Google Ranking Factors Overview

Google ranking algorithm
This is a short overview of the number of factors Google takes into consideration in their ranking algorithm. So, this is what actually is in this ranking algorithm.

Domain level link features aka "Domain authority" is the first ranking factor. You can think of the domain authority as all the links from other websites pointing to all pages of your website. As well as appreciating the content on your website (keywords) Google also cares about the relationships of other website with you site through linking to your pages. There are a lot of features in the Google algorithm on domain authority e.g. number of links, quality of the websites linking to your site, etc.

The second factor is page level link feature or "Page authority". As opposed to domain authority which look at all links to all pages of your website, page level authority index is only looking at the page level.

Next on the list is page level keyword and content features aka "Keyword targeting". This is all about your focus keywords. If your keyword is "mobile phone repair" you would probably make sure your website has the exact keyword phase you're targeting. Because of Google topic modeling algorithm it is advised to also include topical variations of your chosen keyword. Topical variations are the connected or related keywords, in our case with the mobile phone repair these can be "screen", "battery" or phone models or manufacturer names.

Page level, keyword agnostic features are another ranking factors. These include page loading speed, mobile friendliness, content uniqueness, size/length etc. If many people search for a specific keyword on mobile and you want to be found on search results you have to make sure your webpage is mobile friendly. Likewise if people are searching for an in-depth topic and looking for a latest specific study on the web and you want your website to feature in the search results your website needs to have a very specific page with a unique and relevant content.

Engagement, data query and traffic. This factor have been making a breakthrough, several years ago no one even considered it as one of the ranking factors. When I talk about engagement, traffic and data I mean things like pogo-sticking and query success.

Pogo-sticking is best described using an example. Let's say you search a keyword on Google. After submitting your query Google displays a list of results. You then click on the first result in this list and go to the webpage but then immediately come back to the search list and click on the second result. What it indicated to Google is that the first result is not the best one because you did not spend time exploring it but instead came back and selected a different one. You need to make sure this does not happen with your website because this is a metric of a successful query or good experience which Google is paying close attention to.

Domain level, brand features. Another factor that Google likes to see. This includes direct visits, branded search, brand affinity. What is means is that Google looks at your domain and says "Okay, this domain is really connected to a particular topic... let's rank them higher to this topic queries". For instance, you might have seen many hotel reviews from TripAdvisor. So if you search for a holiday or hotel review you will often stumble upon and result from TripAdvisor. And after interacting with the TripAdvisor webpages, you add their brand name to your next hotel review search query. And what it tell Google is "maybe when people are performing the search without the brand attached we should be ranking this brand higher in our results".

Similarity to the domain level, brand features, domain level, topic and keyword associations is a connection of your domain name with a specific topic or keyword. For example moz.com, an online marketing and SEO software provider, has a positive association with the keyword "SEO". If you add to your queries this keyword moz.com webpages are most likely to be in the search results. This is because Google has a topic association with moz.com.

Moving on to the next factor, which is domain level, keyword agnostic features. Like the page level agnostic feature this factor is focusing on the domain level. Things like TLD extension, spam level, trust signals, traffic data are all elements of the domain agnostic features. TLD is top level domain, mywebsite.com, website.org and so on. Google would check things like is this domain flagged up a spam, is it registered in a way other trusted domains are, does it have contact information, etc.

Social engagement feature. This is the last but not the least important ranking factor. It is argued that this factor is not very important, though more and more recommendations from leading SEO analytics providers highlight its indirect role in the ranking algorithm. This factor includes tweets, Facebook, Google+ likes and shares.

More SEO and digital marketing articles and news are on [http://www.pedlum.com]. Pedlum is a crowdsourced library of digital marketing materials, a place you can share your own resources and share latest industry news.

What Does Yoga Have To Do With Digital Marketing?

Yoga was invented thousands of years ago in forests and temples of India while Digital Marketing is a recent technology. How the hell could these two be related? I never thought so myself till that one day.

It was early morning 5'o clock and I had literally not slept the night before. Please bear with me while I give you a little background. I was working for a client project for developing their SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Social Media strategy. They are a sports goods retailer and recently came up with an innovative range of shoes that they want to launch in the market. They were completely B2B till date and had no B2C presence before, starting it from the drawing board now. Their management had set aggressive targets for their online sales but put lot of restrictions to avoid conflicts with their B2B partner network. I had a tough time convincing them on multiple fronts and we were going back and forth for some time.

Our Yoga guru arrived in the hall and we started the warm up. I was half asleep, but did not want to miss my Yoga class. We did the 'Surya Namaskar' followed by the 'Asnas' of the day. I was dead tired and then came my favorite Asna - the 'Shavasna'. If you know Yoga, you will be aware that 'Shavasna', literally means the Corpse Pose, where you lie on the back with closed eyes and deep breath. The body is completely released and mind fully relaxed. It was during the 'Shavasna' that I suddenly started getting a great feeling as if everything was un-tangling from within, as if I was getting answers to all my questions. I am not a saint but that was my moment of 'nirvana'. It is difficult to describe all of it in words, but I am trying to summarize some of the key points that came to my mind that time:

1. Focus on the core: The only way you get the most out of Yoga is to forget everything else around you and just focus on one thing - your breath. This is the same with Digital Marketing. The only way to get the most out of a digital marketing initiative (whether it is SEO, SEM, SMO, SMM etc.) is to first forget about everything else and focus on the "Content". While developing content you should not get distracted by any other activities or constraints. It is "Content" which is the heart and core of the entire initiative and needs to be relevant to the audience. The biggest mistake many of us tend to do is to make all strategies first and then start working on the content. In such scenarios, we later on figure out that the content is not in line with our strategy and we ask our team to modify the content rather than changing the strategy. This is the perfect recipe of failure and then we complain that nothing worked at all.

2. Long Term Vision: Yoga never promises quick, short term benefits. Someone wanting to build six pack abs within three months need not to come for a Yoga class. Yoga is always practiced with a vision to have long and healthy life, the way ancient 'Yogis' or saints in India lived for hundreds of years with strong physical and mental conditions. Digital marketing, off-late, had been used abusively by many technologists as a means to get quick results without bothering about the long term vision. Any update by Google and such people were running crazy to re-gain their rankings.

3. Inner Strength: Yoga is all about building inner strength - a balance between mind and body. Yoga does not focus much on external muscular built or beautification. Its aim is very simple - keep you fit and strong from within. It might not sound strange to my marketing friends (I am myself from marketing background) that building an external perception without building inner strength does not last long. I have seen organizations who did excellent in marketing but could not handle their cash flows and later yielded to disastrous results.

4. Continuity: You do Yoga for couple of months diligently to the extent that you can become a Yoga trainer yourself. Then due to some reasons you leave doing Yoga regularly. What happens? With time the benefits you got from doing Yoga subsides and after few months you are back in the same situation where you were before. This is the same with any digital marketing initiative be it SEO, SEM, SMO or SMM. E.g. you might have done very with search engine optimization and got yourself into the top of SERP (search engine results page). But if you leave the regular activities for SEO then you might lose that ranking very soon.

Abbreviations used:

SEO - Search Engine Optimization
SEM - Search Engine Marketing
PPC - Pay per Click
SERP - Search Engine Results Page
SMO - Social Media Optimization
SMM - Social Media Marketing
GA - Google Analytics

This article is part of a thought leadership series about foundation principles for digital marketing written by Neha, a digital marketing expert, trainer and consultant. She runs her own digital marketing technology services firm - DigiUp Consulting Services ([http://www.digiupconsulting.com]).

Digiup helps small business users and individuals manage three key aspects of digital marketing:

1. Search Engine (organic & inorganic) - Improve website ranking in Google search results with techniques such as SEO and SEM

2. Social Media - mantain strong connection between brand and people using techniques like SMO and SMM

3. Analytics - giving significant cognizance about client's digital experience

You can get copy of these thought leadership series by writing her at neha.mittal@digiupconsulting.com

The Thinking Behind Your Social Profile

Psychology figures into every aspect of our lives. It certainly is a factor in our behavior as human beings and it also factors into what we do professionally and how we do it. There is a strong possibility that you have social media profiles for your business and that you interact with other people online on a regular (or, at least, semi-regular) basis.

Having a well-organized strategy for your social media profiles
The fact is that even if you have profiles on several social media channels, it doesn't necessarily follow that you are using all of the opportunities that exist within those particular social media channels.

There are so many features and tools that you may not even be aware that a lot of them actually exist. Well, the first thing that you will need to do to change that situation is to research what the various social media channels have to offer you. Once you have accomplished that, the next thing that you will have to do is to button down the strategy that you will use for your particular business. That is where the thinking part comes in.

It is very common that you launch your business but don't give the thinking behind that business much conscious thought. That is probably a very big mistake. Before you can run, you have to crawl and then walk. In order to do that, you need to understand why you are doing what you are doing and to make sure that your thinking is sound before you execute your strategy. If you have not gone through those steps initially, you may really be affecting your business in a negative way.

Of course, that is not the end of the world and it is reversible. You can begin to take steps that will make a difference to the level of success that you realize for your business.

Getting people to pay attention to your brand
Your first objective is to draw a lot of positive attention from other people. You are an astute business person so you understand fully that it is necessary for you to interact with people online in addition to sharing an in-person relationship with them whenever possible.

It is all tied into how successful you can be and, of course, that means selling more of what you have to offer. The fact is that you can accomplish that quite easily if you have an effective social profile (in each of the social media channels that you have chosen).

Okay, let's go through the steps, which are quite simple. First of all, assuming that you have established your social media profiles appropriately and completely, you write and post (and syndicate) top-quality content, which you have put a great deal of effort and time into developing.

That content can be posted in a usual place or it can be posted by someone else with whom you share a relationship. That opens up all sorts of possibilities as far as the exposure of your content is concerned. That content has the potential to be read by a large number of people who don't know you or your business yet. That is actually a good thing initially. Don't worry. Those people will get to know you and what you represent. It won't take very long at all. Your ultimate goal (and this is the ultimate goal of most people) is to increase your revenue stream at some point in the near (or not so near) future. Why else would you be in business?

Of course, the challenge that faces you when it comes to your unfamiliar audience is that they may be less accepting initially than target audience members who already know you. You have no reason to be concerned about that. They will not judge you for very long. Just be as genuine and helpful as you possibly can and everything will be fine. That is your approach anyway so you actually will not be doing anything different with that audience than you would otherwise. This is where the thinking behind your strategy is so important. The new readers will be getting the first impression of you and it needs to be extremely positive. In fact, it needs to be positive enough to allow them to want to read on.

Leveraging the new relationship
You should try to consider your potential relationships with new people as an exciting challenge and an exciting opportunity. You will want to leverage those opportunities to the best of your ability. So much good can come out of that situation. If you connect with someone for the first time, the chances are that the other person will have very little knowledge about who you are as a person (on any more than a superficial level).

That is not necessarily a bad thing. If you are faced with that situation, you are starting with a blank sheet of paper. You have the option of viewing that as a challenge (a negative challenge) in which you are stumped about what you should be expressing or you can look at it as a wonderful opportunity to express yourself in any number of exciting and creative ways. You have a world of possibilities in front of you.

Which path you choose in that situation will either make or break what happens in the future. It is up to you to choose wisely. That is a critical point at which you need to really think about how you want to approach the other person. Your social media profiles are tools that will help you to gain entrance to interactions with the other person.

Conclusion
Thinking is a huge factor behind your professional success. In fact, you can't do anything without putting a lot of thought into it first. It is a necessary preliminary step and without it, you will have no foundation upon which to build. Your thinking will pave the way for all that comes after it. Sometimes you will need to take risks with your business but you need to make sure that those are calculated, educated risks. If you do that, everything will work out as it should.

Michael Cohn is the founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of CompuKol Communications. He has over 25 years of experience in IT and web technologies. Mr. Cohn spent a significant amount of time at a major telecommunications company, where his main focus was on initiating and leading synergy efforts across all business units by dramatically improving efficiency, online collaboration, and the company's Intranet capabilities, which accelerated gains in business productivity. He also reduced company travel and travel costs by introducing and implementing various collaboration technologies.

His expertise includes business analysis; project management; management of global cross-matrix teams; systems engineering and analysis, architecture, prototyping and integration; technology evaluation and assessment; systems development; performance evaluation; and management of off-shore development.

Mr. Cohn earned a Master's degree in project management from George Washington University in Washington, DC; and a Master's degree in computer science and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ.

Mr. Cohn is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

The Main Difference Between Organic SEO and PPC

As a marketing expert with over 10 years experience in organic marketing and 6 years AdWords (PPC) experience I'm often asked the question, which is best for my site, PPC or Organic SEO?

All niches and businesses are different, so are their target customers, areas they cover and their marketing budget. A good professional marketer will analyse both PPC and Organic SEO and tell you the best option for your business and budget.

PPC is great for new sites/businesses targeting a competitive niche, unfortunately in a competitive niche the bid required to have your ad seen at the top of page one for 80% of searches can be phenomenal and cost more than a lot of businesses are willing or able to pay.

It's up to the marketing company to research your niche and see what sort of bid may be required, not just sign you up regardless as sometimes PPC just isn't practical. Also, with PPC it is all about control and good management. Many novices will simply select every keyword Google suggests which will burn through funds in no time but target the wrong customers.

Google's keyword suggestion algorithm doesn't know who or what you are trying to target and whilst the keyword 'Windows' may get 1000's of monthly searches in your target area a window installer isn't going to get a phone call from someone looking for the latest Microsoft operating system, although the click they did on you link still costs you money. This is often an underhanded trick used by dubious marking companies just so they can say look! Your ad got 1000's of impressions, aren't we great?

Organic SEO or Organic Marketing, which is the term I prefer, does require skill and whilst there are still rogues and amateurs out there offering a poor organic service that will do nothing to help your business, organic marketing isn't targeted as much by the large unskilled marketing companies offering PPC. This is because a few months into the campaign it's easy to see that you are in fact not climbing the results and their efforts are unsuccessful.

Organic marketing is also chosen for longevity, unlike PPC you don't appear on page 1 right away as it takes time to tweak your site, build a good back link profile and promote yourself, but once you do reach page 1 you will usually stay there. With PPC you get instant results but once you stop the campaign your result disappear instantly.

Unfortunately there are a growing number of sales driven marketing companies cropping up all over the country, cold calling 100's of businesses a day offering 'First Page on Google' through PPC marketing, companies with little or no marketing experience. This is because PPC does not need internet marketing expertise or knowledge it simply requires that you study the system and manage your funds and keyword bids, this on its own doesn't lead to a successful campaign as there is a lot more to it.

A genuine, professional marketing company will always offer both organic marketing and paid marketing (PPC), if a company only offers PPC then it is usually a sign that they are not experts at all and are simply jumping onto the bandwagon.

Key Designs have been operating in the Leigh and Wigan area for over 15 years and during this time have work with 100's of clients helping then to succeed online through organic marketing and PPC. Key Designs are your perfect local partner.

http://www.keydesigns.co.uk/

Changes in Google Could Affect Your Page Rank

Your SEO, is like any relationship in life it needs attention and care. Your relationship to the search engines starts from the moment you launch your new website continuing as long as your website is active. Like a finely tuned engine, you want the kind of maintenance that makes your website a top competitor. Having a Web Development company who is always tweaking your site, staying on top of algorithm platform updates is what successful companies do to improve and protect their Google Page Rankings. RANK BRAIN Google's newest software launch is called RankBrain, a machine-learning artificial intelligence system; that is far different from the days of engineers who teach the platform by entering in information.

RankBrain doesn't replace Google's other search algorithms but is a modification of Google's hummingbird platform. Whats new is RankBrains ability to anticipate and interpret searches that might not have exact words. RankBrain is about query refinement and more meaningful results. How does it affect your search engine results? No one is sure yet, however it does lend to more surveillance of how you are ranking. In other words, pay attention! My thinking is, be mindful to what your feeding the search engines in your keyword queries and links. Remember, your search and keywords are educating RankBrain not engineers.

Whether or not this new modification will have an effect on your ranking is left to be seen but as always, protect your ranking like you do your bank account.

Page rank is money in the bank. Your SEO strategies that have always worked in Google will continue to do so, but with the RankBrain modification it is really all about content. The more readable content you post, the more you educate RankBrain on your authority for any given subject.

GOOGLE MOBILE INDEX

There are plans for Google splitting search results into 2 separate versions. The mobile search index over Google will contain newer, fresher content while Google version of the desktop index will be updated less frequently. In some cases search results displayed over mobile will be completely different than those search results found on desktop.

MOBILE FRIENDLY SEARCHES

Mobile responsive websites have also presented an entirely new way for managing mobile friendly searches. Before mobile, persons looking for home remodeling in their neighborhood would have typed a mobile friendly search over Google such as, 'Home repair service Virginia Beach'. On mobile phones people are more likely to use their mobile assistant for searching. For example; 'OK Google Now' or 'Hey Siri, show me 'Home repair service close to me'. People will do voice searching in ways that differ from keyboard based search on mobile or desktop.

It's not everyday we get a warning about an impending search engine tsunami over mobile! Think about how you want your business, your website to be found over mobile search and then execute a plan fast.

How To Use Search Engine Optimization To Your Benefit

There is much to learn about search engine optimization and much success that can go along with this knowledge. There is plenty of information available; however, not everything you read will apply to your specific situation. This article will provide some of the best tips known in regards to search engine optimization.

Gateway pages will help get more traffic to your website. Your gateway pages should include a specific set of keywords, this will boost the change that this set of keywords will get a high score from the search engines. You should make several copies of this page, each with a different set of keywords.

Keep your page simple. The more time it takes to load your page due to huge, time-consuming graphics or oddly styled coding, the less likely it will be for a search engine to recommend you. Keep your readers in mind as well. You do not want to drive anyone away from your site because it simply can't keep up in a fast-paced world.

It is important to write an engaging meta description tag for each page you create in order to achieve proper search engine optimization. Many search engines use it as a blurb to display under the a page's title and a descriptive tag will encourage viewers to visit your page, increasing traffic.

A good rule of thumb to follow when dealing with search engine optimization is to use your keywords and keyword phrases in your URLs whenever possible. Most search engines highly value the use of keywords in the URL, so rather than using arbitrary numbers, opt for replacing them with keywords.

You need to treat link building as a process that keeps going. Spend a few minutes every day on your link campaign. You can pay for services that will build your links for you, though those have proven not to be as effective as taking the time and doing it yourself.

Write high-quality meta description tags for every page on your website. Doing this will not really affect your rating much at all, but it will get more people clicking on your search listing. This will help your company get more sales, or at least more leads for sales in the future.

There is no one single method of search engine optimization, but using meta tags is a good start. When choosing your tag be sure that the keyword actually matches your website. Use a search phrase that you think your target market would use to find your product or service.

To get the most out of SEO, you must remember to always provide links of the highest quality. Links pointing to your site should be well-placed and you should place a lot of them. This will get you to the top quickly. Submitting high quality articles containing link exchanges that are selective will give your site a boost.

Use tools to test the popularity of your chosen keywords. Check popular trending sites to see the popularity of your keywords. Keywords with too much competition and high popularity may take a very long time to reward you with traffic.

You should do your best to make it very simple for all the visitors to your site to add it to their social bookmarks. These types of links are one of the kinds that are valued most by many of the different searches engines that are available.

Search Engine Optimization emphasizes quality links from outside sites. A lot of those links will come naturally when web users find your site and recognize its value. Others can be obtained by approaching other website owners, blogger, and the like and requesting to be linked. All they can do is say no!

Yahoo local listings have star ratings attached so try to get yourself listed by them. It is absolutely free and that is the type of exposure that your business will need. You should ask prior customers to go to your listing and rate you so that your listing will stand out from the rest of them.

You can optimize your blog for search engines by using SEO-friendly URLs for each blog post. Most blogging services offer this option, which is a must-do if you are using your blog to make money. Rather than allowing the service to assign a generic URL, create your own post URL that includes keywords.

Do not make any drastic changes to your site for the sole point of increasing your site's rankings. You have to keep it in your mind that a user's experience on your website should be your first concern, and doing any changes that may decrease the amount of users is not a good thing.

All of your links, incoming and internal, should use keywords. " as anchor text. Search engines use this information when determining ranking. Every now and then, ensure that all internal links on your site also use keyword links.

Write good meta tags for your website. Major search engines often use your meta tags in their search results. The blurb you write will very likely show up as the short description below the link. Make sure that the blurb you write for your meta tag is interesting enough to draw consumers in.

When dealing with search engine optimization, it is a good idea to place some of your keywords in either bold or italics. This will make your keywords stand out more, especially if you only use it for the most important ones and will allow you to achieve a higher search result ranking.

When it comes to search engine optimization, practice patience when looking for results. There is very little instant gratification in SEO, some effects of your hard work could take months to reap visible benefits. This is especially true if your website is relatively new. Patience is needed when looking for those results. They will come with consistent, quality SEO work.

In summary, there are some obvious ideas that have been tested over time, as well as some newer techniques that you may not have considered. Hopefully, as long as you follow what we suggest in this article, you can either get started with search engine optimization or improve on what you have already done.

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Link Building Tips That Actually Work

Building links for your website is necessary - it's one of the best ways to get more traffic, while at the same time boosting your ranks in search engines. This isn't always so simple, though. It all comes down to your available resources and the industry you're in. In most cases, you will have to work diligently and aggressively to generate high-quality links pointing to your website - keyword here is high-quality. You don't to risk losing your spot because you were desperate enough to create links on sites that are spammy. If this is the path you're on, then it's time to reach out to professionals at an SEO agency.

The Simplest Way to Build Links

One of the best ways to build links for your website is using content. There are a number of ways you can pull this off, such as by creating an infographic, white paper or how-to guide. The idea here is to make content that is high-quality and informative, so that people will want to link to it. Seems simple enough, and in some cases it is. However, you're going to need to consistently push out these assets, so they continue to generate backlinks to your site.

Let's look at some of the ways SEO services help companies build links.

Guest Blogging

This is normally an effective way to get backlinks to your site, but Google has been cracking down on those who abuse this tactic by submitting low-quality content overstuffed with anchor text. So if you decide to use this, focus on creating riveting posts that reputable websites would be willing to link to. An SEO agency can be used to develop content for your link building campaign.

Kiss Up to Influentials

Find out who's influential in your industry and connect with them. Then bait them in with content that speaks kindly of these people. For instance, you can write a post of the top 10 blogs or social media profiles in your industry. Featuring these individuals in your content will make them want to share it with their followers. What can you say - it's an ego thing!

Get Rid of Broken Links

Broken links can harm your search engine optimization. An SEO services company can help you locate these broken links. It's important to fix broken links on your site, so that all of your hard work isn't being hindered.

Building links for your site is a lot easier when you have an SEO team from an agency working with you. Consider hiring professionals to analyze your business and develop a solid strategy for building quality links!

http://www.ithinkanidea.com is a leading, full service internet marketing agency. I Think an Idea works with serious business owners small to large alike. Based out of Los Angeles, CA providing great results for services such as SEO, social media marketing, Online reputation management and PPC management. I Think an Idea can maximize your search engine presence and amplify your brand across social media channels, and help safeguard your reputation.

How Google Posts Could Affect the Future of SEO

Over the past few months, Google has undergone a few exciting changes. Penguin 4.0 had its final phase rolled out, meaning it's now in real time. The search engine is also displaying official Twitter profile feeds for entities to all English searchers worldwide.

There is a clear emphasis on providing current content to users, so searchers receive the most up-to-date and relevant results first. Google is now taking a further step towards providing real-time updates by introducing Google Posts, also referred to in the past as Your Podium on Google.

This "experimental new podium" will allow individuals and businesses to produce content directly on the search engine. When people search for a particular business or name, the content will appear highly ranked in the search results. In a way, it seems to be the new Google+ for brands and celebrities.

How Does It Work?
Google has been relatively quiet about the new feature, but it has been experimenting with it for some time. Back in January of 2016, it was released as a way to allow political candidates the chance to post lengthy debate rebuttals.

The aim is to give people the opportunity to hear from the companies and people they care about directly. At this stage, it's on an invite-only basis and only verified individuals and organizations will be able to use the feature.

Those with an invite will be able to communicate directly on Google via images, videos, and text. The process of creating content is meant to be quick and straightforward, much like on social media. Once you've published your piece of content, it will become instantly visible in search results related to your name or that of the organization you represent.

Entities also get their own profile, which looks much like it would on your average social media page. It displays a profile photo above your name, over what appears to be a cover image, along with your post feed.

Clicking on one of the posts opens up a dedicated full-screen web page displaying the full text and accompanying images. You are also able to share the posts on popular social networks quickly. All you have to do is click on the social sharing icon to share the post directly on Facebook, Twitter, Email, or Google+.

It looks much like the carousel Twitter profile feeds we can currently see on Google, with a card-like format. However, while you can share the content, you are presently unable to like or comment on it. These options may be something that will be introduced in the future, as it is currently in its very early stages.

We know Google has struggled in the past with the development of its own social network; only time will tell if this new platform will pan out any differently than Google Buzz and Google+.

Manage a One-Way Content Feed
For Google users, the new feature will allow them to receive up-to-date information straight from their favorite brands and people. But what will it mean for public figures and organizations? Well, it puts a one-way content feed that is built directly into the top of the search results pages entirely in their control.

The fact that the feature is not available to just anyone helps to instill a sense of trust. Google verifies all individuals first, so you know the information and messages are coming up are all from a trustworthy source.

There are various ways you can benefit from the new feature, now that you have a podium on which to reach your customers instantly. Users will be able to access the content you put out directly from the search pages, without having to navigate any other links. They will see all of this, even if they only type in your name.

You get a chance to introduce relevant content into Google, increase user interactions through the use of text, images, and videos, and encourage social sharing. Increased engagement will also help you to increase conversion rates. Since you know the reader has specifically searched for you; there's a higher chance that they will be interested in what you have to say.

You can instantly publish lightweight content with fast loading results, much like in social media. However, the fact that you get a dedicated web page means you have a bit more control over the amount of information you post and the correlating images.

What Does This All Mean for SEO?
With brands and individuals being offered the chance to directly control the content that comes up on Google when you search for their names, you can see some pretty significant implications for both organic and paid brand searches.

The carousel comes up below the paid ads, but above the organic listings, so it features prominently in the results. If you do it right, there is a lot to gain. While it may take clicks away from your other results, it could end up saving you money you would otherwise have spent on pay per click ads.

You just need to make sure that you take full advantage of the opportunity and include links within the posts that lead your users back to your website. Since we're talking real time, it's the perfect way to draw attention to any current sales or promotions you are running and thus increase conversions.

As we said, it essentially puts you in the driver's seat. You get to steer the content in the direction you want, so you could even use it to distract users from any negative bits that appear in your branded search results.

While the feature is currently invite-only, you can join the waitlist if you are a public figure or represent a brand or business. While we are yet to see how this new feature will play out, it's worth joining the waitlist to find out.

It's a great opportunity to control the first thing people see when they Google your name, so take full advantage of it. One day it could become a very powerful and useful tool for you to deliver your desired content straight to the consumer.

The Best Practice Guide for URLs

URLs form the basic building block of every business that has a web presence. The structure of a URL matters a lot to SEO. Here is a list of best practices that one can consider when creating a URL.

• The most important advice from Google is to keep your URL structure simple and readable. The URL should include sentences and words that are logical and readable for human beings rather than confusing numbers and letters. This helps in a URL being remembered easily in case one needs to type it or refer offline.
• It is advisable to make your URL in lower case letters. If you have a UR in capital letters, convert them into lower cases, an exception being when you have different pages of the same name.
• To increase readability of URLs, use punctuation marks such as hyphens instead of using underscores.
• Until a URL makes sense to the human brain, it can continue to have stop words such as a, an etc.
• A good SEO practice is to ensure that the keywords for the page are near the front of the URL. However, it still needs to be readable and not just stuffed keywords.
• It is not necessary to match your headline with that of the URL. In fact, varying the headline from the URL gives it a chance to be more concise.
• It is better to use a single domain or a subdomain. The chances of a blog performing better if it is altogether on a root or one subdomain. The Rankings of such blog are also suggested to go higher.
• It is a good practice to use verb stem in URLs. For instance, instead of using the term 'smearing', the term 'smear' should be used.
• Avoid using overly complex URLs with multiple parameters. This can cause an issue with Googlebot since there will be too many URLs with similar content.

Ways of fixing URL issues

Google recommends these solutions to fixing URL issues.

• Instead of using session IDs in URLs, use cookies.
• Use a robots.txt file such as dynamic URLs or URLs generating search results to block Googlebot's access to few URLs.
• Trim unnecessary parameters to shorten URLs
• Add a no follow attribute to links so that dynamically future calendar pages are ceased, if you have an infinite calendar to your site
• Broken relative links often cause hindrance. Check your sites for such links

There are some of the best practice tips or URLs.

The above tips were collected from various resources. If you need more advice on how we can help you with your Digital Marketing Strategy and Campaigns then contact us today.