Is it Possible to Add Content too Quickly?

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QUESTION: If we launch a Help Section for our various products within a short period of time, will that throw any red flags with Google since we would be adding so much new content at once? Just wanted to ask about this in case we need to space the content release out a bit. Let me know what you think.

ANSWER: There is no reason that Google would penalize any website for adding legitimate content. The only potential impact (Google) will be the redistribution of Page Rank. It’s possible that a large amount of new content will bleed off some of the sites accumulated PR causing the sites home-page to drop. This is of little concern when it comes to ranking for organic search terms. The content is much more important than Google Page Rank. Your site has almost 2,000 pages indexed already, so the impact of adding additional content will only be positive. There is some SEO benefit to adding the content slowly (spacing it out,) however – with critical content like a Help Section the visitor & customer need to access the content far outweighs any SEO considerations.

Filed Under: SEO Tagged With: , , , ,

RightNowosphere Media Marketing

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Google recently added a real time widget to their Search Results Pages (SERPs) in an effort to integrate the growing volume of social media, breaking news, and blogosphere content into the Google Index. The Google Real Time search widget is triggered when the volume of content in the RightNowosphere reaches a certain trending and distribution level. We have experimented over here at RightNow and it is possible to trigger the Real Time display box with a few well placed search term targeted content releases in key channels. Without sustained content support the display box is short lived.

The primary content sources that have been observed in the display are Twitter, press and news websites, plus active blogs and news release sites that deliver an RSS Feed. In addition, press releases and article distribution sites have made appearances in the Google Real Time results.

What This Means to You:

First, we have always and continue to recommend that your online marketing efforts include at a minimum, a blog or news element for content building and link development reasons. Potential inclusion in Real Time Search is another great reason to make sure you have a correctly installed blog or news system in your arsenal. Regular content releases will naturally get distributed in the live results creating additional traffic, and a broader search term base.

Additionally, it is time to consider Twitter; We are seeing actual traffic conversion (revenue!) in certain markets. The key is to have a long term SMM plan that builds your audience, leverages all your web assets, and delivers regular targeted communications. With Twitter you have to be “In It to Win It” and that means a full time effort.

Don’t know where to start?

We can point your blog or SMM plan in the RightNow-o-Sphere direction – Contact Us.

Filed Under: Google, Search Engine Optimization, Social Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

How To Use Google Alerts to Monitor Your Business

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Google Alerts www.google.com/alerts is an essential tool for business owners that want to monitor their brand, business name, and ultimately their reputation online. With a few quick entries you will be notified via email every time Google discovers the topic of your Alert.

Here is the syntax that I recommend you set up for your Alerts.

Your exact business name in parenthesis – “business name here”

Your domain is mentioned – yourdomain.com

Your website gets indexed – site:yourdomain.com

When links point back to your site – link:yourdomain.com -site:yourdomain.com

This is not a great solution for larger business that receive a large volume of traffic on their brand. But for the normal small business, or individual it is a good advance warning system.

Netrafic clients – If you need help setting this up please feel free to contact us.

Filed Under: Google Tagged With: , ,

Google Parameter Control

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Good news for sites with shopping carts, reservation and booking engines, MLS and property listings, and any other website that generate dynamic urls that lead back to the same page. The Problem (SEO perspective) is duplicate content. Multiple paths (urls) back to the same content will hurt your sites ability to perform in the search engines.

This generally occurs when you site offers multiple ways of finding the products and services that you sell, for example; a landing page, a page delivered from a search result, or a page built from user criteria. Essentially, all of these paths can deliver the exact same content.

Google has just announced a new Parameter Control Tool as part of the Webmaster Tools suite. The tool allows users to define what pages should be included in the search engine results, and which pages are dynamically generated and should be excluded.

RightNow clients have Webmaster Tools connected to their websites. We will be looking at those sites that could benefit from the implementation of this new Google Tool. If you have questions regarding this tool please contact us!

Filed Under: Google Tagged With: , ,

The New Google – How Does Your Site Rank?

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Google’s new search tool is in beta testing right now, called Google Caffeine. This will eventually replace the current search tool on google.com. The stated goal of the product is to deliver more relevant search results, as quickly as possible. That’s the short version, you can read the whole enchilada over at the Google Webmaster Blog or view an independent Caffeine speed test.

So what does this mean for RightNow clients? Well, we certainly like the faster part. The “more relevant” part sounds good also, but remember that it is a mathematical equation that determines relevancy. Google takes hundreds of factors (yes hundreds!) about every site to determine which web sites belong at the top of the heap for any given search term.

Initial tests show RightNow client’s sites performing well in the new Google. Remember that Google is still tweaking the ranking factors, so the public release will be different than the current version.

I was hesitant to place this note in our monthly newsletter. Inevitability someone is going to run this tool and come to the conclusion that the sky is falling! If you see something that concerns you, just pick up the phone and call us — that’s why you hired RightNow as your professional SEO consultant.

Here are two tools to test how your site performs in the new Google Search tool.

  • Perform a Side by Side Comparison
  • Go Directly to Google Caffeine Beta

    • Questions? Call Us!

    Filed Under: Google, Marketing, Mobile, Video Tagged With: , , , ,

    Google Offers Additional Control Over Search Results

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    Website owners have received the ability to customize the way their listings appear in the search engine results. In the past the only variables you were able to control were the title tag and the meta description. Hold on to your hat folks, Google has just introduced Structured Data Mark Up.

    Marking up structured data allows you to define review ratings, product images, prices, business addresses, professional titles and more. The data is displayed using two standards; microformats and RDFa formats.

    The new format is starting to appear in Google search results, primarily for restaurant listings. Sites such as Yelp quickly embraced the new display options.

    EXAMPLE:

    Sites that offer up directory and review results have the most obvious applications. But, like all other optimization options, crafty web designers and SEO’s will find unique and interesting ways of implementing these tools.

    For a complete overview of this new twist visit the Google Marking Up Structured Data Page

    Filed Under: Google Tagged With: ,
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