Google Confirms “Mayday” Update Impacts Long Tail Traffic, Google Algo Update 2010, Googler Matt Cutts

 Google Confirms “Mayday” Update

Impacts Long Tail Traffic

Google Algo Update 2010 Google Matt Cutts

Google made between 350 and 550 changes in its organic search algorithms in 2009. This is one of the reasons I recommend that site owners not get too fixated on specific ranking factors. If you tie construction of your site to any one perceived algorithm signal, you’re at the mercy of Google’s constant tweaks. These frequent changes are one reason Google itself downplays algorithm updates. Focus on what Google is trying to accomplish as it refines things (the most relevant, useful results possible for searchers) and you’ll generally avoid too much turbulence in your organic search traffic.
However, sometimes a Google algorithm change is substantial enough that even those who don’t spend a lot of time focusing on the algorithms notice it. That seems to be the case with what those discussing it at Webmaster World have named “Mayday”. Last week at Google I/O, I was on a panel with Googler Matt Cutts who said, when asked during Q&A,  ”this is an algorithmic change in Google, looking for higher quality sites to surface for long tail queries. It went through vigorous testing and isn’t going to be rolled back.”
I asked Google for more specifics and they told me that it was a rankings change, not a crawling or indexing change, which seems to imply that sites getting less traffic still have their pages indexed, but some of those pages are no longer ranking as highly as before. Based on Matt’s comment, this change impacts “long tail” traffic, which generally is from longer queries that few people search for individually, but in aggregate can provide a large percentage of traffic.
This change seems to have primarily impacted very large sites with “item” pages that don’t have many individual links into them, might be several clicks from the home page, and may not have substantial unique and value-added content on them. For instance, ecommerce sites often have this structure. The individual product pages are unlikely to attract external links and the majority of the content may be imported from a manufacturer database. Of course, as with any change that results in a traffic hit for some sites, other sites experience the opposite. Based on Matt’s comment at Google I/O, the pages that are now ranking well for these long tail queries are from “higher quality” sites (or perhaps are “higher quality” pages).

My complete speculation is that perhaps the relevance algorithms have been tweaked a bit. Before, pages that didn’t have high quality signals might still rank well if they had high relevance signals. And perhaps now, those high relevance signals don’t have as much weight in ranking if the page doesn’t have the right quality signals.

What’s a site owner to do? It can be difficult to create compelling content and attract links to these types of pages. My best suggestion to those who have been hit by this is to isolate a set of queries for which the site now is getting less traffic and check out the search results to see what pages are ranking instead. What qualities do they have that make them seen as valuable? For instance, I have no way of knowing how amazon.com has faired during this update, but they’ve done a fairly good job of making individual item pages with duplicated content from manufacturer’s databases unique and compelling by the addition of content like of user reviews. They have set up a fairly robust internal linking (and anchor text) structure with things like recommended items and lists. And they attract external links with features such as the my favorites widget.

From the discussion at the Google I/O session, this is likely a long-term change so if your site has been impacted by it, you’ll likely want to do some creative thinking around how you can make these types of pages more valuable (which should increase user engagement and conversion as well).
Source: http://searchengineland.com

Changes With The New Seo 2010 SEO changes UK: algorithm Search Engine Optimization

Have different expectations. About many things. SEO changes may occur in 2010 because there is currently a trend to differ materially from us. Noticed in later years (2009), we know that change patterns of thinking to Rangking be likely to change. And indeed giants Google is required to modify the algorithms (UK: algorithm) in order to meet new demands. Including maintaining the current level of Search Engine Championship to have their own place sure enough.
Hello brother other friends almost all today came another little update content. Think of all because all you nice. How well do in the past week, many believe that you would make money from. Online world has a lot together write out Cisco. I was in for the first week is hardly noticeable because the period is much less. To update the content of many blogs. It is about education trends. Current and future weapon addresses may vary sure enough it all for something new products. The market will see improved or not sure enoug. Remove today I will speak to each other little stories of SEO because it does not mention no longer then. In order to update new knowledge. Would mention a few of the port will know what to write to get started.
Enters the year 2010 when doing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not there just remember to create Backling, Link building, Unique Content, Fresh Content, on page SEO, off page SEO is passed between a few issues like this, though. the change of the Algorithm Search Engines are always especially Conversion Rate Optimization is .. very interesting do SEO and Conversion Rate must be added to our site with us to write the score ranking. better come. From the past, we noticed that PageRank factors will not affect nearly all have that number. This allows us to compete fully, even just open our marketing blog up just a few days we can do in a wide range of ratings. If you change the content of your blog to our positive results. Related products and most relevant Keywords.
See what I own and expected to be a very important role in the current year 2011 and to be a very powerful Community Social Networking is sure enough that f must consider is that the networks. existing. The most cost-effective or could tell that use smart building-block. Some of you have not studied these matters may read this feel. Confusion is not a small matter. Because when you read more. Then begin to understand itself. I own studying patterns of current network and should see the power of. Driving the market in the future. And what I offer at the other. Will come to talk about these stories together more sure enough.
F is in this article that I just want to say that the trend can be a consequence. We should look at the issues behind what we do in order to be ready for. Adapt to market trends toward current and future to arrive soon in the hope that this would sufficiently make sure enough all the way to see more write. Then will update the content in this section together again soon. Meet new article page.

New Bank Withdrawal Instructions for Our Customers in India

As promised on Friday, Farhad Irani here with more details for our customers in India on how to withdraw your funds from your PayPal account to a local bank account in India.
As I indicated in my earlier blog post, we are making changes to comply with Indian regulations for settlements for exports of goods and services.  In order to facilitate this process, PayPal will be suspending new withdrawals on March 1, 2010. We expect to resume the service on March 3^rd. When you select the ‘Withdraw Funds’ option on your PayPal account after March 3rd, we will ask you to fill out a new field entitled ‘Purpose Code’.   This information is required under the laws of India in order to identify the nature of cross-border merchant transactions.

Why are we asking you to do this?

PayPal needs to put in place certain changes to comply with Indian regulations.  This means that

1. Indian PayPal users (Business, Premier and Personal Account Holders) are no longer able to receive personal payments.   Your  customers now have three options to pay you by
   1. Using the Pay for Purchases (Goods or  Services) tab
   2. Completing PayPal checkout at your website
   3. Responding to PayPal “Request Money” instructions (invoices)
   4. When you instruct PayPal to withdraw your PayPal balance to your bank account in India, you will be required to provide a purpose code for the transaction.

What is a Purpose Code?

The purpose code helps your bank furnish information that may be required by the Reserve Bank of India to identify the nature of the cross border transaction. Details on the different purpose codes are in the table below.  Please note that this is different from the Importer Exporter Code (IEC) issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

When is a Purpose Code needed?

When you initiate a withdrawal, you will now be required to declare a purpose code when you are completing the bank withdrawal request.
Please note that according to Indian law, based on the value of withdrawal and the purpose code in your declaration, your bank may require you to provide documentary proofs such as invoices / goods receipt forms as applicable to reconcile with your withdrawal.

What do you need to do?

Step 1:  If you have initiated a withdrawal prior to March 1^st it will be restored to your PayPal balance. The initial amount you receive back in your PayPal balance will be less than the amount you withdrew; all applicable fees and charges will be credited to your PayPal account separately. This credit for fees and charges  may take a few days to be reflected in your PayPal account balance, but we expect the full amount of the original withdrawals to be in all of the applicable PayPal accounts by the end of the week.  Please bear with us as we complete this process.
Step 2:  Once the funds are back in your PayPal balance, or if you have no pending withdrawals as of 1^st March,  starting on 3^rd March you can request a new withdrawal to your local bank account, and you will need to select the Purpose Code relevant to your business.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What are the Purpose Codes I need to use?

Please use whichever purpose code below correctly identifies your business.

Code	Category	Description	Who should be using it
P0104	Export of Goods	Value of export bills negotiated / purchased/discounted etc. (covered under GR/PP/SOFTEX/EC copy of shipping bills etc.)	eBay merchants, jewelers, sellers of collectibles and other such products through eBay and your own websites / catalogues globally. Please note: Cross border shipment of goods and services for which you file GR / PP / SOFTEX / EC forms only should be processed with this code. If you have any questions, please check with your bank to help you with the same.
P0301	Travel , Hospitality and Tours	Purchases towards travel (Includes purchases of foreign TCs, currency notes etc over the counter, by hotels, hospitals, Emporiums, Educational institutions etc. as well as amount received by TT/SWIFT transfers or debit to Non-Resident account).	Online Travel Agents, Airlines, Railways, Buses, Taxicab Services, Hotels, B&Bs and other travel / tourism related sales through PayPal
P0801 P0802 P0803	Information Technology	Computer Information Services. Hardware / Software / Data Processing consultancy/implementation	If you are an independent / freelance coder / hardware consultant or data processing service provider, or a small business providing such services for websites globally, please use these codes. For all IT related consulting services where you know you do not need to file a SOFTEX form, please use the appropriate code. 801 for hardware consulting, 802 for software consulting and 803 for data management and processing consulting services
P0805 P0806	Content and Journalism	News Agency and Subscription services	If you are a freelance journalist / blogger / news aggregator please use this purpose code for withdrawals. If you are a newspaper or an online news aggregator for websites overseas, please use the appropriate code from these two. 805 if you a freelance journalist, and 806 if you are a newspaper / aggregator
P0902	Licensing of creative works	Receipts for use, through licensing arrangements, of produced originals or prototypes (such as manuscripts and films)	Artists, designers, other creative service providers where the principal revenue mode is license fees, please use this code. If you produce creative works which you license out for entities overseas, licensing revenues may be classified under this purpose code
P1004	Other services	Legal Services	If you are providing outsourced law related services
P1005		Accounting, auditing, book keeping and tax consulting services	For accounting consulting and accounting services
P1006		Business and management consultancy and public relations services	Management / brand consulting and management services can be exported with this purpose code
P1007		Advertising, trade fair, market research and public opinion polling services	Marketing/ brand consulting / logo design / event management services can be exported with this purpose code
P1008		Research & Development services	If you are an outsourced research and development services provider based in India, receipts can be inwarded through this purpose code
P1009		Architectural, engineering and other technical services	Any other technical services such as eTutoring, education and other services you render over the internet via web conferencing tools or similar channels, please use this code for your withdrawals

Real-Time Search Means to SEO, PPC and Reputation Management - Real-Time Search Goes Mainstream with Google

It seems that over the course of the entire year, we've been waiting for Google to get real-time search. Now it's here. If you have ever had a hard time finding a direct relationship between social media and search engine marketing, it doesn't get any more direct than this. Real-time search results (from Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and other sources) right in regular SERPs.

While "real-time search" has certainly been a buzzword this year, the concept itself has been around for a while longer in some capacity. Sure, the concept of searching Twitter has been around for quite some time now, but even as far as Google is concerned, freshness has been a factor of great interest.

"Google has been working on real-time search for years," as Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb points out. "In the spring of 2006, the story goes, Google launched Google Finance onto the Web and was promptly dismayed to find that the service didn't appear in a Google search for its own name later that day. It was after that, and a few other similar experiences, that Google engineers created an algorithm called QDF, or Query Deserves Freshness. QDF determines when results for a query need to be augmented with the newest content available, in addition to the content with the highest PageRank."

"Search users are utilizing results that show up because of it everyday," says Dave Snyder at Search Engine Journal. "However, in terms of rankings QDF can have huge impacts on the SERPs. The first thing that came to mind when I saw the real time search data pouring through was that Google is getting a massive amount of real time link data without the issue of a crawl. I am convinced they will be utilizing this data to help shape SERPs for terms that are trending or based on timeliness."

The Potential for Abuse

Snyder also makes a good point about spam. "Seriously, any new feature that Google rolls out is a playground for SPAM," he says. "My head is spinning thinking of all the cool/evil implications of the service. I am sure lots of people are going to be testing how Google is choosing the results coming in the box. Some people might ask the importance of coming up for a mere moment in that position, but the sheer amount of traffic generated for a trending term can make even a 30 second window profitable."

The nature or real-time search reults showing content as it is created leads to questions of accuracy of content as well. It does bring up questions about Google showing results that are quite possibly just inaccurate, but in a prominent place on the first page. Google's Vice President of Search Products & User Experience, Marissa Mayer told TechCrunch that she uses real-time search a lot, and that she trusts the content "most of the time, even if they’re public and not coming from friends."

When asked whether or not she thinks Google can solve the problems of filtering, the virality of rumors (true or false), and mob-forming in real-time search, she said, "Hard to say. We can’t simply apply the PageRank algorithm to content shared in real time, but we look at the ecosystem and detect signals we can use to reveal authority, for instance. It’s difficult, but there are data points out there that can be used for filtering."

Will Real-Time Search Results Drive PPC?

Much like with Google's recently launched (for everyone) personalized search results, or any other universal search results for that matter, the addition of real-time results is just one more element that can add to the challenge of getting organic results to show up high on the page. As iEntry CEO and WebProNews Publisher Rich Ord noted when talking about personalized search, this could give marketers more cause to focus on PPC, where they have more control over their campaign. This notion seems to be becoming a more common theme.

"I certainly think this will have a more profound impact on results sitting below the Twitter feed and those above," says Peter Young of Holistic Search, as quoted by MediaPost. "The scramble for the top positions will become fiercer. That may mean more people invest in PPC to gain more control of their presence."

Notice how few organic listings are at the top of the page.

Tips for Getting in Real-Time Search Results

There are ways to take advantage of real-time search functionality without spamming. In fact, these ways really involve a number of principles that are already staples of social media and search engine marketing in general. Allow me to reiterate some tips I gave in a previous article for getting found in real-time searches.

Note: These I wrote these tips more based on Twitter search, they do not take into account any back-end algorithms Google may use in selecting the real-time results they display. However, the concepts behind them should still generally be relevant.

1. Use Keywords

This seems obvious, but use keywords in not only your content, but in your titles, and your updates. If you're writing an article, you have to consider what people are going to include in their updates if they share it on a social network, whether this be Facebook, Twitter, or anything else. More often than not, they are going to include the title. If the right keywords are in the title, then those keywords are also more likely to appear in any ensuing tweets, Facebook updates, etc. If someone searches for those keywords, they will be more likely to find your content in real-time search results as they are created. The same goes for your own Tweets/status updates. Even if you are not sharing an article, if you want your update to be found, use relevant keywords. Again, obvious, but true.

2. Talk About Timely Events

Mentioning events that are current can put you directly into the results for any searches having to do with that topic, provided the right keywords are in play. This is a method that could and (surely is) being exploited by spammers, but that doesn't mean you can't provide legitimate conversation and simply put yourself on more people's radars, without throwing links at them every time.

3. Have a Lot of Followers

If you have a lot of followers or friends on social networks, or even just readers of your blog, you are going to get more people sharing your content. The more people sharing your content, the more impressions of your content will be making their way into real time searches. There is no easy way to instantly get a bunch of legitimate readers/followers. It will take some promotion. Provide useful content that people will link to and it will spread virally. Provide clear ways for them to follow you (like links to Facebook pages and Twitter accounts on your blog).

4. Promote Conversation

Whether on your blog or on a social network, spark conversations. Talk about topics that people are interested in. This is tied to number 2. The more conversations you are involved with, the more retweets (and equivalents on other networks) you are likely to get. And again, this potentially means more impressions in real times search results.

5. Include Calls to Engagement

Use buttons for sharing your content on different social networks. If you have been into marketing through social media, there's a good chance you're already doing this, but it will also cater to sharing and possibly increased visibility in real-time search results.

Reputation Management Concerns

The introduction of real-time search results into SERPs does bring up some new and interesting reputation management concerns. It does after all thrust whatever people are saying at any given moment right into the forefront. David Whitehouse, writing on Dave Naylor's blog, suggests that the move will force more companies to get Twitter accounts and actively particpate in social media.

"The reason?" he says. "Well, check out the Amazon query for a few minutes and I am sure you will see a complaint (as well as around a hundred offers!) – if Amazon doesn’t respond, it would reflect badly upon them." (Note: at the time of this writing, a query for Amazon is no longer delivering real-time results. This indicates that it is based on the amount of conversation at any given time).

Not a bad point. In real-time search results, you may show up at the top of the results page, but that may or may not be a favorable result. Of course there is a good chance a query for your brand will not return any real-time results unless that option is activated. It's not yet clear exactly what criteria Google uses for displaying these results, but it probably helps if a whole lot of people are already talking about the keywords used in the query.

Wrapping Up

In any regard, real-time search results in SERPs means you can't ignore social media. The more you engage in social media, the better shot you have at hitting high placement on Google SERPs that display real-time results.

While real-time search presents both opportunities and challenges for businesses, it's here whether you like it or not, and it's right where it matters the most - on Google. As Kirkpatrick noted, it's going to introduce millions of people to the concept of real-time search for the first time. You can bet that you will see similar features appear on Yahoo and Bing. Wait untilTwitter opens up that firehose to everyone, if you even have to wait that long. More deals will probably be made and APIs made available. Wait until practically everything from the real-time web becomes available in each of the search engines in actual real-time. We're bound to get there sooner or later.For More.. visit

Showtime For Real-Time With Google