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Google Algorithm Changes 2012
Panda 3.9.1 — August 20, 2012
Google rolled out yet another Panda data update, but the impact seemed to be fairly small. Since the Panda 3.0 series ran out of numbers at 3.9, the new update was dubbed 3.9.1.
7-Result SERPs — August 14, 2012
Google made a significant change to the Top 10, limiting it to 7 results for many queries. Our research showed that this change rolled out over a couple of days, finally impacting about 18% of the keywords we tracked.
DMCA Penalty — August 10, 2012
Google announced that they would start penalizing sites with repeat copyright violations, probably via DMCA takedown requests. Timing was stated as “starting next week” (8/13?).
June/July 86-Pack — August 10, 2012
After a summer hiatus, the June and July Search Quality Highlights were rolled out in one mega-post. Major updates included Panda data and algorithm refreshes, an improved rank-ordering function (?), a ranking boost for “trusted sources”, and changes to site clustering.
Panda 3.9 — July 24, 2012
A month after Panda 3.8, Google rolled out a new Panda update. Rankings fluctuated for 5-6 days, although no single day was high enough to stand out. Google claimed ~1% of queries were impacted.
Link Warnings — July 19, 2012
In a repeat of March/April, Google sent out a large number of unnatural link warnings via Google Webmaster Tools. In a complete turn-around, they then announced that these new warnings may not actually represent a serious problem.
Panda 3.8 — June 25, 2012
Google rolled out another Panda data refresh, but this appeared to be data only (no algorithm changes) and had a much smaller impact than Panda 3.7.
Panda 3.7 — June 8, 2012
Google rolled out yet another Panda data update, claiming that less than 1% of queries were affect. Ranking fluctuation data suggested that the impact was substantially higher than previous Panda updates (3.5, 3.6).
May 39-Pack — June 7, 2012
Google released their monthly Search Highlights, with 39 updates in May. Major changes included Penguin improvements, better link-scheme detection, changes to title/snippet rewriting, and updates to Google News.
Penguin 1.1 — May 25, 2012
Google rolled out its first targeted data update after the “Penguin” algorithm update. This confirmed that Penguin data was being processed outside of the main search index, much like Panda data.
Knowledge Graph — May 16, 2012
In a major step toward semantic search, Google started rolling out “Knowledge Graph”, a SERP-integrated display providing supplemental object about certain people, places, and things. Expect to see “knowledge panels” appear on more and more SERPs over time.
April 52-Pack — May 4, 2012
Google published details of 52 updates in April, including changes that were tied to the “Penguin” update. Other highlights included a 15% larger “base” index, improved pagination handling, and a number of updates to sitelinks.
Panda 3.6 — April 27, 2012
Barely a week after Panda 3.5, Google rolled out yet another Panda data update. The implications of this update were unclear, and it seemed that the impact was relatively small.
Penguin — April 24, 2012
After weeks of speculation about an “Over-optimization penalty”, Google finally rolled out the “Webspam Update”, which was soon after dubbed “Penguin.” Penguin adjusted a number of spam factors, including keyword stuffing, and impacted an estimated 3.1% of English queries.
Panda 3.5 — April 19, 2012
In the middle of a busy week for the algorthim, Google quietly rolled out a Panda data update. A mix of changes made the impact difficult to measure, but this appears to have been a fairly routine update with minimal impact.
Parked Domain Bug — April 16, 2012
After a number of webmasters reported ranking shuffles, Google confirmed that a data error had caused some domains to be mistakenly treated as parked domains (and thereby devalued). This was not an intentional algorithm change.
March 50-Pack — April 3, 2012
Google posted another batch of update highlights, covering 50 changes in March. These included confirmation of Panda 3.4, changes to anchor-text “scoring”, updates to image search, and changes to how queries with local intent are interpreted.
Panda 3.4 — March 23, 2012
Google announced another Panda update, this time via Twitter as the update was rolling out. Their public statements estimated that Panda 3.4 impacted about 1.6% of search results.
Search Quality Video — March 12, 2012
This wasn’t an algorithm update, but Google published a rare peek into a search quality meeting. For anyone interested in the algorithm, the video provides a lot of context to both Google’s process and their priorities. It’s also a chance to see Amit Singhal in action.
Panda 3.3 — February 27, 2012
Google rolled out another post-”flux” Panda update, which appeared to be relatively minor. This came just 3 days after the 1-year anniversary of Panda, an unprecedented lifespan for a named update.
February 40-Pack (2) — February 27, 2012
Google published a second set of “search quality highlights” at the end of the month, claiming more than 40 changes in February. Notable changes included multiple image-search updates, multiple freshness updates (including phasing out 2 old bits of the algorithm), and a Panda update.
Venice — February 27, 2012
As part of their monthly update, Google mentioned code-name “Venice”. This local update appeared to more aggressively localize organic results and more tightly integrate local search data. The exact roll-out date was unclear.
February 17-Pack — February 3, 2012
Google released another round of “search quality highlights” (17 in all). Many related to speed, freshness, and spell-checking, but one major announcement was tighter integration of Panda into the main search index.
Ads Above The Fold — January 19, 2012
Google updated their page layout algorithms to devalue sites with too much ad-space above the “fold”. It was previously suspected that a similar factor was in play in Panda. The update had no official name, although it was referenced as “Top Heavy” by some SEOs.
Panda 3.2 — January 18, 2012
Google confirmed a Panda data update, although suggested that the algorithm hadn’t changed. It was unclear how this fit into the “Panda Flux” scheme of more frequent data updates.
Search + Your World — January 10, 2012
Google announced a radical shift in personalization – aggressively pushing Google+ social data and user profiles into SERPs. Google also added a new, prominent toggle button to shut off personalization.
January 30-Pack — January 5, 2012
Google announced 30 changes over the previous month, including image search landing-page quality detection, more relevant site-links, more rich snippets, and related-query improvements. The line between an “algo update” and a “feature” got a bit more blurred.
Posted in General SEO Stuff
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how to get the url of a tweet
I recently needed to do this and spent a bit of time scratching my head trying to work it out! So here is a step by guide in how to find the url of any tweet.
1. Sign on to Twitter
2. Post a Tweet
3. Click Profile
4. Locate your Tweet
5. Click on the time stamp link of the tweet. (i.e. about 2 hours ago)
6. This will open up the individual tweet.
7. Copy that URL from the Address bar.
And that is that, easy when you know how eh?
Posted in Social Media
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EU Cookie Law
As From Saturday 26th May, British Businesses Will Be Liable To A £500,000 Fine From The ICO If Found Guilty Of Not Complying With The EU Cookie Law.
Our Cookie Law Service Ensures YOU Stay Safe. One time low cost soloution
You may have noticed some of the biggest websites in the UK asking visitors for consent to use cookies? You’d also be right in thinking that your business needs this protection too. Businesses large and small are liable to a maximum fine of £500,ooo should you not comply. So what is ‘implied consent’ exactly? Here are some pointers worth noting from the updated cookies guidance (May 2012):
• Implied consent is a valid form of consent and can be used in the context of compliance with the revised rules on cookies.
• Relying on implied consent? You need to be satisfied that your users understand that their actions will result in cookies being set. Without this understanding you do not have their informed consent.
• You should not rely on the fact that users might have read a privacy policy that is perhaps hard to find or difficult to understand.
• In some circumstances, for example where you are collecting sensitive personal data such as health information, you might feel that explicit consent is more appropriate.
What does this mean?
The UK Regulations mean that a website operator must not store information (or gain access to information stored in the computer or other web-enabled device) of a visitor unless the visitor “is provided with clear and comprehensive information about the purposes of the storage of, or access to, that information” and “has given his or her consent”. This replaces the previous rule which stated that visitors should be given the option to refuse cookies.
The only cookies that do not need visitors’ consent are those that are necessary to fulfill the visitor’s request. That will cover, for example, the use of cookies to remember the contents of a visitor’s shopping cart as the user moves through several pages on a website. Other cookies, including those used to count visitors to a site and those used to serve advertising, will require consent.
Yes! Google Analytics Requires Consent Of The Visitor!
Are they trying to ruin my business?
Remember that this rule is NOT to stop your business from collecting useful data to improve your website and to improve your business. These are legitimate uses, as are eCommerce cookies for tracking a users progress in order to give them the best experience you can. Rather, it’s to stop spyware and other malicious uses of cookies which might have criminal motives behind them.
Information to be provided
Cookies or similar devices must not be used unless the subscriber or user of the relevant terminal equipment:
(a) is provided with clear and comprehensive information about the purposes of the storage of, or access to, that information; and
(b) has given his or her consent.
The Regulations state that once a person has used such a device to store or access data in the terminal equipment of a user or subscriber, that person will not be required to provide the information described and obtain consent (and discussed above) on subsequent occasions, as long as they met these requirements initially. Although the Regulations do not require the relevant information to be provided on each occasion, they do not prevent this.
Our Cookie Law Service Ensures You’re Covered with a one time low cost soloution.
Responsibility for providing the information and obtaining consent
The ICO Provides this statement of where the responsibility lies: “Where a person operates an online service and any use of a cookie type device will be for their purposes only, it is clear that that person will be responsible for complying with this Regulation.”
Exemptions from the right to refuse a cookie
The Regulations specify that service providers should not have to provide the information and obtain consent where that device is to be used:
• for the sole purpose of carrying out or facilitating the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network; or
• where such storage or access is strictly necessary to provide an information society service requested by the subscriber or user.
In defining an ‘information society service’ the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 refer to ‘any service normally provided for remuneration, at a distance, by means of electronic equipment for the processing (including digital compression) and storage of data, and at the individual request of a recipient of a service’.
The term ‘strictly necessary’ means that such storage of or access to information should be essential, rather than reasonably necessary, for this exemption to apply. However, it will also be restricted to what is essential to provide the service requested by the user, rather than what might be essential for any other uses the service provider might wish to make of that data. It will also include what is required to comply with any other legislation the service provider might be subject to, for example, the security requirements of the seventh data protection principle.
Where the use of a cookie type device is deemed ‘important’ rather than ‘strictly necessary’, those collecting the information are still obliged to provide information about the device to the potential service recipient and obtain consent.
This post was written By Mark Hall
Posted in Uncategorized
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Round up of url shortening services now bitly has gone mental
A few days back the poplar url shorting service went awol from doing what they were really good at which was shorting links and allowing your track them and had a complete redesign and added some new features, well new features to bitly.
They proudly state that since 2008 they have shortened over 25 billion links and on average their links get 300 million clicks each day, pretty impressive?
So why on earth have they just made their service which was super easy to use into a complex annoying process with a lot of new unwanted features?
A quick search on twitter shows tweets of both anger and confusion towards the new design and enhanced service.
The core of the redesign and features centers around Bitmarks, which is their take on bookmarks – um we already have lots of great book marketing sites, why do we need another one? This service allows you to collect your ‘bitmarks’ and share them via email and Facebook and Twitter… um wow? And invite your friends to view your links and in return you can see theirs and discover new links from other users….
….OK so its a poor version of reddit or stumbleupon.
The sole reason people used bitly wasn’t to share links it was to track them and get the analytical data, so you knew how many clicks you were getting when you put a link up on different platforms such as twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or email etc and it was a great service. Now it seems that it has evolved into some weird and somewhat crappy hybrid link sharing network that nobody really needs. If you going to change your core service you should lead the way with a service that consumers dont even realise they needed until you show it to them and then decide they cant live without it, what you shouldn’t do is take your something, hack it with new features that already exist on countless other platforms and make your core service complex to use.
It seems that bitly have jumped the shark, so here is a list of other url shorting services that you can use, I was going to shorten these links but that just seemed a bit silly.
http://goo.gl/
From Google (urrrghhhh monoply grows stronger thanks bitly) easy to use, has tracking
http://cli.gs/
No need to register, good stats, you can download the stats via csv and you can do bulk URL shorting
http://tinyurl.com/
Simple and has a toolbar function
http://is.gd/
Nice short urls, firefox plugin, easy to use
http://budurl.com/
They have a free and paid for service, if you upgrade you get detailed real time stats and they have a free 21 day trial, worth a look.
Rant over.
This post was written By Mark Hall
Posted in General Web Stuff
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So what is Google plus
Google plus or G+ or Google+ or Google’s new social platform that you must like.
Unless you have just awoke from your winter hibernation, I’m pretty sure you will have already heard of Google +
There has been a ripple of anger from people who pretty much feel Google are forcing this upon us and using / coercing the SEO community to become early adopters and help seed it to the rest of the world with the implementation of new algorithm changes along with lots of talk from people eager to see how they can take advantage and what integration will happen in the search results . Either way its here to stay and YOU NEED TO GET ON BOARD NOW.
http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/
So what is it?
In summary Google+ is Google’s social network , nope its not Wave, Buzz or Orkut
To be fair they have clearly learned from past failures and it has some pretty neat features most noticeably circles and hang outs, which help you organise your contacts and chat / video chat with them . You can also create profiles for yourself just like Facebook or pages for brands and businesses just like Facebook, it has a news stream, so you can see what’s current just like Facebook and you can upload images and post status updates, just like Facebook and people can plus 1 / +1 your site and content, just like Facebook.
However this been Google’s baby means all of the above sooner or later will start to show up in the search results, so if your friend +1’s a website or shares it may well show up in your search results and if enough people +1 a site then that might just trigger something at Google HQ and that website might get better rankings.
But +1′s are not cool. Do you whats cool? Author Rank*
*Adapted line from the social network movie
This post was written By Mark Hall
Posted in Social Media
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Facebook EdgeRank
Social media is playing an ever increasing role in attracting new visitors to your site. Check out these posts on EdgeRank and talk to me about how we can work together and improve your traffic —> Leads —-> Sales.
Here’s part 1 of an introduction to EdgeRank
Here’s part 2 of the EdgeRank introduction
Posted in Social Media
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