While I know there are a ton of summaries from the sessions, I went to very few due to the content was heavily centered around beginners. I spent most of my time in the hallways and foyers getting key information.
Just a quick reminder of the story I shared last week at SES: At the Google Dance at the GooglePlex, all the SES attendees were given black t-shirts and all Google employees were given gray t-shirts. An interesting thing happened when I arrived and was given my black t-shirt. A Google employee stopped me and asked me if I’d be willing to trade my black for his gray shirt.
Why not? Works for me. I just didn’t realize how well it would work later.
I went into the restroom and changed shirts and walked around and took pictures. I needed a break and I went and sat down in this lounge area. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by about a half dozen “gray shirts” (Google employees). One of them motioned to me. “They stuck you with picture duty, huh?” Without really thinking, I replied, “Yeah, you know Lumberg.” (In reference to the idiot boss in the movie “Office Space”). “You have a ‘Lumberg’ for a boss too?!?!?” said another. And then comments were made in how stupid their bosses were. I was now a part of the club. I then casually asked each which department they were in and then asked, “What are you guys working on?” Their responses are detailed below …
I also got answers to your questions.
In all, SES was, well boring. No worries. I kept myself plenty busy. Here are some cool tips that you may not have been aware of:
Tip #1: Has Google tagged your site as suspicious? Run a check yourself:
http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=http://www.webmarketingnow.com/
Just substitute your URL for mine. It will not only tell you the last time GoogleBot visited the site, which is more accurate than the cache. This tool states the page was last visited by GoogleBot on the 27th (two days ago) as opposed to the Google Cache which shows the 23rd (6 days ago).
Tip #2: Make sure you have a Google Webmaster Tools account as within the next 30 days they will show where your links originate (more below) and they may possibly show the weight and anchor text as well. According to the product manager, it was “number crunching hell” getting it to work, but they got it done.
Tip #3: Perform a Site Audit. This is vital as Google has new technology coming out which will allow them to better determine links from “bad places” and these links will get more hammered than ever before. There is hope the links will be discounted altogether. Make sure you go through my Site Audit process.
< http://www.webmarketingnow.net/site.php/arti/read/seo-site-audit/ >
Tip #4: Link Networks Beware. The Google “anti-spam team” is getting more aggressive when it comes to link networks. While there aren’t going to be any new filters, the current ones will be injected with new algos to sniff out and find link networks and discount the links coming from those areas. While the only penalty given will be to the site selling the link (which is currently the process), the site buying the link will not receive the benefit they thought they were purchasing.
Google is getting VERY aggressive with link networks, but no matter how aggressive they get, my links with Link Worth have always done well and have never been filtered according to my testing. Just don’t go nuts with it. A word of caution, they have been showing up at search engine conferences (they were at Webmaster World last year and they were at SES last week) so their profile may be on Google’s radar now.
Tip #5: If you use the Google Website Optimizer start small with testing three main changes. Chose three of the following: Headline, Call to Action, Offer, Price. According to the product manager, by starting small and getting a good feel for what really works for your page with the “big stuff” you can then get granular and test smaller things. She was very adamant about focusing on a few changes and getting the “big picture” first before diving in and testing the small stuff.
I have been following her advice and so far I am finding I am having more success with the Google Website Optimizer.
Tip #6: Google admitted to compressing the PageRank scale which caused many sites, mine included, to go down in PageRank despite their link profile going up. An engineer I spoke with went through my site and when I mentioned my link profile went up by my PageRank went down he typed a bit on his laptop and said, “Hmmm … you’re right and you’ve been busy lately.” I don’t know what that comment meant as my link building hasn’t really changed much this year with the exception of Web 2.0 properties.
Bottom Line: PageRank has little real power anymore. Focus on your traffic and conversion levels instead and build links for your sub pages. Also, don’t forget to monitor your cache dates.
Tip #7: Google Local Results have been known for years to be primarily focused around the “city center”. Simply find where the big arrow was pointing in the map and get a business address near there. You also needed a site with traffic and you would often be in the top three, if not #1 for your main targeted phrase.
It was that easy.
But then something happened and it wasn’t so easy anymore and the listings would seem to be all over the place. After discussing this issue with a few top SEOs and also asking the right questions to the Google engineers, I did a little test in the Bay Area. I woke up early and drove around San Jose, Milpitas, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Saratoga, Los Gatos, whew. And they all checked out.
What is the secret?
The post office. That’s right. In major cities there is usually one post office per ZIP code, and in cities where there are numerous ZIP codes, it is the post office that is closest to downtown that is key. Now, I also checked businesses who had post offices boxes and they do NOT come up at the top. The same is true for boxes at the UPS store too. You actually must have a physical business address.
So if you are having issues with Google local, just sign up for a free account, get verified and make sure your address is close to the post office downtown and you’re in good shape.
Tip #8: Check your niche category in DMOZ for 404 domains or “Site Under Construction” and look to buy those domain. Yeah, this tip has been around for awhile, but it is one you often forget. Just one domain could help turn around a campaign, as DMOZ still carries a lot of weight.
Tip #9: Look for competitors who have dropped services and pick up those links. For example, if you are in the email autoresponder business and your competitor drops that service, do a backlink check on their autoresponder page, hire someone with a great phone demeanor and have them start dialing. “Yes, good afternoon, you are currently sending your customers to a dead third-party page and we’d like to be the company your refer your customer to. We’ll also give you a referral fee for every customer we get for as long as they remain our customer.”
Bingo. Suddenly, not only are you getting a good link, but you are getting a good affiliate to help boost your business and a new relationship to work on.
Tip #10: Mess with People’s Sites for Fun. As I was talking to another affiliate he asked me what my main domain was and in just a few minutes he showed me my site with his name in big letters at the top. Initially, terror set in thinking he had somehow hacked into my site, when in reality all he did was change the browser page to be editable. He wouldn’t show me how he did it so I did some searches and found the code. Just insert this code into your URL address bar:
javascript:document.body.contentEditable=’true’; document.designMode=’on’; void 0
You can then edit away. 
Bonus Tip: Google Health
Okay, fine, this isn’t SEO related, but it is very cool and I spent nearly a half hour with the project manager at the Google Dance going through it. It can integrate your health records and with your permission share your data with certain health sites to help you overcome health issues.
Q&A
Q: Tell me more about Google SiteLinks. How do they determine which links are used?
A: First of all, make sure you review my article about SiteLinks I published last year. SiteLinks: How to Get Them.
< http://www.webmarketingnow.net/site.php/arti/read/sitelinks-how-to/ >
I have tested SiteLinks algo pretty hard and the one thing I have learned is that the algo is NOT easily influenced. In other words, attempts to “steer” Google to the links you want included doesn’t work on a consistent basis.
As far as getting certain keywords to appear as SiteLinks for your domain, it has mostly to do with your site being “the” landing spot for that search. It isn’t as easy as you might think. For example, I am getting a Mac this weekend. It is my ritual, a new laptop every Labor Day, and this year, I’m going Mac … let’s see if it sticks this time.
If I do a search for “Apple” … apple.com has SiteLinks. However, it does NOT have SiteLinks for the following phrases: iPhone, iTunes, iPod, Mac. The only phrase I could get to come up for Apple.com with SiteLinks was “macintosh”, and that was really one of my “last gasp” phrases to try.
So, as you can see, even the large companies have issues when it comes to getting the right keywords tagged with SiteLinks for their domains.
Q: Does the geographic location of the web host matter for search? Organic? Local?
A: I had a great discussion about this with three Google engineers. The actual location of the server does not matter. Even though there is some “chatter” that it does matter, the choice where to host is clearly yours as a business owner. However, where people tend to get into trouble is the TLD (Top Level Domain). For example, if you had a web business in Portland, Oregon, it wouldn’t make too much sense to have a co.uk domain would it? And the same is true the other way around. If you want localized traffic, and you’re in the UK, get both the .com and .co.uk domains. Build out the .co.uk and 301 redirect the .com to your localized domain. This way you keep your brand, but you are far more likely to get localized traffic with the proper TLD than without it.
Tip: If you are in the US, you don’t need a local host to rank well locally. Your “dot com” doesn’t need to be hosted in Portland if you are also in Portland. You can host in Miami and rank just as well in the local search.
Q: What changes is Google working on right now?
A: I was able to get some info when a group of Googlers thought I was an employee by accident. The biggest issues was a new filter they are working on which would “kill half the businesses here tonight.” The individual who said that was pretty young, and I have learned over the years in this industry that young people like to talk and say bold things in order to get attention and have a feeling of “betterment”.
I don’t believe that statement for many reasons, first, he has no clue about the level of people at the party … as SES attracts mainly newbies. And I followed this comment up with a few Google engineers that I am good friends with and they basically laughed it off. I was on the Organic SEO panel with Aaron (he’s on Matt Cutts’ team) and there are no big filters being worked on currently.
So what is being worked on?
1) They just launched some new features with Website Optimizer which now allows you to remove criteria without having to create a new campaign.
2) Webmaster Tools will be adding a function in the next 30 days to allow you to view the domains which are linking to you and their “order” of importance. Note: I would be VERY surprised if they really did order them by importance as Google is very protective of their data and ranking algorithm.
3) “Universal Search” will continue to be a priority.
4) Ridding the index of Search Spam is one of the top priorities and will continue to be.
Q: Why does a page bounce from #5 to #20 and back to #5? Is this an algorithm alteration?
A: This can either be different datacenters being hit based on traffic levels or your ISP (if it is a national ISP) connecting to different datacenters. It could also be caused by either the domain or the page not having enough authority and getting small “bursts” of links but they aren’t enough to sustain it at #5, therefore it slides back to #20. Due to the complexities of the algorithm, it is too difficult for us (Google) to make a determination of ranking changes for just one keyword phrase.
Q: How should video be SEO’d? If they were going to put video on their own personal site, what would they do to ensure it ranks well for the targeted keyword phrases?
A: Google is adding by this weekend (according to talk at SES) about 70+ pieces to their algorithm. Most of the additions are in the video / Web 2.0 space. I talked to A LOT of engineers about this and you know that glazed look in people’s eye when they have NO CLUE how to answer a question, but they keep talking? This is what happened when I asked this one. They knew all about video, but wouldn’t give any specifics. I am testing this right now, so when I have some solid data, I’ll let you know.
In the meantime, if you use YouTube (owned by Google) to post your video and then embed them in your site it gives you some of the best tags for video right now.
Q: What gives with Froogle showing up in the #3 spot?
A: The engineer I spoke with was obviously new, as the name “Froogle” threw her off … as it no longer goes by that name. Instead, it is known as “Google Products” and including these results in the SERPs is based on the Universal Search process which has been implemented inside of Google for some time now.
You can read more about Universal Search from my test results.
< http://www.webmarketingnow.net/site.php/arti/read/universal-search-uncovered/ >
Their plan is to continue to test and to see how the SERPs are reacted by the users. That is one thing Google does very well. Instead of trying to guess what people want, they present it, test the reaction and then they make changes accordingly. There have been many changes Google has implemented over the years, that were quietly removed because they were negatives in the user experience.
Know this: Google is NOT going to sit still, they will continue to change things, test and see what makes for a better experience for the end user.
Q: Why does Google show a different number of indexed pages? For example, doing the “site” command returns 1,600 pages, however, scrolling to the end the number is 350.
A: This is a mix of both pages in the Supplemental Index and duplicate content pages. Mostly, the issue is duplicate content. While Google has removed the ability to actually see “only” pages in the Supplemental index, it does still exist.
It is recommended that if you have a high range as given in this example that you analyze the information in your Google Webmaster Tools account. Chances are good there are issues with duplicate Titles and/or Descriptions which are the main reasons for duplicate content.
Know that when you see discrepancies like this the issue is with your site and not a reporting problem by Google.
