The following social sites have agreements with Google to share data that can then be used as social signals which impact search engine rankings:

AllVoices
Badoo
Blogger
Delicious
Digg
Diigo
Disqus
Echo
Gigya
Google+
Google Groups – Merging into +1
Hatena
Livefyre
Meetup
Read It Later
Reddit
Screen Rant
SodaHead
TypePad
VKontakte
yaplog!

Twitter – Twitter’s Google deal expired and has not been renewed. Google is still using Twitter to find relevant new content.
Facebook – There are rumors of a Google and Facebook agreement but that has not been verified.

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This email provides an update on a recent Google change that is likely to get some press. This update has been expected for several weeks and is intended to improve website’s rankings that have good content but not very many backlinks.

Why it will get press?
By most accounts the update has not been a good one. Several high profile sites disappeared from the rankings including Kleenex.com and digg.com. We suspect that Google will tone down their changes to improve their search results.

What it has impacted?
Across the 150,000 keywords that we track on a weekly basis we have seen a 3% improvement in rankings. This is about the same as most weeks. Thus, most clients have not seen a major impact.

However, this change along with several other over the last few weeks has impacted local results. This makes the change slightly more significant if your site had a very prominent local result that took up a large portion of a search result and now that space is shared with other sites. It is not that a site has lost rankings it has just lost real estate on the screen. Google continuously plays with this so we expect this to change again soon. The result of the current iteration of local results is a reduction of local search click through rate.

What has not changed?
This update has not impacted the core of Fruition’s SEO Blue Print. That is high quality content with rich media, high quality backlinks from powerful websites, and a highly usable User Interface (“UI”). This update simply makes the importance of high quality SEO that much more important. The short cuts that many SEO firms have offered will no longer work. That is good for Fruition clients!

What about social?
The other variables that we may see an impact on are social signals having more importance. To date, we have not seen any correlation between social shares, Likes, +1s, tweets, etc and a website’s rankings. It is obvious that social is going to play a role with SEO in the future but we simply do not know when Google is going to figure out how to utilize the data that they have access to in order to improve the search relevancy.

How do we know what is working?
At Fruition we do not play the guessing game. We are continuing to run regressions on the latest rankings to see if there has been a change of weight with any major variables. As always if you are an active Fruition client your Project Manager will implement these changes.

Comment below to tell us what you’re seeing with the rankings updates?

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Semantic search is used by all search engines to help categorize search results and display the most relevant and related information. However, the magnitude of its use will increase dramatically. Google announced that in the coming months it intends to integrate semantic search results into standard universal blended results. Blended universal results include shopping, flight times (beta because of anti trust issues), weather, movie times, images, videos, etc.
When Google releases its next semantic search update it will include answers to questions similar to Bing. These include data on people, places (buildings, towns, stadiums, parks, golf courses), companies, addresses, and other elements that have verifiable definitive number data.

What is semantic search?

• Simplifying here is Fruition’s definition of semantic search: “Semantic search is disambiguating identical search terms and phrases that can have different meanings.”

What semantic search will do to your organic search traffic

If a large percentage of your organic search traffic is the result of searches for people (celebrities, business people, etc), places (buildings, towns), reviews, etc then you need to have your entire site marked-up with the proper microformating. Even then, you will see reduced search traffic because Google’s goal is to make it harder for searchers to find your site. Instead, Google wants to use your information and create more pages for advertising. It is not pretty but Google does not care about your business they care about creating more Adwords clicks. That is it. In the search marketing world Google tries to entice you to send new clients to their Adwords programs and then they offer to manage the client’s accounts for free. That is a good partnership, isn’t it! So again, do not think that Google is doing any of this to help the webmaster. Google simply needs to increase revenues.

SEO for Semantic Search

How does Google know what to categorize and display data for semantic search? Microformats! Microformating is the process of tagging or providing an attribute to a piece of data that Google retrieves when they crawl a website. They get this microdata and store it. When the data is stored it is called an entity. Common semantic search entities are people, addresses, job titles, companies, and email addresses. How do each of these semantic search microformats play out?

Semantic Search Results for People

Here is what the semantic search looks like when displayed on a webpage:

Brad Anderson
President at FRUITION

201 Fillmore st
Denver, CO
80206

Here is what the semantic search results look like to Google:

<img class="photo" src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/7c75c4aea002c36e73bcea137fefe3e2?s=75" />
   <strong class="fn">Brad Anderson</strong>
   <span class="title">President</span> at <span class="org">FRUITION</span>
   <span class="adr">
      <span class="street-address">201 Fillmore st</span>
      <span class="locality">Denver</span>, <span class="region">CO</span>
      <span class="postal-code">80206</span>
   </span>
</div>

Semantic Search SEO for Reviews

<div class="hreview">
   <span class="item">
      <strong class="item"><span class="fn">SEO Services</span> Review</strong>
   </span>
   <span class="reviewer vcard">
      By <span class="fn">Steven Hernandez</span>, <span class="title">Senior Editor</span>
      at <span class="org">SEO Magazine</span>
   </span>
   Rating: <span class="rating">5</span> out of 5.
   <span class="description">Fruition is a great company that provides excellent SEO Services.</span>
</div>

If you are talking about aggregate reviews.

Aggregate Review Example

FRUITION


10
out of 10

based on 124 ratings.
65 user reviews.

  <div itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Review-aggregate">
    <span itemprop="itemreviewed">FRUITION</span>
    <img itemprop="photo" src="/wp-content/themes/fruition/images/fruition-seo-denver.png" />
    <span itemprop="rating" itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Rating">
      <span itemprop="average">10</span>
      out of <span itemprop="best">10</span>
    </span>
    based on <span itemprop="votes">124</span> ratings.
    <span itemprop="count">65</span> user reviews.
  </div> 

Where do you find the complete micro format markups? At http://www.data-vocabulary.org/

More information on semantic search

Amir Efrati of the Wall Street Journal wrote a good article that quotes how many searches 9~20%) will be impacted when semantic search goes live on Google. View that article here: “With Semantic Search, Google Eyes Competitors”.

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Foreign SEO has its own set of best practices as each country has widely different regulations.  If your business expands beyond the borders of the USA, there are special considerations you should take to ensure International SEO success.

SEO across the globe

1) Buy the domain that is native to the countries you are targeting.  For example, if you want German visitors, buy the www.website.de as most German residents search on their local search engine.

2) Host your foreign domain in country if possible so you will have a local IP address.

3) Establish a physical location/mailing address in each country if possible

4) Set Google Webmaster Tools to reflect each country you are targeting.

5) Translate several pages of your site into the language(s) most used in the countries where you do business.  Have a professional translator re-write your copy to keep your message intact.  Do not rely on automated translators, as they are notoriously bad.

6) Translate your keyword list into each language and be sure to include keywords in the meta data of your site.

7)  Foreign copy can create odd graphic design and page layout challenges, especially with languages that read right to left or vertically like Chinese or Arabic.  Most popular website platforms like WordPress or Drupal offer plug ins to solve this program.

Attract inbound links from other websites in each country.

9) If you plan to use Google AdWords, be sure to geo-target your campaigns.

Each country has its own set of rules and regulations when it comes to website design and SEO, so it pays to have a professional search firm on board.  Fruition is happy to help you navigate foreign waters.

Bon Voyage!

303-395-1880

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Facebook announced today fan pages will be moving over to the new Facebook Timeline format. The Facebook Timeline was released for personal Facebook profiles in September, and Timeline for pages was announced today. Brands may begin using timeline now on their fan pages, or they may wait until Facebook converts all pages to Timeline on March 30, 2012. What does this change mean for your brand’s Facebook Fan Page?

Cover Photos

Facebook Pages will feature a Cover Photo for you to express your brand or brand message. Your timeline shows an 851 x 315 pixel photo across the top of your Page, which businesses can customize to share their messaging and brand. Your cover photo may not display calls to action – such as “Like Us” or any arrows or direction. The cover photo is offered as a place to make a compelling case for your brand and gives individual Facebook users control over how they choose to interact with your page.

Goodbye to Default Landing Pages

Default landing pages have long been a best practice for Facebook Fan Pages. Brands use default landing pages to promote sales, contests and acquire new users to their mailing lists. With the switch to Facebook Timeline, pages will open to the Timeline and it will not be possible to set a tab as a default landing page.

Pinned Posts

Brands will now be able to “pin” a post to the top of their Timeline. Pinned posts can remain at the top of your timeline for up to 7 days, and will become the best way to direct fans to contests and other promotions now that default landing pages are not an option.

Highlighted Posts

You’ll have the opportunity to scroll through your entire timeline and highlight important posts. Highlighting a post will make the post take up the entire width of your timeline, rather than falling into one of Timeline’s columns. This offers brands the opportunity to draw more attention to important posts.

Getting Started

A few brands have already made the switch to timeline, though you’ll have the opportunity to work on the design of your page and preview it until March 30^th when the change will become compulsory for all Facebook pages.

In order to get started, you’ll want to enter preview mode for your fan page. In preview mode, you and other page administrators will be able to see timeline, but your fans and the Facebook public will see your Facebook page in its old format.  You’ll have until March 30^th to design your timeline to your liking – including adding your cover photo, highlighting and pinning posts, and altering existing tabs, contests and promotions so that they work well with your new Timeline. When you’re ready to launch your Timeline to your fans, click “Publish”, or wait for March 30^th when Facebook intends to make the switch for all fan pages.

For more information on the effects that this Facebook timeline switch will have on your brand’s Facebook Fan Page, contact a Fruition team member. We’re happy to talk to you about the impact of the changes to your brand, as well as to help you with the transition to Timeline.

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On Feb 27th and 28th Google rolled out a fairly significant algorithm change that impacts a lot of websites and SEO. As discussed in a Softlayer interview that was posted on their partner page the impact on SEO results is significant.

Google Algorithm Change

This Google algorithm change What we were are seeing is that websites that were doing a lot of ill advised SEO e.g. blog networks, linking networks, etc were penalized. That is good for you if you were writing original content and utilizing guest blogging and other legitimate link building techniques. If you were taking short cuts and signing up for blog networks this Google algorithm change likely had a significant impact on your rankings.

Here is the official blog post from Google Algorithm Change .

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Fruition’s SEO pricing is based on the competitiveness of the keywords. Fruition offers pricing packages for general consulting work and pay for performance pricing based on keyword rankings for specific keywords.

Every industry and business will require a slightly different strategy for maximizing relevant traffic, increasing conversion rates and developing a design that keeps viewers engaged and coming back for more. That’s why Fruition has two different pricing structures so that our clients receive the maximum benefit for a reasonable cost.

Fruition consults on a variety of specific search engine optimization topics, including mobile web services, content development, keyword strategy, link building, page speed optimization, site building, compliance checking and website audits. We are happy to review a firm’s current optimization strategy and offer suggestions based on specific goals. We are also capable of presenting an entirely new strategy to interested parties who want to change their optimization direction or scope.

Our ultimate goal is to provide a consultation that is both eye-opening and highly targeted. Web marketing firms frequently consult with us to understand how new trends or technological advances impact widely accepted theory or practices in the optimization field. We also consult with businesses who wish to bolster their online performance by seeking an improved optimization strategy.

Fruition has established itself as a leading consultant thanks in part to its almost decade-long tenure in the business. We have participated and helped influence major trends in optimization since the Internet became a major part of commerce. Our expertise extends from general optimization to industry specific sites for attorneys, cosmetic surgeons and specific content management systems. We remain at the top of our field because we never stop researching and implementing winning practices.

Find out more about Fruition’s SEO pricing

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Mobile app development services for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. From simple apps to highlight your business to complex apps with hundreds of thousands of concurrent users. Find out more about Fruition’s app development.

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Fruition’s website development grew out of necessity. Time and time again Fruition’s SEO clients simply could not get websites developed that were search optimized from day one. This created lots of duplicate work that raised the costs of projects. To counter this Fruition brought on Agile trained developers with years of experience in developing complex enterprise class websites.

Our web developers have years of experienced in PHP, ASP.net, Java, iPhone iOS, Android, and several other common languages. Our website development projects often take advantage of the most common open source platforms including Drupal, WordPress, and Magento. website development

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Spam in Google+ Stream

Google recently began rolling out spam into your Google+ stream. They call it “Hot on Google+”. It’s almost always poor quality garbage content, not relevant to you, from someone you don’t know, and you didn’t ask for it. It’s spam. This isn’t entirely new, they’ve been adding spam into your Google+ stream for a while now. It was easy enough to block it with the Adblock plugin using the hide a section of a webpage feature. However, I guess Google caught on to that little trick and now assigns a unique identifier to each piece of spam in your Google+ stream.

How to Rid Your Google+ Stream from “What’s Hot” Spam

For a while I was just reporting Google’s spam as spam. Maybe it was a bit childish and maybe if enough people did it, they would catch on to the passive aggressive hint. Then I found a setting to remove it completely. It’s easy enough to find and change once you know where it is.

Look for the question mark icon in line with “Hot on Google+” in your stream. Then hover your mouse over the question mark and click on the “What’s Hot” link.

This will bring you to the “What’s Hot” settings and features a little control slider to adjust how much spam you want in your Google+ stream. There are four levels of spam to choose from and mercifully, the lowest setting is “show nothing from what’s hot in your stream.”

I’m guessing the idea behind the “Hot on Google+” spam is to get you to check Google+ more often. I have about 18 circles with a dozen people in each. I’m connected to roughly 200 people on Google+. I see a new post in my stream about once a month on average. I never bother checking it. I’m guessing it’s the same for most people. It’s like the a new bar on the far edge of town that might have good a good happy hour, but no one goes there because there’s nothing else to do.

I think Google’s choice to add spam to Google+ stream will ultimately backfire. For a company that prides iteself on providing people with the most relevant information, this is an ugly scar on their image. I could forgive them if they started putting advertisements into your stream. Google+ is a free service, ads are almost expected. But forcing you to wade through garbage to see what your friends are up to? Really? At minimum, the “Hot on Google+” spam should only show content that is relevant to you in some way. Maybe show how there is 3 degrees of separation between me and the person posting. Or how about showing me stuff that might actually be interesting to me? Instead we’re back in 1985 with an inbox full of chain mail forwards. We get crap like the non-sensical garbage from Angela McBain above. I’m sure she’s a nice person, but I really don’t care because I don’t know her. The whole reason why social networking and sharing works is because you know the person (hence “social”).

Floating login and account info

A few days ago I began noticing what appeared to be a CSS layout flaw on Google’s homepage. It turns out it’s no flaw, it’s their latest despearate (and sad) attempt to get people to use the utter failure social media network known as Google+.

Over the last few months, Google has slowly rolled out a new navigation bar and new UIs for many of their products. If you use any of Google’s products on a regular basis, you’ll probably notice that personal account information is no longer neatly inside the black navigation bar. It also has a new “+ Share” shortcut call to action. It is now floating in the middle of nowhere, aimlessly adrift. It’s messy, ugly, and sloppy. Like the new Gmail interface, Facebook’s timeline, and Justin Bieber, it is an assault on everyone’s sensibilities and knowledge of what is right in the world.

Possible Reasons

This is all speculative of course.

1. It’s a coding mistake and is supposed to be back home in the nav bar.
2. It’s purposely made to look like a coding mistake to get noticed and used.
3. The designers at Google actually thought this was a good idea.

If it’s #1, someone’s head is going to roll. If it’s #3, it is here to stay as much as it makes me want to stab out my eyes. Ok, perhaps that is a bit over-reactive. It’s not like it’s a tragedy on the scale something like Darfur. If it’s #2, this is a really sad day for Google. Everyone knows it, but nobody wants to talk about it. Google+ is a ghost town. There is no reason to check it because no one uses it. There is no reason to post something there because no one will ever see it.

Face it Google, you tried to wage war on Facebook and you failed.

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