So let’s get moving and see what was shared in the latter half of January 2012:

6 Reasons To Bid On Branded PPC Keywords

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While more about paid search than SEO, there are some good SEO nuggets of info in this post that was written by the boss man here at Amplify. One nice nugget? If you bid on branded keywords in paid search and have a high position in organic search, you get a nice bump in click through rate and conversion rate! How much? You’ll have to read the article to see.

.htaccess Files For The Rest of Us

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I’d like to think most SEOs know what an htaccess file is and what it does. I’d also like to think that most SEOs could give specific recommendations of what to include in that file instead of just “you need 301 redirects.” If you don’t know much about htaccess files or need a nice refresher, this is a fantastic resource.

What’s New With Sitemaps

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The Google Webmaster Central blog keeps us up-to-date with some recent changes they’ve made with information they’re presenting about your submitted sitemaps in Google Webmaster Tools. I’m loving the new visualizations they’re showing!

Google – Page Layout Algorithm Update

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Google rolled out a new algorithmic change that looks at the layout of the webpage and the amount of content you see on the page once you click on the result. If you tend to have an excessive amount of ads “above the fold”, Google will start to dock you in the organic search listings, as they want to show relevant results to users. Google is reporting that this algorithmic change is affecting less than 1% of searches globally… so, really, if you’re just going overboard with the ads, then this might affect you.

21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic

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This post is a BEAST! And it beasts, too! Presented are some sure-fire ways that you help increase traffic to your blog. It hits on everything from performing keyword research for topic ideas to content syndication. A lot of these tactics, I would think, a lot of bloggers already do… but they don’t do a good enough job at to really see the results.

4+ Recommendations To Enhance B2B SEO Initiatives

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This article hits on four things marketers can implement to increase search referrals as well as help promote link building and social sharing. The author information tagging item (with using the rel=author tag) is something that we really are pushing to our clients.

Anchor Text Distribution: Avoiding Over Optimization

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This was a quality YouMoz that was posted recently that goes over some good facts on how to properly define an anchor text optimization strategy. Geoff Kenyon suggests a 7:3 ratio (non-targeted keyword in anchor text to targeted keyword in anchor text) and presents some data that he has collected.

My Own Personal Christian Reads…

I’m currently reading Equally Shared Parenting, as my wife and I have decided that this is the kind of parenting style we’re actually kind of already exhibiting and wish to really pursue it.

Readers Read… (So I Don’t Have To)

What have I missed? Did you read anything really awesome in late January that you’d like to share? Please let me know in the comments!

Creating Content: Staying Creative & Becoming Search Engine Marketing Wise

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Shameless self-plug, but this post rocks. I created this post specifically for folks who are content creators to show them in a fun way that hey, you can really make anything interesting and exciting. Also included are illustrations by me that, I’ll admit, took me way longer than they should have.

Comparing Google Trends for Websites and Google Analytics Data – 2011 Edition

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This was an interesting post done by Dynamical (if I were them, I’d preface the company name with “radical” for any and all mentions – Radical Dynamical) where Ani López compared actual Google Analytics data versus what Google Trends was giving him. He did this back in 2009 and reported that things weren’t matching up very well. Well, it looks like Google is doing a better job of matching up the data… so the short of it is that Google Trends is now showing more reliable data than ever before.

SEO + User Experience: Like Peanut Butter & Chocolate

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Old news but new video! Ben was able to speak at the 2011 Seattle Interactive Conference and recently a video was made available for those who not attend to view the session he was in. We may be a bit biased, but Ben’s presentation certainly was the best of the bunch. Plus – if you end your speaking gig in a session with, “Boom!” (at 25:24) it pretty much guarantees you to be a speaker at that conference for life. Fast forward to 17:30 to see Ben’s presentation.

Intermission

We at Amplify like to be an organized bunch. That’s why Ben was recently interviewed about how, as a small business owner, he uses calendars to great success. You can check out that fantastic article here.

Cascade Content for SEO

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Aliza Earnshaw of AboutUs informs us about how adopting a cascading content strategy can help improve the reach and visibility of articles that you write. Not only that, but search engines use social signals to help determine rankings… so a solid cascading content strategy can help you with search engine rankings as well.

Counting to 10 the Google Way

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The always funny Dr. Pete over at SEOmoz shows us how the first page of Google really isn’t the “top 10″ anymore; it’s the top 10 PLUS some. In one example, there were 16 actual listings on the first page! So why are there more results on the first page of Google? Hint – universal content. Also – the context of the search query. If someone is searching for “pizza”, then naturally, Google will show them results with a strong preference for listings that have Google Local flair (address stuff), some quick hits from their Google Image findings and even news that features the word pizza!

M-M-Megasitelinks

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Google announced megasitelinks which, as you may have guessed, is an improvement to how their search engine chooses sitelinks to display for any given listing in the organic search results. They called this an algorithmic update for selecting sitelinks but megasitelinks will also show sitelinks specific to the searcher’s metropolitan region location. So we’re getting even more personalized with search results than ever before.

21 Types of Social Content To Boost Your SEO

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Jordan Kasteler shares 21 different types of content that tend to be content types that end up being successful viral content. You can’t create a piece of content with the attention of it “going viral”… but you can set it up to have the greatest chance possible of doing so.

My Own Personal Christian Reads…

My coworker Ryan gave me “Game of Thrones” which is the first entry in the “Song of Fire and Ice” series by George R.R. Martin for Christmas, as I very much enjoyed the first season on HBO. So I’m slowly making my way through that.

Readers Read… (So I Don’t Have To)

What have I missed? Did you read anything really awesome in late December / early January that you’d like to share? Please let me know in the comments!

– –Update: Jan 5 2012– –
Seattle Interactive published a video of the session. So now you can watch my presentation in real live moving pictures. The slide deck is below as well.

SEO and User Experience Panel at SIC2011 from Seattle Interactive Conference on Vimeo.

–

Check out the presentation to find out how:

If you’re interested in more, you can see all the slides from the other presenters on the Seattle Interactive SEO & UX session here: http://www.slideshare.net/jcolman/seoux-panel-at-seattle-interactive-conference-sic2011

Image via CrunchBase

Google made an announcement this week that they’ll no longer be passing search query (keyword) data along to a Website when a user is signed-in to their Google account and performs a search on Google. In short – this means that Google is blocking access to organic keywords data. Not just in Google Analytics – but in any Web analytics package.

Explaining the Change

1. Signed-In user does a search on Google
2. Signed-in user clicks on an organic result
3. Website owner sees “Not Provided” in their Web analytics reporting instead of the keyword that brought the user to the site

Get the idea? They’re not reporting on organic keyword searches anymore. However, if a signed-in user clicks on a paid search (PPC) advertisement, then Google will pass the keyword data through. Keep that fact in mind…

If you believe the party line, then according to Google, this move was done in the interest of making their search engine a more secure & safe place for users to search by protecting search query data & personalized results. If you’re a conspiracy theorist, then this is just another way that Google is forcing site owners to use AdWords… which is how Google makes money. In other words – the message might be “if you want to know which keywords are the best for your Website, better pay for them.”

Either way, if you’re a Website owner or Internet marketer, particularly an SEO, this could be a game-changing move re-setting your level of sophistication to the mid-2000′s.

How it Affects Site Owners & SEO’s

As explained above, Google will no longer be passing search query data to Google Analytics if the user is performing a search via SSL. This means that while you will be able to view that a visitor from Google organic search came to your website, you will no longer be able to see what search query that user typed in to find your site. In place of the keyword in Web Analytics reporting, you will now see “Not Provided” instead.

How big of a deal this is to a Website really kind of depends on how much of your search traffic comes from Google organic search, and whether the sub-set of that traffic is significant. A lot of that has to do with your target audience, how technically savvy they are, whether they have a Google account and stay signed-in, etc. In other words – it depends.

Google claims that “…the change will affect only a minority of your traffic.” So, out of curiosity – I took a look at the keyword reporting for our site and a few of our clients. Granted, this change only took place a couple of days ago – but for every single site we work with including our own, “Not Provided” is a top 10 keyword result. In most cases, it was a top 5 result. Doesn’t seem so minor to me.

Example "Not Provided" result from a client's keyword referrals. Since the change, "Not Provided" is showing up as a top 10 result for ALL of our clients.

How pervasive is the problem? As expected, Google organic traffic makes up the bulk of our client’s search traffic falling somewhere between 88% – 93% of search traffic. If a substantial portion of those Google users are signed-in, then you aren’t going to be getting much information from your organic keyword referrals…

This is a typical organic traffic breakdown for our client sites. Guess which search engine makes up the blue slice of the pie? That's right – Google.

Why I Think Google’s Privacy Claim is a Bad Joke

Google Analytics (or any kind of Web analytics package) is fairly good at not really disclosing too much about the user. Sure, we are able to get information such as the proximity of where the user was located, the browser that was used, the search query that was used and other information… but what we’re not able to get is:

• First and last name
• Mother’s maiden name
• Name of family pet growing up
• Favorite food

Basically – when we’re looking at the keywords that drive our client’s businesses and are looking for ways to make their content more relevant and drive a better experience, we aren’t really getting anything “private”.

Further Reading, Takeaways & Thoughts

1. There’s been a substantial backlash to this announcement. I could be wrong, but I’m betting that Google doesn’t budge on this one.
   1. Google’s Announcement: Making search more secure: Accessing search query data in Google Analytics
   2. Dear Google: This is war
   3. Google Invests in Privacy for Profit
   4. Search Engine Land: Google To Begin Encrypting Searches & Outbound Clicks By Default With SSL Search
   5. Avinash Kaushik – THE Web Analytics guru – posted a Google Analytics custom report you could use to keep an eye on Google’s https keyword change trend. Get it here
2. Google Analytics user? Create an annotation in GA and note October 18, 2011 as the day that Google started blocking organic SSL searches. Believe me – if you’re at all accountable for reporting & analyzing on search traffic, you will likely be doing a lot of explaining and will be glad you pegged the date.
3. Are you an SEO? You’ll likely be taking your level of focus to a broader-level perspective than focusing on specific keywords. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing… Create & use advanced segments. Get used to using multi-channel attribution. Get used to relying on AdWords data…. and trying to make sense out of Bing referrals.

I’m sure some more things will come to mind over the next few days and weeks. I can’t WAIT to go to my next search marketing conference and watch every Google speaker take Q&A. It’s gonna get ugly.

I’m looking forward to YOUR comments, thoughts, takeaways and links.

So let’s get to it!

Google’s U.S. Search Share Rises

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Google rose 0.5% to claim 65.3% of the U.S. search engine share in September. The biggest loser? Yahoo who fell 0.8% to have only 15.5% of the U.S. U.S. search engine share. Bing held steady at 14.7%.

As such, we always like to tell our clients that while Google may have a significant hold of the U.S. search share… there still are ~35% of searches happening on other search engines. So it’s important to keep that in mind when you’re looking to potentially do some paid search advertising.

8 Tips On How To Optimize a Blog Post

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This was a post made by yours truly. Essentially, I give a breakdown on how one should optimize a blog post and have a nice PDF download at the end that’s cropped to fit right on an 8.5 x 11 sheet for you to print off and have on your desk.

Now, enjoy this picture of a jack-’o-lantern:

Key Tips For Better Website Usability

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As an SEO, I need to not only keep my objective in mind (make a site better optimized than before I was able to make recommendations or changes to it) but I also need to ensure that the website’s usability is still top-notch. This post really helped explain some key concepts that should always be top of mind.

Phrase Based Indexing and Semantics

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Justin Briggs kills it with this post about how Google is becoming better at understanding phrase-based analysis of language. Essentially, search engines are getting smarter… and are able to understand related subjects more-so now than ever before. This post also hits on how search marketers are now looking at more of a diverse optimized anchor text portfolio (i.e. it’s now no longer a benefit to have ~100% of your links contain the exact same anchor text).

And now, a picture of some bags of Autumn Mix:

The Complete Google Panda Reference Guide

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So, you’ve probably heard of Google’s Panda update. Did you ever want to see a timeline of all of the updates and tweaks to it? Did you know that there were nine updates that Google pushed? Well, if you want to read more about the Panda update, when those updates were pushed live and the impact of each update, this is where you’ll find all of that and more. Kudos to Anthony Verre for putting this together!

My Own Personal Christian Reads…

So what have I been reading? Well, recently I read the manual to install an infant car seat. Holy jumpin’ is that a bit more complicated than it really ought to be! I heard from a newborn care class I attended that something like ~86% of all car seats are installed improperly. I’ve also been reading a bit from Game of Thrones as I’ve recently watched the first season of the show on HBO and really enjoyed it.

Readers Read… (So I Don’t Have To)

So what did I miss? Are there are SEO resources you’ve read in October that you’d like to share with the readership here? How about anything you’ve written and would like to share? Feel free to let us know in the comments.

And as always, if you’re in need of some SEO help, we provide SEO services and consulting. Contact us and we can help define a plan that fits within your budget!