Did Google…Screw Up?
At Classic Wines, one of our top keywords in Google search is “wine videos,” and therefore it is one that I keep a close eye on. You may recall I’ve had some keyword drama in the past (and I’m sure I will have more in the future), but something happened recently that had me completely perplexed.
On May 9th I came in to work and did my normal routine of analytics and organics checking. Everything was looking stable and normal, until I got to “wine videos.” I was expecting to see our normal standing at 3, which appears like this -
But instead, I got the unpleasant surprise of this -
We were gone! straight up. I did the first thing I think most people would do – I scrolled down to the bottom of the page to see how far we got dropped. When I didn’t see us, I reluctantly clicked to page 2, preparing myself for the bad news of being dropped out of the first page. Nothing there either. Astonished, I used Google’s advanced search function to check the top 100 sites that show up for “wine videos.” Nothing. Naturally I began crying and shaking my fist at the heavens.
Once I pulled myself together I tried to analyze what had actually happened. In my mind, there were only a few options -
1. This was a temporary reshuffling that would cure itself promptly. Just part of going with the flow for Google’s organics.
2. WE did something wrong by screwing up the tech back end or SEO text.
3. We were being penalized for content duplication or inappropriate incoming links.
4. Google screwed up (which is like saying Zeus screwed up).
The first thing I checked was possibility #2, that we screwed something up. We are constantly changing and adapting and improving, so these things happen from time to time. I retraced all of my own steps and got with my tech guys. Nothing changed in the videos portion of the site. So I crossed it off the list.
Next I checked for possible penalizations. I researched what has been peeving Google the most lately, and two things I definitely wanted to check is content duplication and links. We have small repeating elements of descriptors on our different video pages, but nothing at all that would be considered egregious. Furthermore, this would have been a very random time to penalize us on something that we’ve had up for awhile now. I also checked all the links coming into our site, making sure no one was black hatting us with a ton of porn links or anything like that. We were clean.
Lastly I called in a big gun – I got Wil Reynolds of ThinkSeer.com to analyze the situation along with me. He went through some more sophisticated technical analysis and told me that he also didn’t see anything unusual. It was, indeed, a mystery.
Ultimately I decided the only thing to do was file a reconsideration request, sit, and wait it out. I’ve been bumped around by Google before, and it usually rebounds (with a little coaxing). I had to hope this would do the same.
3 weeks went by with no change. Our “wine videos” keyword was m.i.a. and I couldn’t find our /wine-videos url on Google anywhere.
A little more time went by and our monthly company meeting came up. I was preparing my reports, and this situation was high among my priorities list to discuss. The very morning of the meeting, without warning, “wine videos” reappeared as if it had never left. It looked exactly the same as it had before, with exact same ranking, picture, text, and everything.
Quickly I opened back up my reports and added a final line – “nevermind – it’s back.”
Google it seems, in its infinite workings, had a little bit of a hiccup.
Don’t Forget to Sitemap
Recently I saw a pagerank jump on some of my non-index pages. There was also some changes to pagerank for related non-dominant keywords. The only big change i’ve made lately is updating my sitemap. This is just a guess (an educated one), but I’m thinking keeping your sitemap up to date can be a real boost to the depth of your site.
I may be getting ahead of myself – let me explain what a sitemap is in case you aren’t familiar. There are two main kinds of sitemaps, the first is the kind you can navigate on a webpage. This sitemap shows the basic structure of the website and allows for easy navigation should the user be struggling to find a certain kind of content. Here is our sitemap at Classic Wines.
The other kind of sitemap is a more extensive xml document that you submit to Google. By submitting it to Google, you help Googlebot to search and understand your site.
We change our website a lot and are constantly updating content. By refreshing the sitemap with a new more comprehensive version, we helped Google understand which pages in our website had dominance, and which ones are updated frequently. Hence the positive results in pagerank and organic placement.
We intend to build out an even better sitemap in the near future. Consider checking out your sitemap situation today!
What’s Up with Youtube?
I love youtube. I think it’s important to start with that statement. Youtube captures my attention for hours and presents me with videos that I never suspected I would watch in my whole life. Also, now I know what chocolate rain is. My beef with youtube doesn’t stem from affection, but from pure business.
Youtube is inexplicable when it comes to SEO (search engine optimization). I don’t mean how youtube appears in Google, but how results come up inside of youtube’s own search engine. For Google, SEO practitioners can focus on external linking, fresh content, pagerank, etc. Youtube, as the rebel it is, definitely doesn’t follow the same standards.
One thing is certain – youtube extracts results based on keywords. That’s obvious, and essential to any search engine. If you type in “how to open a wine bottle,” you will invariably get results about how to open wine bottles. As you scan through the results, you’ll notice that the top results aren’t necessarily the ones with the most hits. Nor are they necessarily the ones with the most exact match of keywords. And you’ll notice they aren’t in any sort of chronological order.
Of course, only the most basic search engine would function on ONE of these criteria. Most SE’s worth their salt take into consideration a wide array of factors; but which criteria youtube utilizes most heavily is a bit of mystery. Beside the normal factors we discussed earlier, here are some other things that may come into play with youtube ranking:
* Number of comments a video has
* Popularity of the user posting the video
* Success rate of previously posted videos by same user
* Activity of the user in regards to other videos
* Quality of video
I have heard arguments for and against each of these points. I personally think the last point about the quality of video is a non-factor. Youtube algorithms really have no way of determining something intangible like ‘quality.’ If sheer crispness of video production were a big concern, we would never see most of the half-baked personal webcam videos that have made youtube such a success.
I do believe, however, that video comments and user trends could effect a video’s ranking. These are factors that could help youtube determine by community and past rates of success if a video would be worth watching over others containing similar keywords and tags.
Youtube…a difficult site to figure out, but very much worth the effort. There is no other place where anyone at all (for better or worse) can get exposure to millions of people all over the world.
SEO Grail – Adventures in Public Speaking
I recently had the chance to meet with a great Philadelphia based group – SEO Grail. Grail is a gathering of marketing, SEO, and SEM professionals who are interested in sharing their expertise and learning from each other. The group was started by Vivek Chaudhuri and runs through the site Meetup.com – http://seo.meetup.com/68/.
I was introduced to the group by my boss (Mark), and was very excited to get in on the action. My plan, of course, was to sit quietly in the corner and…perhaps…interject in the conversation once or twice. But that would only be if I was feeling exceedingly brave. Life, as it often does, threw a curveball and shortly after joining the group I was asked to do a special presentation on the science/art of creating online press releases.
I’ve never stressed too much over public speaking. Getting my degree involved multiple speaking classes, and teaching karate for so long helped me grow accustom to the situation. That being said, there are always some nerves involved, especially when presenting in front of people I’ve never met before and who are experts in the same kind of field that I’m in.
The best plan for quelling public speaking nerves is preparation. I sat down with Mark and brainstormed a rough outline of what I wanted to go over. I let my mind branch out and hit all the different topics that I considered important, having Mark jot them down as we went. After that, I took the outline and constructed it into a more formal bullet-point-handout. This would serve as guide throughout my speech, and a crutch in case I fell victim to brain paralysis.
When meeting time arrived, and after a little ice breaking chatter, I jumped into my presentation. It went well and all the group members were really responsive. They asked some great questions and I felt like we had a productive discussion all around. Although I don’t remember everything, I believe I avoided abusing ‘umms’ and ‘uhhs’ (a worry for any speaker) and didn’t gesture wildly with my hands.
There’s a rumor about a video floating around of the speech, so I may be able to verify or denounce my own claims in the near future.
Thanks to the Grail guys, and I’m looking forward to meeting again!
My #1 Tip for Creating Press Releases
Creating press releases can be a little tricky. On one hand, you have to maintain a business tone. Press releases cannot be muddled with opinion or accented with flowery vocabulary. In a lot of ways, press releases resemble news stories more than they do magazine articles.
On the other hand, press releases need to include more than just the news. A simple who, what, where, why, and when is only good for the first paragraph. The rest has to keep the reader interested and explain why they should bother reading 500-750 words about whatever it is your talking about. Not easy. When it comes to striking a balance, my #1 tip for you is this -
GATHER QUOTES EARLY AND OFTEN.
Quotes are the solution. In a quote, strong statements can be made, full of opinion. In quotes, writing can be elaborate and grand. In quotes, your not personally held responsible for any statement! Indeed, I find my press releases to be at least as much quote as it is my own writing. 50/50, if not more towards quotes. Learning how to weave a whole story out of quotes is a really interesting endeavor, and fantastic practice in creating segways.
Here’s a little more detail when it comes to drafting up a press release – use the first paragraph or two to lay the groundwork. Deliver the five W’s as any good news reporter would, and catch the reader’s attention with some explanation as to why they should care about your topic. After that, let the weaving begin.
I like to get quotes before I start writing because it helps me guide my press release around them. However, writing first can have certain advantages. If you know exactly what kind of quote you are looking for, you can ask specific questions to prompt a fitting response. Play around with both strategies and see which fits your style. One thing you shouldn’t try to do is trick your sources through loaded questions or vague wording in order to elicit a response that fits your theme. That’s a quick way to get a bad reputation.
One final pointer is remembering to present a balance of opinions. If you are covering a controversial topic, it’s often wise to give both sides a voice. You become a megaphone for the issue – not actually spouting any personal opinion, but making the action much more noticeable.
Here’s an example of a press release I created about a new blogger coming into our website at Classic Wines. Not controversial, but heavily quoted so that everyone looks good with minimal intervention on my part.
The thrill and heartbreak of unexplained traffic bumps
Google Analytics is a tool that allows users to see how much traffic they are getting during any given day. It computes page hits from all over the internet – direct traffic, Google searches, referring sites, etc. Every now and again I see a large bump in traffic and it always gets me excited (in that geeky sort of way). The only problem is, that bump often comes from illegitimate sources.
Google adwords allows you to place your site in the Google ad database using keywords particular to your site. Google, using its infinite wisdom, will then decide where and when to place your ad. Through those ads you get clicks and traffic which drives up the stats to your site. This is all well and good, but sometimes the traffic is just junky. By that I mean, it’s bots or uninterested people that go to your site and then navigate away right away. This kind of traffic has a 100% “bounce” rate. Almost every time I see a sudden bump in our traffic, it consists of this bouncing traffic.
Somehow, from time to time, our adword ads get caught up in highly bot-trafficked areas, or something of that nature, and receive a slew of hits. You can imagine the slight let down when I see the hits are all bouncing away.
So this leaves me to wonder, should I be happy I’m just receiving some traffic, despite the fact that it’s weak? Or should I feel agitated that these bumps throw off my analytics calculations due to their sporadic nature? I’m not sure yet, but I plan on getting to the bottom of how and why it happens.
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