There’s little doubt that Google’s change has altered the construction of the search engine pages, but figures vary somewhat on who actually winds up missing out and who gets closer to that coveted number one position. One of the more comprehensive evaluations of loss happens at Sistrix, where an advanced “visibility index” calculates the value of search terms based on their traffic, the click through rate on specific positions on the SERP, and more. According to that index, our top losers include eZine Articles, Suite101, Associated Content, Free Downloads Center, Essortment, American Towns, Article Base, Find Articles, Business.com, and FAQs.org. All of those sites received more than a 90% visibility loss, according to the Sistrix index. Other analysts agree with at least several of these top items, but add Buzzle.com, BizRate, Shopping.com, Squidoo, and Hub Pages to the list.

We can see a fairly strong trend on who’s losing position here: article sites, user-created pages, download aggregators, shopping sites, and similar all wind up in pain. But who (besides those who had been shoved off the top page by those sites) wins here?

More search visibility is being given to sites like eBay, Facebook, Amazon, NexTag, Instructables, Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers, Walmart, YouTube, and (surprisingly enough) eHow. This list is fairly controversial because it seems to support giant sites at the expense of user-generated content elsewhere. The need for higher visibility on some of these massive page collections was clear (for example, Facebook and eBay both essentially swallowed their user-generated items completely), but it’s quite evident that the groups benefiting is comprised of those that are already large and well-established.

Ironically, these “winning” sites are in many ways similar to the sites being penalized, and there isn’t a really clear way of stating how they’re actually different. Most of note, eHow, which has been used as an example of a content farm by many (with some dispute on that point, including from myself) has not only not been penalized, it’s been rewarded. Google, it seems, still has some fine-tuning to do.

About

SEO77 is a leading UK based Digital Marketing Agency. We work for clients across all industry sectors providing digital media consultancy and implementation.

We’ve been developing and optimising websites for over ten years and between them our team has decades of experience working in new media. So we really know where the internet has come from and where it’s going.

We excel at SEO and pride ourselves on gaining top search engine positions for our clients. As well as delivering professional agency services, we train, consult and speak for a number of leading professional bodies and companies.

For more information, visit the authors website at SEO Nottingham or SEO Mansfield

Google Places is where you can create a free local business listing that will allow you to drive local traffic to your website, through the local business results that are shown in Google when someone searches for what you do in the area. This can be an effective way to put your business in front of potentially thousands of local customers who are searching for exactly what you do. However just creating a listing is not enough, you need to optimize that listing to encourage users to want to contact you.

Here is a brief intro on Google Places

Create a Complete and Verified Listing

In order for your listing to have the best opportunity of ranking in the local business results, you need to make sure you have a completely filled out listing. That means filling out every field that they offer you, including adding images and video.

On top of having a complete listing, probably the most important aspect of your listing is to verify it with Google. This means that the information you listed in verified with Google is the correct information. Usually this means they either call the number you submitted and provide you with a pin # to enter, or they will send a postcard in the mail with the verification pin on it.

Using Google Tags

With Google Tags you can make it easier to highlight aspects of your Local Business Listing that you want your customers to see. Highlight things like coupons, your website URL, a video, images, or even a link to your menu. So depending on the business you have, you can tailor it to promote the features that are most important to you. This makes your local listing stand out from the rest of the listings that are displayed in the local 7 pack.

Benefits to Google Tags

Extremely easy to setup
A flat monthly fee of $25/month
Promote important info within your local listing
Track your Tags within the local analytics dashboard
Your tags start showing up within an hour

Watch the “What are Google Tags” Video

Watch the Getting Started with Google Tags

Encourage Customer Reviews

Recently I went to optisonstions for a normal checkup. Everything went very well and I was in and out of there in 45 minutes. About a week later I received a letter in the mail from my eye doctor thanking me for coming in and requesting that I go to a URL to leave a review about my experience on their Google Local Business Listing. I went on and saw all of the other great reviews that people had left, saying how great their experience was..and I did the same.

If you can encourage your customers to leave a positive review on your listing it can tremendously help the effective. Sending a letter in the mail, e-mail or even calling them are all great ways of following up on their experience and to remind them to share their experience by leaving a review.

About

SEO77 is a leading UK based Digital Marketing Agency. We work for clients across all industry sectors providing digital media consultancy and implementation.

We’ve been developing and optimising websites for over ten years and between them our team has decades of experience working in new media. So we really know where the internet has come from and where it’s going.

We excel at SEO and pride ourselves on gaining top search engine positions for our clients. As well as delivering professional agency services, we train, consult and speak for a number of leading professional bodies and companies.

For more information, visit the authors website at SEO Nottingham or SEO Mansfield

Following a similar move in the US, Google has shifted certain UK search results, previously on the first page of its organic listings, onto the second page to make room for local listings from Google Places (formerly Google Local).

For local searches like “estate agents in SE19″, Google now only displays six organic search results instead of ten, one at the top and five below six items from Google Places. The Google Places results are referenced on Google Maps which has been shifted to the right and now displays on every search query.
Industry implications

So far Google does not appear to have changed the algorithm significantly for the large keyword phrases (ones that contain “property”, “property for sale in” etc) so immediate traffic changes are likely to be small.

However, people searching for “estate agents” are likely to be either vendors or buyers who are are relatively far through the purchase process. This makes the change important in terms of lead generation.

If you are not on Google Places, you can sign up here. For a guide to how to make the most of the service, click here. Note, Google has a premium service which gives enhanced visibility for $25 a month.
A template for “property” search results?

The big question is whether Google will use a similar format and layout for searches for “property” and “real estate”?

After much media fanfare, Google’s property service has failed to make much of an impact in Australia, which it used to test its proposition.

A big reason for its lack of traffic is the fact that it has not as yet promoted its properties in the main search results (you need to go to Google maps to find them which most people don’t do).

We argued recently that the main reason for this was Google had not found a profitable way to do it as promoting its own properties seemed to distract from the Adwords results, which is the company’s main revenue stream.

Has it found a way around the problem? Maybe. The new template shifts the map to the right and puts three sponsored links at the top, positions which attract high click prices.

If the new template proves to be both profitable and delivers a good user experience, expect “property” and “real estate” searches to change too.

This is bad news for property portals. Ed William’s, Rightmove’s founder, may have been shrewd to sell his shares.

Note: To list properties with Google, you need to use Google Base. Not all countries qualify.

About

SEO77 is a leading UK based Digital Marketing Agency. We work for clients across all industry sectors providing digital media consultancy and implementation.

We’ve been developing and optimising websites for over ten years and between them our team has decades of experience working in new media. So we really know where the internet has come from and where it’s going.

We excel at SEO and pride ourselves on gaining top search engine positions for our clients. As well as delivering professional agency services, we train, consult and speak for a number of leading professional bodies and companies.

For more information, visit the authors website at SEO Nottingham or SEO Mansfield

The tools listed below will not only help you discover your competition’s backlink profiles but will also provide ways to obtain relevant back links yourself.

Backlink Watch – The Backlink Watch Tool a very simple way to check a website’s back link URL’s, anchor text and total OBL’s (outbound links) on the same page as that link.
Analyze Backlinks – Another gold mine for exploring a competitor’s back links. This one provides more valuable options that allow you to filter out same domain URL’s and to search for factors such as target keyword mentions surrounding the links.
Yahoo Site Explorer – Not really a linking tool, but you could quickly check a site’s inlink count and it’s top 10-1000 back links. Although this tool isn’t much more better than the previous 2, it does show the title of the linking pages and allows you to track you own websites if signed in and verified ownership of site.
Google Search (link:yoursite.com) – No different than the one above except for the fact that the number of back links according to Google’s search engine is ALWAYS considerably lower than Yahoo!’s results. But the links that made it to Google’s results are assumingly affecting the search rankings.
Alexa Backlink Checker – You can see total domains linking to a website and which domains they are. This Alexa tool also provides other great website data.
Bad Neighborhood Text Link Tool – Great way to see what type of links a website accumulates, whether it be yours or a potential link partner.
SoloSEO Link Search Tool – Quite possibly the easiest way online to find relevant back links, that are fairly easy to obtain.
Webconfs’ Back link Anchor Text Analysis – Compare the top ranking site’s text links to yours. Is there a difference?
Webconfs’ Back link Builder – Enter a keyword. Copy whole list(s), paste into excel. Filter.., or, get to work.
Webconfs’ Backlink Summary – A quick summary similar to the results delivered by Analyze Backlinks & Backlink Watch.
SEO for FireFox Plugin – Besides being able to provide you with on-demand access to data of the top ranking site’s instantly, the SEO for Firefox Tool also provides a great feature that highlights nofollow links (in red), so it’s easy to identify which inlinks count and which don’t.
Google Webmaster Tools – Besides getting the best perspective of your website through the eyes of Google, the Google Webmaster Tools also tells you the links they’ve found, and their anchor text.
Link Harvester – This tool is toward the end of the list because it provides the type of data far beyond what the basic linker needs. Nonetheless, it’s a oldie, but goodie.
Search Combination Tool by We Build Pages – Not really a link building too at all. But adding phrases like “resources”, “links”, “favorite sites”, “suggest url”, etc. could add some fun to it.
Recip Links – A tool that spiders a site (or list of sites) and checks to see if they are links to a specified domain.
Link Appeal Tool – Is a link from your website really worth it? Find out with this tool how valuable your website is based on several factors. Aim to get links from sites of higher value than yours.

About

SEO77 is a leading UK based Digital Marketing Agency. We work for clients across all industry sectors providing digital media consultancy and implementation.

We’ve been developing and optimising websites for over ten years and between them our team has decades of experience working in new media. So we really know where the internet has come from and where it’s going.

We excel at SEO and pride ourselves on gaining top search engine positions for our clients. As well as delivering professional agency services, we train, consult and speak for a number of leading professional bodies and companies.

For more information, visit the authors website at SEO Nottingham or SEO Mansfield

In all, there were three major improvements added to Google’s search engine capabilities. The first improvement comes in the way of localized Google Suggest. Although localized Google Suggest was introduced to users last year, it was done so only in a manner that would suggest localized sites on a per-country basis. For example, users in London might see different suggestions than users in New York.

This time around, however, users in the United States can experience a more enhanced version of localized Google Suggest that will offer results based on the largest metropolitan area they are closest to. So, if a person in San Francisco types in “bart,” they could likely be searching for information on the region’s Bay Area Rapid Transit system, rather than sites related to the popular TV character, Bart Simpson.

Another example would be a web surfer in Miami who begins to type “dolphin” into the search form, which would now yield suggestions related to the area’s local football team, rather than the animal itself. These localized suggestions, new to users within the United States, should definitely add a little speed and ease to searches, and might help them find what they are looking for in a more streamlined manner.

The second major improvement to Google’s search engine revolves around spelling enhancements for names. As of right now, users in the United States will be the first affected by the name spelling improvements, with more enhancements coming in the near future for global users. The name spelling enhancements were made due to the fact that several people have names that are difficult to spell. With that in mind, Google has added some extra clues within their suggested search queries to help users find what they are looking for.

For example, a suggestion such as “matthew devin oracle” could be given, with “oracle” added at the end as a possible clue or suggestion to the user. Another example could be “simon tung machine learning,” with “machine learning” added to the end as a specific suggestion to the searcher. Considering the difficulty with spelling many names, these added enhancements should help users when searching for people, as they give added clues for the context in which the search is being performed.

The third and final search enhancement comes in the form of spelling auto-correction. While in the past Google used the “Did you mean” link at the top of results in the event of a misspelling, the search engine will now send users directly to the intended spellings’ results. This will happen when there is an extremely high probability that the user misspelled the word, saving them time by omitting the need to click the “Did you mean” link at the top. This correction has been made globally, spanning 31 different languages.

Despite its current dominance, it’s nice to know that Google’s minds are still churning out new ideas for improvement that should not only help them retain their current market share, but also keep users satisfied.

About

SEO77 is a leading UK based Digital Marketing Agency. We work for clients across all industry sectors providing digital media consultancy and implementation.

We’ve been developing and optimising websites for over ten years and between them our team has decades of experience working in new media. So we really know where the internet has come from and where it’s going.

We excel at SEO and pride ourselves on gaining top search engine positions for our clients. As well as delivering professional agency services, we train, consult and speak for a number of leading professional bodies and companies.

For more information, visit the authors website at SEO Nottingham or SEO Mansfield

This proliferation of traffic and scale raises an interesting question about how Google’s own tools can be used to increase your search engine visibility.

An important point to recognize when conducting a search engine optimisation campaign is that your success or failure does not necessarily depend on the web site itself appearing at the top of the search results. Think about SEO more as a chance to drive targeted traffic and raise online awareness (both pay offs of a good search results position) and you’ll begin to see why the use of other web sites and online properties can deliver that very same result. To my mind, that’s where Knol and Google’s other platforms come into play.

1. Knol

With a tag line ‘a unit of knowledge’, it seems that Knol was always intended to rival Wikipedia. An amalgamation of research and how to articles, Knol references social media in a big way. Material posted on Knol can be discussed by the community, reviewed, tagged and graded. Individual authors can collaborate with colleagues working in their field and even edit the work of others.

Benefits to your SEO Campaign:

As with all Google properties, it boasts an incredible PageRank (7), which makes it great link fodder.

As a collection of authoritative material about a particular topic, it’s also a very worthy showcase for research papers or white papers, helping to establish yourself as an expert in your field. This goes back to the principles of article marketing.

More importantly, the huge network of pages means it’s cropping up more and more often in Google search results. It isn’t displacing Wikipedia listings at the top of the page as yet so there’s no advantage to be gained in that sense but, it is another route through to your site from the higher echelons of the search results when your own site is languishing at the bottom of the pile.

2. YouTube

YouTube needs no introduction to the seasoned search engine optimizer. 99% of videos returned in Google Video results are YouTube based. Most publishers will only be able to dream of such dominance but, it’s easy to cash in and secure your own five minutes of fame with a prominent position for your brand. Simply create a YouTube account and upload your own videos.

Benefits to your SEO Campaign:

The best way to leverage this for search engine visibility is by using product demonstrations and how-to-programs. Steer away from marketing pitches and sales presentations.

YouTube has so much traffic going through it that you’re likely to find your target demographic searching for video related to your particular area of expertise. Reward that with helpful, useful footage and their next stop could be your web site or your store.

YouTube’s dominance in the video search results gives instant Google exposure, again shoring up your search engine presence if your own URL is not yet making an appearance in the top 10.

3. Blogger

If not already the largest online blogging platform, it surely can’t be long before Blogger camps out in the top spot permanently. This blog site is super easy to use with a friendly, problem-proof interface for the novice and more advanced branding and appearance options for the seasoned used.

Benefits to your SEO Campaign

It’s PageRank of 8 makes it excellent link fodder, just make sure that you abide by the core principles of SEO and build links around good quality content. As always the aim is to direct the search engine spiders and the end user back to the most relevant page on your site so deep link and use keywords in the anchor text to secure a double whammy.

You can keep the posts in an FTP sub directory on your own site, meaning you can use your blog postings to supplement site growth. This is hugely important, not just to show the search engine’s that you can keep your site up to date with relevant content but also to present readers and other bloggers with interesting pages to link to. This snowball effect will deliver more links and more inbound traffic.

Searches on most keywords will display a blogger.com URL somewhere in the search results. Again, this is a valuable route into your site for users who may not otherwise know your brand; if for example your own web site is not on page 1.

4. Local Search

Any location specific search will always trigger a Google Maps result at the top of the page. This enables you to get directions or more significantly, find a local business or store. Unlike Knol, Google does play favorites with Google Maps, always awarding it pride of place at the top of the page. Getting your business included in this section is a must if you have a physical storefront location.

Benefits to your SEO Campaign

Any business with a physical location can add their addresses and pictures to Google Local. When search users input keywords plus a state or zip code, your site will show up along with any images you’ve added to your listing. This is an invaluable opportunity to appear at the top of the SERPS, reinforcing your brand identity even if you have other page 1 listings.

Google Maps are a popular mobile search function as commuters search for directions or a restaurant / store nearby. This gives extra exposure for your web site, directing not only virtual traffic but physical foot traffic to your place of business.

Your listing is reinforced with images or a company logo, adding an extra note of interest to your web presence.

About

SEO77 is a leading UK based Digital Marketing Agency. We work for clients across all industry sectors providing digital media consultancy and implementation.

We’ve been developing and optimising websites for over ten years and between them our team has decades of experience working in new media. So we really know where the internet has come from and where it’s going.

We excel at SEO and pride ourselves on gaining top search engine positions for our clients. As well as delivering professional agency services, we train, consult and speak for a number of leading professional bodies and companies.

For more information, visit the authors website at SEO Nottingham or SEO Mansfield

In todays market, competition for customers is fierce, so you can see why a strong brand identity is crucial for companies.

Business owners rely on design professionals to invest time into researching, defining, and ultimately building a brand that people can trust. One could say that branding is the foundation of your design and marketing campaign.

For graphic designers who are new to building brand recognition this article will highlight the research process that experienced designers who are successful at building brands will implement in their graphic approach before offering up any directions. When building brands it’s not simply a matter of creativity it’s a matter of doing the right research.

Whether you’re branding a product or a company you will need to put in a good amount of time doing research.

Ask yourself some key questions such as:

* What kind of company are you trying to establish a graphic representation for?
* Who are their clients?
* What is the company’s target demographic?
* What services do they provide, etc.?

The same applies to product branding.

* What kind of product is it?
* Is the product targeted at males or females and what age group?
* How should the product be associated with the company that is selling the product?

Once you’ve collected your preliminary data from your initial questions, filter through and analyze your information to really hone in on your target audience. The ultimate goal of branding is to speak directly to your target audience in order to motivate them to action. In order to do this you better be sure that your target market is clearly defined.

Establishing your target market means identifying who your audience is specifically. To help you find out who your target audience is exactly ask questions like:

* Where is my audience located geographically?
* What colors should be associated with the product or company?
* Who is my brands direct competition?
* What elements have made my competition successful?
* Who are my competitors targeting?

You can do a large amount of this investigating on line. The more accurately you can assess your target market the more effective your brand will be.

If you spend enough time properly researching answers to your questions you will find that you have provided yourself with a guide to direct your creativity in the design process.

Remember, every element of your design is something that will be associated with the business or product you are branding. These elements should evoke emotion, create a reaction, and will not only define the company but be a part of it for as long as it exists.

These may seem like very simple questions, but the trick is making sure that you spend the time to answer them properly.

Many designers throw the term branding around without a true understanding of what that term means or how effective branding is accomplished.

A strong brand builds relevance, credibility and establishes trust. A strong brand speaks to your target market – it motivates customers to act. When done correctly it establishes the company or product as an industry leader.

By answering a few core questions you will be provided with a system of guides to help direct you when it comes to the actual design process. This is your map to an effective brand.

About

SEO77 is a leading UK based Digital Marketing Agency. We work for clients across all industry sectors providing digital media consultancy and implementation.

We’ve been developing and optimising websites for over ten years and between them our team has decades of experience working in new media. So we really know where the internet has come from and where it’s going.

We excel at SEO and pride ourselves on gaining top search engine positions for our clients. As well as delivering professional agency services, we train, consult and speak for a number of leading professional bodies and companies.

For more information, visit the authors website at SEO Nottingham or SEO Mansfield

Squidoo is very well rated to by the most popular search engines and is rapidly becoming too good an SEO opportunity to pass up. Within the lens you can add links back to your own web site so an authority lens can make a big contribution to better site rankings overall.

Getting Started

Get the basics out of the way – create a user account, log in and familiarize yourself with the easy to use dashboard. Click the ‘create a lens’ button and then decide on a name. At this point, you must keep basic SEO principles in mind. Your Squidoo lens is a chance to take up another spot on the search engine results pages so you’ll want to include your product name, company name and priority keywords if possible. Keep the title short and catchy.

Squidoo allows you to rate the lens in much the same way as films are rated – most will be suitable for all audience, but take time to read the other options just in case some material is unsuitable for certain audiences. At this second stage you’re also invited to choose your own Squidoo URL. Again, keep in mind SEO optimisation principles and branding considerations to give visibility a helping hand.

With the lens now named, you can start to add keywords. Although you’re limited to three initially, you can add more later so choose the most relevant three for the moment.

First Updates

When you complete the set up process, you’re presented with the basics of a good lens. Among the choices when you first begin to add content to your new Squidoo page are welcome text, Flickr photos, YouTube videos, a guestbook, Google Blog search and Amazon voting.

You probably won’t be able to complete each of the modules straight off (you may need to enlist the help of other departments or hunt down relevant pictures for example) but make an appointment to start populating the modules you don’t complete at this first pass. A good Squidoo lens will take a lot of time and work to create and maintain but it’s worth putting in the extra effort to give your page a chance of appearing in the SERPS. There are millions of mediocre lenses just as there are millions of blogs and community pages that were left to fade into obscurity after the first flush of enthusiasm. A mediocre page won’t contribute to your ranking positions or drive traffic to your web site though so do try and keep to a realistic update schedule.

Using Modules

Regular updates are essential but that doesn’t mean that you have to write reams and reams of text. Of course, if you have white papers or insights into any aspect of your industry or product use, it pays to add them to your lens but if you’re short on time, you can get creative with the pre-loaded modules that Squidoo offers. A great way to ensure cohesion of message is to link your Squidoo lens to your other social media outlets – you can do this by going to Add Modules at the top of the dashboard and then selecting the new content type you would like to load in.

The best lenses blend a variety of modules to create a useful, informative page that visitors will return to time and time again. Link to your eBay shop to generate additional revenue, add Twitter Follow or Lists to increase your Twitter followers, add Wikipedia knowledge, slideshare, even videos from Saturday Night Live.

Optimisation

Whatever kind of content you add, make sure to always include relevant tags for the post and link back to your own web site where appropriate. You can use HTML code within text modules, so choose anchor text wisely and try other optimization tips such as the use of H2 and H3 tags for longer chunks of text. Remember, you want to apply as many SEO techniques as possible to make your lens stand out in the SERPS. This will ultimately drive more traffic and brand awareness your way.

About Footprints-SEO.com

Footprints-SEO.com is an internet marketing company whose priority is to make your organization rise above the competition, we are a group of talented and dedicated individuals with a passion for search engine optimization. We will custom-tailor marketing strategies that are right for you and your business, while ensuring top search engine optimization and web-site design.

Footprints-SEO.com has the answer to all your internet marketing needs.

About

SEO77 is a leading UK based Digital Marketing Agency. We work for clients across all industry sectors providing digital media consultancy and implementation.

We’ve been developing and optimising websites for over ten years and between them our team has decades of experience working in new media. So we really know where the internet has come from and where it’s going.

We excel at SEO and pride ourselves on gaining top search engine positions for our clients. As well as delivering professional agency services, we train, consult and speak for a number of leading professional bodies and companies.

For more information, visit the authors website at SEO Nottingham or SEO Mansfield