Google Mayday Update – Is Affiliate Long-Tail Traffic The Target?

BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News

Google Mayday Update – Is Affiliate Long-Tail Traffic The Target?

After you have been marketing online or running a website for so long,
Google sort of becomes everyone’s whipping boy. Anything goes wrong
– just blame Google. Last week I told you about Google changing the
title of one of my sites – well they are now displaying the original
title again.

But this was more of my own fault because I had inadvertently
added links which changed the layout of my site, but no harm done
since it’s now back to the right title I want displayed in Google.

So you should read the following information in the same light, while
it is so easy to blame Google – you still have to find ways to
work with Google if you want to succeed on here.

That said…

Since last summer when Google first gave webmasters an example Sandbox
of Google Caffeine, small online marketers like myself knew things were
about to change and change in a big way. Google from the beginning of
this year has slowly been implementing the Caffeine Update or changes
into its index.

Hardest hit seems to be the long-tail affiliate keywords… or rather
sites with high rankings in Google for long-tail keywords have seen a drop
– sometimes just a few places down or even off the first page altogether.
Remember, there is not much traffic coming to these long-tail keywords
phrases in the first place, so any movement down can spell disaster for
your bottom line.

From the beginning of April and into May – I have seen a drop of 5% to 10%
in my traffic… while this is quite normal and nothing to worry about,
traffic to my main site regularly swings up or down 4,000 or 5,000 in a month.
However, the traffic that has dropped this time is made up mostly of the
lucrative long-tail keywords, which is totally troublesome to say the least.

But I am not alone in this… many online marketers and webmasters are
seeing the same thing. Here is a popular thread at Webmasterworld.


www.webmasterworld.com/google/4125460-11-30.htm


To compound the problem of the Mayday Update, Google has gone and changed
its whole SERPS interface by adding the left side column and countless new
functions or features on that first landing page.

This is probably in response to the perceived threat from the upcoming union
of Bing and Yahoo. Real or imagined, Google is pulling out all the stops to
meet this competition head-on. Unfortunately, all these changes are playing
havoc on how surfers are now behaving when they search for something in Google.

There are so many options, surfers no longer have to rely only on organic
search results – they can use images, videos, news and even use the shopping
function, which totally wipes the online marketer with an information website
out of the picture.

From a marketing perspective, all these new features and updates changes
how to get your links onto Google’s first page for popular keywords. Did you
know that by making a video and placing it on YouTube… you can instantly
get on that first page for some popular keywords.

That’s why I have in the last year started including videos in all my
marketing, it is an easy way to get on that first page in Google. It could
take months to get there by the old SEO routes but a good video can get you
there in minutes.

Another quick way is News Items and Press Releases, while these are only
temporary, you can get on that first page in Google for your chosen keywords.
Plus, Google’s new SERPS interface is more interactive so searchers will no
doubt stay on that first page longer, increasing the chances your links will
be clicked.

Using and creating images with your keywords in them is another way to get
traffic in the new improved Google. It is something you should be doing.

But back to the long-tail keywords and the Mayday Update, some marketers
are saying it is this new Google interface which is causing the drop in
this long-tail traffic, especially when surfers now have the choice to
have Google’s results displayed with all shopping links or with less
shopping links.

In some cases, with many of my keywords, in the non-shopping links
– my links are displayed the highest or much higher than in the
“everything” display. It will take some further fine-tuning in order
to optimize your content for all of Google’s new functions.

If you want to read more about the MayDay Update and the new Google Interface,
I have written another one of my longer articles… which you can find here:


Google Mayday Update: A Surgical Cut To Affiliate Long Tail Traffic?



Helping You Succeed Online Since 2002!

Kind Regards,
Titus

https://www.bizwaremagic.com

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What To Do When Google Messes Up The Title Of Your Site

BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News


What To Do When Google Messes Up The Title Of Your Site

In the past, I have always found it helpful to read about
other people’s problems with Google and how they solved them.
Maybe this won’t happen to you but in case it does, reading
about my experiences and mistakes might help you avoid them.

Yesterday morning, while nervously waiting for Google Caffeine
to drip into place, I got a rude awakening of just how abrupt some
of Google’s constant changes can bring to an online marketer.

Imagine this scenario: You have a site in Google’s index for over
four years which is ranked on the first page for some very competitive
keywords. Suddenly, one morning you check your rankings and they
have gone up a few notches but…


Google has changed the “Title” of your site in their index.


Google is no longer pulling the title from your “Title Tag” – the
name and words you want in the title and which has been in the Google
index for over 4 years. Instead Google has spidered your site’s main
page and pulled a generic title from your content.

Ouch!

Why does this matter? What’s the big deal you’re asking?

It’s a big deal mainly because I start my marketing funnel right
in the Google Serps, this is my first contact with potential
clients. You must pull in the right visitors to your site, visitors
who are of the right mind-set to buy a product or service.

Over the years, I have learned getting top rankings in Google for
lucrative keywords are only the first step in your marketing process.
Next, you have to have the right title and description in Google in
order to bring or attract the right visitors to your site.


I will explain further…


The site in question is a comparison shopping type site, where for
years the title said something like: Comparison of Product A Features/Prices

Then Google changes the Title to: What is Product A?

My site goes from being a comparison shopping site to an educational
site in the minds of those reading Google Serps. Bad news… very
bad news.

With this new title, my site is not only attracting the wrong kind of
visitor, but it goes from competing with small like-minded comparison sites
to competing with big sites like Wikipedia.

That’s probably a bit of an exaggeration but not really. It totally
messes up my marketing funnels for that site. Actually it cuts the
marketing down to just about nil since your conversion rates will
go down if you’re not attracting buyers.

Now, while it is very easy to blame Google for this change, I have
long learned – 9 times out of 10 – it is probably the webmaster or
marketer’s own doings which has caused the problem.

I have also learned when anything goes wrong, you have to first do,
a very detailed analysis of any changes you have made to any of your pages.
And I did make some changes to my index page for this site in question…

I added a link to an education site which is probably a big no-no in
Google’s mind. If you have a shopping comparison site… you should
not be pointing to a .edu site. This probably confused the robot in
some matter or triggered the nature of my site in the eyes of Google.

While checking this matter out further, I discovered that Google doesn’t have
to use your “Title Tag” at all. It can list your site anyway it sees
fit. Or rather it doesn’t have to accept your title if it believes
the page doesn’t relate to your title. It can comb the page and
decide a new Title for it… usually words appearing somewhere on
your page. Big Brother knows best and you have to play by his rules.

Here’s an interesting page from Google on this:


Google on Titles

I knew from the beginning that my title for that page was over the 65-70
characters allowed in Google, but Google would always list it and put
in the “…” at the end. Yahoo allows up to 120 characters and
that’s the reason I had the longer title in the first place.

Now, in the past with other web sites, changing the title of your
page in Google’s Index is no big deal. Usually after a few days, once
Google has spidered your page again, the new title appears in that
all-important index. I am chalking up the lost sales as a bad
mistake on my part.

I have made changes to the site in question and I wait anxiously
for Google to change the title back to the comparison shopping
angle which is truly what this site is all about. It does have
an educational element to it but that’s because I want any customers
to be fully informed about the products in question.

For me as an online marketer that first impression in Google’s Index
is crucial to my whole marketing process. And if you’re into selling
anything online or if you just want to attract the right targeted
visitors to your site – having the proper title and description are
essential to the success of your site.

You MUST give a lot of time and consideration to your title tag
and description. It is extremely important for attracting the right
type of visitor to your site. Get this wrong and even a #1 spot
in Google can be useless!

Here’s a handy little tool and site which will help you create your
titles and descriptions for search engines, mainly Google.


www.seomofo.com/snippet-optimizer.html



Use this tool to create your titles…

Then learn from my mistake and make sure your content and links
on your page is truly relevant to your title. Repeat your title
on the page in the “H1” headline is a good starting point, just keep
all content on topic so that Google’s robots and Algorithm doesn’t get
confused and mislabel your site.


Helping You Succeed Online Since 2002!

Kind Regards,
Titus

https://www.bizwaremagic.com

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Google Gives More Search Data To Webmasters

BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News


Google Gives More Search Data To Webmasters

You have probably heard about this already but it is very important,
especially if you’re like me and into search engine marketing.
Google thru its Webmaster Tools program is now sharing very detailed
search data for each individual search query made to your site.

What it means is this:

Say you have a site on “golfing” or “golf”.

You can now go to your Webmaster Tools account and click on a keyword
query such as “best golf clubs” which web surfers would use to find your
site.

Google will give you a break-down of its own search data:

– number of impressions

– your clickthrough rate (how many surfers click thru to your site)

– list of your site’s pages that were linked to in the results


Assuming all these numbers and data are accurate (there is a big discussion
going on right now, whether or not Google’s data is totally accurate), it will
give webmasters and marketers some useful information. It can help you improve
your conversion rate to get more visitors – which is the object of the game.

But a word of caution, don’t take anything coming from Google or any other
site on the web as gospel. I always like to compare any data with my own
web stats and weblogs… always make it a practice to cross-reference your
important stats with other sources.

Besides using your own site stats and Webmasters Tools, use Google Analytics,
use Alexa data, use your Adwords and your Adsense data… plus all your performance
reports from all your different affiliate networks you’re using like Commission
Junction.

By checking all these different sources, you will get a more comprehensive
view of how well your site is doing in regards to traffic and your visitors.

Regardless of how accurate it is, this new search data coming from Google is
well worth checking out and analyzing. Mainly because just increasing your
conversion numbers by a few notches can mean many more visitors to your site.

If you want to find out more about this topic and what it can mean for your
site, I suggest you check out this great page on WebProNews here:


If you’re not using Google’s Webmaster Tools, I more strongly suggest
you get it here:

Google Webmaster Tools


Helping You Succeed Online Since 2002!

Kind Regards,
Titus

https://www.bizwaremagic.com

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help spread the word – recommend this content by using
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