There has been quite a big change in how the SERPs are shown this week.

It was not me that noticed the change however it was @seorocks. He pointed it out to me yesterday and I thought it was good enough for a blog post.

So here is the new SERPs page,

So what has changed?

Page Previews

As you can see the new listings design does not look that different however it points out the preview section in a more defined way. Before the preview icon was next to the page title where as now it is at the right hand side of the listing. It looks a lot more like the Tablet  version of Google SERP’s.

I personally think this is much better as it is more easily seen. Before the preview button seemed to be more of an after thought than designed well.

New Listing Design

I personally blogged and disapproved of the SERPs change a few weeks a go that saw the site links become bigger and more prominent. Well now I must say that Google has got me back on side by designing a new and better listing;

As you can see above I have taken one of the listings and focused on the main changes. To be honest nothing much has really changed apart from a few little tweaks in the styling to make the list more presentable. I have seen a listing with quite a bit of content and long title tag and the listing is more squared off. To be honest it looks much better even though hardly anything has been changed.

Conclusion

I think that this change in design is much better than previous designs. It identifies clear feature of the SERPs listing such as the preview feature. Google have taken the next step from a new feature being seen in the SERPs to the feature fitting into the SERPs.

Google SERP’s Change is a post from: Dave Stopher SEO

This is just  quick blog post. Today I noticed that Google have changed the way that they show Site Links in the SERPs.

Please See Below.

As you can see the Site Links now appears to have taken over more and more space on the SERP’s page if you are looking for brand. Now dont get me wrong this is a decent change if your trying to point out a big brand, however I dont like it.

It just looks to0 spaced out, before it looked much more structured. I dont know there is something that just does not look right if you know what I mean. Do we really need to link or the meta description?

I dont think so.

Google Site Links is a post from: Dave Stopher SEO

Google have been trailing the related search tags that include,

Brand
Stores
Types

I also know that these trails started last year near the end of October start of November.

As you can see with the image below the first example that I have seen is floor tiles.

First thing I thought was a question, maybe the biggest and simplest answered question.

What is a Brand in Googles eyes?

So, what makes a Brand a Brand?! Is it,

A manual process – I very much doubt that.
A Search Volume – I think this will play a big part in helping google identify a brand.
A Social Aspect – Again yes I think this will have a big effect. The more people talk about a brand the more influence it has.
A presence of offline marketing – I don’t believe so.

These answers sums up how google identifies a brand.

The other relevant tags such as stores and types are very simplistic pieces of codes that identify a store or what colours a product comes in.

Overall I think that this feature is a really good feature and its continued development will be  a good thing for the user experience.

Related Searches Feature is Back is a post from: Dave Stopher SEO

So,

Here is Matt Cutts talk about how google changed there analytics code to help with site loads speed.

As Matt mentions they have changed the analytics to coincide with the news that google will place more weight on speed in 2011.

Question will always be what is to slow?

Unfortunately only google can answer that. What I can tell you is that google will not tell you what it is.

My opinion is that you need to aim for below 6 seconds. However this will be full website and not just homepage. It is no good having a super fast home page if your inner pages are running really slowly.

Google are very good politicians however they do preach about user experience.

If it is good for the user then it is good for google.

Google Analytics Video for Site Speed is a post from: Dave Stopher SEO

Well I am that busy at work still I am unable to spend loads of time blogging about the odds and sods that I see on a regular basis however I have to talk about the new algorithm change that happened on thursday last week.

The quote –

Many of the changes we make are so subtle that very few people notice them. But in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking—a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries—and we wanted to let people know what’s going on. This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.

So what do we take away from this slice of text from the google blog post?

Well it is pretty simples just good content.

So this mean we are back to the days where you keyword fill a page?

I very much doubt that this will be allowed. My belief is that the algorithm is changing from a specific keyword that causes a high ranking trigger, to a number of keywords that can influence a high ranking position.

For example if you are trying to rank for the term SEO. Having SEO in the page may not be enough. There maybe other keywords that have a ranking effect on that specific keyword. You may have to include, Internet marketing, keyword maps, keyword analysis, etc.

You may have to think about this when trying to achieve higher rankings. I am sure that google have a number of trigger words that surround a specific keyword, maybe 10 or so.

Obviously this is only my opinion on the way that SEO looks to be turning, however this might already pay a factor.

This could even help long tail searches after google instant apparently tried to kill it off.

who Knows….

Old school Algorithm is a post from: Dave Stopher SEO

“I will take a look around and see if I can find some links knocking about”

Where exactly are you going to find a link knocking about?!

Anyway we then got on to the whole job description malarky. More specifically “links acquisitions”.

Now this for me obviously gives the two obvious possible mistakes in job descriptions reading. Imagine it….

1. A SEO company take on a links acquisitions expert. First day on the job he comes into the office in an Indiana jones like outfit. He has a Australian accent and pronounces that the native habit of a links is generally not on the second floor of a office building in Manchester. He becomes very disappointed in the misunderstanding of the job role but before he leaves to acquire lynx he tells everyone to be wary of the sting rae as it is the most deadliest animal in the world.

2. Thousands of seo personnel hell bent on a seo based career abroad see a advert for a lynx acquisitionist. They all turn up on there first day donning a suit and briefcase only to be met by a very overweight group of lynx just digesting the latest recruit to the lynxs team.

Far fetched I know but when you leave work at 5:30 and you don’t get in the house until gone 7:30 then your mind wonders somewhat.

One a daily basis I have to listen to radio 1 who pick the barrels of news box for stories that supersede the stupidity of any story made in jest.

Anyway I wonder how many people die through misunderstood job descriptions?

Links Job Description Small Print is a post from: Dave Stopher SEO

What does this mean for the world of seo?

To be honest nothing much if your doing your seo campaign right.

People have been placing addresses on either pages or micro sites that link together for a while now as it is seen to be one of the best ways for geo-targeting.

Yes ok I have noticed some irregularities in the UK SERPS’ for example the way Halfords .ie site was ranking in the UK instead of .com with a UK HQ address.

I think that this was probably caused by the algorithm tweaks and tests and will probably been not seen again. Anyway the new feature will be seen on the left hand side in the menu where it will tell you what google believes your location is.

However if google gets your location wrong it will allow you to change it by entering it in a easy accessible entry box.

This now shows that google is trying to give the most relevant searches possible. This also means that google places will become of the biggest tools in the fight to be at the top of the SERPS’.

Location Now A Bigger Element is a post from: Dave Stopher SEO

Anyway it’s Monday and what has changed?

That is the big question in a seo programmers life. People have said,

Is this the end of seo?

Well to be honest nothing has changed. Ok google do the search without you needing click or enter. Nothing major has happened and google have always said they like seo companies as it keeps them in a job.

But what has changed in seo. Nothing at all.

Is this the end of longtail keywords?

Now that is a good question. People say yes and people say no. For me however I am stuck as I cannot decide. I can see that if people find it earlier on then yes it is fine but I really think that google suggestion will always take the user to the longtail keyword they were after.

Yes longtail may drop but no more than we have seen lately.

My advice is to keep eye on your long tail traffic compared to other SERPS traffic if you see a massive drop then you are the unlucky one and it may not necessary be google instant that is causing it.

What will happen to the seo industry?

As mention above nothing at all….

Are panicking?

Blogs about everyone panicking is stupid. Don’t worry. Google would do this to annoy you they are just trying to make it quicker for the user. If the user wants ‘cheap sony tv’ then they will type it in. They will not just stop on cheap or sony if it just brings up useless info.

Overall

Ok yes there have been small hanged to the google look but still people who invest in seo have nothing to worry about. People still type what they are after or google suggestion which has been about for ages.

In my opinion the only differences will be impressions. I think that more generic keywords will have a higher impression rate for a while. The change will not see rankings change. This could even help people in the long run.

Apart from those small differences I think that will be it apart from longtail keyword search as I explained above.

I have not noticed anything change none of my traffic has changed and if I am honest I have seen a little more traffic go my way.

Google Instant My Opinion is a post from: Dave Stopher SEO

There is a time in your SEO Career when you have to make SEO easy to understand.

Yes OK the short answer is we listen to google and put in to practice what they advise us to do to allow your website to achieve it’s best search engine rankings.

Sometimes however when the website takes a little longer than expected to achieve then you will have to come with an analogy.

What is SEO?

Put it this way SEO is a little restoring a house for sale. Each house will be built differently, from the location to the materials used on the house. This means that to make your house best achieve it’s price the work that is need may be in different areas.

For example

The front of the house – the homepage

Or

The entrance and stairs – the navigation

Thinking about SEO like this means that you better understand that it is not always the case that keywords on the homepage will be enough.

Hope that was a good analogy for you.

Anyone got any good analogies then place comment….

Analogy For SEO is a post from: Dave Stopher SEO

Basically if you have 10 stores nationwide would you create 1 website for each location/store or would you generate 1 website that incorporated all stores?

Well this brought me to start a blog post about it. So I have broke this blog post down into two scenario that you could be faced with. Within these scenarios I have given my opinion for each one as they may differ.

Scenario 1

The company already has 1 website setup for each of the 10 stores location?

Background of websites

1. Domain age = 4 years old for website

2. Links to website = 1000 links to each website

3. Each website runs off the same type of control management system but does not have he same feel.

4. Duplicate content on company mandatory information.

5. Each domain is doing well for there specific keywords.

My Suggestion

This situation I would look at keeping the websites as they are. Ideally you would preferably just have one website that would have individual pages for each location.

However with the domain age of each location and the links that are pointing at each website I would recommend using the current website as they are already doing well in the search engines. Generally trying to turn these multiple domains into one domain can cause issues if each website is being maintained differently depending on the location.

Generally though on these websites there will be some duplicate content which can be either geo-targeted to the region or can be no index, followed.

Linking each domain together will be a little more tricky as you don’t want to cause to much interlinking. I would recommend that you link through a ‘Select You Location’ or ‘Store Locator’ page. This would relate the websites together from a usability point of view but mean that there is not too much linking within the domains.

Overall this can be completed but this is not recommended as this could be seen as trying to spam. The best that we can do is treat each website as it is separate and only link where necessary. For Example store locator page.

Scenario 2

The client has 1 website for the company but has not incorporated each location?

Background of Website

1. Domain Age = 1 Year Old

2. Links to Website = 90 Links

3. The website has unique content.

My Suggestion

This scenario is much better for SEO from my point of view as I really think that this is the best way to structure a multi location website.

If your going to include something it is best to do it right first time and not try and mop up the mess later on.

So if he website has no location structure then you can make a specific page for each location. Thus if you have 50 locations then make 50 pages. If you this then you will be heading in the rig directions.

Make sure that each location page is unique and has information about the area. You never know you may get a long tail search that includes your location related content.

You could always place entries in google places or maps as well and then relate the entry to individual pages.

Apart from that as long as the page is well seo’d and relevant links pointing to this page then I cannot see how you can fail.

Conclusion

To be honest overall is long as you follow what google says you cannot cause filtering issues. However if you do follow scenario 1 like I advised I would keep in mind that this is not the best method and this may lead to issue late down the line.

Sometimes the best plan of action is not always the easiest.

multiple location domains vs 1 domain with multiple locations is a post from: Dave Stopher SEO