Recently Google sent product updates to Webmasters informing them of their updated Analytics product, which a lot of people use. Below are excerpts from their email:

Social is increasingly important as a marketing channel. But, how do you measure the impact and effectiveness of your social initiatives? Four elements define your social impact:

• Sources: As your content is shared and people come to your site, it’s important to understand how visitors from different social sources engage with your site.

• Conversions: Shared content URLs become the entry points into your site, driving traffic from social sources. Measuring the conversion and monetary value of this traffic will help you understand the impact of Social on your business.

• Pages: People increasingly engage with, share, and discuss content on social networks. It’s important to know which pages and content are being shared, where they’re being shared, and how.

• Social Plugins: Adding Social Plugin buttons to your site (for example, Google “+1″ buttons) allows your users share content to social networks directly from your site. Your social plugin data shows you which content is being shared, and on which networks.

The Social reports allow you to analyze all of this information together and see the complete picture of how Social impacts your business.

Social Reports

Overview

The Overview report allows you to see at a glance how much conversion value is generated from social channels. The Social Value graph compares the number and monetary value of all goal completions versus those that resulted from social referrals.

A visit from a social referral may result a conversion immediately or it may assist in a conversion that occurs later on. Referrals that generate conversions immediately are labeled as Last Interaction Social Conversions in the graph. If a referral from a social source does not immediately generate a conversion, but the visitor returns later and converts, the referral is included in Assisted Social Conversions. Looking at both assisted and last interaction conversions is essential to understanding the role that Social plays in business outcomes.

Sources

Navigate to Sources to see engagement metrics (Pageviews, Avg. Visit Duration, Pages/Visit) for traffic from each social network. This allows you to see which social networks referred the highest quality traffic. For example, you may wish to increase your investment in the social networks that referred fewer visits but higher quality traffic.

The Sources report is enhanced with off-site data for social data hub partner networks.  Click on a partner network to see the URLs that were shared on that site, how they were shared (for example, via a “+1″ or “reshare” action), and the conversations that took place about your content (Activity Stream). Read About Activity Stream Data to learn how this data is collected.

Pages

Navigate to Pages to see engagement metrics (Pageviews, Avg. Visit Duration, Pages/Visit) for each URL.  Sort by Social Activities in the table to identify your most viral content.

Click a URL in the table to see the originating social networks for that URL. For social data hub partner networks, you can also see offsite sharing for the URL: how the URL was shared (for example, via a “+1″ or “reshare” action), the networks on which it was shared, and the conversations that took place (Activity Stream). Read About Activity Stream Data to learn how this data is collected.

Conversions

The Conversions report allows you to quantify the value of Social. It shows the total number of conversion and the monetary value of conversions that occurred as a result of referrals from each network.  Click Assisted vs Last Interaction Analysis (just below the Explorer tab at the top of the report) to see how each network contributed to conversions and revenue via assists and last clicks.

• Assisted Conversions and Assisted Conversion Value:
  This is the number (and monetary value) of sales and conversions the social network assisted. An assist occurs when someone visits your site, leaves without converting, but returns later to convert during a subsequent visit. The higher these numbers, the more important the assist role of the social network.
• Last Interaction Conversions and Last Interaction Conversion Value:
  This is the number (and monetary value) of last click sales and conversions. When someone visits your site and converts, the visit is considered a last click.  The higher these numbers, the more important the social network’s role in driving completion of sales and conversions.
• Assisted/Last Interaction Conversions:
  This ratio summarizes the social network’s overall role. A value close to 0 indicates that the social network functioned primarily in a last click capacity. A value close to 1 indicates that the social network functioned equally in an assist and a last click capacity. The more this value exceeds 1, the more the social network functioned in an assist capacity.

Social Plug-ins

If you have Google “+1″ and Facebook “Like” buttons on your site, it’s important to know which buttons are being clicked and for which content. For example, if you publish articles on your site, you’ll want to know which articles are most commonly “liked” or shared, and from which social networks they’re being shared (for example, Google+ or Facebook). You can use this information to create more of the type of content that’s popular with your visitors. Also, if you find that some buttons are rarely used, you may wish to remove them to reduce clutter.

The Social Plug-in reports show which articles on your site are most commonly shared and which social buttons are being clicked to share them (for example, Google “+1″ or Facebook “Like”).

Social Visitors Flow

Social Visitors Flow shows the initial paths that visitors from social networks took through your site. For example, if you run campaigns that promote specific products, you can see whether visitors from each social network entered your site through these product pages and whether they continued on to other parts of the site or whether they exited. Hover over a source (Google+, for example) on the chart and select View only this segment to focus on traffic from that source.

Setting Up Social Analytics Reporting

In order to see values in your reporting, you’ll need to establish values for your goals and/or set up ecommerce tracking. For non-ecommerce goals, a good way to manually configure goal value is to evaluate how often the visitors who reach the goal become customers. For example, if your sales team can close 10% of people who request to be contacted, and your average transaction is $500, you might assign $50 (i.e. 10% of $500) to your “Contact Me” goal. In contrast, if only 1% of mailing list signups result in a sale, you might only assign $5 to your “email sign-up” goal.

[Source: Google Analytics - April 2012]

Once you’ve completed the process as given below you will have created what Google calls a “Place Page.”

According to Google, a Place Page “helps users find the best sources for information across the entire web, including business listing details, reviews, photos, nearby public transit, and more. Place Pages include such ‘places’ as a business, a park, a point of interest, a transit stop, or even an entire city.”

The First Step

The first thing you will need is a Google Account. If you already have one, skip to the next section below. If you don’t have one you need to set one up. Go to this URL:

https://www.Google.com/accounts/newaccount

Fill in and submit the form. Keep track of your username and password. You now have a Google Account!

Setting Up Your  Google Places Page

Go to: http://places.Google.com/business

Log in using the username and password you created when you set up your Google Account. Click on “List your business” and follow each of the steps to input your information.

Be sure  to add the maximum amount of categories in the “Category” section of the form. Click “add another category” after each category entered to add another category. NOTE: you MUST select one of the categories suggestions it brings up as you are typing.

When you’re done click “Submit” on the bottom of the page.

Now you need to validate your listing. Select the “by phone” option and make sure you are available to answer that phone number. Fill in your Contact name and click finish. It will take you to your Google Places Dashboard.  Your phone should ring and it will give you a five-digit PIN. Write it down and enter it in under “Enter your PIN” and click Go.

You’re done. Celebrate with a bottle of champagne!

PS: If you get into this and it seems a got too confusing or you get lost, call us. We offer a Google Places Set-up Service for a small fee.

What Are The Google Analytics Features?

You will have instant access to your Google Analytics Referring Pages report from your Links to your site page in your Webmaster Tools. This report is extremely helpful for those wanting to understand their overall traffic trends for volume made from referrals. It will also show you what referring sites have been driving that volume.

From your Analytics link, located in the top left bar while on a site-related page, you will have access to the Google Analytics Dashboard.

How To Link A Verified Webmaster Tools Site to Google Analytics Profile Page

• From the Webmaster Tools main page select Manage next to the site you wish to connect and then click Google Analytics profile.
• Select the profile that you wish to have associated with the selected site and then click Save.
• If you have multiple owners for your site you will have to link each owner with their own account to the Google Analytics Page.

The features are designed to give easier access for Web page owners to the features and tools available to them. With more ability to view statistics on traffic volume and understanding how it works, where it comes from and what changes need to be made, business owners will have a stronger sense of their SEO needs and better tools to handle them.

Twitter just announced that Foursquare is implementing tools and features that will go after local business with their new content section. Millions of people are logging on to Foursquare everyday in search for their favorite hot spots, to find local restaurants and even to share their activities with their friends and family.

The new Foursquare for Business campaign (see foursquare.com/business) offers a compelling lure to businesses large or small. With its separate sections dedicated to brands and venue owners it is proving to be a useful tool for consumers.

Business Owners

At the Foursquare site business owners are given guidance on how to create special offers, coupons and even how to lay claim to their Foursquare page. Business owners receive several innovative tools that help track their special offers and redemptions, how to attract customers and boost sales.

Users can unlock specials after completing the steps necessary that are listed on the business page. Users will gain points by visiting pages, sharing pages and by following other guidelines given on each business site. Redemption codes and instructions are given so that all employees understand how the campaign works and how to implement it on the sale.

Brands

The new area designated for brands is where business owners can earn their Foursquare partner badge, learn to create their Foursquare page and gain valuable tips on how to generate more business. Much like Twitter’s recent upgrade, Foursquare’s upgrade includes content that is targeted towards business and business owners.

To add depth to the business owner’s pages, Foursquare upgrades the business/venue pages allowing owners to create new URL’s and better description fields. Foursquare’s hopes is that their new tools and features will create a new way to do business online with sharing and searchable content that is similar to the social networks, just this time geared more towards business.

In 2001 the Internet Archive released the Wayback Machine calling it “an historical archive of preserved web pages. ” The archive of pages goes back to 1996. The original Wayback Machine interface was released in 2001 with about 10 billion pages. They recently released, in Beta, a new interface to the Wayback Machine.

The new system is designed to be faster than the original Wayback Machine.  The two other biggest differences you’re likely to notice are the new toolbar on archived pages, and the new look of the calendar of page captures.

You can check out the Wayback Machine with this url: waybackmachine.org. The original Internet Archive can still be searched using this URL: web.archive.org.

How This Can Be Used to Help with SEO

There are many uses for viewing these historic sites, but SEO research is one of the main reasons. Once can find old versions of both their site as well as competitors for comparison purposes. Additionally, some owners who purchased sites or domains from others may have found that Google has their Web page on the “naughty list” based on what their page used to display by the previous owners.

The Wayback Machine provides a way to have these old pages removed from their archive so that Google can’t index them. If you feel that you may have purchased a domain that was in violation of Google’s guidelines prior to your purchase, you might want to check out the Wayback Machine to be sure.

Matt Cutts from Google previewed the Wayback Machine during a site review in 2009 at Pubcon. He stated at that time that it is a good idea for all site owners to review the sites and domains they plan to purchase there before they purchase them.

In 1996 the Internet Archive was founded to help build an Internet library. The Internet Archive is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to build a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. The Archive collaborates with institutions including the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian.

In 2001 the Internet Archive released the Wayback Machine calling it “an historical archive of preserved web pages. ” The archive of pages goes back to 1996. The original Wayback Machine interface was released in 2001 with about 10 billion pages. They recently released, in Beta, a new interface to the Wayback Machine.

The new system is designed to be faster than the original Wayback Machine.  The two other biggest differences you’re likely to notice are the new toolbar on archived pages, and the new look of the calendar of page captures.

You can check out the Wayback Machine with this url: waybackmachine.org. The original Internet Archive can still be searched using this URL: web.archive.org.

How This Can Be Used to Help with SEO

There are many uses for viewing these historic sites, but SEO research is one of the main reasons. Once can find old versions of both their site as well as competitors for comparison purposes. Additionally, some owners who purchased sites or domains from others may have found that Google has their Web page on the “naughty list” based on what their page used to display by the previous owners.

The Wayback Machine provides a way to have these old pages removed from their archive so that Google can’t index them. If you feel that you may have purchased a domain that was in violation of Google’s guidelines prior to your purchase, you might want to check out the Wayback Machine to be sure.

Matt Cutts from Google previewed the Wayback Machine during a site review in 2009 at Pubcon. He stated at that time that it is a good idea for all site owners to review the sites and domains they plan to purchase there before they purchase them.

It’s Good To Be King

The #1 position in Google was shown to generate twice as much traffic as the #2 position. With #1 driving in 34.35 percent of the traffic, being #1 equaled the amount generated by positions 2, 33, 4 and 55 combined. It was shocking to find how big of a jump the traffic volume was from #1 to #2 and when looking at the sites below #2 it was astonishing. (view the survey here)

One of the largest changes in traffic volume came from the bottom of page one in the 10^th spot to the top of page two, the 11^th spot. There was a 143 percent decrease from #10 (but on page one) to #11 (but on page two). Although the base traffic number was low (1.11 percent for 11^th place and 2.71 percent for 10^th) the results were still very dramatic.

What Does This Mean?

This basically means that (a) you want to get on the first page of Google’s search results pages and (b) you want to achieve position #1 for your targeted keywords if at all possible. With #1 holding 34.35 percent of the traffic volume and #2 holding only 16.96 percent it doesn’t make it a very tight race for traffic. Studies have shown that the first five results that come up in the search engine results for any given keyword are generally the ones most often clicked. Most people do not ever leave that first page, so #11 is in serious danger of being invisible to its targeted market.

How To Get Better Results

Follow the guidelines set forth by Google for SEO and constantly update your site with new, unique and compelling content. Be sure that you steer away from any Black Hat methods for SEO and, of course, have something on your site that people want, that they can use, or at the very least that will entertain them.;

We define Black Hat SEO as follows:

“Techniques that are used to get higher search rankings in an unethical manner. These black hat SEO techniques usually include one or more of the following characteristics: breaks search engine rules and regulations; creates a poor user experience directly because of the black hat SEO techniques utilized on the Web site; unethically presents content in a different visual or non-visual way to search engine spiders and search engine users. “

Google offers a 32-page manual covering those SEO methods and techniques that it finds acceptable (more). If you are a business who wants to simple promote yourselves via the Web, you really should follow these guidelines. There are many marketers out there that will offer instant success, tons of traffic generated to your site and increased visibility in the search engines results, but you should beware.

“If it sounds too good to be true…it probably is!”

While some Black Hat SEO methods have been proven to generate traffic in the short term, they also have been proven to diminish the reputation of many sites that use them. Google developed its guidelines to prevent shady business sites from gaining leverage while using Black Hat methods and techniques and they do enforce them.

Black Hat SEO can be found everywhere. Just look at some of the comments left under blogs or articles across the Internet. You will notice that even the comments that seem to be genuine are filled with useless “tags” with keyword stuffing or links that are irrelevant to the topic at hand.

With the search engines becoming more aware of “link farms,” “link Exchange programs,” “keyword stuffing” and “cloaking” you can expect that the penalties will become more severe for those who use these techniques. In order to stay in good graces with the search engines, use accepted SEO techniques and campaigns and gain your PageRank honestly and properly to ensure long-term positive results for your site.

There are times when using Flash is important to your site and when Flash is the right technology for communicating certain content. If you feel you have to use it, then avoid placing it anywhere in the critical path of the site navigation. Otherwise using Flash may require you to maintain a unique HTML version of those pages for the search engines to be able to index – not to mention for the 20+ million users on iPhones and iPads.

Two Web Sites In One?

Ifyou think this sounds like a lot of work, you’re right, it is. And it might not be practical or worth it. The main problem is not even that you have to maintain separate sets of HTML pages. The main problem is that your site runs the risk of being flagged by the search engines for what is called “cloaking” – providing more than one set of content for one page URL. This can get your site removed from the search engines indexing. (See our post on Black Hat SEO.)

You are better off to use JavaScript to detect Flash-friendly plugins and stay away from techniques that could hurt you with the search engines. Also keep in mind that when creating an HTML version to your Flash page you will be responsible for redirecting your traffic. This basically means that the search engine ‘spiders’ will refer users to your HTML pages and send traffic there. You will have to take on the responsibility to redirect that traffic to your Flash page as appropriate.

All in all using Flash can create more work for the Web site owner as well as run the risk of being flagged for cloaking by the search engines. Unless you have to have the Flash on your site it is best to avoid it except in ways that do not generate these issues.

As Facebook announced its new messaging system that was to be a replacement for Gmail, Google retaliated by announcing their “HotPot” that is a search engine-based system that will recommend sites based on what users and their friends “Like.”

How It Works

HotPot will look at the data in Google Places (more) as well as reviews and ratings that you and your friends have compiled and based on that information will recommend places you might also “Like.”

For this to work Google will need reviews and ratings from you and your friends; they have a large amount of data to use at the moment but as more is added the more precise the results will be. A HotPot rating application has been created that will allow you to rate the places you visit and enable you to invite your friends to it as well. The rating application can be used online as well as through your Android moblie device.

Online you can go to http://www.google.com/hotpot and do a search and begin rating right away. You will notice a filter in searches made in “Places” that shows you the ratings related to that search.

You will have to sign up for a “Places” nickname. Even though HotPot is related to your Google account they are not using the same account information. Since Google ratings and reviews will only show up in the Places profile and not on the Google profile of the user, the names are different for privacy reasons.

Firstly, what is Black Hat SEO. We define this as follows:

“Techniques that are used to get higher search rankings in an unethical manner. These black hat SEO techniques usually include one or more of the following characteristics: breaks search engine rules and regulations; creates a poor user experience directly because of the black hat SEO techniques utilized on the Web site; unethically presents content in a different visual or non-visual way to search engine spiders and search engine users. “

The main purpose of SEO is to increase visibility and traffic to a Web site and its pages and some black hat methods will do just that. The unfortunate thing about these methods is that even though they work short term, the long term repercussions can be devastating.

Google publishes their rules for SEO in the Webmaster guidelines and offers everything you need to know to optimize your Web pages properly for higher ranking. You might be surprised to find out what Google considers to be bad SEO practice. See below for some of the tactics that are causing Google to block sites from indexing and ultimately showing up in the search results.

• Hidden Text: The most common method for hiding text is to make the font the same color as the pages’ background, this makes it invisible to readers but most search engines know how to easily spot this trick. Hiding text through trickery, within links or in any way is considered unethical and will cause your site to be flagged and even removed from the search engines index.
• Cloaking: This method never works; sending alternative content to a search engines spider and having different content on your Web page is a huge penalty and will get you flagged.
• Keyword Stuffing: We have all ran across the sites that seem to over use and even abuse their keywords. Google and other major search engines have created keyword density guidelines that every Web owner should follow. It is obnoxious as well as ineffective to overly stuff keywords into content that is irrelevant on your site. Keyword stuffing violates the guidelines set forth by the search engines and penalties can be harsh.
• Link Farms: Link farms are Web sites that are created for the sole purpose of gaining popularity on other sites by adding useless links by the hundreds. Most instances porn, pill and MLM sites are involved with link farms and these are not sites you want to be associated with for good Google rankings. Having irrelevant links to your site or on your site will get you nowhere with the search engines and perhaps in some cases blacklisted.

These are only a few examples of Black Hat SEO techniques There are plenty more out there. If you want long lasting results that gain you respect within your industry and higher ranking within the major search engines, avoid these and any other Black Hat SEO practices like the plaque.