Posts tagged opinion
Opinion: What can go wrong in social media?
Feb 3rd
There are loads of companies, be it small or large, itching to dive into social media platforms. But before you jump into the water, you need to ask yourself ‘do you really understand social media?’ Please don’t tell me “it’s basically registering on twitter or create a Facebook page.” No, it’s definitely not. Although they [...]
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Google AdMob: A Performance Marketer’s Opinion
Jan 24th
Unless your products are extremely broad appeal or you’re selling mobile download bale goods (e.g., apps, books, music or video), let me save you some time, frustration and money: there is no apparent way to leverage AdMob for performance marketing.
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Got Opinion but No Camera? Illustrate Your Point of View with Xtranormal
Dec 20th
Can you create a YouTube video to influence public opinion without a video camera? Well, four new animated videos use Xtranormal Movie Maker, which lets you to turn anything you type into a fully-animated CG movie, to promote a point of view.
Fo…
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Opinion: Sponsored Advertising Strategy for Twitter’s Beta Ad Serving Platform
Dec 15th
To date, I think I have filled out the request to contact form on Twitter’s adverting page at least 10 times. DAVID ANGOTTI wrote a post on SEJ about Twitter’s self-serve ad platform. He goes on to mention that about 20 advertisers are using the Beta. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait [...]
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Opinion: 3 Onsite SEO Myths and Facts – What Really Counts?
Dec 7th
Before starting this article I would like to note that I am specifically talking about Google. The information below might not apply to other search engines. Everybody who is into SEO knows that it is more than just link building and offsite techniques. Sure, links matter the most, but how about your website itself? Onsite [...]
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Opinion: 3 Onsite SEO Myths and Facts – What Really Counts? – Search Engine Journal
Dec 7th
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Opinion: 3 Onsite SEO Myths and Facts – What Really Counts?
Search Engine Journal Everybody who is into SEO knows that it is more than just link building and offsite techniques. Sure, links matter the most, but how about your website itself? Onsite optimization might not be the most important part of SEO according to some people but … Distributing to an Array of Wires Will Have a Positive Impact on SEO Campaigns |
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Opinion: Is SERP Bounce a Ranking Signal or a Quality Factor for SEO? – Search Engine Journal
Nov 2nd
 Search Engine Journal |
Opinion: Is SERP Bounce a Ranking Signal or a Quality Factor for SEO?
Search Engine Journal A long debate is on whether website's bounce rate is a ranking signal for SEO. The fact is, Google does have the ability to track any page's bounce rate using Google Analytics, Google Toolbar, and free Google Wifi. Using this as a universal ranking … New Google Ad preferences great for SEO A New Way of Looking at Ranking Factors |
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Opinion: Is SERP Bounce a Ranking Signal or a Quality Factor for SEO?
Nov 2nd
A long debate is on whether website’s bounce rate is a ranking signal for SEO. The fact is, Google does have the ability to track any page’s bounce rate using Google Analytics, Google Toolbar, and free Google Wifi. Using this as a universal ranking signal would be too much spying. Google also has no right to spy on internal user data of all the world’s sites, even if everyone allows them.
While talking about bounce rate and SEO, I heard a few people talking about SERP Bounce and it being a SEO factor. It was not possible to give any concrete reference whether SERP Bounce is an influential SEO Factor, since Google never confirmed it. Though it seemed, it was something that Google can use either as quality factor or as ranking signal for SEO. Moreover, Google also has the ability and right to track this user behavior.
Recently, Google introduced a new feature called “Block all site results”, which is only available when you are logged in and make a SERP Bounce. The blog post by Google does confirm that SERP Bounce is now a SEO Factor.
What is SERP Bounce?
Search Engine Result Page or SERP Bounce is the incident where you bounce back from a website to the Google search results. Google can identify the clicks you made and whether you came back to the search result page. When you open the results in multiple tabs, and close them, that will not count as a SERP Bounce. Google can identify a SERP Bounce, only if you hit the Back Button to their search result page.
Is SERP Bounce a Quality Factor or Ranking Signal?
Few years back Google introduced Search Wiki, which many SEO professionals thought to be a very important ranking factor. But, it turned out to be a spam identification method for Google Web Spam Team. The “Block all site results” feature is also a similar feature. Google introduced the feature to track spammy pages and to tweak their algorithm.
According to Google:
We’re adding this feature because we believe giving you control over the results you find will provide an even more personalized and enjoyable experience on Google. In addition, while we’re not currently using the domains people block as a signal in ranking, we’ll look at the data and see whether it would be useful as we continue to evaluate and improve our search results in the future.
This confirms that SERP Bounce is not a ranking signal after all. But, can be a great SEO Factor for the Google Web Spam Team in identifying the quality of a specific domain.
The Drawback
Since Google started giving authority sites more love for long tail keywords, some authority sites might rank for keywords that are not relevant. In that case, many authority sites may get blocked if they are not much relevant.
Moreover, different search intent can also trigger block if the searcher’s intent does not match the site’s content. e.g. when I search “Apple Notepad” in the hope that I’ll find many results for apple-shaped paper-based notepad, then none of the results from Apple.com will be much relevant for my intent for the search. Eventually, if I block Apple.com’s results, it really doesn’t mean that the site is low quality.
But, we are really not sure how Google will use the site block information. So, let’s hope they make good use of it.
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Opinion: Peering Behind Google’s Privacy Screen
Oct 27th
Fresh on the heels of a free pass from a befuddled congress after admitting that they are a monopoly, Google’s decision to cloak search query strings under the guise of privacy makes it clear they are doubling down on their abusive, anti-competitive practices. Consider the following points:…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
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Google Turning the Lights Out on Organic Data – Opinion by Tony Verre
Oct 18th
News – Google, in an effort to secure better user privacy, is effectively turning the lights out on signed-in Google Account users in Google Analytics as well as other analytics packages. And, true to Google nature, this change doesn’t affect Paid Search, just organic.
The Double Standard
Google makes the double standard seem easy. Paid search (PPC) is also personalized to the user’s search history and IP address. But, true to Google’s nature, this gets to slide through the gates of “privacy”. I’ll let you connect the dots Aaron Wall-style. You don’t have to look to hard to see this move places PPC data on a pedestal; it’s unfiltered by privacy now and you get true conversion data from them.
What This Means to SEOs and Online Marketers
While I don’t have the percentage of users that query while signed in, it’s fairly safe to assume that a good chunk of users do travel from, say, Gmail to Google to query. And any other host of Google applications to Google. And when that happens, it’s light’s out on organic search data. You don’t the referring keyword/keyword phrases used to find your site, your products, and your services. *BLINK*. Gone. As if it never happened.
Certainly, as the post mentions, you’ll get your visitation data, your segment data. However, here is the big piece: when it’s a signed in visit (organically), everything goes bye-bye, including conversion data. So if everyone who visits your site isn’t signed, then your data should remain unaffected by this. But, if even one person visits your site signed into their account, the keyword(s) and conversion are not associated.
Harder to Craft Strategy Now?
I would say so. A lot of SEOs use the organic keyword data and conversion data to determine if a given strategy is working, and to determine if progress on that strategy is being achieved. It helps us establish a bottom-line assessment. Not only does it hurt search marketers, it hurts companies and businesses on every level (big and small). This change is going to make it harder to craft precision strategy on an organic level because the data is skewed and it could be harder to determine whether or not your strategic efforts were successful.
It doesn’t put us back to the Stone Age, so let’s be real about that, but it put a pretty big crimp in data-backed strategy.
Moreover, those who used analytics just to surmise if people/consumers and how people/consumers found them for something other than BRAND terms, just got a punch in the face [read Mom and Pop shops who can’t afford an online marketing services and help]. The web might be a key component to survival for them, and taking away accurate data in the name of faux-privacy is a pretty big deal.
Where to Go from Here?
Like Panda, we are all going to have to see how this shakes out. We will have to see how the data is affected by this change. It doesn’t appear to have been implemented yet, testing out being signed in to my account. But, when it does hit, everyone is going to have to take a deep breath, step back, and watch it for a couple days.
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