Category: Search Engine Optimization

Posted on

What’s Google Got In Store for 2014? Part Two

Screen shot showing new black review bar
Screen shot showing new black review bar

Continuing our post from Monday, here are some of the things Google is testing that appear to be in store for rollout in 2014 both on mobile and desktop. Make sure to read this excellent article by by Dr. Peter Myers for the Moz Blog in an article titled “Future SERP: a Glimpse at Google 2014“. This is a must read for all website owners.

4. Boxed design with expanded information for the top search result in the organic listings. Google is actively testing these results now.  See the image above, this was taken when I did a recent search for Sushi Bar Chicago. Although I did not see the box design as noted in the article, what I did see was a new black bar across the top with reviews from Google+ Local pages and Zagut (Google’s new review property) plus a large map on the right with points detailed in the search results. The black bar is an eye grabber. This is just another of the new layouts Google is testing that is not even mentioned in the article.

5. Google Now Cards. If you use search on your smartphone, you’ve already seen the Google cards. This is a button/boxed shaped section with personalized information that appears when you open Google mobile to do a search. You can customize these cards and Google also delivers location specific information in these spots based on your actual location. If you are using an Android phone, you’ve also seen that even if you turn WiFi off, Google is turning it back on to know your location at all times to deliver location related content.

Check back on Friday to see the last in this series of what to expect on Google in 2014.

Posted on

What’s Google Got In Store for 2014? Part One

Google Partner Badge
McCord Web Services is a Google Partner.

Getting or keeping search placement on Google is a fulltime job! In a wonderful and insightful review of what Google has in store for 2014 by Dr. Peter Myers for the Moz Blog in an article titled “Future SERP: a Glimpse at Google 2014” you’ll learn what he thinks Google has in store. I have to say I think that this is one of the very best articles I have read about what Google is doing.

Here are a few tidbits from the article interspersed with my own insights .

1. Google is focused on mobile. With smartphone use way up, Google’s got to find a way to monetize mobile to continue to build profits. As the mobile user reacts with search differently on their device than when using a desktop, Google is doing strong testing to identify what works and is relevant to mobile users. Expect to see the things that are being tested in mobile move to the desktop arena in the near future. For clients, this means location specificity in your content and on your website pages is very important as are location extension use in Google AdWords. Having a mobile responsive designed website is also becoming important.

2. Google is expanding the Knowledge Graph using more informational topical content from authoritative website in their organic search results to answer search questions. Questions about topics cover about 10% of all Google searches. This allows for wonderful opportunity for your own content to place in Google when you write a blog post or have content on your website that helps to education or answer a question.

3. Google is testing new ad formats that blur the line between organic and paid ads. If you’ve searched recently with your smartphone, you’ve seen some of these new formats. Some are colored the same as the organic results with a small goldenrod colored ad box in front, others are interspersed within the actual organic results. No longer are ads on mobile necessarily at the top of bottom of the page.  It is very important to know that this testing is mainly happening on mobile right now, but will move to the desktop when vetted. One of the big reasons for interspersing ads into the organic results, especially for mobile, is that there are only two ad slots using the old format for mobile – but there are more advertisers!

Visit our post on Wednesday November 20th for part two in this series.

Posted on

Not Provided Keyword Data in Analytics Requires Out of Box Keyword Discovery

Searching for keywords in an alternative way
Searching for keywords in an alternative way

In Google Analytics almost all organic search activity is being returned with a “not provided” tag masking the actual keywords used to find your content. If you are not advertising in Google AdWords, you may be totally in the dark as to what keywords visitors are using to find your web page content.

If you are looking to improve website visibility and popularity of your website, you may be struggling to figure out what keywords you should use for a landing page, topic for an e-newsletter or for that matter even the topic for a blog post.

Here are a few tips on how you can discover keywords and opportunities to incorporate into your content creation program by thinking outside the norm.

1. Use Google.com’s predictive text insertion to identify top search terms to see if you are covered. Click in to some of the searches you like and look carefully at the returned results. Do you see businesses like yours there or do you just see PDFs from colleges or government entities. Make sure the words you use for your final cut match with your business based on the returned results.

2. Use YouTube.com’s predictive text insertion in the search field to identify possible keyword variations you may not have considered. If you are video minded and see a possible keyword opportunity, consider making a video to fill that niche and place on that topic.

3. Use the Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool to do a reality check and see what type of competition you may face and look for alternative keyword variations.

4. Make sure to review your Google Analytics beyond the first page of results where you see the “not provided” as further down the page and back you will be able to see some of the actual keyword terms used to find you.

5. Make sure to review your Google Webmaster account to see what terms Google is showing as your query results. Although you may not see all the terms used to find you, you will be able to glean very specific insight as to city name, combinations, and top activity.

If you feel you need professional help, we provide consulting services to help identify areas of opportunity.

 

 

Posted on

Not Provided – Masks Search Terms from Website Owners

Just this last week, Google announced that it was moving all web searches at Google.com to https settings which would mean that all keyword data would be encrypted and no longer flowed into Google Analytics.

Although this may sound like business as usual and a great improvement for the typical web searcher – “great, increased privacy”, it is turning the world of search and SEO upside down. This means that the small number of “not provided” notations in Google Analytics will now cover all searches. The only keyword activity you will see in your Google Analytics account will be from Google AdWords activity. No longer will you be able to identify the search terms that are bringing in your traffic organically or for that matter harvest keywords for SEO use from Analytics.

There’s lots of chatter on the web as to why Google would make this change without warning, some say it is a direct reaction to the Edward Snowden revelation and others say that it is to drive more advertisers into Google AdWords. Whichever option you’d like to embrace, at this time Google is not saying why they have taken this action, just that it is.

For many website owners this will create the need to purchase website analytics software so that they will know what is happening on their own website. If I find a good statistical package, I’ll make sure to let you know.

To learn more about this topic, I have found two excellent resources to express the real impact for website owners. I invite you to read them and then come back to my post and let me know your comments.

http://searchengineland.com/post-prism-google-secure-searches-172487

http://www.6smarketing.com/blog/keyword-data-is-dead-long-live-keyword-data-2/