Archives

Google has announced one of their biggest set of changes to their search algorithms in their Google Inside Search Blog on the 27th Feb 2012.

The changes that were mostly rolled out at the start of February are also known as Google Panda 3.3 update.

There are 40 changes listed on the Inside Search Blog post.   Not all of them are very important from an SEO point of view, but there are some changes that are quite significant.

In this article, I’ll be giving you my opinions on the impact of the key points of the Panda 3.3 update.

If you haven’t heard of QR Codes or don’t know much about them, then I urge you to find out more about their power when it comes to marketing.

QR Codes are an equivalent of a barcode for mobile phones.  The QR Code can contain up to 4296 characters of information.

The type of information they can contain are:

• Website URL
• Email address
• Telephone number
• Contact Details (VCARD)
• Google Places information
• Social Media, eg: Facebook, Twitter etc.

QR Codes have been very popular in countries like Japan and Korea and are gaining a lot more popularity in Europe and the US.

The Real Estate industry has adopted QR Codes very quickly as it’s easy to see the benefit of being able to quickly view the details of a house by simply scanning a QR Code.

To really get a good idea of the power of QR Codes, then I think the video below illustrates this very well, with Tesco using them to great affect in Korea.

Now is the great time to jump on the QR Code marketing bandwagon while there are still plenty of opportunities available.

Cheers

So the big question is whether Google +1 will gain enough momentum to be as popular as Facebook Like and Twitter and what impact will that have on Google search results.

What is Google +1?

In a nutshell,  Google +1 is a way for people to indicate whether they like a particular piece of content.

It’s Google’s attempt to compete with Facebook’s “Like” button which has virtually become the de-facto standard for sharing and giving a thumbs up for content we like or find interesting.

What Effect Will Google +1 Have On Search Results?

That’s certainly what a lot of people are asking.  At this stage, the effect is quite minimal, but it’s safe to say that if Google +1 takes off in a big way, it will become a much more important factor in search engine rankings.

Here’s what Google has to say about it:

+1 helps people discover relevant content–a website, a Google search result, or an ad–from the people they already know and trust. Adding the +1 button to your pages lets users recommend your content, knowing that their friends and contacts will see their recommendation when it’s most relevant–in the context of Google search results.

When a signed-in Google user is searching, your Google search result snippet may be annotated with the names of the user’s connections who’ve +1’d your page. If none of a user’s connections has +1’d your page, your snippet may display the aggregate number of +1’s your page has received.

and particularly this quote is revealing:

Content recommended by friends and acquaintances is often more relevant than content from strangers. For example, a movie review from an expert is useful, but a movie review from a friend who shares your tastes can be even better. Because of this, +1’s from friends and contacts can be a useful signal to Google when determining the relevance of your page to a user’s query. This is just one of many signals Google may use to determine a page’s relevance and ranking, and we’re constantly tweaking and improving our algorithm to improve overall search quality. For +1’s, as with any new ranking signal, we’ll be starting carefully and learning how those signals affect search quality.

Notice that Google says that they’ll be seeing how Google _+1 is used and adjusting their search algorithms accordingly.

Should I Start Using Google +1?

Regardless of whether Google +1 actually takes off or not, it certainly doesn’t hurt to start implementing it on your sites.   The worst that can happen is that it will unused or ignored and you can remove it at a later date.

However, if Google +1 does take off, it is a great advantage to get in early to establish some ratings on your sites.

Implementing Google +1 is pretty simple.  You can either generate a code snippet to add to you site at:

http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button

or if you have a WordPress site, then you can use the Google +1 WordPress Plugin from WPMU.org

Given Google +1 is quite new, there aren’t too many Google +1 plugins at this stage, but I’m sure that plenty more will be developed and that Google +1 will be incorporated into the popular social bookmarking plugins.

Hopefully you’ll notice this article has Google +1 buttons at the top and bottom of the article.

Cheers

I don’t know about you, but it since late 2010 and so far in 2011, the amount of emails being sent to lists with spammy or deceptive subject  titles appears to be increasing.

The “brilliant” idea behind these types of emails is to trick you or at the very least make you very curious to open them.

However, I would suggest these types of email are very deceptive at best and just down right deceitful at worst.

So what type of email subject lines am I talking about?

Ever seen some of these?

• You just made a commission
• Re: Your free download link [response required]
• Paypal you $100?
• Your download link (license youremail@example.com)
• RE:  Your username and Password
• Re: new password for your account
• Re: your download
• Activate your download
• Your members area login
• Congrats Peter – You got an affiliate sale
• Your order was processed

and so on…….

I’m sure you’ve seen this type of stuff.

Remember that I’m not talking about standard spam that you receive, I’m talking about lists that you’ve subscribed to, whether it be to download a free ebook or buying a product.

These people are abusing their list and you should not tolerate it.

At the very least, make sure you:

UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THEIR LIST!

and if they are using one of those really deceptive subjects (typically the ones that start with RE:), then report it as abuse.

The more people that take action, the less likely these so called marketers will use such tactics.

Cheers

Internet Marketing Cliche Awards

Welcome to the inaugural Internet Marketing Cliche Awards for 2010.  We are here to honor all those worn out and excessively overused cliches used in Internet marketing.

Without further ado, let’s present the contenders:

Shocking

Usage Examples:

watch this shocking video

you need to read this shocking report

With the amount of shocking news happening in Internet Marketing land, you’d think everyone would have dropped dead from a heart attack by now.

The only thing truly shocking about this overused cliché is that anyone still bothers to use it.

Secret

Usage Examples:

get access to my top secret methods

I’ll reveal all my secret techniques

Secret?  Sure, just a little secret between you and a few million other people.  Now that’s one exclusive little secret.

Urgently

Usage Examples:

you need to act urgently as this offer will only last for the next 10 seconds

this offer will disappear if you don’t act urgently

The only thing that’s urgent is the desire of the seller to make as much money as possible in the shortest possible time.  Funny how all those urgent offers are still available months later.

Million

Usage Examples:

follow my exact steps to make a million dollars in 1 day

learn how to make a million dollars on autopilot

The only people making a million dollars are the ones selling you the dream of making a million dollars.

Discovered/Revealed

Usage Examples:

I’m about to reveal to you how to make lots of money easily

Discover how a fat teenage git made over 1 million dollars last month

The Winners

Well, there’s so many good contenders, the judges had a really hard time making a decision, so in the end they decided to award all of them.  This means if you want to use the ultimate cliche, here’s an award winning sentence that combines the subtly of all the cliches:

Discover my absolutely shocking secret that I will personally reveal to you how I make a million dollars a day.  But hurry, this one time offer is URGENT!

If you have any nominations for awards next year, please leave a comment.