Google AutoComplete Says SEO Is…

Misreading Data: 1 out of 10 people think SEO is important

Hey, I love the Google AutoComplete feature as much as the next guy, but this one caught me off guard. But only for a second. While the AutoComplete data is probably not the most accurate data, in this case it does give us a glimpse into the perception of SEO. Honestly, I can believe the results. This is probably what most people think about SEO. Why? I’m glad you asked.

There are a lot of bad SEOs out there. A lot of people have been burned by SEO companies and sales people who promised the world. SEO takes time. It takes work. SEO requires innovative thoughts and ideas. And research. And IT/Dev resources. In many cases, your SEO is limited by your site, product(s), business culture, goodwill, etc… Seriously. Let that sink in.

Furthermore, SEO is becoming more and more competitive, and basic SEO principles can only get you so far. In fact, many people think SEO is dead, dying and/or bullshit. Dave Snyder wrote a great post about that recently.

Could this AutoComplete data just be another way for Google to hate on SEO and SEOs? I dunno. Probably not. But after Google removed SEO companies from the local results, we know how they really feel about us. And that’s what makes it fun. Godspeed, SEOs!

Get Event Listings in Google with the vEvent Microformat Code

Guest Post By: John Greer (@FogLlama)

You may have heard about Google’s rich snippets recently, where they are altering the standard blue and green listings to have a little more flair:

Google Rich Snippets on Facebook Profile Results

Notice that Facebook has a “Friends” section.  I grabbed a random “John Smith” and there’s a group of his friends included (no Pocahontas?).  Facebook made this possible by using microformat tags on their code (they are using the rel=”friend” tag.)

Here’s a different rich snippet on a Yelp listing, where they are using the aggregate review microformat tag, and Google is showing this:

Yelp's Listings Feature the Review Microformat Tag

(Who is reviewing Goodwill by the way? “This place is no Neiman Marcus, what a joke!”)

Those rich snippets were demonstrated last year.  A newer version though is the inclusion of events in listings.  Also on Yelp, Google has rich snippets like this:

Yelp added the vEvent Microformat code around event listings

Yelp simply added the “vEvent” microformat code around the event listings they already had, and Google began showing select events below the main URL.

With the event tag, I’ll be interested to see if Google must recrawl a page to update the event list, or will it simply drop events that have past dates?  In any event, it’s an awesome way to get 3 additional links in your listing and attract a little more attention.

You can start adding these and other microformats and RDFa tags today (here’s a little more on the difference between those).  Yahoo has been using them with SearchMonkey for a couple of years in fact.  There’s no guarantee though that Google will show them yet, Facebook , Yelp and other sites have been singled out for listings.  At some point though, these listings are likely to start rolling out to everyone. s

Lack of Available Google Profile Usernames & Custom URLs

I was not able to get myrealname@gmail.com. Yeah. I know. Cue the violins. It’s such a tragedy. It was probably because I didn’t get a beta invite to Gmail, and someone beat me to the punch. Whatever. I’m over it. Kind of. But I always knew that not getting my name as a Gmail username would come back to haunt me in more ways than one. So let’s talk about Google Profiles and custom URLs.

If you have a Google account, you are eligible to create a Google Profile. I have several Google profiles: a few for myself and many more for clients. Your Google Profile is associated with your email address, so you can have a Google Profile that associated with your Gmail address or some other email address. It does not have to be a gmail.com address. Let’s take a look at the 2 scenarios:

1. Your profile is associated with a non-Gmail email address.
   

   Google Profile URL: Custom URL (non-Gmail Account)

   If you have a Google account that is associated with a yahoo.com, hotmail.com or some other domain, you have an advantage: you can actually pick a custom URL for your Google Profile. You are actually presented a box where you can type in your custom URL. Just fill in the blank with your username: www.google.com/profiles/_________.

   That’s pretty cool, right? Well it is until you realize that pretty much every possible username is unavailable. This is because you cannot get a username that someone already has for their Gmail account. For example, let’s say some already has imabadass@gmail.com (and they do, btw). If that is true, then you will not be able to get google.com/profiles/imabadass for your custom URL. And because Google does not recycle email addresses, it doesn’t even have to be a current email address username. If that username has ever been used, you are outta luck.

   The bottom line: Using a non-Gmail email address will allow you the option of creating your own custom URL username. Good luck finding one that is available!

2. Your profile is associated with Gmail address
   

   Google Profile URL: Custom URL for Your SEO Sucks!

As you can see, with this option you are only given 2 choices. You can use your Gmail username, or you can use some string of predetermined numbers. Obviously, this is a great option if you have an awesome Google/Gmail username. If you take this route, email spammers will be able to easily deduce your Gmail address. If you don’t want your email address spammed to hell over, I recommend using the string of numbers. However, that is damn near impossible to brand (if that is your goal).

So there you have it. I wish you the best of luck with your Google profile custom URL. And don’t forget that it’s probably twice as bad over at Yahoo and MSN when you try to set up those profiles.

Link Building Idea: Buy Some Links on Google Profiles

Hey check this out. It’s Mashable’s Pete Cashmore and his Google profile (now with more Google Buzz):

Google Profile: Mashable's Pete Cashmore on Google Buzz

It appears that Google has placed a nofollow on the links within Pete’s Google Buzz feed. However, the links in the right-side column are dofollow. How about that?! Holy crap! These are dofollow links from the domain google.com!

Because Pete is obviously a smart guy, he realizes the value of linking to his own properties. Hence, he has linked to Mashable.com and various Mashable properties on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

At the time of this screengrab, Pete had 9,647 followers, so it’s only a matter of time before this page has a high PageRank. This Google Profile will ultimately have a lot of authority, and those dofollow links in the right-side column will drive some serious link juice. And remember: these are links from google.com!

Now, let’s be realistic. Despite the current dofollow status, I’m sure Google has discounted these links in some way or another. But the fact remains that these are dofollow links coming from google.com. Furthermore, check out the bottom of Google.com’s robots.txt file:

• Allow: /profiles
• Sitemap: http://www.gstatic.com/s2/sitemaps/profiles-sitemap.xml

When you read the XML sitemap file, you see several hundred txt files of Google profiles, such as this one. Inside each one of these txt files, there are 5,000 user profile URLs. The take home message: Google wants these profiles crawled, and they are actively making it easier for all spiders to find them. Google Profiles are obviously important in Google’s venture into social media and social search.

What about the buying links idea?

Well this should be fairly obvious. Google is allowing dofollow links on Google Profile pages. While it may be tough to get links from reputable profiles, there are many users who may be open to the idea of selling links. And some of these profile pages will end up with high PageRank, especially when people begin to link to their Google profiles. These are links from the google.com domain. Even if Google moves to disallow these links, there is still value from these links. Why not offer the profile owner(s) some money for a link in the right-side column?

Here’s a simple plan of action to acquire links from Google Profile users:

• Google profiles have custom URLs
• These URLs take one of two possible formats:
  1) google.com/profiles/101849747879612982297
  2) google.com/profiles/mashable
• If you can find the username at the end of the URL, then you will know the gmail address of the profile user.
• And that is how you can contact them.
• Then it all comes down to your ability to not creep people out by offering them money for a link to your network of phentermine and poker websites [cuz those 2 things always go together, right?]

There it is. I hope you enjoyed that. Stay tuned for more. And stay tuned for a nofollow attribute from Google. I’m sure it’s right around the corner.

Happy Link Building!

[Full Disclosure: Neither Mashable or Pete Cashmore compensated me for the free brand exposure to my 10's of readers. I'm just a fan, and I think everyone should be a fan of Mashable. #teammashable]

Update: Feb. 17, 2010: Nofollow attributes added to Google Profiles

It seems Google is onto us. Google has added the nofollow attribute to all links in the rightside column of Google Profiles. I wanted to see if they nofollow’d links to Google Profiles, so on my Google Profile I added a link to my Google Profile. No luck. It’s nofollow’d, too. Damn. Nice work, Google. Until we meet again…

Google Buzz: To Boldly Go Where Yahoo Has Already Been?

Google Buzz finally rolled out to my inbox. Here is the first notice I saw:

Welcome to Google Buzz + Gmail

It’s kinda funny because Google Buzz (buzz.google.com) comes to us about 2 years after Yahoo Buzz (buzz.yahoo.com). The part that I haven’t figured out yet is: What problem does this new Google feature solve? Was there really a need for another buzz-like feature on the web? I guess so. I think it’s part of Google’s move from a search company to a software company. More specifically, this is obviously a move to gain a bigger foothold in the ’social scene’ (i.e. social media).

Anyways, I’ll partake in the Buzz because it’s in my best interest to look for opportunities in all things search. I recommend you get familiar with it, too.

Search Trends in the Recession: Porn Wins Big!

'porn' wins as Americans get lazy and horny during the recession

Wow. I guess I shouldn’t be shocked. Times are tough. We are in the midst of a recession. And it looks like when times are tough, people get lazier and hornier. The Google Trends graph above is filtered for search volume in the United States from 2004-2009, so don’t tell me that some other countries are skewing the data. Again, I guess I shouldn’t be shocked, but seriously? Really? I know, I know. Unemployment is way up, so a lot more people are sitting at home being lazy and bored. Hence, the porn searches. Gosh. Are humans that predictable?

I was also surprised to see a decreasing trend in ’sports’ searches. I find myself watching more sporting events than ever this year. I guess I’m unique. Yeah right. ‘God’ searches are nice and steady. I’m glad to see people are still into God. ‘Politics’ is also kind of static.  I guess that’s no shocker. Finally, it should be no surprise that ‘coupons’ searches are way up (beginning in late-2008). I like coupons. You should like coupons, too.

Oh well, that is all. This filler post has been brought to you by the hectic holiday season.

Matt Cutts: Google Using DMOZ Info to Create ‘Better’ Title Tags in SERPs

Wow. Around 2:14 of this video, Matt Cutts says Google “can sometimes use the Open Directory Project snippets” when populating snippets for URLs displayed in the SERPs. He then goes on to talk about how Google can also use that information to create a “better” title for URLs in the SERPs:

…Webmasters are probably not as used to the idea that we’re willing to find a better title as well. So if you have a bad title or a title that we don’t think helps users as much, we can try to find a better title – and one that we think will be an informative result, so that users will know whether that’s a good result for them to click on.

So I just wanted to give people a heads-up about that because they’re used to the things below the title changing, but they’re maybe not as used to the idea that the title itself can change in our search results as well.

Thanks for this video, Matt. The last part is fascinating. We saw that Bing was doing something like this back in early June.

One question: Is Google going to do my title tag SEO for me now? That would sure save me some time. ;) I’m sure if I was Boser or Graywolf, I would have a big problem with this. I kinda do, but I’m too busy to write much more. I guess I’d really care if a page with no title tag could outrank my page after Google created a “better” title tag for that page. That would be upsetting. But I am confident in my SEO abilities. Now where was I?

BTW, Yahoo is doing the same thing.

Zombie URLs? 7 Geocities Pages That Are Still Alive!

I don’t know what’s going on here, but these 7 URLs from www.geocities.com are still alive. Zombie URLs!!! I feel like I’m in I Am Legend or 28 Weeks Later, and I just found the other survivors. At any rate, these zombie URLs are probably hungry for brains. Maybe it was a glitch that was just in time for Halloween. I dunno. But I’ve gotta give it up to these URLs for surviving Yahoo’s mass extinction event last Monday. It’s evolution in action – on the interwebs!

• http://www.geocities.com/bradreviews/
• http://www.geocities.com/heartland/bluffs/8481/
• http://www.geocities.com/johnniemccoy/
• http://www.geocities.com/kintoraaikido/
• http://www.geocities.com/markohlson2002/
• http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Backstage/2220/
• http://www.geocities.com/yosemite/5860/

I know that Yahoo was giving Geocities users the opportunity to get their Geocities URLs redirected to a custom domain (btw, a domain that you could purchase from Yahoo and then host with a Yahoo webhosting account). Those 7 URLs are not being redirected. They actually return 200 OK in the header response.

Just so we have something to compare those zombie Geocities URLs to, here are a few Geocities URLs that have been redirected via 301 redirects. Could it be that Yahoo is learning some SEO? Welcome to the new millennium.

• http://www.geocities.com/amitasirohi/
• http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/3575/
• http://www.geocities.com/peakesi/

So there you go? Can anyone explain why these URLs are still alive? Could they belong to Yahoo employees? Hmmm…

Is Recent PageRank Update a PR Boost for All Twitter URLs?

Hey! I am sure you are all aware of last week’s PageRank update. Yeah, it happened. And even though Google recently told us to stop concerning ourselves with PR so much, I’m still going to check out how my sites are doing. I dunno. I know Toolbar PR is way old and outdated and such, but I don’t care. Old habits die hard, right?

Is anyone else out there seeing massive increases in the PageRank for their Twitter account(s). I have about 100 accounts, and I’m noticing all sorts of good stuff. Primarily, I am not the owner of several PR5 Twitter accounts. Many of these have only a few status updates, and they are all less than a year old.  I mean seriously. I have several PR4 Twitter accounts that only have ~200 followers. That is wild. I’ve done some checks on other domains, but the recent PR update didn’t seem to have any major effects on PR for typical sites. I could be speaking too soon on that one. I guess we’ll hear more about the effects of this PR update in the next few weeks. But really, why am I seeing massive PR increases for  Twitter? Does Google really like real-time status updates that much? Anyone need any links from Twitter? ;)

Geocities URLs Now Returning ‘410 Gone’ in Header Response

Sorry, Geocities Has Closed.

I was wondering what Yahoo would do with the millions of Geocities URLs out there. I thought they might use a 301 redirect for all URLs, but where would they redirect them? Yahoo.com? I mean, Yahoo is a PR9. They could use the link love. ;) Also, Yahoo needs money. They should have sold the Geocities redirect. I wonder if anyone would have bid on that. Just imagine: You could buy the link authority of the entire Geocities domain. Of course it would be really easy for Google to discount those links, but it would still be interesting to see if someone would have purchased that redirect opportunity.

And don’t forget that even if the links had been discounted, the amount of traffic you would get from that redirect would be huge. I’m thinking affiliates would have bid pretty high for the Geocities redirect. I can see it now: all Geocities traffic is sent to a landing page with 5 banners – Porn, Viagra, Phentermine, Cash Loans & Debt Relief, and Dating. And then another Porn banner just in case someone missed the first one.

After checking some of the Geocities URLs, I have only seen ‘410 Gone’ in the header response. A ‘410 Gone’ response is harsh. It feels so final. Like an annulment. The relationship is over. The URL is gone forever. The ‘410 Gone’ makes a typical 404 sound more like a “maybe-we’ll-work-out-sometime-in-the-future-but-not-now” response. The 410 does not waffle. It’s not Brett Favre. The 410 Gone response is definitive. Game over.

I miss you Geocities.