SEO News Update

SEO in the news

Search Google News for SEO.

Go ahead. Try it.

At first you might be dismayed about the general coverage of the SEO space and its importance in the industry.

But when you consider people like Jason DeMers, an SEO with a blog / guest column regularly appearing on Forbes, it seems an increasing number of SEOs are pushing the topic forward, and helping to demystify the things SEOs do.

Whether or not that play is as wise as it may seem, is not a universally accepted view. Some SEO experts view it as a way of informing lots of SMBs who don't know about SEO, but they may get the wrong ideas relative to their own SEO needs.

Of course, anytime anyone tries to lift the veil of secrecy off of any trade or profession, some incumbents will reject the notion as a lowering of standards, in one way or another.  And in time, the naysayers are consumed by the overwhelming market size that make the formerly secretive knowledge normal, common, almost banal.

The trouble seems to stem from the typical washed down coverage of almost generic topics, rather than deeper insights into more advanced topics that experienced professionals might be concerned with or interested in.

And of course, in the case of SEO, the elements of Desktop and Mobile SEO are a big topic which get constant coverage, even if more fundamental issues remain under the surface.

Regardless of one's stance, of course, an SEO must remain on top of the current issues related to doing the necessary work.  So even if you don't like reading about SEO in major media, the fact is you have to read up on what they're publishing. At least, you must do this from time to time, just to make sure you don't fall behind your competitors. Remember, they are focused on bringing home the bacon, and damn the consequences of ignoring the more significant issues that newbies do not understand.

For example, Google Now On Tap, an insightful feature, is one new tool that SEOs are starting to use to improve their SEO/SERP results. But not every SEO agrees that this is a good use of their time, at least not yet. Yet the coverage of it is almost ubiquitous in secondary and tertiary media outlets that feature search engine optimization in their news conetnt.

And that's it, for now.  Your latest SEO Science & Arts Update, from Randy Marshall.

Note: If you are interested in learning more about the best ways to maximize the effectiveness of SEO for Google News, watch the following video from the Google Webmasters channel on YouTube.

Pay it forward with Google One Today

Google One Today 

A not so subtle attempt at simultaneously giving and growing the GOOG. 

Google One Today

As if Google was not already enough a part of your life, now Google lets you be generous and choose someone to give funds to, for them to pick a charity to donate the funds to.

Check out Google One Today for more details. Seems kind of like a nice viral marketing gimmick. After all, why not just let you donate the charity of your own choice directly? Why pass it on through someone else? What's the point of that?

The answer to that is pure, simple marketing. By passing it on to someone, you're feeding the google with more data about you and the people you know.

Smart move? Lame attempt at growth hacking? What do you think?  Please leave your comments and feedback.  

Speaking of paying it forward, take a look at this inspirational clip, of a guy who gives haircuts to the homeless as his way of giving to people in need.

Oops ...

Google Can Be So Prejudgy

O for a googlebot of ire

One blog associated with my blogger account seems to have been accused by Google of having done something that is not liked by Blogger.

The email address that is linked to the blog in question was not completely signed up to about 20 email newsletters (probably less), which seem to publish mostly very informative stuff.

Apparently, the email lists had received a request to sign up the email address in question. However, no confirmation of subscription were submitted, so actually the email address is not a subscriber to those lists.

None of the content was actually shared, so I don't really see what the problem was.  When I share stuff, I always give with full and proper citations or links to the best known source.

Strangely, I received a bunch of "confirmation messages" from the email lists into my blogger "Posts" bin. Very odd.

Not sure what triggered the temporary block or ban on the site. When I confirmed my ID to Google, all of those confirmations messages disappeared. I don't know where they are, which is just as well since I did not actually confirm subscribing to those lists.

In any case, it's something I'll be sure to avoid repeating.

Secret Internet Lesson Learned: If you spend a good deal of time online, make sure you check your email accounts daily to ensure that nothing weird is happening. And if you suspect something is happening, be sure to report it accordingly and take appropriate measures to secure your account by changing your password regularly to something very good.  And of course you should be backing up your data separately, but that's another discussion, and you can surely google it, at least until I pump out the ultimate guide to data backups for dumbdumbs.

I love you, Google! :) You are my friend!

Promote Your Site With The Right Stuff

You may or may not have heard of SEO. That's Search Engine Optimization, for short.

But once you watch this video, you will not be able to get it out of your head.

Getting together a sophisticated SEO campaign is exactly what you need to bring in more leads, customers and revenue to your business. Anyone who fails to take care of SEO will suffer lost opportunities in the way of lost sales and lower search engine rankings. See our eye-opening blog post for how to put together a winning SEO campaign.

Every time you feel something is disturbing the peace of your pages, remember these incredible piece of advice... even if your mind tones it down a little. And then remember that the Googlebot, the Yahoobot, the Bingbot and other crawlers are snooping around your website. So if there's anything you don't want indexed ... keep it hidden, or better yet, keep it offline.

And now that you've seen that amazing presentation, be sure to read this incredibly helpful and handy guide to the best SEO techniques, updated for 2014 and 2015.

The Ultimate SEO Primer Infographic of 2014

Google's blatant promotion of kittens online

You read right.

The GOOG is at least partly to blame for the seemingly unending popularity of the trend that is ... cute kittens!

Now, when you set up a Blogger account, the google-powered dashboard shows you some useful information about how to best use this amazing and powerful tool, which can be used to share just about any kind of information, from the mundane, to the extraordinary, and even life-saving.

In short, Google is telling you and many other blogger users how to optimize your website to get solid rankings in the google search engine index, if not how to get to the top of the search results pages. 

So which of these noble or good causes does the megawebgorilla choose to promote to new users?

Well, have a look for yourself at this screenshot, taken September 7, 2014.

Google Promotes Blog About kittens

When we attempted to contact the publisher of "Example Blog" for more information, said publisher could not be reached.

The same is true for the Google Blogger leader.

Meanwhile, an anonymous, unofficial spokesperson for the group denied denying any involvement, or truth to the rumor that Google prefers kittens to puppies.

So now you know. If you want to optimize your blog, do what "Example Blog" does ... create a page "About kittens" ... even if your website is about pollution management, or other fascinating arts and science.