex interface. It’s being pulled down along with Jaiku on Jan. 15.

IGoogle’s social features

IGoogle is Google’s “home page” offering. With the rise of Google+, it will no longer have its own dedicated social networking features starting on Jan. 15.

Google Search University Research Program

This program “provides API access to (Google) search results for a small number of approved academic researchers.” Unlike App Inventor, another Google product used in education (and being closed down), Google will apparently not be working with any educators to keep it alive in open-source form.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

Webmaster Tools Search Queries data is now available in Google Analytics

2011-10-05T02:26:00.001-07:00

Webmaster level: All

Earlier this year we announced a limited pilot for Search Engine Optimization reports in Google Analytics, based on Search queries data from Webmaster Tools. Thanks to valuable feedback from our pilot users, we’ve made several improvements and are pleased to announce that the following reports are now publicly available in the Traffic Sources section of Google Analytics.

Queries: impressions, clicks, position, and CTR info for the top 1,000 daily queries
Landing Pages: impressions, clicks, position, and CTR info for the top 1,000 daily landing pages
Geographical Summary: impressions, clicks, and CTR by country

All of these Search Engine Optimization reports offer Google Analytics’ advanced filtering and visualization capabilities for deeper data analysis. With the secondary dimensions, you can view your site’s data in ways that aren’t available in Webmaster Tools.

To enable these Search Engine Optimization reports for a web property, you must be both a Webmaster Tools verified site owner and a Google Analytics administrator of that Property. Once enabled, administrators can choose which profiles can see these reports.

If you have feedback or suggestions, please let us know in the Webmaster Help Forum.

Google Launches Trusted Stores Program

2011-10-05T02:25:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Google launched a new program – Google Trusted Sites. The program, which is aimed at reducing the risks associated with online shopping, will help consumers locate online stores that provide excellent customer service. Tom Fallows, a product manager for the Google Commerce Team said the following:

“The Google Trusted Store badge is awarded to e-commerce sites that demonstrate a track record of on-time shipping and excellent customer service. When visiting a qualifying store, shoppers can hover over the Google Trusted Store badge and see metrics on the store’s shipping and customer service performance.”

Currently, Google is testing the Trusted Sites program with several initial test partners including:O.co, Wayfair, BabyAge.com, and Beach Audio. Over the next several months, Google will perform extensive testing of the badges and other aspects of the program to determine the overall impact of the new program on the test sites. All of the merchants included in the program are required to share information with Google related to customer service and shipping.

The Google Trusted Store badge, which is displayed prominently on websites that are participating in the new program, simultaneously instills trust and provides consumers with information related to the ecommerce site. When a customer mouses over the Trusted Stores badge, information related to the store’s customer service, shipping times, number of transactions, and the Google purchase protection plan appear in a new window.

To be considered for the Google Trusted Store program, merchants should fill out an applicationon the official Trusted website. In the coming months, Google will be expanding this program to include more merchants. Once a merchant is accepted to the Trusted Stores program, Google will provide the merchant with an official badge to display and offer the merchant’s customers up to $1,000 of purchase protection.

[Sources Include: Google Commerce Blog & Google Trusted Stores]

Google Panda 2.5 Update

2011-10-04T03:45:00.001-07:00

Earlier last week, Google pushed out an update to theGoogle Panda algorithm.

I didn't see it before going offline for the holiday but Google confirmed the update based on a WebProNewsstory featuring DaniWeb getting hit again by the update.

In fact, Dani from DaniWeb posted in the Google Webmaster Help forums complaining:

However, we were hit again on Wednesday, September 28th, once again losing more than half of our traffic. I think this might even be a bigger hit than last time. I am still investigating whether or not this was another iteration of Panda that just went out or something different?

Wow, lost half their traffic again, after all that work to get back in!

SearchMetrics released their stats on who was hit the hardest by this update and Danny has a good summary of that at Search Engine Land.

Google said this update hit sometime on Tuesday and people started to take notice on Wednesday. Google confirmed it on Thursday.

Here is the update history:

Panda 2.5 on September 28th
Panda 2.4 in August
Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
Panda 1.0 on February 24th

For more on the Google Panda update, see our Google Panda category.

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums, WebmasterWorld, Sphinn, and Google Webmaster Help.

Real Time Google Analytics

2011-10-04T03:44:00.001-07:00

Thursday, while I was offline again, Google announced a cool new feature to Google Analytics to show real time statistics.

Google launched "Google Analytics Real-Time: a set of new reports that show what's happening on your site as it happens." Here is a screen shot:

Some of you may see this feature now, for those that don't - you can sign up to get access to it early over here. Until then, be on the lookout for it.

How real time are these real time reports? People are saying about 3-4 hour delay. So that does not seem all that real time to me, does it?

They also launched Google Analytics Premium for more services and support at a cost.

Forum discussion at Google Analytics Help, DigitalPoint Forums, WebmasterWorldand Sphinn.

Helicopter View Added To Google Maps

2011-10-04T03:35:00.000-07:00

Google added some new design and feature elements to Google Maps.

Helicopter View is one of the cool features Google added last week. It basically flies you through your driving directions. Google said, "Using the 3D preview; however, you can get aerial view of the route, as if you were in a helicopter flying above the road."

Here is a video of it in action:

Google also cleaned up the design of Google Maps. Many small tweaks here and there. This is documented in this blog post.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Facebook’s New Advertising Strategy Is Brilliant and Unexpected

2011-10-04T03:34:00.000-07:00

Facebook and Google get compared a lot these days, but with its new advertising strategy, Facebook is adapting Google’s ad strategy to its social media.

Improving advertising on the popular social network is not a new or particularly innovative idea. Still the transition from advertising as a message-delivering medium to a platform for social sharing is a radical departure for Facebook. It could be the Facebook advertising solution that turns advertising partners (brands) into better social media communicators and gets Facebook members to start recommending and sharing advertisers as much as they do they latest cat video.

As for the Google comparison. Recall that in the early days, Google had a choice: Take money from advertisers for higher search rankings or ignore such offers and focus on making its search engine the best it could be.

Google at first didn’t know how it would make money. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin figured that if they built a better mousetrap, the money would eventually flow. And it did.

Like Google, Facebook didn’t invent a category, it refined it. Friendster and MySpace predated Facebook just like Yahoo and Alta Vista came before Google. Like Google, Facebook figured that if it got enough people on board and continually improved its social network, eventually it would figure out a way to make money.

Facebook’s overtures at first were clumsy. Beacon, the advertising platform Facebook introduced in 2007, informed all your friends when you made potentially embarrassing purchases or rentals on Blockbuster and other retail partners — and was eventually shuttered. Since then, Facebook seems content cashing in on its huge user base via display advertising.

SEE ALSO: The History of Advertising on Facebook [INFOGRAPHIC]

Now, however, Facebook’s ad strategy is becoming clear. And it’s not only brilliant, it’s unexpected. Facebook’s strategy, like Google’s, is to not only improve its network and experience, but improve the advertising as well. Now, that’s not so clever, admittedly. The really interesting part is the way Facebook plans to improve it: by making brand Pages better.

Why? Facebook doesn’t make a dime on any of the Pages set up by advertisers. As a marketer, you could do quite well for yourself by running a brand Page and never buying a single ad. But you could only do so well. The reason you will have to buy ads on Facebook goes to the heart of why you need to advertise in the first place.

A few years ago, I wrote a story about the marketing for Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith the last movie (by release date, not chronologically) in the Star Wars franchise. I was genuinely baffled as to why Lucasfilm was putting such a heavy advertising push behind the movie. I mean, after all, didn’t everyone who cared already know that the movie was coming out?

Jim Ward, Lucasfilm’s vice president of marketing at the time, though, told me the stakes were huge for that movie. If the studio did absolutely no advertising, it would likely lose $110 million or so in box office returns. “What we need to do is go beyond the core audience, not only from a box office perspective but from a brand-management perspective,” he told me at the time.

In other words: You don’t need to let Star Wars fans know that a Star Wars movie is coming out, but you do need to target all those millions of people who are on the fence about Star Wars or are too young to remember it.

The same is true for any brand that really wants to grow. You will get only so far keeping your base happy. What you need to do is reach beyond them.

It turns out that approaching friends of that base may be the best way to do this. Why? Think back to the last time a friend convinced you to take a flyer on a new product or maybe made you think of an old brand in a new way. For instance, I have a friend who is a total Mac-head who surprised me last year when he said that Windows 7 was as good as the Mac OS. Movies are another good example. Have you ever written off a new movie only to be completely turned around when a friend told you it was actually really good? (Of course, this cuts the other way, too.)

That’s the thinking behind two new announcements Facebook is making this week. One is a new ad unit. The other is a set of metrics that will help administrators create better brand Pages.

The combination of the two reveals where Facebook’s thinking is going. Facebook is putting pressure on advertisers to create better content for their brand Pages. If they do, those brands will have a better chance of winning over friends of fans either by advertising or by creating something viral. It’s a cycle that has the potential to redefine the way we interact with brands. From now on, brands will be friends or friends of friends rather than spammers trying to bombard your consciousness.

Social media is still new, but so was search once. While figuring out how to make money off of search seems obvious in retrospect, it clearly wasn’t at the time. In the same way, someday we’ll look back at how Facebook invented social media advertising and wonder why no one thought of it sooner.

HOW TO: Leverage LinkedIn for Your SEO Campaign

2011-10-04T03:33:00.000-07:00

Erin Everhart is the director of web and social media marketing at the digital marketing and web design company,352 Media Group. Connect with her on Twitter @erinever.

There are two ways to conquer web marketing: good content and even better relationships. The problem is, any SEO pro has already identified this.

Try targeting blogs as link resources. Not only do people trust blogs, they’re one of the most effective ways to both build your brand awareness and get high-quality content links that point back to your website. On the other hand, blogs are often overrun with coverage and link requests from online marketers. If you have any chance of getting your content to the top of the pile, you’ll have to find unique ways to reach your bloggers — and LinkedIn is just the tool to help you do it.

Let’s say you’re working on an SEO strategy for a new restaurant in Atlanta. Part of your promotion is to encourage different local food bloggers to tour the restaurant, sample the menu and then write a review. The first term you’ll use to search is “food blogs in Atlanta.” After scrolling through a few of pages, you’ll have a decent stock of sites. Unfortunately, they’re the same sites your competitors have encountered too.

So instead of backing into content relationships, try using LinkedIn as a search tool. By manipulating its search filters, you can target specific keywords and narrow by location. A search for “food writer” in the greater Atlanta area produces more than 650 results. Taking into account that maybe 40% aren’t going to be relevant because they’ve changed companies or don’t provide an ideal content match, you’re still left with a suitable sample of people.

Sticking with our Atlanta restaurant example, there are other searches you can use to bring about results. Search with and without quotation marks to ensure you’re finding as many people as possible.

“Food” filtered by location and/or writing and editing professions
“Food blog” or “food blogger,” filtered by location
“Food editor,” filtered by location

Maybe you have already pinpointed the company or website from which you’d like to gain coverage, but their staff page is on lockdown, and the only contact information you can glean is a generic info@domain.com. Don’t waste time writing and sending an email that will likely never get returned — or even read for that matter. Find that company on LinkedIn and search for its employees. If those people have blogger, writer, blog owner, journalist or editor on their profile, it’s time to make connections.

Sean Parker Joins Twitter, With An Apology to Zuckerberg

2011-10-04T03:32:00.001-07:00

Napster co-founder and former Facebook president Sean Parker is appearing in our newsfeeds with increasing frequency these days.

First, there was the Forbes cover. Then there were the Facebook ads asking users to “Like” Sean Parker on Facebook, which Gawker discovered was part of an effort to build up buzz for an upcoming blog. On Monday, we learned Rhapsody had signed an agreement to acquire Napster, the music-sharing site he helped start (though there is some dispute about his exact role, and whether he was a co-founder of the business along with creator Shawn Fanning) at age 19.

Parker sent his first tweet Monday afternoon, apparently apologizing to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for joining a rival service. It reads: “Sorry Zuck, I had to do it eventually. (Actually @scooterbraun made me do it.)” Scooter Braun is Justin Bieber’s manager.

As The Next Web points out, Parker has been planning his Twitter debut for some time. His account already has verified status. He has amassed 3,600 followers and counting at the time of writing.

The question is: Why now? Is he seriously invested in his forthcoming blog launch? Or is he suddenly interested in making himself better known? One possibility: it was revealed last week that Parker is working on a new live video startup called Airtime, so his social media presence may be all about promoting an eventual product launch.

In the meantime, we wonder how many followers he’ll have by the end of the day Monday. My bet: 60,000.

Google UK Shopping Displaying US Results?

2011-10-04T03:31:00.001-07:00

There are recent complaints at WebmasterWorld that Google Shopping / Product Search in the UK is showing way too many U.S. based stores.

One Google Merchant said:

I'm seeing this more and more recently. If I do a search for something (I'm based in the UK and using google.co.uk searching 'the web' rather than just UK results), I used to see primarily UK-based results - especially if the search was product/shopping based.
Now I'm seeing lots of US sites in the results, and as a user it's very frustrating.
From a webmaster's point of view it's also highly frustrating. The question is if this is a temporary situation or if Google has truly lost the plot in terms of some of the results it's showing.

Many other webmasters confirmed seeing the same issue. I personally cannot replicate the issue, but maybe that is because either it is fixed or I am searching on the wrong words?

Do you find this to be an issue?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

HOW TO: Reduce the Spam in Your Inbox, Mailbox and Voicemail

2011-10-04T03:30:00.001-07:00

Pretty much anyone — man, woman or child — has at some point received an email telling them they weren’t sufficiently endowed. This is spam, and it sucks.

Spam is one of the Internet constants that comes with being a digital citizen, but it extends into our analog lives as well. Have an email account, mailbox or phone number? You’ve probably received unsolicited or unwanted messages and promotions from magazines, companies, strangers, etc. hoping to grab your attention.

There are dozens of origin stories for how “spam” got its name. Spam was first the name of a food product better known for being gross than for being “ham.” It got a bad reputation for it’s bland taste, cheap price and presumably low-quality contents. Some say it’s those qualities which made “spam” the apt nickname for the low-quality, nondescript messages that fill up our inboxes — digital and otherwise.

It has since taken on several less-than-kind acronyms such as “Sales Promotion and Marketing,” “Short Pointless Annoying Messages” and “Stupid Person’s AdvertiseMents.”

So how do you get rid of the spam in your life? We’ve got some quick tips on how to cut down your email spam, junk mail and unsolicited phone calls.

Twitter Revenue Projections: A Mixed Report

2011-09-30T02:15:00.000-07:00

According to a recent eMarketer report, Twitter’s 2011 advertising revenues will fall short of the earlier $150 million projection. However, when compared to Twitter’s $45 million of revenue in 2010, the revised 2011 projected revenues of $139.5 million represent a growth rate of 210%.

The primary reason Twitter will not meet the $150 million projection is a delay in rolling out a “self-serve” ad platform. Debra Aho Williamson, an eMarketer analyst, said the following of the “self-serve” platform’s role in Twitter’s revenue growth:

“Twitter is looking to compete for the same advertisers that made Google and Facebook’s self-serve advertising platforms smash hits. Self-serve advertising accounts for about 60% of Facebook’s ad revenue—that’s a pinnacle Twitter will hope to reach as well.”

While the revised 2011 revenue projection shows decreased revenues, the report provided positive news as well. It predicted that Twitter would reach annual revenues of over $400 million by the year 2013. In addition, the report stated that Twitter had been able to produce better advertisement engagement than some of its competition.

Twitter will look to draw new advertisers to the program with new features and continue leveraging its user base that includes celebrities, politicians, and journalists. Recently, Twitter announced that they would display promoted tweets at the top of timelines whether or not the Twitter user “follows” the advertiser. In addition, one week ago, Twitter launched its new political advertisement program, which is likely to produce substantial revenues during the 2012 election cycle.

While increasing revenues is a major focus, Twitter has stated on multiple occasions that the user experience is paramount. As Twitter looks for ways to increase revenue and meet projections, they will simultaneously attempt to preserve the simple nature of the micro-blogging service and keep users engaged.

Twitter recently raised $400 million of Series G funding on an $8 billion dollar valuation and is expected to continue steady user and revenue growth moving forward.

Google Fixes Answer For When Rosh Hashanah Starts

2011-09-29T04:27:00.000-07:00

Last week, there was a complaint in the Google Web Search Help forum that Google's answer to the question [When is Rosh Hashanah in 2011] was wrong.

The user said:

Google in nice enough to give the answer "Rosh Hashana is on Thursday, September 29, 2011"
where is google getting their info from? are they making it up? any one of the results on the page shows clearly that it start on Sept 28th!!!

Truth is, the first "day" of Rosh Hashanah is September 29th but the new Jewish day starts at night - so the answer should be the first night of of Rosh Hashanah is September 28th.

Google listened and updated the result to read, "Rosh Hashanah starts at sunset on Wednesday, September 28, 2011."

Here is a picture:

Albert from Google replied to the thread saying:

Thanks for the clarification on Jewish holidays! We'll be including a disclaimer saying that it begins at sundown of the previous day when we deliver dates for these days. Should be pushed out in the not-too-distant future.

Very quick indeed and glad Google got this up so fast.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Tomorrow's Google Webmaster Hangout Details

2011-09-29T04:26:00.000-07:00

Google is hosting yet another "Webmaster Hangout" tomorrow. This time it is at 11AM UK time for one hour.

Pierre Far from Google posted the details on Google + and Google Webmaster Help saying:

I'm hosting a webmaster help hangout tomorrow (Thursday, 29 September) at 11AM UK time for one hour. For your local time, see this: http://goo.gl/1y84r
Join in with your questions about crawling, indexing, Sitemaps, duplicate content and canonicalization, Webmaster Tools, pagination, or anything else webmaster-related really, even if you just want to say hi :)
Will be in English.

So check back at the thread or Google + for the link to the hangout around 11am UK time, which is 6am EDT.

The cool part is that this is not about Google + or +1 button, it is about pure SEO stuff.

Forum discussion at Google + and Google Webmaster Help.

Check Payment Details For YouTube AdSense Earnings

2011-09-29T04:25:00.000-07:00

There has always been complaints about how YouTube AdSense earnings are represented in the AdSense reports. The issue is, the earnings publishers make from their videos are always delayed and thus do not show up on the daily reports.

The best way to see your YouTube earnings is to go to the payment screen and click on "details." It will open up the details of how you were paid out. Here is a screen capture:

This question was just recently brought up again in the Google AdSense Help forums based on Google announcing they are retiring the old interface.

AdSense engineer, Guillaume, explained:

YouTube earnings are visible in the payment history of the new interface. You should see the same number as in the old interface in one of the two line items on each month, under the "YouTube" label visible after clicking "details".
It's difficult to do better, because YouTube earnings are available only on a monthly basis to AdSense, while the new interface is designed for more granular data (daily).

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Google: Parking Your WWW Domain Will Hurt Your Site

2011-09-28T04:21:00.000-07:00

I see it way too often... A site where the www of the domain simply does not work. In some cases, the www version goes to a 404 page or a parked domain page, whereas the non www version goes to the proper site.

A Google Webmaster Help thread has a Googler saying this can be very bad for your site's performance in Google.

Gary Illyes from Google said, "it may very well affect your site in a negative way. I strongly suggest you to fix it." Gary was referring to how the non www version of his domain went to a parked domain.

Gary said:

Do you know why your domain name is parked? http://realclayovens.co.uk/
This is a very bad user experience and may very well confuse our algorithms as well. If you want to serve content only on the www version of your site, it would make sense to 301 redirect realclayovens.co.uk to www.realclayovens.co.uk

This may be common sense for most SEOs and some webmasters, but sometimes it is good to have this documented as proof.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Image from Stephen Finn/Shutterstock.

Google May Drop Keyboard Navigation Arrows

2011-09-28T04:19:00.001-07:00

Last October, Google released a new interface and along with that came blue triangle arrows used with the keyboard to navigate up and down the search results with your up and down arrow keys.

Reports are coming from the Google Web Search Help forums that Google may be removing this feature.

Some users began noticing the arrows have gone missing, in which Matt from Google replied:

We've removed the keyboard navigation arrow from the default search experience. But don't fear! This feature is still available by pressing "Tab" after performing a search. This change is part of the clean and simple redesign of our search results page.

Honestly, I still see the arrows and I think Google may have changed their mind and put the arrows back after these few complaints. I am not a 100% sure, but I am pretty sure Google may be keeping them and not dropping them, despite what Matt (not Cutts) said from Google.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

f8: Facebook Unveils Next Version of Open Graph

2011-09-22T23:56:00.001-07:00

The next version of open graph will be a “completely new class of apps,” says Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

“[We're] going to make it so you can connect to anything you want in any way you want,” he says.

Basically you don’t have to “like” everything. You can just read a book, watch a movie, eat a meal, etc. That’s the way he describes it.

You’ll start seeing things like:

Mark “reviewed” a restaurant.

“Last year we added the nouns, this year we added the verbs,” he says.

This stuff goes into ticker and timeline, but not the news feed, as to make it less annoying.

The new class of apps will focus on helping users fill out their timeline and helping users discover new things through their friends. The three ways they’ll do this, he says, will be frictionless experiences, realtime serendipity and finding patterns in friends’ activity.

Apps will be designed around things like music, movies, TV, News, Books, etc. but also around things like Exercise, Fashion, Emotions, and other lifestyle categories.

All of Facebook’s new music whisperings we’ve been hearing about are based on this. Various music services are simply taking advantage (like Spotify, Slacker Radio and others). You can listen to songs at the same time your friend is, with the track synced up.

There is a music timeline view on people’s timelines where you can see your friends’ musical tastes.

Google +1 Button To Influence AdSense & Display Ads

2011-09-22T04:14:00.000-07:00

Google is now bringing the +1 button to AdSense and display ads within the Google ad network. You will start to see the +1 button on these ads in October.

Google said, "+1's will be one additional signal that help determine an ad’s relevance." Not only that, if a friend of yours +1'ed an ad, they will see their friend's face on the ad and maybe, the ad will more likely show up for your friends.

Here is a picture:

Pamela Parker has a deeper look at this at Search Engine Land where she has a nice quote from Google:

"When an ad is personally annotated, there's a positive impact on click-through rate," Christian Oestlien, Lead Product Manager for Social Advertising, told me. "You get this great win of users becoming advocates for your product...you can take advantage of social and you don't need to come up with new metrics. All of this is baked into all of your existing ad campaigns."

You can block these from showing on ads, if you like.

There is a detailed help document on the details of this over here.

Some folks at WebmasterWorld are calling this as if Google is crossing over the "creepy line again."

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Share "Cool" Web Search Ideas With Google

2011-09-22T04:13:00.000-07:00

Google is actively seeking "cool" ideas for the future of Google web search.

Matt Cutts wrote a blog post named What cool new websearch ideas should Google launch in 2012? and JohnMu started a thread at Google Webmaster Helpwith the same question.

John asked:

The web-search team is always on the lookout for cool new ideas that you - as a user - would love to see realized.
To me, things like search-by-image & voice-search are pretty futuristic (kind of what I'd have expected in 2020), what similarly cool features would you like to see? What feature do you think your parents could profit from? What's something that would have helped you to find something you were searching for faster & easier? Don't be afraid to think big :-).

Matt asked, "what cool things would you like to see Google launch in 2012?"

One of the cooler ideas I've seen was "Search for the Smell."

So share your ideas at Matt's blog or in the forum thread.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Yahoo Bing Transitions In Asian Markets

2011-09-22T04:11:00.001-07:00

Yahoo announced they have made the transition from Yahoo powered search results to Bing powered results in the Asian markets.

These markets include Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam but exclude Korea.

Yahoo also said the transition for the organic results in Greece, Poland, Romania, Switzerland (German, French and Italian languages) and Turkey are complete.

I am not sure when the paid search side will be transitions, there have been issues on that front - from what I understand.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Panda 2.5 Hits? Nope!

2011-09-21T04:08:00.001-07:00

There are some rumors shuffling around the SEO industry that there is a new Google Panda update taking place right now.

Update: Google said there is no update taking place right now.

Tedster started a thread at WebmasterWorld asking, "I'm hearing some reports of site-wide ranking demotions over the weekend that have a similar pattern to what we saw with Panda. That is, lots of keywords affected, but the demotions are not at all uniform the way we often see in a site-wide penalty."

One full time member confirmed some major changes, saying:

Sustained dip on sites with a local relevance, beginning on the 17th, maintained through today.
Sustained 40-50% increase on niche-info type sites, started on the 13th, maintained through today. (on sites I watch, this generic site action/reaction is typical within 4-10 days after a large googlebot crawl)

Plus, in ongoing Google Webmaster Help thread we have new reports of new sites being hit by Panda.

We do have some recoveries being reported but at the same time, some new sites were hit.

The big question is, can I get Google to confirm or deny this and if so, did you guys notice a new Panda update?

For more on Panda, see our Panda category and here are some of the major updates to Panda:

Panda 2.4 in August
Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
Panda 1.0 on February 24th

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & Google Webmaster Help.

Update: Google told me, "There was no update in the past couple days. The most recent update was in August, when we rolled out the algorithm change internationally to most languages."

Google Wallet launched

2011-09-21T04:07:00.000-07:00

If you have a Sprint Nexus S 4G phone, you should see the "Wallet" icon on your device. Other devices will get it soon, but they need near field communication (NFC) built into the device, which many new phones are coming with.

What is it? Here is a quick video from Google explaining:

There have been rumors about this service since 2005 and now it is finally here.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, where one user said "goog can stay far away from my wallet."

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums and WebmasterWorld.

The 20-Minute (Or Less) SEO Audit

2011-09-21T01:41:00.000-07:00

Sniffing out most of a website’s basic search-engine-optimization problems can be done in 20 minutes or less if you know what you’re doing. Here are the essentials for an effective and fast SEO audit.

I’ll warn you now that reading this guide might take a bit more time than it does to actually perform the SEO audit itself. But by the time you finish reading, you will be fully prepared to improve a site’s visibility. Take good notes as you complete the audit; you’ll need them to prioritize optimization tasks.

There’s also an easy-to-follow chart you can you or others through the process.

This guide is broken into the following components:

Adjusting your browser
Evaluating your homepage
Testing the site’s global navigation
Reviewing category and subcategory pages
Checking for optimized content
Analyzing your site’s off-page SEO
The 20-Minute-or-Less SEO Audit infographic

Adjusting Your Browser

In order to perform a high-powered search audit in 20 minutes, you need to know if your site has crawling errors.

To figure this out, disable JavaScript and cookies via your browser’s option settings as shown below (in Firefox).

By disabling JavaScript, you’re essentially viewing your site the way a search engine sees it. If there are JavaScript or Ajax-based elements missing in this mode, it’s very likely that your website has crawling issues.

Also, by disabling cookies on your browser, you see the page exactly the way it is seen by people who choose to disable cookies, a not-insignificant audience. Browse your site noting pages that have restricted access. You might have to reevaluate your cookie strategy.

Nearly 70% of all searches occur on Google, so it makes sense to view your website from Google’s point of view. Do this by installing User Agent Switcher for Firefox and changing your user agent to GoogleBot 2.1. Give your site another run-through with Googlebot as your user agent to see if your website displays content other than the content shown as a default user agent. If so, your site could be seen as cloaking, which can get your site penalized and even banned.

Evaluating Your Homepage

As the saying goes, first impressions are lasting impressions. The same is true for first visits, so a thorough evaluation of your homepage is absolutely critical.

Get into the mindset of a casual visitor. Scroll down your homepage and see what feelings and thoughts occur as you view it. Does the homepage feel trustworthy? Would you refer it to a friend or relative? Would you use your credit card on the site? These same types of questions should be asked of every page.

In fact, Google asked them along with some others before releasing its highly publicized Panda update this year. Panda was aimed at improving the quality of search results. As a result, your main search concern should be the experience that your homepage provides.

Last and probably most important, you will want to make sure there aren’t any duplicate-content or canonical issues associated with the homepage. Check to see that your site doesn’t have the following problems:

A homepage (primary) URL that redirects to another site or an irrelevant page
The homepage title tag is duplicated on another page or that’s just not effective
There’s a www (www.yoursite.com) version and non-www (http://yoursite.com) version of your site.

Finally for this section, check the homepage with JavaScript on and off. Take note of any missing elements that would take away from a user’s experience. A good user-experience is highly valued by the search engines and is rewarded with better rankings in search results.

Testing the Website’s Global Navigation

The global navigation is the set of links that can be accessed from any page on a website. Your global navigation also distributes your link juice, or the power that the search engines assign your website, across the pages of your site. Therefore, you will want to check that everything is intact in these links.

Again, start by disabling JavaScript before accessing your site. Check to see if all your global navigation links are working properly and, for the most part, are all HTML links, as these are the type of links that bestow the most link juice.

Now, enable your JavaScript to see if your JavaScript and Ajax-based navigation work as well. Note any errors with your global navigation at first glance, but for the sake of time you don’t have to review every single link in your global navigation.

Review Your Category and Subcategory Pages

There should be rhyme and reason to each page on a website. Your primary goal is to make sure that each page has enough (good) content to make it a worthy link in and of itself. Ask yourself if people would even search for this content. If so, you probably have enough justification to create a category page or subcategory page.

A category page serves as an overview of the main category. While some sub-category details are mentioned, most in-depth information is the relevant subcategory pages. This not only gives meaning and reason for the subcategory pages, it also allows for maximum ranking in the search results.

After assessing your content, determine if your design layout is readable. Do eyesores interfere? Are there too many chunky blocks of texts — are words too close together? Are there too many lines of uninterrupted text? Is there little spacing between lines? Are line lengths so long they exhaust your eyes?

You’ll want to check that you’re properly linking to your other main and subcategory pages, too. Be conscious of your website’s link juice and avoid hyperlinking to meaningless pages. Also make sure that you’re using an anchor-text nomenclature that provides for optimal click-through rates and search-engine indexation.

Checking For Optimized Content

Done with your high-level assessment of your site, it’s time to get into the nitty gritty elements of your content. Check to see if the following elements follow best practices:

Title tags

○ No more than 75 characters

○ Proper and consistent formatting

○ No duplication

○ Keyword-specific

○ Easy to read and understand from results pages

Meta descriptions

○ Though they aren’t used as signals for ranking higher in results, a well-written meta description improves click-through rates, which is a signal for ranking higher

○ URLs

○ Contain keywords specific to the page

○ Short, human-eye friendly

○ Easy to remember

Alt tags for images

○ Contain keywords

○ Describe the image

○ Read properly in a screen reader, which improves accessibility for the visually impaired

H1 and H2 tags

○ Proper but not abusive use of keywords in header tags

○ Effectively breaks up content into scanable chunks

Limited use of Flash & JavaScript

○ These languages still lead to crawling and indexing issues

These HTML elements may seem small and meaningless to the average person, but anyone seasoned wouldn’t disregard their importance. Enough studies suggest that there’s a high correlation between optimizing the elements and higher search rankings. Go after these on-page weaknesses immediately. They are the easiest and least time-consuming to fix.

Analyzing Your Website’s Off-Page SEO

No audit is complete until you have analyzed its off-page optimizations. I strongly recommend subscribing to SEOmoz for its comprehensive SEO software package. Premium account holders are granted access to one of my favorite off-page analysis tools, Open Site Explorer. Just enter your target URL, and it will access SEOmoz’s web index to gather site data.

Here is the information you’ll want:

Page Authority and Domain Authority
Total Links and Link Root Domains (the number of different domains linking to your page)
Anchor text distribution of inbound links
Facebook likes/shares and tweets

Compare this information to competitors that are experiencing better success in search results. You might discover that your competitors are beating you in crucial off-page SEO categories.

Next, you’ll also want to determine how well your site has been indexed by the search engines. For a relatively new site, I like to throw in a few competitive keywords in SEOBook’s Rank Tracker to see if my site’s URLs are ranking in the three major search engines.

If your site doesn’t show up at all in the results on Rank Checker, consider that:

Your website simply does not rank for the keyword
You haven’t submitted a site map to the search engines
Your page has been de-indexed
Your site has been banned from search indexes

The latter two issues are more serious, and require urgent attention.

For a de-indexed page, check the source to make sure that a developer hasn’t accidentally inserted a noindex tag or prevented the page from being crawled/indexed by the search engines with overzealous editing of the robot.txt file.

If you’re not sure if your website was banned by the search engines, it’s as easy as doing a branded search query. If you’re not appearing in the search results you’ve most likely done something to anger the search engine gods. Submit a re -inclusion request to Google.

As you wrap up this last step, make sure that your site has no duplicate content. Paste content from your site into a search bar and place quotes around it. Submit to see if that content appears elsewhere on your site or on the Web. You can also use the Google Webmaster Tool to see if there are any reported duplicate title-tags issues.

Duplicate content is an important issue to check for during an audit. Any pages with duplicate content or title tags have the potential to compete with each other in results. In these instances, you’re leaving it to the search engines to decide which page is the correct one. Too many times the search engine selects the one with outdated or incorrect information. This is a bad your site search rank and your visitors.

Once You’ve Finished This Guide…

Review your notes, and create a prioritized checklist. I always recommend fixing the low-energy/high-yielding items first before working on more complicated and time-consuming issues.

Last, print a copy of the accompanying infographic for quick referencing. And as an added bonus, you can conveniently copy the HTML code snippet below and paste it onto your website for easy blog posting.

Google+ opens to all

2011-09-21T00:30:00.000-07:00

It's two days before Facebook's developer conference and one before Google Chairman Eric Schmidt gives his testimony on Capitol Hill. So it's good timing for a big Google+ announcement before there's competing big news. Yes, there's the new Hangout features that my colleague Tim Conneally wrote about earlier today. But this is better: Now most anyone can join Google+. Well, damn, there goes the neighborhood. :)
Google+ has moved from field trial to public beta, whatever the hell that means. It's a big change for a social network just three months old and already 20-million-plus subscribers strong. The real test of Google's infrastructure comes now -- then there's the question about how the service will demographically change. Looking at my Circles, they're all geek to me. I don't know if there's a normal person on the service. Here they come!
Earlier today, Vic Gundotra, Google senior veep of Engineering, blogged about the now 100 enhancements made since field trials began in late June.

"For the past 12 weeks we’ve been in field trial, and during that time we’ve listened and learned a great deal", he writes. "We’re nowhere near done, but with the improvements we’ve made so far we’re ready to move from field trial to beta, and introduce our 100th feature: open signups. This way anyone can visit google.com/+, join the project and connect with the people they care about".

Public beta comes just as negative Google+ buzz intensifies. Five days ago, TechCrunch stirred up a hornet's nest in a stinging story about how no one is really using Google+ anymore. The stingers are still striking, as other blogs spread the buzz. Yesterday, the pests buzzed that Google's very own CEO doesn't use Google+. Bwahahaha. What idjuts.
TechCrunch reported stats collected by 89n, using its ManageFlitter service. Analytics derived from one vendor's product shouldn't be measure of anything, but it's common for TechCrunch (and other blogs) to report them anyway. Based on a measurement of an average .40 public posts a day (between August 19-September 19), down from .68 posts a day (between July 19-August 19), 89n concluded that Google+ public posts declined 41 percent during the measurement period. Oh, the problems this simple analysis presents. Let me count the ways:

It's too small a measurement to draw real-world conclusions. Less than one-half posts a day!
The data only reflects the small number (compared to larger number of Google+) subscribers using ManageFlitter. How many: 7,280.
The data looks at public posts, which should decline over time. The whole point of Google+ is filtering -- using Circles to communicate with select groups of people.

Cloud enabler 89n draws some big conclusions from a sample of 7,280 people using its service to connect Google+ and Twitter. Robin Wauters bought into it in TechCrunch post: "Raise your hand if you're still using Google+". I just put mine down so I could continue typing. "It’s now been a while since I’ve last visited or posted anything on Google+, but I figured that was just me. Turns out I might not be the only one after all", writes Wauters, who updated acknowledging -- er, defending -- the post. "Relax a little".
Considering how widely the story was re-reported and peoples' ability to remember headlines -- or nuggets like Google+ posts are down by 41 percent -- "relax a little" should be a corrected, more accurate story. Next up came reports that Google CEO Larry Page hasn't posted publicly on G+ for a month. Which means what? There's very good chance he uses Google+ everyday, but to post privately to select Circles. That's the big benefit of Google+, compared to Facebook.
So, welcome you newcomers to Google+. Ignore all the InterWeb's misinformation about this service. If it was doing so badly, why would Google invest so much in it -- the 100 enhancements in 90 days? I wouldn't be shocked to eventually learn when sound numbers are crunched that public posts declined 60 percent or more since the social network launched -- while private posts increased by a corresponding amount.

Yahoo's Crawler Not Listening To Robots.txt Directive?

2011-09-20T21:51:00.000-07:00

A WebmasterWorld thread reports that Yahoo may not be fully listening to the robots.txt directive to block their spider, Yahoo Slurp.

The thing is, Yahoo spider isn't all that active these days - because Bing is now powering much of Yahoo and thus BingBot is most active.

The webmaster said:

Depending on the Host and UA, the official Yahoo! Slurp apparently does whatever it wants to. Note the subtle differences in the subdomains and UAs...
This morning, the only Host to read/heed robots.txt was:
b3091154.crawl.yahoo.net [67.195.112.189] Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Yahoo! Slurp; http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp)
These retrieved graphics by the pageful, over 60 total:
b5101137.yst.yahoo.net [98.137.72.218] b5101139.yst.yahoo.net [98.137.72.228] Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Yahoo! Slurp/3.0; http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp)

I am not sure if this is a widespread issue or something that is just a smaller bug.

The main question is, should you care of Yahoo is crawling your site when Bing is? That discussion is also taking place in the forum thread. The answer is, it depends.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Introducing Twitter Web Analytics

2011-09-16T05:26:00.000-07:00

Twitter is a powerful platform for websites to share their content, and drive traffic and engagement. However, people have struggled to accurately measure the amount of traffic Twitter is sending to their websites, in part because web analytics software hasn’t evolved as quickly as online sharing and social signals.

Today we’re announcing Twitter Web Analytics, a tool that helps website owners understand how much traffic they receive from Twitter and the effectiveness of Twitter integrations on their sites. Twitter Web Analytics was driven by the acquisition of BackType, which we announced in July.

The product provides three key benefits:

Understand how much your website content is being shared across the Twitter network
See the amount of traffic Twitter sends to your site
Measure the effectiveness of your Tweet Button integration

Twitter Web Analytics will be rolled out this week to a small pilot group of partners, and will be made available to all website owners within the next few weeks. We’re also committed to releasing a Twitter Web Analytics API for developers interested in incorporating Twitter data in their products.

What's Happening At The Google Top Contributor Summit

2011-09-16T04:16:00.001-07:00

As some of you know, Google is holding their first top contributor summit this week, flying in non-Googlers who help Google in the forums from all around the world.

By now, the two day event is over and personally, I was wondering what took place. I am sure they met a lot of Googlers, toured the GooglePlex, got some nice schwag and learned about some new features. Plus, I am sure they talked about things and issues with Google.

John Mueller posted a picture of Pierre Far on Google + holding a top contributor web search sign. But most of the action can be found not on Google + but rather following the hashtag on Twitter @TCSummit.

@andrea_moro said, "on the google bus heading for a campus tour. And yen the bus a wi-fi connection on board. That's what we need in London too."

@LeMousse2009 said, "great i just won an award from Google Adwords."

@bizwriter wrote about a "social event" taking place.

@beussery posted a picture of one of the panels that took place.

But outside of that, I do not know much else of what went on at the event.

Top Contributors, want to share?

Forum discussion at ... oh, wait, all the TCs are busy, so no forum discussion? Nah,Google +.

Pagination with rel=“next” and rel=“prev”

2011-09-16T01:48:00.001-07:00

Webmaster level: Intermediate to Advanced

Much like rel=”canonical” acts a strong hint for duplicate content, you can now use the HTML link elements rel=”next” and rel=”prev” to indicate the relationship between component URLs in a paginated series. Throughout the web, a paginated series of content may take many shapes—it can be an article divided into several component pages, or a product category with items spread across several pages, or a forum thread divided into a sequence of URLs. Now, if you choose to include rel=”next” and rel=”prev” markup on the component pages within a series, you’re giving Google a strong hint that you’d like us to:

Consolidate indexing properties, such as links, from the component pages/URLs to the series as a whole (i.e., links should not remain dispersed between page-1.html, page-2.html, etc., but be grouped with the sequence).
Send users to the most relevant page/URL—typically the first page of the series.

The relationship between component URLs in a series can now be indicated to Google through rel=”next” and rel=”prev”.

There’s an exception to the rel=”prev” and rel=”next” implementation: If, alongside your series of content, you also offer users a view-all page, or if you’re considering a view-all page, please see our post on View-all in search results for more information. Because view-all pages are most commonly preferred by searchers, we do our best to surface this version when appropriate in results rather than a component page (component pages are more likely to surface with rel=”next” and rel=”prev”).

If you don’t have a view-all page or you’d like to override Google returning a view-all page, you can use rel="next" and rel="prev" as described in this post.

For information on paginated configurations that include a view-all page, please see our post onView-all in search results.

Outlining your options

Here are three options for a series:

Leave whatever you have exactly as-is. Paginated content exists throughout the web and we’ll continue to strive to give searchers the best result, regardless of the page’s rel=”next”/rel=”prev” HTML markup—or lack thereof.
If you have a view-all page, or are considering a view-all page, see our post on View-all in search results.
Hint to Google the relationship between the component URLs of your series with rel=”next” and rel=”prev”. This helps us more accurately index your content and serve to users the most relevant page (commonly the first page). Implementation details below.

Implementing rel=”next” and rel=”prev”

If you prefer option 3 (above) for your site, let’s get started! Let’s say you have content paginated into the URLs:

http://www.example.com/article?story=abc&page=1
http://www.example.com/article?story=abc&page=2
http://www.example.com/article?story=abc&page=3
http://www.example.com/article?story=abc&page=4

On the first page, http://www.example.com/article?story=abc&page=1, you’d include in the<head> section:
<link rel="next" href="http://www.example.com/article?story=abc&page=2/>

On the second page, http://www.example.com/article?story=abc&page=2:
<link rel="prev" href="http://www.example.com/article?story=abc&page=1" />
<link rel="next" href="http://www.example.com/article?story=abc&page=3" />

On the third page, http://www.example.com/article?story=abc&page=3:
<link rel="prev" href="http://www.example.com/article?story=abc&page=2" />
<link rel="next" href="http://www.example.com/article?story=abc&page=4" />

And on the last page, http://www.example.com/article?story=abc&page=4:
<link rel="prev" href="http://www.example.com/article?story=abc&page=3" />

A few points to mention:

The first page only contains rel=”next” and no rel=”prev” markup.
Pages two to the second-to-last page should be doubly-linked with both rel=”next” and rel=”prev” markup.
The last page only contains markup for rel=”prev”, not rel=”next”.
rel=”next” and rel=”prev” values can be either relative or absolute URLs (as allowed by the<link> tag). And, if you include a <base> link in your document, relative paths will resolve according to the base URL.
rel=”next” and rel=”prev” only need to be declared within the <head> section, not within the document <body>.
We allow rel=”previous” as a syntactic variant of rel=”prev” links.
rel="next" and rel="previous" on the one hand and rel="canonical" on the other constitute independent concepts. Both declarations can be included in the same page. For example, http://www.example.com/article?story=abc&page=2&sessionid=123 may contain:

<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com/article?story=abc&page=2”/>
<link rel="prev" href="http://www.example.com/article?story=abc&page=1&sessionid=123" />
<link rel="next" href="http://www.example.com/article?story=abc&page=3&sessionid=123" />
rel=”prev” and rel=”next” act as hints to Google, not absolute directives.
When implemented incorrectly, such as omitting an expected rel="prev" or rel="next" designation in the series, we'll continue to index the page(s), and rely on our own heuristics to understand your content.

Do Follow Forums List for Relevant Back Links

2011-09-16T01:31:00.000-07:00

What is Forum?

Definition : A forum is the place of discussion on the topic. The topic is depend on the forum owner.
These days the popular forums are related to webmaster, seo, programming, business, etc. The people join the forum to discuss the problem here and also get the best solution.
The forums allow signature link. Most of them allow to add 3-4 signature links. The dofollow forums are useful to increase more relevant links and increase traffic. Getting links from relevant and High authority sites will definately help in getting good page rank and the link from relevant place increase the ranking in search engines.

Do Follow or Adsense Revenue Share Forums List :

http://www.sitepoint.com/forums
http://forums.digitalpoint.com (Adsense Revenue Sharing Forum)
http://www.webmaster-talk.com (Adsense Revenue Sharing Forums)
http://www.webcosmoforums.com (Adsense Revenue Sharing Forums)
http://www.webmaster-forums.net
http://v7n.com/forums/
http://forums.seochat.com
http://www.seo-guy.com/forum/
http://talk.iwebtool.com (Adsense Revenue Sharing Forum)
http://www.seoproject.com/forum/
http://forums.seoroundtable.com/
http://www.submit-express.com/bbs/
http://www.webtalkforums.com/ (Adsense Revenue Sharing Forums)
http://www.webmasters.org/ (Adsense Revenue Sharing Forums)
http://www.httppoint.com/ (Adsense Revenue Sharing Forums)
http://www.seomeeting.com/ (Adsense Revenue Sharing Forums)
http://www.internetmarketingforums.net/ (Adsense Revenue Sharing Forums)
http://www.allcoolforum.com/
http://www.searchbliss.com/forum
http://www.freehostforum.com
http://www.webmastershelp.com
http://www.devhunters.com
http://www.webmasters.am/forum
http://www.websitebabble.com
http://www.webmasterize.com
http://www.talkingcity.com
http://www.forums.webzonetalk.com
http://forums.delphiforums.com
http://www.htmlforums.com
http://www.webmasterdesk.org
http://www.affiliateseeking.com/forums
http://thehyipforum.com
http://forums.webicy.com
http://www.webworkshop.net/seoforum/index.php
http://www.webmasterforumsonline.com
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com

Page Speed Service - Web Performance, Delivered

2011-09-15T22:40:00.000-07:00

Image via WikipediaWebmaster level: Advanced

Two years ago we released the Page Speed browser extension and earlier this year the Page Speed Online API to provide developers with specific suggestions to make their web pages faster. Last year we released mod_pagespeed, an Apache module, to automatically rewrite web pages. To further simplify the life of webmasters and to avoid the hassles of installation, today we are releasing the latest addition to the Page Speed family: Page Speed Service.

Page Speed Service is an online service that automatically speeds up loading of your web pages. To use the service, you need to sign up and point your site’s DNS entry to Google. Page Speed Service fetches content from your servers, rewrites your pages by applying web performance best practices, and serves them to end users via Google's servers across the globe. Your users will continue to access your site just as they did before, only with faster load times. Now you don’t have to worry about concatenating CSS, compressing images, caching, gzipping resources or other web performance best practices.

In our testing we have seen speed improvements of 25% to 60% on several sites. But we know you care most about the numbers for your site, so check out how much Page Speed Service can speed up your site. If you’re encouraged by the results, please sign up. If not, be sure to check back later. We are diligently working on adding more improvements to the service.

At this time, Page Speed Service is being offered to a limited set of webmasters free of charge. Pricing will be competitive and details will be made available later. You can request access to the service by filling out this web form.

Google's New Listing Snippets

2011-09-15T22:15:00.000-07:00

Last month, we covered how Google started showing a new snippet named list snippets. They are designed specifically to make it easier for searchers to know what content is on a page with lots of navigation to other links, such as paginated pages with products, content and so on.

We even have them for our category pages:

But how do you get them for your site - that is if you want them?

Pete posted an article at SEOmoz on the patterns he has seen for sites that have received them. They include:

Use a consistent structure, whatever it is.
Keep extraneous code to a minimum.
Test removing your META description or setting it to "".

He recommends you be careful with the last one, in fact my page that shows the snippet does indeed have a META description, so there is no real need to remove it.

Do you have any tips on making sure you get these rich snippets? Again, there is no official markup for it, Google does this on their own.

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

Keyword Rich Domain Names Next To Be Hit By Google

2011-03-17T22:21:00.000-07:00

It should come to no surprise of readers of this site that Google and Matt Cutts next target will be domain names ranking too well on the merit of the keywords being in the domain name.

We covered several times already on how well keyword match domain names rank in the Google search results. We also documented that Google's Matt Cutts said he would look at keyword match domains while giving a presentation at PubCon.

In any event, new news. Google's Matt Cutts posted a video recently saying they are going to look at this stuff, again. Here is the video: