Tag Archives: Google

Free Webinar on Effectively Leveraging Google Tools

Posted on by Brandon

Paul Segreto President & CEO of franchisEssentials teams with Jeremy LaDuque CEO of ELEMENTS Inc. to discuss how businesses and specifically franchise companies can use the free tools that Google offers to improve their online marketing efforts.

10 Things Franchises Can Do to More Effectively Leverage Google Tools
Tuesday June 21st, 2011 at 9:00 AM PST

Click Here to Sign Up Now

This webinar will cover Google’s tools for better productivity, improved local search results, mobile tools, analytics products and more.  This webinar will also discuss Google’s new ‘+1′ button which is brand new and a hot topic in SEO.

Sign-up now because there is limited seating and spots are filling up quickly.  For more information on this free webinar, please visit our webinar information page.

Google Local Results Are Finally Changing

Posted on by Russ Lubin

google local resultsWe touched upon the upcoming changes to local Google results in our article here, and it looks like those changes are finally taking place.  Currently local results are mostly moved over to the new format as you can see in the image to the right, but there are still some areas that haven’t received the new format roll-out yet.  The major changes are the move of the map to the right sidebar, the merging of the Google Places info with the organic result and the preview text of a user review is no longer seen in the result but instead just the number of reviews.

If you would like to check out the new format but it is still showing the old style results in your area, you can check it out by clicking on this link.

Link Location Matters to Google

Posted on by Russ Lubin

In 2004 Google filed a patent that was just recently granted to them on what they dubbed their “Reasonable Surfer” model, which is really just a way for them to determine a link-importance hierarchy on any given web page. The idea behind their patent is that links that are reasonably more interesting to surfers should carry more weight and be of more value in regards to their website ranking system.

“This means that certain links, like footer and sidebar links in particular, are likely to be devalued. And it’s as they should, right? If a link is tucked away in the footer, the webmaster is stating that he doesn’t care much for it – or it has little value other than for extraneous pleas to the search engines.” Search Engine Journal

Well it makes sense as the sidebar and footer are often populated with paid or reciprocal links, neither of which Google views in a positive light. Sure there are instances when those sidebar links are more valuable or should carry more weight than inline links but no system is perfect. But is that the end of the implications of Google’s “Reasonable Surfer” model?

Link location is just one of the many factors that could influence the importance of a link on any given web page, at least in Google’s eyes. Font-size could certainly point to the importance of a link with smaller fonts being less important than larger ones. Do links above the fold carry more weight than those only a paragraph or two below? What about the number of words in the anchor text, could that effect link weight?  In all honesty we don’t actually know, but we can conjecture and make best practice judgements based on the patent’s inferences.

This actually isn’t anything new, it was just something most folks didn’t really consider too much until the publishing of the patent brought it to the media’s attention. Of course, we also cannot say that Google’s determination of a link’s quality ends with a six year old link-heirarchy strategy. What this patent is however, is a patent reminder that inline links that we as a surfer might click on are far more important than throw-away links in a web page’s footer.

Should Your Facebook Presence Be Part of your SEO Strategy

Posted on by Russ Lubin

Should your Facebook presence be part of your SEO strategy?  In short, yes!

Social media platforms are all the rage nowadays because they provide an easy and mobile solution for users looking to socially express their thoughts and statuses. If trends continue, early next year Facebook should reach over 600 million members and over 3 million businesses will be marketing through the Facebook platform. Nobody denies the benefits that a well managed viral inducing Facebook campaign can have on any given product or brand, but what most miss out on is that Facebook can be leveraged to drive traffic to your website and brands through search engines as well.

In fear of becoming antiquated Google is adding more social media content into their search results.

… we’re excited to share a few new innovations in the areas of real-time, mobile and social search that we feel are important steps in the evolution of information access.

.. Of course, none of this would be possible without the support of our new partners that we’re announcing today: Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, Jaiku and Identi.ca – along with Twitter, which we announced a few weeks ago. The Official Google Blog

That being said, a company planning to create a Facebook presence should put some best practice SEO methods into their social media efforts.

Currently, search relevant Facebook images can be found near the top rankings in Google Images and sometimes in the general results as well. It makes sense to upload images to your Facebook albums on a regular basis that have optimized image names with a splash of relevant keywords in the comments below the picture. That possibly means more views on your brand coming directly from ‘search’ which is known for its’ great goal conversion ratio. It’s also possible to get the company’s Facebook Wall or other informational Facebook page listed highly in the search engine results as well. The Facebook and Twitter accounts of well entrenched or unique brands often land on the first page results in Google.

Facebook is also a great example of leveraging offsite optimizations to increase the view-ability of your company’s websites. Facebook itself has a very high authority ranking and is a trusted source which means that links to your corporate or franchisee websites inside of a text rich status update or comment can inject a little bit of Facebook’s link juice into the destination website, and every little bit of link juice helps.

While applying best practice SEO methods into your Facebook campaign will not make you rich overnight, any planned Facebook marketing strategy should include optimizing your text, links and images for maximum benefit.

Our Elements Local platform allows a franchisor or their franchisee’s the ability to manage Facebook campaigns directly through the content management dashboard built into our software. Our built in Facebook tools maximize the benefits of the company’s Facebook campaign strategy with a minimal amount of training and effort.

Changes To Google Local Search Results

Posted on by Russ Lubin

Google one packOver this last weekend Google engineers rolled out a new “OneBox” search result format.  A OneBox appears any time a Google search includes enough information about a local business for Google to determine that one business in particular is the result that searcher is looking for.  Prior to this last weekend, the OneBox result was listed at the very top of the Google result screen with a map on the left and a link to the businesses’ website on the right.  See the image to the right:

A OneBox result is a prize listing that most SEO experts shoot for as it highlights one specific listing above all others.  This latest change to the OneBox makes that listing stand out even more as the business website listing for the OneBox now appears above the local map.

one pack newNow you might be wondering why merely changing the location of the resulting map and link to the businesses’ website would make any impact at all.  Well, there are a couple of reasons.  The first is that prior to the change only Google Places information appeared below the business link including the standard fare of the address, the phone number, hours of operation and links to the Google Places reviews should there be any.  Now inside of the OneBox just below the URL to the company’s website Google is displaying the description meta-tag for the company which is normally stuffed with calls to action to entice users to click through.

The other benefit for listings in the new OneBox format is that Google has now redefined the fold of the page.  When a surfer looks at any website, the top half of the screen is what will catch their eye and entice them into action.  Links above the fold will draw far more attention and clicks than anything below the fold where the surfer is required to scroll down to get to the content below.  It is reported that links above the fold receive 80% of the surfer’s clicks.  So by pushing the company’s website link & meta-description above the map, Google has helped push more links below the visible page and arguably created a new visual fold line at the bottom of the graphical map.  In doing so, Google is inferring that there is only one link on the result page that should matter.

7-packOk, but that’s only affecting the OneBox results which are very specific searches, correct?  Indeed, but over the July 4th weekend Google rolled out a test of a re-designed 7-Pack (7 local listings to the left of a map in a general search result) in which the map was moved to the right margin and Google listed the website’s meta description below the URL.  What does this mean?  It means the 7-Pack visually becomes a 3-pack as lower results are forced off of the bottom of the page (image courtesy of: Linda Buquet http://www.catalystemarketing.com/ ).  No one outside of Google knows if this new 7-Pack will become a permanent feature in Google or when it will be put in place.  What we do know is that obtaining high placements in Google’s local search results is becoming more and more critical to a website’s success.