New Google tools to measure organic CTR & Government snooping

Well this is a bit good! In Google webmaster tools you can now see how many impressions AND clicks your key phrases are getting. This will help with keyword analysis & measuring effectiveness of your description tag. Remember Google Buzz? Well it's not going to well. Another good reason not to jump on board every new piece of tech that comes along, even if it is a big brand. Google also launched a tool today that shows the number of Government requests for data on Google users as well as removal requests for content.

Don't rely on social media

I spoke at the ConnectNow conference in Sydney yesterday & got myself into trouble again oops. I probably shouldn't have told an audience of social media gurus that social media is not the answer to all your marketing needs. A lot of social media experts have been prematurely announcing the death of SEO They claim that they get better results asking their network for answers than Google Here's a few things I won't ask my social network for advice on. A gift for my wife - Roberta would know pretty quickly what I was planning. Social is public. If I developed a nasty rash, I'm going to google it first before I let the world know about my inconvenient itch. Legal advice, financial structures, dumb technical questions that I really should know the answer to. Basically anything that I want to keep private. Anyway it didn't go down too well! What do you think? Also the book 'American Psycho is banned online for Aussies to access. I access it.

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Matt Cutts Interview

Matt Cutts, who heads up Google's webspam team, was interviewed yesterday & he revealed some very interesting things about the way the GoogleBot behaves. If you've been wondering why your site is still not ranking this article may reveal why. We're hiring again! As you know we're a complete bunch of rankers, however we now need a massive ranker to join our our team. Details here

Payroll Software

I was asked a question about payroll software yesterday. It is a good excercise in keyword research. For instance, the two most popular brands for small business bookkeeping in Australia are MYOB & Quicken.

As you can see Payroll software comes no where near the same level of popularity. So the people looking for payroll software are probably in a different market. They are more likely to be SMEs who require a dedicated payroll system. So maybe the people looking for payroll software are also looking for payroll system?

Well yes they are. If you were in the payroll business I would be having a think about which searcher is more important. The one looking for software or a system.

 

Google real time indexing

Have you heard of PubSubHubub? Well you'll soon feel the effects of it in your searches and your rankings. It is a new realtime publishing protocol that Google is working on to index the web. This is a major game changer. Eh? I hear you say... basically content publishing is going real time. Do you use sidewiki? Well it's now available in Webmaster tools. If you use it I'd love to know why & how.

   

Has your Google map been hijacked by a competitor

Has your Google local business listing been hacked or is it just busted? A florist received 100 hours of community service last week for hijacking someone's listing. Ranking is easy. Ranking for the right phrases is the hard bit. I answer a viewer question about keyword analysis. The Social Media/emerging technologies conference of the year is happening in Sydney in April. See @garyvee @missrogue @servantofchaos @debs @simonmainwaring @briansolis @problogger your's truly & more at Connect Now

Conroy Vs the Librarians

The Australian Government just got a lot more opposition to its mandatory online censorship plans. The Librarians are angry.

What are tag clouds & how can they help your SEO? Also this week, great SEO quiz by Google with all the answers provided.

 

Links filters and your ranking

Getting the right keywords in your links on your site can really boost your rankings. If you sell baby gifts, why link the word 'product' when you could link the phrase 'baby gifts' ?

How will the Australian Government Secret Blacklist Filter affect your business? There's been a bit of chatter this week that it will affect SEO, the problem is a tad larger than that.

Woohooo! You're no.1 ....or are you? How to double check your results and why they may differ.

Google Index Search

Ever had the feeling that Google hates you? You're not alone! It can be very frustrating when you think you are doing everything right but you still can't get ranked, yet sites above you are no where near the "quality" of yours. It could be that Google is seeing something completely different. Today I look at an important technique that can save you a lot of time & heartache.