We have all heard it before from someone else in the SEO industry, or even read about it on Search Engine Land, Search Engine Watch, or heard it discussed. But really, how do we know that Google really does like quality links to your website over quantity? In a recent review of several posts that I’ve made here on the Globe Runner blog, I’ve noticed something very interesting: Google Authorship Photo Snippets appear in search results based on quality of links, not necessarily on the quantity of links.

I took a look at 6 blog posts I’ve made here on the Globe Runner blog. Yes, I know this isn’t a very large or statistically relevant sampling, but it’s what I’ve got. And there happens to be some interesting findings if you look at all of these posts and the data that I gathered.

When I first starting gathering all of the data, I wanted to see why certain blog posts of mine are showing the Google Authorship photo snippet, which Mark Traphagen and I have talked about and reviewed on an earlier post. That post is an interesting read, and Mark’s comments are worth reading, as well.

But that’s not what I ended up finding in my quick research regarding these posts. Let’s take a look at all of the information I gathered. Again, it’s not a lot of info, but preliminarily there is one post that stands out: the one that has the most links. But, interestingly enough, there is no Google Authorship photo snippet in the search results.

Google Authorship Photo Snippet Appears
Is Google Authorship Photo Snippet Query Dependent, Not Content Quality or Author Dependent?
https://globerunner.com/google-authorship-photo-snippet-query-dependent-content-quality-author-dependent
Links to G+ custom URL
49 results in Google for Title in quotes
Majestic: 24 links from 12 domains
Open Site Explorer: 0 backlinks
Ahrefs: 7 backlinks, 6 domains
Listed in SEL searchcap
7 Tweets
15 G +1s
1 Page Authority

Google Authorship Photo Snippet Appears
Google Gives Webmasters Better Search Query Data in Webmaster Tools
https://globerunner.com/google-gives-webmasters-better-search-query-data-webmaster-tools
Links to G+ custom URL
34 results in Google for Title in quotes
Majestic: 0 backlinks
Open Site Explorer: 0 backlinks
Ahrefs: 0 backlinks
1 tweet
61 G +1s
1 page Authority

No Google Authorship Photo Snippet
How To: Add Do Follow Links on LinkedIn
https://globerunner.com/add-follow-links-linkedin
Post linked to old G+ Url, not the new one with custom URL.
229 results in Google for Title in quotes
Majestic: 22 backlinks, 10 domains
Open Site Explorer: 9 links, 4 domains
Ahrefs: 17 Links, 7 domains
Mostly social bookmark links, no quality links
28 Tweets
36 G +1s
38 Page Authority

No Google Authorship Photo Snippet
Google Authorship Photo Snippet in Search Results Not Author Dependent
https://globerunner.com/google-authorship-photo-snippet-search-results
Post didn’t have authorship verified. Now fixed. We’ll see if it eventually shows photo snippet.
32 results in Google for Title in quotes
Majestic: 24 backlinks, 7 domains
Open Site Explorer: 0 links, 0 domains
Ahrefs: 4 backlinks, 1 domain
Mostly social bookmarks, no quality links
3 Tweets
12 G +1s
1 Page Authority

Google Authorship Photo Snippet Appears
10 SEO Posts that Shaped 2013
https://globerunner.com/10-seo-posts-shaped-2013
Post links to old G+ profile, NOT the new custom URL for G+ profile
235 results in Google for Title in quotes
Majestic: 19 links, 8 domains
Open Site Explorer: 3 links, 1 domain
Ahrefs: 20 backlinks, 8 domains
Mostly social bookmarks, no quality links
30 Tweets
15 G +1s
27 Page Authority

Google Authorship Photo Snippet Appears
New Contributor To A Blog? Here’s What You Need to Do
https://globerunner.com/new-contributor-blog-heres-need
34 results in Google for Title in Quotes
Majestic: 3 links, 2 domains
Open Site Explorer: 1 link, 1 domain
Ahrefs: 2 links, 2 domains
1 link from an authority site.
44 Tweets
8 G +1s
24 page Authority

So, with all of these posts, I checked the following information:
– whether or not the post has my Google Authorship photo snippet appear
– the title of the post
– the URL of the post
– the number of results in Google for a search with that post title in quotes
– Number of Majestic SEO links to the post
– Number of Open Site Explorer links to the post
– Number of Ahrefs.com links to the post
– whether or not there are any “good” or authority links to the post
– how many Tweets to the post
– how many Google +1s on the post
– the page authority of the post

There was one post in particular, the one about dofollow links to LinkedIn, that has the most links. Yet it still has a low Page Authority after several weeks of being posted. There are really not a lot of quality links to the post. I couldn’t find any links from authority sites to the post. Mainly lower quality social bookmarks to the post (feel free to check the links yourself).

But, what’s interesting to note here is the fact that the Google Authorship Photo Snippet shows up for certain posts and NOT the post that has the most links (by far). In fact, there is a post where the photo snippet appears with only 3 links! One of those links is from an “authority” site or domain Technorati. And, of course, the post that got linked from Search Engine Land also has its Google Authorship Photo Snippet appear in the search results.

So, could this be preliminarily the Google “Author Rank” at work that we’ve all heard about? Perhaps. But from what I can tell, Google shows the photo snippet from Google Authorship with posts when that post has links from sites that have authority and that are trusted. It’s a good thing to have your photo appear in search results: so why not tie that with posts that have good links.

What do you think? Is this proof that you need quality links over a large quantity of links? I personally think so. In fact, whether or not your photo appears in search results can be dependent on ONE link.

Bill Hartzer is Globe Runner’s Senior SEO Strategist. Follow him on Google Plus.

Google has quietly updated their link quality guidelines for widgets. More specifically, in Google’s Acceptable Webmaster Guidelines (in Google Webmaster Tools), they have changed the wording in the link schemes section.

I took a look at the archive.org update for that page on January 9th, and it appears that the change was not there. But today, January 10, 2014, the section on widgets has been update to read:

Keyword-rich, hidden or low-quality links embedded in widgets that are distributed across various sites, for example:
Visitors to this page: 1,472
car insurance

Previously, the text on the page said this:

Links embedded in widgets that are distributed across various sites, for example:
Visitors to this page: 1,472
car insurance

This is actually a very interesting update on Google’s front. They actually now are more lenient when it comes to links within widgets. They previously said that all links embedded in widgets would hurt search engine rankings. But now, they realize that there are some links in widgets that can be helpful. Or at least that’s the impression that they’re giving me.

I only hope that they continue to re-evaluate their link policies in the future like this and realize that there are cases where links are actually helpful to surfers.

So, what does this change mean? Google has a problem with widgets being used as a link tactic, especially when the intent of the link embedded in the widget is not a quality link. In other words, I personally interpret this new change as meaning that it’s now “okay” to embed links in widgets. However, if you use a keyword-rich anchor text link, a hidden link, or a low quality link (perhaps a link that’s off-topic to the subject of the widget), then you could get penalized for those links in the widgets. I would go as far as saying that you probably should not sell links in your widgets.

But, I also interpret this to meaning that if you created the widget and distribute it, then it’s okay for you to include a link back to the site if you are the owner of the widget and you want people to know how to get the widget, for example. If you embed a link in a widget, I recommend using a branded link or your company name as the anchor text to make sure there is no confusion (and you don’t get penalized).

One example of a ‘widget’ that would fall into this category would be infographics. As long as you include a branded anchor text link (your company name or website name) in the link code, when people embed the infographic in their site those links would be okay. If it were to be a keyword-rich link then Google would have an issue with those links.

h/t to Barry Schwartz and Kenichi Suzuki for noticing this change.

Bill Hartzer is Globe Runner’s Senior SEO Strategist. You can follow him on Google Plus.

I recently wrote about the Google Authorship photo snippet not being author-dependent, but rather it’s search query dependent. In that post, I showed two examples of the same exact URL in the search results: one search query showed the Google Authorship photo snippet, and another search query showed the same URL (same blog post) without the photo snippet.

I can now, with confidence, say that the Google Authorship photo snippet is most likely not related to the actual author who wrote the content. Just because a certain author wrote an article on your site (and properly verified Google Authorship), doesn’t mean that their photo will appear in the search results when someone searches in Google and that article appears in the search results.

Have a good, quality author that’s Google Authorship verified on your site does NOT mean that their photo will appear in the search results for all (or even some) queries.

Let’s look at a specific example. I have verified my authorship with Google on this site and my authorship is not showing in the search results:

For the search query “Google Authorship Photo Snippet“, here is the search results as I see it:

I have verified Google Authorship on this site, and the Rich Snippets Testing Tool shows that Google Authorship is working:

But, for this particular search query, Google is choosing not to show the Google Authorship Photo Snippet in the search results. Not only that, they’re choosing not to show that Authorship has been verified, which is one of the “classes” of Authorship:

1. The Google search result shows the verified author’s photo and name in the search result, like the one below:

2. The Google search result shows the verified author’s name, but no photo, like the one below:

3. The Google search result does not show the verified author’s name or photo in the search results.

There are reports that Google is working on author authority but that “has not officially been rolled out yet.”

So, what is definitely a given is that this is definitely going to change in the future. Expect changes to the Google Authorship Photo Snippets in the search results, as it’s a fluid situation that’s going to change as Google eventually rolls out “author authority”.

Bill Hartzer is Globe Runner’s Senior SEO Strategist. Follow him on Google Plus.

A lot happened in the search engine optimization industry during 2013. There were changes that happened that will forever change the way SEOs do their jobs–and how we market websites in the future. Many of these changes were predicted by many, and then there were changes that we didn’t expect. Here is my list of the 10 SEO-related blog posts that shaped the SEO industry during 2013. I chose these blog posts and articles not because the articles themselves did the shaping: but the topic they covered shaped the industry. However, in the case of Moz, I think that posts speaks for itself.

FTC Sets Sights on Native Advertising, But Outcome Unclear – It’s not just Google that has issues with Advertorials. I have seen a lot of sites get manual penalties from Google in 2013 because of Advertorials and not being compliant with the FTC guidelines for disclosure. This was a very big issue during 2013 and I fully expect it to be even a bigger issue during 2014.

SEO’s Dilemma – Link Building vs. Content Marketing – Whiteboard Friday – This Whiteboard Friday details a really big issue that online marketers, SEOs, and web marketers had to deal with in 2013. Link building, link earning, or Content Marketing? I saw a lot of SEOs jump from link building to content marketing during 2013. Maybe those still offering article submissions will finally jump to content marketing during 2014. What do you think?

Goodbye SEOmoz, Hello Moz. Yes, way back in 2011 I predicted it and during 2013 they finally rebranded. This was not only a big deal for Moz, but a big deal for the industry. Could a company such as SEOmoz pull off such a major brand change? Absolutely. And they did it in style during 2013.

Penguin 2.0 rolled out today – May 22nd, 2013 was a big day for many sites. Not because of the traffic they received that day–but that was about the last day that they’ve seen lots of traffic to their site. Google Penguin hit quite a lot of sites during 2013 and many sites still have yet to recover. Definitely a topic that everyone in the SEO industry will remember for 2013. Lucky for some SEOs who help sites recover from Google Penguin, such as Globe Runner. But 2013 was very unlucky for those sites who suffered as a result of Google Penguin.

Google Humminbgird FAQ by Search Engine Land – Google Hummingbird was announced in September 2013. Sites weren’t really affected too much that they knew about–but this new algorithm will shape the future of Google’s organic search. Definitely worth mentioning in 2013.

Why Google’s New Hummingbird Algorithm is Good News for Serious Content Creators – Hummingbird is good news for those of us who create content. Here’s why. Eric Enge, posting on Copyblogger.com, nails it this time.

Want to Rank in Google? Build Author Rank Now – 2013 is also the year of Author Rank. If you have not already started paying attention to Google Author Rank, you need to in 2014. This is a great post by Eric Enge that does a great job of explaining why verified authors are going to be important.

Study Shows No Clear Evidence That Google+ Drives Ranking – 2013 is not only the year of Google Plus, Authorship, and Author Rank, it’s also the “Year of Enge”. That’s Eric Enge, mind you. During 2013, Mr. Enge’s Stone Temple Consulting put together a study showing that Google Plus doesn’t drive search engine rankings in Google organic search. Well, even though apparently Google Plus isn’t a driver of rankings, 2013 is definitely the year of Google Plus and the year that we’re starting to see more SEOs embrace it as a social network. I personally saw more SEOs start posting regularly during 2013 on Google Plus than they did previously.

Optimized Links in Press Releases & Guest Posts Can Harm Your SEO, Says Google – Another big story was the fact that Optimized Anchor Text in press releases was targeted by Google. One major SEO tactic for a lot of SEO firms in the past had been writing press releases for PRWeb and other “press release sites”, and adding optimized anchor text. Google shut down that pretty quickly during 2013, and the press release services such as PRWeb.com started adding the nofollow attribute to all links in press releases.

Google Warns Against Large-Scale Guest Posting, Advertorials & “Optimized Anchor Text” In Press Releases – Not only did Google shake up the Press Release industry for SEOs, Google also took aim at guest posts and advertorials, as I previously mentioned. 2013 is the year that Google changed some of the link strategies of some SEO firms, and many of their clients got penalized as a result.

So, not only was 2013 a year of Google updates, but those updates changed forever how the SEO industry builds links to client sites. I have to admit, though, that it was a long time coming. Those SEO firms who were relying on press releases, advertorials, and guest posts for rankings were relying on unnatural link building. And not the content marketing and link earning that all of us should be doing.

Bill Hartzer is Globe Runner’s Senior SEO Strategist. Follow him on Google Plus.

SEO Updates

Experts in the search marketing world have been watching the last major manual Panda Refresh the past three days.  This was the 25^th and final announced and published update to Panda, Google’s anti-web spam algorithm.  Google has stated that “Panda is becoming more of a ‘rolling’ update.”  Google Distinguished Engineer, Matt Cutts, is quoted at SMX saying:

Rather than having some huge change that happens on a given day. You are more likely in the future to see Panda deployed gradually as we rebuild the index. So you are less likely to see these large scale sorts of changes.

This is encouraging to us at Globe Runner, we are monitoring all of our clients’ sites and have not been hit by the major Panda updates and with only small tweaks coming in the future, we are confident that we can keep doing what we are doing to rank well.  Google is recognizing our clients’ quality sites.

Social News

Pinterest

Pinterest has finally announced an analytics tool!  The analytics will show verified website owners the information they have been waiting for since Pinterest began: the number of people who have pinned items from the site, the items/images that are the most popular to pinners, how many people have visited your site from Pinterest, and even the most popular repins.  For businesses looking to quantify the value or traffic coming from Pinterest to their site, the process just became much easier.  At Globe Runner, we are encouraging our clients to contact us if they have questions about their Pinterest strategy or would like to begin using Pinterest.

Google+

There were also a few updates to Google+ this month.  The three main updates are a new local reviews tab, an easier interface to update your information, and a new aspect ratio for cover images.  The new aspect ratio is enormous.  Photos can now be 2120 x 1192 pixels, this means your cover photo can now cover the entire screen “above the fold” of the Google+ page.

Globe Runner Internal Update

Our CEO Eric McGehearty was featured February 28 in the Upstart Business Journal for an article he authored on why young entrepreneurs are “too dumb to fail.”  The article tells Eric’s story from artist to entrepreneur two times over before the age of 30.  Read the full article.

Just for Fun

If you have ever wondered how Google Search works and did not want to engage in a long and involved technical conversation with an algorithm engineer, Google has released a website entitled How Search Works.  The site is interactive and allows you to follow a search query through the process to the results.  Google’s Inside Search blog describes the content as including:

• An interactive, graphical explanation of Google Search
• A view into major search algorithms and features
• A 43-page document explaining how we evaluate our results
• A live slideshow of spam as we remove it
• Graphs illustrating the spam problem and how we fight it
• A list of policies that explain when we’ll remove content

Resources

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-panda-update-rolling-16495.html

http://www.webpronews.com/google-panda-update-is-rolling-out-report-2013-03/

https://autorevo.com/automotive-industry-news/

https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/

Globe Runner SEO Updates

Meet the newest member of the Globe Runner team, Claire Elizabeth McGehearty!  She joined the team in Lewisville, Texas on February 15, 2013.  She is by far the smallest member at only 7lbs 9oz and 21 inches long.  She and her three big brothers keep founders Eric and Heather very busy!

CLAIRE ELIZABETH MCGEHEARTY

PPC Update

This month Google announced Enhanced PPC Campaigns.  These campaigns will be “smarter” and multi-device friendly.  A single campaign will now support different locations and devices, thus replacing the old system of creating duplicate campaigns for each location and device for which you want your ad to run. Within an Enhanced PPC campaign, you will be able to customize your ads and bids based on the time, device, and location of the customer.  Enhanced campaigns will also offer advanced reporting that will allow comparisons between different types of conversions; for example, app downloads vs. phone calls lasting longer than 60secs.  All of these changes are geared towards reducing the number of campaigns and the complexity of your Adwords account.

Google plans to roll out the Enhanced campaigns slowly by first giving advertisers the option to switch some of the campaigns to the Enhanced version to test out the new system.   At Globe Runner, we are excited for this change and have already switched a couple of accounts to play with the new system and prepare for every account to be Enhanced. By the middle of this year, Google plans to upgrade every account.

Social News

The most famous adverting day of the year, the Super Bowl was this month.   This year’s Super Bowl ads sold for $3.8 million per 30 sec spot.  However, the now infamous 34 minute blackout opened up a unique opportunity for real time marketing.  The brands that were able to react quickly to the black out with relevant and creative content have been praised by the social media industry.  Social media is the ideal real-time marketing platform.

By far, the most praised real time marketing and social media “win” during the Super Bowl blackout was Oreo’s tweet, “You can still dunk in the dark.”  This tweet was a win because it highlighted a current event in a non-disparaging way and tied it into the brand’s message in a creative way.

A great social media strategy incorporates current events that can be easily tied to a brand’s message in a way that makes sense and provides a positive feeling about the brand.  The brand’s message should not be lost in the “noise” of the surrounding issue.  Only a few brands have done this well, and Oreo is the most recent example.

Just for Fun

The high price tag of a Super Bowl ad spot had those of us in the digital space talking about how much further that $4 million would go if used on internet marketing.  A few examples of this are an 8 day homepage ad on YouTube (which is one of the top five most visited pages on the web), 200 pieces of Buzzfeed-sponsored content (which is a personal favorite and highly shared site for those of us Globe Runner), and a spot on Twitter’s Promoted Trending Topic every day for a month!  For more on what $4 million can buy online, see https://digiday.com/marketing/what-a-4-mil-superbowl-ad-could-buy-in-digital/.

Resources

Globe Runner SEO Year in Review

Before we look ahead to the New Year, we felt it appropriate to spend a moment and review some of the successes of 2012.  A banner year in many respects, some of the largest changes came internally, where three of our own were promoted to new positions, with the advancement of Cody Sharp to SEO Team Lead, Felipe Rocha to Lead Developer, and Damon Gochneaur to Director of Marketing.  With strong leadership in place, Globe Runner added some core team members in Andy Odom, Account Strategist, Claire Parker, Communications Specialist, and Cameron Fergus, Web Developer.

While growing our team and client list, we were also proud to maintain a key position in the industry, with our CEO, Eric McGehearty, being re-elected to the DFWSEM Board of Directors as Vice President of Sponsorship.  DFWSEM is the largest regional Search Engine Marketing professionals group in the country and helps to validate our role in both our local community as well as our professional circles

2013 SEO Trends

A study conducted at the end of 2012, has shown that SEO is increasing in recognition in importance as a part of an overall marketing strategy.  This is illustrated by survey participants:  66% indicated that their marketing budgets were increased for 2013, 6 out of 10, reported that they were increasing their SEO budget for the following year, and 16% of organizations now have a dedicated Search department.  Search as a marketing strategy continues to grow.  At Globe Runner we are prepared for this and are staying ahead of the curve and continuing to develop our strategies to help our clients rank ahead of the competition.

Two trends that are predicted to take a major role in 2013 are link diversification and content marketing.  At Globe Runner, we have always taken a diversified anchor text link strategy, believing that it was best to diversify back link profiles and have anchor text links to relevant content that our clients’ customers are searching.  Globe Runner’s content marketing strategy has been focused on encouraging and assisting our clients in publishing and optimizing quality content often, keeping a company site fresh and useful for customers.  We also stress the importance of publishing relevant, interesting company news as press releases.

Big Data is another important topic for 2013.  More and more data is now available from search and social platforms.  These platforms are no longer in their infancy and for the first time reliable data is available.  The challenge will be to analyze and apply this data in data driven decision making.  The statistics below illustrate just how much data is available and what the industry is describing as “Big Data.”

This data is really staggering when you think about its implications.  New tools like Facebook Graph Search will help with the applications of this data.

Big Data Stats:

• 1 billion Facebook users
  • 500 terabytes of data per day
  • 2.7 billion “Like” actions per day
  • 2.5 billion pieces of content per day
  • 300 million photos per day
  • 500 million Twitter users
    • 400 million tweets per day
    • 156 million Public Blogs

Social News

Facebook announced a new search tool on Tuesday: Facebook Graph Search.  Graph Search will allow Facebook users to search for information about their friends within the platform.  Searches can be done for information about people, photos, places, and interests.  For example, within Graph Search, a user will be able to search for which of their friends like the show, How I Met Your Mother and are from Denton.  The search results will display your friends.  You will also be able to search friends of friends.  The search tool will not violate Facebook privacy settings in anyway because the only information that will show up in search results is data that is normally viewable on Facebook based on users’ privacy settings.

The implications for social media strategy with the Graph Search tool are exciting.  The tool is currently in beta mode, but once it is available, brands will be able to use the search data to highly target certain fans in a much more personal way.  Watch the demo from Facebook.

Resources

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/01/15/live-facebook-announces-graph-search/?sh=3e636b12216b

Globe Runner SEO Updates

November has been a busy month with some internal changes including the format of our monthly and weekly reports.  Do not be surprised if the reports you see in January are formatted differently than what we have previously sent out.

Continuing our season of networking events, our SEO Team Lead, Cody, went to the Dallas Digital Summit. The speakers at the Summit had a central theme around the wealth of data that is provided with digital marketing and how using this data appropriately leads to better decision making and an increased ROI.  Our philosophy at Globe Runner this year has been “data driven decision making” we have seen this confirmed by our peers as a winning strategy and many of our clients have benefited from these decisions.

2013 SEO Predictions

Our CEO, Eric McGehearty, recently put together some predictions for the coming year in the online marketing space.  The talk was originally given for the members of TIE.  In the talk, Eric discussed likely changes in the Google algorithm, possible tech mergers and acquisitions, continued growth of mobile and upsets in the social media space.  The talk also focused on opportunities for entrepreneurs to leverage online marketing to their business advantages. Here is a preview of the talk.

Social News

If you are one of the millions of Twitter and Instagram users then you have probably noticed that Instagram photos no longer show up in your Twitter feed and you will now have to click on the Instagram photo link to see the photos.  This is just one of the ways the social sphere is becoming more and more cutthroat as each social media platform vies for dominance.  It is becoming even more important now to have a social media strategy that customizes your messaging specifically for each platform.

Resources

With the launch of its YouTube Channel Hungry, Citysearch is becoming a major player in the video content space. Recognizing that the web gets more local every day, Citysearch’s new channel celebrates local culture while expanding its local influence. My sister-in-law Tolly Moseley is the Austin, TX host for Hungry: Check out her latest episode to see how Hungry offers visitors a taste of Austin:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/aLJ2t1w_MMY?rel=0

CityGrid Media, the internet conglomerate that owns CitySearch, is far more than just a website. It’s a global-scale media company and publisher that understands the importance of local content. Unlike other ad networks, CityGrid publishes massive amounts of quality content through its various sites including Citysearch, Urbanspoon, and Insider Pages. Having proven the content marketing model, Citysearch and CityGrid Media now attract local and national advertisers alike.

What can small to midsize businesses learn from the CityGrid model?

First: Invest in Quality Content

Take the time to create stories worth reading and videos worth watching. Remember, the idea behind content marketing is to produce content that becomes your advertisement, rather than purchase advertising space alongside someone else’s content. Your content needs to be good enough that people seek it out.

Second: Go Local

We all love to hear about the places we live in and travel to. If you have a local presence, make a big deal about it. If not, you can still produce content and advertisements that are targeted to the cities you serve.

Finally: Be Authentic

Find your voice as a brand, and find voices that can help you make an impact in your target cities. Local talent can make a big difference. Hungry’s local hosts, for example, all have existing fan bases that the channel can leverage and build upon.

If you’re hungry to build your business online, follow the Citigrid recipe: use authentic, local ingredients and don’t skimp on quality.