Are Links Losing Value in Google's Algorithm?

In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand explores both sides of the argument, offering some concrete advice to SEOs on how they can navigate today's waters.Here's the link to coverage of Google's testing removing links from the algorithm, and to the roundup post where links as a ranking signal are discussed (in particular, check out Russ Jones' reply in the comments). For reference, here's a still of this week's whiteboard!

So Google recently came out and talked about how they had tested a version of their search engine, of search quality algorithms, ranking algorithms, that did not include links as a ranking signal. Of course, a lot of SEOs went "Wait, they did what?"

But it turns out Google actually said they really did not like the results. They didn't like what they saw when they removed links from the ranking elements. So maybe SEOs are going, "Okay, can I breathe easy, or are they going to keep trying to find ways to take links out of the ranking equation?" Certainly, links for a long time have been an extremely powerful way for SEOs and folks to move the needle on indexation, on rankings, on getting traffic from search engines.

I'm going to personally come out and say that, in my opinion, we will continue to see links in Google's rankings systems for at least the next five and probably the next ten years. Whether they continue to be as important and as powerful as they've been, I think is worthy of a discussion, and I do want to bring up some points that some very intelligent marketers and SEOs have made on both sides of the issue.

So, first off, there are some folks who are saying, "No, this is crazy. Links are actually growing in value." I thought Russ Jones from Virante made some excellent comments on a recent blog post where some experts had been asked to do a thought experiment around what Google might do if links were to lose signals.

http://moz.com/blog/are-links-losing-value-in-googles-algorithm-whiteboard-friday

Google Give Tips For Identifying If Your Site Has Been Hacked, And How To Fix It

A post went up on Google’s official Webmaster Central Blog last night from a representative of the Search Quality Team providing tips for how to find out if your site has been hacked, as well as fix it and prevent future incidents.

Adding spammy pages are the most common way hackers take advantage of vulerable sites, Google says. Hackers add spammy pages to redirect users to undesired or harmful destinations. For example, Google says they have seen a rise in hacked sites redirecting visitors to online shopping sites.

Here are some tips Google provides to help you identify hacked content on your site:

• Check for for shady looking URLs or directories: You can check for any kind of shady activity on your site by performing a “site:” search of your site in Google, such as [site:example.com]. If there are there any suspicious URLs or directories that you do not recognize, they may have been added by a hacker.
• Check the Search Queries page in Webmaster Tools for unnatural looking queries: The Search Queries page shows Google Web Search queries that have returned URLs from your site. Look for unexpected queries as it can be an indication of hacked content on your site.
• Turn on email forwarding in Webmaster Tools: Google will send you a message if they detect that your site may be compromised. Messages appear in Webmaster Tools’ Message Center but it’s a best practice to also forward these messages to your email.

Here are some tips Google provides for how to fix and prevent hacking:

• Stay informed The Security Issues section in Webmaster Tools will show you hacked pages detected on your site. Google also provides detailed information to help you fix your hacked site.
• Protect your site from potential attacks: Prevent attacks by keeping the software that runs your website up-to-date, sign up to get the latest security updates for your website management software, and choose a provider that you can trust to maintain the security of your site.

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-give-tips-identifying-site-hacked-fix/92961/

Someone Outranking You With Your Own Content? Use The New Google Scraper Report

One of the most frustrating experiences for any publisher is discovering that someone not only has copied your content but outranks you on Google for searches related to that content. Now, Google seems to have heard the complaints and has launched a tool to help.

The Google Scraper Report form doesn’t promise any immediate fix — or any fix at all. Rather, it simply asks people to share their original content URL, the URL of the content taken from them and the search results that triggered the outranking.

Google does have a DMCA system that people can use to remove infringing content, but that can be a time-consuming process. Potentially, this allows Google’s spam team to move against infringing content by considering  it a spam offense, rather than a copyright issue.

There’s a slight negative in that potentially, someone reported for spamming as a “scraper” might have a valid copyright claim. But realistically, there are so many terrible scrapers out there, and the activity is often so obviously infringing, that removing such content on spam grounds would allow Google to apply more common sense to the problem, rather than virtual paperwork.

http://searchengineland.com/google-scraper-tool-185532?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

Using Content Marketing to Build Brand Trust

Content marketing is now bigger than ever and has been rapidly embraced by the majority of agencies and in-house online marketing teams across the globe. Content creation was recently ranked as the single most effective SEO technique and marketers have jumped on it. The problem however, is that people are rushing into this new online strategy before thinking about why they are really doing it and how they are going to use it to achieve their objectives.



Of course there are the obvious reasons for developing a content marketing strategy, including making sure you come across as a thought leader in your industry by providing regular up-to-date content on industry news. There is also the point of telling your own brand’s story through content that you put out in your news section and the ability to promote your brand’s products and services in a more engaging way.

Content marketing is all about creating and sharing free content that is valuable to your audience and will attract new customers and retain existing ones. The content your brand needs to be sharing should be related to your industry so that you can help and educate others, this will encourage people to trust you and once you have their trust then they will work with you.

Over 2 million blog posts are published every day, which means that readers these days have a huge choice of what they read and that’s before you consider all the content sent through social media channels such as Twitter and YouTube. With a high level of content overload, it is important to make sure that your content marketing strategy makes you stand out from the crowd.Too many content marketing strategies focus on quantity over quality, but really it comes down to making sure the content you produce is going to build a trusting relationship between the brand and the audience.

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/using-content-marketing-build-brand-trust/90463/

Managing Your Online Reputation: An Interview with Nick Cuttonaro

Search Engine Journal’s Murray Newlands about protecting your online reputation and offers some tips for reputation management.

      

Nick has been a part of the online marketing industry for many years, and specializes in SEO, lead generation, web development, and reputation management. He founded Hyper Vision Media, an online advertising agency that produced marketing plans for major motion pictures, and also served as an Account Executive at Future Tech Enterprise before starting The Link Builders, where he is currently the Vice President.

When it comes to brand and reputation management, Nick is a great resource for learning how to protect the name of your business, and in his interview with Murray, he offers up a lot of his best pieces of personal advice for maintaining a great public image. He talks about the importance of staying on top of your social media profiles and keeping them up to date, to also maintain a positive tone of voice, and to utilize video content and authoritative blog posts in order to help your search rankings in Google.

These are some key takeaways from the video:

• In the interview, Nick tells Murray that in order to protect your brand’s image, you should always be in control of your social media profiles, keep them updated, and be conscious of what you’re posting.
• Nick also advises that when posting content, keep it professional and keep it positive. Avoid using negative language or complaining about other brands or products and stick with the upbeat and fun content.
• Nick says that the types of pages and content that are ranking best in Google are social profile sites, video content, and authoritative, informative blog posts.

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/managing-online-reputation-interview-nick-cuttonaro/88255/

Bing Takes A Stance Against Poor Spelling and Grammar, Saying It Will Hurt Rankings

In this post Forrester takes a firm stance against poor spelling and grammar, explicitly stating it has an impact on search rankings. This is a stance Google has never taken, or at least they have never expressed their position on spelling and grammar as clearly as Bing has.

Google has their Panda algorithm in place that weeds out poor quality content and allows the good quality content to rank higher, but when judging quality content it’s unclear to what extent spelling and grammar comes into play.

It has been suggested by Matt Cutts, even as recently as this month, that site owners should be mindful of spelling and grammar when it comes to the content they publish. However, he has never stated that Google takes action against pages that routinely publish content with spelling and grammar errors.

                

Forrester explains Bing is judged by the quality of the results they show so they are constantly keeping an eye on the quality of content that ranks well, which includes looking at spelling and grammar. However, he is also empathetic to the fact that occasionally content with errors slips past the editors. It happens to everyone.

It doesn’t look like Bing intends to penalize those rare instances of content being published on a site that has a history of being relatively error-free, they’re more concerned with penalizing sites that routinely publish content with spelling and grammar errors.

This stance against poor spelling and grammar is an admirable move by Bing, I can’t help but wonder if Google will release a similar statement.

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/bing-takes-stance-poor-spelling-grammar-saying-will-hurt-rankings/92061/

Google+ Local scores - How Google Determine Average Score

Google+ Local scores

All scores in Google+ Local are determined by user reviews.
Individual user ratings are based on a 0 to 3 point scale.

3	Excellent
2	Very Good
1	Good
0	Poor to Fair

We take these ratings, average them, and then multiply by ten to arrive at averaged scores.

26-30	Extraordinary to perfection
21-25	Very good to excellent
16-20	Good to very good
11-15	Fair to good
0-10	Poor to fair

When you’re searching for locations in Google+ Local, you may see these scores depicted in two ways:
Scores with multiple aspects
These scores will show you several scores for different aspects of the business. For example, restaurants are scored across three areas--food, decor, and service--with food being the primary aspect.
Overall scores
When we don’t have enough user ratings on different aspects, we will just show an overall score. An overall score is comparable to a score in the primary aspect for a location, like food for restaurants.

Resources https://support.google.com/local/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1723748&p=zagat_score