Here is Google’s post on this algo update:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2012/04/another-step-to-reward-high-quality.html

Here’s what we’ve learned:

• The Penguin Update launched on April 24.
• There was also a Panda update that rolled out on April 19.

Google isn’t perfect
We’re seeing lots of complaints from webmasters saying they are being outranked by lower quality sites. Google can only use mathematical calculations based on specific factors to rank the quality of sites, so they often rank sites differently than an actual human would. In other words, what Google’s algorithms call a quality site doesn’t always match up with what a real user would call a quality site. The best we can do is try to figure out what specific factors Google is using in their calculations and make adjustments accordingly.

What factors does Penguin deal with?
The official description of the update is that it is to combat “webspam”. That’s a term that Google uses to describe nearly anything they don’t like, so there are a lot of specific factors that could be included under the umbrella of “webspam”.

So far, we’ve seen a couple useful analyses that provide some theories on what factors this update is looking at. I know SEOmoz plans to do an analysis, so hopefully we’ll get more detailed info over the next week or so.

Other user feedback and an analysis (albeit with a presumably small sample size) indicate that Penguin update appears to be primarily focused at low quality links. Some specific factors that have been highlighted:

• Over-optimization of anchor text. In otherwords, a backlink portfolio that is too focused on keyword anchor texts, vs natural anchor texts like brand name, website name, etc. No surprise here.
• Paid text links using exact match anchor text. Again, no surprise.
• Comment links with exact match text. If this turns out to be true, this may mean Google has decided that blog comments and forum comment/signature links are OK, but not if they are done for SEO (i.e. use keyword anchor text).
• Guest posts on questionable sites. Again, not surprising.  Guest posts on quality sites continue to do very though.
• Article marketing sites. No surprise here at all.
• Links from dangerous sites, i.e. hacked or malicious sites.

We only consider the above information theories at this point, until we see more correlative analysis done that reaches a consensus on the factors involved. For each plausible theory we’ve seen, we’ve seen first or second hand data that contradicts it. Of course, the update was probably a very complex one that looks at a lot of factors, so there probably isn’t a simple answer.

We would not recommend going and deleting any links at this point, though. It’s difficult to tell if a link was devalued, and it’s likely that a devalued link is not hurting your site – it’s just no longer helping it.

If your website was negatively affected, it’s probably time to improve your website and/or your link building tactics.  A good place to start for many sites is quality guest posting.  If you would like further suggestions, please drop us a line.

Anticipating updates
We had already anticipated many of the above items and have previously (over the past year) made changes in our link services to address them. Over the past year, we’ve transitioned strongly towards higher quality link building strategies such as guest blogging (and we’ve just introduced infographic link building).

We’re continuing to monitor the situation to glean additional information and make any link strategy changes that may be needed.

Pub Owner Causes Waves with Drunken Rants on Business Page

Photo credit: thesaint, stock.xchng

The Story:
The holidays can be a tough time, but there are—shall we say—more appropriate ways to handle one’s pent-up frustrations. One Fort Worth pub owner recently dumped his rage on his business page, apparently intoxicated and a little grouchy. The story goes that Zio Carlo Magnolia Brew Pub owner Carlo Galotto had been drinking when he took to his business’s Facebook page to rant about Obama’s “spoiled” children and launch some colorful language into cyberspace. Apparently, damage control was put into place as comments were removed and apologies were given, but not before word spread nationwide about the embarrassing blunder (read the full story here).

The Lesson:
Keep a healthy separation between business and personal when it comes to social media. While occasional personal comments can help business page followers feel more connected with the business, they should be thoughtfully planned as part of the business strategy—not in the heat of emotion. When in doubt, leave the comment and come back to it with fresh eyes later, or have a coworker proof the comment.

Ragu Gets Hit By Tomatoes After Insulting Target Audience

Photo credit: JR3, stock.xchng

The Story:
Brilliant idea in Ragu’s marketing department: create a viral video advertising their brand. Bad idea: making that video mocking dads in the kitchen, then fire them into the twitter streams of…dad bloggers. The clip is titled “Dad Cooks Dinner: What is Dinnertime Like When Dad Cooks?” and features various women discussing the subject interview-style. It seems innocent enough, but the repeating theme of dads cooking only simple, easy meals didn’t set well. The “link spam” was met with a slew of posts decrying the brand’s misrepresentation of dads as passive and secondary to moms (read the full story here).

The Lesson:
Know your audience. If a man embraces his role as a father enough to blog about it regularly, chances are, he won’t appreciate being portrayed as passive. Ragu identified their target audience as blogging dads, then proceeded to spam them with videos that portrayed dads in a not-so-positive way. After thoughtfully choosing an audience, marketers should gain an understanding of them—figure out what keeps them up at night. Clearly, Ragu’s market research was lacking, and that negligence resulted in a pricey campaign that put the company on worse terms with their intended audience.

Mark Davidson’s Ghost Writer Bites Back

Photo credit: fds, stock.xchng

The Story:
A social marketing & communications strategist named Mark Davidson sent the web into a frenzy when his Twitter feed filled up with nasty comments from an allegedly fired ghostwriter gone rogue. The tweets began with “Hi. I’m one of three people who have been ghostwriting @markdavidson’s tweets for the past 4 years while he is out playing golf.” The progression of tweets paints an ugly picture of the real Mark Davidson, while barraging him for forgetting to change his password. “And yes, as @markdavidson’s former Twitter ghostwriter of 4 years; I am drunk. Drunk and angry. (You should have changed your password!)” A subsequent story came out saying that the whole thing was a hoax pulled by Mark himself, but it’s impossible to tell what really happened (read the full story here).

The Lesson:
Transparency is key. While the ethics of ghostwriting is a hotly debated issue that I won’t get into here, this story (hoax or not) illustrates the need for candor in the world of social marketing. We’ve accepted that political speeches are probably written by the campaign, not the candidate, and letters from the CEO likely began in a public relations department. But in the more personal setting of social media pages, especially ones that claim to be a specific person, people expect to know who they are interacting with. If a company requires the help of extra staff to maintain the owner’s page, it’s more genuine to be upfront about it (i.e. sign the message with the true author’s name) or switch to a more generic business page that lists who the authors are.

Wow Slider // For the Non-Coder

If you don’t know how to code and have no interest in learning, the Wow Slider is a perfect solution for you. This slider comes with a wizard that enables you to customize the banner in a simple interface. You can drag-and-drop or import photos, drag to reorder, and give each image a title and description to appear on the slider. The program allows you to easily set parameters like time between slides, transition effects, templates, and dimensions.

To place it on your site, you can open your HTML page within the wizard and simply click where you want it to go. You can also output to a folder, FTP, or as a WordPress Slider or Drupal Module. It’s only free for personal or nonprofit use—otherwise, you’ll want to buy a commercial license. At the time of this writing, simply downloading the free wizard yielded a discount of $10 off an unlimited website license, bringing it to $59—or you can get a single website license for $49. Not a bad price for such a handy tool!

3D Cloud Carousel // For the Product Promoter

Will you be using your slideshow banner to feature products? If so, check out the 3D Cloud Carousel from Professor Cloud. This carousel features optional beautiful reflections and mousewheel scrolling, with support for every major browser. You don’t need to be a Javascript expert to implement it, with easy-to-follow instructions detailing how to set up and customize the code provided on the website. The minified script is extremely lightweight at only 5kb, and the website claims graceful degradation with Javascript turned off.

Slides for Query // For the K.I.S.S. Adherent

Refreshingly simple, the Slides plugin for Query has the essentials for a clean rotating banner. HTML, CSS, and very basic JS knowledge can get you far with their simple installation instructions. But the real beauty of this tool is its ability to grow with your needs. Included in the free download are a set of customization examples that demonstrate how the tool can fit a variety of needs. For example, the Product option transforms the basic slider into an elegant gallery. Or, just extend the existing slideshow with captions or links. You’ll be surprised how far this basic plugin will take you!

Flickrshow // For the Photo Lover

FlickrShow Image Slider

Imagine creating a special album on Flickr that streams whatever photos are in it to a slideshow on your website or blog. Sounds ridiculously easy to update, right? Whether you’re a Flickr fan or just interested in displaying great photos on a rotating banner (in which case you’ll quickly become a Flickr fan), the Flickrshow slideshow is free to use for commercial and non-commercial projects. Installation is as simple as adding provided markup to your HTML and linking to the site-hosted script (or you can choose to download your own). You’ll want to adjust the markup to link to your gallery and configure the settings for your needs, which requires a bit of coding knowledge, but once it’s installed you’ll be able to curate your photo slideshow with ease.

Dynamic Content Gallery // For the WordPress Fanatic

Take your WordPress site from lackluster to engaging with a featured post slideshow. The Dynamic Content Gallery plugin from Studio Grasshopper does just that. The plugin gives you the option to display your latest or featured content automatically along with the post or page title and a custom description. Images can be linked for usability, including external URLs. Because you’re customizing a CMS plugin, the installation process is a bit more complicated than a basic HTML website—but never fear, a 10-step comprehensive start-to-finish configuration guide is available on their website.

These screenshots show how dramatic the difference in keyword search volume can be from month to month.

white elephant party
Search index goes from 0 to 30+ every December

boating
Search index approximately doubles each summer

candles
Search volume dramatically increases in Nov/Dec each year

chocolate
More searches around Christmas and Valentine’s

florida vacation rentals
Search volume jumps at the start of each year (peak snowbird and winter getaway season) then tapers off

Bottom line: Don’t forget to check a keyword’s seasonal trends and adjust your SEO strategy accordingly!

(But if you want to read this article first, I won’t tell your boss.)

Let’s be honest—no matter how hard you try to focus on the task at hand, certain websites have a mysterious gravitational power that you sometimes (just about always) don’t have the willpower to fight. One minute you’re doing research for that looming project, and the next you’re commenting “congrats” on your friend’s new baby picture or shooting coffee out of your nose over the latest Fail. (And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, please don’t look it up—it will only get you into trouble).

I like to think I’m pretty good at managing my time, but I’ve had one too many “quick Facebook checks” turn into 15-20 minute breaks that only add to the length of my work day. Figuring someone smarter than me already found a solution to this, I checked Chrome’s extensions store for an add-on that would help me stay focused. And, what do you know—a free extension called StayFocusd awaited me. I saw the impressive 5-star rating out of 1300 reviews, so I decided to try it. After a few days of using it, I decided I had to share it.

Step 1: Limiting the Distraction
Here’s the deal: you adjust the settings to choose which sites are under restriction (aka “blocked,”), and the maximum time allowed for those sites. I immediately added Facebook and Failblog, because those two sites are way too easy to get lost in. StayFocusd has its own expansive list of suggestions for sites to block as well, but I’m sure you have a pretty good idea of what sites are most distracting to you. Then, I set a time limit of 10 minutes for both.

Step 2: Keeping it Real
If you’re like me and your work computer is also your personal computer, it may not be realistic to have such restricting limits on “free time” sites all the time. Fortunately, you can choose specific days and hours that the extension will monitor your time use, and the daily reset time. I entered in my typical work days and hours, and set my reset time for 5:00PM, the same as my ending work time.

Excuses Meet Snarky Popup Windows
What I appreciate most about this extension is its attitude. For instance, when I experimentally tried to bump up my time limit from 10 to 15 minutes, I was met with this series of windows:

(Aha, now the picture at the top makes sense!) Then, when I moved it back down, I was met with this complimentary message:

If you run out of time for the day (I have mine set to give me a 5- and 1-minute warning) your blocked website screen will look something like this:

The World Wide…War
Perhaps you just want to block sites altogether for a certain amount of time—if that’s the case, choose The Nuclear Option, which is not reversible once you hit the “NUKE ‘EM!” button and hopefully will prevent you from lollygagging.

Like Crossing a Bridge With A Troll
Oh, but there’s more. If your willpower isn’t strong enough to avoid changing the settings, it can optionally require you to complete a difficult (but not impossible) challenge before changing any settings. I don’t know for sure what each challenge is (Do a backflip? Run a marathon?), but the example challenge is to type a sobering paragraph about procrastination with zero errors and no corrections allowed.

Altogether, StayFocusd is quite an ingenious (though snarky) extension that has proven to be quite handy for condensing my work day.

Now, you may get back to work.

 While Facebook has been the social network stronghold for the better part of a decade, the new kid on the block has a competitive streak and it’s brought a new social media marketing platform to the table. I’m talking, of course, about the new Google+ Pages for business and brands. Released yesterday, this new feature has created quite a buzz over the web. Here are some of the points being discussed by the marketing and tech community:

Google+ Pages Not Allowing Promotions
I’m always a sucker for sweepstakes, and Facebook Pages have become a popular avenue for such promotions. Google+, however, doesn’t seem to be following the leader. Tech Crunch only took one day to post their article observing the following this clause in Google+ Pages’ Policies: “You may not run contests, sweepstakes, offers, coupons or other such promotions (“Promotion”) directly on your Google+ Page.” Instead, the policy suggests that you link to the promotion on a separate page. Why rule out a marketing mechanism that has proven to be a success on Facebook Pages? Blog author Sarah Perez suggests that it could be an attempt to reduce spam and fraud, or perhaps it’s an attempt to keep to social network pure of persuasive marketing “tricks.” Read the full Tech Crunch article.

Google+ Pages Getting “Baked” Into Search Results
Of course the most popular search engine will make it as easy as possible to find its new baby—that is, Google+ Pages. Jay Greene of CNET discussed the impact of Google+ Pages in Google search results in his recently published article. He discusses two ways the pages will be turning up; first, Google+ Pages will be easily found in search queries; that’s a no-brainer. The second feature, dubbed Direct Connect, allows users to add a “+” before their search query to quickly find the most relevant Google+ Pages. If more users take interest in Google+ and utilize the search engine to add businesses to their circles, the new Pages could render the Facebook Pages obsolete. Read more of the CNET article.

From the VP: Google+ Pages is Different from Facebook and Twitter
The vice president and product manager of Google+, Brad Horowitz, was eager to share the features that differentiate the new Pages from Facebook or Twitter marketing in a video interview with Bloomberg. One major feature he discussed was the capability to chat face-to-face with customers in a feature called Hangout. It’s a “free, multi-way video” that introduces a face behind the brand. Another unique feature is the ability to segment a business/brand’s audience using Circles, communicating differently with each group of “Gold, Silver, and Bronze customers.” To learn about more more of the features, watch the video on Bloomberg’s YouTube channel.

One of my recent projects required me to find a magazine-style theme, which I found surprisingly difficult. Most themes were either low-quality, outdated, or not free. Hence I decided to create a post listing some of the better themes I found. These themes are characterized by homepages that utilize post images and present content in a way that shows more than just the most recent post at the top of the page, such as carousels or category displays.

Visoko
Uses a carousel to present featured articles. Featured Image ready.

GazpoMag
Great magazine-style theme with a custom rotator, homepage category displays, and post image support.

Pure Magazine
A highly flexible theme with options to display a news feed, carousel, featured posts, and/or widgets on the homepage.

Snips
Supports a featured content carousel and post thumbnails.

DotNews
Has a featured content carousel and supports post thumbnails.

IsoTherm

Elegant News
Homepage carousel. Feature Image ready.

Which are your favorite magazine/news style wordpress themes?

The modern blogosphere has taken idea-sharing and interaction to completely new levels. We find ourselves rubbing virtual elbows with a wider circle of people than ever before, yet in the safe confines of our offices and homes, we find it easier to neglect basic etiquette. Remember those people you were rubbing elbows with? They could be your next business connection, client, or an emerging industry leader. What kind of impression are you making? If you fall under any of these categories, you might want to brush up on your comment-iquite:

1. You don’t comment

With so much “free” information out there, it’s easy to take for granted that there are real people investing real hours of time (and money) into their blog posts. If you’re just consuming and not contributing, you’re cheating both the author and yourself. Taking a few moments to comment is like a donation of time to thank the author for providing useful information. But it’s not all about being polite – you stand to gain from joining in on the conversation by contributing your own knowledge and forming relationships with others in your industry. In addition to widening your professional exposure, you have a good chance of attracting other readers to your own blog or website.

2. Your comments are vague

Sure, it’s easy to say “thanks for the great post,” and if that’s all the time you have to do, it’s better than nothing. However, taking a few extra moments to say what points you agreed with (or disagreed with), what you learned, and what you would add goes much further and reaps better rewords for you, the blog author, and the other readers. Many bloggers (including this one) see their post as a start to a conversation, not a one-way information stream. If you add your thoughts, others could benefit and look to you as a source of valuable information.

3. Your criticism isn’t constructive

There’s a fine line between thoughtful, but polite disagreement, and distasteful attack. Actually, that’s a lie – the line is very clear. Don’t cross into emotion-driven verbal assaults on the author; all that is going to hurt is your reputation. If you disagree with the author’s post, do so in the same respectful manner that you would approach a client or boss with. But – and this is the important part – don’t just stop at disagreeing. State your reason for disagreeing, what experience led you to this conclusion, any links or evidence that can back up your claim, and your solution or alternate advice. But wait! Don’t stop there. Check back for responses, and continue the discussion as long as it’s productive. You may learn a thing or two, and if the conversation isn’t productive, you can always agree to disagree. If you can, it’s best to end on respectful terms.

4. You advertise yourself shamelessly

Today’s consumers have wisened up to marketing schemes and can usually smell a rat a mile away. If you’re leaving short, meaningless comments just to deposit your html website link, you’re more likely to anger the author and readers than you are to get clicks. Many comment forms provide fields to enter your website URL in, and some even leave room for your twitter account and other information. If you leave a sincere, thoughtful comment that contributes to the conversation, readers are much more likely to take interest in you, click your name, and visit your website.

5. A blog post in a blog post

The internet is filled with readers that have short attention spans and prefer to “scan,” so the most successful comments are often succinct and to-the-point. If you find yourself writing paragraphs of information, you should consider some alternatives. First, you can edit your comment by trimming it down to just one or two points. If you feel your information is worth the readers’ attention in whole, create a separate blog post and link to it within the comments section with a short explanation preceding it. This is different than advertising yourself because you’re adding to the conversation – you’re just using a better avenue to do so while keeping the current conversation on-topic.

Help me out, here:

What comment-iquite rules need to be added to this list? Give your two cents in the comment area below.

Whether you like them or not, Facebook changes are rolling out and they already have begun to impact the way businesses market and measure success on their pages. At the heart of the emerging social marketing shift is a movement away from number-focused marketing (getting “likes”) toward interaction-focused marketing. This is based on several new points:

• Users no longer have to “Like” a page to post comments or interact with it, therefore removing a major motivating factor for users to “Like” a page.
• The news feed now features a “Top Stories” and a “Recent Stories” section, with top stories accumulating only since the user was last on Facebook. Users have more control over what content shows up highest in their feed by “unmarking” items as Top Stories, so quality, relevant content is key.
• A news ticker shows real-time updates in each user’s home page of how others are interacting with Facebook. Users will see friends interacting with your page along with your updates, so it’s important to keep your followers interacting.
• Because page interaction is drawing so much focus, apps will become a larger component of business pages. Whether you include an app developed by your business or a third-party app (like a music player) on your page, remember that people will only interact with apps that are useful to them.

For more information on how the recent changes could affect your marketing strategy, I recommend this great article by Mashable: What Facebook Changes Mean to Marketers.

You’ve seen them everywhere, and you may have heard them get mentioned in website planning or e-marketing strategies. You might be wondering: what the heck are they? These little icons are sometimes found in the header or footer of a web page, or even under a photo or video. Usually in a section titled “Share,” social media icons are used to spread and share content on various social media platforms.

If you don’t know what half of them mean, don’t fret! What follows is a short list of some of the most common social media share icons, and what you should use them for. Each social media platform requires that you have an account (the ones listed below are free) with their main site before you can use their share icons found across the web. Ready to get started?

What it is: +1, a public webpage recommendation system that allows Google account users to rate up page

When to click it: when you want to publicly recommend a page or add it to your Google profile

What it is: Blogger, a free blogging platform that enables users to quickly and easily create and publish content.

When to click it: To post this article to your Blogger page.

What it is: Delicious, a social web bookmarking service that allows users to save, organize, and share web pages. Word on the street is that Delicious has been declining in popularity in recent years.

When to click it: When you want to bookmark the page you are on to Delicious.

What it is: Digg, a social news website that allows users to vote stores up or down.

When to click it: When you like an article and want to vote it up, increasing its popularity and adding to the chance that other Digg users will find the article on the front page of their website.

What it is: Flickr, a photo sharing website where users post photos and get comments by other users.

When to click it: To share a photo on your Flickr account.

What it is: Google Buzz, a sharing platform built into Gmail that allows users to share content and follow others who post content, all of which is visible in the user’s inbox. Also integrates with Twitter, Blogger, and other social media platforms to serve as a conglomerate sharing system.

When to click it: to share content on your Google Buzz feed.

What it is: LinkedIn, a professional networking site that allows individuals and businesses to connect and share content with other professionals

When to click it: to share a site on your LinkedIn Page

What it is: Reddit, a social news website that allows users to post content to be voted “up” or “down” by other users.

When to click it: to vote an item up in Reddit; like Digg, a high number of votes increases the likelihood of other users finding the article on the website’s home page.

What it is: RSS, an acronym meaning Real Symple Syndication. It’s a web feed format that allows users to subscribe to and stream content from a news or blog site to an RSS reader.

When to click it: to subscribe to the website you are using and have its contents update in your RSS reader. You must have an RSS reader, like Google Reader, for this to work.

What it is: StumbleUpon, a special type of search engine (dubbed a discovery engine) that tracks down and suggests web content to its users.

When to click it: Give the site a thumbs up and it will be placed in your favorites on StumbleUpon. The site can also be rated down and commented on, helping other like-minded users on StumbleUpon know if they might like the site.

What it is: Tumblr, a blog-style platform with a focus on sharing content like photos, links, videos, and text.

When to click it: To share content you find interesting and spread it across other Tumblr blogs.

What it is: Twitter, a microblogging platform that allows users to post and follow text-based Tweets, or posts up to 140 characters long.

When to click it: To Tweet, or share this content on your Twitter page and on the home pages of your Followers.

What it is: WordPress, a popular blog authoring and platform

When to click it: To share content on your WordPress blog

*Please note that Facebook, Youtube, and Email icons have been excluded from this list because they are so widespread, even your great aunt Doris gets the gist of what they do.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, and every site may vary on which share icons they post. However, I hope this helps decipher some of the common ones, and perhaps inspire you to try a new social media site.

So, faithful readers, now it’s your turn: what would you have added to this list?

(Oh look what I found. Some great examples right here! How about trying them out?)