Custom and Vanity URLs on Google+
You may have recently received a notice from Google that your Google+ Page or Profile qualified for a custom URL and the great people of Google had already reserved one for you. Congratulations! Welcome to the awesome sauce club! After the flood of endorphins subside and the crowds roar becomes a low hymn, settle down and let’s look at the marketing strategy behind this move; from your perspective and Google’s. Vanity URL versus Custom URL Yes, there is a difference. The custom URL that Google may have reserved and offered you is just a customized redirect/rewrite for your ID on the Google+ platform. Vanity URLs are those that are specific to a brand and offer a verified endorsement. For example, ChocolateSEO now has a custom URL but the old ID is still attached and often displayed for our page on Plus. With a vanity URL, like Mashable, you will find they have a verified symbol next to their name. This is only possible with vanity URLs. Local +Pages receive a symbol too, but this is associated with the address, not the Google+ URL. Hovering on the shield for a vanity URL denotes the brand name has been verified. On Local +Pages, it displays “Verified Business.” Google Custom URLs and the Fine Print Looking at the email you may have received offers no insight into the “terms and conditions” or “stipulations” of your new found fortune. Dear ChocolateSEO You’re now eligible for a unique Google+ custom URL that lets you easily point folks to your page (no more long URLs!). Here’s what we’ve reserved for you: google.com/+Chocolateseo Promote this on: your website, emails or other media. Click the Get URL button below to get started. Get URL Sincerely, The Google+ Team You received this email because you’re a manager of ChocolateSEO. View the list of managers. Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA However, with a little digging you can find out more about this new custom URL option. We first stumbled across the new guidelines for custom URLs, https://support.google.com/plus/answer/2676340. On this page, we find out that there are really only three stipulations (four if you count having an account in good standing): Ten or more followers Account must be at least 30 days old Must have a profile/page picture That’s it! If you meet those requirements, but didn’t get the email above, you can setup a custom URL yourself. From the dashboard, select edit this page. In the administration, click the ‘Links’ option. You will find your customization option here. From the email above, you will see that they reserved Chocolateseo. We capitalize the ‘SEO’ in the name. You can edit this if you’ve accepted the customized URL but you cannot change it completely once it is accepted. You can also setup custom URLs for your profiles on Google+ as well. Free Now, Pay Later? Further investigation uncovers that this custom URL option is currently free, but may be a paid one at some point in the near or distant future. Jon Henshaw of Sitening/Raven Tools shared this information and a link related to the terms and conditions of Google+ custom URLs: http://www.google.com/+/policy/tos-custom-url.html. On the page it says, Custom URLs are free for now, but we may start charging a fee for them. However, we will tell you before we start charging and give you the choice to stop participating first. What does that mean? That means if you do what the email tells you to: add the custom URL to your site, your business cards, your link building and outreach programs, etc., you could be...
Read MoreEric Schmidt: Higher Rankings to Verified Profiles
Authorship is not optional, it is a necessity. As most in the search marketing industry knows, when Google offers something new, it usually means it is something necessary for success in search. Well, authorship just received an official statement of it’s impact on search ranking. This is nothing to balk at, the quality technicians and spam managers of Google rarely make anything “set in stone” when it comes to the SERPs. Coming from the top brass at the search giant, this announcement from Eric Schmidt means that authorship has to be a part of any online strategy. “Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be ranked higher than content without such verification, which will result in most users naturally clicking on the top (verified) results. The true cost of remaining anonymous, then, might be irrelevance.” – Eric Schmidt, Google former CEO. If you are unfamiliar with Google authorship, I made a post about it and how to implement it. In short, it is an official Google link in the markup that connects the content with a specific author. The author’s information, such as number of Google Plus Circles and articles, will appear in some selected SERP results along with the author’s image. Having some type of rich snippet has been shown to improve click through on organic results by 30% as far back as 2011 according to a Search Engine Land article. Along with the rich snippet integration in the SERPs, Knowledge Graph pulls in additional information about the author, his or her posts, and much more. All of this goes along with what Search Engine Watch’s Thom Craver details with the statement, “Google+ has been designed to be an identity verification network.” Google+ has been built, not only as Google’s answer to Facebook, but as a product for gathering user data to be used as a revenue source and authentication system for content within the index. The Wrapper There you have it. Concrete statements of fact that ambiguity is slowly being eradicated from the internet by those in power. It is becoming increasingly harder to hide your identity online, but to continue to enjoy this time of free online services, it is a necessary evil. Authorship is a method for creating credibility, not only for a content creator but for the results Google produces in response to a query. During my time in my Masters course work, it was frequently conveyed to me that Wikipedia was not a reliable source; primarily because it allows anyone to edit entries. And although Wikipedia tracks the IP address and profile of those that edit entries, it can be hard to establish credibility for an entry. In the case of Google Authorship, organic results contain so much metadata that credibility for an entry can be determined quickly, without leaving the SERP in many cases. With this confirmation comes nearly 100% assurity that the first page is back in the limelight and many businesses will again focus on rankings versus...
Read MoreGoogle+ Local for Business Updates: Return of Categories and Fake Reviews
The Return of Categories… Maybe During this week, I have had the opportunity to verify four locations via the Google+ Local system. If you are not familiar with the new verification process for Google+ Pages, let me give you a quick run down. Similar to the way the system worked before in Google Places, you complete a listing (in this case a +Page designated during the setup as a “local business”), click the verify this business button and wait for a Google PIN post card to arrive at the location specified in the Google+ Page listing. Once the PIN arrives, you visit your management screen or navigate to www.google.com/local/verify/ and enter the PIN. What seems to have changed recently is the return of categories. Categories were available throughout the original Places and Local systems until Google+. In the screenshot below, you’ll see the screen that popped up on 2 out of the 4 listings I verified. Is this a test of a new set of options available after verification? Possibly, or just an A/B test of possible changes. The categories haven’t shown up on the front-end (public side) of these listings so it is unclear what Google is doing with Google+ Local and categories. This is just another change that small businesses will have to make the most of. It could be a good thing seeing that there aren’t a lot of useful categories when setting up a Google+ Page for a business that doesn’t fit the few options currently in the setup. Still frustrating though… Speaking of local businesses — have you heard the news? Reviews and You. Without getting into too much technical talk, Google has made it clear; they want authentic data reviewers and their reviews. In the past businesses have tried to meet clients where they were, meaning in the office and collecting paper reviews then posting by proxy these authentic reviews for clients that were technology declined or unwilling to digitize their review. Enter the post in the Google forum and review algorithm change outlined in the statement below: For SEOs: If a business accepts paper comment cards it might be tempting to collect them and “digitize” them by posting the reviews on Google+ Local. We ask that all reviews come from first hand experience and do not allow posting reviews on behalf of others. – Care of “Dasha“, Google Employee. Additional Resources: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2241393/Google-Warns-SEO-Businesses-to-Avoid-Fake-Reviews http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2622994&topic=2624941&ctx=topic The Wrapper *In my 3-6 Mafia voice* Google is making it hard for everyone. From reviews to the verification, there seems to be a new change every five seconds (not literal). As interesting and entertaining as it maybe to have business owners dancing on hot coals, SEOs pulling their hair out, and users giving all types of data, these types of hurdles make it harder for everyone to reach the goal that is at the core of the search giant; the answer to a question. Reviews offer insight into the experience of others that, most likely used, the Google megaplex to answer their query. To complicate the process of exemplifying good businesses makes no sense because it creates a lack of confidence in the system that starts at users and continues through businesses all the way to Google’s bottom-line in the end. There are a number of solutions they could implement versus complicating the review process. One simply being requiring a secondary email or phone number. Payday loan places don’t make it this hard to get cash in hand, why is Google requiring blood for a review?! Mike Ramsey has a great infographic that makes a lot of sense...
Read MoreAuthorship and Authority: How Do I Get Some?
With Google’s recent algorithm update the general consensus is WTF do I do with my SEO now?! Or at least that is the result for those putting too much stock in keyword targeted marketing strategies. These are strategies focused on SEO for search engines and not SEO focused on users and the way they interact with content. Let me slow down for a second. If you haven’t heard, Google has released an update, on or about September 27th, that impacted approximately 0.6% of all English queries according to Matt Cutts in a set of tweets. Exact Match Domains and The Algo The EMD update was unrelated to Panda or Penguin and was meant to reduce (or eliminate) the value given domains for using keywords in the URL. So websites using something like www.BestCreditCardsforBuildingCredit.com* (4-5 keywords) or www.InsuranceRateComparisons.com (3 Keywords) would notice some level of negative change. In the case of one of my clients it looked a little something like this: That being the case, what is an SEO to do? Continue the course, with a few refinements. As I mentioned in a comment on a blog post on SEOMoz, SEOs that work with the systems (Google, Bing and Yahoo) and build with quality in mind, may be hit by these updates and releases, but won’t be completely blown away because they will have a diverse marketing strategy that has more to it than just keyword prowess. Hence, Authorship. Authorship is not new to the SEO and marketing toolbox. Authorship has just taken a new step into being directly used to provide authority for content. In the past, services such as Ask.com, Google Knol, and Yahoo! Directory, provided authority for content creators in the form of links. Google Authorship comes in the form of either verifying an email address on a given domain or by completing some form of their authorship verification mark up. To learn more about verifying an email on a specific domain visit: https://plus.google.com/authorship For me and a few other SEOs, it makes the most sense to use the snippet markup to accomplish authorship as Google makes it a step in verifying URLs in Google+. If you haven’t set up a Google+ profile, that would be step one. Followed by creating a Google+ Page for the domain you are building authorship for. Once you have these set up, you will need to make sure you establish some link between the profile and +Page by linking it to your website. Just putting the website in the designated block won’t do it. You will have to add the appropriate markup to the homepage of the website. Now here is where some people differ in approach. Although Google offers this when looking to verify, I often get errors: You then need to verify this connection by added this link to your homepage – <a href=”https://plus.google.com/[yourpageID]” rel=”publisher”>Find us on Google+</a> In most cases, I use the link in the header instead without issue or problem: <link href=”https://plus.google.com/[yourpageID]” rel=”publisher”/> Doing it this way allows me to use the author link on posts without confusing the Google. There is also a third method. You may receive the option to verify the link using Google Webmaster Tools if you have the website you are working on linking listed. Clicking the verify website link will display a message saying you can send a request to the webmaster. This will send a notification to the owner (not a user) of the webmaster account that a link association is being requested. Once the association is approved, the website will be verified for the page and display...
Read MoreGoogle+ Local, Places, Maps… Whatever.
I love Google, I really do. I have to tell myself that whenever I feel the Hulk rage building inside of me. Then I remember what Bruce Banner says right before completely crushing a large otherworldly beast, very dryly, in the latest installment of the Avengers, “My secret? I’m always angry.” I am always angry, in particularly, at Google for changing things that don’t really need to be changed. In a pretty recent post about Google Places becoming Google+ Local, I discussed the issues involving small businesses (and large businesses for that matter) as it relates to Google Maps. Well, guess what? Now we are in the process of merging Google+ Local with Google+ Pages. Furthermore, if I am reading Jade Wang’s Google Product Form post correctly, we will have to confirm locations all over again in Google+. Even if we, webmasters and business owners, don’t have to reconfirm, what do we do with all the duplicate listings that are currently in existence and the ones Google is sure to produce with this fourth, fifth, or whatever merger of Maps/Places/Local/Page listings? Google, Goo-Gle, GOOOOOOGLE!!! Jade W Aug 16 (1 day ago) What you should do during the upgrade to local Google+ pages? Should I verify? Storefront business with a page in Google+ (under the local business/place category) who are using it regularly: request verification. You will need to get a postcard sent to your business address and enter the PIN. Then, manage this page using the Google+ pages admin. Do not use the Google Places for Business to edit after verifying in Google+. Verified owner in the Google Places for Business: continue to manage your information from the Google Places for Business dashboard and please wait for further instructions. We are working on a smooth upgrade process for everyone. New storefront businesses: (not verified on Google Places for Business) you may create a page in Google+ (under the local business/place category) and go through the verification process. Then, manage your page through the Google+ pages admin. What if I’m a … Service area business with address correctly hidden: the upgraded (merged) local Google+ pages are not currently supporting service area businesses. Please continue to manage it via Google Places for Business and hide your address as necessary, detailed in the quality guidelines. Big brand or business with multiple locations: There is no way to link a single brand page to multiple local Google+ pages. Continue to manage your brand page in Google+, if you already have on. To manage your locations, continue to use use the Google Places for Business dashboard. I have a sticky situation… Created a page in Google+ in a category other than local business/place? Only +pages in the local business/place category can be verified and merged with a Google-generated local Google+ page. There is no way to change the category of +pages. You may create a page in the local business/place category and verify that if you’re not currently verified in Google Places for Business. We will not be able to move your followers or content. Data issues? continue to use Edit business details to resolve these issues. Please do not attempt to merge or verify a page with data issues. Someone else verified your social local Google+ page? Please make sure it isn’t a Google-generated page. If you’re sure it’s a social page, you can learn more about admin rights here. Someone else verified your Google-generated page? You can also request verification. Any Google-generated pages can be verified by any account in Google Places for Business. If you suspect that someone else is adding...
Read MoreGoogle+ Local and Your Business: Now What?!
As of May 23rd, Google Places (also known as Google Maps) became Google+ Local. If you are unfamiliar with Google+, it can be summed up as Google’s answer to Facebook and Twitter; without some of the established awesomeness. Google+ allows signed in users the ability to do a lot of things similar to both Facebook and Twitter in that you are able to share images, links, post stories and create profiles. However, many users – the few that actually use the social platform, feel it lacks some of the ‘feel’ that motivates users on Facebook. One great positive and competitive advantage for Google+ is the ability to “Hang Out.” Which is essentially Google’s version of Apple’s FaceTime. What does any of this have to do with local CSEO? Well, like any good business, Google is ‘persuading’ users, logged in or not, to use optional services if they want to continue to benefit from the search giant’s indexing service. The search engine giant has invested a lot of time and money in to Google+ but seen little return on the investment. Google+ is integrated into the Android mobile system, but many opt out. They have extended the free use of Google Voice, but that doesn’t generate revenue. So what now? Target businesses! By migrating Google Places into the Google+ product, it is the aspiration of the Goog (in my opinion of course) to ‘go’ where the money is. Business owners are already spending more money ads then ever before. According to The Guardian: Nearly 97% – $22.889bn – of Google’s 2009 revenues were generated by advertising, and the majority of that through AdWords. With this move Google is bring common users and businesses under a more controllable umbrella of social services. Now, what does that mean for your Google Places? A lot. For users, it means that they will have to upgrade their standard Google Account to leave reviews or gain access to some of the elements of Google’s social services. For the businesses, this means that your reviews still exist but have changed into the Zagat format and those who have left you reviews will need to upgrade to a Google+ account for you to receive the full benefit of the review. According to the support forum users can move their content, such as saved locations and reviews by following these steps: You’ll need to sign up for Google+ if you don’t have an account yet. Once you’ve signed up, reload the Google+ Local page to see your profile and sign in. Next you’ll be asked to move your content to Google+. To mark content as private and only visible to you, follow these steps: Uncheck the box next to each of the reviews or photos you would like to make private. Click Next. Click Confirm if the information is correct. If you would like to make changes, click Back. The Google Places content that you haven’t decided to make private will be public to everyone on the web and attributed to your Google+ name, not your old nickname. These reviews can be found across Google, like in Google search results, Google+, and on Google Maps. c/o http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2622993&topic=2624949&ctx=topic Google acquired Zagat last year to help expand the effectiveness and authority of the reviews on business listings. The Zagat system uses a 30-point scoring scale along with integrated recommendations to add value to a local listing. The point scale is determined by averaging all submitted values provided by reviewers (they can give a 1, 2 or 3) then the result is multiplied by 10. Editing and Fixing a Google+ Local...
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