I was contacted by the representative of the most popular (I guess) European information portal and news aggregator – Wikio.

The good news is that SEOsmarty.com was ranked #10 among most popular blogs in the SEO category according to Wikio.

The weird news is that SEJ is not ranked in top 20 at all but I like the company nevertheless:

Ranking made by Wikio

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When I watch this video, I feel even more envious to those who are going to make it to Search & Social Spring Summit

Also don’t forget that the readers of this blog are offered 15% discount! (just choose the coupon: seosmarty)

Just a few details for you to encourage you to go to the event:

• Event date: May 3-4
• Speakers include:  Greg Boser, Todd Malicoat, Chris Winfield, many more!
• You can register here;
• You can win a free pass here (Complimentary airfare, hotel accommodation and access to the 2010 Search & Social Spring Summit plus $500 in cash.);

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There can be several reasons why a search marketing professional would want to be “ghost-googling” (i.e. searching Google without Google to know you are searching it):

• He/She may want to see absolutely “fair” results (not influenced by his/her recorded browsing preferences, territory, etc);
• He/She may want to be served “non-targeted” Google ads;
• He/She may want the competitors to be unaware they are being watched (have you ever noticed any [site:yoursite.com] type of Google referrals? This is quite enough to suspect someone is after you).

So here are a few steps to take to ensure some preferred level of Google privacy:

[Btw, I do see the irony behind trying to make our sites visible to Google while getting invisible ourselves ]

1. Use Google Privacy Greasemonkey Scripts:

GooglePrivacy is a cool Greasemonkey script that is claimed to work the following way:

• It replaces all tracking cookies with faked data.
• It disables the script sending Google your browsing records:

Normally each link on a google search page has an onmousedown script that sends a request to their servers telling them what you clicked on, it’s an invasion of privacy and it slows down your connection.

Remove Google re-directs: I’ve listed three Greasemonkey scripts turning Google tracking re-directs within SERPs into direct link for privacy and usability purposes.

2. Configure Your FireFox Browser:

Try accessing this page to see how your browser is passing your referrer string. You can configure FireFox to hide your referrer string (hat tip to Distilled) by following these easy steps:

• In the Firefox address bar, type about:config
• In the “Filter” box, type “referer“
• Double click the line named ‘network.http.sendRefererHeader‘
• In the dialog box, enter 0 and click “OK“
• Click referer checking page to check that Firefox isn’t passing your referer string (make sure that the first line is blank).

3. Disable Google Web History

Obviously you are well aware of the fact that unless you opt out, Google will be saving your search and browsing history to “improve the search quality” and show you personalized results.

Web History uses the information from your web history or other information you provide us to improve your Google search experience, such as improving the quality of your search results and providing recommendations. In addition to enabling the Web History functionality, the information we collect when you use Web History may be shared among all of our services in order to provide you with a seamless experience and to improve the quality of our services.

You are free to pause the feature as well as remove items already stored.

Obviously, you can turn off personalization of search results by simply signing out of Google account.

4. Configure or Uninstall Google Toolbar

That’s never been a secret that Google is using its official toolbar statistics:

Any time you use the Google Toolbar to contact Google, such as by sending a search query to Google, the Toolbar sends standard, limited information including your machine’s IP address and one or more cookies. This data is retained in Google’s server logs and protected according to our general Privacy Policy.

There’s almost no definitive way to tell how much this influences the search results returned to you personally but to be on the safe side, you may want to block this leak too.

You are given the option to disable the user stats via Google Toolbar settings:

1. Go the Toolbar’s settings ( icon).
2. (Firefox) click the Search tab.
3. Deselect the “Send usage statistics to Google” checkbox.
4. Click Save.

Alternatively, you can just uninstall the toolbar. Here are a few addons for you to perform its most useful features:

1. SearchStatus (which displays Google PageRank), though it has been slower than the official toolbar;
2. And this post of mine lists two alternative addons that offer quick access to Google services (like Gmail, image search, etc).

5. Anything Else?

Did I miss anything? Add your tips in the comments!

Post imageby striatic

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Personalized search is one of the controversial Google’s babies: first, it might sound great that you are supposed to be given just what you want (on the other hand, it is still questionable the machine can know better what I am up to); secondly, personalized search has become the real headache for SEOs: ranking fluctuations pose many problems for reporting and overall work evaluations.

Reliable SEO has recently released a report summering the results of the personalized search research involving data provided by volunteers (USA only).

The eight-page report contains plenty of useful information on:

• Rankings flux rate;
• Elements of personalization;
• What affects the rankings;
• How to adapting the SEO plan.

The report concludes:

At this point there may be just enough evidence to warrant further investigation but not enough to totally abandon rankings as an indicator in your SEO programs. If anything, there is evidence that makes a top ranking (1-4) more valuable than ever. These positions were shown to be the strongest with the least amount of movement due to re-ranking.

Post image: personalized cupcakes

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Recently it occurred to me that I not only use Google search to find information. Google is able to instantly answer many more of my daily questions and fulfill some of my daily tasks. I feel that Google search is making me addicted to it and at the same time lazy.

I admit that due to my profession my search habits are different from other non-SEM surfers. But love it or hate it Google is doing a tremendously great job at finding what you are actually looking for. And below I listed only few examples of how it can help me beside actually searching:

1. I no more mind my spelling:

2. I find it more natural to go to a site through Google SERPs than through browser navigation bar (and I am in no way alone: Google’s third fastest rising search trend across the universe was facebook – and I bet most people searching for it just wanted to get to the site):

3. I search any site (even the one owned by myself) with Google because I am more familiar with Google search options and settings and can search more effectively there:

4. I use Google instead of a dictionary (note: I blog in a foreign language, so I often need an outside help to put things together). How do I do that? That’s easy: I try searching Google for both phrases and compare the number of results (the more people use the phrase, the more correct it appears to be):

5. Very often I even don’t have to leave Google’s results page to find the answer:

6. Most often I don’t have to rack my brain to brainstorm for a word related topics:

Image source: threeminds.organic.com

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I mainly search for images online when I need a web design inspiration or if I want to decorate a post of mine. Some recent image search engines and search engine applications seem really impressive to me. They offer a wide variety of interfaces, filtering and sorting options that I personally enjoy playing with.

So the big question (like with other search types) is: what should the image search look like? The image search giants (Google images, Yahoo images and even Flickr) represent rather a poor example of image search usability (to my mind). Luckily we have a number of good examples (still none of them is perfect):

1. Picitup offers really interesting filtering options (that overall work):

• show faces;
• show landscapes;
• show products;
• set color preferences.

2. Flickr based Tag Browser will show you related tags to your search term giving you more ideas to explore:

3. Picsearch advanced search provides a variety of filtering options:

• by file size;
• color (black and white, color or both);
• image type (animated or not).

4. Imagery is Google image based tool that basically does the same as Google but in a much more easy-to-use way: it offers advanced search options at the same page, each image size and dimensions, and image source page (when hovered over).

5. Exalead (known for integrating facial recognition technology) allows for a number of useful filtering options (and besides it shows the exact number of available results for each of them):

• searching for faces;
• grayscale or color;
• wallpapers;
• layout;
• file types.

6. Snap.com offers a really great interface showing the list of images to the left and the image preview and characteristics to the right. The search is enhanced by quick filtering options letting you choose the color option (black and white or color) and image size.

7. Oskope visual search integrates data from a number of services: Yahoo image search, Flickr, Fotolia. It has a number of presentation options (grid, stack, pile, list, and graph) and scale grade enhancing your search experience. It also shows each image information (date and username for Flickr, size and dimensions for Yahoo image search) and source link when hovered over.

To cut the long story short here is a summing up table (the criteria are based solely on my personal opinion):

Post Image: Not the End of this Story

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This post is [again] courtesy of my fellow Mozzer – Rishil

A couple of weeks ago – we published Search Within a Search – How This Could Mean Bad News for Your Site. It seems that brands and marketers have realized how teleportation can harm a business brand, not just in organic, but paid search too. The idea has been picked up in popular press – the NY times managed to get some interesting quotes from various brand owners and specialists.

Pinny Gniwisch, vice president for marketing of Ice.com, would protest the use of the site in site search bar if it appeared for the sites he is representing “This is essentially giving the customer a way to leave a search for your site”. It seems that Amazon.com has already protested and Google has honored their wish to get rid of the SiS box under their brand results.

But what the interesting point that we picked up from the article was Google’s hint that not only is the process not directly manageable by a brand, but if it de-activates the feature – there are slim chances of getting it functioning again:

According to a Google spokeswoman, the company has honored such requests from “a couple” of unnamed businesses. These companies, however, may not be able to reverse their decisions.

“So we ask them to try it out and see if they want it removed,” the spokeswoman said. “We think it could be a really useful feature.” (quote from the NY article, emphasis ours).

Right – we are not sure what this spokes person does at Google – but we are sure this statement was an official one – and hence raises some questions:

• Will Google allow SiS to be controlled via webmaster tools or any other method? (seems unlikely).
• Which other sites have requested the SiS to be taken off, and what is the easiest way to do so at present? ( I would guess webmaster tools)
• Why can’t the feature be switched back on? (Is it automated and needs manual intervention to get rid off?)
• Is this one of the strangest innovations that G has introduced? It seems so – other features that G introduced had clear control by site publishers – at least in turning off and on – in the example of the site links.

It’s not that the SiS hasn’t got great uses – but I would guess instead of switching the feature off – a set of guide lines on how it works, what to do to switch it off would be useful.

Ultimately it’s wrong to show competing PPC on search results on a brand name – if that would be switched off – then we see less of a battle by brands on accepting it.

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This post is courtesy of my fellow Mozzer – Rishil

Last week Google revealed search within search (officially called teleportation) although it’s come as a surprise to quite a few people, its been in the test mode since 2006. The purpose is to enhance user experience and the “likelihood of finding the exact page they are looking for”. Great stuff.

However…

This may have issues for those who heavily invest in their brand by protecting them via trademarks etc. How? Well observe the scenario below:

• I want to book a holiday, and in particular I want to go to Florida, and I want to go in March.
• I have seen huge amounts of advertising, both off line and online about great offers that Virgin Holidays have planned for March.
• I am from the “google generation” and believe in using Google for any site that I want to get to.

So off I go to Google to search for “Virgin Holidays“:

Notice the highlighted Results:

1. The exact term “Virgin Holidays” I used.
2. Right hand – PPC by Virgin – only their result as the key phrase is trademarked.
3. Notice the site link Florida which is actually my main intention.
4. The search in search box – where I have typed in my intended long tail “Florida March”.

All the above points 1-3 are great results for a brand.

No. 4 is the worry – but before I take you there – see where I would have landed had I clicked on the first result – the main site URL:

The green highlighted section is the main target area, where I would refine my search – with the exact dates and requirements.

Great for converting business.

What if I had clicked on the site link “Florida“? :

Once again – great content, and excellent for conversion.

But what if I had used the Search in Search?

Using my target long tail “Florida March”:

This is what I see:

Yellow Highlights -

• First three results – not relevant.
• Fourth result – too old.

Now here’s the crux, apart from seeing non relevant results, I also see Paid Adverts on the right hand side (green highlights), none of which are Virgin Holidays. The highlighted PPC listings are actually eye catching because of the use of target keywords and the use of keywords such as “bargains, Cheap” etc.

I was tempted to click on those results and scout around to see if they would indeed secure me a better offer.

For a brand owner, this means that using the Site in Site journey, I as a consumer, was put off the Brands subsequent results, while simultaneously turned on to competitors.

I don’t want to issue a series of points to counter or balance this activity – just wanted to look at it from a consumer journey in relation to a Brand and the effect the teleportation effect may have on the Brands conversion.

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I have just posted another article at Search Engine Journal describing a way to monitor Google keyword positions over time.

Tracking SERPs is an important SEO technique that helps:

• to get a deeper understanding of how search engines work;
• to keep an eye on both your new and established competitors;
• to discover new SEO tactics and to learn their effectiveness.

Here is a short outline of the post to give you an idea:

Post image: North Narrabeen Rock Pool Before Dawn

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I am sure that most of you already know and use the following search operators when planning an SEO campaign. But from my own experience, you don’t often use even what you are well aware of just because things tend to slip your mind. So that’s rather a reminder of the tools search engines kindly offer us and how they can be effectively used.

1. Use keyword site:domain.com to find most relevant inner pages on the site where you might want to get a link back.

Note: compare Google and Yahoo results, or just go to SearchBoth.net to see both on one page. Say I’d like a link from seomoz.org with the anchor text “viral marketing”, so I’ll type in viral marketing site:seomoz.org in SearchBoth.net and see what pages are believed most relevant by the two search engines:

2. Find who mentions and links to your competitor:

http://*.yourcompetitordomain.com

To filter the results from your competitor’s website use this combination (also should be done both in Google and Yahoo):

http://*.yourcompetitordomain.com -site:yourcompetitordomain.com

Note: to learn your competitor’s most recent techniques, take advantage of Google advanced search. For example, most recently indexed pages linking back or mentioning SEOMoz.org (past one week):

http://*.seomoz.org past one week

(an important update: even more about this technique at SEOMoz.org blog)

3. Find out even more about your competitors’ link building techniques: learn how relevant their back links are – maybe you can do better?

related:yourcompetitordomain.com command will show your competitor’s backlinks neighborhood.

4. Learn what is your website indexing rate:

Past one day:
www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Awww.YOURSITE.com&as_qdr=d

Past one week:
www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Awww.YOURSITE.com&as_qdr=w

Past one month:
www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Awww.YOURSITE.com&as_qdr=m

Past 2 months:
www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Awww.YOURSITE.com&as_qdr=m2

Past 3 months:
www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Awww.YOURSITE.com&as_qdr=m3

Past 6 months:
www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Awww.YOURSITE.com&as_qdr=m6

Or just let this handy tool calculate your site index rate for you.

This Google and Yahoo Search Engine Query Cheat Sheet is also very helpful.

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