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How Does Google+ Social Signals Effect Websites and Posting’s?
Okay, recently there has been some discussion surrounding the Google Authorship and Publisher topic. So I figured what a great time to cover another article for the topic since it has been part of an update being done for some websites I am working on.
First off, there has been some more talk about the social signals being used by Google and whether or not it affects organic ranking or not. At this point there have been no definitive answers by most. The general census seems to point mostly to ranking not being effected by Google+ social signals. Which to me does not make much sense. Reason being, Google places social signal factoring in for other social websites such as FaceBook and Twitter.
So why Would Google not Place Emphasis on Their own Google+ System?
Well actually they do place emphasis on their own system. But the real question is whether or not it affects your main websites organic presence. Well, first of all, just getting those +1’s bring’s about more exposure because you are now connected to the individual who +1’d you. For instance, here is an example for a local SEO company in the area I have plus +1’d.
Site Strategics – Erin Sparks
As you will notice it shows me and one other person as being a person who +1’d this website. Since these individuals are socially connected and have +1’d the website, the search result shows it as being +1’d. Now, one thing you need to take into account, is the fact you are signed in and viewing it as a private result. Reminder, this only shows the +1’s if you are in a private session – signed in. If you set the session to a not private result then you no longer see the +1’s on the search results listing.
Now, let us take a look at the next example of a Google+ posting that was +1’d by me. It is of an ad on Groupon the client has placed for his business. The ad was posted on my profile and +1’d by me. It then appeared in the search results as an actual posting on Google+ and is not the actual website the ad was posted on. Of course this is also in a private session mode as well.
Downtown Boot Camp – Todd Beattie
Now as you can see in this example a url to Google+ is showing. When you visit the Google+ page it shows you the posting and then has a direct link to the Groupon page where the original ad is posted by the client. Now if I were to +1 the page it would then display me as +1’ing the Google+ posting. This is a direct correlation between Google and preferential treatment of social signaling in the search results.
So in my mind Google gives direct social signals to certain +1’ing but only when viewing in private sessions to this point. When shutting off the private viewing the organic ranking for the first example, the result drops one organic position, from 3 to 4, while the second example disappears completely off the front page. So this still leaves room for interpretation on whether or not Google gives more organic placement to websites that have been +1’d or not. This is behind the scenes and probably will not be told to you by Google because they are guarding their secret. More less, it is an unproven theory by most individuals.
So What Does it do for you?
Well if you are signed in all the time the major significance will be the displaying of websites or posting’s you are connected with socially on Google+. Secondly, those individuals will be gaining for sure organic placement right in plain view because you have privately connected with those businesses or individuals. So sending out social signals on Google+ is beneficial, another words ranking is effected – just depends on the viewing mode, which is the debate.
Conclusion
It is in my opinion that Google protects their algorithm with the highest regards and does not make it easy for you to determine certain parts of the algorithm. I personally believe social signals from Google +1’ing does affect organic ranking no matter what viewing mode you may be in. Yes, I am sticking my neck out there on this one, but what the heck. My research points to it does affect search ranking no matter what viewing mode I am in. If it does not, it will for sure someday be a ranking factor. I would bet most say it does not effect organic ranking. Since this topic covers a wide area of discussion, you might find the next post important as well. It covers Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool. Hope you enjoy it as well.
“Remember, this is my personal opinion”.
How to Create a Custom Google+ Vanity URL
Well by now you probably know about the new Google+ feature available for Google+ users. But if you are not aware of it yet or you are not able to get your custom vanity URL yet, keep this post on hand or return when your profile is approved by Google for the new vanity URL feature.
The Requirements to Obtain Custom URLs:
You must have a profile photo.
Visit Your Google+ Profile
Navigate to your Google+ profile first to get it started. You will need to repeat these steps for each Google+ page you have created that you wish to create your custom vanity URL. Once you are on your Google+ page, look at the top of the page to find the Get URL button in blue if your profile is approved for it.
Get URL
Option to Change Vanity URL
Next, you will be prompted with a dialog box giving you the option to change the vanity URL. If you agree to change the current URL to the new vanity URL, then you will need to select the check box agreeing to the terms of service. Google has made the suggestion in the terms of service that they may charge you in the future for the vanity URL. Some say this is a marketing ploy by Google or a means to determine the validity of the business. It has been said that it may also effect the outcome of search results as well.
Agree to Terms of Service
Of course the option to not change the URL is available but for this post we are going to select Change URL.
The Verification Process
The next step is just simply entering your mobile number into the input box for verification. Once you receive the text message (SMS) containing your verification code you are going to need to enter it into the next prompt.
Verify Mobile Number
Enter the Code
Finally, enter your text message code into the input box and select the Verify button. Although you may have to be a little patient because it can take up to 15 minutes to get your verification code from Google. If the code does not come to your mobile device or you entered the wrong number, you can try again to obtain it.
Enter Code
Conclusion
Well besides how easy it is to get a custom Vanity URL, you may want to keep in mind about the possibility of Google charging for this new feature. There have been a few other questions that have risen from this new feature offered by Google. One of the concerns surrounds the rel=”author” attribute. Of course this is set in the a href tag as an attribute or with a ?rel=author parameter in a URL string as a query parameter. Google of course will be providing the redirects for the new Vanity URL’s so at this point it should not be of concern. Will need to keep an eye on it though, just in case.
“The ever changing Google”.
The Current History of the Google Panda Releases
Google Panda
You Should Create Unique Content
From Panda’s initial launch Google has been gradually updating the algorithmic formula for the Panda. These changes have been aimed at reducing content duplication primarily while allowing for better returns for searchers when searching Google. Quality content can not be stressed enough. Panda filters out the low quality content on content farms or content that is thin or poorly written.
Making unique content is an essential part of SEO today. If you were an article spinner you may have been hit pretty hard by these Panda updates. A large amount of the content being created was being written for the search engines and not for the individuals reading the material. The Internet has always had an absorbent amount of spam and this spam was being created at an alarming rate.
First of all, the reduction in content allows the search engines to index content faster; which in turn produces better results. Today’s search engine markets are trying to produce the best results for the searchers. These results have improved because of quicker indexing and better quality content and sources. The impact of these changes has been enhanced by the implementation of the Panda by forcing better content and quality.
Content Spin off Test
This need to produce quality vs. quantity is still of the utmost importance today. Writing informative and helpful content that educates and adds value to someone reading your material is a good example of quality content. During the first stages of the Panda I myself wrote one article and spun it into five different articles for testing purposes. This allowed me to measure the impact of the Panda while the process was starting. Although I did not see a significant decline in results, there definitely were some adverse effects from doing this testing.
Although I did manage to alter the different versions of the content enough that it possibly made them fairly unique actually. I think where the real adverse effect came to play was when Google Panda actually started penalizing the sites the articles were submitted too. This is the only reason the site decreased for a short time in ranking. The sites the articles were submitted to, may have lost some of their luster or juice because of Panda. All in all, not sure of the correct reason, but since then the site has recovered.
Content Spin off Results
Since completion of the testing it was clear that the results and benefits of writing unique content is for sure the correct way to go. There are several reasons for this:
- Proving you’re an authority in your industry
- Makes it easier to claim your content
- No risk of declining results
- Knowing you followed guidelines
- Not being a spam contributor
- Not being hit by DCMA
Duplicated Content on Site
Duplicate content on a website is another area Panda has affected. An example of this type of content is when you have more than one page with the same information on each page. This is considered duplicate content. Although this is not a copyright issue, you essentially are producing the same content when placing the same information on your pages within the same domain. Why should this matter, you might ask? Well the goal of Panda here was to prevent the creation of pages aimed at just creating pages for the sake of it. Some websites were posting the same content on different pages to generate more keywords in titles and descriptions to produce more results. This is actually a spam method/strategy focused at capturing more search engine results based on mass production.
Although this was one of the principles behind the Panda, I can not actually say I saw much of an impact concerning duplicate content on websites. For example, some sites have multiple landing pages directed at different locations, but the content is the same except for the meta title’s and description’s and a few minor changes to location names on the pages. I suppose these can be considered landing pages, but the Panda do not seem to pay much attention to the fact that some of these sites have the exact same content on the pages, hence duplicate content. The only difference as said already, was the title’s and descriptions. Some of the descriptions were even the same except for a location name.
Avoiding Duplicate Content Issues
- Make use of canonical URL
- Use noindex and nofollow
- Use cookies in place of session id’s
- Avoid identical content
- Do not scrap for content
- Make sure body, title and description tags are different
Conclusion of Duplicate Content
Not exactly sure how much has to be changed to make it unique enough not to matter, but apparently not much from what I can tell at this point. The proof is in the pudding. I can truly come to this diagnosis because I have done the thing’s written about here on this post as well as tested it. One site in particular still has solid results in the SERP’s and has tons of duplicate content to this day. I believe it is safe to say that website’s with high authority were not hit to bad even if duplicate content is on the sites. Although the pages with duplicate content from the same domain may have been penalized on a page per page bases the overall domain was not impacted.
Where you effected by duplicate content or were your outcomes the same?
Click here for more information about controlling duplicate content and canonical url’s.
Google Panda Release Dates
Here is a complete list of the Panda updates provided by Search Engine Land:
Panda Update 21, Nov. 5, 2012 (1.1% of English queries in US; 0.4% worldwide; confirmed, not announced)
Panda Update 23, Dec. 21, 2012 (1.3% of English queries were affected; confirmed, announced)
Panda Update 24, Jan. 22, 2013 (1.2% of English queries were affected; confirmed, announced)
Thank you for reading and all questions or comments are welcome. If this is helpful pass it along, join our news letter or just share a little. Will try to update this list when the next release comes out from Google.
“Do not let the Panda eat all your website traffic.”
Instructions on how to Link a Google+ Profile to Content Created
Linking yourself as an author to your content is relatively easy. If you do not have a Google+ profile created yet, start with by creating one. Next, on your header section of your HTML place the <link href=”[profile_url]” rel=”publisher” /> as this will notify Google you are the publisher of the content. After placing this code in your heading you will want to link to your Google+ profile from your website. Add this code to your page:
<a href=”[profile_url]” rel=author” title=”Ty Whalin – Google+ Personal profile” >Ty Whalin’s Profile on Google+
Make sure you have the Google+ on it or it will not work properly. I found this out the hard way until better instructions were provided by Google and Jill Whalen. You can also find additional resources and instructions on Google Authorship.
As an alternative you can use this code technique as well to establish yourself as the author of content.
<a href=”[profile_url]?rel=author” title=”Ty Whalin – Google+ Personal profile” >Ty Whalin’s Profile on Google+
This is essentially the same thing as the code above it except you are using a ?rel=author parameter instead of the ‘rel’ attribute.
First set of instructions provided by Google:
You can link your content you publish on a specific domain (such as http://www.linkworxseo.wordpress.com) to your Google+ profile.
By Ty Whalin
- Make sure you have a profile photo with a recognizable head shot.
- Make sure a byline containing your name appears on each page of your content (for example, “By Ty Whalin”).
- Make sure your byline name matches the name on your Google+ profile.
- Verify you have an email address (such as info@linkworxseo.com) on the same domain as your content. (Don’t have an email address on the same domain? Use this method to link your content to your Google+ profile)
You can keep it private if you wish by selecting it as private. It will also add a public link to the domain of the email address to the Contributor to section of your profile.
By adding your domain name on the Google+ profile you will basically be reciprocal linking your website to your Google+ profile and vice versus. Which I found odd since Google has made it clear they are not in favor of reciprocal linking.
Second set of instructions provided by Google:
After you have completed the first step of instructions by Google you will need to finish it off by completing the second step. You will notice that the second part of Google’s instructions are the same as shown above the first set of instructions.
Create a link to your Google+ profile from your webpage, like this:
<a href=[profile_url]?rel=author”>Link Worx Seo – Google+</a>
Replace
[profile_url]with the your Google+ profile URL, like this:<a href=”https://plus.google.com/115899955224601506264?rel=author”>Link Worx Seo – Google+</a>
Your link must contain the ?rel=author parameter. If it’s missing, Google won’t be able to associate your content with your Google+ profile.
- Add a reciprocal link back from your profile to the site(s) you just updated.
- Edit the Contributor To section.
- In the dialog that appears, click Add custom link, and then enter the website URL.
- If you want, click the drop-down list to specify who can see the link.
- Click Save.
- To see what author data Google can extract from your page, use the rich snippets testing tool.
Why is This Authorship Worthwhile?
Since I completed this simple connection and made Google aware that I am the true author of my content, my numbers and stats have increased. Links generated in the search engine results pages showing a profile picture and establishing your name in a byline are said to increase click-through rates CTR’s by 30% approximately. Recent studies have shown people are more prone to click an article more because of this attached information on the SERP when an internet user searches for information on something.
Increased Exposure and Higher Metrics
Increased exposure, by having a view-able profile head shot and showing your name off in the SERP’s helps you gain credit-ability in your industry as an authoritative figure. It is only logical that the more and more your name becomes synonymous with other individuals in your industry the more and more people begin to trust you, your research and recommendations. If you have not done this simple Google+ linking yet, you should as soon as possible.
Rich Snippet Testing
Using this simple form provided by Google allows you to test what is shown by Google as it would be shown in the SERP’s. The search preview will show you exactly what a user see’s when searching on Google. Now you may ask why this is important? Well, simply put; it can provide valuable insight to what others will see when searching and finding your information.
Extracted Author and Publisher
As you can see in green, I used my domain [http://www.linkworxseo.com] in the form to extract the page data. Because the <link href=”[profile_url]” rel=”publisher” /> is listed in my heading and I properly made use of the rel=author on my pages, it showed as verified as an author and a publisher. Google does not have to show your head shot or byline, it is at their discretion on whether or not Google wants to show this information. But the main point here is that when it is done properly you can verify it by using the Rich Snippet Testing Tool.
Different Google+Pages
Something else I learned along the way during this new process is that each page has a separate Google ID generated for each Google+ page. Why is this of concern? Let us say if you have a Google+ page to a personal profile but yet you have a business page as well, the Google ID’s are different. This matters because if you want to prove you are the publisher and the author, each profile has to be directly linked as shown above in the pervious instructions to achieve the same effect in the SERP’s. You must add the rel=author and rel=publisher with the perspective Google ID to the heading and a link to each Google+ profile page with the proper rel=author attribute or parameter to the appropriate Google+ page and vice versus. Now, let us take this one step further.
Word Press Authorship
When you create a Word Press blog you complete details about yourself within Word Press admin Users section. When you complete this information for your Word Press blog for yourself or add other user to this Users section Word Press is capable of knowing who is writing the post for the blog because they are logged into the system. Word Press automatically list the person writing the blog post as the author of the content when the post is published. If you will notice at the top in the first image, it shows a byline with my name “Ty Whalin”.
The significance of this is, what if you have several authors for a blog and each one of these authors have multiple post written on the same blog. You can then select post written by specific authors. This makes it easy to find familiar authors by name.
The trick here is that in the display name box on the user profile I used the name Link Worx Seo and not my real name as you can see highlighted in yellow above. Of course this can be change at anytime you desire. But the byline still shows my first name and last name which is from the first and last name input boxes on the user profile. Because the Word Press blog has been listed on the Google+ profile page, Google is able to make the distinction between the blog and the profile. The main point here, is that as long as you post a link to your Word Press blog on your Google+ profile, Google will display the author information appropriately if Google deems so.
If you were to select the link above highlighted it would take you to an archive of postings for the author. Link Worx Seo Proof that it works is simple enough. My head shot is from my Google+ profile and because my first and last name match on my Google+ profile and my Word Press User profile; Google extracts this from the Google+ profile in turn it shows me as the author.
Article Base Authorship
Finally, one last catch before finishing up today. You can pull off the same thing by adding your Article Base profile link to the contributor section of your Google+ profile page. You of course first have to create an Article Base account and fill in the details as an author/pen-name information. Once this is complete you then can place a link in the contributor section of your Google+ profile page.
Article Base Profile
If you did not notice you can see the Google+ logo in the snap shot above. This is how Article Base links to your Google+ profile page. I used my name as it is listed on my Google+ profile as the same on my Article Base profile. This is another great way to gain credit-ability and exposure for you and your business. Here is what it looks like in the SERP’s.
Article Base Profile SERP and byline
Conclusion
If you think this is to advanced for you or you just need some help with it, consult a professional or do some more reading on the topic. There is of course one more step to add too all of this. It is referred to as the rel=me. This is to link multiple author pages. This is somewhat un-tested by me at this point. From what I have been able to understand about it, is that if an article is written the rel=author should be used on the article and a rel=me should be used on the authors profile page. The article and the author page both contain a link to the authors Google+ profile page. This rel=me is able to correspond the article, author and the authors Google+ profile page. This is another way to show your work off and let Google know your are the author of the content.
Technically this seems to be the same principle concept as how Article Base works. It associates your article with the Article Base profile and the Google+ profile. Although I am not sure if your supposed to list the site your writing for in the contributor section, the article or the profile for the site you wrote the article for in this area. If I had to guess I would say yes, list the author profile from the site your writing for in the Google+ contributor section. Which would be the same as listing the Article Base author profile in the Google+ contributor section.
Blee, Blee, Blee – That’s All Folks.
Google Keywords Disrupting Website Analysis
Google Analytic Data “not provided”
As you may know or not know, Google is not providing keywords data when users are logged in to their accounts. This has been an on-going topic throughout the SEO world for sometime now. Link Worx Seo wrote about this topic on 10/23/2011 and 11/03/2011 and the effects it is having on SEO analysis. As you can see from a post by Search Engine Land, the numbers are increasing month by month. This is yet to be implemented world wide, but Google has plan’s to do so in the near future according to sources.
Steve Myers shared what he found after checking Poynter.org’s analytics: Keywords were hidden in 29 percent of searches in April. That’s up from 22.5 percent in November, shortly after the change was made. Now “(not provided)” makes up the largest category of search terms, dwarfing the second place term: Poynter. Overall, 6 percent of inbound traffic now comes from a black box. Source: Search Engine Land
If you are a large business relying on high amount’s of keyword data then this can be very disrupting to your business. As an SEO specialist this provides an annoying challenge of collecting adequate data. This data was said to remain in the single digits, but of course has surpassed the single digit numbers originally announced by Google. Currently, I have clients asking Link Worx Seo what the “not provided” means in the keyword list in Google Web Analytic’s. Trying to explain to the client why Google will not show the results of keyword’s being used to find their business is challenging to explain to some clients.
Some of these clients instantaneously ask, “Why would Google not show you the data?”. Clients say this makes no sense, at the same time quickly realize how this can effect their businesses after you have explained it to them in a way they can understand. For several of the businesses Link Worx Seo provides SEO services for, the “not provided“ is the #1 keyword in the list. As an original theory, it seemed Google may be trying to measure certain areas; such as:
Completely sure there are more, but this seems to make sense. There is no problem with wanting to provide higher security measures for Internet users, totally agree with these new measure’s of greater security. Along with Google and FireFox announcing the new secure search agreement, encrypted data has become a significant importance with regards to privacy issue’s surrounding Google and other companies. If your logged in to an account then this can be tracked by Google for obvious purposes… Of course if your logged into your Google account you always have the option to toggle the social and non-social button provided by Google. Your results are then filtered based on your toggle selection. Still believe that if your logged in, Google records the keyword data no matter what toggle choice you select.
At this point there is no information which has been found about whether or not the keyword data is recorded into Google Web Analytic‘s as “not provided” data if logged-in while the toggle button is set to non-social selection. If someone has some information pertaining to this, please notify us so we can be more accurate about our posting. Thank you in advance.
Google SSL Encrypted Searches Will go Beyond Just Google in the Future
Google Encrypted Search
As Google has implemented these changes to better privacy and has only been applied to the Google’s English version. Eventually it will be rolled out to all Google search versions, which will produce a larger percentage of “not provided” data. Is it possible that Google could be working towards securing all search data? What might this in-detail? What about all those custom search boxes on websites allowing people to perform searches directly on a website. It may be happening already considering you must have a Google account to obtain those custom search boxes for personalizing your website. However there is absolute sure fire answer for this one though. Anyway, at this point let’s say Google has already been collecting this keyword data by means of a tracking code generated when you fetch the form code for the custom search box. This makes perfect sense to try and secure data integrity as well for these custom search boxes. What is your take on custom search boxes?
“Make use of all the data you can from analytics.”
Link Worx Seo 
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