How To Use Google+ Pages To Drive More Traffic From Google Search

When Google+ first launched business pages, you weren’t allowed to follow people unless they were following you. You could follow other business pages, but not people. Somewhere along the way, this has changed, and you can now circle or follow anyone and anything on Google+.

When first starting off, this is the best way to build an audience on Google+. It’s not all that different from Twitter in this regard. You follow others, and there’s a good chance they’ll follow back.

The best part is, thanks to Search+, if somebody following you performs a search on Google that is related to your site, there is a good chance Google will list your site on the first page of the search results, all because that person is following your business page on Google+.

Not only that, Google might also list your site high in the SERPs for people who are friends of those following your page, meaning they’re not following your page directly. That’s powerful!

In order for this to work right however, you must add the Google+ “publisher” tag to your site, connecting it with your Google+ page.

I also highly recommend publishing unique content on your Google+ page and make sure you’re posting to the public! Public posts show up in the Google search results and it would seem Google likes to rank Google+ posts high in the SERPs.

Google’s Interactive Scrolling Graphic Shows You ‘How Search Works’

Ever wondered how Google’s algorithm worked? Who am I kidding, of course you have. Fortunately for those of us who prefer to be taught with visuals, Google has made an interactive scrolling graphic explaining “How Search Works“!

Via Google Search Blog:

“Here you can follow the entire life of a search query, from the web, to crawling and indexing, to algorithmic ranking and serving, to fighting webspam. The site complements existing resources, including this blog, the help center, user forums, Webmaster Tools, and in-depth research papers…” [Continue Reading]

Quora May Be The Solution To Google’s “Long-tail” Search Problem

Google, the world’s most popular search engine, is adept at providing results for short, concise search phrases. But experts say Google’s results for longtail searches — typically comprised of three or more words — are ailing.

Many longtail search results favour so-called content farms, but teaming up with Quora could be a viable solution. Quora publishes concise, clear information, sourced by experts, hobbyists and other informed individuals.

Via Gigaom:

“Clearly there is a demand for reliable long tail query content queries. Now consider a practical one like “how to get a passport faster,” and how massively helpful it would be to get the answer from a person who has actually gone through the process, rather than the person who designed the process. Wouldn’t it be logical for Google to implement a source of content that is produced by generally passionate, informed people – a source like Quora?

Unlike Wikipedia, which is best at answering head queries, Quora is all about long tail. So integrating Quora with search would provide Google’s users more reliable and useful results for long tail queries. It would also contribute to a virtuous cycle by allowing users to help produce reliable content, too, as searches prompt further contextual content that may need answering. This will help Google get knowledge from content sources (such as those who contribute to Wikipedia) who do not own a website but have valuable knowledge…” [Continue Reading]

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Why Buying Backlinks Is Bad For SEO

If you’re still not convinced you should stop buying backlinks,  Danny Sullivan does a great job explaining why it’s such a bad idea, especially in the long-term.

Via Entrepreneur.com

“Google can tell links are purchased in a variety of ways. For one, you know those out-of-the-blue emails that promise to sell you links that Google can’t detect? They get sent to people at Google, as well. Google also has an entire team devoted to doing nothing but investigating web spam, which includes people buying links.

If those aren’t enough resources, Google actually encourages people to report link selling schemes, especially as a means for those who are caught to help redeem themselves into Google’s good graces.

Buying links is meant to be a shortcut to winning the Google election. But, ultimately, you don’t even know if the links you’re buying will work, and there’s an excellent chance they could prove harmful to you in the long-run...” [Continue Reading]

If you really want to increase the amount of quality backlinks going to your site, the best way is to simply publish the best content you can muster.

The way I go about it is simple. If I find a topic interesting, I figure it might be of interest to my audience.

Also, if you create something of value, people will naturally want to link to you.

Here’s another great way to build your backlinks organically.

Bing Adds 5x More Facebook Content To Its Search Results

I know it’s hard to believe that Bing would ever catch up to Google. Bing is more popular that it’s ever been, but it still only has about 16% of the search market. Now that they’ve included 5x more Facebook content to their search results can help them gain even more traction.

Bing announces:

“Starting today, five times more of your friends’ content on Facebook is searchable in the sidebar – including status updates, shared links, comments and photos from your friends. With the addition of status updates, shared links and comments to the sidebar, it’s now easier to see who knows and what they’ve shared related to your search. So when your friends aren’t around, Bing is the perfect stand-in...” [Continue Reading]

I’m not a Google hater or anything like that. I believe competition is a good thing, and it can only make products better for us, the consumer. Will you start using Bing more now? Leave a comment and let us know!