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

To be honest I am surprise my blog is still even in google at all.

But anyway, as I was saying this update is aimed at getting ride of bad content sites. Basically one of the aims is to push relevant sites with good rich unique content higher up the SERP’s.

Well there has been a few people who have noticed that too many of 1 header tag can be a bad thing. This overuse of a header tag can not drop your site straight away but slowly lower your high rankings.

So,

Top tip of the day is spread your h tags better. For example,

H1 tag = 1 keyword
H2 tag = 2/3 keywords
H3 tags = 4 keywords

If you try where possible to achieve the above, google will see you in a more positive light. You have shown there are some of your products or services that are more influential than others.

Beware h tag overload is a post from: Dave Stopher SEO

This is a Castle Martin Builders Test 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

Wheres Dave gone!

Well I have been endlessly busy lately with work. This has been the main reson to be
honest that I have not posted. However this will change…

I am going to try and take a different approach with this blog. Try and stir it up a bit.

I am bored of the same old news appearing about the Internet marketing industry. We all
battle to be the first to discover features or algorithms that will get us recognised.

Well I don’t want to have to rush blog posts to be the first discoverer of a change in
google font or something like that. I want to be able to solve problems. Spot issues that
may prevent a website from ranking like it should do or solve the mystery of why a
website is ranking when it should not be.

There are people out there that want to be the best and get noticed for there ability to
bring forefront news to the industry well I want to be noticed for my problem solving
ability.

This is me trying to think outside of the box for blog posts.

Dave’s Back is a post from: Dave Stopher SEO

This is a test is a post from: Dave Stopher SEO

More and more website owners are considering expanding their web presence into foreign markets. To achieve this, they need to produce multilingual versions of their website. The prospect of doing SEO on your multilingual websites may seem rather daunting. So here are some pointers to get your multilingual SEO on track.

Language: what barrier?
Probably the biggest challenge you will face when you begin doing SEO for websites aimed at foreign markets is language. The cornerstone of effective SEO is quality, relevant content. You must ensure your content is well translated so that it’s useful for your target audience.

Working with a professional translator will provide the best results. Having a professional translate your content means that any idiosyncrasies in your text, such as slang, metaphors and abbreviations, will be properly dealt with.

It will ensure your translated copy is as natural as possible. If you are on a limited budget, there are automatic translation services, like Google Translate, which you could use. These services give fairly good results, but they won’t be nearly as good as human translation.

Translating keywords
When you’re working to translate your keywords, you can’t rely on a service like Google Translate, or even a foreign-language dictionary. You can’t be certain that the translation of individual keywords will be accurate enough.

And we’re sorry to say, a professional translator probably won’t be enough either. Even they won’t know what search terms people use locally. However, if they know and understand SEO practices, then they will be able to research the correct keywords for the target country, using tools such as Google AdWords’ Keyword finer.

As with English-language keyword research, you need to aim for a variety of the most popular keywords and also ‘long tail’ keywords that will have lower search volumes but will be easier to rank highly for, and bring more potential custom to your website.

Use country-specific domains
Google has versions of its search engine in over 100 regions across the world. It’s vital that you target the local search engines in your foreign-language SEO.

To get the best rankings in local versions of Google, you should host your website on the relevant ccTLD (country code Top Level Domain). For example, if your website is aimed at the Swedish market, use a .se domain (e.g. http://www.yourdomain.se/). You can boost your local search engine rankings even further by hosting your foreign domains on servers located in the target country – so it’s best to ask your web-host where its servers are based, you may be surprised to learn that it’s something on the other side of the world. Google uses such data in its search algorithm when determining its rankings.

Link building
You should aim to get as many back-links as possible from other websites within your target country, which have the same ccTLD. If you have a .se domain, your rankings in ‘Google Sverige’, and other local search engines, will be improved by getting back-links from other .se domains. The methods for doing this are pretty much the same as your link-building campaigns for your English websites. You should also look out for any local web directories which may be worth submitting to. As with any web directory you are thinking about submitting to, check that it is well-established and has a good Page-Rank.

You should look to identify prospective link partners in the same way as you do with your English-language websites. This usually involves analysing your competitors’ websites and targeting the site owners with whom they have placed back-links. You may need the help of a professional translator to determine the quality of the websites you propose to target and to help you write emails to other webmasters.

Social media
Local social media marketing within your target regions is a great way of building links and driving more traffic to your website. The methods are the same as those you would use for English-language websites. For example, identify local blogs, especially those with the same ccTLD, and become a regular commenter, or offer to write a guest post in exchange for a back link. Submit your website to relevant social bookmarking sites within the country you are targeting, and try to find forums that are relevant to your audience and start posting.

The methods involved in multilingual SEO are similar to the ones you use for your English-language websites. If you remain focused on the basic rule-of-thumb that good SEO is all about providing relevant, quality content for your target audience, you won’t go far wrong with your multilingual SEO.

Once you have completed your first foreign-language website, you’ll find it easier to produce others.

About the author
Christian Arno is founder of professional translation services company Lingo24 that specialises in website localisation. Launched in 2001, Lingo24 now has clients in over 60 countries and a turnover of £5m.

Multilingual money-makers is a post from: Dave Stopher SEO