Our goal at Google is to get you the most relevant results as quickly as possible… Today we’re taking that a step further, enabling you to share recommendations with the world right in Google’s search results. It’s called +1—the digital shorthand for “this is pretty cool.” To recommend something, all you have to do is click +1 on a webpage or ad you find useful. These +1’s will then start appearing in Google’s search results.

- Rob Spiro, Google Product Manager

No one is sure at this point just how strongly the new “+1″ system will factor into Google’s search algorithm, but this announcement is further support to what many have known for some time now – search is going social.  These kinds of turns in the search engine optimization industry can bring about heavy occupational changes for professional SEO’s as the less creative side of SEO (keywording, link building, speed optimization, etc.) gives way to the hyper creative side that looks more like, well, social media marketing or online CRM.

But if this announcement is causing anyone concern or disconcertment, take a deep breath.  There is a caveat – for the “+1″ system to function a person must have an established Google profile, an item that only some 3 – 4 years ago was a common commodity but has since ceded much ground to the Facebook profile.  Google also noted that it intends to incorporate Twitter into its sharing system in the future.  Perhaps to no one’s surprise, Facebook was conspicuously not mentioned as a future partner, again suggesting Google’s resolve to tackle Facebook in the social arena, yet will it be able to do so through the propagation of more Google profiles (not to mention the reactivation of long abandoned ones)?

We’ll have to wait and see.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Before you become too worried as to whether your small business website could be affected by Google’s latest actions, take a deep breath – I can assure you your small business website is not on the radar of this latest algorithm change.  However, this is still a good time to visit the topic of duplicate content and discuss why it is bad, lousy, detrimental, obnoxious, and any number of other ghastly adjectives.

What is duplicate content?

Duplicate content is the republishing or replicating of content from one web page onto another.  This occurs most often in one of two ways.

1. Content is pulled from a web page by a bot or program/application and then delivered for publishing onto another website.  Content can be published in its entirety or in an excerpt format.
2. A content creator uses a web publishing software that creates duplicate content by design.  This commonly occurs in content management systems (CMS) like WordPress.

When content from your website is published elsewhere on the internet search engines screen the content and make decisions on how to index the material, how to rank it in search results, or whether or not  it should be eliminated altogether from search results (essentially, treated as spam).  In some rare instances the duplicate content can rank higher than the original content on your website, or worse, cause your content and the offending content to both be penalized or treated as spam.  The good news is that in most cases Google’s algorithm sees right through all of this and drops the hammer on the duplicate content (if it drops the hammer at all).

If you’re concerned as to whether your content is being duplicated online or not, just highlight, copy and paste sections of your website’s web copy into a Google search box.  If you’re web copy is being duplicated, Google will likely catch it and display it in the search results (unless, of course, Google chooses to ignore the duplicate content, in which case, score!).

WordPress and Duplicate Content

I develop websites for my clients based on WordPress CMS.  What many do not know about WordPress is that it is a duplicate content creating machine!  However, duplicate content that occurs within a website is handled differently from that which occurs outside of a website.  When duplicate content occurs within a website it forces the search engines to make choices as to which bit of content takes priority in indexing over another.  The pages that receive indexing are more likely to rank competitively in search results, and with the number of unique URL’s WordPress kicks out, there is no way all are going to be indexed.

As an example, let’s consider the URL homes that are created as a result of this blog post.  WordPress publishes this article to the following:

http://blastsocialmedia.com/wordpress/duplicate-content-website/

http://blastsocialmedia.com/blast-blog/

http://blastsocialmedia.com/category/wordpress

http://blastsocialmedia.com/tag/duplicate-content

http://blastsocialmedia.com/tag/google

http://blastsocialmedia.com/author/stephen-kelly

http://blastsocialmedia.com/2011/03

http://blastsocialmedia.com/wordpress/duplicate-content-website/#respond

http://blastsocialmedia.com/?s=keywordterm

The list goes on… but you get the point.

In most instances an author will want a search engine to index and include in search results an intended page, and in the case of this example, that would be the actual article URL (the first URL listed above).  The easiest way to prevent search engines from analyzing huge amounts of duplicate content is to give them instructions on which URL’s you would like them to consider for inclusion in indexing.  To accomplish this I modify the robots.txt file.

Robots.txt and WordPress

While there are a number of WordPress plugins that can be used to eliminate duplicate content, I find it easiest to just confront the issue through the use of a website’s robots.txt file.  Many SEO experts hold a conviction that the use of the robots.txt file in SEO is poor practice, and in 99% cases they are right.  Many SEO issues can instead be solved using 301 redirects and nofollow commands.  Yet where I respectfully disagree with these folks is in the case of CMS’s like WordPress that create copious amounts of duplicate content that are not easily controlled by the aforementioned methods.  Modification of the robots.txt file is the quickest and simplest way to tell search bots what you would and would not like them to analyze.

To accomplish this most simply I use a little plugin called KB Robots.txt.  (Note: one can also simply alter the robots.txt file directly through one’s hosting provider using FTP protocol.) The plugin is very easy to use – just install, activate, and then click on its name in the left sidebar from within Worpress.  In the text box provided I dump the following code:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /*.js
Disallow: /*trackback
Disallow: /*.css
Disallow: /*/feed/$
Disallow: /*/feed/rss/$
Disallow: /*/trackback/$
Disallow: /tag/
Disallow: /author/
Disallow: /comments/
Disallow: /categories/
Disallow: /search
Disallow: /wp-*
Disallow: /events/

Note that the last entry pertains to a special calendar plugin installed on a page called “events”.  Upon inspection of the kinds of links this plugin was creating, I noticed that it was producing numerous looping links back and forth between its different components.  Since the content of the calendar wasn’t important to the wider SEO goals of the website, I decided to simply block the calendar page from search altogether.

Conclusion

For most small business owners duplicate content is not and never will be a tremendous issue, yet it is still worth while to be aware of its existence and to structure how you generate content to be in line with best practices for avoiding this often unspoken of annoyance.  After all, what you don’t know can’t hurt you – until it does.

Today I’m presenting the second article on the topic containing the final five “ways.”  As nice as it would have been to cram all 10 points into a single article, it would have been exhaustingly long.  If you’ve already read the first five “ways,” then great!  If not, I encourage you to jump back and breeze through them.  They are worth while.

So without further ado, here are my final five ways a small business owner can initially please the great Googlebot.

6. Diversify your social media accounts and build your brand presence on search results page 1.

It’s impossible to effectively use every social media tool under the sun, and even Facebook is of limited use to many small business owners (it’s true!).  However, building your brand presence on the first page of search results is one of the best reasons to register and begin using those social media tools and services that will best compliment your business.  Ask yourself what you would rather have someone clicking on if not your businesses home page: a drab business directory listing, or a compelling and vibrant social media site or community built around your brand?

Creating social media real-state can also provide other Google related benefits.  In most cases social media sites offer outgoing links to build page rank and authority as well as provide many inroads for referral traffic.

7. Submit your business to Google Businesses Online.

A surefire way to make certain your small business appears both in Google Maps and Google Places (Google’s business listing) is to submit (or claim) your business at http://places.google.com/business.  The submission or claiming of a listing is free, but you will need to confirm your ownership of your business by either connecting by phone with Google or by returning a post card to Google in the mail.  In addition to a basic listings, Google also offers ways to promote your business or brand through the use of Google Tags and the Google Boost service.  These latter services are available after your listing is established and for a monthly fee.

8. Include keywords in your web copy that are specific to your industry.

Many times keywords appear in web copy organically.  If we were to visit a bakery website, we’d probably find plenty of words such as “baker” and “bread” and “dough” and perhaps even “sugar.”  These are just some of the keywords of that industry.

However, sometimes pages are created on a website that, for whatever reason, do not contain keywords in the copy that are relevant to the industry in which the business is situated.  Without good keywords a search engine will rarely refer targeted traffic to your website.  Make a point to include good keywords in your web copy that are relevant to your industry or services.  This way, when someone enters that word or combination of words into Google search, your business will have an increased likelihood of appearing for that search query.

Many marketers conduct keyword research for client websites.  Here is a short article on how you, as a small business owner, might get down to the business of keyword research on your own.

Five Steps to Effective Keyword Research

9. Include your address and phone number on each web page.

For the last two or three years search engines have been increasingly perfecting and improving upon their ability to deliver relevant local search results.  Sometime in the near future a person will be able to enter “pizza” into a search query and have a list dealt to them of local businesses in their area that deliver pizza.  There is a catch though – the search engine must of course know that the business is local!

One way to solve this is to register your business with directories like Google business.  A less time consuming way is to simply add your business information to each of your web pages.  Some businesses place their address and mailing info in the footer of their site while others place it in the header or sidebar.  All of these places are fine but be certain that wherever you place your business info on your web pages that it is:

1. Not placed within a flash player or some similar object that is not detectable by search engines.
2. That its placement does not detract from the aesthetic or user experience of your website.

10. Make certain your website is loading rapidly, and if not, consider installing a caching plugin, enabling compression on some files, and/or rechecking the size of image and other files.

In 2010 Google announced that it was beginning to incorporate page load time data into its algorithm for dealing search results.  Users online find slow loading websites annoying.  Google likes to direct web users to websites they like, so it makes sense that slow loading websites could be penalized.

Just how strongly page load time factors into Google’s algorithm is still a matter of some speculation, but as a best practice, it is good to have rapidly loading web pages.  To check the approximate time it takes for Google to download your web pages, use Google Webmaster Tools.  If your web pages are loading slowly here are some things you can try to improve page load time.  Note: this list is not even close to exhaustive.

• Double check all image files and use a program such as Adobe Photoshop to shrink them down to a more web ready size
• Use compression on your web page files so they might be downloaded more rapidly
• Use external css and javascript files as opposed to using these bits of code within your source page
• Use a caching plugin or similar software program to manage how your files are dealt to repeating and new visitors

As a means to shy away from a drab charts and graphs presentation (sorry marketing friends – we love ‘em, but others?), I dug into a bit of my past; to a time when I was a young classicist studying Roman culture at the University of Minnesota.  Through analogy I juxtaposed aspects of Rome alongside modern day internet and social media objects and laid a framework for answering the simple sounding question “how do I figure out what to do” when venturing into social media marketing as a small business owner?

More work needs to be done on the overall analogy, and I intend to flesh it out even more in months to come.  Yet one portion of my presentation seemed to perk people’s interest more than any other, and that was a portion that focused on 10 ways to please Google.  This referring specifically to the “Googlebot,” or that software that visits a website and plays a strong role in how the website gets seen, indexed and visited by searchers the world over.

Below are the “10 ways” small business owners can please Googlebot initially.  These recommendations come from my own experience and the list is certainly not exhaustive.  Furthermore, this list is not a sort of dogmatic script sprung for the industry of social media marketing or search engine optimization.  It is my own, and hopefully now yours too. I will begin here with the first 5 “ways” and publish the other five in another post during the coming week.

1. Make certain your website is indexed

Imagine you walk into a library looking for a book on a shelf and it is not there.  You approach a clerk and ask “is this book in your system”?  The clerk checks their index and assures you that “no, the book isn’t to be found here.”  A similar scenario can occur with Google, but in this case, if your book (read – website) isn’t on their shelf, well that isn’t their fault.  Is your website indexed so Google and others can find it more easily?

To check if your website is indexed, visit:
http://www.indexedbygoogle.com
To submit your website to Google for eventual indexing, visit:
http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl

2. Your website should have many inbound links, and preferably these should be high quality ones.

Google wants to deliver their web searchers a quality user experience by directing them to sites with quality content.  A primary way Google calculates this is based upon how many inbound links from other websites a site in question has.  Think of it as a sort of referral program – the more positive referrals (i.e. quality inbound links) a website has, the more Google thinks that website is reputable and upstanding on the web.  If Google thinks a site is reputable, then it is more likely to grant it better search results.

In the future I will write more about the differences between good links, poor links, editorial links, garbage links, no-follow links, and the like.  One heck of a taxonomic tree can be constructed!

3. Your website should have meaningful web copy, and one should avoid too many uses of unfriendly web languages that inhibit search… such as flash!

Several years ago many people were approaching website development and content creation differently.  some of these folks were trying to cram keywords into their web copy to manipulate search engine results, while others were devising hyperinteractive websites that fired-off like a jackpotted Sizzling Sevens slot machine.  In the case of the former, Google and other search engines wised up, altering their search algorithms and demanding that website owners create relevant and meaningful content.  In the case of the latter, website owners found out that search engines are only able to operate effectively in a text based environment, and that by using certain web languages (or tricks) that were not primarily text based, their website could actually suffer in search results.

Today it is still important to have a few keywords on each web page on a website, however, having meaningful content to drive traffic and increase the possibility of content sharing online is far more important than keyword cramming or other parlor tricks.  Googlebot and othr search bots know this and are encouraging the creation of meaningful content.  Using flash on a website is still fun and can add to the user experience of your website, but it must be used with discretion and the proper search engine friendly texts alongside it.

4. Your website should have Google Webmaster Tools and Analytics hooked up

First things first – a point of clarification.  Google Webmaster Tools and Analytics do not, on their own, increase a website’s search ranking in Google, Yahoo, or any other engine.  What they do is provide data to the webmaster that can then be used to better optimize a website.  Both of these Google services are available free of charge.  You’ll need to also sign up for a free Google (gmail) account if you don’t already have one.  The URL addresses for these two services are found at:

Google Webmaster Tools: www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
Google Analytics: www.google.com/analytics/

Here is a short list of the kinds of data one can gain about a website from this combined force:

• Data pertaining to internal and external links
• Data about errors occurring within the website infrastructure that are detrimental to a searchbot’s process
• Data about where your visitors are arriving from
• Data about how many of your web pages are indexed (approx.)
• Data about the traffic flow within your website
• Data about your most popular content and how people are finding it
• Data about your strongest keyword showings in search (relative)

By using the data these tools provide and then acting upon that data through the creation, modification and dissolution of content, keywords, and website infrastructure – you can create a happier relationship with Google.

5. Submit a sitemap to Google

Sitemaps are files that outline the structural makeup of your website, individually listing the different pages often in a hierarchical fashion.  By submitting a sitemap to Google, you are essentially placing a list of pages to crawl right in front of its face (figuratively speaking, of course).  Sound like a pretty good thing to do?  You bet it is, and it is also easy to accomplish.

A sitemap can be easily submitted to Google using Webmaster Tools (yet another reason to sign up!).  Just visit http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ to quickly create your sitemap file online, then log into your Webmaster Tools account and submit the sitemap file.

Oscar Wilde said it best: “the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”

As it turns out, the forward thinking Mr. Wilde might have been a 19th century reputation management consultant had he only been less elegant with the pen.  Findings released in the last couple months by UK based search engine marketing firm BrightLocal suggest that Oscar Wilde had it right, with respondents noting that 6-10 online reviews are necessary on average to instill a trusting impression of a business.

Among the many other findings that BrightLocal’s survey unearthed, some of the more striking of those (in my opinion) include:

• 29% of men use the internet at least once a month to find a local business vs. 24% of women
• 71% of US consumers have consulted online customer reviews of local businesses.
• 50% of US consumers are more likely to use a local business having read positive online reviews.
• Reputation matters the most for Dentists/Doctors (mainly in the US) as well Hotels & Restaurants. However reputation for Tradesmen, Builders and Garages is also very important.

On a more relative note, but no less intriguing, are the results below that relate to “reputation traits.”

Which of the following ‘Reputation-traits’ is MOST important to you when selecting a local business to use?

Key colors refer to respondent age values

Although the BrightLocal survey focused on positive as opposed to negative reviews, it is important for small business owners to remember that even negative reviews present an opportunity for positive outcomes.  While positive reviews offer consumers the chance to read about an experience second-hand, negative reviews (if addressed by the business in question) offer the chance to observe an experience (i.e. review/response) first-hand.  If the negative review is addressed properly, a minus just may become an even bigger than average plus.

Not reading much online about your business? Perhaps it is time to get proactive about your presence on review sites. Although some review sites discourage (or outright prohibit) the practice of asking customers to explicitly log on to publish resounding reviews about your business, letting your customers know that you have a home online where they can leave a review about your business is considered good practice, and this should be a part of the small talk that takes place at the checkout counter. For this to happen, however, you may need to register your business with a review website first.  Below is a list of major review sites online that small businesses can utilize for free.  Note that signing up on too many business review websites may spread your reviews too thin, and hence, dilute the effectiveness of your good reputation online.

Now, go get your 6-10 reviews!

Yelp
Insider Pages
Google Maps
Bing Local
City Search
Yahoo Local
Local.com
Merchant Circle

Blast! Social Media was created to help people like you and me sort out all these issues with tech overload.

The last few years I’ve had to do a lot of catching up – and I mean a lot.  While I’ve been studying human behavior as an anthropologist for almost a decade, I didn’t really begin my deep explorations of cyberspace until three years ago.  So what brought it on?  In short – a recession.  I had a bustling career started as a cultural resource anthropologist, but when development work slowed to a crawl in the Upper Midwest, well, so did my career outlook.  I, like so many other folks today, was strongly encouraged to reinvent myself by forces beyond my control.  I spent a lot of time and effort doing this.  I traded a trowel for a keyboard, a life on the road for a life on a computer, and although I’ve changed the things that I do, I haven’t changed how I go about doing them.

This blog post is an excellent example of this.  I’m an anthropologist, a marketer, a blogger, a higher ed instructor, a musician, and when I can afford to be, an outdoorsman.  I’m most comfortable free of a shirt and tie, though I don them when duty demands. I can be professional, but never impersonal – and perhaps this latter trait is what led me to where I am today.  In essence, I’m a casual person. There are a lot of social media experts and public relations firms out there who do half of what I do and usually they do that half very well (cartoon allusion aside).  They build websites, they connect with customers online and help their clients do so too, and they undertake large and complex social media campaigns that involve hundreds of thousands of dollars and numerous heads and hands.  Yet few of them have the resources or perhaps inclination to teach people to do what they do.  I have no reservations, and in fact, it’s what I do now in higher education.  Social media marketing and communication can be complex, involving all its own norms, taboos, strategies, and best practices, but it’s not rocket science!

I hope the question “Why Choose Blast! Social Media” is one you can easily answer.  As daunting as applications and marketing strategies on the internet can be, rest assured, you can learn to master those that benefit you most.  If you own a small business or you have an art or hobby that you want to bring to communities online, I encourage you to THINK BIG!  You’ve likely come a long way to this point through your own hard efforts and learning, and there is no reason to limit yourself now.  Instead of investing purely in the products and services that others provide, continue making investments in yourself.  I’m prepared to help you get there, and if there is a single most important thing I’ve learned through my own personal education, it’s figuring out how to get there.  Choose us, and let’s do it together!

yrs.