Once in the area you’re presented with what appears to be a graph that plays like a video illustrating various metrics over time. This is great for comparing progress of specific keywords and goals over time. I’ve taken some additional screen grabs below:

What you’ll notice about is that you can “link to chart” (bravo Google) which you can send to other users who share the same profiles to illustrate results. Ive also included another shot which illustrates the metrics that can be included:

Since twitter has been snowballing in popularity more brands are quickly diving into the “twitter barrel” in hope for some kind of brand value to pour out. Lots of businesses are “doing twitter” just because someone sitting in a nice empty office at a top of a tall building says” it’s what everyone else is doing, why aren’t I?” I won’t get sidetracked and explain what I think a brand should do on twitter but I’ll quickly explain how “MoonFruit” and “Mpora” have influenced twitter in a major way.

Essentially MoonFruit and Mpora are both brands, they both came up with a simple idea to attract people to start tweeting (or posting) about their brand, in particular – their competition give-away. MoonFruit started first giving away a free Macbook Pro every day for 7 days straight, the rules and method of deployment were simple – twitter about the brand and include the tag #moonfruit. Everyday a winner would be selected at random from, method unknown, but probably looking through the twitter search engine somehow.   Being the first major contest like this to actually gather pace was probably down to the ease of entering, simply click on a button and you’ve entered, of course as well as notifying all your fellow friends about MoonFruit too.

MoonFruit got very big very quickly and actually topped the twitter trends for a while (even when Michael Jackson had recently died), however before the end of the competition the phrase #moonfruit was apparently removed by twitter or somehow sandboxed. Now although the competition was very popular the chance that they will ever be able to reach the top trends again looks unlikely, but like many I now know of the brand MoonFruit, so kudos.

Now my second case study is for a brand called Mpora who used the same strategy, I of course got hooked like many others by the chance to win, yet again, another Macbook Pro. However Mpora used a much more aggressive approach to the promotion which in my personal opinion has harmed their brand.

So, what did they do? In my eyes they got greedy, they started the competition like MoonFruit but quickly introduced the rule “more tweets gives you more chances to win”. They notified the winners at 5pm UK time every day, for the hours leading up to that point – Mpora would establish themselves in the top 10 most popular trends. However, like many I started getting minute by minute updates from Mpora themselves, pushing just about anything on their site to get as much traffic as possible. Very soon my twitter looked like the screenshot below:

The last thing I want in my twitter feed is for someone or some business to start spamming their services at me. So anyway, why has this harmed the brand? Well I for one got very bored, very quickly of seeing #mpora popping up everywhere – and although judging by traffic estimates from Alexa and Compete their campaign seems to have been a success. I wonder how many other people out there like me who quickly stopped following the brand during the competition and now consider them to be something to avoid in the future – food for thought.

The graph below shows an increase in traffic rankings in alexa while the competition was running:

The graph below clearly shows that the term #mpora was only popular at times near the result of the winners:

So no doubt there will have been some traffic being sent to both these sites but if brands continue to use such tactics to engage potential customers and increase brand visibility only bad things can happen (i.e. spam association).

This site SEOUnique has suffered a reduction in page rank, no doubt to the hackers that sent out over 500 hidden links to viagra sites and other “adult” sites.

If you want to check the true PR value of your site then visit www.digpagerank.com

Have a great new years eve everyone!

One thing we do know is that if a good SEO gets their hands on your website or specific page you will see positive results. What I’ve been doing is benchmarking when the changes take place in Google and whether the changes are positive and negative.

The Google update test

I optimised around 50 pages of a website I own that I initially setup around 3 months ago, the Meta data, page tags and content was not optimised at all. I created a strategy to optimise these pages, the actual content of these products were products i.e. one product per page. I changed the following:

1.    Optimised the meta data
2.    Included keywords and alternative keyword phrases on page
3.    Optimised the images on the page

I had read somewhere that updating large numbers of pages on a website all at once could lead to a possible penalty, although I have never seen this I thought this test would help determine this theory.

I benchmarked data over a six week period on Google, based on individual pages and their targeted keywords, which had been optimised.

Week 1
Around 80% of the pages actually increased rankings in the first week with around 15% remaining the same and only 5% dropping rank

Week 2
In the second week there were some more keyword increases and very few positions dropped – a good week all round.

Week 3
In the third week it was the complete opposite, just over 85% of the keywords dropped below their original ranking with 5% remaining the same and 10% increasing

Week 4
Huge increase of positions, now around 70% of the pages I originally optimised are ranking well above their previous position with many on page 1 or 2. Very few position drops from original positions but there were some.

Week 5
Not much movement between keyword positions but 30% of keywords have improved from week 4, 80% remain the same with around 10% dropping slightly.

Week 6
Final week and only one page has increased from week 5 while 2 pages dropped slightly, the rest remained the same.

Time for some graphs:

The first graph is has been taken as an average from over 40 optimised pages over the period of 6 weeks so visually you can see the update life cycle.

The next graph shows five randomly selected keyword behaviours over the 6 week period

The final graph shows another 10 randomly selected keywords and their position changes

Google’s Page Update Life Cycle

Yep, think that’s what I’m going to call it! Anyway I’m aware that this lifecycle of position changes probably goes on for a bit longer but the data over the 6 week period was the most active. This is something that I’ve seen many times before but have never benchmarked for such a test. It’s also worth mentioning that you do see position changes before Google has re-indexed the optimised page.

So if you go about updating pages of your site don’t worry if they go all over the place for the first month or so, if they have been optimised correctly then you should see some kind of improvement.

Of course I attended to explore the possibilities of widgets and SEO but found myself with a wealth of widget knowledge instead. Some really interesting facts and figures which may surprise a lot of you, but here’s a summary of some data:

•    The number 1 widget in the world (installs) = YouTube
•    The number 1 MySpace comment = “Thanks for the add”
•    Facebook “gifts” application made $30 million last year alone
•    The average widget only lasts 200 page views
•    Every human can only hold 150 meaningful relationships at once, the rest are lightweight
•    Each widget has a maximum lifespan of 6 weeks
•    For every widget install you should expect a maximum of 50 unique visitors

I also copied down some internal Gigya data to show the most common uses for widgets:

Anyway, I learned a lot more than what was written down on this post, but of course you have to hold back something for yourself! Thanks to all the guys that took part and I look forward to the next one!

There are however a select few that continue to provide quality content on a weekly basis that I believe should be on every SEO’s RSS subscription.

1. SEOMOZ

SEOMOZ are an SEO company based in Seattle in the US and have become an anchor in the SEO industry. The leader of the pack so to speak would be Rand Fishkin who has continued to create great post content. The site offers a selection of free SEO tools to assist with analysis and they offer a members area which contains even more. Altogether I cannot find a better SEO blog out there, it’s that simple. I suggest you visit them immediately and start learning or touching up on your SEO skills.

SEOMOZ blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/seomoz

2. Search Engine People

Search Engine People are a Canadian based SEO company that have another fabulous blog that every SEO should be subscribed to. At the forefront of the great insights is Jeff Quipp. It’s strategy in this blog that I find most important, proven methods in dealing with the different scenarios of internet marketing, it’s bloody good dust I tell you.

Search Engine People blog feed: http://www.searchenginepeople.com/feed/

3. Search Engine Land

Search Engine Land is great for a number of reasons but what I like is when technical information or data comes up in posts that it’s always written in a way that is understandable to almost anyone, really great writing styles. The most recognizable character on the team would have to be Danny Sullivan the man who brought us our beloved Sphinn. They always deliver great quality and is a must for every SEO!

Search Engine Land’s blog feed: http://feeds.searchengineland.com/searchengineland

4. Search Engine Journal

Search Engine Journal has a selection of very good blog authors, I tend to get the most value from Ann Smarty, and her posts are so detailed there’s never a short read! They provide insights and links to great tools and content that as an SEO you just can’t ignore.

Search Engine Journals blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SearchEngineJournal

5. Seo Scientist

A lot of other SEO’s would probably argue that there are more deserving SEO blogs to get this number 5 spot. Branko Rihtman is the author of this absolutely fantastic blog. As the name might suggest these blog posts are based around the inner workings of search engine behaviors, with extremely detailed posts and data to back up findings. The frequency of the posts is far less than others but when content is posted you can guarantee you will learn at least 1 new piece of information.

SEA Scientist’s blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SeoScientist

• Honourable mentions and still recommend signing up to their feeds:

• http://feeds.searchenginewatch.com/sew
  http://www.seobook.com/rss.xml
  http://feeds.feedburner.com/SearchEngineRoundtable1
  http://feeds.feedburner.com/searchengineguide
  http://feeds.feedburner.com/Wolf-howl
  http://www.seobythesea.com/?feed=rss2
• And SeoUnique’s = http://feeds.feedburner.com/SeoUniqueBlog

Firstly a brief definition on what an SEO lemming is;

“An SEO lemming is a human being whose nature it is to believe another human being because they sound like they know what they are talking about. In doing this you will be influenced in to doing anything without realising it. You may find yourself digging a hole with your bare hands for no apparent reason, building a bridge, parting with huge sums of cash to appear on the first page of Google – or if you’re really unlucky you will notice a number appear above your head and proceed counting down.”

How to avoid becoming an SEO lemming?

1. If you receive an email from an “SEO Company” with their “analysis” of your website, right click and mark as spam – exposure to such material can lead to SEO lemming symptoms.
2. If you are approached by anyone in regards to SEO without asking to be, just mention you know what an SEO lemming is and don’t want to become one!
3. You want to invest in SEO, that’s excellent news – read some trusted SEO blogs on the basics so you know what to avoid. Simply type “seo blog” in Google and choose the websites on the left of the page with a white background.
4. Understand this – SEO is a long term strategy that requires investment. If you are after a “quick fix” then unfortunately you are already under the influence and you’re an SEO lemming – watch out if you find your hair turning green.
5. If you submit a tender and you are approached by SEO companies, check their websites out. If you see any of the following phrases, please avoid;

a. Top 10 or your money back
b. Guaranteed first page
c. Only $xxx to get on Google
d. We have been around since time began
e. SEO lemmings are cool

I am already an SEO lemming – what can I do?

1. The first stage of recovery is to acknowledge you are an SEO lemming – well done!
2. If you are showing symptoms at an early stage, there is still time for you – please revert to point 3 in the section above for a minimum of 2 weeks with lots of rest.
3. If you are going to part with cash make sure you talk to the guys and question them about their SEO methods. It’s advisable that you have a sit down with the companies – this will combat most SEO lemming judgements.
4. Use your common sense, if you can remember what that is. If it sounds quick and easy it’s expensive and useless.
5. You can try denying the fact that you are an SEO lemming, this might make you feel better temporarily but this is not a long term solution.

On a side note – if you would like to play the original game:
http://www.elizium.nu/scripts/lemmings/

Potential Candidates:

1. You must list some previous SEO posts you have written or contributed to

2. Blog posts must be on the subject of SEO, SEM and Internet marketing

3. You will be asked to post at least once a month, this will give you an opportunity to generate your own reputation

4. You can be of any age, as long as you show maturity in your writing style, of course it can be fun!

5. You must know how to work with Wordpress

Apply Here 

Bloggers will be announced as soon as they are chosen

Thanks

The image above was a welcome surprise when I logged on to Facebook this morning – There is now a real time chat service, like Instant messenger. At the moment the features are nice and simple (which I like), you can set your status to “Online” or “Offline” depending on how chatty you feel. You can see which of your friends are online at any time.

Thinking about this service after the initial “surprise” is this feature something Facebook users want? For me it’s a place where I can message my friends, join groups, read discussions and occasionally find some good links (SEO related of course). If I wanted to chat to friends I would phone them or use an IM service – Facebook was my getaway from the real world for me – Perhaps I liked someone enough to “add them” as a friend but to actually engage in conversation is a whole other matter.

I’m sure Facebook will add and add to this feature eventually consuming what was once a simple medium to interact into a complicated web of ads and notifications. Anyway – I’m not casting judgment yet and have setup a poll – let me know what you think?

In all fairness they have specified that by turning the pixels black it does not lower power consumption but the idea is nice if a year behind the original idea.