The plan includes removing keywords from “referer” data. Read on to learn what referer data is, why I’m misspelling that word, and what Google is changing.

When you visit a webpage, your computer sends various bits of information along to that webpage that you never see. These are called headers. One of the headers is the referer. The referer header tells the site you are visiting where you came from. When you click a link your browser tells the page you land on the address of the page you came from.

The reason it gets spelled “referer” instead of “referrer” is that this misspelling was included in the original specifications for the web, back in 1996. I think it’s a fun bit of internet trivia, but I’ll go back to spelling the word correctly now.

Now, when you do a search on Google or other search engines, the words you search for are included in the address. For example, a Google search for [how to play chess] would take you to an address like:

http://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+play+chess

That’s a nice way to do it because then people can link to specific searches. Also, when you click a link after searching, the site you visit is told the address you came from in the referrer header. That lets site owners track what search terms brought people to their website.

That seems harmless enough, but consider another example. Say someone in Syria or Iran were to search for [how to topple an autocratic regime]. Suddenly this whole situation gets serious. That kind of search could get them arrested, or worse.

And, it’s not just the site you visit that can see your searches. Your internet provider can too. Here in the US, our providers snoop into our traffic to mine data that’s sold to advertisers and such. In countries with dictatorial leaders… well, you can imagine.

So, Google is rolling out encryption on searches. Soon, anyone who is logged into a Google account and does a search from the main Google page will have their searches automatically encrypted. This is really great for privacy. They will also be removing all referrer data when you click a search result. Again, good for privacy, but webmasters won’t be able to see what search terms brought traffic to their site.

This has the SEO community up in arms. (Well, this and another little tidbit to be discussed below.) We pay a lot of attention to the keywords that are bringing in traffic. That’s one of the best metrics we have to judge the success of our efforts.

Personally, I’m okay with trading keyword data for better privacy. I believe that the more encryption is used on the web the better. Here’s the kicker, though: Google will pass your search terms on when you click one of their ads.

That’s right, they will protect your privacy unless someone pays them not to. In fact, they’ll be going out of their way to share your search data with advertisers. Normally, when you’re on an encrypted page and click a link to a non-encrypted page your browser will not pass any referrer data. Google will actually be rigging things such that you will send referrer data to advertisers.

All the keyword data isn’t going to just go away. Probably less than 10% of searches will get encrypted this way. If you have a website, be sure you’re making use of this data. You can find the report in Google Analytics under Content » Keywords. In the long term, we might have to look for other metrics. Time will tell.

This post first appeared in my small business email newsletter’s Halloween edition. Sign up with the form at the upper left to get a useful article in your inbox each month.

Often times when someone searches for a local business, or category of businesses, Google will show a “7 Box” of local results along with a map. The normal results generally come after this. For example, here’s what I found after searching for [chapel hill coffee].

If you click on the name of the business you will go to their website. To the right of the name is a tally of reviews and “Place page.” That’s a link to their profile in Google Places.

The Place page is a collection of all sorts of data that Google has collected from around the web like reviews, hours of operation, and pictures. The more information Google can find on the web about a business, the more authoritative that business is, thus bringing it higher in those local search results. In local search, mentioning a business, it’s address and telephone number is like a vote of confidence in that business, just like links are for websites in normal search results.

You’re not at the mercy of what Google can find about you, though. Business owners can claim their listing and manually add content. The more content you add, the more Google likes you. So, get out there and claim your listing, and add as much to it as possible. Do a Google search for your business name and city or find yourself on Google Maps to get to your place page. Then, just click the link at the top right that says “Business owner?”

To prove yourself, Google will call the phone number associated with your listing and have you enter a code. It only takes a few minutes. Plus, once you’ve claimed your listing you’ll be able to see statistics about how often your listing shows up for searchers and how they interact with it.

One caveat: These listings are non-transferable. So, don’t have an employee claim your listing while signed in with their personal Google or Gmail account. Generally, the easiest thing to do is create a new Google account to use for the business, and claim the listing with that account.

When Google first opened their search engine in the late 1990′s it revolutionized the way people found information online. Google came along with a way to show the best results at the top of search results. PageRank (a trademark of Google) is what made this possible. Understanding how it works is vital if you want to make your site show up higher in search engines.

PageRank is a numerical score. The higher the PageRank, the more important and authoritative the web page. It’s assigned to every page that Google indexes. Basically, PageRank is the likelihood that someone clicking links at random will visit a particular page.

Google uses PageRank to figure out what results to show first. It figures out what pages are most relevant to the phrase that was searched for. Then, it filters and sorts those results based on PageRank.

PageRank is calculated by looking at all the links pointing to a given web page. Each link is like a vote of confidence from a third party.

The amount of PageRank gained from a link depends primarily on two things:

• The PageRank of the page the link is on (The authority of the third party)
• The number of links on that page (How discriminating the third party is with their votes.)

Think of PageRank as a liquid– link juice. The higher the PageRank of a page, the more juice it has to spread around. Links are like pipes that share that link juice to other pages. The number of links determines how much juice gets shared with each linked page.

For example, if The White House linked to you from their home page, Google would see you as being very, very important. The White House doesn’t have any links to other websites on their home page, and that page has one of the highest PageRanks around.

If you got a link from some deep page on a no-name site with hundreds of other external links on it, it would do next to nothing for you.

In recent years, Google has gotten more sophisticated in how PageRank gets calculated. Links at the bottom of a page pass less juice than links in the middle of the body text. Also, links found on every page of a site (Run-of-the-Site Links) don’t count for much.

That’s what’s important to understand. Every link is not created equal.

What’s not important is getting caught up on your actual PageRank score. Google won’t tell you the exact score, but they’ll give you a rounded off estimate that’s a few months old if you install their toolbar. That doesn’t do you a lot of good, and PageRank doesn’t take relevance into account anyhow.

What you should keep an eye on is where you show up in actual search results. Go to Google and search for what you offer. Where you show up is what matters, and getting good links can help you move up.

Google sometimes personalizes results based on your past search behavior. If you’re seeing a customized page of results, there will be a link at the bottom of the page labeled “View Customizations.” Click that, and then click the “without these improvements” link to see the raw results.

If you see this link, Google is personalizing the results.

If you want a more exact explanation of PageRank, you can always read the patents that have been filed.

Note that there are also links that don’t pass any juice. If, in the source code of a webpage, a link has the attribute rel=”nofollow” then Google will not transfer any PageRank juice through that link. It’s still good to have those links pointing at your site because people can click them to get to your site and search engines may still use them as clues to the subject of your site.

I’ve tried to make this as simple as possible, but it’s a complicated subject. If you have a question or know something I left out, leave a comment below!

Common Sense SEO For Beginners

Put these 3 quick lessons to work and you’ll be moving in the right direction.

• Lesson 1: Keyword Research is Mandatory, Always
• Lesson 2: Put Your Keywords Where It Counts
• Lesson 3: The Deal With Links

Lesson 1: Keyword Research is Mandatory, Always

Always do your keyword research. This can not be emphasized enough. People are searching for what you offer. They’re using some keywords more than others. You need to know the high traffic keywords for your market.

To get started, I suggest two tools that are free and pretty easy to use.

• Google Insights for Search — This lets you see nice comparative graphs of search traffic for your keywords. It’s perfect for identifying seasonal trends and comparing different keywords. If you scroll down on the page you’ll also see info on various trends, including geographical data.
  Keep an eye on the geographic region you’re targeting to be sure the data is relevant. For example the keyword [kosher deli] gets lots and lots of traffic in the US, but 95% of it is from New York.
• Google Adwords Keyword Tool — Here’s where you’ll really flesh out your keyword list. This tool will spit out a lot of data, and come up with related keywords you might not have thought of.
  Don’t get overwhelmed. The only column you need to worry about is titled Local Monthly Searches. That will give you an approximate number of searches per month in your country and language. If you’re targeting international markets, look at the Global column.
  The Competition column tells you how many people are advertising on that keyword using Google Adwords. This can be a good indicator of how profitable a keyword is.

Spend some time brainstorming all the phrases that someone might type into Google to find your site. Then use the above tools to figure out where the big numbers are.

Lesson 2: Put Your Keywords Where It Matters

Now that you know what keywords pull the most traffic it’s time to put them to use. Use these keywords on your website. Put them in paragraph text, headlines, and page titles. Stick them in your footer. Just don’t repeat them without reason. Spammers are known for putting huge lists of keywords at the bottom of their pages in little tiny text. Search engines know this and will take you right out of the listings if they catch you “keyword stuffing.”

Keep your text geared to the user. Your content is for the user first, and search engines second. Don’t get hung up with your “keyword density” — the amount your keyword is repeated. Just try to use those high volume keywords more often. You’ll want to use them with links to your site too.

Lesson 3: The Deal With Links

Links are vital. I’m talking about links from other websites to your site, and specific pages of your site. Every time a search engine finds a link to your website they count it like a vote of confidence in your site. More links makes your site more authoritative, bringing you more traffic.

Remember your keywords? Use them in the link text, or near it. This tells search engines you’re more relevant for those keywords.

Now there are links that don’t pass SEO juice like this. They are marked to tell search engines not to count them. They have been marked as “NoFollow” links. For example, every link you post on twitter is a “NoFollow” link. The same goes for links in most blog comments.

Obviously these “NoFollow” links can still drive traffic to your site even if they don’t count for SEO. They don’t count as a vote of confidence, but they are natural. If you don’t have any links that have been “NoFollowed” then you’re probably a spammer.

So, if you’re just starting out don’t worry too much about it and just get links. Look for directories related to your site, forums and blogs on your topic. Don’t go posting a ton of links and nothing else, but contribute a meaningful comment or insight and link where it seems reasonable.

For best results, spend some time every week building links. Fresh links are like fresh buzz for your site, and Google will reward you for staying fresh.

Doing a little SEO yourself can be very rewarding. Just remember to do your keyword research and target the words that really matter. Keep all your efforts focused on helping the user and you’ll avoid spam penalties. It could take a few months, but you should be able to move up a few spots in the rankings and boost your traffic just by using the right keywords and building some links.

As promised, here is the web version of my July e-mail newsletter.  Read on to learn how a small business is making more sales now than before the recession! Thanks to SEO & PPC advertising this dog trainer is selling out his high-end program

I bring news of success in this recession.  Best of all, the methods used are accessible to all of you.  If you’re not up to reading all this, scroll on down and at least check out the pictures.  Then, imagine what this could do for your business.

SEO & PPC Case Study: Canine College of Chapel Hill

Gene has been working with dogs for over 25 years.  Locally, he’s known as The Dog Guy.  I have been Webmaster of his website, www.cc-ch.com, since early 2006.

Gene is a skillful marketer in his own right.  He owns the local minor league baseball team’s mascot, Lucky The Wonderdog.  He has self-published a quality children’s story book – also available to read online as a virtual book!  He holds multiple patents on dog related inventions.  Of course, he’s an excellent dog trainer too.

So, what do I do for Gene?  The most important things I do are Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising with Google Adwords.

Background: Canine College of Chapel Hill offers a board and train program.  Drop off your dog for 4 weeks with $1,470 and pick it up afterwards along with follow-up courses.  Well business hadn’t been very good since the economy tanked.  So, Gene asked me to target Raleigh — the largest city nearby.  Canine College is about a half hour from Raleigh, but that’s not a bad drive for a 4 week stay.

The Campaign: I implemented a site-wide SEO strategy focusing on the most important keywords as defined by keyword research.  Monthly adjustments were made and changes in results placement tracked.  A limited amount of link-building was also carried out.

In tandem to this, several geo-targeted Google Adwords campaigns were deployed.  The ads were continually split tested to improve performance.  Additionally keyword performance was tracked and adjustments made on a monthly basis.

Split testing was an integral aspect of the the Adwords campaigns.  By constantly running two slightly different ads side-by-side we were able to determine what copy worked and what didn’t.

Gene did his part too.  Together, we made frequent updates to the content of his site.  Search engines love to see an actively maintained website.

The Results: Gene sold out his Board & Train Program for July at $1470 per dog!  August is almost full already.  Every dog he’s currently training is from Raleigh or Fayetteville.  Gene never got business from Raleigh, let alone Fayetteville, when he relied on the Yellow Pages and posters.  He wasn’t even selling out before the recession!

How? He dominates the search engine results!  Gene’s site is the first result when you google [dog training durham], or [dog training chapel hill].  So far he’s only made it to the top of the second page of results for [dog training raleigh].  Nonetheless, when people search for dog training in Raleigh they can’t miss Gene’s ad above the search results!

Chapel Hill: Canine College gets first ad, first local result, and first organic result

Raleigh: Gene's ad above the search results

Durham: First organic result, Only ad, and a local business result!

Gene is getting 46.91% of his traffic from Google searches.  On top of that, 15.64% comes in from Google Adwords — mostly from Raleigh.  His site gets a good steady stream of traffic for a local business, with over 400 unique visitors in the last 30 days.  The average visitor spends about 3 minutes on the site and looks at 4.7 pages.

He pays under a dollar per click for his ads, on average.  Continual improvements to the ads have taken the click through ratio from 0.5% up to just under 3%. Plenty of those clickers and searchers are converting into happy customers.

Since visitors in Raleigh live too far away to be interested in lessons, the ads shown in Raleigh focus on the in-board program.  When a user clicks the ad it takes them straight to the page about the in-board program.  Searchers nearer by see ads that mention both in-board and lesson programs.

Thanks to a well managed SEO & Google Adwords Campaign, Canine College is moving forward with its expansion plans and is faring the recession well!

If you would like to see your website bring you plenty of business I can’t recommend SEO and PPC methods enough!  Strong placement in search engine results is priceless.  Google Adwords allows you to get on that front page before your SEO has time to work its magic.  Once you’re placing well, the ads continue to strengthen your presence on those results pages.

Contact me today to learn how these strategies could be applied to your company!

This month’s issue will feature a case study. I’ll explain how exactly one of my clients is doing more business now than he was before the recession!

I’m going to go ahead and post the images from this case study now. The full text will go out by e-mail only in the next 48 hours. After a week I’ll post the full text here on this blog. Subscribe to the RSS feed if e-mail isn’t your bag.

WARNING: These images contain graphic depictions of a small business dominating search engine results.  Click at your own risk.

Dominating Search Engine Results - Durham

Dominating Search Engine Results - Chapel Hill

SEO Takes Time. Google Adwords Gives Instant Results!

[Update: Two images were removed, as I realized the results were 'personalized' for me by Google. These images are all the usual results everyone sees.]

Today’s also my birthday.  I’m 29.

One thing that can be confusing at first is the PageRank system used by Google.  Obviously, you would like for your site to be in first place when someone searches for keywords related to your products or services.  So, a PageRank of 1 sounds pretty nice doesn’t it.  Well, it isn’t.

The PageRank system works on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best.  Actually, it works on a much more complicated scale, but the details are a trade secret, as are exact PageRank scores.  Google is kind enough to give us a rounded off version of our PageRank.  Every page on your website may be assigned a PageRank.  It is basically a rating of how authoritative your site is in the eyes of Google.  There aren’t a whole lot of sites with a PageRank of 10.  Not long ago www.apple.com and www.whitehouse.gov were both PageRank 10, but have both fallen to 9.  Google is constantly refining the equations used to calculate PageRank, so there are shifts from time to time.

Okay, so you get what it is, but how does it affect you?  Think about it this way: If two webpages have the same relevancy (that is, they both match the searched terms equally) the one with the higher PageRank will show up first in Google search results.

How do you know what a webpage’s PageRank is? Well, the Google Toolbar will tell you, as will many fine Firefox Extensions.  Those links will open in a new window.

Don’t set your aim at a high PageRank just because it’s high.  You’ll do best to look at the scores of your competitors and aim to beat them, or at least keep pace.

So how do you increase your PageRank?  Links.  Get links.  It’s not just a matter of quantity though.  You’ll need quality links to effectively grow your PageRank.  The best links are from high PageRank pages that are relevant to your own site.  If you sell jewelry you want to get links from sites about jewelry, gemstones, precious metals, or weddings– assuming you sell engagement rings.

Want to know how to get these kinds of quality links?  Well that’s a topic for another day.   Why not subscribe to my RSS feed, or monthly eNewsletter to make sure you stay informed!

I started using Google as my primary search engine early on.  It was still in the beta testing phase.  You’ll notice some Google features have a ‘beta’ indicator in the upper left by their logo.  This means they are not considered a final product, or release quality, yet.  Final testing is being carried out to work out the last of the bugs.  All quality software products, and web applications go through this process.

But Beta versions don’t come out of thin air.  Google is kind enough to offer us an easy way to explore the latest search and web technologies they are working on.  If you dig deep enough, you’ll find it: Google Labs – http://labs.google.com .  From the main Google Search web page you have to click “More” then “Even More” then “Google Labs” will show up.

The Google Labs website lets you try out experimental web-based features before they make it into the official Google lineup.  You can explore the surface of Mars using the Google Maps interface.  There’s a search engine for the visually impaired.  Web developers and programmers of all sorts can search vast quantities of source code.  There’s also a list of Google Labs Graduates, which includes most Google features.

So, what inspired me to babble about this on the internet, for the world to see?  I just checked out Google Labs and found two new features…

There is an audio search tool that lets you search for web video where politicians have discussed your search terms.  You can type in any topic or issue and get relevant video of presidential candidates making statements on that topic.  It even marks on the seek bar of the video where your search terms are spoken.

The other new feature is also useful during an election.  It is a quotation search and comparison tool.  You can pick two politicians (guess who the defaults are) and type in some issues and Google will find you quotations from each person on each issue.  You can look at them side by side, and they are presented with cited source and link to full article.  There’s even a spin button to get another pair of statements.

Have fun with Google Labs.  If you’re still making up your mind on the elections, check out these new tools.  If you’ve made up your mind, then get out there and vote.  Early voting is the way to go, and here in North Carolina it has already started.  To find out details you can visit your local Board of Elections office.  Statewide information can be found by searching for “NC sboe” (replace NC with your state name) and your local early voting information can be found on your county BoE website, so search for “orange county, NC boe” or substitute your county.

Hope you have a great day!

I’m working furiously away at building this site, so please check back soon.

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