SEO, Social Media News & Domains
Archive for October, 2011
Google Ripples a new add on to Google+
Oct 28th
Google+ has added on yet another feature into the emerging social network, this feature is called Google Ripples shows what content is currently hot on Google+ in a very interesting graph format:
Extra points about this new add on:
- 1 billion posts are shared on Google plus.
- Google+ community is driving to find out what is hot on Google+.
- Users are keen to find out what is trending on Google+
SEO’s given some kind words by Matt Cutts.
Oct 25th
Matt Cutts has posted a video on his YouTube channel today saying some niche comments about SEO’s,
I think this is a good video from google to show how SEO’s are a very valubale resource for website owners and not a snake
oil sales man. the problem is soo many sales man/ scam SEO’s exist they give the limited amount of Good SEO’s a bad name.
Some positive points about SEO’s Matt Cutts places are:
- SEO’s help improve site speed/ make your sire fast.
- SEO’s imporve page crawlability
- SEO’s can assist with Keyword Research.
- Make sure you use the right keywords within content.
- Usability and design consultants.
- Find an SEO who gives you all the information and does not hide things.
Video can bew viewed here:
8 Quick Keyword Research Tips for SEO!
Oct 24th
keyword research
So last week I made a post on the SEOmoz blog about SEO keyword research Now I want to make a post on my personal blog with 8 keyword research tips:
Tip 1 – (Common Mistake) Make sure you are signed into a Google Account!
Don’t let me stress how many times I have seen people pull keyword data from Google Keyword Tool when they are not logged into their account, what it does when you pull keyword data non logged in you are left with limited data. An example below when using the Google keyword tool (signed in to your Google account) and when (not signed in)
Keyword tool: https://adwords.google.com.au/o/Targeting/Explorer?__u=1000000000&__c=1000000000&ideaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS#search.none
Tip 2 – Benchmark your data with Insights for Search.
Once you have the data from Google, then take the keywords and place them in Google insights for search. Compare the data in Google insights for search with something you know is popular to see a comparison.
For example I know a specific keyword is getting 30,000 unique visitors a month, I will then compare the specific keyword in google Insights for something you 100% know it is getting traffic for!
Insights for search: www.google.com/insights/search/
Tip 3 – Utalize some paid search data for keyword research.
I work in a company where we deal with mostly paid search, we have several clients which are both SEO and PPC based so we can colaborate data and share various insights.
If you have various verticals you work with then it is easy to pull data from numerous sources.
Tip 4 – Utalize social media monitoring for keyword research.
Try to utalize some social media monitoring and social media research into your keyword research, you can find out what people are actually talking about via social channels and then utalize this powerful data for keyword research.
Every one is using social monitoring software these days if it is free or paid pull some data into your SOE keyword research!
Free: Social Mention, Topsy.
Paid: Radian 6, Buzz Metrics.
Tip 5 – Use search scraper to pull related results –
Search scrapers can be a great way to pull extra data from your keywords research. Example: http://www.searchenginegenie.com/google-suggest-scrapper-tool/index.php
Tip 6 – Use KEI/ KOB for keyword research –
KEI and KOB are keyword difficulty socres, they can be great to pull difficulty metrics for your keywords. Great post on this over here: http://www.stuntdubl.com/2011/01/26/kob-competitive-analysis/
Tip 7 – Use the keyword difficulty metric -
SEO moz has a great keyword difficulty score which you can easily grab data from in a txt file. If the score is below 40% then you know it is probably advisable to target.
Here is the link to the tool: pro.seomoz.org/tools/keyword-difficulty/
Tip 8 – Use internal search data -
Using internal search data is another great way to pull ideas for your keyword research, I mean what better place to look for keyword data then your own website.
New post I have made over at SEOmoz on Keyword Research!
Oct 20th
seomoz-article
So I have made a new post on SEOmoz about keyword research, please feel free too check it out and have a comment the link to the post can be found here:
http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/advanced-seo-keyword-research-tips-and-ideas-14216
The post currently has the following statistics:
Sign up to SEOmoz here:
The Share a Coca Cola Australia campaign a fantastic Viral campaign!
Oct 16th
So over the past few weeks we would have all seen Coca Cola bottles flooding the stores with peoples names on them.
You would go into a store and see James, John, Sarah on labels with an emphasis to share a coke then them.
This was then followed up by a TVC campaign shown in prime time slots:
Further to the TV campaign we saw outdoor billboards with random names start showing up around popular areas in Australia:
Billboard campaign
The link up was also seen on social media with a full take over on the Coca Cola Australia Facebook page:
coca-cola-facebook
This is not where the fun stopped, every one rushed on to Facebook to then post about the campaign, if some one was drinking a coke and it had a friends name on it then they instantly tagged the friend on the coke bottle.
The names are not just traditional names, Coke has added a huge range of names to the campaign such as Kaila, over 150 different names have been added to labels:
Share a coke
Even on nights out people are sharing the coke story on Facebook here is “Alex” tagged in a shot mixing Jim Bean and Cola.
share a coke
The only thing I saw with the campaign which was a bit funny was linking up the Facebook page to the Google paid search element, Something we have tested a few times in the past and it is not the best method to use in my opinion.
I feel linking up the official site (example – www.cocacola.com.au/shareacoke) and not the Facebook page would have been a smarter move, I wonder what the issues with quality score will be on this page?
Also making a micro site is not something I really like to see brands doing, the coke micro site links directly back to the Facebook page (www.shareacoke.com.au).
Marketing teams will say, hey why is it bad to link up to the micro site or Facebook campaign?
The answer is that if you want to build a huge number of links from the offline campaign to assist a long term SEO effort on the website. When the campaign is over you will see reep the benefits from all the links which are pointing to the website. Why build all these links to a different channel such as the Facebook page! You can easily build all the social elements out on the dedicated sub folder page.
But in the end of the day I feel the whole campaign is targeting a Facebook share element, so SEO would probably be an after thought.
coke-google-search
Overall this seems to be a great campaign, linking up traditional offline methods such as product branding and then emphasizing a share element on social media sites with friends.
Please post your comments on the campaign below:
New Google Maps Changes see larger images and maps!
Oct 15th
Today I noticed some more interesting changes with Google maps which I had not previously in the past. We see that the maps listings are far larger then in the past. This new change is evident on several variations of the Google places product.
1. Single location listing, larger location and images from places.
Google Maps Changes
2. GEO store location listing where we see 3 locations.
For a more GEO based term.
3. Numerous locations with larger image and ads below the map.
Local Term
A review of the SERP result “SEO” in the Australian market!
Oct 14th
So I was wondering today how hard it would be to rank for the term “SEO” in the Australian market, many people say that SEO is up their with one of the most competitive terms to rank for. I have the mindset that nothing is impossible and I feel that with the right time limits I could potentially rank for this term in the AU space as I have taken on ranks within the US markets with far higher competition.
So the first step of ranking in the Australian space for the term “SEO” is a bit of competitive analysis. I took the top 9 websites which are currently ranking the Australian space for the term “SEO” and did some analysis. I did not include Wikipedia in the analysis as it is usually a fixed element within search results across various verticals.
For the analysis I looked at the following factors:
- Anchor Text with “SEO” exact.
- Total root domain links.
- Percentage of Anchor Text links with “SEO”
- “SEO” in the domain.
- Number of Facebook Shares.
- Number of Twitter shares.
- Google +1 Shares.
Results in the image below:
SEO-rank-analysis
Overall after seeing the results I feel that with the right amount of time it is possible to achieve this rank.
7 Tips to make your Smartphone battery last longer!
Oct 12th
A common question many people ask is how to I make my smartphone battery last longer? Well I asked my mate who works at HTC for some information on this specific question.
smartphone-battery-life
He gave more 7 tips for making your smart phone battery last longer.
1. Try not to use a live background – live backgrounds are the backgrounds which have all moving images and what not, try and use a static image background.
2. Place your brightness settings on 1 bar – If your screen is on full brightness it can limit the battery life each charge.
3. Try not to take out the battery too often – taking your battery out and switching it, then putting it back in many times is apparently not that great for the battery according to my mate from HTC.
4. Charge the battery to full – Don’t just charge the battery on half then use it try to give the phone a full charge every time you charge it up.
5. Limit the level of music and games – Music and Games are great on phones but they also kill the power on them very quickly, try to limit the user where possible.
6. Apps running on the phone – Try to limit the number of applications running in the background of the phone, if you have countless worthless applications running they can chew the battery life down.
7. Turn off annoying notifications – Notifications can also chew down the battery life, so try to turn them off where possible.
If you have any additional smart phone battery saving tips please post them below in the comments:
Facebook iPad Application Launched
Oct 11th
Facebook has launched the iPad Application, which is a good addition to the companies overall strategy. As the number of users pick up the iPad and the popularity of the decive is exploding around the world it is a strategic move by Facebook to have a good quality App released to the public. The new Application looks quite good in terms of usability from a Facebook perspective.
Image below of the new – Facebook iPad Application
Facebook iPad Application
Facebook Pages see a new feature “Talking About”
Oct 6th
Facebook has brought out a new Function on Facebook pages along with a roll out of new Facebook features this new function is called “talking about the page”.
It shows up when ever some one posts on the pages wall, some one likes the page, commening photos, video or any page content, rsvping to an event, mentioning a page, tagging photos, licing a deal or checking in at a place.
Another interesting development from Facebook to show user interaction with the specific page:
Lil Wayne Talking About Facebook
