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Yesterday at Searchology, Google showed off some of its new tools to make the web a little easier to navigate, by viewing search results in new ways. One of these methods is Search Options. It now appears at the top of your search results just below the query box.
It allows you to filter results by type of results (video, forums and reviews) as well as by date, so you can see more topical and recent results. There are also some new ways to slice and dice your results...
Wonder Wheel, a type of visual concept map, is a cool new feature that puts related topics in a visual wheel, with the original query appearing in the centre. If you want to see a text version of the related queries, simply click on “Related searches” to get this…
You can see the video here:
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Yesterday I was having a conversation with a friend who asked if Twitter was good for optimization purposes. My answer was the wonderfully ambiguous, “Well, yes and no.”
We’ll start with the no part.
Twitter, like many other social media sites, adds a “nofollow” attribute to all outbound links. Google, Yahoo and MSN exclude links listed as “nofollow” links from their algorithmic calculations. One of the few search engines that ignores the “nofollow” command is Ask.com, which has a small part of the search engine market share. So, try as you may, linking to your site or your blog will not increase your number of incoming links.
But all is not lost.
In an interview at WebProNews, Joe Whyte said, “I tend to think that link value is still passed but at a much lower value. We also know that these links do get picked up and put into Google's and Yahoo's backlink checker and we know that nofollow still allows spiders to cache and index, which is still great.”
And yesterday, things got even better as Twitter's new VP of Operations, Santosh Jayaram, who incidentally was VP of Search Quality for Google, announced that Twitter will soon be crawling and indexing links.
This means Twitter will go beyond tracking conversations and enter a new phase of real-time search. As well, Twitter Search will get “get a reputation ranking system. That means that not all tweets will be equal; rank will be calculated for each twitterer, probably based on several criteria such as number of followers, number of retweets and so forth.” (From Mashable)
I suspect that just as Google uses domain age, no doubt length of Twitter use will play a part as well.
It’s a very exciting and potentially huge development.
The bottom line is brand recognition and visibility. You can use Twitter to create community and share your latest post. The site visitors can then share and bookmark your post through Sphinn, Buzz Up, StumbleUpon or any other number of tools. Additionally, as you build your community, “RTs” (retweets) help spread and maximize your message, getting it out to more and more audiences. And don’t forget that Twitter has just become an even better resource for keyword research. Use it to better understand your market and what they are looking for.
If you are looking at Twitter from a pure Google PageRank angle, no it is not going to help with optimization… but going beyond and looking at how interactions with your community can help create a more solid relationship with your potential customers and attract people to your website, then Twitter is fantastic for optimizing your site.
Zoonini Web Services and I put together a public service announcement to answer the age-old question “Do I need a Flash intro?”
Don’t get us wrong – we love Flash, when it’s used correctly to inspire, inform and engage your site visitors. It can create a slick, professional look. But a Flash intro is the equivalent of trying to bulldoze your visitor with a commercial about you, you, you. (Usually with bad techno music - the horror!) And, to boot, a Flash intro can be counterproductive to any web site optimization.
Your website isn’t about imposing YOUR experience. It’s about building a compelling, informative experience. If you are thinking about a Flash intro ask yourself this:
Does the Flash intro interfere with my visitor’s ability to access the information they are looking for?
Flash intros create a block between your great content and your potential customer’s to access it. Why would you want to do that?
Approximately nine years ago I was working at LookSmart on a project called LookSmart Live. Similar to Ask Yahoo, people would send in their online stumpers and our team would do our best to dig up the answers on the Internet. The search skills I honed at LookSmart Live have served me well, as on a daily basis, I’m scouring the Web, conducting research for clients or getting information to write about a particular topic. (And, of course, looking for the occasional recipe.)
I thought I would put together some of the tricks I’ve learned over the years that make my job of finding things a lot easier. Generally speaking, search engines exclude “stop words”. (the, for, a) As well, uppercase and lowercase don’t really matter. For example, searching for “Turkey” or “turkey” yields the same results.
Let's start with some basics:
brownie recipes
This is the way most people search - by entering their keyword phrase in Google. This sort of query returns results that mention both “brownie” and/or “recipes” on the same page, or in the browser title or incoming links.
“brownie recipes”
By putting double quotes around a set of words, you get search results for the exact phrase you are looking for. (Often called "an exact phrase match.")
brownie OR recipes
Using the Boolean command “OR” tells Google to search for pages that have either “brownie” or “recipes” in the title, in in-bound links or in the body of the copy.
brownie recipes –walnuts
The negative search term uses the subtract sign to exclude words. For instance, this search will return pages with “brownie” and “recipes” but exclude pages with the word “walnuts.” (For all you walnut haters out there.)
brownie recipes ~good
Through the mighty tilde (~) you can add synonyms. This search will return results that include synonyms for “good”, like “best” in the body of the copy or in the title or incoming links.
brownies site:epicurious.com
This command allows me to search a particular site for a brownie recipe, in this case the Epicurious.com Web site.
intitle:"brownie recipes"
Using the intitle command allows me to search for brownie recipes (I’ve used the quotes to ensure both words) in browser title. If I wanted to restrict my search to pages with “brownie recipes” in the title of the Web page and that were a specific file type, such as a PDF, I would add the “filetype:” command afterward. Like this: intitle:"brownie recipes" filetype:pdf
inurl:brownie recipes
This command restricts the search to words found in the URL.
inanchor:brownie recipes
This command allows you to search for these phrases in anchor text, the text-based link clicked on to go to a web page.
Random Search Tips
Need to know the time somewhere else in the world? Just type the word “time” before the location:
time Melbourne
Get weather information the same way:
weather Toronto
Local search
Use the postal code or city name to find local results - for example poutine H4A 1E9
Vertical Search
Don’t forget Google verticals – they can save so much time. Search for:
News
Blogs
Images
Video
Books
Financial/market information
There are tons of other tricks and tips, so this post will be continued...
Hot on the heels of updating its own favicon (short for “favorites icon”) to mixed reviews, Google confirmed that it was testing the use of favicons in search results for select users. (A favicon is that 16x16 pixel square icon –usually a “mini-logo”- for any given website that appears in your web browser’s URL bar.)
Marketing VOX noted:
The change, if unrolled nationwide, will yield favicons a potentially high number of free impressions resulting from search. It will also add color and variety to Google's search results, which have statistically benefited from "blending": the process of incorporating different media, including images, company reviews, maps and videos, into standard text results.
Colour and variety – why should it matter? Because, we are inherently visual beings. Imagine scanning a list of search results for “winter boots” and you saw a logo that you vaguely recognized – maybe an online retailer like Zappos (which sports a large Z favicon) or a manufacturer like Kamik, whose favicon is an inukshuk.
Would you be more drawn to something that you’ve seen before, even if you couldn’t quite remember where?
The brand-building/web-presence aspect of the favicon is underestimated. When push comes to shove, favicons are visual shortcuts that jog our memory.
These little “brand bits” are everywhere. In the URL area of web browser, in our browser bookmarks lists, in our web browser tabs, in RSS feeds, and on and on. They may be small, but it doesn’t diminish their significance.
Back in November, The New York Times reported that Rosellina Ferraro, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Maryland, and her research into fleeting glimpses of logos.
Subjects were shown 20 photographs of people in various situations and instructed to focus on facial expressions. What they didn’t know was that somewhere in 12 of those photos there was also a bottle of Dasani water. Afterward, each subject was offered a bottle of water from a selection of four brands. About 17% of those who looked at Dasani-free pictures, chose that brand. But about 40% of those who viewed a group of pictures that included a Dasani presence made the brand their pick.
“In essence,” Ferraro says, “we have these brief social encounters fairly regularly, and they may have an impact on our choices.”
So, if Google does roll out a new search results format that includes favicons, those 256 pixels could make a significant difference.
If you haven’t seen it, check out this video in which Derren Brown turns the table on some agency guys.
 to mixed reviews, Google confirmed that it …&topic=Online Content Tips Visual Things){kind=small}
Think about your last vacation. Where did you stay – a hotel, an inn, or a bucolic resort? Were they on Twitter? Probably not. Only a handful of places in the hospitality industry seem to be. (If you know of any, please leave their Twitter names in the comments section.) Why should a travel destination be on Twitter, you ask? Well, if Deerhurst Resort’s (@DeerhurstResort) experience is anything to go by, there are a whack of reasons – everything from brand awareness to customer service to market intelligence to just plain fun.
Yesterday, I spoke with Deerhurst Resort’s Director of Communications Anne White about the resort’s foray into social media.
Twitter is still relatively new to many businesses, why did Deerhurst Resort make the decision to get into social media marketing?
More and more, people are planning and booking travel online and so we were receptive to online marketing channels. Twitter was the most interesting because it provides an immediacy that other channels simply cannot.
Travel is often a discretionary spend, and particularly in these economically tough times, we wanted to take advantage of any opportunity we could to connect with our customers, showcase our destination and personalize the Deerhurst brand.
We're an independent property, so staying ahead of the curve in this space is very important to us. It gives Deerhurst a way to demonstrate our customer-focus by being able to send greeting to customers, respond to questions, issues… everything, both good and bad. So, last November we created the account.
Are you involved in any other social media?
Aside from online travel forums, we started our online activities with a Deerhurst Resort YouTube channel. We’ve just launched a brand new Facebook fan page with partners for our winter destination, Ski Muskoka. Now we're exploring Twitter. As we add customer touchpoints, we want to make sure that each one is successful, adding value and working well before we go onto the next.
Do you use any online or offline methods to advertise your Twitter presence?
We just added a Twitter link to the homepages of the Deerhurst website as well as our partner site Ski Muskoka at the start of this month. We're also adding Twitter to more of our email signatures. As the “chief twit", I will definitely be adding our Twitter name to my business cards!
Why did you decide to be the Deerhurst spokesperson on Twitter?
I already work with our director of sales and our SEO team on our database emails as well as manage our content on travel sites, forums and so forth, so I was the logical choice. Plus, I'm personally keen on web 2.0 and how it's affecting the traditional PR and marketing roles. But I also get a lot of support from across the resort – the staff sends me bits of daily news, ideas, tips and recipes, so the whole team contributes in that way.
Did you set any Twitter guidelines – the type of messaging, the tone, etc?
We knew it had to be friendly, fun and interesting. I think the fact that there is a 140-character limit, that sort of brevity pushes you to interact in a way that is more captivating and more personable. Our Twitter voice had to reflect our "classic Muskoka" brand in an informal, helpful way.
We want to listen and learn first, always. Make it as much of a one-on-one conversation as we can, like you're talking to a trusted friend or travel insider, and not just promoting a product. Yes, promote our town, destination and area happenings as well as the resort but don’t be invasive.
What challenges or successes have you experienced with Twitter?
On the success side, it’s given us the chance to engage with potential customers and send them specific answers and details about various offers. I can use Twitter to search for terms like “Muskoka” or “skiing” and send a potential guest information directly, if they want it. Every day I answer questions about what you can do at or around Deerhurst.
We can also respond to existing customers more easily and more immediately with answers to their queries or customer service issues in a way that we might not be able via our website or other traditional means.
Another upside has been the real time opportunity to observe and question hospitality industry leaders and top Twitters, as well as find out what our potential customers are looking for in a getaway now. We can use Twitter to spot travel trends.
As far as challenges go, I guess learning how Twitter works, like a lot of other Tweeple we're new here. Secondly, time allocation - making sure that new followers are responded to in a timely fashion and keeping up with the tweets.
But in the few months that we’ve been on Twitter it has been such a positive step. And it would be a shame not to be there, because we’d be missing out. There’s an evolution, and our new customers will be the ”digital natives” – it’s our next generation of guests.
How does Deerhurst define "Twitter success"?
Right now it's about engagement, awareness and thinking about the customer. For instance, we monitor the sort of questions we get and then look to see if there are gaps in our communications. For example, over the winter I’ve received the most questions about our dog-sledding and snowmobiling activities, which was a bit of a surprise because skiing is a better-known winter sport. So, we’ll use this information to update our website and communicate some of the answers that weren’t there.
In the future as we begin to post Twitter-specific offers, contests etc. it will become more quantified in terms of site traffic, return site visits and, hopefully eventually, bookings. But we're definitely pleased with the value versus investment so far. And of course, I'd like to earn an "A" from Twitter Grader too, but that's me!
Additional Resources
Here are some Twitter tracking and measurement tools that Anne sent via email as additional resources:
• TweetLater
• Trackur
• Twitterberry
The friendly folks at Google have put out a really informative video that deserves a watch (or two or three). If you've ever been mildly flummoxed by the concept of duplicate content, or wondered how to make a better, more Google-friendly site, this video is for you.
1) Can you survive for 24 hours without your computer? That's the premise behind the global experiment called Shutdown Day, happening on May 3.
2) Iain Tait from Crackunit.com is doing one better than Shutdown Day. He's going Luddite by doing without electronics for Mental Detox Week and documenting the ups-and-downs in a very creative way.
3) One of my favourite bloggers threw in the towel this week. Copyranter declared that he's done, saying that the blog takes up too much time.
Five days later, he announced that he was back with his intentions to blog for AnimalNewYork, and restart Copyranter, albeit with a less frequent publishing schedule. And the world is a better place again.
4) Are you a good story teller? Do you know all about customer experience? Like crunching stats? You're in luck, Edelman's Steve Rubel says you may be perfect for one of Three Emerging Digital Careers to Watch.
5) In Language and Mashups, Ike Pigott at Occam's RazR ponders whether the portmanteau (or Frankenword), like Freakonomics, is more pervasive in American English than elsewhere.
6) Speaking of Frankenstein, Collin Douma at RadicalTrust tells us about PETA Crowdsourcing In Vitro Meat offering a $1 million prize to the participant "able to make the first in vitro chicken meat fit to sell to the public."
7) Typesetting as an art has changed radically with the proliferation of digital publishing. While tiny drawers of little letters may be obsolete now, the concepts of how to make text is appealing to the eye remains. SmashingMagazine.com gives us 5 Principles And Ideas Of Setting Type On The Web.
8) Facebook launched its chat application to everyone this week, allowing you to see which of your friends are online and start a conversation. Mashable gives us the highlights.
9) Is it any surprise that Google was named world's No. 1 brand? The Guardian reports on research company Milward Grown's study of the 100 Most Powerful Brands of 2008.
10) If blogger outreach is part of your PR plan, follow-up is essential. Tom Pick from Socialmediatoday.com has some great advice to improve your chances of success.
Friday Fun
You too can sound scholarly with titles like this "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity." Neatorama tells us about the Post Modern Essay Generator.
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