The Evolution of Google Authorship Rich Snippets

Google Authorship has been the most intriguing developments in the search industry for the past couple of years.

With exciting predictions like one that Google will identify “subject authorities” or another one that author-verified results will be ranked higher, it’s obvious that search marketers have been watching it with much anticipation.

So far, despite the bright predictions, Google is obviously struggling, going after the low-hanging fruit (quoting Mark Traphagen) and using domain trust and backlink power and transferring those metrics to Authorship results (thus trying to identify who of the authors deserves a rich snippet, for example).

The good thing we still have NOW is author identities in search results! And it’s already very rewarding! Authors do get a much higher exposure from search results thanks to the authorship-powered rich snippet.

There have been a lot of experiments, so let’s see how Authorship rich snippets have been evolving and changing over time! Read on: The Evolution of Google Authorship Rich Snippets

Search Engines | 10 Comments » | 2014-01-31

[Updated] Guest Blogging, the Fork and My Take :)

I figured I’d write this article instead of saying it again and again all over the web (because for some reason all people want to hear my opinion!)

So, to answer everyone’s concerns: MyBlogGuest is NOT going to allow nofollow links or paid guest blogging (even though Matt Cutts seems to be forcing us to for whatever reason).

Instead we will keep promoting the pure and authentic guest blogging concept we believe in.

Now that I’ve said that, let me explain…

I am an SEO who stopped depending on organic rankings long ago.

I believe in the Internet and its ability of giving little people (like myself) the power of being heard. I can say, I don’t care about Google.

I don’t think Google is THE Internet.

Google is NOT your friend or your partner. If you grow big enough, Google is likely to become your competitor. Do you really want to depend on Google?

I choose to be successful with or without Google. The power is in people. Read on: [Updated] Guest Blogging, the Fork and My Take

SEO Ethics | 27 Comments » | 2014-01-20

MyBlogGuest Growth in 2014 Infographic

Last year we started a great tradition: Sharing MyBlogGuest stats with the world.

A little bit of history. We shared our 2013 progress in the closing #myblogguest Twitter chat of 2013. Here are some milestones:

• Google started talking about guest blogging, so we started talking about Google We amended our quality guidelines trying to adapt them to what Google was stating. Not all people were happy.
• In an effort to make guest blogging more personal, we introduced Google Authorship. (If you look at this and the previous one… Why would Google not love us :))
• Our users were complaining about the quality of blogs (understandably because low quality is easier to notice as it comes in high quantity). We introduced blog ratings and allowed our community to decide which blogs they want to see in MBG and which ones they want to keep inactive.
• Our WordPress plugin was released out of alpha and made it to Wordress.org (check out all the great reviews and leave one ;))
• Our super team has formed
• We added lots of features including Articles Requests, Elite gallery, Books gallery, etc:

The biggest thing we came to understand in 2013: As the community defending the good image of guest blogging we need to position ourselves as the thought leader, hence we spend more and more time, money and effort developing free training courses (Elite program) as well as lost of other training opportunities.

In the end, we have stepped on a harder, more complicated path than we had been following in 2012. We have accepted more responsibility as to what type of content is being placed through our platform…

The Stats

Here are some numbers: Read on: MyBlogGuest Growth in 2014 Infographic

Entrepreneurship | 9 Comments » | 2014-01-15

How I Got My eBook Reviewed for Free by Dozens of Bloggers (#MyBlogGuest Case Study)

Last month MyBlogGuest added a new cool feature: eBooks gallery. It’s meant for both amateur and professional (digital) book writers who need to spread a word about their books.

It’s a most unintrusive outreach method:

• You don’t pitch bloggers anything
• Instead, you write about your book, upload to the gallery and let blogger apply to publish your reviews for free.

The idea is, bloggers love sharing relevant books in their niche. That’s also a good way to diversify your content too by offering your readers something different. Read on: How I Got My eBook Reviewed for Free by Dozens of Bloggers (#MyBlogGuest Case Study)

Viral Marketing | 7 Comments » | 2013-12-02

Two Secrets and a Google Story

By Don Sturgill

Guest Blogging – it’s like candy. You know you want some, but you’re not sure it’s good for you.

Once considered the primary way for publishers to get fresh content and writers to get not only a backlink, but their names splattered all over the webosphere … guest blogging has come under fire recently.

Why is that?

Google and Game Theory

I don’t believe I’ve ever heard anyone accuse googlers (Google staff) of being dumb. One thing you can bet, behind every move Google makes, is that there is a good reason for it. Many observers see Game Theory at work, especially over the past year or so and especially concerning Panda/Penguin and all the hoopla surrounding them. Read on: Two Secrets and a Google Story

Search Engines | 16 Comments » | 2013-09-25

Types of Link Removal Requests and Where are We Heading?

With all those notorious hundreds of thousands of algorithm changes, millions of flags and billions of free testers, Google is helpless.

No, I am actually quite serious. There’s really only one reason why they started all the removal / disavow craziness: They are helpless.

Their algorithms are not working against spam and their human reviewers are not enough to clean the web: So they decided to scare the hell out of us to make us help them correct their deficiency.

* It’s up to you if you want to be part of their helping brigade. I for one prefer to stay away and just keep doing what I think is right.

I am not even blaming them but seeing where it takes the web is sad. People are afraid of linking but if you think about that links are heart, sole and the actual base of the whole web. If we kill links, what’s left?

Google *may* be actually meaning good (which is doubtful considering the amount of confusion they seem to be purposely spreading): Stopping spammers is essential but at what cost? Read on: Types of Link Removal Requests and Where are We Heading?

Link Building | 8 Comments » | 2013-08-19

My Viral Content Buzz Case Study: How to Get Found on the Internet

Last year we announced our new kid: Viral Content Buzz. We’ve been diligently going through (and beyond) the To-Do list since then and even though the project can be considered pretty established now, I still have my wow moments with it.

One of them is a little case study of how VCB is able to revive a pretty dead site.

I have a little website which I don’t have time to focus on. It was started as a hobby and sadly, times got too busy too fast.

The site has a part-time editor (not that the person has a bunch of time for it either) and basically it is maintained as follows:

• I try to write at least one article a month for it (I write for a lot of places but I only have 24 hours a day, so nothing personal here!);
• The editor finds at least 4 more contributors a month from My Blog Guest articles collection;
• All articles are shared through official social media channels.

The site wasn’t doing well in Google and it was doing pretty average on Twitter and Facebook.

A few weeks ago I submitted my own article to Viral Content Buzz and it worked!

***There’s always that feeling when you are building a tool and you are full of excitement and hopes but then you see it actually working and that’s the best reward you can get…

Anyway, the traffic isn’t crazy so far, but if you see what it used to be, the progress is huge for the half-forgiven (still loved) site: Read on: My Viral Content Buzz Case Study: How to Get Found on the Internet

Viral Marketing | 7 Comments » | 2013-07-22