Back in May, Google was awarded a patent for a new methodology in rankings. Everyone understands how important links are and prior to this new patent, a link was a link (in theory). The new patent puts more emphasis on the psychology behind web users.

Google’s new “Reasonable Surfer” patent in it’s most basic sense tries to determine what a links a user would be most likely to click on. This new patent allows links to carry more weight than others. Eric Enge over at Search Engine Land explains how this will change the SEO landscape.

This new patent is a very easy concept to understand. What would a visitor be most likely to click on when landing on a page?

The real question that needs to be asked, how do we influence users and funnel them into important pages?”

Here are some very basic things that you should consider with this new patent:

• Pages that you want to rank should be linked within the homepage. I’m not just talking about the main navigation. Create a bulleted list of your most important content. When a user lands on your site, what do you want them to see first? Make it easier.
• Utilize unique sub navigation that is specific to the content with links that are relevant. Create a list of related pages and related content.
• Use more images with keyword rich captions. Embed links within the captions if appropriate.
• Start utilizing bold links more often. Add color to your links.

This new patent is definitely a good thing. Google has built their brand on having a good user experience. People trust Google search results. This new patent tries to look at how users think and is really enriches the user experience. It’s clear they have been looking at these types of things for a long time, but now its out in the open.

As many in the Twitter community know, the social micro-blogging site announced plans yesterday for a new ‘Find Friends’ feature. It will allow users to easily find their Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections on Twitter. Users will be able to instantly follow their friends on Twitter and add them to a list without having to exhaustively search for them. Exciting, isn’t it? Well, it was until Facebook decided to block it! It has been discovered that Facebook intentionally blocked the feature and is in a similar battle with another site called Power.com.

Power.com is a site that aggregates the social networks of users into one spot making it easier to manage multiple profiles and friends. However, Facebook considers this a copyright violation (according to their terms of service) and is suing Power.com for hacking. Twitter is attempting to do the same thing with this new search feature, so the question is: will Facebook sue Twitter?

In my opinion, if Facebook wants to remain a favorite among social network users it needs to unblock this new Twitter feature. Otherwise, Facebook runs the risk of losing more users like it has in recent months due to the debate over user privacy. I think that Facebook is overstepping its boundaries on this one…I mean it is my information after all and if I want that to be given to Twitter, it should be my choice.

Guest author: Megan Jeffery

We’ve been talking a bit about landing pages, and how they are really a very important part of your online marketing strategy. Going over the basics, I’ve already talked about how you need to make it as easy as possible for the user to get to the product or information they want.  Can’t reduce all friction, as that would mean no sale, but you get the idea.

The next thing you need to take a look at is, does your landing page have a motivator? Something that makes the user happy, makes them want to close the deal?

The number one most important motivator is… relevance. If a user does a search, clicks on your SE results, but they don’t find what they would expect to find, you almost instantly loose that conversion. That’s why it is so vital to really nail down what your page is about. If you sell tropical fish, you probably have different types of fish, right? In order for your landing pages to be as relevant as possible, you need to create a page for each type of fish you sell. That way, when someone is looking for say, ‘angel fish’ , hopefully you have optimized your page well for this phrase, included some pictures of angel fish, with the alt attributes in place. With the proper steps taken, your users should be well pleased with what they find on your landing page.

If, on the other hand, you have angel fish showing up in your SE results, but your page is about all the different fish you carry, the user will become frustrated and probably click away pretty fast. The motivation for having clicked through to your page is gone, or converting is harder to accomplish than your average user is willing to do.

So, when building your pages, do your best to be concise, make the page about the specific phrase (topic, product) you are going after. Make it as easy as possible for your potential clients to find the information or products they are looking for, and make sure that the checkout process goes smoothly. Any hangups along the way can cause cart abandonment, and we don’t want that!

Guest blogger: Megan Jeffery

The SEM community has been really generous in sharing it’s knowledge and expertise. There are many places where you can find viable tips and information to point you in the right direction. It can be a little overwhelming, as there is so much information out there, so I have complied a list a some of the sites, articles and blog posts that might be of help.

1.    Anita Campbell is the founder of Small Business Trends, and a great friend of TKG. She often speaks at TKG’s  Search Made Simple seminars. One of her recent blog posts included a “reading list” as it were. A compilation of a number of blog posts that are a great read for anyone using SEO to promote their site. This reading list was compiled by a panel of SEOs that presented a webinar for the Verizon Small Business Center on SEO  strategies for small business.

2.    Mashable.com promotes itself as “ The Social Media Guide”.  Several sections are devoted to “How To’s” and guidebooks for Facebook and Twitter. If you need help getting started in this area, this is a great place to find a tutorial on just about any social media application.

3.    SEOmoz.org has a remarkable number of tutorials and tools for anyone trying to increase the rankings for their site. The daily SEO blog and free tools make this site a regular stop in my daily browsing.

4.    The SEO Book of course has many tools and posts that you will find quite valuable in your efforts. The Link Building guide is very helpful, and  one of my favorite posts from this site is a link building article called 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity. It’s a bit on the older side, but still has a lot of really pertinent ideas.

5.    Any good SEO campaign starts with a great keyword list. But, perfecting that list can be daunting. Search Engine Land has a great blog post with every keyword generation tool you could ever want  – sweet! So hopefully you’ll end up with the appropriate phrases for each page you’re optimizing.

As always, TKG is here to answer any SEM questions you might have, so if you haven’t gotten quite what you were looking for in this list, drop us a line – we’d love to be your go-to resource!

The Google Caffeine update has been in the works since August of last year. Last night at SMX Seattle Matt Cutts who heads up Google’s Web Spam team spoke out about the update.

The Caffeine update is officially live on all of Google’s data centers and all users are seeing the updates. From the official Google Blog:

Today, we’re announcing the completion of a new web indexing system called Caffeine. Caffeine provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and it’s the largest collection of web content we’ve offered. Whether it’s a news story, a blog or a forum post, you can now find links to relevant content much sooner after it is published than was possible ever before.

As the name implies, the Google Caffeine update makes Google faster and more relevant. They are able to crawl the Internet at a much faster speed and provide instant real time results.

Image Credit: Official Google Blog

As a side note, the Caffeine update has also been called the “May Day” update by webmasters.

Guest author: Megan Jeffery

Okay, so lets pretend you’ve got a landing page (the first page a user sees after clicking a search engine result) that’s not so hot. The user can’t find what they’re looking for, or the information presented isn’t relevant to their search.  Maybe, they’ve found what they wanted and had every intention to buy, but the cart isn’t working, or there are too many steps to get through the checkout process. Believe it or not, these are all still very common problems.

Your landing page is really important, as it’s often the first representation of your company that a user sees, if he has done a search rather than type in the URL to your homepage. (This is most likely the case unless you’re a huge brand.) And, it had better reflect the description of the page found in the search engine results.

In evaluating your landing pages, there are several areas that need to be addressed. As I alluded to above, the first thing ought to be the optimization of the page. We’ve been all through this before when discussing the Fortune 500s and what they are  and are not doing, but I’ll run through briefly:
1. metas: keywords, description and page title – especially the description and page title. The description is often used in the SERP. The title will be at the very top of the page, telling the user what they will find on the page. The title also helps the SEs determine what your page is about.
2. on page optimization: h1, alt attributes, copy, navigation and any inbound links all appropriately optimized.

If you’ve got all this under control, take a look at your navigation. Is it easy to understand and follow?
Is the copy easy to read? Is there a clear call to action? Is the purpose of the page obvious?

If these questions leave you wondering about your landing pages, shoot us an email with your questions, we’d love to help you out!

Guest Author: Megan Jeffery

So, you have this site, and for the most part, it’s pretty well optimized, it has some good copy, you think you are following all the SEO “rules”. So, why aren’t you converting? Quite often the problem is “friction”. Friction is the stress that is created for the user when trying to convert on your site. If your site is hard to navigate, that creates friction. If there are too many clicks to get to the products, or services, or forms, that creates friction. Many people still hesitate to hand over information on the web, or to buy products. You have to make things comfortable and easy as possible to get users to convert.

A few areas that you may want to take a look at on your site:

• newsletter sign up
• contact form
• email capture
• copy
• special offers
• shopping cart
• shipping

The idea is to eliminate as much friction as possible, but of course not all, as every action on a site causes the user some friction. So, for instance, look at your copy. Is it long? Does the user have to scroll to get to pertinent information? If so, you might want to look at reducing the copy, make it shorter and more concise. While ensuring that you don’t change the integrity of the copy itself, or your targeted phrases, you want to make sure the user gets the information they are looking for as quickly and easily as possible.

Do you have special offers on your site? If so, make sure it’s easy for your potential customers to take advantage of the special. Don’t make them fill out a whole form, just give them a short cut to the purchase process.

Look over your contact form. Don’t ask for information you don’t need, this is a hassle, as no one wants to fill out a long form, and it makes users nervous. Same goes for your shopping cart / shipping information. You don’t want them backing out of a sale because you asked for an unnecessary piece of information. Keep the form short, and only ask for the information you really need. Make sure that your site is secure and that your method of ensuring that is plainly marked near the form fields.

Are your products easy to find, and easy to purchase? Most users expect to be able to make an online purchase in just a few clicks. If you get them to a place where they are 4 or 5 clicks in, and they still have not been able to submit their order, you could be looking at a high rate of cart abandonment. Take a look at ways to shorten your purchase process, and implement them – right now!

Just common sense, really. Keep your site clean, and easy to use, and your conversions will be there. If a site is hard to use, does not feature security prominently, or requires too much from the user (whether it is effort or information), then you need to do a little restructuring.

I recently learned that Google is adding an interactive component to YouTube called ‘Google Moderator’ which looks like it will result in a better video experience for users. The YouTube blog explains:

“That’s why, starting today, we’ve integrated the ability to use Google Moderator into every single YouTube channel. Moderator is a versatile, social platform that allows you to solicit ideas or questions on any topic, and have the community vote the best ones up to the top in real-time. We previously used Google Moderator as part of our interviews with President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.”

“Here’s how it works: You set the parameters for the dialogue, including the topic, the type of submissions, and the length of the conversation. Watch as submissions get voted up or down by your audience, and then respond to the top-voted submissions by posting a video on your channel. The platform operates in real-time, and you can remove any content that you or your audience flag as inappropriate. You can also embed the platform on your own website or blog.”

This interactive feature will help channel owners with everything from developing content to interacting with their viewers and getting their feedback! Here is a great example of the ‘Google Moderator’ in action with Chef John from Foodwishes:

I recently learned that Google Maps is doing away with the “community edit” option on local business listings. This is great news for business owners that have been fighting to keep their Google Maps listings spam-free and professional. Prior to this change, it was possible for anyone with a Google account to edit a business listing and the changes would automatically go live unchecked. This gave competitors, ex-employees, unhappy customers, etc the opportunity to “get even” with a business owner by making whatever changes they wished to a listing. These changes are to blame for false information which, for some, ended up costing companies that were affected a lot of business.

However, now any changes that are made will be manually checked by Google Maps staff to determine if the edits are correct or not. I am not sure how many edits Google will be reviewing or what their process is, but I would expect that there will be a few days lag between submitting edits and getting approval. Hopefully, the edits won’t take too long to approve! Business owners should sleep easier knowing that their listings are no longer at risk; just make sure that you claim your business listing! All of these new updates to Google Maps have left me wondering what they will think of next!