'Net Features : google +1

2013: Social SEO Required

Administrator — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:47:00 GMT

By Clayburn Griffin, Organic Search Director at Catalyst

Good SEOs can no longer ignore social. It may have been possible last year, while search engines were still experimenting with the incorporation of social signals into their algorithms, but in 2013, Social SEO is required.

The Web is an evolving system. The old system of using backlinks to determine authority and relevance by the search engines has become outdated. This was the system pioneered by Google, and while links are still important, search engines are realizing that social media has changed the very nature of the Internet.

Now people online engage with content and websites in a variety of ways that all tie back to their identity. Identity is the key to Social SEO. Search engines are giving people their own authority and relevance, just as they would a website, and the signals that a user gives to a piece of content pass the user’s authority and relevance to it. These signals tell search engines that a user, a specific user with certain interests and proficiencies, approves of pieces of content. These signals range from simple votes (likes, +1’s) to shares (tweets, posts) and even commenting. Search engines incorporate these social signals into their ranking algorithms.

Social SEO is about optimizing for these social signals in order to boost search engine rankings. To get you going in the right direction with your Social SEO initiatives, here are a few tips that will help to ensure your Social SEO strategy is successful.

Optimize Your Site for Engagement

You drive traffic to your website from several channels, but without engagement from these visitors, you’re missing the opportunity to enhance your authority. You can increase engagement by making it easy for them by including proper social sharing buttons. Don’t go with one of those catchall widgets that clutter your website and look tacky. Use the buttons that matter most, namely: Facebook Like, Twitter Tweet and Google +1.

These buttons allow easy sharing and should be placed within or around the content that they’re meant to share. Don’t put these buttons in your header. People expect share buttons to be associated with the content they’re positioned around on a Web page. If you have a Like button in your header, then it may seem to be for your brand’s page or your homepage rather than the specific content being shared. And a single page that lists many pieces of content should include each piece’s associated share buttons in an intuitive way.

Facebook Like:

• Consider whether you should use Like or Recommend. Should you include Send?

• Set the proper Open Graph tags on each page so that the posts to Facebook contain the appropriate information. Always include a thumbnail image (e.g., the og:image tag to designate the specific image on the page).

Twitter Tweet:

• Set the tweet text. Use an engaging message that will describe the link and help get click-through from impressions.

• Use relevant hashtags. You can set the hashtag attribute to pre-populate the tweet with a hashtag. If your content is relevant to a popular hashtag, include it to help every tweet get more exposure and add more relevancy to the link being tweeted.

• Identify yourself as the author (via). After the tweet, users are suggested to follow the Twitter handle. So, help them connect with you when they share your content.

• To make a secondary suggestion, fill out the Related attribute. This account will be suggested alongside the author recommendation. Commenting is also important to engagement. Make it easy for users to comment on your content without the need to log in. If you include a login feature as well, provide multiple options. Disqus is a particularly good commenting system and is a social network of its own in a sense.

Use Google+

Don’t neglect Google+. While the activity numbers may not be as impressive as Facebook’s, it has a far greater impact on search results. Whether people actively use Google+ or not, many are performing searches while logged into their Google account (and in many cases this is also their Google+ account). Organic traffic from the (not provided) keyword has been increasing substantially recently, and this traffic is from people signed into Google when performing a search.

So, even if they aren’t posting to Google+, their search results will be affected and their social connections will have a big influence on those results. That means the people who are using Google+ regularly have considerable power to shift rankings.

Make sure you’re on Google+ connecting with people and sharing your content. Gain additional exposure for your brand by contributing in relevant Google+ Communities, as well.

Empower Your Employees

Having a social media policy that encourages employees to be active in social media can help create many brand evangelists on the Web for you. In addition, key members of your organization may be in a good position to lend major credibility and authority to your Social SEO campaign.

Provide a list of your social media profiles so that employees are able to find them easily. On occasion send out a company email to promote new content on your website and ask employees to share it via their social media accounts.

Read More

For a more in-depth analysis of Social SEO, you can read Catalyst’s newly published ebook “Social SEO Strategies: Mastering the Art of Social SEO.” The publication explains the nuts and bolts of Social SEO, as well as provides a roadmap for campaign set-up, strategy development, execution tactics, tools, automation and performance metrics. The complimentary eBook (PDF format) is available on the Catalyst website at:

By Clayburn Griffin

Clayburn Griffin is an Organic Search Director at Catalyst, a pioneer in strategic digital marketing services for Fortune 1000 brands. Catalyst’s services include: SEO, paid search marketing, social SEO, content strategy, digital asset optimization, e-retail optimization, and more.

Google +1 Recommendation Feature

Administrator — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 12:51:00 GMT

Web users want more (and better, more relevant) information and Web workers obviously should want to show it to them.

Sounds like an opportunity to me!

Google must think the same way as it has released a new feature of the +1 button that dramatically improves content recommendation.

The new +1 button feature enables users to see recommendations for content on the website they are visiting when they hover over a +1 button.

What makes the enhancement so valuable is that in order to keep the recommendations more “relevant and on topic,” Google will only refer to pages on the same domain or subdomain where the +1 button appears.

The best part is that if the +1 button has already been integrated onto your website, the recommendations feature will work automatically – whether users are signed in Google+ or not.

The update is slated to go live for all users in the coming weeks, but a platform preview is available for developers.

Has Google+ Become a Competitive Social Alternative?

Michael Garrity — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 19:00:00 GMT

A lot has been discussed about in the tech industry concerning the potential (and necessity) of the upstart social network Google+.

In recent months, questions have been raised about just how successful Google's foray into social will actually be, but the unveiling of a host of new features and changes yesterday may finally position G+ to give Facebook and Twitter a run for their money.

What's Hot
Social network users will probably find the new "What's Hot" feature a little familiar; designated areas (below new posts in the main stream and in the Sparks section on the left sidebar) will allow Plussers to quickly discover a diverse variety of popular content from the farthest reaches of Google+. This new feature ties in nicely with their recently implemented real-time search tool, and does a great job of combining the best of Facebook's updated news feed and Twitter's trending topics section.

Creative Kit
A big part of Facebook's appeal is that it is a great place to house and share personal photos in one convenient location. And though this is also an option on Google+, it hasn't yet infringed on Facebook's photo sharing dominance. Now, Google has introduced the Creative Kit, a "collection of powerful tools and effects" that builds on the site's old photo editing capabilities and allows users to add filters, text and other effects to their photos before sharing them with their circles. Heretofore, Facebook has yet to integrate a strong photo editing suite, so this development gives Google+ a distinct edge in the photo sharing department.

Ripples
Ripples is an interesting new feature rolled out by Google+ that gives Plussers the opportunity fo "visually follow the flow of a conversation" by looking at data gleaned from analytics. This lets G+ offer regular users much more information about the history of their posts than other social networks present, and it comes in an attractive and visually-stimulating package on the Googleplex. All one has to do is click the "View Ripples" button on any of his or her public posts to instantly watch how it "flows" across Google+.

Google Plus for Apps
The biggest news of the day, however, was that Google+ will now be available for Google Apps customers, allowing administrators to manually integrate G+ into their organizations. When developers utilize Google Plus for Apps into their organizations, they will be able to use all of the same features as the public version of G+, and those on the team who are already "personal Plussers" for work will be able to migrate their circles and friends over to their new accounts, though the migration tools won't be released for a few weeks. Finally, app development organizations (who pay Google to use its Web services) will be able to use Google+ features for work, such as employing Google Docs in Hangouts to collaborate on projects.

These various changes to Google+ are exactly what the social network needs to focus on. As the newest major player in the social realm, Google+ has a special opportunity to take the best features from industry leaders Facebook and Twitter and retool them for their own platform. By adding their own unique flare and options, as well as focusing on Google Plus for Apps as a business development tool, G+ is finally carving out its own space on the Web.

Google +1 Added to Conductor's SEO Management Platform

Michael Garrity — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 18:00:00 GMT

While the world of search engine optimization (SEO) is ever-changing, Google's creation of the +1 button to go along with their new social networking site, Google+, has helped to reinvent the game once again.

Ever since the launch of the +1 button to rival Facebook's "Like" feature and Twitter's retweet option, many in the Web and SEO industries have been curious as to how that button will play into search engine results, especially because we don't really know exactly how relevant other social networking icons are in search algorithms.

But, according to SEO management company Conductor, the +1 button does have an impact on search results, which should surprise no one. This has led the them begin including the metrics of the +1 button into their Searchlight SEO platform and running analytics on them to help brands better understand when Google uses these social signals to rank websites.

Conductor will also be including data from clicks on the LinkedIn "Share" button into the platform.

Over the past couple of months, Conductor has researched the role that social signals play in search engine results and found that the top five companies or brands that show up in Google's organic search typically have about 3 times as many Google +'s on their pages, and about twice as many Facebook Likes, as the companies ranking 6-10. In addition, the reports indicate that approximately 90 percent of the time, the top ranking search results had more Google +'s and Facebook Likes than the results ranking from 6 and below.

According to Conductor CEO Seth Besmertnik, Searchlight organizes the information garnered from across tens of thousands of URLs and then uses that to discover which keywords help with Google +1 and which do not.

Within seconds of a Facebook Like, Google +1 or LinkedIn Share, Searchlight customers should be able to view, analyze and report on social signals for their own domain and a competitors, as well as seeing who the highest performing brands for any particular keyword or phrase are.

In all likelihood, social signal interaction is going to play a huge part in SEO management and analysis for years to come, so good on Conductor for jumping right in there and figuring out a way turn that data into something definite that can be analyzed. It seems pretty clear that this is going to be the next big thing in search engine optimization.

Buying Google +1 Clicks

Michael Garrity — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 20:00:00 GMT

Google announced it has already attracted 25 million visitors to Google+, which some reports say could make it the fastest growing social networking service of all time. With this rapid growth in the social sector, it’s hard to imagine that Google won’t soon combine the amazing success of its latest initiative with that of the company’s first – the good old search engine (and, of course, advertising).

The easiest way to leverage the sharing activity of millions of users would be for Google to include “+1” data into its search algorithm (the use of social signals already plays some role in determining search result placements), and websites have been springing up like weeds offering services that would allow users to buy +1s in bulk.

Not that this is anything especially new, as similar opportunities have existed for some time now – with third-party sites offering to sell Facebook Likes and Twitter Re-Tweets and followers, among other things.

These sites offer packages that range in price and scope, such as being able to buy 50 +1s for $19.99, 250 for $69.99, or 2,000 for $359.99 (some of the more brazen companies offer 1000 +1 clicks as their lowest package and one site, Buy A Follower, offers up to 10,000 clicks). Most of the sites, like Google Plus 1 Supply, also promise that they do not use bots, proxies or fake accounts, but have real people giving out real +1s for a fee, because apparently that makes it more legitimate.

Of course, many of these groups appear to be aware of the negative implications of buying +1s, especially when trying to influence Google search results, a company that works hard to curb attempts to game the system. Just look at the purchasing agreement at Purchase Plus One, which informs buyers that they may get banned from Google. That’s why these sites promise to slowly deliver all of the +1s over a period of time (usually 1-2 weeks) to more accurately reflect the realism of the +1 process.

The biggest concern is that these sites are clearly aware of the negative ethical implications of buying fake fans and scamming Google. In fact, one such site, Plussem, even has the phrase “cheat the search algorithm” written out plainly in its product description. Nonetheless, these service providers are becoming increasingly common, especially as Google+ continues to expand so rapidly.

As little more than a new way to spam the search engines, paying for the attention of non-relevant, disinterested users to “like” or “+1” Web content only succeeds in corrupting the social ecosystem. Besides, what’s the point in spending hundreds of dollars to have someone follow you but who will never actually pay attention to your message or buy your products?

In the end, not only could you potentially be banned from Google for knowingly defrauding the system by pretending to have fans that don’t exist, but you could also be really embarrassed. Just ask Newt Gingrich.

Google+ Unveils Newest Updates

Michael Garrity — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 21:30:00 GMT

Continuing their undying effort to take over the Internet, Google Chief-of-Staff Matt Waddell came out with a list of great new updates to the company's new social networking site, Google+. Here are a few of the most important new features.

- Mobile Circles: Users can now re-order their circles by simply dragging them to the left or right on the Circles page. Once done, they will stay in that order consistently all across Google+. There is also now an option to crew new circles in-line from the "Add to Circle" menu, which is also all across Google+.

- +1 Improvements: The site's "+1" button will now render up to three times faster than before. In addition, Webmasters can see and test updates to the button before they launch to all of the site's users. Plus, they can now make things go even more quickly by using a new async JavaScript snippet.

- Huddle Up: Google+ will also provide more choices when it comes to group video chatting. Users can now choose who can start a huddle with them: anyone, their extended circles, or just their circles. This selection can be made by visiting "Google+ Settings" on the desktop or G+ settings on Android.

- Photo Feature: The names of photo albums can now be edited by users directly inside of Google+ by simply going to the "Photos" page, clicking "Your Albums," choosing an album, and clicking on its title.

And, as if that wasn't helpful enough, they've also added a "What's new in Google+" page that will keep track of new features and fixes that take place in the future.

Keeping up with these changes and features that are taking place with Google+ could prove to be very helpful for businesses and companies looking to join the new social networking site when that option becomes available to them in the future.

What to Know About Google +1 for Web Professionals

Mike Phillips — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:20:00 GMT

Another change is taking place with Google's search rankings, on the heels of Google's Farmer Update. This one, +1, is all about the intersection of social and search.

From the official Google blog: "Our goal at Google is to get you the most relevant results as quickly as possible. But relevance is about relationships as well as words on webpages."

Social in search is nothing new to Google results. For a while now, we've all seen Twitter updates in Google's SERPs, for example. But +1 marks a whole new era. In short, by clicking a button next to search results users can recommend a result to everyone in their social graph, via Google profiles (see image below). This provides a citation from a "friend" -- and the new inbound link for SEO. So, whenever a user searches in Google, results voted up by members of that user's social graph will be profiled in the results.

Whether this is an admission of Facebook fear from Google or simply a natural evolution of search in an increasingly social Web, this has big implications for Web professionals.

What it Means to You

So what does this mean to the Web professional? The easiest and most appropriate answer is ... we're not sure. This appears to be a significant change to Google -- one of the most important companies on the planet that doesn't take change lightly. You can be sure that plenty of fail-safe's are in place and a kill switch is within reach. It's simply much too early to know how (or how much) this will change search, much less tried-and-true SEO practices. But, there are some things we can do to prepare for any such changes.

If you don't yet have a Google profile set up and optimized with your company information and pertinent links and Web pages, do so. Right now.

You can then check your current connections in the "Social Circle and Content" section of the Google Dashboard. This is who you currently might influence in search results, and who might influence your results. It should go without saying that expanding your Google social circle is an immediate priority for Web businesses. The more people in your circle, the more you can influence search results for them.

If you have an email newsletter and/or an email subscriber list, import the data. Look for those individuals with gmail accounts and start adding them to your Google social graph.

There's also a little Google property known as YouTube. Video is already indexed and prominently displayed in search results. Expect even more, now. That means not only creating and uploading video to YouTube, but branding your company's YouTube channel and making social connections through YouTube.com, in channel subscribers and friends.

Google is also offering +1 buttons for website owners to embed in their own sites. Users can then "like" the page and it should, therefore, become a more prominent page in search results. The +1 button can be obtained at google.com/wembaster/+1button.

AdWords, +1

You didn't think this algorithm change would be limited to organic results, did you? AdWords ads will also feature the +1 button so that users can recommend useful ads, based on their searches. Seen in the image here, if a personal contact cites the ad you will see that very personal recommendation.

For advertisers, this means great care should be taken to creat relevant, accurate and perhaps even entertaining ads. Think like Groupon – although you don't have near the same amount of characters to use, their descriptions of services being sold are highly engaging. What's more, +1 votes could ultimately affect Quality Score, thus bringing down advertising costs.

Staying Social

Google +1 obviously changes things and puts renewed importance on Google social tools. It's also in its very early stages. There will be questions and concerns, such as how much rankings are influenced by votes, whether the average user will vote for search results, and if the system is susceptible to gaming.

Keep in mind, too, that other social networks and websites should not be abandoned in any way. Facebook, Twitter and some others have emerged as powerful resources for Internet business and it will remain so. Even Google's blog acknowledges that the social Web is far bigger than just Google products: "Soon we may also incorporate other signals, such as your connections on sites like Twitter, to ensure your recommendations are as relevant as possible."

In short, we cannot ignore Google at any time and it appears that we will be forced to participate in Google's version of the social Web. But keep a balanced approach. Not everything Google is gold.