Google stepping up with DMCA
I’ve been quite outspoken about Google’s half hearted attempts in the past to create an environment that offers the best quality results – that of course are legal for the general public. Google wouldn’t allow a website to sell class A drugs over the Internet, so why allow websites to offer pirated material? It is a big debate, which I address in the Google, piracy and SOPA blog a couple of months back – but I generally think if Google had not have taken the “It has nothing to do with us!” policy, then the need for SOPA would have materialised.
Having said that, in the last few months, I’ve noticed a vast amount of URLs being removed due to DMCA complaints. I’ve even received one, wrongly, myself!
Read more…
rel=alternate tag cross domain study
Having created an original rel=alternate study that focused on internal content, I wanted to test whether or not you could setup this on a cross-domain basis. I’m very pleased to announce that you can indeed set this up on a cross domain basis and I’ve included my results below.
Should Google use rel=alternate on insights?
I use Google Insights quite a lot and I think that the data you can extract from it, in its most basic form, is the first obvious step to keyword discovery if you embark on a new SEO project. Looking in the SERPs today, I noticed that Google.co.uk now has a version of insights, which is identical to Google.com.
I checked the backend code to look for a canonical tag and more importantly a rel=alternate tag. Both were not present, so I ask the question – why isn’t Google using the tag on their own products but are recommending webmasters use it on multi lingual and multi regional websites?
Brand Google+ accounts in UK SERPs now?
Following a tweet by Patrick Altoft, I can confirm that Google+ accounts for brand searches are now appearing in Google’s UK SERPs. I’ve run a few tests against some brands that I know have rel=publisher setup in the backend code. The screenshots are highlighted below.
Guide to setting up rel=publisher
You may have noticed a few changes to the blog over the last couple of days. Firstly, I have updated the logo to be a little more fun than basic text reading ‘SEO Trench’. You may argue that it looks like a sex shop sign from New York in the mid-80s – well, I presume that is what it would have looked like – but you shouldn’t read my post for my graphic design skills! Hopefully the SEO advice is useful.
This blog looks at adding the ‘rel=publisher’ tag and what you can expect once Google acknowledges it.
Rel=alternate tag update & examples
Due to this blog being relatively new, it has taken some time for this experiment to provide any results. I’m glad to say, that in the last couple of days, what I had predicted in the original rel=alternate tag post actually happened. Using the rel=alternate tag, I was able to provide an example of serve up very similar content to a UK audience and to an Australia audience.
Too much information in Google’s SERPs?
We all know that Google’s philosophy is to try and provide the most accurate and up to date results for a user based upon their query. This can come in the form of a classic search result or perhaps in the form of a universal search result. However, in recent years we have seen the inclusion of information within the search results that answers the user’s query, without even having to click on a result.
Google targets ad heavy websites
On Thursday, Google announced that they have launched a new algorithmic update that focuses on ad placement on websites. Adverts above the fold could well hinder the progress of your websites within Google’s rankings if the content is pushed down. Matt Cutts said in his blog post that Google is trying to target more ‘high quality’ websites within their results. So, surely Google does the same…right?
Google Search Plus your world
Over the years we have seen Google moving closer and closer towards personalised search results; results that are catered for the user searching the query. We’ve seen location specific search and Twitter recommendations to name two. Yesterday, Google launched ‘Search Plus Your World‘ – a new feature that helps to personalise search results. I’m going to play around with and document some of my findings.
Former employee sued over Twitter followers
A former employee of phonedog is being sued due to his reluctance to hand over Twitter account details to his ex-employer. Noah Kravitz was employed to tweet for phonedog, but later changed his username when he left.
This means that Kravitz regained the 17,000 followers that he acquired whilst being under contract of the mobile news providers. So, where do you sit in this argument? Who owns the follower count – the employee (who does all the work) or the employer (who funds the task)?
