3. 10/2011 - Encrypted Search
• What happened? -> Google begins to encrypt:
1. Searches conducted by logged in Users,
2. Referrer data.
But only on Google.com for now!
• How did this affect Search Marketeers?
Loss of data and insights through WebAnalytics (or other third party tools)
• Information on search query used prior to a website visit is no longer
available,
• Data on which page was visited prior to a visit to your website is no
longer available!
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4. 11/2011 - Freshness Update
• What happened?
Content Freshness is more rewarded!
Affects 35% of the Search queries.
• How did it impact Search?
Recent events or Hot topics by Authority Sites appear on Top!
Content on regular events by Authority Sites appear on Top!
Date of updates are mentioned in the SERP’s
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5. 11/2011 - Freshness Update
• How did this affect me?
Fresh content on High Authority Domains will be rewarded
One more thing!
• Ever since July’11, Google no longer shows Twitter streams in SERP’s
• Google depended on Twitters “Firehose”!
• How to Benefit from Freshness Update?
Fresh Content = Opportunities to connect with “Trending Topics” (news jacking)
Pitfall(s):
• Extremely Short Timings,
• Requires domain authority and relevant content related to the topic!
5
6. 11/2011 – Adspent Trends 2011
• Google controls 46% of ALL Online Spending
* Source : Businessinsider.com
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10. 12/2011 – Parked Domains
• What did this effect me?
• How happened? -> Search Algorithm has been altered on 9
points!
Parked Domains won’t show up in the search results anymore! -> parked
domains can no result refinements,
1. Related query longer be exploited through the Adsense network.
2. Comprenensive indexing,
• What’s in for Domain Classifier!
3. New Parked
me?
4. More autocomplete predictions
1. Better quality of Natural Search Results,
5. Fresher and more complete Blog Search Results,
2.
6. For Advertisers:
Original content
7. •
Live Resuts For Major League Soccer and Canadian Football League
Big improvement towards the inventory of the GDN,
8. …….
• Less chance of wasted adspent!.
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11. 01/2012 – Search + Your World
• What happened?
Personal Results extended,
G+ Profiles appear in Search,
People, Related Topics and Google+ Pages are linked!
• How did it impact Search?
Personal Profiles andYour Circles now appear in + Pages Search
Google+ Results for related activities are now pushed in
People and Related Topics are linked to Google your results (G+ Only)
Source: Search Engine Land.com
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12. 01/2012 – Search Alliance Bing & Yahoo!
• Search Alliance (Microsoft + Yahoo) begins first AdCenter testing
In Europe
• Microsoft adCenter ads are coming to Yahoo pages in France,
Ireland and the United Kingdom
• What’s in for me?
You can now target users of Bing in Belgium with the
AdCenter.
• Tip
Import your best performing campaigns from AdWords using
the AdWords editor and then the bulk upload.
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13. 02/2012 – Panda 3.3 Update
• What happened ?
1. New method of Link Evaluation
2. Local Search Rankings
3. …... 40.
• How did it impact Search?
Re-evaluates Link characteristics such as:
• Link Title tags;,
• Texting around links,
• Link Type,
• General backlink profile,
• Link Velocity,
• …..????
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14. 02/2012 – Panda 3.3 Update
• How did this effect me?
Your organic rankings might have been effected if your back link profile has
flaws.
• What should have done ?
Monitor your rankings (Webceo, Woorank, etc.)
Monitor Organic Traffic:
• Compare Q4/2011 with Q4/2010
• Top Content pages (Organic Traffic)
Conduct a back link investigation
• Analyze your incoming links: type, domain(s), page(s)
• Build a plan to optimize!
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15. 04/2012 – Adwords Updates
• More Transparency on Quality Score parameters
• Adwords will automatically Match for Misspellings and other
variants,
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16. 04/2012 – Penguin Update
• What happened ?
New Search Algorithm to fight webspam
• How did it impact Search / Me?
Decreased Rankings for over optimized pages applying:
• (Meta) Keyword stuffing,
• Link schemes (excessive link exchange),
• Purposeful Duplicate content,
• Black hat SEO (“Cloaking”, “Doorway pages” etc.),
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17. 04/2012 – Penguin Update
• What should I be doing ? (on top of Panda 3.3 checks)
Re-Analyse Organic Traffic:
• Compare the period Before and After 24/04 Compare Q4/2011,
Check your Google Webmaster Central for possible notifications,
Check your On Page Optimization with Google’s Guidelines
• Unique content, no keyword stuffing or over optimization of anchor text links,
Check for Duplicate content issues,
• Content availabe with or and without www. or,
• Duplicate on serveral domains .be vs. nl .
• I am hit, what now?!
Remove over-optimized elements / get rid off bad links,
Apply for reconsideration -> GWC,
Monitor your rankings and natural traffic.
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18. 05/2012 – Google Places merges with G+
• What happened?
Google Places Page -> Google + Local Pages
Integration into Google + Interface!
• What does it look like?
Appearance in
Search
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19. What’s up Next ?
• Launch of Google Shopping Merchant Center in
Belgium?
• Google Search compagnion
• New Google Adwords Interface
• Local Business Blog Solutions
20
November 2011 still: YouTubeBelgiumwaslaunched! And wehad a big party to celebratethat!
YouTube reaches over 66% of the Belgian Population and in all ages categories & sexes. Slight difference in The North (47% female, 53%) male towards the south (50/50) when it comes down to gender.2.2M Home page Impressions1,1M Unique Visitors/dayFor the advertisers, it’s a great new opportunity.We can buy premium placements on ratecard based prices, but also use the auction based formats, with a pay per view model.If interested and need more information on YouTube advertising possibilities, please contact Google or your favorite agency.
December 2011: Google took a very good decision, whichwas a greatsteptowards more quality for the Search.Google decided to simply ban the parkeddomainsfromitssearchresults.You certainlyhadalreadymany times thebadexperience of having as results on niche keywords somenastywebsitethatwereonlyparkeddomainswith no content and stuffedwithadlinks. How frustratingitwas!At the same time, Google decidedalso to ban ParkedDomainsfromitsAdSense network, whichmeans no more revenue fromadvertisingfromthesenastywebsites.Whatdoesitmean for us?As a user, yougetbetterquality of the naturalsearchresults.As an advertiser, itis a bigimprovement of the inventory of the Google Display Network, whichmeansless chance of wastedadspent on poorqualitywebsites.Geparkeerdedomeinenhebbenvaaklagekwaliteitaan content en staanookvaak vol met Advertentieteksten. Bepaalderankingswerddaarnaastookgeplaagddoor scraper sites die content kopiërden van orginele sites en op bepaalde niche trefwoordenbetererankingsopbouwdenals de originele sites maar dezedomeinenvulden met lowquality content en veeladvertenties
In Januari Google Launched Google + as a compeetingplatform for other Social Network such as Twitter and Facebook.Google Integrated the wholeplatformintoit’sSearchEngine for logged in Users.Personalresults (baseduponsearchhistory) are nowextendedwith information shared by people who are in yourcircles. Google Profiles and recent public postedactivities show up!Google associatedhighlysearchtopicswith people and pages of interest on +This isonly active on Google.com soyouneed to change yoursearch settings to have the full experience.
Panda! Pandawent Global with the release of 2.4 and eversincewe have had updates on Panda almostevery 5 till 6 weeks. In total it must counted over 500 changes but not all updates have major impact. Sometimestheyonlyeffect have low % of searchqueries. Panda 3.3 wasparticular as ittwo important changes besides the other 40 tweaks and changes.Link evaluation,Local SearchRankings (Aka Google Places), we are not going to talk about this in details as we are on a tightschedule…How didit impact search?No detailsweregiven on the changes made on thelinkevaluation but Google statedthatitwillreevaluatelinkcharactericssowecanonly assume thatitwill look @ linkcharactericssuch as: anchortext links, contextualelementsaround links related to the website of page, Link types or unnatural back links. Changes in anchortext « scoring » wasconfirmedlater on in March.
No how didthiseffect me? Rankings and SEO trafficmight have droppedbecause Google startedevaluating the value of links that point to yourdomain or pages. As we all know links play an important in youwebsiterankings.Nowwhatshould have been doing to check whether:Rankingsdropped,TrafficdroppedOr Seooptimized pages have dropped in traffic. To be sure that’s Panda and no seasonaleffect, just cross check withanalytics data of the same quarter last year.And if your up to it, startinvestingincomings links to yourwebsitethroughtoolssuch as Majestics SEO, or Open Site explorer by SEOmoz
Nowbesides the constant Panda update, Google alsolaunched an update codenamedPenguinThis updatehad one targetonly -> fightwebspamm.So on top of the panda updates iswasaimedat over optimized pages applyingKeyword stuffingLink schemes (excessicereprociallinking)Purpose full Duplicate Content
Check your Organic Traffic: Compare the period Before and After 24/04 and cross check with the similar period in 2011Check your Google Webmaster Central for possible notifications as Google send notifications to your account if the had found doubtfull elements.Obviously you should check optimization for SEO optimized pagesCheck for Duplicate content issues, -> A very common issue is that content is both accessible on the www. form as well and without the www.. IN large corporations where site are available on different domains, sometimes content is duplicate over the domains in the same language. This should also be avoided.