Last January 24, 2012 Google has announced that they have changed their policy across several of their services. You might have been bothered by the latest pop-up notice in Google’s search results page, don’t be bothered as this is just Google’s way of informing you on their policy changes which will be effective on March 1, 2012. Unlike for previous policy changes you as the user cannot opt-out of these changes in Google, that means its going to happen and everybody will be affected.

What are the Policy Changes?

According to Google they will be removing around sixty existing policies and they will be replaced by policies which, according to the search engine giant, will be a lot shorter and easier to browse over or read. This means goodbye reading a page long terms of condition or policies wherein after reading three paragraphs you might already be in slumber land. The shorter version of the Google policies may help everyone in understanding the different changes and the scope and limitations of each of Google’s services.

Specific Policy Changes

The updated privacy policy basically focuses on how your user details are being safeguarded and being utilized by Google. For instance Google explains in their privacy policy how they gather information for you, it is basically stated that information is gathered in two ways these are gathering your user information based on what you as the user register with Google. The other way of gathering information is by using your data information from using the different Google services. For the second type of gathering information there are several types of data that are being gathered like your Log information, information about user location, Cookies and other anonymous identifiers, the user device information and other relevant information.

With Whom Information is shared?

One of the fears of most of Google users or internet users in general is on the manner on how their personal information or data gathered by Google be safeguarded and utilised. Google has made it clear with their policy that there are several ways on how your personal information is shared. First, your personal information as gathered by Google may only be shared with the users’ consent. Second, your personal information may be shared with domain administrators or those providing you service and support through Google services like that of the Google apps.  Third, your information may be utilised for external processing via Google’s affiliates who will process your information for the intended purpose of Google. Finally, your information may be utilised or shared by Google to third party companies for any legal reasons thereof.

Conclusion

Making the Google policies concise and easy to understand makes it very accessible to the millions of people who are using Google or any of its services in one way or another. This move by Google helped a lot of people especially those who are not fond of reading long Privacy Policies and Terms of Service. As to the extent of its benefits or its detrimental effects, it would still remain to be seen pending its full implementation on the first day of March.

Hi and welcome to my 1st Blog on SEO Positives new website!

Each week I will be providing you with my digital marketing Top Tips on how your online business can stay ahead of your competitors! We look after some of the biggest clients on the internet, here are a few of them: promocodes.co.uk, luggagesuperstore.co.uk, voijeans.co.uk, partybritain.co.uk and spabreak.co.uk for more examples please see our case studies.

1.    Blogging

Creating a Blog on your website is an essential part of your online marketing strategy and vital to keep your visitors engaged with news about your business. Your blog is like a newsfeed, so it’s essential to create unique interesting articles which contain links to relevant pages back within your website. If you copy and paste another article and re blog it, remember Google could penalise your site for copied text. As a general rule of thumb only use 1 link per 100 words, this will help Google crawl for keywords associated about your business. A perfect example to see how it’s done is by clicking on the words that are underlined within this article. Remember to update this as much as possible and I would suggest you spend 30 minutes daily doing this task which will benefit your websites online presence massively.

2. XML Sitemap

Your website is like a book, your menu bar is like a contents page so this needs to be clear and simple so that your visitors can navigate around your site and look at pages. You may already have a site map on your website which is like an index page in a book. By creating an XML sitemap which is tailor made especially for Google, allowing it to crawl/read your keywords on all your pages. Please see our website for an excellent example of an XML Sitemap.

3. Google Analytics

Any one that has an online presence for a personal website, small or giant online business should have Google analytics. It’s a vital part of your marketing strategy and its one of the most powerful web analytics tracking solutions that will help you understand customer trends visiting your site. This will help you improve and implement new strategies for customers to purchase or contact you resulting in a conversion. In addition Google Adwords (PPC) customers can even see their Analytics data from inside their Adwords account, plus Google Analytics is free for anyone to use.

The infamous file sharing website has been taken down. Try visiting Megaupload.com, the site is no longer up. The FBI made four arrests along with the closure of the file sharing website. Many internet users are shocked by this news as SOPA’s protest was only yesterday in which a huge number of highly trafficked sites closed down in hope of taking down SOPA.

Interestingly enough, the taking down of Megaupload and arrests have caught the attention of international hacktivist group Anonymous. Anon released a message to the public via YouTube to declare the beginning of some sort of cyber-war between the citizens of the United States of America and the Government. Anonymous also urged viewers to share the video via various social media platforms. In retaliation to the FBI’s actions, Anonymous attacked many government sites which resulted in them being offline for some time.

There is a huge amount of protest going on against SOPA and also PIPA as many internet users believe this will censor the internet. Most agree that online piracy needs to be combatted, but this is not an effective method to fix the issue.

This act by the FBI shows that even without SOPA’s approval, they can take any site down and arrest whoever they want, according to Anon anyway. Whether SOPA is passed will be decided in four days, we can only wait and see what will happen to the internet.

If the bill passes it will hugely affect the web in ways that cannot be fathomed. Search engines will be forced to alter their results, which will result in biased results, directly affecting the process and general industry of SEO and PPC.

If SOPA is not approved, it is likely that the US government will find another bill that the citizens of America will be happy about and to deal with online piracy once and for all.

It has been made public as of now that Google are definitely against the SOPA act, and they definitely have just reason to be. Although they are with the SOPA movement, you won’t be sent to a black screen, Google has used their staggering traffic to the best of their ability.

If you log onto Google.com, you will notice at the bottom of the page there is a message from congress which states “Tell congress: Please don’t censor the web”, and by clicking this link, it will take you to another section of Google in which you can sign an online petition to stop SOPA and PIPA, on top of that… information about the two bills are available. More importantly the effects of these bills are explained which is something that is hard to find. Then there is a community section that proves the growing community that are opposing the movements. Internet giants such as Facebook, Twitter, eBay, PayPal and of course Google, not to mention the countless others who are opposing the censorship of the internet.

The Effects

According to Google, SOPA and PIPA will do more harm than good. This is because it will force internet businesses to closely monitor everything linking to their site and if they are in violation of any new laws according to SOPA and PIPA, then it could potentially mean the end of the business, which will leave a huge number of people jobless.

It would be different if SOPA and PIPA actually worked, according to the big G!, these acts won’t stop online piracy. The regulations written in these bills wont successfully shut down their sites, they will simply transfer them to another domain and continue until they are caught again.

Conclusion

Anyone who works on the internet frequently has had their work stolen and pirated before. Whether you’re a writer or film maker, it happens so often and there is not much we can do about it. We do need a bill or law to prevent online piracy. However we need one that will work and not end up crippling the internet as we know it. This change will have a huge effect on social media and could potentially put a stop to it, not to mention SEO and PPC as the algorithm will be a completely different and most likely biased, and that is if it hasn’t been banned by a government.

SOPA is the stop online piracy act that many sites are partaking in. Sites such as Wikipedia, eBay and even Google are protesting this act, Wikipedia are even taking their site down for the day and so are many other sites. This will show how much the bill will affect the average joe and help to raise awareness about the act.

Whether you are for, or against SOPA, we really need to consider both sides, especially before we jump into any rash decisions like take our site down for the day because of SOPA. Granted, if this act does become approved, then the internet will be a completely different place for every user. Many huge sites are taking action against SOPA and if you are against the act, you must think abou what will happen if you join the blackout movement.

Points To Consider

The first point would be the obvious “am I going to make a difference”. The chances are that you won’t. As blunt as that may be, it is the truth. Compare your impact to what a site like Google would have. If Google blacked out their site for the day, then it would have a massive effect on users of the internet. It is the most popular site on the web so there would be a devastating impact, if anything would get the word out about SOPA, then no doubt it would be by Google. That said, your site is most likely no were near as popular… Unless your name is Mark Zuckerberg.  Consider how much money you would lose to having a website down for a day, it can be fatal for some sites, this loss would need an indefinite gain, and unfortunately since there isn’t, then I feel it would not be a wise move to blindly jump on the SOPA band wagon, in terms of blacking your site out.

Another point would be to think of other ways you can help the cause. You can raise awareness from other methods, whether you’re for SOPA or against it, there has to be something you can do, this is where you can use your own personal experience and creativity to “fight the power”.

Conclusion

There are many reasons in which why not to jump into the SOPA act, whether you are a supporter or not. If you are not getting traffic on a scale of Facebook, Google and Twitter, it is unwise to jump into a decision like that. The best thing you can do is use your skills, whether you are a plumber or a SEO company, there is something you can do to help your side of the argument.

A Roundup of Great Google Resources

Google provides an abundance of products and services that simplify owning or managing a website. In addition, they have also made available several resources for learning how to use their products to the maximum potential. I’m going to break down my favorites and why.

“Google’s mission: Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Google Analytics

There are two great resources for learning to become a Google Analytics power user, Google’s IQ Lessons and Google Analytics YouTube Channel.

Google’s IQ Lessons provide short, easy to follow videos using screen shots of the Google Analytics dashboard. It’s a comprehensive look at Analytics beginning with an introduction and moving on to more detailed features like creating admins, interpreting reports, and concluding with in-depth videos for more advanced features like advanced segments and event tracking. If you watch this complete series of training videos, you will be well on your way to being an advanced Google Analytics user.

Google Analytics YouTube Channel hosts a variety of videos ranging from 30 seconds to an hour long, including Q & A’s hosted by famed analytics guru Avinash Kaushik and Nick Mihailovski, a series of videos called ‘Analytics for Agencies’, new features and more. This is a great resource for both beginners to Google Analytics and experts.

Google Webmaster Tools

If video tutorials are how you like to learn, then you can learn all about Google Webmaster Tools here. The entire video is about 20 minutes long and it covers the basics like submitting your site, title tags and meta descriptions and also provides other resources for webmasters, this is a great place to find additional helpful Google forums, articles and more.

Google Webmaster Tools are useful for finding any errors in your website, seeing which search queries are showing your web page as results and more. Google’s Quick Start Guide breaks down what you will see when you log in to your Webmaster Tools account and offer a brief explanation and then a “Learn More” link taking you to an in-depth explanation of the chosen topic. I like how they have set this up because it is a nice refresher for those who have used Google Webmaster Tools before and it is also great for the complete beginner because you can run through the Quick Start Guide, and then go back to the beginning and go through each of the Learn More sections and gain a solid foundation in how to use Google Webmaster Tools more effectively.

Other Google Resources

Matt Cutts walks through some of the “hidden gems” of Google resources in this two minute video. He talks about where to find “Tech Talk” videos, all of Google’s Tech Talks from Google IO that have been digitized and uploaded, and “Reporter Center” which features short videos by reporters with tips on interviewing and tips on reporting of any kind.

For some insider info, subscribe to Google’s own anti-spam software engineer Matt Cutts’ blog. He maintains a blog rich with information and has also made countless helpful videos on YouTube.

Rebecca Derdoski is a search engine marketer for Internet Exposure, a Minneapolis SEO agency specializing in web development, web design and digital marketing.

Yahoo and Bing have created a search alliance together. This new found partnership enables web masters to manage their PPC campaigns on both search engines, but only from one site. This means that running a campaign on both websites is more convenient than ever.

Step Up

Google is the search giant; there is no dispute about that. However, we all know that Yahoo have been slowly declining and have been in need of a comeback. This alliance could be exactly what Yahoo needs to begin to bring back higher user activity on their site. Especially since Yahoo site explorer went down, which was a tool that displayed incoming links, this tool was heavily used by SEO ‘s around the world. Now the alliance has been formed, this could be Yahoo’s big break.

What The Bing?

The question must be raised, what is in it for Bing? Well the most obvious reason would be a higher volume of search. Although Yahoo is on a downhill slope right now so the search volume required would not be that great. I think there are other reasons for this Alliance. Possibly Yahoo’s tech heads are better with PPC or may have a more technical algorithm than Bing.

Taking On The G!

Since Google is the king of search, I believe this is an attempt for the two engines (Y! + Bing) to team up and group together their current volumes of traffic and make an attempt to beat Google, this will be tough to accomplish straight away, any search engine to take on Google will not receive an instant win. So unless an awesome advance in the industry is made by Yahoo and Bing, then it will be difficult for them to overcome Google and become the top source of information on the web.

Conclusion

It is unlikely that we will be informed the true reason for this alliance. It is most likely an attempt to combat Google but the reason why they are teaming up is much more than we know. Yahoo are most likely part of this to bring themselves back from their decline. However the reasons for Bing to be a part of this alliance are unclear.

Google Plus may be the new kid on the block, but it has everything other social networks have and maybe even more. Google have had their social network not only available to the public for a while, but now also a mobile app.

Potentially copy catting Facebook and Twitter, but the famous saying of Apple is that they have an app for that. Google cannot be blamed for jumping on the mobile band wagon, every social network should be available on a mobile device and now they are.

Features

Google Plus has five main sections to the platform (not including games). These areas are the stream, messenger, photos, profile and circles. All of these factors are available on both the web on a desktop computer, and the mobile app. Notifications are also displayed at the bottom of the screen which is great when you would like to be instantly notified.

Downside

One downside about + for mobile devices is that hangouts is not really available as there would be some compatibility issues which would just cause a bad user experience. For example, the iPhone 3GS would not be able to hangout via video because it only has a back camera available so the face would not be able to be seen so it would be pointless.

Conclusion

All features that are available on the web are also available on the Google Plus app, which makes this app an ideal tool for social media marketing which goes great with SEO campaigns and other various internet marketing activities.

Recently, many SEO ’s and tech heads noticed that Google’s campaign for Chrome, which was how the browser could help your business. Was somewhat spammy and didn’t mention how it could help businesses. Every article had the Chrome video at the bottom and this was seen by the viewers as a paid link attempt.

Google finally penalised the Chrome page, if you search the word browser, Chrome no longer appears on page 1 and is now position 61. Google has said that they will penalise this page by reducing its PageRank which will reduce its ability to rank for terms such as browser. G also added that this punishment will last for at least 60 days.

Comparing The Damage

If a webmaster was to do something like this on their own site. There is no doubt that the website would be taken off of Google’s listings. Whereas the chrome page is still in the listings, well the sub-listings for the Chrome support page when the term “Chrome” or “Google Chrome” is searched for.

Looking At Both Sides

Many webmasters would not hesitate to complain about the “unfairness” of this occurrence. Google basically paid for links and slightly lowered their PR, like I said before, if anyone but Google were to do that, then their site would be removed. It can be argued that if Google is really aiming for fairness with their search engine, then they would have been treated like everyone else.

Looking at it from Google’s point of view and also the users of Google (who are the most important), if Google did completely remove the Google Chrome page, then this would have a negative search experience for the user. Which could end up diminishing the amount of searches Google receives and for us SEO’s that is bad news.

I’d also like to mention that it is Google’s search engine. This is an obvious statement, yes, but all complaints are based on how unfair the situation has been treated. Google could have simply shrugged off any complaints and done nothing to “resolve” the matter. At least some action has been taken.

Conclusion

Of course Google are going to drop the charges as soon as the 60^th day comes along, but why wouldn’t they? Many people in their position would completely ignore the complaints made and carry on as normal. If anything it is surprising that Google has taken this action because that now leaves Mozilla Firefox in the top spot for the term browser, so we could potentially see a rise in users for Firefox and possibly a decrease for Chrome. We will have to wait and see what is to come in the 60 days to come.