Latest Google Algo Update – A Disaster?

Posted by on April 26, 2012 · 5 Comments 

So Google have rolled out their latest algo change and suddenly the forums and social networks are buzzing with outrage, and for once I can see why. Google’s intentions may be right and proper but for once their application has been an absolute shocker.

EDIT: The new update is called the ‘Penguin’ update. Panda-monium would have been more appropriate.

 

There are examples all over the place. (A lot of this will depend on your location) but some of the more common ones are a search for ‘make money online’ is bringing up an empty page at number 1 spot on Google.com and a brand new blog with no content at number 2 spot in the UK.

A search for ‘paypal france’ in the UK brings half a page of Viagra results from position 5 down.

There are tales over the web of legitimate white hat websites (whatever they may be…) getting dumped completely from Google’s search index and replaced by spammy, adsense filled junk sites. I’ve seen movement with my own sites, one site which I had pretty much forgotten about has popped back up into position 1 and made a couple of affiliate sales. And I have to be honest, it’s not a very good site – a built it a few years ago when testing some auto blogging software, built a load of forum links to it and then left it, it was just a test site, now it’s number 1 for its main keyword. Ridiculous.

I think one of the issues with Google is that they don’t do enough manual reviewing, they rely too heavily on their famed algorithm, and this time they have tweaked it far too hard. This has destroyed some businesses, Build My Rank went out of business overnight after the majority of their site was deindexed.

So, what do you think? Do you have examples. good or bad, of rankings changing dramatically? Are Google heading in the right direction, or is this just playing into the hands of Bing et al? Should a search engine be able to wield this sort of power – encouraging businesses to grow for several years and them wiping them out overnight? Would love to hear your constructive thoughts.

Thanks

 

 

 

 

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Be Careful What You Tweet

Posted by on March 28, 2012 · 1 Comment 

Great article on the BBC website today regarding those who have found themselves in prison due to impulsive and ill thought out tweets.

Plenty of food for thought.

What can and can’t you say on Twitter?


A student who made racially offensive comments about footballer Fabrice Muamba on Twitter has been jailed for 56 days – the latest case where a comment made on social media has landed someone in court.

Read the full article here…

 

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Retweeting

Posted by on February 12, 2011 · 3 Comments 

Retweeting.

So what is this retweeting malarkey all about then? Twitter users will be used to seeing and sending retweets but there are benefits to both the original poster and the retweeter.

So first of all, how do you retweet? Ok, this is easy. Firstly you can copy and paste the original tweet and place ‘RT’ at the beginning, not forgetting to put in the originators name to give them credit. Or, secondly, you can hover over the tweet and click on the ‘retweet’ link, and this will then forward the message to all of your followers.

Applications such as Tweetdeck also allow you to edit the message before retweeting it which can be very handy if you want to reduce the size back below 140 characters.

To find what you have retweeted and which of your posts have been retweeted by others click on the ‘Your Tweets, Retweeted’ tab and a pane will open to the right with all the details in it.
Right, I’m tired of writing ‘retweet’ and Ezine articles will accuse me of keyword stuffing, so I’ll move on and just refer to them as RTs from this moment forward.

Why should you RT? Well RT-ing provides value to your followers, so it is important to only RT tweets that you find genuinely interesting or informative. If you are providing quality content in your twitter feed then you are more likely to attract new followers and retain those that you already have. Also people are more likely then to RT your content, giving you further exposure.

Don’t however RT any old content in the hope that this will be reciprocated, as you are diluting the value of your Twitter account and diminishing your followers twitter experience.

If you are worried that you may be sending followers away from you then don’t be. For the reasons outlined above, quality RTs only add value to your account and will encourage people to follow you more and pay attention to what you have to say.

I should really add some images to this post as it looks a little dull, but just don’t have the time at the moment.

Speak soon

Mark

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QR Codes

Posted by on December 24, 2010 · 3 Comments 

What are QR codes?

They are a 2 dimensional code that can be scanned by a smartphone to automatically pull up information such as urls, phone number, videos, photographs, music, text etc.

QR stands for ‘Quick Response’ and QR codes were first developed in Japan by a company called Denso-Wave in 1994. In essence QR codes are 2 dimensional bar codes that can be read both vertically and horizontally. The codes consist of a grid of tiny squares.  This allows for far more data to be encoded in a much smaller space than a conventional bar code.

QR codes are readable by smartphones and QR scanners. Initially they were used to track car parts in Japan, where they are very popular, but now they have a much wider commercial use within the digital world. They can be added to a business card or an email to send someone with a reader directly to your website.

So, whereas a bar code pretty much can only identify a product and needs a special device to be scanned, QR codes can embed much more information and trigger an action when read such as downloading a music file or launching a website directly on your phone.

Imagine how easy this make it for someone to go to your website, without the bother of actually typing in the url, especially useful if you have a less than memorable or difficult to spell web address.

Some popular uses of QR codes:

Contact information – add all your contact information including phones numbers, office address, website and email

Name tags: Add all your information to your name tag at a conference and colleagues can simply scan it to download all your details.

Art:  Street artist Banksy has a piece of work in a disused railway tunnel in London which includes a QR code, when scanned this code takes you directly to his Wikipedia page.

Shop Windows: In the US Google is sending out QR code decals to small businesses on Google Places, to be placed in the shop windows for passers-by to scan.

QR codes are still fairly alien to most people, so make it a little easier for them by adding something of value. Don’t just send them to your website when scanned, maybe send them to a special offer page, just for users of QR codes, add something of value to encourage your users.

Feel free as always to comment or to add your own QR code uses below.

Thanks

Mark

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