Tag: Google

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Google: Get Over PageRank – Move On!

June 30th, on the Google Webmaster blog talked about how webmasters and site owners should move on beyond measuring site success by the Google Toolbar PageRank. The post explains that Toolbar reported PageRank in NOT the same as their patented algorithm PageRank which determines organic placement.

Susan tells webmasters:

“If you look at Google’s Technology Overview, you’ll notice that it calls out relevance as one of the top ingredients in our search results. So why hasn’t as much ink been spilled over relevance as has been over PageRank? I believe it’s because PageRank comes in a number, and relevance doesn’t. Both relevance and PageRank include a lot of complex factors—context, searcher intent, popularity, reliability—but it’s easy to graph your PageRank over time and present it to your CEO in five minutes; not so with relevance. I believe the succinctness of PageRank is why it’s become such a go-to metric for webmasters over the years; but just because something is easy to track doesn’t mean it accurately represents what’s going on on your website.” Read the full article.

The bottom line is that you totally should disregard the Google Toolbar PageRank as an indicator of health or success of your website. Instead you should focus on the following:

  1. Bounce Rate
  2. Click Through Rate
  3. Conversion Rate

A website owner can track all of these metrics using Google Analytics or other premium website statistics program. As Google now only updates the Toolbar PageRank once to twice a year and it is not an accurate representation of what is really happening on your website, now is the time to make a paradigm shift and focus on what is really happening that you can see yourself on a daily basis back on your website using statistics YOU can read.

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How to Get Your Google On!

Google is the top search engine and continues to stay that way even with increased pressure from Bing and Yahoo. So it is important that your marketing plan cater to this fact. So often I am asked what can I do to improve my search position on Google? Here’s how to “get your Google on”!

1. Redo your home page to include content and not mainly images. Search engine spiders cannot read images.

2. If you are using WordPress as the backbone for your website, contact a WordPress web designer to make these changes to your template:

  • If you have been archiving content like newsletters or blogs off-domain, get them on-domain now! If you aren’t blogging get your designer to create a page template just for your blog page. It must include the archives, categories, and tags.
  • Update your site navigation with links to point to the blog, create a new section just for your videos if you have them. If you don’t have videos get started creating simple ones and post them to YouTube.com ( a Google property) and embed them in your website. Start a regular informational content building program ON-DOMAIN.
  • Bring all old newsletters onto your site you have archived off-domain and housed at Constant Contact or other resource. Most likely a page will need to be created for each newsletter and then hard coded into the newsletter page.
  • Create a new reviews page on your website. Pull the favorable reviews from the web, link back to the original content. Build up the positive things. Link to the home page of the BBB showing your rating if you use them.

Get Google Maps going for any locations
Pricing is $240 per location for set up and then $40 each site for monthly account refreshes.
More info: http://www.mccordweb.com/internet-marketing/google-maps.php

Consolidate your efforts in Facebook. One page for all business. locations don’t be fragmented
Do Facebook Mini services for $8 per day
More info: http://www.mccordweb.com/internet-marketing/twitter.php#ghost

Get going on Twitter or remove the icon from your website
If you aren’t going to update something, don’t take a black eye remove the link from your website.
Twitter Mini $8.50 per day
More info: http://www.mccordweb.com/internet-marketing/twitter.php#ghost

Get blogging but only on-domain
Do the Topaz Level at the minimum two days a week for $50 per week. If you can afford a higher level do it!
More info: http://www.mccordweb.com/blog-writing/index.php

Get going with Google AdWords
Set up and first four weeks of account management is $699. I would recommend a landing page for each of the four ad group themes we would do. Landing pages typically take 5 hours at $80 per hour to create. You may need your blog designer to help with the contact form implementation as typically the landing page will have a small form at the bottom.

We recommend a click budget paid to Google of $500 per 30 days on top of our fees.
More info: http://www.mccordweb.com/internet-marketing/adwords-quick-start.php

Get your site confirmed and set up with the Google Webmaster control panel
Get a site map created and your site validated. Diagnostics can be done on demand to the site after set up.
Typically set up and validation is about 1.0 hours or so. We recommend monthly reporting once set up. We review placement on keywords, review your webmaster control panel, reload your sitemap. Set up is 1.5 hours and then monthly reporting is typically 1.5 to 2 hours billed at $80 per hour.

Build online reviews
I would highly recommend that you start approaching clients to build your online reviews. Get the email when setting up service, Offer to send coupons for the services you provide. In all your correspondence link to your Google Places pages for both locations and ASK for a review.

Remediate your online reputation
Make sure all employees know of any bad reviews you have received online and work to implement new procedures that solve those problems. Reviews may be scathing, but there is typically truth in them. Look at them as areas of constructive criticism.  All employees should believe that customer satisfaction is their job. It will show in your reviews, your referrals and repeat customers.

If you can’t afford everything I would do AdWords first, at the same time do Google Places, then the website changes, then the blogging, then Facebook and Twitter.

It is time to get your Google on!

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Google Add the +1 Button to AdWords Ads

Google is really pulling out all the stops when it comes to pushing the new +1 button. Now Google will be +1’ing AdWords ads. In fact I am seeing them already.

“The +1 button itself will appear next to your headline on search ads. Personalized annotations will appear beneath your Display URL. For example, Maria +1’s a page selling a neat laptop holder on a website. When a search ad
with that same URL appears, her friend Sam might see the ad with the note “Maria and 28 other people +1’d this.”

With the +1 button Google is banking on increased growth in the social sector. With your connections and friends now able to personally, via the +1 button, recommend sites and products ads are now instantly more relevant and personal.

Make sure as you allow the +1 button results to show up in your Google.com search results that you understand that others can see sites that you +1 and that this results can be tied to your name.

For AdWords, I would imagine that +1 button votes will count heavily into the hidden quality score factors in the months to come. Google may never tell us about this, but with relevancy being the code word for all Google does, I expect +1 to be SERP and ad changing pretty quickly.

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Watching New Meta Tags

I am always on the watch for new meta tags that are being tested by search engines. I like to be an early embracer of new technology. If you are unsure of what meta tags are in common place use right now, here is a great primer and list for you to consider using on your website.

Two new meta tags that I am watching and just getting ready to implement on my own site are two that Google released recently mainly for use on Google News. They are syndication-source and original-source. These two tags inserted in your source code in the head tag allow you to notify search engines that you are the creator of content on your website. You can read more information about both in this interesting article.  Why not just use the canonical tag? Well, Google says it best and here is the quote:

“We felt the options currently in existence [the canonical tag] addressed different use cases and were insufficient to achieve our goals. The more accurate metadata that’s out there on the web, the better the web will be.”

Google is pretty clear that they are just using these new tags for Google News right now, but if you are a unique informational content author such as myself, it is a good thing to make your content as the originator so that scraper sites that steal your content will not get credit for your hard work. Google does say that they are evaluating the wider use of these meta tags, but has not embraced them for you use in their regular index.

Here is how you would actually use the tag in your head tag code:

meta name=”original-source” content=”http://www.mccordweb.com.com/weblogs/2011/04/23/watching-new-meta-tags”

I personally feel that I will most likely use both to just cover all bases, but remember these tags are not being widely used right now by Google’s index. Will they use it? Possibly, but I am willing to try anything to tag my content as my own.