Mobilegeddon: Google Confirms Mobile Friendly Update Live In Some, But Not All, Data Centers

Google's John Mueller confirmed the mobile friendly algorithm is rolling out and is actually completely live at some data centers.

On Tuesday, April 21st, Google announced they began rolling out the much anticipated Mobile Friendly Update. We asked the day after if webmasters started to notice the rollout yet or not – some did, some tracking tools saw early signs, but many webmasters said they saw nothing.

As time goes on, as expected, more and more searchers and webmasters are claiming they are seeing the impact of the mobile friendly algorithm in the mobile search results. But many are still not seeing it.

Google’s John Mueller confirmed this morning in a live hangouton Google+ at the 4:40 mark that the roll out has 100% begun and is actually completely live in some of the many Google data centers.

That means that some searchers may be seeing the mobile friendly search results on their mobile searches, while some may not. It also means you may see it one hour and not the other hour. John Mueller explained that the full roll out can take a week or more, so be patient. But if you see a different mobile search result experience, that is likely because you are seeing the roll out on your mobile device.

Here is what John Mueller said:

It’s definitely rolling out. I know in some of the data centers its already rolled out completely. So that is something where I think you will probably see that change over the course of a week, maybe a week and a half – something like that.

From the first day to the next day, I don’t think you’ll see a big change. But if you compare last week to next week, then you should see a big change.

And I’ve seen some blog posts out there have noticed it’s different, and tried to document the difference between the desktop results and new mobile results. So there are definitely people noticing it.

SEO Clarity has been updating their data set showing the impact thus far on the mobile search results and as time goes on, those numbers show a larger and larger impact.

Here is the video embed of John from Google:

For more on this, see our mobilegeddon FAQs.

Postscript: SEOClarity updated their post sharing they are now seeing a 5.1% variation on April 24th:

Courtesy of: searchengineland.com

8 SEO Best Practices for Small Businesses in 2015

You’ve probably already been told that search engine optimization is constantly evolving. For a small business owner, this can make SEO sound big and scary and something that you have to pour hours into every week, just to stay ahead of the curve. While SEO does take a little bit of time, staying on top of your optimization doesn’t have to consume your life, especially if you’re working with an SEO expert. Looking forward to the rest of 2015, here are some of the best practices and SEO tips all small business owners should keep in mind.

1. Content continues to reign. It was Bill Gates who coined the phrase, “Content is king,” in an article written nearly ten years ago. Despite being almost a decade old (which is nearing old age, in internet-years), the statement is still true and will continue to be true, especially for small businesses. When consumers do business with small companies, they want that personal touch, they want something meaningful and valuable—that’s the whole point of working with a small business, instead of a mindless corporation. Valuable content will be your biggest asset.

2. Mobile is more important than ever. Every year in the last three years has been touted as the Year of the Mobile Device. If any year is that year, it’s 2015. Mobile traffic has already outstripped desktop and laptop traffic, which means that if your website isn’t mobile friendly, you are probably missing out on at least half of your traffic. If you don’t yet have a responsive design or a website made specifically for mobile users, get one up as soon as possible.

3. Backlinking is changing. So, it’s not really changing, but what aspects of the backlink Google favors is changing. Search engines now care far more about the content around the link, meaning that if your backlink isn’t surrounded by content that actually mentions or is even about your brand, Google’s not going to like it. In some instances, you might not even need a link. If a website talks about your brand and mentions you by name, that’s often going to be enough to count as a backlink.

4. Keyword are going to matter less and less. This is going to be hard for most long-time SEO-ers to hear, but keywords have not been a primary ranking factor for a while now. Gone are the days where you can just stick as many keywords as possible into your content and get a great page ranking. Of course, keyword ranking still matters, but search engines like Google are going to be paying much more attention to how well your website delivers what it promises. It’s mostly going to be doing this by measuring your website’s return on investment. A low ROI means that you aren’t being effective, and therefore, likely don’t deliver what you offer. A high ROI means your website is high value and works to convert page visitors into customers, clients, or patients.

5. Don’t discount social signals. Just as content is only becoming more and more important, your small business’s social footprint is becoming more and more important. This can be discouraging for owners who know that they can never compete with powerhouses like Nike or Coca-Cola, who has massive social media followings. Luckily, you don’t have to compete with those two brands, as you’re likely trying to attract customers from your local area, not all over the world. Content is closely linked to social signals, as what is likely getting the most social activity will be your content.

6. Keep your website safe. Cybercrime is on the rise, and while few people are still wary of online shopping, the danger of having your identity or personal information stolen is actually growing. Search engines are going to favor websites that have the appropriate security measures in place. Why? Because search engines want to protect their users. They don’t want to send them to websites where there information is going to get stolen—they only want to serve up websites that are safe to visit. Make sure you have all of the necessary protections in place to guard the information provided by patients, clients, or customers to your website.

7. Conversations mean more than keywords. Any freelance or on-staff content writer will tell you how often he gets requests to insert keywords like “best dentist New Jersey” twelve times into content. There are still SEO articles advising a high concentration of “exact match” keywords like this—despite the fact that they haven’t really been necessary since 2013. As scary as the prospect might be, Google isn’t just looking for keyword phrases, it’s looking at the whole of the content and evaluating its relevancy to not just the search phrase used, but the intent of the search phrase. Plus, searchers are now using more conversational phrases—mostly because they are no longer being taught in school to omit the articles and extraneous words.

8. Visuals are just as important as words. Google also isn’t going to just be looking at the words that you use on your webpage. It is also going to be looking for relevant videos, graphics, and images. The more visual your webpage is, the more likely it is to get a high ranking. Of course, that doesn’t mean you want to cut back on valuable content, it just means that you should definitely include visual elements, as well as content on your webpage. Don’t neglect one or the other.

Use these eight best practices to make sure your small business’s website has all of the elements it needs for search engine success!

Courtesy of: business2community.com

Local Search Strategies for Mobile Marketing

Mobile phones are increasingly being used to search online, and businesses simply cannot afford to ignore this trend. Now is the time to start targeting mobile users in the search engines if you have not yet done so. Mobile search is only going to get bigger, so here are some local mobile search strategies to maximize your performance and win more mobile customers over the coming year.

Focus on Improving Your Mobile Website

One of the best things you can do is make improvements to your mobile website. Even if you already have an app, your website should still be your priority. Just as with standard SEO, you are going to be hurting yourself if you don’t develop a strong mobile site. Google recommends a responsive design to enjoy the best results, as reported in Search Engine Land.

Even if you are focusing specifically on local mobile SEO, you still need to ensure you follow standard SEO best practices, which means high-quality content optimized for mobile users.

Utilize PPC Advertising

Targeting users in mobile search does not just involve SEO—you could also make use of PPC. PPC has come a long way in recent years, and strategies now exist that are designed specifically for searches made using mobile devices.

One tactic you could employ is Click to Call in AdWords. This is where you can display your phone number to mobile searchers, which they can then click on directly to call you.

You can also target your ads to only show up for users based in certain locations, as explained by Google. Choosing for your ads to show based on the searcher’s physical location could be an ideal way to target local customers.

You can also use location extensions, which display your address, number, and a map along with your ads. On mobiles, they also contain a link with directions to your business, which could encourage more people to visit your premises.

Sign Up to ‘Google My Business’

Many companies choose to hire help from specialists like the Singapore SEO company for their local mobile SEO strategies, but one thing that any business can do is sign up with ‘Google My Business.’ This can be an important influencer for SEO rankings both for desktop and mobile searches.

The key to getting the most from this is to publish content regularly, build up positive reviews, and manage your account on a regular basis. It’s a great way for local businesses to target mobile users who are out and about.

Include Your Location Info

People who search using their mobile phones are often looking for local products and services. According to Google, 56% of searches on smartphones on-the-go have local intent, so make it easy for them to find you.

Include your location info in your mobile marketing so that searchers can quickly find where you are. Use maps and provide directions. By making this clear you could improve your mobile campaign performance. Also, ensure that your contact details are the same across all online directories.

What About Multi-Location Businesses?

How to optimize for local when you have various locations? This can be a challenge. The most important thing is to sort out who will be responsible for optimization. If every location goes about their mobile optimization completely independently of the others, this could lead to problems.

It may be better to have just one domain for the company and to then use sub-domains for the different locations. This saves you having to manage multiple websites, and it can help to improve your SEO. In addition, you can set up a Google My Business account for each location to help them get more visibility in the search engines.

You may want to give each location control over its content and social activity, or you may want everything managed from one central location. It depends on your business, but either can work.

Maximize Your Local SEO For Mobile

Mobile search is one of the key areas to target if you want to improve your local SEO. Now is the time to start thinking seriously about your local mobile strategies to take advantage of the growth in mobile search that is already occurring and will continue to increase in the coming years. Don’t get left behind, and make sure you are ready to take full advantage of the local business that you could generate through mobile search.

Courtesy of: business2community.com

TWO DAYS AFTER “MOBILEGEDDON” WE EXAMINE THE FALLOUT

On April 21st Google introduced its much anticipated mobile update.  The mobile update was designed to reshape Google’s results page; favouring websites that had converted to a mobile-friendly format.  Google informed us of their intentions back in February – to give us all time to prepare ourselves and our sites for this game changing update.   The countdown had begun and we scrambled to make our preparations in time for this final reckoning.

So, what does our reshaped SERP environment look like?

Two days on and the ash cloud is beginning to clear – as we step out from our shelters; dazed and confused, to survey the new, queer landscape that Google’s results page has become.  Strangely enough, however, after all the hysteria, this new world does not seem as alien as one might have expected.

On the face of it, it doesn’t seem like the mobile-friendliness of a site is as significant a ranking factor as was first anticipated.  No sites are reporting any major falls and there hasn’t been any huge difference in sites’ rankings on desktop searches when compared to mobile SERPs.  All-in-all the first two days of this apocalyptic event have been relatively quiet.

Does this mean it was all a lot of hype over nothing?

Whilst this may be starting to look like December 22 2012, as we all breathed a heavy sigh of relief when we awoke to realise that the Mayans’ predictions hadn’t come true, it is unlikely that we have yet seen the full repercussions that this update will have.

One thing that we can say for certain is that Google have made their intentions clear.  Whilst their stance on the mobile-friendliness of websites has been known for some time, this is by far the biggest step they have made towards making it a significant ranking factor.

Things are certainly moving in one direction and it is unlikely that this will change anytime soon.

Are Google the biggest winners here?

Google has certainly achieved one thing with this update, they convinced a lot of us to change our websites so that they were mobile-friendly.  This could well have been their plan all along.

Since Google originally announced that this update was going to happen around 4.7% of webmasters have switched their sites to a mobile-friendly design – according to their own figures.  This certainly represents a victory for Google’s mobile-friendly philosophy if nothing else.

This would also explain why Google chose to inform us all of this change so far in advance.

Google seldom give us a forewarning of such large changes to their algorithm, so why this time?

Should we choose to believe that they honestly wanted to give us all time to adapt, to make sure we weren’t all caught on our heels? – How nice of them.

Or should we believe that, as with many threatened Doomsday’s, the action caused by the fear of extinction was the largest effect of the whole process?

One thing is for sure, Google won’t be unhappy that we all scrambled to dance to their tune.

Courtesy of: jseo.com

The Art of Getting Retweets

Do you want to get more retweets? Retweeting isn’t just about tweeting good content, there’s actually science behind it. From the words you use in your tweet to the time of day you tweet, all of these factors impact how many retweets you are going to get. So, if you are looking for your tweets to spread all over Twitter, follow the steps in the infographic below.

Click on the image below to see a larger view:

Courtesy of: Quick Sprout

How to Improve Your SEO With LinkedIn and SlideShare

How to Improve Your SEO With LinkedIn and SlideShare

Discover how to improve your SEO with LinkedIn and SlideShare.

Why Optimize LinkedIn and SlideShare?

LinkedIn is currently the world’s largest professional networking site with 347 million members. The company has transformed itself with a high-quality publishing platform. And with their acquisition of SlideShare in 2012, Google has taken notice of the site and appears ready to reward them in search results.

Ready to put LinkedIn and SlideShare to work for you? Let’s get started.

Identify Target Keywords and Phrases

Off-page SEO includes anything done outside of your website, proving to search engines that your digital footprint is relevant for certain keywords and phrases. This includes LinkedIn and SlideShare.

One tool you can use to identify SEO keywords is Google’s Keyword Planner. To begin, log into your Google AdWords account, click on Tools and choose Keyword Planner from the drop-down menu.

Include your keywords in the Title, Description and Tags sections. Image: Shutterstock.

Then choose the option to Search for New Keyword and Ad Group Ideas. Click on the Get Ideas button to adjust the settings.

After identifying your target SEO keywords, put them to work on LinkedIn and SlideShare.

#1: Optimize Your LinkedIn Company Page

Here are some ways to optimize your LinkedIn company page for search engines:

At the top of the description field, list your most important keywords and phrases separated by a symbol, such as an asterisk (*). Limit text to roughly 100 characters with spaces and symbols.

List important keywords and phrases at the beginning of the description field.

Next, draft an engaging company description and use your keywords and phrases throughout the description. Avoid keyword-stuffing and writing for search engines by keeping it natural. Have someone proofread the final content to make sure it reads well.

Also take advantage of the Specialties section of your page. You can use up to 256 characters in this section, so be sure to include your top 10 to 15 SEO keywords.

Include your top 10 to 15 keywords in the Specialties section.

To create engagement, invite people to follow your company page once you start publishing status updates. Be sure to include your target SEO keywords in your updates.

Include SEO keywords in your status updates.

#2: Optimize Your LinkedIn Showcase Pages

LinkedIn’s showcase pages are an extension of your company page and are designed to highlight particular brands or product lines. As with company pages, LinkedIn members can follow your showcase pages, and you can publish status updates to them.

Here’s how to make showcase pages work for you:

Include target SEO keywords in the showcase page name and the description. You can use up to 200 characters to make the description text compelling.

Be sure to provide a link to the corresponding service or product page on your website. And invite people to follow your showcase page.

When posting relevant status updates, include target SEO keywords.

On your showcase page, use target keywords in your description and updates, and include a link to your website.

A quick note: Showcase pages haven’t gained a lot of traction, so LinkedIn may not keep them around forever. However, Google likes them, so I recommend you adopt them for now.

#3: Optimize Posts to LinkedIn Groups

Currently, you can join up to 50 groups on LinkedIn. Finding the right groups can work in your favor because Google indexes and displays LinkedIn group discussions in their search engine results.

Here’s how to get the most SEO juice out of your group postings:

Always abide by group rules so posts don’t end up in the Pending Review section.

Include a target SEO keyword in the title and description fields of the group posting.

Use keywords in your Group updates.

Gain extra mileage by perpetuating the conversation. Respond if someone comments on your post. Google loves social media posts that get engagement.

#4: Optimize SlideShare Assets

Google’s search algorithm loves SlideShare. Here’s how to optimize your SlideShareaccount and uploads for search:

When completing your profile, include a link to your website.

Optimize your SlideShare account for search.

Similar to your LinkedIn company page, include your most important keywords at the beginning of the description, separated by an asterisk (*) or similar symbol. Include SEO keywords naturally throughout the company description. Although you’re optimizing your content for search engines, remember that humans are the ones who read it.

Link to your other social media profiles on SlideShare, and make it easy for search engines to make connections with your other digital assets.

Here’s an example of how well SlideShare for search works. The image below shows a Google search result for “seo training denver.” Having your website listed in the top spot is great, but having multiple page-one listings on Google—such as a SlideShare presentation in position four—is even better and will generate nice referral traffic to your website.

Multiple page-one listings in search results will generate referral traffic.

Here’s how to optimize a deck like this one when you upload it to SlideShare:

Once again, include your target SEO keyword in the title. Title content is one of the most important ranking signals for Google, so take advantage of it.

Include your main keyword in the description, ideally in the first sentence. Finally, add it to the Tags section.

Include your keywords in the Title, Description and Tags sections.
Resource By- http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/improve-your-seo-with-linkedin-and-slideshare/?utm_source=SMEPage&utm_medium=SumoMe&utm_campaign=googleplus