Part of the deal with the ‘Give It Up’ sessions require attendees to keep silent on the talk for a period of time before blogging about it. That time passed for the latest edition of ‘Give It Up’ at SMX Advanced.

Fishkin said virtually all of his tips were of the ‘white hat’ variety, though other speakers talked about the grey and black hat tweaks available to webmasters who choose to take on their associated risks. He started his wrapup post with a look at link acquisition, and ways to track down links with various operators at search engines.

Searching links is not all about Yahoo’s excellent Site Explorer, though it is the best out there. He noted other tools like Google Blogsearch, Exalead, and Technorati “Reactions” as ones to look at when tracking down those links.

Our readers in the small and medium business world should appreciate his list of Google Local ranking tips. Fishkin’s list, one he compared to a later effort by David Mihm; both editions merit SMB attention, especially with major search sites presenting local results in universal search pages.

Reputation management occupied the wrapup of his presentation. Regular queries about one’s brand at resources like Google, Technorati, Blogpulse, and Twitter’s Summize all deliver what could be valuable and actionable intelligence about how others perceive a brand online.

The post comes at a good time, with another major conference, SES San Jose happening August 18-21, and the rapid approach of the fourth quarter holiday shopping season. It’s a perfect time to review those tips and plan strategies to capture revenue during the all-important end of the year period.

How To Look Your Best In Search Results

Because nobody makes snap judgments like a searcher.

During a recent trip to Google’s Kirkland, Washington office, Matt Cutts and colleagues spent an hour creating impromptu videos on various search-related topics. The first to be posted involves "the anatomy of a search snippet," and how much control a webmaster has over what information is displayed in search results.

The answer to how much control is: quite a bit, actually. This article will explore Cutts’s explanation of the snippet, and ways to make the best of your search presence. Much of managing your appearance in the search results involves telling Google what to index and what not to index.

Homepage Title

The first thing you see in your search result is the title, and this is the first thing that Cutts also addresses. In honor of being in the Pacific Northwest, he used Starbucks’ search result as an example, which labels its homepage as "Starbucks Homepage." This is your first impression.

Cutts questioned whether the word "homepage" was a good choice (Google took the title directly from the page) as few would search for that word. Starbucks being so recognizable, it hardly matters, but for smaller business it’s a good idea to optimize wherever you can. "Starbucks Coffee" might have been a better SEO choice.

A usability expert might argue, though, that straightforward is best, and giving the searcher what he or she expects to see will have a direct impact on whether a link is clicked. 

The Snippet

The snippet is where the webmaster has the most control of what is displayed about his or her site. Google often pulls the snippet text directly from the meta description tags, and Cutts recommends experimenting with the text to see what yields the best results for individual sites.

Longer snippets, as we’ve noted before, help searchers with informational queries, and may also be of benefit for SEO reasons. Shorter ones work better for navigational queries.

Google may also pull snippets from other places as well, depending on the query or situation. If no description is available, Cutts says Google may grab information from the Open Directory Project or other directories. Or, to find the context of a query, Google may look to beyond meta description tags to increase relevance.

If there is content you don’t want to appear in the snippet, you can add the "nosnippet tag" to your HTML, which looks like this: <META NAME="GOOGLEBOT" CONTENT="NOSNIPPET">

Cache Page

The cache page acts as a backup if a website is for some reason unavailable. It will show an archived version of your site, show when it was last crawled by the Googlebot, and serves as a sort of content freshness indicator. Regularly updating content is a good way to influence what appears there, but also useful is the ability to tell Google what not to archive. To prevent the Googlebot from creating a cached version of a page, use the NOARCHIVE tag, which looks like this <META NAME="GOOGLEBOT" CONTENT="NOARCHIVE">

Site Links

Cutts was quick to assure viewers that site links were algorithmic and not payment based. In the Starbucks example, these would be headed "Store Locator" and "Career Center." So there may not be a lot of control over Google chooses as an important related page to increase searcher relevancy, other than using a NOINDEX tag for certain pages so the Googlebot knows what to skip, and making sure the language is clear as to what the pages you do want indexed are for.

If a page is seasonal or promotional only and you want Google to stop crawling that page after a certain time period, you can use the "unavailable_after" tag. Effective use of the tags mentioned also help control what appears on the "more results" page.

WebProNews has been covering the Shop.org Summit, taking place in Las Vegas. You can catch our conference interviews at WebProNews videos right now.

Secrets of paid search? Sure, they’re out there. Attendees of the Shop.org Summit picked up a few.

Dana Todd suggested a few ways to improve the CTR from paid search advertisements. Secondary domains or subdomains with keywords in the visible URL line can help grab attention. If your site pulls in real world reviews, you should highlight those in ads, too.

More? Ok, break out the ad-appropriate superlatives and points of difference that your site offers. Exclusive merchandise lines are one example of this., so emphasize them when you can.

Dana also suggested another little trick, if you can pull it off. Sometimes you can slip non-alphanumeric characters into paid search ads, which helps differentiate them. That could look like this: >> The Truth About Shoes! <<

You get the idea. I hope.

SEO tactics used wisely on the ad’s landing page could make Google’s quality score assessments much happier. If that happens, the minimum bid requirement could come down for your ad.

Dana advised people to make sure the keyword appears in the title tag, headline, and body copy. If the keyword appears in the filename for the landing page, that’s even better.

A couple of Dana’s tips involve old-fashioned hard work. Campaign managers need to look for the ‘long-tail searches‘ that could be bringing people to the landing page.

And any campaign needs a little quality assurance review regularly to root out possible mistakes, ones that could cost a site conversions, and dollars.

WebProNews anchor Kara Ratliff contributed to this story.

He may also have a bridge for sale.

The new Blogspot blog for the booted blogger is Facebook Secrets Again, where the texts of the DMCA notices were posted for all who really care. You’re reading this, so you must.

TechCrunch‘s Michael Arrington says he’s not sure if the DMCA really applies in this situation, but what blogger’s going to fight Google or Facebook on it? (Plus, Arrington could be very wrong.)

He writes:

…the leak provided information to potential hackers as to potential security holes, and the fact that Facebook accidentally released the code themselves on their site may have made it very difficult for them to claim protection under the law.

I’m no lawyer and this may be stupid to say. But does that logic apply to content as well? If allow a book to be viewed on my website, even without a copyright notice, could someone claim the distribution rights?

It may be a more difficult case to prove in court without going through the proper copyright channels, but I think a judge might err on the side of the author in that case.

Following that revelation, we should share more (relatively) good news – it was the company’s own mistake, not a hacker’s tinkering, that caused this disclosure, according to spokeswoman Brandee Barker.  Barker popped in on a TechCrunch conversation to write, “Some of Facebook’s source code was exposed to a small number of users due to a bug on a single server that was misconfigured and then fixed immediately.”

And so it shouldn’t be especially devastating that the code was posted on Facebook Secrets (a blog that appears to have been created for the sole purpose of publishing this information).  Barker nonetheless asks that no one else reprint it, however.

This sort of occurrence is becoming something of a trend – in the past two weeks, information has leaked regarding Facebook’s revenue and its advertising rates.  The social network has also gotten some unwanted attention over sexual predators, and lost a number of advertisers due to a mix-up involving the BNP.

The source code leak isn’t as potentially damaging as those last two stories, but it’s still not the best thing for Facebook’s reputation.

Save me. Save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools.
-- World Party's song Ship Of Fools is very appropriate

At the Los Alamos Nuclear Labs, a company called Los Alamos National Security manages the efforts to keep sensitive information out of the hands of the bad guys.

The most recent episode involving data loss makes it look more like we’ll see a mushroom cloud hanging over the crater that used to be Manhattan before they get their act together in the New Mexico deserts.

Only a few weeks after announcing "extensive security improvements" at the Labs, news of another data leak has emerged. Techworld said an errant email contained classified data made its way to members of the Los Alamos National Security board:

In January Harold P. Smith, a LANS board consultant and former Pentagon atomic weapons adviser, sent a message containing classified data to at least two other board members. He used the ordinary Internet instead of a secure Defense department network. The message was relayed to at least three more board members.

The incident has been described as comprising “the most serious breach of US national security,” and has been rated as Impact Measurement Index-1 (IMI-1), the most serious level of security violation.

Those board members received security sensitivity training, something they evidently did not have previously, according to the report.

Techworld’s article also recounted a couple of other entertaining yet horrifying incidents over the past year. One Labs staff member took a laptop to Ireland, where it was promptly stolen. The Labs claim information on the laptop was of a low sensitive nature.

Then there was the case of the drug dealer being busted with a USB stick in his possession. The stick just happened to contain "classified as Secret Restricted" data about nuclear weapons on it.

Before we ask why the terrorists hate us, maybe we should ask Los Alamos the same question. An outfit from Coolibar and Hawaiian Tropic Ozone 70 SPF sunscreen aren’t going to help against a nuclear blast.

The answer is fairly succinct, and not exactly a secret either, but still worth repeating: the first key to success was the ability to embed video, and the second was an infrastructure that allowed the site to scale quickly and easily. Sounds simple, but the first was unique when YouTube offered it — and I would argue it was also by far the most important of the two factors — and the second is a lot harder than it sounds.

Comments

While working on an article about the dark side of blogging, I was delighted to see that some really successful bloggers are separating from their keyboards and coming together to share their tips, strategies and encourage one another.

Liz Strauss, the founder of the hugely popular Successful Blog (a place where 100’s of comments are not unusual on a Tuesday night), has organized this gathering, coined SOB Con 07.

Liz badged me an SOB some time back (that’s successful and outstanding blogger).

I recently asked Liz what folks can expect to experience at this first of its kind event.

She said, “We’ve built a conference that reflects the values of a successful and outstanding blog — unique, content-rich presentations and authentic relationships.”

Here is some of what you will take home by attending:

• LEARN how to write compelling posts that draw readers in
• SEE how great blog design can make a difference
• DISCOVER how analytics and other tools can help you maximize your blog’s potential
• HEAR innovative and useful blog marketing techniques that will expand your reach and viewership
• GAIN valuable insights on ways to use blogging as a coaching tool
• CONNECT with other bloggers through our pre-launch activities and interactive presentations

Let me say this. Liz does things big. You really can benefit from checking this conference out.

For details, visit http://www.sobevent.com/

Comments

In the article, I argue that success with pay-per-click search marketing requires business expertise and search marketing expertise. You have more business expertise than any outsider could have (especially since most agencies don’t specialize in the unique needs of B2B search marketing). If you do outsource, the need to coordinate with the agency creates latency and information loss, meaning you lose the flexibility and the agility to react quickly. Outsourcing also means losing control over a critical portion of your demand generation strategy to outsiders who may have different incentives than you.

My conclusion: The best path to success with PPC advertising is to manage the program in-house with the aid of pay per click management software. This is because the technology solution can create the best of both worlds: the control and business knowledge of doing it yourself, combined with the SEM best practices and techniques of an expert.

Check out the article: The 5 Secrets PPC Agencies Don’t Want You to Know.

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