Pleasanton Web Design

Google “Suggest” is one of the 40 search quality updates Google implemented last month.

5. More locally relevant predictions in YouTube. [project codename “Suggest”] We’ve improved the ranking for predictions in YouTube to provide more locally relevant queries. For example, for the query [lady gaga in ] performed on the US version of YouTube, we might predict [lady gaga in times square], but for the same search performed on the Indian version of YouTube, we might predict [lady gaga in India].

Suggesting queries as you are typing in the query box has two main purposes

1. For you, the searcher, it can save you time, as you may see the full search query displayed among the suggestions as you type.
2. It helps Google direct searchers towards the more popular search queries, which are the “suggestions” it gives.

It is likely that if you see something close to what you started to type, you’ll click on it rather than complete your originally intended query. If you fail to see helpful suggestions, you’ll complete your own query.

Now the suggestions for YouTube will have a local component, and serve up suggestions that are more relevant based on the location Google believes you to be searching from. More relevant suggestions means there is more chance that you will click on one, and that is what Google would like you to do.

Continuing with analysis of Google’s recent (February 2012) search quality updates:

4. More consistent thumbnail sizes on results page. We’ve adjusted the thumbnail size for most image content appearing on the results page, providing a more consistent experience across result types, and also across mobile and tablet. The new sizes apply to rich snippet results for recipes and applications, movie posters, shopping results, book results, news results and more.

Not a big deal in itself, as far as I’m concerned. The most interesting detail is the mention of Google’s use of “rich snippets” that supplement the display of images for things like recipes, applications, movie posters and shopping results. Rich snippets are basically a method of tagging data and relating it to a type of information. For example declaring this in a tag itemtype=”http://schema.org/Recipe” tells Google that the information is related to a recipe, and further specifying predefined attributes such as “cookTime” and “photo” gives Google the information they need to confidently display that information and the image, knowing that it will make sense to the user.

Google’s preferred rich snippet format is microdata. Web developers can create a wide variety of rich snippets and test them using rich snippets testing tool.

And of course rich snippets have potential for search engine performance. Here’s a great article on using rich snippets for SEO.

Continuing with analysis of Google’s recent search quality updates:

#3. Less duplication in expanded sitelinks. [launch codename “thanksgiving”, project codename “Megasitelinks”] We’ve adjusted signals to reduce duplication in the snippets for expanded sitelinks. Now we generate relevant snippets based more on the page content and less on the query.

This update is closely related to the previous updated item “2. Tweak to categorizer for expanded sitelinks.” Apparently duplicate snippets were a big problem, and an additional step was taken to eradicate them. By basing the snippets more on the page content, and less on the search query, less duplication is expected. So I take it that when pulling up the same site in number one position using different search queries, where sitelinks are generated, they should now be more consistent and less prone to duplication. Ok Google, I’ll have to take your word for it. Less duplication should be an overall win for the searcher and webmaster alike.

Continuing with the series of posts covering Google’s announced Search Quality Updates in February 2012:

Tweak to categorizer for expanded sitelinks. [launch codename “Snippy”, project codename “Megasitelinks”] This improvement adjusts a signal we use to try and identify duplicate snippets. We were applying a categorizer that wasn’t performing well for our expanded sitelinks, so we’ve stopped applying the categorizer in those cases. The result is more relevant sitelinks.

Google was apparently having a problem with the way it automatically created Sitelinks for websites. If you are unfamiliar with the term “Sitelinks,” they are the 6 or so links to subpages listed after the top result, of the search results where Google is pretty sure that the top result stands out above the rest in relevance. Here’s an example:

Please note that personalization does play a factor in the display of Sitelinks. Google is much more certain to display them for sites you have shared on Google Plus.

Snippets are the description portion of Google search results, under the linked page title that you click on, and above the display URL. Google uses these snippets as clues to the content of the target page when deciding which pages to include in the Sitelinks. Since the occurrence of Sitelinks has noticeably increased of late, especially for those who use Google Plus, Google was apparently seeing a lot of problems in duplication with the algorithm they were using to create them. As lower quality websites built on open source CMS systems started getting Sitelinks, their tendency to create pages with duplicate meta description tags was probably a big part of the problem. Now Google says they have to problem fixed. Bully for them!

Google has recently announced 40 updates to it’s search functionality that are supposed to improve the quality of searches and provide added value to searchers. Anyone who has followed Google’s updates for any length of time is aware that the real reason behind updates is generally to make more money for Google. If improving quality and adding value for searchers happens as a serendipitous side effect, enjoy!

Over the next 40 days I’ll try to dig into each announced change and highlight the most salient aspects from the perspective of a small to medium size business trying to get some traffic to their website through organic search.

#1: More coverage for related searches.

[launch codename “Fuzhou”] This launch brings in a new data source to help generate the “Searches related to” section, increasing coverage significantly so the feature will appear for more queries. This section contains search queries that can help you refine what you’re searching for.

The “searches related to” section is found at the bottom of the search engine results page (SERP) and is comprised of a list of eight related search terms. Clicking on a search term will bring you to a new SERP for that term.

• How does this help you as a searcher? If, after reaching the bottom of the results page, you haven’t clicked on anything, Google thinks maybe you used the wrong search term, and is offering some popular terms it feels is related.
• How does this help Google? For one thing, Google has the opportunity to push you to a popular SERP, which in terms of it’s Adwords PPC program, is a more competitive page, with more expensive clicks.
• How does this hurt the small business? People who click on those links won’t be going to Page 2. This becomes increasingly important as Google fills the SERPs with it’s own content and redesigns pages that push more organic results off of Page 1.

With the increase of the number of queries that the “searches related to” will appear on, these effects will obviously become more prevalent. In the end this feature gives Google an opportunity to control where a lost searcher goes, which is primarily good for Google.

We are all aware of the sayings “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” “Different strokes for different folks” and “There is no accounting for taste.” Unfortunately, although these sayings are universal, the associated insights don’t seem to be. This is nowhere more apparent when designing something for someone else. What looks “professional” to one person, can easily be boring, ugly, or even unprofessional to a different person.

As a web designer you learn that almost all descriptive terms are useless in completing the nuts-and-bolts task of creating a design the pleases the client. You need them to show you what they like, and you need to show them how you interpret that, and there the actual dialog begins.

Over and above pleasing the client, the designer’s task is to make the client realize that their taste is not universal, and their target audience may not respond positively to what they think looks good, or cool, or whatever. More important than pleasing themselves  (or their partners, employees, spouse,  friends or mother) is creating a design that communicates the desired message to the target audience.

What can be even more of a challenge is the tendency for inexperienced website buyers to be fixated on look-and-feel, or the visual design, to the neglect and expense of useability. The desire to speed through, or skip the boring task of information design and content creation to get to the visual mockups is extremely common and uniformly disastrous. Then, when the website flops, of course it is the visual design that is the problem and needs to be fixed.

As a web designer, the best thing you can do to save the client from themselves in such cases is to try to explain with examples, and if that doesn’t work, stick to your process regardless of the pressure to do otherwise.

I designed this website for a criminal defense attorney.

This custom WordPress Theme was designed for a Wedding Photographer’s portfolio blog.

UPDATE: I am out of gift cards for now. Will be getting some $75 credits soon, so check back. Please note that I need your mailing address, not your email address. Businesses in the U.S. get priority. Sorry – SEO and Web design companies are not eligible.

As a Google Engage partner, Google gives me $100 Google Adwords Gift cards to hand out to my clients. I have a limited number of left. To get yours:

1. Go to http://www.tpdesigns.net
2. Click on the “Contact” link at the top of the page
3. Fill in your contact information – put your mailing address in the “Message” field,

That’s it! I’ll mail you the gift card. Supplies are limited, so do it now. The $100 is only valid until January 31.

I had my first experience with a Google Adwords Strategist recently. As a Google Engage partner, Google issues me Adwords credits to pass out to my clients. The credits are only good for first time Adwords users.

I had just started to set up an Adwords campaign for one of my clients and issued them a $100 credit, when they received a call directly from Google. Google now offers free setup support for first time users, and this Google employee called my client to offer their services. My client is busy however, and after failing to contact them via phone, the Google employee emailed them a lengthy list of ways they could improve the campaign I was in the middle of setting up for them.

My client put the “Adwords Strategist” in contact with me, so we could work together to optimize their campaign. Here are the good and the bad ideas I got from our collaboration:

Good

1. Use all of the tools Google makes available to you to maximize click through ratio (CTR). This includes ad extensions (phone, location & sitelinks). It takes more time to setup, but for competitive keywords it should help your CTR. I think the major advantage to using all of these extensions is that it makes your ad larger than competitors who aren’t using them.
2. Negative keywords. This bit of advice was given as part of what I consider a bad strategy for this particular campaign, but I’ll give credit where credit is due.

Bad

1. Increase the budget. (My approach is to create a tight, efficient campaign and THEN increasing the budget, when the ROI is proven).
2. Forget about the niche, long tail keywords and only go after the highly competitive (aka expensive) keywords. ( OK, I can see now why I would need to increase the budget!)
3. Use broad match modifier type keywords to get more impressions and clicks, and add negative keywords to control CTR.

At that point in the campaign I was experimenting with exact match and phrase match keywords, and many of the phrase match keywords were giving me way too low a CTR, even with negative keywords. So how was I to control the CTR, and therefore the quality score, with broad match modifier keywords, which are less targeted, if I was already having trouble with phrase match? I didn’t get an answer to that question, just the repeated advice that I increase the budget and aggressively go after those competitive, broad match modified keywords and negative keywords.

I think the problem is that Adwords Strategists are low level customer services employees, well trained by Google in the mechanics and general strategies of running an Adwords campaign, but without a lot of experience in running campaigns for a variety of businesses. In addition to that, their strategies are not only aimed at making you a successful Adwords advertiser, but also maximizing earnings for Google.

For those of you who would like to take advantage of Google’s free Adwords setup support, and maintain the campaign yourself, keep in mind that Google’s advice will generally tend to:
1. Cost you more money and
2. Push you towards the higher traffic, higher cost keywords.

That has been my experience anyway.