It’s an aspect that almost every SEO company and practitioner has been unsure of for a long time, namely how Google assigns SEO value to the comments posted on websites? This is another piece of the very large, secretive and complicated puzzle that is the Google SEO Algorithm. Google is rumoured to have recently purchased and implemented 3^rd party software which allows it to better allocate SEO value to all comments on websites. This looks to us like another attempt to force people away from Facebook towards using Google+ as their preferred online social media platform.

The main problem for Google in the past was deciding which comments were legitimate and which could be considered “comment spam”. This 3^rd party system would allow Google to assign less value to comments that would be seen as manipulative and more value to “useful” comments. Google would track the overall Google activity of the author of each comment by tracking their Gmail, Google+ and Youtube usage. Commenters would have to build up their credibility with Google to have their comments seen as having SEO weight.

It goes without saying then that we have seen the end of “NoFollow” tags on comments and as long as Google sees the authors of comments as credible, link juice will be passed on to the sites which they link to in the comments. Google will however limit the value of excessive links from legitimate commenters over a short period of time, so commenters would be advised to use this tactic sparingly. The highest value would be given to links that are on-topic, haven’t been posted an inordinate amount of times and have good click-through rates.

So it would appear that Google has created a very enticing commentary system that webmasters should definitely consider implementing on their websites, although it’s way too early to say if Google will give adopters of its commentary system preferential treatment in their algorithm. We feel that the SEO implications of this system are significant enough to warrant adoption. Promoting Google+ does seem to be the priority of Google at the moment, and this system proves that point.

In the land of Pay Per Click advertising, competitor bidding remains a controversial topic. Questions regarding ethical business practices come into play as well as the effectiveness of such keyword strategies.

It has been my own experience that apart from being a costly exercise, it most often yields poor results, certainly not worth the herculean effort put into it nor the barrage of angry competitors threatening to sue you , no matter how feeble their claims are. The simple fact is that bidding on competitor brands terms is completely legal and allowed on major search engines, provided you don’t mention your competitor’s brand in your own ad.

However competition is all about options and by not bidding on competitor’s brands some may think that you are taking away the consumer’s right to choose. By positioning your ad next to your competitor you are proving that you are offering the public alternative choices.

Competitor brand bidding would work to the advantage of the start up businesses who place their ads alongside their well established counterparts, thus gaining exposure while riding on the coattails of the bigger brand. However you should note that if you are planning on bidding on competitor terms that your own brand’s website is up to standard and that you offer competitive products otherwise you could do more harm than good to your brand reputation.

Bidding on competitor keywords is a practice to follow with caution, and needs to be evaluated depending on the type of product or service you offer.

Happy Marketing!

If you’re like me you hate it when you have to scroll down endlessly on a webpage for that piece of content that you were searching for. We expect the important content to be at the top of a webpage above the page fold, and yet many sites have adverts and other worthless info here. In Google’s quest to make the web as user-friendly as possible, they have also picked up on this and have made an algorithm change to counter it.

Many sites out there are in existence to make money and one of the most common ways to do this is through advertising. Google understands this, especially as it is thanks to advertising that Google has become the internet giant that it is. However there are sites that go overboard in this respect with big blocks of ads above the fold. Google says that less than 1% of searches will be noticeably be affected by this algorithm change, but webmasters and designers alike should take note of this. Using this method of adverts first and content later could negatively affect a website’s Search Engine Optimization efforts.

Google stated that webmasters who believed that their websites were negatively affected by this should consider how the website uses the above-the-fold area and whether the content on the page is hidden or otherwise hard for users to read quickly. The type of device used to view the website is also a factor. Webmasters are encouraged to use Google’s Browser Size tool to see how their website is viewed on screens of different sizes and resolutions. A webpage’s content might be easily accessible on a PC, but hidden on a mobile device.

The best advice is to keep the advertising near the bottom and the sides of the webpage and the content near the top. This will also help the Googlebot read / index your website quicker.

In true Google philosophy and all in the name of making the web a friendlier, easier place to be, this is just one of the 500+ changes that Google has undertaken to make to their algorithm in 2012 .

Google has added an array of innovations to their advertising platform.  Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) is one of them. Dynamic Search Ads are created for you based on content found in your landing pages. These ads offer an opportunity to reach potential customers using Ads which are always fresh.

Dynamic Search Ads target relevant searches, serving Ads generated directly from your website dynamically.  Google is constantly indexing pages on your site, they have now found a new way to use the freshness of content to reach users. When a search occurs, an Ad is generated with a Headline based on the Search Term & Ad Text based on your most recent/relevant landing page. The Ad competes in the ad auction as normal & is displayed if a winner, searches where the campaign has an eligible targeted Ad the dynamically generated ad will not be entered into the auction.

In this way, Dynamic Search Ads offer increased exposure for your product, clicks & conversions are increased on your Ads without much effort & Ad serving remains relevant as ever without interference to your existing keyword campaigns.

16% of searches which appear on a daily basis Google have never seen before, so though your keyword lists might be quite lengthy & well maintained, user behaviour can be a moving target. Dynamic Search Ads now offer a way of capturing these previously un-targeted users.

Dynamic Search Ads like normal ads offer maximum control of ad serving. Negative’s, location settings, network settings, bids & budgets can still be used to control spending, where & to whom your Ads are shown.

Most advertisers saw 5-10% more clicks & conversions in the testing phase of this innovation, so it should show results for your own.

http://www.google.com/ads/innovations/dynamicsearchads.html

Any PPC manager worth his salt will agree that Google Adwords sitelinks are a powerful optimization tool. So how exactly does this seemingly minor change impact so greatly on ad performance?

The enhanced ad offers the user more choices, for instance if you are advertising a small business such as the local supermarket, your ad could offer the user alternatives such as vegetables, fruits, canned good etc, making it more targeted and more relevant for the user.

Adding sitelinks to your ads has proven time and time again to lower CTR and thus improve quality score.

An Ad with sitelinks also takes up more of the Google real estate, making it more visible than your competitors’ ads, thus enticing users to click on your ad instead.

Here is an example of what an ad with sitelinks looks like on the Google SERP’s

Previously adding sitelinks meant that users would see a set of four links beneath the main ad, but recently Google unveiled their enhanced sitelinks, that has certainly gotten PPC advertisers excited.

Now instead of merely displaying links beneath your ad, you can now feature all your alternate ads, provided that they are located within the account and are closely related. Another criterion is that the ad is ranked number one on the Google SERP’s.

The enhanced Google sitelinks will look like this:

You can be certain that an ad like this will definitely grab the attention of the user and also allow PPC managers an opportunity to optimize their accounts further.

Google has announced that in testing they found that people reported that the ads containing the enhanced sitelinks performed better than those with the traditional sitelinks.

So if you aren’t already using Google sitelinks, you should get started.

Happy Marketing!