Spam Filter

Google’s head of search spam Matt Cutts posted a longer video today answering what it is like to fight webspam at Google.

The questions posed by Brian Harnish of Westminster, California were:

What is a day in the life of a search spam team member like? What is the evolution of decisions in terms of how they decide which aspects of the search algorithm to update? Will certain things within the algorithm never be considered for removal?

In short, Google has both humans who fight spam manually and also engineers who write algorithms to fight spam. The human manual spam fighters handle reactive spam, for the most part, whereas the engineers focus on proactive spam fighting.

Matt explains the best spam fighters look for patterns and trends and try to figure out “what is the loophole they’re exploiting.” Then the engineer would work up an algorithm to expose and cover the loophole.

Most engineers spend their days coding and building algorithms. They often will build something, test it and refine. Then the algorithm might be tested in a live experiment where false positives and other issues might be discovered.

As Matt describes how engineers work, he makes it sound like an art. Where an engineer is not just looking to squash the loophole but creatively look for ways to catch the spam at a deeper level.

Often, the tasks set for the beginning of the day or the beginning of the quarter will change fast. What Google’s engineers set out to do may change based on a major issue or a big complaint from someone or somewhere, that complaint can come internally within Google or externally via a spam report, blogger or somewhere else. So it is a very “dynamic” space,” Cutts said but that also makes it interesting and “very fun and an intellectual problem.”

People will try to spam forever, as Matt has said before – so there is plenty of work and of course, job security. But engineers can work on anything, from existing algorithms to new ones, to making old algorithms faster or better, to building new algorithms for new issues.

“You never want to play whack a mole with a spammer,” Matt said but instead find way to plug a hole.

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Restaurant Menus - Google

Google has started showing complete restaurant menus in its search results when a query specifically looks for menu information.

We think Allie Brown was the first to spot this when she shared the results of a search for “jones brunch menu” on Twitter. For that query, Google begins the search results with a card-style answer that details the restaurant’s menu across several categories — appetizers, entrées, sandwiches and more.

(For the record, Google actually seems to be getting the details wrong. In looking at the Jones website, this looks like their “all day” menu, not the brunch menu that Allie searched for.)

We’ve reached out to Google to find out if this is a limited test or something that’s rolling out to all searchers — no reply yet.

Postscript: Shortly after publishing, a Google spokesperson replied to our questions with the standard “we’re always experimenting, nothing to announce at this time” response.

As Aaron Bradley points out, the menu data could be coming from AllMenus.com, the site that’s included in the local search box for Jones.

One thing’s pretty certain: It’s probably not coming from the Jones website, where the menu is part of a Flash animation and doesn’t include the pricing information that Google’s menu card shows.

There’s an argument to be made that this is another example of Google hurting business owners by showing answers that eliminate the need to visit a website. Maybe, but there’s also research from about 18 months ago that says less than half of independent restaurants have a website, and of the ones that do only 40 percent show their menu online. In many cases, those online menus are old or incomplete, buried in a Flash movie or PDF, or otherwise hard to get to. So with other research showing that 80 percent of consumers want to see a menu before they pick a restaurant, no wonder Google is going out of its way to put menus right in the search results. Google has always been a lot more concerned with making searchers happy than making website owners happy.

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Google Updates

Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced that Google has released a refresh of its Page Layout Algorithm. The filter, also known as the Top Heavy algorithm, downgrades the ranking of a web page with too many ads at the top or if the ads are deemed too distracting for users.

Cutts said the algorithm was refreshed last Thursday, February 6. Here’s his tweet:

This would be the third confirmed update to the Top Heavy algorithm, with the full release schedule as follows:

• Top Heavy 1: Jan. 19, 2012 (impacted less than 1% of English searches)
• Top Heavy 2: Oct. 9, 2012 (impacted 0.7% of English searches)
• Top Heavy 3: Feb. 6, 2014 (impact not stated)

Background On & Recovering From Top Heavy

What is the page layout algorithm? As we quoted from Google originally:

We’ve heard complaints from users that if they click on a result and it’s difficult to find the actual content, they aren’t happy with the experience. Rather than scrolling down the page past a slew of ads, users want to see content right away.

So sites that don’t have much content “above-the-fold” can be affected by this change. If you click on a website and the part of the website you see first either doesn’t have a lot of visible content above-the-fold or dedicates a large fraction of the site’s initial screen real estate to ads, that’s not a very good user experience.

Such sites may not rank as highly going forward.

See also our original article for when Top Heavy was first released, for advice about how a site that’s caught may have to wait until the next release for any changes it’s made to restore rankings.

We have not seen many complaints within the SEO community around February 6th or 7th about any update like this, which suggests it impacted fewer sites than when Google updates other filters like the Panda or Penguin algorithms.

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Paid-Link Penalty

Yesterday online travel giant Expedia announced Q4 2013 and full year results. The company “beat the street,” reporting strong room night and revenue growth across all geographies.

So far a suspected penalty from Google hasn’t hurt the company’s bottom line. See our earlier stories:

• Expedia Lost 25% Of Their Search Visibility In Google Possibly Over Unnatural Links
• Expedia & Google: No Comment From Both About Possible Expedia Penalty

Last month the site took what appears to be a major traffic hit, losing as much as 25 percent of its organic search traffic. Many believe this was because Google penalized the site afterdiscovery of a paid link scheme.

Google and Expedia have repeatedly and pointedly not commented on the issue. However there’s substantial evidence that Expedia was participating in a paid-link scheme.

During the Expedia earnings call yesterday CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was asked about the suspected penalty by a JP Morgan Chase analyst:

Douglas Anmuth – JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division I just wanted to ask 2 things. There have been some recent reports [indiscernible] some national search visibility on Google. I was just hoping that you could comment on that . . .

Dara Khosrowshahi – Chief Executive Officer, President, Director and Member of Executive Committee Yes, as far as Google goes, look, listen, we’re not going to comment on speculative articles about our Google trends. What I’ll tell you in general is that our traffic from Google, both on a paid and an organic basis, continues to increase on a year-on-year basis. We look at all of our practices in Google, our SEM practices. We make sure that the content on from our side is great, our SEO practices, et cetera, and we’re constantly auditing them and making sure that our practices are industry-leading. So really, that’s the only comment I’ll make. Google’s a big partner. We continue to grow with them. And from a long-term basis, we look to continue to grow with them going forward.

That’s a very bland non-answer. One might call it “evasive” even.

Expedia gets a significant portion of its bookings through search traffic. Indeed, Expedia is highly sensitive to its dependence on Google. Not just a “big partner,” Expedia sees Mountain View as a potentially formidable competitor in travel. The company is part of the anti-Google lobbying group FairSearch.org that has complained loudly about Google “favoring its own content” vs. third parties in organic results.

The following is a discussion citing Expedia’s Martin MacDonald from a Linkdex report called “Travel 360″:

Certainly from an Expedia affiliate perspective, we know that for above 50% of all of the bookings that we receive, the consumer’s journey starts at Google. When you consider that is likely also to be true for other segments of the market such as meta search, or direct bookings, we can reasonably state that Google already have something of a monopoly in Europe.

The impact of any penalty resulting in a 25 percent loss (or more) of organic traffic should manifest at some point in Expedia booking and revenue losses. So far that hasn’t happened.

Expedia is a company with many brands and diversified sources of traffic. It may be able to “compensate” for the suspected penalty by buying more SEM or through its subsidiary sites and affiliates. 

Source: http://searchengineland.com/suspected-paid-link-penalty-hasnt-hit-expedia-bottom-line-yet-183714

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Google NoFollows Google+

Folks on Google+ noticed that Google+ has recently began nofollow many of the links in your profile by default.

So if you visit my profile page on Google+, the section where it says "Links", most of those, if not all, seem to be nofollowed.

Currently, the links you add in the "Story" section of your profile, do not seem to be nofollowed. I am sure that will happen eventually.

I doubt these links mattered much to Google anyway but now they don't matter at all, because nofollowed links are not links in the eyes of Google.

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6 Local Tips For Small Business SEO Success

We all know that a key component of any small business’ marketing strategy is to effectively position its brand in search engine results. But is it possible to dominate search results with content you control — or at least content you’ve influenced?

The answer is yes. There are simple and effective ways to boost visibility for your business in search results, while simultaneously improving related marketing efforts in social media, ratings and reviews, and media outreach.

Take a look at my six tips for local SEO success, along with action items for each in order to successfully implement them. Throughout, I’ll reference some great work done by Billy’s Bakery, a New York bakery chain, which has utilized many of these tips to dominate their search results with positive content and coverage.

1. Properly Optimize Information On Your Business’ Website

Your website is your most important and valuable online asset, so ensuring that it is properly optimized to appear high within search results is key.

Action items:

•  Create a domain name that reflects your business type and its location. For example, Billy’s Bakery uses the domain “billysbakerynyc.com,” which includes it all.

•  Add keywords on page titles that identify with your business, its services and its location.

•  Incorporate your business’ name, address and phone number (NAP) information in not only the homepage or contact page, but each individual page of your website.

•  In addition to highlighting your offerings, ensure your website copy includes as much about your local area as possible to further associate your business with the nearby vicinity. For example, note what section of town you’re in, what sports team plays across the street, or what park is around the corner. Not only will this added info help improve your website copy for customers, it will also boost your search visibility as a local business.

2. Secure, Build Out And Update Your Business Listings On Local Websites

Perhaps one of the most effective ways to boost local SEO is to ensure the availability and consistency of your business’ listing information across a myriad of third-party sources. Google and other search engines constantly scan these sites to develop a stronger understanding of the local web and your business.

When your business isn’t listed — or the information listed about it is incomplete or inaccurate — there is a risk of diminishing or negatively impacting your business’ placements in search results.

Action items:

•  Search leading local listings websites ranging from Dexknows, Facebook, and Googleto Yelp, YP and Yellowbook to ensure that your business is listed, that you have “claimed” your listing, and that the business name, phone and address posted are consistent and accurate. Make changes as necessary and delete duplicate pages. As in the Billy’s Bakery example above, local sites like Google+, Yelp and TripAdvisor hold a lot of weight in search results, so it’s important to get it right.

•  Build out your listings with photos, videos, website URL and other key information to make your listings more informative and attractive to potential customers.

•  Ensure that your business is listed in the appropriate categories so it can be properly optimized. Relevant keywords in the business name help too. As I noted earlier, “Billy’s Bakery NYC” includes both the business type and location. However, don’t overdo it with unnecessary keywords in the business name (e.g., “Billy’s Bakery Cookies Cakes Hot Chocolate”), or search engines will take note and it will negatively impact your results.

•  To further your efforts, work with a top listings provider such as Neustar Localeze or Acxiom to automate the process of securing and updating your listings across the broad ecosystem of local sites.

•  If your business has multiple locations, create separate listings for each location on your website to boost the visibility of both your brand and each of your stores. The search results for Billy’s Bakery highlight the business’ three different locations individually.

3. Ensure An Appropriate Link Strategy

Links from your website to other related websites, and vice versa, play a role in your business’ SEO visibility, because they help to establish the authenticity and credibility of your business. But trying to game system by leveraging unrelated links will damage visibility over time.

Action items:

•  Consistently share links to your website via your Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels, and encourage others to pass along the information as well.

•  Include links to your website in email newsletters and other updates to customers.

•  Host or sponsor local events, or provide discounts for neighborhood students, and then encourage neighborhood businesses, the local chamber of commerce, charity organizations and other partners to link to your website when talking about those activities.

•  Create a local directory of community resources including your favorite nearby restaurants, stores and cultural attractions, to provide an opportunity for you to link out to others (and for them to return the favor). Even consider starting a blog where you can talk about your business’ neighborhood and link to businesses and places of interest.

•  However, be sure that your link strategy is authentic in that you know who you are linking to and that they have relevance to your business. Also, do not create link schemes like spamming your business’ domain name on websites, forums or blog comments. Be wary of third-party content providers who claim that they can improve your SEO by writing content for your blog with SEO boosting links.  These activities have the potential to damage your credibility with search engines and negatively impact your visibility in search results, as Google recently warned.

4. Encourage And Respond To Online User Reviews

User reviews help to build your business’ visibility in local search results, and so does your engagement in responding to them — whether they are positive or negative. However, small businesses need to ensure the reviews themselves always come from the outside.

Action items:

•  Encourage your customers to leave ratings and reviews of your business if they are satisfied with your work. Whether it’s a simple email after a service is rendered, a flyer at checkout, or a callout on your website – the more positive, authentic reviews your business receives, the better your business will appear in search (both via the search engines and the local review sites themselves).

•  As part of your encouragement, provide customers with a variety of sites to post reviews so the spread is diverse across multiple key local sites.

•  Be proactive about responding to all types of user reviews. If the post is positive, thank the customer for their feedback and encourage them to use your services again. If the post is negative, explain that you appreciate the feedback and ask the customer to get in contact with you about their concerns so you can address their problems.

•  Whatever you do, never post false reviews! When discovered – and they usually are, because they’re transparent –  you will either lose your visibility in search, or your visibility will not be the kind you want.

5. Engage Regularly Via Social Media

Social media pages play a notable role in local business’ visibility in search results. The more proactive your social media strategy, the higher likelihood your pages will attract followers — and in turn, appear within search.

Action items:

•  Develop a strong social media strategy that engages customers via Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and other popular networks on a regular basis. The more followers and engagement you receive, the higher your pages will appear in search. Note Billy’s Bakery’s Facebook page in the business’ search results above.

•  Some ideas for engagement include updates on new products, promotions and giveaways, and highlighting stories of relevance to your customers. Be sure to respond to those reaching out via social media with questions or feedback on their orders.

6. Drive Media Coverage

Media coverage of your local business — especially from highly credible news websites — can result in a long-term positive impact on your business’ search results. For example, MarthaStewart.com’s coverage of Billy’s Bakery above appears high in its search results. Coverage like this can drive even more business to your brand, especially because it’s coming from a reliable, third-party source.

Action items:

•  Develop relationships with local media and bloggers by encouraging them to take advantage of your products or services. If you’re a restaurant, send over your popular pizza to your city’s local foodie blogger. Or email a reporter about a charity event that you’re sponsoring that will benefit the local community. Your PR efforts can result in positive articles, videos or other types of coverage that will remain highly visible in search over the long-term and boost your brand’s reputation.

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6 Google Search Changes

Google is constantly testing new features and making updates to its search product. Sometimes, the changes spotted are in beta, while others are confirmed new features. We've rounded up some recent changes that have been spotted across the Web that you just may have missed. 

1. Date Selector in Hotel Carousel Results

The query [hotels in New York] brought up results for some people that included date selectors for the hotels featured in the local carousel results.

In a statement to Search Engine Land, Google said:

We’re always adding features to search to help people find what they need and get things done faster — you can now more easily research hotels when planning a trip and filter by user ratings and hotel class, as well as select specific dates.

2. Cards for Local Results

Looks like Google is testing “answer” cards in the local search results that bring up details like the address of the merchant. Mike Blumenthal at Blumenthals.com showed an example of this for a brand name + location search (“Dress Barn locations Amherst”):

However, if there was multiple results for a query, the results came in pack form:

Blumenthal also pointed out when the cards showed some odd inconsistencies.

3. Answers to Complex Questions 

Speaking of answer cards, the folks over at the Google Operating System blog had some funtrying to stump Google’s answer feature from the Knowledge Graph. 

From the blog:

Google used to only answer simple questions like "who's the prime minister of Canada?" or "what's the population of China?". Thanks to the Knowledge Graph project, Google can answer more complicated questions like "who played Batman?", "what's the latest album of Celine Dion?", "what are the main attractions in Spain?".

To test this feature out, the first query was one the author knew there wasn’t a definitive answer to: “distance to the Mars”.

Here’s another good one: “why is the sky blue?”

4. Enhanced Stock Cards 

The Google Operating System blog also noticed Google testing new enlarged stock report cardsin the results, and “tabs are placed above the chart and you can get the stock price at any time by mousing over the chart or tapping it,” the blog reported.

Also of note: links to Google Finance and competitor sites Yahoo Finance and MSN Money are removed in the above card, though we were unable to recreate this.

5. Distance Results 

Google announced on Google+ that mobile users now have the ability to get results for the distance between any two locations – no matter how far they are from one another. The example Google gave was the “distance between Siberia and Hawaii.”

6. Streamlined Search Options

The Google Operating System blog reported search options were showing differently:

Google removed a few specialized search options that were usually displayed in the "more" drop-down: recipes, patents, discussions, blogs, places. The list of links to services like Maps, Images, News, Flights, Shopping is reordered based on your query. This isn't a new idea, it was implemented a long time ago by Google, but now it's used more often.

TechCrunch reported that Google confirmed the update, saying that if, for example, "you search for 'English to Tagalog' you’ll see ‘Apps’ that’ll help you with translation as well as ‘Books’ and ‘Shopping’ in case you’re looking to buy a printed or electronic dictionary."

Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/

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