Adding My Picture To Google SERPs

I am sure that you have at the very least heard about the authorship markup that Google is pushing for lately. Whether this is a well elaborated plan to “lure” people into using Google+ or not, the fact is, they highly recommend it and regardless of whatever impact this could mean for SEO, I am guessing that it will eventually play its part and provide some advantage for users that are using it, over those who don’t.

Anyway, after doing a lot of research and countless trial and errors, I finally was able to verify my authorship markup with Google. Lucky for you, if you have not done it already, I will show you exactly what I did to make it work, the easy way. By easy, I mean, no coding or editing any of your CSS or anything like that.

Set Up Your Google Account

1. Create a Google+ account. I know you’ve been avoiding this, probably because you think Google is an evil monoploly and there are many who would agree. Unfortunately they control 80%+ of the searches on the internet so fall in line and make one. Put a nice head shot on it as well.
2. Identify where you post the stuff you author. Places like your Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Guest Blogs etc. are what you want. Add these to your Google+ account. To let them know where you author. You can do this from your Google+ profile page  under ‘Edit Profile’ and add your sites to the ‘Contributor to:’ section.
3. Confirm your authorship. You don’t need to with Twitter, Facebook and the like, but with blogs and websites you do.

What To Do On Your Site..

1. On your website you need to put this html somewhere on your pages you have published (most likely the footer if you are the only author. If there are multiple authors you ill need to ensure that individual links are on these pages from different authors):
   
   <a href=”https://plus.google.com/u/0/107337825942558573033/posts?rel=author”>Google+</a>
   
2. For blogs this might be easy or difficult depending upon the system you use. For example Blogger allows you to link your Google+ account directly to the Blogger account, done. Other systems like WordPress have it buried in the settings, but it’s there. Just do a search for: wordpress rel=”author”
3. For guest blogs you need to ask the owner of the blog your post is on to add <a href=”http://plus.google.com/profileid?rel=author”>Your Name</a> at the end of your post.

I hope this helps. There are more complex issues like rel=”publisher” and ratings, but this should make sure that Google will give you credit for what you write and possibly put your picture on it.

How will Google Venice affect your website’s SEO?

If you’ve been wondering how the Google Venice update changes things, it means that Google is upping the ante in as far as local search is involved. Search queries no longer need the searcher to promote location specific words for Google to deliver location-based results.

For Google, it is about providing relevancy. By automatically delivering SERPS that are location specific (regardless of mobile, laptop or desktop), Google is making it clear that intent on making its SERP even more bespoke for the user and in doing so, even harder for us SEO consultants to benchmark clients accounts.

Check your search ranking results

If your site was ranking well for a search term that was considered ‘universal’ before the update (i.e. totally non-location specific), you could well be affected. These could be phrases along the lines of:

Bed and breakfast
Car garage
Eye tests
Indian takeaway
Carpet fitting

Arguably all location specific, but I haven’t once specified a location.

Next steps for your SEO

So what does this mean and what should you do now?

• Review your location SEO strategy. If you don’t have one, get one
• Review and test to see whether your services and products could trigger the Venice update
• Think about implementing new, location specific keywords
• Get your business listed in the Places directory and other directories such as Yell, Scoot, Qype etc.
• Start experimenting with test landing pages that target more generic key phrases that were too competitive prior to the Venice update
• Monitor in Google Analytics
• Let your clients know

Small SME’s should benefit most out of the Google Venice update, gaining traffic from the more generic keywords from larger and more national business. Being a Google cynic makes me believe that Google is all too aware of this and hopes that the larger companies will have to leverage their organic efforts with paid. Sneaky.

Is increased localisation a better ingredient within the SERP recipe or would you rather Google entrusted the user to specify a local search via localised keywords? Will this raise the levy on local paid search?

The Good And The Bad About The New Facebook Timeline

You may have noticed a significant shift in the way Facebook has enhanced the look of its pages, and in turn, worry about how this will affect your business on this ubiquitous social network tool.
These changes, as well as the new user interface, may or may not correspond with the way you’ve presented your brand and business on Facebook thus far, particularly if you’ve relied on this social media application in a major way as a platform to interact with your fans and followers.

The way Facebook is continuing to change the way businesses are portrayed, particularly with their new Timeline user interface, may end up hurting your brand. But then again, if you play your cards right, it may not. It all depends on how you look at the new features Facebook will be mandatory come March 30th.

Take a look at the good and the bad of the new Facebook enhancements and see whether you can turn what others perceive to be liabilities into assets for your business:

More Space

Good: This means more space to work with, and more space can be a good thing for many online businesses. The easier to locate “About” that comes with the new Timeline feature makes information about you and your business is easier to find.

It’s all about having more space that allows you to have a more direct link to your business’ website, so you can squeeze in information about your business page and brand. Of course it only amounts to 165 characters worth, but if you include a link to your site, there’s a possibility of increasing the click-through rates from Facebook to your business page.

Bad: If your Facebook page is actually your business website, then your contact details are likely to show up on your About information instead. So if you don’t like the possibility of getting calls at all hours, just don’t include your phone number.

Private Messaging

Good: The Message button is now located on top of your page, and your fans can get in touch with your business in a private setting. Which is good for keeping complaints, rants and other issues from appearing on your Wall for everyone to see.

Bad: Depending on how well your Facebook page is doing for your business and brand, you’re likely to get dozens (and even hundreds!) of messages a day. Can you handle that much incoming mail and consumer demand from your Facebook platform?

Pinning

Good: If you have important updates about your business, you can make sure they become “sticky” by “pinning” them on your Timeline for a whole week to shine a spotlight on any call-to-action. Just select the pencil icon located on the upper-right part of your status update to get to the dropdown menu.

Bad: Unfortunately, if you have the same status update for a week, you can’t expect your followers to have the patience to keep visiting your page when it highlights the same content day after day for a whole week.

Cover Photo

Good: You can put your brand’s character on full display with a bigger 850 x 315 pixel cover photo to get your visitors’ attention. This is especially good if you are a graphic designer or photographer and can showcase your work in this manner.

Bad: Because of the cover photo’s size, your fans and followers will need to scroll down to view your updates. So if your photo doesn’t impart what your brand and business is all about, visitors may lose interest in a hurry.

More Of The Good:

Choose Your Audience – You can choose which information and status updates to share with your friends under the new Admin Panel where you can select Build Audience to Invite Friends. Even suggesting a page, inviting email contacts, and creating a new ad will ensure it shows up on your chosen friends’ notifications.

Simpler Admin Panel – It shows you everything you need at a single glance: from new notifications, people who’ve liked your Facebook page, your messages, and insights on each of your individual posts, and how your friends reacted to them (this way you can see which of your posts have been particularly popular with your audience).

More Of The Bad:

Apparent Lack of “Recent Activity” – Because of the new Timeline’s design, you won’t see a lot of recent activity on your page. And for a business trying to advertise a brand, this can look really bad. This means if you haven’t converted to Timeline yet, you’ll have to start updating your page in a hurry, only don’t use Third Part Apps to do so because…

Third-Party Apps’ Status Updates Don’t Stick Out – They’d appear as summaries too bland to be interesting. Status updates you make directly on your page will work better.

No More Default Landing Tab – If you’re a marketer who’s launched successful campaigns solely with an eye-catching and graphically enticing landing tab, this can be a big letdown. So the days of inviting people to grab coupons, join promotions, enter prize giveaways or watch videos are over. All visitors on your page will end up landing on your Wall. This new feature may mean you having to tweak your marketing approach quite a bit.

You Only Get Three Custom Tabs – The rest are hidden unless your visitors select the down arrow to reveal more. While this can be a good thing if your business brand is all about minimalism, it can also seriously hamper the way you project your page, so choose which tabs you want featured wisely.

Some tips on how to get the best if you already have a Facebook business landing page:

• Make full use of the Cover Photo to convey a brand message – the image can have the following dimensions 851px x315px – the cover photo will be your best opportunity to impress visitors
• Move your dedicated page so it sits next to the “Photo” section
• When you link from your website to your Facebook page link to your Facebook landing page url not to your main Facebook Page Url. For example NeonLobster Design main Facebook Page and link to our custom designed NeonLobster Design Facebook landing page

Have you opted to go for Facebook’s Timeline yet? Are you still studying what impact the new features will have on your brand and business? Or are you waiting until the end of the month when it becomes non-optional before you make the switch? Remember the 30th March is the deadline.