We did have some forewarning this update was coming. As we discussed a little over a month ago, Google’s spam chief Matt Cutts was asked at the SXSW Conference what Google was doing about “overly-optimized” sites. Although it isn’t customary for Cutts and Google to announce an update ahead of time, he went on to explain how the search giant was planning an algorithmic update to deal with this issue.

So what is overly-optimized content?

In the context of the Penguin update, this can include content stuffed with keywords, shady link building and other practices. According to a report in Search Engine News and SEO Moz, sites negatively affected by the update likely have one or more of the following:

• Low-quality or “spun” content
• Questionable linking practices
• Overuse of exact-match domains
• Aggressive use of exact-match anchor text
• Keyword stuffing in internal/outbound links

Below is an example from Google’s Webmaster Central Blog of a site with unusual linking patterns and excessive use of keywords. Notice how the links have no relation to the content.

Courtesy of Google Webmaster Central blog

Best we and others can tell the update was rolled out to all languages simultaneously on April 24^th. For searches in English, it’s estimated around 3.1% of queries were affected. To compare, the initial phase of Google’s Panda update affected 12% of searches done in English but in the beginning, Google said it would only affect 3% of searches.

But someone else’s loss could be someone else’s gain. Many sites who are not affected indeed improve their position following updates like Penguin.

From updates like Penguin and Panda, we can discern that Google prefers branded sites – early reports too indicate that sites with a good link profile survived the latest algorithmic update. We all know how Google has been targeting spam, unnatural links and low-quality sites for a long time. This latest “update” is simply a continuation down that road.

Penguin is a lot like Panda in that it is an “algorithmic” update – meaning that if you were affected, submitting a reconsideration request with Google won’t get you very far. Basically what you have to do is remove the spam, clean up your site and wait for a data refresh and re-crawl.

That of course can take weeks.

If you feel your site was caught in the filter by mistake, there is a form you can complete to petition Google. You can also visit your Webmaster Tools account or use Google’s Webmaster Forum to inquire about your site.

It’s suggested however that you be real careful in pursuing these options. Be absolutely sure your site doesn’t have an issue with it to cause it to be legitimately filtered during an update.

Check back with us again in the next couple of weeks as we explore things that can trigger a loss in rankings through algorithmic updates.

Was your site affected by the Penguin update?

If so, what was the issue and what are you doing to address it?

Other Posts You May Be Interested In

Answer these 23 Questions to Understand What Google Looks For

Upcoming Google Update to Penalize “Over-Optimized” Sites

3 Steps You Should Take Before Linking to another Site

8 Ways you can safely sell Links on your Website

Google Panda Update Causes Some Sites to Lose Traffic, Revenues

It’s a well known fact that companies and others announce news with such fanfare that it makes unsuspecting people very anxious when in reality it’s just a blip on the radar screen. Google is no different in how it announces events at the company.

News that’s not really that significant is made to appear so and vice versa.

Well that certainly is the case with Google Instant – the new feature that displays search results as you’re typing in a search. Many SEOs thought this would spell doom for long-tail keywords.

But with some time and research by our friends over at SEOMoz, that isn’t really happening. If there have been any changes in long-tail keyword traffic, it’s been very minimal.

The Conductor Blog for instance analyzed 880,000 search visits for ten high-traffic sites in different industries and came up with the following data…very little impact as you can tell. The slight increase in long-tail keyword traffic would seem to go against what some have been saying.

Conductor Analysis of 880,000 Searches

Another set of research by MEC backs Conductor’s results up. As you can see, there’s not much if any difference in long-tail traffic.

MEC Analysis of Different Keyword Searches

In fact, this has generally been the case with Google’s updates according to veteran SEO Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz. What initially may seem as a dramatic shift usually turns out to only be a minor tweak web marketers need to make to their strategies (i.e. personalization, local search, etc.)

Really the only updates that make a big difference are barely mentioned by the company…the 2003 Florida Update and Google Sandbox are a couple that come to mind.

And while there have been some minor adjustments, search engine marketing has fundamentally stayed pretty consistent since 2002 according to Rand. At its core, SEO involves the four following things:

1.       Make pages accessible

2.       Target keywords searchers use on those pages

3.       Create content visitors will find useful and valuable

4.       Earn editorial links from good sources

Next time there’s a big announcement like Google Instant or Caffeine, Rand suggests you ask yourself if any of these 4 elements have changed. If not, then the update is probably not a big deal and easily manageable.

But with this new instant results feature that tries to predict what someone is looking for, some have postulated that the SEO craft is now totally dead. Others say instant search isn’t a big deal. The question remains though…what do we do about it?

While some are buzzing around fretting about how SEO is now a thing of the past, Google has stated publicly that they have made no changes to their algorithm. Really, the instant search feature is more of a browser-type feature that speeds things up. From an SEO perspective, it really shouldn’t change much of the mechanics of what you do.

Since this change has just been rolled out, it will be awhile before we know how it affects user behavior.

So in the mean time, you may want to begin researching how these instant results affect your audience’s intent according to Damien Bianchi over at Search Engine Land.

Damien argues that searchers in the beginning stages of the buying cycle could easily be distracted with instant results.  Those who know what they’re trying to find are less likely to be distracted by instant results and Google’s suggestions.

To approach this problem, Damien suggests webmasters create a matrix of audience segments…he suggests “focused users” and “early users.” Make a list of your preferred landing pages and keywords for each and create a baseline ranking and traffic report and monitor it for major fluctuations.

Chances are, you will see a drop in the “early users” segment Damien says.

At this point, you will see which keyword phrases are not performing and be able to create a plan of action to address the problem.

Of course Damien is just one view out of many out there regarding Google Instant Search.

BTW – Personally, I find this new feature very annoying. If you’re in the same boat, there’s fortunately a way you can turn it off. Simply click “Search Settings” at the top right of the Google homepage and then scroll near the bottom where you will see a box for Google Instant. You can adjust the setting there.

And check back with us over the next few weeks as we see how this new feature from Google affects optimizing websites for the search engines.

I’m afraid to say no one can answer that question beyond a reasonable doubt. Some websites seem to benefit from it more than others.

A recent Search Engine Roundtable post discusses this issue with two extremes – one saying they don’t matter at all and the other saying they’re quite the necessity.

A lot of the answer to this question depends on how competitive your keywords are…if you’re in a highly competitive industry, you’re not likely to see much of a boost from having keywords in your URL. Take our URL for example – having SEO in there may help some but we’re certainly not depending on the URL to bring us high rankings.

As we’ve discussed before, Google’s algorithm consists of many different elements that are each weighted differently.

So the best advice and way to think about keywords in the URL – don’t worry too much about it!

That’s right, work on building content, links and a crawlable architecture that’s easily indexed by the search engines. Over time, this is what builds sustainable search engine rankings, not just some keywords in a URL.

They can give you a slight edge but it just depends. The better way is to choose a URL that you want because it’s going to be with you for a very long time.  Besides, those particular keywords may cease to be relevant in the future.

By evaluating different metrics and experimenting with different layouts, Marketing Experiments’ webinar outlined how you can drive much higher conversion rates.

It’s not about marketing intuition or a list of best practices…successfully driving higher conversion rates with landing pages is more about a framework or methodology. Think about it more from a sequence of thought perspective rather than mere optimization of words or images. In your reader’s mind, the value of every action you desire for them to take must outweigh the cost.

It’s like a see-saw – on one end you have cost, and on the other you have value. If the cost is high, fewer people will find the value in going further.

So how do I reduce “cost” in my landing pages?

To reduce cost, you must reduce friction by eliminating any unnecessary length or difficulty in the order path, or thought sequence.

Basically, the hosts (Flint McCaughlin & company) of the interview say you must answer two of the readers’ most critical questions very quickly – you have to do this within “four inches and seven seconds” according to Flint.

Not answering the questions “Where am I?” and “What am I doing here?” means more people will be clicking that back button.

Be sure your visitor knows where they have landed.

Also reduce cost by not having many form fields. Keep questions to a minimum.

Increasing your page’s value along with decreasing its cost is another way you can drive higher conversion rates. Carefully identify and communicate key factors that set you above your competition…offer “unique value” to your prospects.

Another way to increase value – use specific, quantitative and instantly credible language when describing benefits of your products or services.

Take about an hour or so and watch this very useful webinar. They provide great examples of their work so you can visually see how to structure a page for maximum benefit along with how you should approach what you say…I’m trying some of their tips now so I’ll let you know how it works out.

Nevertheless, we do like to drop in from time to time and see what’s going on with Microsoft’s newest venture into the search world – Bing. It’s been almost a year since Bing hit the information superhighway and while it’s enjoyed some growth, it’s nowhere near taking over Google’s top position.

But one thing that will help SEOs understand how Bing works that was just released is an advanced query guide.  This guide basically consists of advanced search operators webmasters can use in their site’s coding to help their rankings in the fledgling search engine.

One of the biggest advanced search operators Bing made public was the norelax operator, which automatically implements relaxcount for queries that are five words or longer. Basically what that means is any words past the fifth word in a query will not necessarily appear in the search results.

Other advanced search queries include: AND:, contains:, feed:, filetype:, language:, noalter:, URL: and more.

Check out this quick post on Microsoft’s technical site which includes a list and description for each search operator along with a quick forum on the topic from WebMasterWorld.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse for the authorities so it’s important we’re all on guard so we don’t find ourselves in any trouble.

Privacy bill could mean increased disclosure requirements, privacy protections

One idea floating around Congress that’s seeing traction is an Internet consumer privacy bill being proposed by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA), chair of the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology & the Internet.

Rep. Boucher’s bill is more of a privacy bill for consumers. Its main target is online advertisers who target consumers through behavioral advertising. Many online advertisers – including Facebook with their new ‘like’ features – examine behavior patterns online to target advertising to relevant parties, which in turn increases conversions.

Behavioral technology tracks a user’s searches, how long the stay on a page and even the sites they visit. Data is then taken by advertisers to establish behavior patterns and online demographics.

Web advertisers fear this bill will require web users to opt-in, causing them to lose an important tool in how they target potential customers. However, Rep. Boucher says he supports an opt-out option where web users can choose whether they want their information shared or not.

“If I were [a publisher or advertiser], I would want Internet users to have a sense that their experience is more secure, that they know what information is collected about them, and they be given much more control. They will be more trusting of electronic commerce. . . .it’s good for business,” says the representative from Virginia.

Whatever happens, there will certainly be increased regulation like new disclosure requirements and legal forms indicating how a site tracks data and uses it.

Financial Reform Bill grants new powers to FTC

Tucked inside the financial reform bill passed by the House last November was a provision expanding the Federal Trade Commission’s powers to allow them to impose civil penalties on companies engaging in “unfair” or “deceptive” trade practices.

Since the mid-1970’s, the agency had to hear public testimony and a congressional review had to occur before any penalties could be imposed on the business. With this new power, the agency will basically decide for itself with no public scrutiny what constitutes unfair advertising practices.

Ad industry groups fear this could lead to the FTC acting as an “unelected legislature,” basically giving it free rein over regulating Internet commerce.

The financial reform bill is currently being debated between the two chambers. The House passed its version late last year and the Senate this past April. Both chambers are reconciling their differences, which will need to pass. President Obama has indicated he will sign the bill when it arrives on his desk.

This bill seems more dangerous than Rep. Boucher’s privacy bill since it directly expands an agency’s enforcement authority.

Appointees to the FTC are chosen by the President so vesting this much authority in a centralized executive authority could be dangerous from a checks and balances perspective.

Boucher’s privacy bill is understandable in a big way but it will certainly add new requirements for webmasters and SEO marketers. The combination of the two could be a double whammy for any of us marketing our businesses online.

Stay tuned…

We spend a lot of time here at the search engine optimization e-blog exploring the best and most legit ways of doing this.

One strategy of building links budding web entrepreneurs can consider is buying an abandoned website that has an existing cache of inbound links already. This can be a quick way to jumpstart your link-building efforts.

It’s been estimated that nearly half of businesses started in the U.S. fail within four years. In the old days, this exclusively meant a brick-and-mortar storefront was abandoned, leaving the real estate for someone else to pick up and use for productive purposes. In the online world, the site owner may keep his “online real estate” around in hopes of making it work one day.

These kinds of businesses or their website more specifically, are ripe for the picking at rock bottom prices. As far as cash outlay, this option may be more expensive than other link building strategies but the time you will save will make up for it. As the old saying goes – “time is money.”

One of the easiest ways to find these link jewels is to do a search on Google for outdated copyrights. For example: “copyright 2003” + your keywords

One of the easiest ways to spot an abandoned website is to find one whose copyright date is several years old. Sites that are consistently maintained will change that date each year but if it’s abandoned, the copyright year may be from 5+ years ago. Nothing says a site has given up like an old copyright date.

Another way to find abandoned or underperforming websites you can pick up for cheap is to type in “temporarily down for maintenance” or “under construction” plus your keywords. This is another indication that a site could be abandoned.

Once you locate a potential site, make sure its domain hasn’t expired. If a domain expires, Google wipes their entire history and infrastructure clean. Meaning, the value of any links and PageRank is reduced to zero so it would be a waste of time to purchase it for link building purchases.

We’ll have more on how to effectively build links through purchasing abandoned domains. Check back with the search engine optimization e-blog for more on this and other tips on building search engine rankings and effectively marketing your small business online.

For any of us who spend our time trying to obtain high search engine rankings, this surely threw a wrench in the gears. How would we know if our efforts are working if everyone was getting personalized results based on prior searches, their location, etc. In one respect, personalized search is nothing new. Google has returned results based on geographic specific elements for a long time now.

Now that you have to opt-out of personalized search (which most people have no idea about), search results may be slightly skewed. Meaning, if you visited a website, your browser was likely stamped with a 180 day cookie that will highlight any related keywords pertaining to that site. So the next time you do a search using those keywords, the site you visited will appear first rather than one that’s more deserving.

While this may not be a problem for most people, SEOs and webmasters like you and me want to see search engine results how they are and not skewed results pages based on some personalization.

So how can I see raw search engine results without personalization?

Keep reading for two ways you can shut off Google personalization in your web browser so you can see the raw results for particular keywords you’re targeting.

Option 1 – Add the search operator “&pws=0” to the end of the URL of your search query. Type in the keywords into the search bar like normal then click search. When that results page appears, simply add the above code into the URL bar on your browser. This will return raw results with no personalization.

Option 2 – Scroll down to the bottom of a search engine results page and click the “view customizations” link. Next, click the option to view your keyword search “without these improvements” to remove personalization and any cookies from your browser.

After doing one of two of these, you should be able to see non-personalized results for the keyword in question. Repeat for other searches to obtain raw search results. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any permanent shut-off switch for this feature but if we stumble into one, we’ll let you know.

These strategies can help you get the raw deal on how well your search engine optimization efforts are working. Personalized search isn’t affecting search results too much, the best we can tell, but shutting it off entirely will certainly give you the best picture on how well your efforts are working.

Normal crawling is reliable – just not quick enough sometimes…very inconsistent in other words.

Being reliable is great but if you’re 5 minutes late for the train, all the reliability in the world won’t matter if you’re inconsistent – show up early some days and late on others.

So, what can you do to get new content indexed faster in the search engines?

Continue reading for four tips on getting your site content indexed faster and check out the video below for more.

Update your XML sitemap and “ping” Google, etc.

Your XML sitemap is basically a file containing links to all of the pages on your site. Unlike an HTML sitemap, it is only visible to the search engines. Updating this file with links to new pages provides the search engine spider a one-stop place for finding everything on your site. So to get indexed faster, update your XML sitemap when you post new content. But instead of waiting for the spider to come, ping them through Google’s Webmaster Tools and let them know you have updated your file. If you ping, they will come.

Use Pubsubhubbub protocol

Pubsubhubbub protocol is a server-to-server web hook-based pubsub (publish/subscribe) protocol that you can place in your site’s coding. You can create your own public or private hub that news aggregators like Google Reader, Friend Feed and Feedburner can use to find your new content. You can plug-in your WordPress blog utility and Superfeeder to automate this process. Whenever you post new content to a PSH-compatible site, these aggregators will immediately be notified of your site’s new content.

Create a “tweet” on Twitter

We recently discussed this on SEOe – Can Twitter Get a Site Indexed in the Search Engines All by Itself? While it’s not a long term solution, “tweets” on Twitter can provide your site that initial boost to get the spiders to come and index your new content. Considering Google is now indexing “tweets,” simply posting an announcement of your new content will immediately be picked up by the search engine.

Ping-o-matic

Ping-o-matic is a service that allows you to “ping” a bunch of different web services and notify them of new content on your site, much like ringing an alarm bell to alert the world to your new stuff. Ping-o-matic is linked up with different blog directories and news aggregators like PostRank, News Gator, Bloglines, Google Blog Search and more.

It’s to your advantage to find different ways to get your site’s content crawled and indexed as quickly as possible. Your competition is likely working hard to do the same thing so you don’t want to be passive and think that great content alone will bring home the bacon. If a competitor is working hard to get their content indexed quickly, they will leave you in the dust quicker than you can blink.

Check out this video SEOMoz produced on the heels of the SMX Advanced conference for more.